Heather Lynn Stein

In spite of modest roots, my mother Heather Harris Stein, חנה לאה בת אהרון הכהן ושאשה, lived an impressively rich life. Some of my mother’s richness could be attributed to her parents. Mom was born in March 1945, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father, Aron Harris, had fled Vienna in 1937 right before the Anschluss—Germany’s annexation of Austria. Although he emigrated as an adult, Nazi laws and regulations had prevented him from completing his education or entering a profession. After he settled in Pittsburgh, Aron managed a dry goods business in Vandergrift, one of many steel towns up the Allegheny river. Aron was a quiet person but dedicated to providing for his nuclear and extended family in his adopted homeland. Heather’s mother, Sophia (Sophie) Markowitz was born to Romanian immigrants in Indianapolis, Indiana. In pursuit of carpentry work Sophie’s father moved the family to Dunbar, WVA, where they, the lone Jewish family in town, lived across the street from the lone Catholic family. In a tale for the ages, Sophie would later recount how at night when the Ku Klux Klan burned crosses in the Catholic family’s front yard the Skipio family would seek shelter with the Markowitzes across the street, and vice versa. In contrast to Aron, Sophie was larger than life. She was a smiling presence wherever she went, could make friends instantaneously, and helped make the neighborhood into one big family rather than just neighbors. Growing up in the Highland Park neighborhood Mom was active in the nearby B’nai Israel synagogue choir and attended Peabody High School. At the University of Pittsburgh she studied English and writing and worked her way up to be the Advertising Manager at the Pitt News, while also working part-time at her father’s store. It was on the Student Publications floor in Schenley Hall that Heather first met Melvin Stein, a boy from across the tracks in Squirrel Hill. The details of the courtship will be told in an upcoming Lifetime Channel tv movie. After graduation Heather worked at Westinghouse’s Astro-nuclear Laboratory, before being hired as the Editor of the Duquesne Light News, the electric utility’s employee magazine. Mom quickly had to master everything there is to know about electricity generation – from mining the fuel to maintaining high voltage electrical cables out in the mountains. While at Duquesne Light this 5-foot-5 woman often was the only woman in the room and had to go where the stories were – even if that meant crossing a rickety wooden bridge hundreds of feet above the Ohio River to the Brunot Island generation plant -- and hanging on for dear life as a passing coal-bearing train shook the bridge’s foundations. Incidentally, Mom was the first woman allowed in Duquesne Light’s coal mines and in electrical generators under repair. In 1968 Heather married her college sweetheart, Mel Stein. Two years later she left the workplace to give birth to Matthew, and to Paula four years after that. While being a full-time mother Mom still found time to volunteer for Na'amat USA (formerly Pioneer Women) where she was selected as an Israel Seminarist, Pittsburgh Council President, and member of the National Board. Mom also chaired the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh’s Women’s Plea for Human Rights for Soviet Jewry. This also led to Mom shlepping me to Harrisburg where we took a photo with Governor Schapp who had just signed a proclamation in support of Soviet Jewry. Since there were still several hours left in a day Heather also gave generously of her time and talents to the National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh’s chapter of the ZOA, the Jewish Home and Hospital of the Aged, Hillel Academy dayschool, and Congregation Poale Zedek. At one point Mom even turned entrepreneur and cofounded an upscale kosher candy store, Enticements, inside of the Prime Kosher market on Murray Avenue. After Paula started school Heather returned to work, this time for Pittsburgh Mayor Richard S. Caliguiri’s Task Force on Women in Renaissance II. While at the Task Force Mom produced programs and public information materials, such as In Celebration of Women, a series of TV salutes to Pittsburgh Women broadcast during National Women’s History Month. She took tremendous pride in these accomplishments, but at the time Paula and I thought Mom’s real accomplishment was getting invited to play in the city employee softball league which met in Center Field of Three River Stadium. In subsequent years Mom worked at various types of organizations in varied fields -- a corporate design firm, the External Communications department of South Hills Health System, as well as Carnegie Mellon’s School of Engineering and University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law. She also established her own communications and marketing consulting firm. Mom liked to say that her favorite part of working in so many places was the opportunity to interview and learn about people, their work, and lives and share what she learned with others. Professionally she was recognized with 5 Women in Communions Matrix Awards and a national Clarion Award for her writing and marketing materials. In 1995, she was selected by the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh for its Leadership Award in Communications and the following year a different Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania added her to the 1996 Honor Roll of Women. So Mom was a gifted, creative, hard-working professional/working mother who at the drop of hat would stop everything to help a friend or family member in need. Towards the end of Mom’s illness, many members of Mom’s treatment teams – including her lead Oncologist – were moved to share how much they admired Mom’s bravery and fighting spirit, even calling her an inspiration to keep doing the hard work of medicine. But I want to share one final story that captures so many aspects of Mom’s incredible life. Mom’s family, the Markowitzes, never spoke of what happened to Mom’s Uncle Sam; for most of her life Heather believed what they told her -- that Sam had been a merchant marine who had reached Marseille, France but went MIA in 1938. The mystery was important enough to Mom that she selected Shmuel (the Hebrew origin of Samuel) as her son’s middle name. Around 2012 a distant cousin reached out to Mom because, while researching a college term paper on Pittsburghers who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, he recognized a name in the induction records – Sam Markowitz. That inspired Mom to read through the letters her late mother Sophie had kept from the State Department, FBI, and everyone else Sophie had contacted trying to locate her younger brother. The letters were opaque but hinted at a deeper story. This became a personal mission for my mother. She was pursuing the answer on behalf of her mother and her grandparents. In 2013 Mom discovered that New York University was home of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives and in November of that year, she, Mel, and Paula met up with me in New York City to search for her uncle in the archives. Once Mom and Dad got the hang of the microfilm machine It didn’t take long –they found images of Sam’s official induction papers, which included his photo and written answers to why he was joining the Spanish Army. Sam had run away from home and joined the Merchant Marines to get to Europe. After debarking in Marseille he managed to cross the Pyrenees where he joined the Nationalist Army against Franco and the fascist Republicans. Tragically, 1938 was near the end of the war and things weren’t going well for the Nationalists. Franco’s army was supplemented by thousands of soldiers and new weapons from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, while the Allies refused even to sell weapons to the Spanish government. Sam’s battalion was barely equipped, let alone trained, when they were sent to the front in Central Spain. They had been fighting just a week when Sam’s battalion was captured and the foreigners were separated and executed on the spot. Franco’s forces left the bodies for the local farmers to bury. But the story didn’t end there. Mom felt the need to find her uncle’s burial place, so that at least someone could acknowledge his death. So Mom set about finding a way to make that happen. She found an English ex-Patriot guide to the Spanish Civil War who was based in Barcelona and in 2014 she, Mel, and I flew to Barcelona where we spent several days enjoying the sights before meeting up with Alan, the guide. For the next two days Alan drove the three of us into the Ebro River valley where the Battle of Ebro was fought. Based on the archive’s record of Sam’s battalion and its movements, and on personal diaries written by another participant in that battle, Alan identified where Sam’s battalion was likely captured. The area was mountainous terrain, in no-man’s land between remote villages. Alan led us through fields of wild rosemary to a curve in a road where he said was his best guess. My mother stepped a few steps ahead of us, took out a siddur (prayer book), and recited the Mourner’s Kaddish (prayer) for her uncle. That was the kind of woman my mother was. May her memory be a blessing.

Read more

There is so much to say about bubbe. She touched so many people and cared so much. Though we lived very far she would always think of us, always coming up with ideas of different ways to spend time together. Whether it’s planting a garden in the backyard or decorating bags, it would always be the most creative and interesting activity. I remember how I loved joining her grocery shopping because she would always make sure we got free samples of new treats. I also loved our trips to Michal’s. Bubbe also was a good at listening. I remember we once had a conversation on Shabbat morning at the breakfast table. I was expressing my frustration with Aron(my older brother) and how he would bother me. She explained how she had a complicated relationship with her brother and made me promise to always try and fix our relationship. It was so important to her that we would get along. Even when Bubbe was sick with cancer she always wanted to spend time with us when we visited. She was so strong. I miss her very much and hope she is proud of the young woman I’ve become. My strength is inspired by her.

Read more