By Sam Litvin
TEL AVIV — On April 29th, a woman died in San Diego. She passed away quietly, in her sleep. Many knew this was coming. After all, she was 101. But her passing hit many who knew her hard, for 101 years she had given all who knew her much warmth and joy.
Only two years earlier, she was dancing at her 99th birthday. She was the life of the party and danced with nearly every person there. The following day she fell and broke her hip. She crawled to the phone and made a call to her step daughter and son in law. This wasn’t the first time she struggled in the face of difficulty, but sadly, this was going to lead her to a slow path to April 29th.
Fanya Bliachman was born to a poor Jewish family in a small village at the edge of the Russian Empire in 1916, a year before the Socialist Revolution. 1917 would change the trajectory for her as well for prior to the revolution, education was closed off to those who were poor and especially to those who were Jewish. The end of the Czar’s regime meant that she could go to school. Her family sent her to Leningrad, known as St. Petersburg previously when it was the capital of the Russian Empire. In Leningrad she began her studies which she completed with a degree in Economics. She was hired as a human resources director in a large factory which produced weapons for the war effort.
As Hitler sped his way across the Soviet Union, Stalin knew that evacuation of all who were connected to the war effort was of utmost importance. Entire factories along with all machinery and workers were placed onto trains and moved almost overnight to the far east of steppes and dry mountains and deserts of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Fanya was on one of the last trains out to the Ural mountains, put on the train at the insistence of her manager despite being Jewish, a birthright that for many meant staying behind in Leningrad, where for 180 days Germans sieged the town through the dead of winter, dooming hundreds of thousands to death beneath German bombs, starvation, and disease.
Fanya lived in Ural through the war, excelling despite the brutal food shortages, and despite the war. She excelled at becoming indispensable. While slightly taller than 5’0”, she was the boss of an entire manufacturing floor. One of the only female managers, she earned a medal for her work from the country.
The war came to an end, but the factories stayed behind, and so did the people, especially those who performed work well. Fanya stayed there until well past 1947. Her time to settle and have a family was running out. After putting in request after request, she finally got a pass to return to Leningrad. Alas, it was too late. She would not find a husband in time to have a family. But a widower found her: Aaron Frankel. An older gentleman with two grown kids. Also, a skilled engineer noticed Fanya, and would not leave her side. They moved in together and lived unwed for many years. She took care of him and moved with him across the entire world to the United States at the young age of 75 to join his daughter and his daughter’s husband in San Diego. They lived in San Diego until he passed away of cancer in 1999.
For decades she was the matriarch at all events. Her presence was felt through her kind smile, her cooking, her dancing. She loved being at her step-daughter’s piano students’ recitals. She’d greet guests by taking their hands into her strong large working woman’s hands, look in the eyes, and just share her love.
Some people give money, inventions, or time. We miss their passing; we know they left something behind. Fanya left behind her a trail of people who knew what it is to meet someone who has nothing to give but love. She was the kind of person who after the operation lost her ability to hear and speak, but still beat me in Connect Four and dominoes, a person who can crawl with a broken hip at 99. a person with strength and love like Fanya who inspires one not just for the day, but for a lifetime.
Fanya Bliachman was laid to rest in San Diego May 3rd beside Aaron Frankel.
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Litvin, a former San Diego resident, now resides in Tel Aviv. San Diego Jewish World’s eulogy series is sponsored by Marc and Margaret Cohen in memory of Molly Cohen, and by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg.