By COLlive reporter
Rebbetzin Shula Kazen was a legend during her lifetime. The face of Chabad of Cleveland, she spearheaded its activities, fundraised for its success and headed one of the city’s largest Jewish social networks. For her acclaim, the Rebbe dubbed her the “Queen of the City.”
During the last decade of her life, with her daughter Henya Laine, Rebbetzin Kazen worked on her memoirs The Queen of Cleveland: A Life of Self-Sacrifice and Courage. Accompanied by hundreds of photos, Rebbetzin Kazen writes of her unimaginable hardship in the Soviet Union and the triumph of her time in America.
“From my earliest memories I lived with the awareness of the Communist regime,” she opens the book, “a tyrannical government waging war to suppress communal Jewish life and belief in G-d.”
While the book opens with her father’s arrest for performing brissin in secret, the family’s difficulties did not end there. “I watched as the officer placed a padlock on the door,” she wrote, “locking us out of our home. He even took away our identity documents, leaving us with nothing but the clothes on our backs.”
“You’re not good citizens and don’t deserve to live,” the officer sneered at them. “As our fingers turned blue from the cold, my younger siblings cried in pain and fear. Neighbors saw our plight, but were too afraid to help.”
It was her parents deep faith that kept her going, and what propelled her into a fearless life.
After smuggling across the border, and arriving to the United States, the Rebbe told the Kazens that they should accept HIAS’s guidance and head to Cleveland. Once there, the Rebbe empowered the younger Kazens to take an active leadership in bolstering yiddishkeit in the city.
For over five decades, despite financial insecurity and health issues, that is exactly what the couple did. There was nothing that could stop Rebbetzin Kazen. It was clear, not the communists, or a complacent American community, could deter her activism.
Retelling the story of their time in Cleveland, author Dovid Zaklikowski writes how the community came to love, revere, venerate and even at times fear her. “She was really dynamic,” said Mel Waxman of Waxman Industries, a building supplies company. He recalled that she was tough and demanding. “I think that’s what attracted me to her at first, because she would not take no for an answer.”
Over the years, Rebbetzin Kazen opened herself to many people by sharing her own challenges and lessons learned. “Her wisdom and guidance were so genuine and on target,” said Jill Weiszner. “I always felt her words were honest and true.”
In Queen of Cleveland, you will learn what made her advice unique, how she guided parents, newly married couples and the bereft. When Rebbetzin Kazen moved to Crown Heights, Rabbi Simon Jacobson sent couples to her for counseling. “I wanted them to hear from Shula,” he said, “as someone who had mesiras nefesh for Judaism. This is so important, especially for American kids and adults whose lives are so much easier and where so much is taken for granted.”
Now everyone could experience Rebbetzin Kazen’s life of sacrifice, courage and the advice she derived from it.
The new book is available at your local Jewish bookstore, or at HasidicArchives.com.
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So special. Can’t wait to read about this incredibly strong woman who is the Bubby of so many Kah.
My mother OBM was zoche to call her her friend her rebbetzin. I remember as a child when my mother would not buy milk be3cause she did not consider it kosher, SHe went with the Rebbezin and another friend to milk a cow…and we had milk. Her attitude of mesirus nefesh was contagious and though I have only lived in CLeveland from 1947-1967 I still call my hometown CLeveland and my shul the Zemech Zedek. Cant wait to read the book.