From: CLIFFORD M REES <[email protected]> Date: Friday, March 17, 2023 at 3:19 To: Bruce Reisch <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Passing of Yitzchak Aizic Oked Sechter Thank you Bruce, Edgar and LIst members for the translation of Aizic's obituary. What an extraordinary life! In the words of the Kaddish, he will still live on Earth in the acts of goodness he performed.
Clifford M. Rees Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA Researching Reisch and Mahler, Sadagora Bukovina ________________________________ From: Bruce Reisch <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2023 7:53 AM Subject: Re: Passing of Yitzchak Aizic Oked Sechter Cliff, Friends, Though far from perfect, here’s a google translate version of Aizic’s obituary. It speaks well to his most special qualities, missed by all. The veteran journalist, who remains "addicted to news", crossed the road to buy a newspaper, and was killed When Kuzo Okamoto carried out the attack at the airport, Yitzhak Oked dubbed cleaning workers, who told him that the terrorist was Chinese. That was the headline of this morning's paper. For about 30 years he covered many more historical events. At the beginning of February, Yitzhak Oked went down from his house in Beer Ya'akov to the nearby mall to buy a newspaper. Oked, formerly a journalist at the "Jerusalem Post", was "addicted to news", as his daughter Sarit said. "Every room had a radio, so as not to miss a single word. Every morning he had to read a newspaper," she added. 20 meters separated his house from the mall. At the crosswalk he was run over by a car, injured his head and later died of his injuries. Yitzhak Isaac Oked Schechter was born in 1935 in Marcaibo, Venezuela. His father and mother, Moshe Schechter and Rebecca Feldman, were born in Haval, Serbia, in the territory of today's Ukraine. In 1927, his father immigrated to Israel, but when he could not find work, he immigrated to Venezuela, where he started a family with Rebecca. Isaac was an older brother to Shoshana, Malka and Aryeh. When he was eight years old, during World War II, German submarines sailed in the Gulf of Marcaibo. "The Jews, who had already heard about the atrocities in Europe, were frightened, and decided to send a child from every family to the United States," his daughter said. This is how little Yitzhak, who speaks Yiddish and Spanish, was sent to a Baptist military boarding school in Texas. One of the nuns there, "Miss Daniel", took him under her protection and helped him deal with the difficulties and homesickness. Yitzchak learned English as well as Christian customs, and asked to send his parents decorated Easter eggs, to make them happy. So that the eggs would not break on the way, he cooked them and sent them to Venezuela by sea mail. The family laughed and said that the smell of the rotten eggs from the local post office in Venezuela is still remembered today. After two years at the boarding school, the Baptists decided to baptize the Jewish children. Miss Daniel consulted her father, who was a priest, and he told her that he had not yet seen any Jews, but if Christ had kept them as Jews until now, she must not baptize them. Thus Yitzchak was sent back to his home in Markaivo. 40 years later, when he renewed his relationship with the nun, she asked him if he had kept his Judaism. Yitzhak was sent to the United States again, this time to New York, where he attended school. In November 1947, when he was 12 years old, he stood outside the United Nations building and had the privilege of celebrating with other Jews the vote on approving the partition plan, which paved the way for the establishment of the state. In 1950 he accompanied the family to Israel. They settled in Moshav Hivat Zion, where his father was a farmer. Later he was the owner of an ice factory in Hadera. Yitzhak was sent to a vocational school in Netanya, where he studied electrical and radio technician. "The owner of the two left hands was allowed to cut the trenches in the walls, in order to thread the electric wires," said his daughter. Yitzhak mobilized with a core of Moshavim who heard the call of David Ben-Gurion to settle the Negev. Together they founded the religious settlement Kfar Maimon. Later, he was sent to work at "Mekorot" company, due to the professional knowledge he acquired. However, his great love was always for the written word. In correspondence courses he studied librarianship, journalism and speaking, and was a librarian at the Aerospace Industry, a spokesman for the Volcanic Institute and a journalist at the "Jerusalem Post" for 30 years, between the 1960s and the 1990s. Over the years he was a reporter on various topics and covered many news events. In 1972, when Kuzo Okamoto carried out the attack at Lod airport, Yitzhak was sent to cover the event. When he was prevented from entering the building, cleaning workers, who were hiding in one of the corners, began to call. "They told him the terrorists were Chinese," his daughter said. "Indeed the printing wheels stopped, and the headline this morning was that there was a terrorist attack by the Chinese, because who would have thought that the Japanese could launch a terrorist attack on Israel." In 1975, he covered the attack at the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv, where civilians were murdered and soldiers were killed. About 60 years ago he met his wife, Ita, who was a teacher and corrected his mistakes in Hebrew. About 40 years ago, he "became infected with the genealogy bug", according to his daughter, and built a family tree that included tens of thousands of members. "He tried to explain to me how we are related to Marie Antoinette," said his daughter. Oked left behind his wife, children and grandchildren. ******************************************************************************* This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. 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