Susan's reflection when receiving her smicha as a Cantor

"Fifty-two years ago my soul chose to enter the world into the care of two secular Zionist intellectual Holocaust survivors, whose early instruction to me was “Carpe Diem!” – seize the day, turn toward the light, toward life. What a powerful teaching from two people who met in Auschwitz. Of course, there was also the implied caveat, “Don’t trust anyone – the world is not a safe place.” In 1991, my friend and teacher, Miriam Minkoff, who had introduced me to a Judaism that I did not know existed, urged me to attend the P’nei Or Kallah being held at Bryn Mawr University. As I absorbed some of the many consciousness-expanding teachings (like Reb Zalman, with a twinkle in his eye, debating the kashrut of apples from a tree planted on the spot where a pig had been buried!), I felt like I had entered a world that I had not even dared to dream about; a world of sixties sensibility within a loving, vibrant Jewish framework. Here was a world where I did indeed feel safe, embraced, challenged and inspired. It was during that one week that my life path was defined. All that I had been – a card-carrying member of Actor’s Equity, a Hebrew school music teacher, a once-in-a-while Cantorial Soloist, an advertising rep/waitress/cook/bus driver, a fanatically doting mother, the daughter of Holocaust survivors – all came together in my realization that what I was truly being asked to do was to try to become a leader/healer in the Jewish community. 

I am grateful to...my parents, Kurt and Hana, my siblings, Dana, Eva and John, my wonderful network of friends, and especially my boys, Jonah and Jacob, who were so little when I started this process, for all their love, patience and enthusiastic pride in me."

Susan's beautiful, joyful and inspiring life ended abruptly in the flight 3407 crash near Buffalo, NY in 2009

The Susan Wehle Fund was created with never ending love and enthusiastic pride by her two sons Jonah and Jacob. It is a small family fund supported by Susan's family and those who love her. All contributions are applied directly to our projects. It functions as a project of Rose Mountain, Inc., a non-profit educational foundation (cybermesa.com/~rosemount)