Who Is World’s Oldest Jewish Woman? Not Fori Nehru?
Jan 2nd, 2011 | no responses
My friend Vlasta Molak informs me that the world’s oldest Jewish woman is Alice Herz-Sommer, who celebrated her 107th birthday recently on November 26, 2010. In my recent article I had mentioned that this honour goes to India’s Fori Nehru, 102. Thank you Vlasta.
I had given the heading based on the information in The Week magazine. The author had stated: “While researching for this story, THE WEEK contacted the Israel embassy in New Delhi, and Galit Hoffman, former spokesperson for the embassy, checked the records and found that Fori Nehru of India was indeed the oldest Jewish woman in the world. The oldest Jewish man is a Russian.” (Please see here)
Let me quote my friend Vlasta: “The Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer lives in London and is 107. Her story of survival and happiness is truly inspiring and humanity would do well to follow it!
“Your Indian Jewish women is only 102. Notice that Ms. Alice eats regularly chicken soup (with veggies), which has been known to cure some diseases and is thus called ‘Jewish penicillin’. It works for me whenever I have a cold 
! Especially chicken soup with matzo balls!”
Now let’s see who is 107-year-old Alice Herz-Sommer? “Sommer endured the deprivations of the Prague ghetto, imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp and the murder of her husband, mother and countless other family members. Only her love of music, she says, sustained her throughout those years of darkness and heartbreak.
“While her tale of survival is astonishing, what’s perhaps more remarkable is that, despite seeing humanity at its worst, Sommer remains a fierce optimist and a believer in the fundamental goodness of mankind. ‘This is the reason I am so old, even now, I am sure,’ she recently told the U.K.’s Sunday Express. ‘I know about the bad things, but I look only for the good things. The world is wonderful, it’s full of beauty and miracles, art and music.’
“Sommer was born in Prague in 1903 to a secular, German-speaking Jewish family… At the turn of the century, Prague was a thriving melting pot of Czechs, Germans and Jews. And her family home served as a salon for the metropolis’s greatest writers, scientists, musicians and actors to gather and debate. Franz Kafka — the best friend of her elder sister’s husband, author and philosopher Felix Weltsch — was a regular visitor.
“…Sommer began playing the piano at 5 and was soon taking lessons from Conrad Ansorge, a pupil of Franz Liszt. By 16, Sommer was giving lessons herself and touring as a pianist, performing pieces by Schumann, Bach, Beethoven and Smetana. (She still plays for up to three hours a day but complains that her fingers aren’t as strong as they used to be.)
“As for her own long life, Sommer partly puts this down to diet — she eats chicken stew most days, and doesn’t touch coffee, tea or alcohol — and to her strict piano-playing routine.
“But there is a more important factor. ‘In a word: optimism. I look at the good. When you are relaxed, your body is always relaxed,’ she told Haaretz. ‘When you are pessimistic, your body behaves in an unnatural way. It is up to us whether we look at the good or the bad. When you are nice to others, they are nice to you. When you give, you receive’.”
Well now we have two fascinating stories of these wonderful women who have spent more than 100 years on this earth. Does it really matter who is the oldest so long they have lived a life to the hilt despite the pain and sadness they went through, and also provided inspiration to others. Who knows there may be other Jewish women who have completed 100 years… let’s hear about them.
Anyway I thank Vlasta Molak… You may contact her at drmolak@gmail.com
