Rosalee Glass, Holocaust Survivor Who Attended White House Hanukkah Party, Dies At 102
Rosalee Glass Image by Getty
(JTA) — Rosalee Glass, a Holocaust survivor recognized by President Donald Trump during the White House Hanukkah party, has died following injuries sustained during travel to Washington, D.C.
Glass died in Los Angeles on Dec. 14 of a blood clot to her heart. She was three weeks shy of her 103rd birthday.
She was accidentally dropped while being transported in a wheelchair to a plane in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, on her way to Washington for the White House event, her daughter Lillian Glass said in a post on Facebook. Her arm was injured in the fall and swelled up, but a doctor cleared her to fly to Washington the next day.
“We are profoundly honored to be joined this afternoon by Rosalee Glass, a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, the darkest chapter of human history,” Trump said at the Dec. 11 Hanukkah party. “You really fill our hearts with open joy, Rosalee.”
Born Raisla Talerman in 1917 in Warsaw, Poland, Glass escaped deportation to Nazi death camps only to be deported from Russian-controlled Poland to a prison camp in Siberia. Two of her children died in the camp.
A son, Manny, survived, and after the war they were sent to a displaced persons camp in Germany. The family immigrated to Miami in 1951. Glass ran a drapery manufacturing business and later in life starred in commercials and a reality TV show.
She was predeceased by her husband, Abraham, and her son.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
