She was raised Protestant, became Catholic, then joined the Orthodox [Eastern] Church when she began “looking for more theology.”
By LINDA STERNRUTH ELLEN HANSEN YAHR FROM MILWAUKEE TO SAFED, 1995(photo credit: BETH ESHEL)RUTH ELLEN HANSEN YAHR FROM MILWAUKEE TO SAFED, 1995Ruth Ellen Hansen Yahr was born in 1948 to a German/English father and a Danish/ Norwegian mother. She worked with special needs children. She never married and lived alone; her books were her friends.She was raised Protestant, became Catholic, then joined the Orthodox [Eastern] Church when she began “looking for more theology.”The Holocaust saddened her and as her awareness of it grew, she was shocked that no one around her cared. This apathy by her fellow Christian devotees was nothing more than antisemitism in her eyes.When she realized this, she left the Church.She joined an Orthodox synagogue and learned for nine months with the rabbi who encouraged her to go to Israel to continue learning. She was converted eight days before her flight to Israel. She did not come on the Law of Return because it did not seem proper to her. She lived and studied for seven months at Shaarei Bnei, a women’s seminary in Safed, with a group of teenage girls, with whom she fit right in.Here she found her community and extended family, and then officially made aliyah at the age of 45.Ruth was a special woman whose animated personality touched the lives of the Safed community – both English and Hebrew speakers – even though she didn’t know the local language very well. She was a storyteller who loved to make people smile, carrying an assortment of jokes and cartoons as she walked the streets, stopping in daily at the Safed English Library on the main street, and meeting her friends there.She inspired those who would listen and listened to those who needed an ear. She shared the stories of her own learning, stories that humbly showed the way she deepened and grew. She was generous in that way, sharing her mistaken attitudes, then with love and humor, sharing how the Almighty managed to set her straight.She was a true believer in God. One of the things Ruth did on her daily walks was to stop into the shops along the road and visit with the owners. Since she lived alone she wanted to be able to answer others’ blessings with “amen” and the hosting shop owners would oblige her by saying a blessing and having a bite so she could answer.When Ruth knew that a move to assisted living was imminent, she expressed that it was time to begin to clear out her things. Most of her apartment was filled with books about Jewish history and faith that were so precious to her. What was surprising was that among the self-help books on her shelves were parenting books and books with advice on building a beautiful, healthy marriage. When she was asked why she had such books since she was neither married nor a parent, she replied, “So I would be able to give sound advice when my friends called and told me their troubles.”She never shared other people’s stories and kept identities hidden of those in her own stories. What she did share was her gratitude. When Ruth was able to get around, she did not want to be at any one family’s home for Shabbat meals too often in too short a time. She explained “I’m like the cayenne pepper in life; a little bit of me goes a long way!” Perhaps one spicy aspect of her personality was her frankness. She said what she thought; she called it as she saw it, felt it, experienced it or wanted it. She was honest. She was trustworthy.One of the things you could hear Ruth say was a quote that her friend Joseph from the book store shared with her during the Second Lebanon War: “God’s in charge, nothing is by chance, and ultimately everything is for the good.” Then, with a wink, she would add, “but I don’t have to like it!” Ruth Yahr brought her special flavor to spice up the lives of so many residents of Safed. She is sorely missed.
Related TagsSafedConversion to Judaism
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
