The Heschel School

Ray Kaner was born on December 10, 1927 in Lodz, Poland, to Nechemia and Devora Lea (née Rotenberg) Bryk. She had four older siblings: Josef (who died before the Holocaust), Sala, Levy and Eliaz. 

In March 1940, Ray and her family were forced into the Lodz Ghetto. Ray’s parents died of starvation and illness while still in the ghetto. In June 1944, Eliasz was deported to Chelmno, where he was murdered; Levy, who survived nearly five years of slave labor, was reportedly killed several months before the end of the war. In the summer of 1944, Ray and her sister Sala were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were subsequently transferred to the Hambieren labor camp near Celle, Germany, and finally to Bergen Belsen, where they were liberated by British troops on April 15, 1945. 

Ray met her husband, Leon, a fellow survivor from Lodz, when he was searching for his sisters, Regina and Esther, who were with Ray and Sala throughout this time. A third sister, Marisha, also survived, living as a Christian in Poland. Leon was the youngest of eight children. His sister Fayge (along with her husband and their children), brother Nathan (along with his wife and their children), sister Chaya, and brother Yitzchak all perished in the Holocaust, as did their mother, Mayta. 

Ray and Leon married in 1946 and soon after emigrated to the United States aboard a military ship, the Marine Perch. They arrived in New York on July 27, 1946 and settled there. 

In 1974, Ray partnered with renowned Holocaust historian Yaffa Eliach to establish the Center for Holocaust Studies in Brooklyn, New York, the first organization in the United States dedicated to Holocaust Studies. In this capacity, she worked as an office manager, treasurer, speaker and interviewer of hundreds of survivors. In 1990, the Center merged with the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, where Ray has since served on the Board. She is the mother of Debbie, a retired lawyer and Charles, a dentist. She helps manage the office at her son’s dental practice. Her son Charles and daughter- in-law Tamara are the parents of Heschel alum Lizzie Kaner and Heschel student Elliot Kaner.

You can see artifacts that Ray donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here, and learn more about her story by clicking on the tab entitled "About this Document."