Sailors looking for the next great open body of water would not normally come to Leavenworth, Kan.
However, in Berlin in 1936, Siegfried Held was only looking for an escape. Fleeing the Nazis, Held immigrated to Kansas City, where he had relatives. He soon met and married Linette Goldmon, a woman born and raised in the tiny Jewish community of Leavenworth. Together they moved into her mother’s home there. His life, once that of a wealthy Berlin banker, had completely changed. Previously an avid sailor, in Leavenworth Held now had no place to sail, and even if there had been a place, there was no money for a boat. He earned a meager living, working for the IRS. In 1944 he and his wife gave birth to a daughter, Kathy.
The Helds’ daughter would be raised in a safe place, away from the war in Europe. However, tragically both of Kathy’s parents died during her adolescence, leaving her with only the memories of her parents and the culture and worlds they came from.
“When my father died I found all of his old documents, and I felt like I became the caretaker of my family’ history,” Kathy Green said. “Looking through his mementos and various items, I got a sense of this other city, Berlin, and about life there. I kept looking, and finding interesting bits of history here and there.”
Now continuing with that role as caretaker for her family history, Kathy has released her memoir, “Sailing in Kansas.” With a title inspired by her father’s love of sailing, her book tells both the story of her family leaving Berlin, and her own experiences growing up in the small Jewish community in Leavenworth.
In her preface, Kathy writes “These tales of my early years in the small Jewish community of Leavenworth, Kansas, also tell of a childhood lived in the shadow of a great city, the Berlin of my own father’s youth and my own childhood daydreams. As an adult I have lived in a number of great cities: Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Jerusalem. But none of these really figure in this book. They have been my adult homes, the places where I really live. But the most important places for these reflections, the ‘Two Cities’ of this ‘Tale,’ are Leavenworth and Berlin. Maybe I will never stop living in those two cities. In fact, Berlin and Leavenworth formed me. They were the cities of my childhood.”
Living with her grandmother and going to high school with many poor kids, Kathy said she always felt different both religiously and in life experiences. This made the support of the local Jewish community even more important.
“My family tried very hard to be a part of the gang. There were only 20 Jewish families living there at that time, so being part of the community was very important,” Kathy said. “That led to great closeness for us all; it was like an extended family. We all knew each other very well.”
Kathy’s family were members of Temple B’Nai Jeshurun in Leavenworth. Her family was very active in the synagogue.
Today the temple is closed, and Kathy has no more family living in Leavenworth. However, after the book came out, Kathy did begin receiving calls and emails from high school classmates and others she knew from town.
“They were people she hadn’t talked to in years, reaching out and telling her they remembered her,” said Art Green, Kathy’s husband. “Once they saw the book it brought back a lot of memories for them as well.”
“The response was more than I could have imagined,” Kathy said. “The outpouring of support was very important to us.”
After leaving Leavenworth to go to college, Kathy met and married theologian and scholar Arthur Green, founder and currently rector of the Hebrew College Rabbinical School. She taught Jewish Education at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. She previously authored “The Jewish Family Book,” co-edited with Sharon Strassfeld, along with several essays in the field.
The book opens with Kathy and Art traveling to Berlin, years after her father’s death. She said the experience felt like they were living out his trip “back” to Berlin, since he never had a chance to return after fleeing the city.
“The emotions were very powerful, and the various associations I felt for things made it a very emotional trip,” Green said.
Kathy and Art visited Kathy’s grandmother’s grave in Berlin’s vast Jewish cemetery. The gravesite was undamaged and Kathy made sure to collect a memento. She took a clod of dirt from the grave and transported it all the way to her grandfather’s grave in Leavenworth, to lay it there with him.
“It was fascinating that this simple clod of dirt could mean so much,” Art said.
Kathy is glad that the book will be something she can pass down.
“I wanted to leave these memories to the next generation,” she said.
Kathy is currently battling Parkinson’s disease, and communication can sometimes be difficult. That made getting her story out all the more gratifying.
“There is a Berlin legacy, and a Leavenworth legacy, and they are both parts of her and made her the person she is,” Art said. “Writing the book was a deep self-examination, and it helped her recover a part of herself. It’s a piece of herself we will always have.”
Kathy and Art currently live in the Boston area. or more information on Kathy Green’s book or to order a copy, go online to www.sailinginkansas.com.