Powerful Stuff, Indeed

June 1, 2017 Alan Feiler, Editor-in-Chief

Alan Feiler's maternal grandparents Morris and Sarah Hoffzimmer. (Photo courtesy Alan Feiler)

As a kid, my mother used to tell me stories about my grandparents, Morris and Sarah Hoffzimmer. My maternal grandfather died suddenly when I was only 2 (“He was so wild about you,” my mom would say. “You got cheated when he died”), and I suspect she wanted me to have a strong feeling for how particularly close and loving my grandparents were toward each other.

Alan Feiler's grandfather — Alan Feiler’s maternal grandfather at Curtis Bay

My grandfather, who came to this country at age 13 after surviving the pogroms of Poland, worked at the shipyards of Curtis Bay as a pipefitter. My grandmother was a homemaker. They’d met while she worked at a millinery shop in New York, and relocated to Baltimore — my grandmother’s hometown — when times got tough in the Big Apple during the Depression.

Every day, my mother said, my grandfather would take his packed lunch and go to work, and my grandmother would clean every square inch of the house and prepare his dinner. She would get herself all fixed up so that when he came home, he would have a lovely wife and a hot meal waiting for him, along with a newspaper to read in his favorite chair.

When I asked my mother if that all sounded a bit archaic and old-fashioned, she merely shrugged and suggested I consider the times. “That’s what she did,” my mom said. “She was crazy about him.”

Alan Feiler's grandparents — Alan Feiler’s maternal grandparents, Morris and Sarah Hoffzimmer, with his mother, Gloria (Photo courtesy Alan Feiler)

Were my grandparents a “power couple”? They were involved in a shul, the old Petach Tikvah on Denmore Avenue, and kept a pushke, a donation box for charity, in their living room on Reisterstown Road. They were committed to the well-being of the Jewish community and the causes they believed in. However, they didn’t usually hobnob at community gatherings and weren’t well off by any means.

But at the end of the day, they were a “power couple” because they were fiercely devoted to each other and their family, as well as to the notion of being Jewish.

So what exactly is a power couple? The Oxford Dictionaries define the phrase as “a couple consisting of two people who are each influential or successful in their own right.”

In our culture, the term has come to mean two married or romantically involved individuals who have thriving and/or lucrative careers but are a singular force as well. Think Beyonce and Jay Z, or Bill and Melinda Gates.

We all know of power couples closer to home, folks who have impressive professional and personal lives. They tend to be the envy of those around them, almost as if they’re the embodiments of the American Dream for juggling everything (careers, family, households, etc.) and doing it quite well. They’re on community boards, they’re seen in society pages and they tend to live life to the fullest (or seem to).

But I would suggest that power couples also can be defined as people who, while committed to each other and their families and their causes, also endeavor to make the world a better and fairer place at a more micro level, sometimes even through small acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. What makes them powerful is their willingness to give and sacrifice, for each other and their loved ones and the community at large. Their selflessness, devotion and humility is where the real power lies.

And that’s powerful stuff.

Warmly,
Alan Feiler,
Editor-in-Chief

Top photo: Alan Feiler’s maternal grandparents, Morris and Sarah Hoffzimmer (Photo courtesy Alan Feiler)

The Fine Art of Giving Back — Harel and Randi Turkel
Opposites Do Attract — Stacy and Paul Lurie
Good Counsel … & Good Cereal — Erika and Dr. Lew Schon
Humility and Support — Ilene and Dr. Bert Vogelstein
Empathy and Empowerment — Cindy and Rabbi Jay Goldstein
Powerful Stuff — Editor-in-Chief Alan Feiler wonders if his grandparents were a “power couple.”