Looking back on a time of darkness in a family’s history can sometimes inspire a deep gratitude that lights the way forward for others. Robert T. (Tom) Flesh and Judy Orden Flesh, PAR’03, PAR’08, PAR’11, are good examples of that. The couple has built a successful life in Los Angeles, and they are part of a dedicated group of Penn families there.
Both are of Jewish descent. All four of their parents are Holocaust survivors and are refugees from Communist oppression. In the tumultuous years leading up to World War II, the harsh anti-Semitic laws of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania denied, among other things, an education to Tom and Judy’s parents. Later they were sent to labor camps. Judy’s mother was sent to Auschwitz. Many members of both extended families, including all their grandparents, perished in the war. Tom’s mother lost all her brothers and sisters as well.
Tom’s and Judy’s early memories in America read straight from the quintessential immigrant experience: parents struggling to learn English and rebuild their lives, but also keeping their religious and cultural traditions alive, while coping with trauma and grief.
Thanks to their families’ resilience, Tom, a lawyer, is now president of Safety Investment Company, a real estate management and investment services firm. Judy is a psychotherapist and volunteer, including with the Museum of Tolerance, where she facilitates video conferences between Holocaust survivors and secondary school students who might never have the opportunity to meet a survivor.
Tom and Judy credit their family’s revival to an indelible lesson: education is so important because it is the one thing that can’t be taken away. Tom’s father pursued the goal of education later in life, attending classes at night when he wasn’t working. He earned an undergraduate degree and proudly received his diploma with his wife, two children and extended family in the audience.
From these inspirational legacies, Tom and Judy concluded that no barrier to education for hardworking students is ever justified, whether because of religious hatred in their parents’ time or economic disadvantage in ours. The couple believes that it is important to provide access, as Judy says, for “extraordinary minds that wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to take advantage of a school like Penn.” It just makes sense to help students who can’t afford the cost of Penn, she adds, because “you never know who’s going to change the world.”
For their part, the Fleshes created the Flesh Family Endowed Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences to support students interested in gaining a greater understanding of Judaism and the people and state of Israel. The scholarship is in tribute to their parents and in appreciation of the richness of Jewish cultural life and scholarship at Penn. Tom credits their family’s enduring Jewish faith with informing their philanthropy: “If you can provide a light for those in need, that is really very important,” he says.
Their last child will graduate in 2011, but the Flesh family’s legacy and connection to Penn will continue to cast a light forward for generations of students to come.
