Linda was born in north New Jersey in 1960, and didn’t realize that her mother was a Holocaust
Survivor until her high school years. Her mother, Ann Jaffe, became a speaker in the mid-70s, having closed
that part of her life off from her children until then. They had moved from NJ to Wilmington, Delaware where
Ann was a Hebrew School teacher, and Linda completed her education with a business degree from the
University of Delaware. Her uncle persuaded her to try Israel out for a year, and that year turned into nine years through the Gulf War. During those years Linda married and became the mother of two girls, sabras, who presently live in the greater Philadelphia area, and who brought Linda to reside here now.
Linda and family have returned to the United States in 1992. Several jobs ultimately led to a career with the Federal Government managing a judge’s chamber until her retirement. Linda accompanied her mother to Mississippi three times to support her effort in speaking and has learned her story well so she could fulfill a desire to continue her work now that she is gone. This has been on her mind for a decade, realizing that first-hand survivors will no longer be with us.
Two years before Ann’s death, Linda spearheaded and helped her mother write her memoir, The Burden
and Blessing of Memory, describing her rural and religious upbringing in Eastern Europe and how her family
survived the war hiding in the Polish woods. All proceeds from the book go to Holocaust Education. Ann’s
ability to speak about her experience was uniquely well received because she learned not to let hate take hold of her, despite all she and her family had endured. She credits her father for making her aware of the destructive nature of hate.
