Dr Morris L Keller Z"L

Last night, after severe medical complications (bordering on medical mismanagement), my 91 year old grandfather, Dr. Morris L Keller, died. He will be buried today in the town where he was born, Providence, Rhode Island, next to my grandmother, Rebecca Danzig Keller.

Years ago, when I visited Israel with my grandparents, he stopped on Strauss Street, in front of what used to be Hadassah Hospital (in the 1920's -40's) and is now an HMO building. For five minutes he told anyone who would listen that this is the place where his wife, my grandmother, was born. That my grandmother was a seventh generation Jerusalemite, and how much he loved the land of Israel. Throughout that trip, my grandfather would stop any soldier, male or female, and insisted upon kissing them, and thanking them for defending the country of the Jews.

I never had a chance to tell my grandfather that he would have a great-grandchild through me, the first to be born in Jerusalem, the city of his wife whom he adored. Zaide fell into a coma before he had the chance to know about my daughter, and I think he would have gotten a kick out of knowing that some part of his family had not only returned home, to Israel, but that the line continued and renewed.