A loving patriarch and icon in the Jewish community of Houston, Joseph W. Samuels, died Jan. 19, 2011.
Samuels published the Jewish Herald-?Voice in Houston for the past 38 years, with his wife Jeanne.
Samuels was the oldest of three children, born in Dallas to Tillie Marion Wiener and Morris Joseph Samuels on Dec. 10, 1915. Morris Samuels died at 38, before he could realize his dream of starting a Jewish newspaper.
Because of illness and financial hardships brought on by the coming Great Depression, Samuels mother brought her three children to the Jewish Childrens Home in New Orleans.
Samuels mother once wrote a letter to the Home, saying that she would send $3 every month, with a promise that her children will remember those other dear children with a contribution for their education.
True to his mothers promise, Joe Samuels did, and he continued throughout his lifetime to support what eventually became the Jewish Childrens Regional Service.
For many years, Joe and Jeannes phone number in the white pages included the initials, XHK ex-Home kids as the couple hosted many annual XHK reunions in their home. Joes first email address was joexhk.
At 18, Mr. Samuels returned to Houston, taking a job at the post office because it paid more than most companies 65 cents an hour. He also sold Remington typewriters and began producing a series of dramas on KTRH radio, titled Oddities in the Mail.
As WW II loomed, Samuels attempted to enlist in the US Navy, but was turned down because of poor eyesight. After memorizing the eye chart, he was admitted into the US Army Air Corps, which soon became the US Air Force.
The Samuels married in 1944.
Samuels served in French West Africa, in Dakar, Naples, Italy, and Bucharest, Romania.
He remained in the reserves at Ellington Air Force Base and retired as a lieutenant colonel.
Their son, Marc, was born in 1948, closely followed by daughters Maurene and Vicki.
After the war, Samuels entered business in Houston. He helped found the Bnai Brith Downtown Lodge. The family belonged to Temple Beth Israel, and moved to Temple Emanu E-l in the 1950s.
In 1971, Dave White, the second owner of the Jewish Herald-Voice, died, and for one year, his widow, Ida, kept the paper going.
(By coincidence, the papers founder, Edgar Goldberg, also was raised in the Jewish Childrens Home.)
Joe and Jeanne Samuels purchased the paper on April 1, 1973, and Joe told Jeanne that our lives would never be the same.
They wanted the paper to represent all of the Jewish community. They brought disparate factions together, helped to mend fences, corrected injustices and brought help to those in need.
Through the newspaper, they sustained Jewish life in Houston.
Passionate Zionists, the Samuels traveled around the globe, reporting on Jews in need, subsequently garnering support from the community to save Jews in the Middle East, the Soviet Union and Ethiopia. The Samuels visited Israel more than a dozen times.
Ned Goldberg, executive director of Jewish Childrens Regional Service, the reincarnation of the Childrens Home, said:
How ironic: a man who spent a part of his childhood in an institution could then, himself, become an institution.
Joe liked to remind me of one or two teachers in his very early years who did not believe in his abilities, and how their questions about his future led him to prove them wrong.
Joe and Jeanne created, first a family, and then a family-led newspaper, that has made Houston proud.
Samuels is survived by Jeanne, his wife of 67 years; son Marc Samuels (Maylee) of Baton Rouge, La.; daughters, Maurene Bencal (Michael), Hallettsville, Tex., and Vicki Samuels Levy (Lawrence), Houston, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his sister, Grace Wagner.
A memorial service was held Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011, at Emanu El Memorial Park Kagan-Rudy Chapel, followed by private burial on Friday, Jan. 28.
Donations may be made to Jewish Childrens Regional Service, PO Box 7368, Metairie, LA 70010 or charity of choice.
Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News
