A Towering Jewish Hero Dies: We Mourn the Passing of Sam Harris
"He also had a word he returned to again and again: ‘beshert’ — Yiddish for destined or meant to be. Sam believed deeply, unshakably, that his childhood survival of the Holocaust was beshert."
By Kelley Szany
It is with a full heart and deep sadness that I share the passing of Samuel R. Harris — Holocaust survivor, President Emeritus of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, and a man whose courage and conviction shaped everything we do.
Born in 1935 in Deblin, Poland as Szlamek Rzeznik, Sam was just four years old when the German occupation began. His family was forced into the ghetto, and when it was liquidated in 1942, most of them were deported to Treblinka and murdered. Sam survived because of the extraordinary courage of his older sister Rosa, who hid him, first in a labor camp, then in Czestochowa, until Soviet liberation in 1945. He came to America in 1947, was adopted by the Harris family in Northbrook, and went on to build a life of extraordinary purpose.
Sam was a founding force behind the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center — not a figurehead, but a builder. He showed up. He pushed. He believed that this institution was a moral imperative, and he made sure it became one.
I have had the privilege of serving this Museum for nearly 25 years, and Sam was with me from the start. His presence — steady, demanding in the best way, and always grounded in hope — set the tone for what this work requires of all of us.
What I will carry with me always is the way Sam spoke to young people. He looked them in the eye. He told them the truth. And he told them it mattered — that they mattered — in the same breath. He also had a word he returned to again and again: ‘beshert’ — Yiddish for destined or meant to be. He believed — deeply, unshakably, that his survival was beshert. That the Museum was beshert. That every student who walked through our doors and was changed by what they encountered there was beshert. He didn’t say it as a comfort. He said it as a calling.
And through our Dimensions in Testimony holographic experience in the Abe & Ida Cooper Survivor Stories Theater, his voice and presence will continue to reach students and visitors for generations to come. Sam himself chose this. He believed in it. And I think he would say that too was beshert — that technology would exist, at exactly this moment, to carry his voice forward when he no longer could.
Sam’s own words say it best: “The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center will serve as a beacon to the world… A beacon of hope where we, our children and grandchildren will learn from the past and make sure that this or any kind of Holocaust does not happen in the future.”
We carry that forward. We owe him that much. He will be dearly missed.
May Sam’s memory be a blessing.
KELLEY SZANY is Senior V.P. of Education and Exhibitions at Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
May Sam’s memory always be blessed 🕯️
Baruch Dayan HaEmet dear Sam! He reminds me so much of my late father, who also survived the Shoah and was so involved in the Detroit Holocaust Center for so many years, speaking of his experiences to hundreds of school, church and synagogue groups.