When Esther Basch talks about her volunteer work at Child Crisis Arizona, she frequently says, “I wouldn’t give it away for anything.” Chances are good that the children she works with feel the same way about her.
When Esther’s husband passed away several years ago, a social worker from Hospice of the Valley recognized Esther’s obvious love for children. She recommended that Esther volunteer at Child Crisis Arizona to help ease the transition of living alone.
In the beginning, Esther visited Child Crisis Arizona two days a week. Despite some physical setbacks, Esther has continued with her commitment and visits the infant room at the Phoenix Emergency Children’s Shelter every Friday morning. She spends the majority of her time holding, rocking and feeding the babies and occasionally singing to them in Hungarian. Esther knows intuitively that the language makes no difference. “I can feel their love. They need me, but I also need them … You could call it a mutual admiration.” In June, Ester will celebrate 12 years of volunteering at Child Crisis Arizona.
Esther has lived in Phoenix for more 30 years. She and her family moved here from Brooklyn, New York when one of her sons made the decision to attend Arizona State University. Esther and her husband Joe married in 1945, just after she was liberated from the Nazi labor camp in Salzwedel, Germany. She had been imprisoned a year earlier in Auschwitz and had already lost almost her entire family. Both Esther and Joe were the children of Rabbis, and Joe’s father eventually made his way to Toledo, Ohio. She credits her father-in-law for bringing them to the United States, by way of a six-year stay in Canada.
Several years ago, Esther was interviewed by the Shoah Foundation, an organization originally established by Steven Spielberg to gather video testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust. Her story is now one of more than 50,000 that have been preserved to help educate others about prejudice, tolerance and bigotry.
Esther and Joe have four children, and now Esther is blessed with a growing extended family that includes nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
In addition to her volunteer work at Child Crisis Arizona, Esther also stays active by exercising daily. She loves to swim and walk and also climbs the stairs of her apartment building at least half a dozen times every morning. She also volunteers at the Senior Center during tax season, greeting people as they arrive and helping them get into the appropriate line for assistance filing their income tax returns.
Esther is an inspiration – not only for her dedication to Child Crisis Arizona but also because she has witnessed the worst of what humans are capable of and still sees the best in all people. In regard to her involvement with the children at Child Crisis Arizona she says, “I’m very grateful to them. It gives me a sense of direction, a sense of comfort. If I am depressed, I go down there, and it makes me feel good.”
