Jacqueline Kimmelstiel attends classes at University of Mount Saint Vincent after lifelong educational dream deferred

Jacqueline Kimmelstiel, a 97-year-old holocaust survivor, had her lifelong wish fulfilled by attending a day of classes at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. Kimmelstiel, who fled persecution during World War II when Germany invaded France, experienced the educational opportunity that had been denied to her for nearly nine decades.

A dream delayed by history

Kimmelstiel’s education was abruptly halted after 6th grade at the age of 12, forcing her to spend years moving throughout France to escape Nazi persecution. She later immigrated to the United States in 1947, where she worked as a seamstress and met her husband, an Auschwitz survivor.

“Education was always something that was very important to our grandmother. Both her sons, my father and our uncle, became medical doctors. And all of us, you know, went to college and beyond professional school,” said Jonah Kimmelstiel, granddaughter of Jacqueline, to the New York Post.

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Big day at college

A century-old health care organization, RiverSpring Living, played a major role in fulfilling her dream through their new “Golden Wishes” program, which helps residents achieve experiences they missed during their lifetimes.

Kimmelstiel’s grandchildren, Jonah Kimmelstiel and Rebecca Kevelson, accompanied her to college where they read poems to her during her literature class. During her campus visit, she participated in poetry and French lessons and even attended a basketball game where she was named honorary captain for a scrimmage.

In a touching ceremony, university president Susan R. Burns awarded Kimmelstiel a college degree, stating: “As a survivor of the Holocaust, she endured unimaginable loss, cruelty and hardship, yet Jacqueline never surrendered her faith in humanity or promise for a better future.”

The experience left Kimmelstiel overjoyed. She remarked that even though her husband is no longer with her, she knows “he enjoyed sports very much, and he would have been extremely proud.”

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