When she came to the United States in 1948, Judy Alexis Mack carried with her one small, metal suitcase and although she was eager for a different future in a different place, she gripped that suitcase tight to her body, unwilling to relinquish her past, because even at such a young age, she understood that what she had survived to reach America, what she had endured for the opportunity to thrive, and what she had sustained to reach a place that held hope, meant that though she could lock away the fear, the pain, and the grief, she could never part with those things that had formed her early life, because to live, to remember, and to succeed meant that those people who had attempted to erase her identity, the identity of her family, and the identity of her community did not prevail.
Her name means sweet in Yiddish. Born Zysla Szrut on December 11, 1937 in Warsaw, on the eve of World War II, Judy Mack was a smiley, cheery little girl who pushed roosting birds around in her buggy and attended temple with her father. After the Germans occupied Poland, she became the frightened and confused little girl forced to live in a hole in the ground to evade captivity. Judy’s soft, soothing voice, kind, gentle face, warm eyes, beautifully manicured nails, and elegant dress belied the suffering she sustained as a child, but not the beautiful life she and Ronald, her husband of 65 years, created together and enjoyed until her death on September 12, 2021.
She remembered saying goodbye to her father before he was led to Treblinka extermination camp. She remembered the screaming, the crying, and the shooting late at night. She remembered hiding, living in a hole under the floor of a house. She remembered the German soldiers coming to seek her out, carrying long knives which they thrust under the floorboards. She remembered moving to another hole under a shed, one filled with rats and parasites and vermin. She remembered watching her mother die from malnourishment and then, being placed in an orphanage. She remembered being taken from the orphanage and then, being forced to beg in the streets. She remembered being saved by her grandmother, her beloved Priva Szrut, the woman whose might and love allowed Judy to persevere through the war, the woman who taught her English, and the woman whose willpower and resolve Judy revered and emulated throughout her life. Priva was Judy’s strength and together, they made the journey to the United States, entering through Ellis Island before they traveled to their final destination, San Francisco, and here Judy came to begin a new life, her family’s only survivor of the Holocaust.
Zysla became Judy. In the United States, she never spoke about her past, because she only looked so brightly to the future. She forgot Polish to be more American. She studied diligently and became an honors student. She played tennis and volleyball. She was proudly Jewish and active in the B’nai B’irth Girls. When she was 18, a demure young woman with only her high school diploma, Judy worked as a teller at the headquarters for the Wells Fargo bank and within three months, because of her keen mind and an uncanny ability for numbers, she was promoted to bookkeeper. Where Judy went, fortune followed, and when she attended a Yom Kippur Ball at the Jewish Center in San Francisco, she met Ronald Mack and fell in love.
A lifelong partnership. Judy and Ronald married in 1956. They moved to Oakland, California, first living in an apartment before they bought a modest home. They had a son whom they named Steve, after her father Shia. Fate then called them to Reno, where they had the opportunity to go into business for themselves. So, the young couple sold their home and headed to Nevada, arriving in the wake of a winter blizzard, and it was there, in Reno, in 1959, exactly one hundred years after thousands of immigrants arrived in the young city to cash in on the silver rush, that Judy and Ronald began to forge their own legacy, one which has now reached far beyond Reno, beyond Las Vegas, and even beyond the borders of the United States.
They began by selling used clothing and making loans from money they borrowed off their credit card and soon, they began to add more and more merchandise to their shop, always serving their community with kindness and gratitude. Somehow, in spite of the hate she had survived, Judy flourished with love. She bloomed with compassion and she prospered with generosity. She became an expert in sales because she appreciated people, not because she wanted to make a deal. She was also tenacious, she learned quick, and she had a talent for merchandising. Judy was the reason the family business began to grow, and with it, her little family grew as well. She had another son, Michael, named after her uncle, a man who had bought her safety during the war with a gold watch, and a daughter, her beautiful Belinda. The boys began working in the shop as children and Steve, who had inherited his mother’s tenacity, would continue to do so, even after his college career, expanding the empire to Georgia, Washington, Arizona, and California, and also to Las Vegas, where the family relocated, and where Judy and Ronald retired.
A lifelong legacy. She had raised a family, created a business which would become the largest privately-owned pawn chain in the industry, and saw all of her children graduated from college. She became a proud grandmother, and was able to help, in whatever way she could, those who had helped her survive, not only the war, but in life. Fortunately, none of this was enough for Judy. She wanted to provide more, and idealizing the sentiment, “no one has ever become poor by giving,” Judy and Ronald spent a lifetime, not just in retirement, as philanthropists, even when they had little to contribute.
Aside from supporting numerous Alzheimer’s and memory loss foundations, Jewish causes, and children’s charities, she and Ronald created the Ronald and Judy Mack Religious Education Foundation, which assists families who want to provide their children with religious schooling, and also laid the groundwork for the Ronald and Judy Mack School for Religious Studies which now ranks as one of the very best centers in Nevada for preschool and kindergarten education. The couple also built a high school on a rural kibbutz in Israel so that children in the area could receive an education closer to home.
In time, Judy began to draw upon her own history, understanding that her pain would not burden others, but help them. She was deeply concerned about safeguarding children and eliminating prejudice and bullying, so she also invested her time in those activities which would teach children about the past in order to protect the future. Judy was chosen to become the first member of the Nevada Governor’s Advisory Council for Education Relating to the Holocaust, where she served for 25 years before her son took her place, continuing the work she had begun. She and Ronald also support the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center in Las Vegas, as well as the Shia Szrut Holocaust Collection, at the northwest branch of the Washoe County Library in Reno, named in memory of her father.
Throughout her life, the woman who did not enjoy speaking about her past had an unwavering commitment to the future. She was wise and insightful in all things, choosing her friends, organizations to support, and those other things in which she invested her time and energy with the same kind of careful thoughtfulness which she had displayed since her childhood in San Francisco. She never forgot those who had supported her or those who had regarded her poorly, treating everyone with kindness, respect, and generosity. She wanted, more than anything, to provide people with an experience, and her spirit, powerful as it was, impressed all of those fortunate enough to have met her. Her selfless demeanor, her optimism, her faith, not only in her religion, but in friends and strangers alike, underscored a deep and very proud appreciation for life and every possible opportunity which presented itself and of which, she took full advantage.
Late in her life, Judy was interviewed about her time during the war and since arriving in America. She admitted that she still had not parted with that metal suitcase and through tears and with deep emotion, she humbly described the terror and dread of war, the humiliation, and the suffering, and what remains so exceptional is that all of the hate, the pain, the ugliness, and the filth of her formative years, she, alone, transformed into a lifetime of love, joy, beauty, and respectability, and she afforded all of these traits not just to her family and friends, but also to strangers. Though Judy never received much, this matriarch spent a lifetime giving.
Judy Alexis Mack is survived by her husband, her three children, Steve Mack, Michael Mack, and Belinda Donner, along with Belinda’s husband, Andrew Donner. She also has nine grandchildren, Tally Mack, Tahoe Mack, Rex Mack, Austin Mack, Aaron Mack, Chase Ingrande, Jake Ingrande, Charlie Donner, and Priva Donner, and is great-grandmother to Wade Ray.
A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, September 15 at 12 p.m. at Temple Beth Sholom, on 10700 Havenwood Lane, Las Vegas, Nevada 89135. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Judy’s honor to the Ronald and Judy Mack Religious Foundation, Temple Beth Sholom, Las Vegas.
Follow these instructions to make a donation: https://pay1.plugnpay.com/bpl/
