A founding pillar of the Jewish community in Postville, she dedicated her life to education and mikvah
Just 21 years old and newly married, Shternie Vogel arrived in Bogotá, Columbia, in 1988, to discover a world apart from her native Montreal. Like her husband, Rabbi Yisrael Noach Vogel, she didn’t speak a word of Spanish but learned it quickly. During the seven years she served in Bogotá, she impacted the community deeply. Vogel, who passed away on the seventh day of Passover after a 12-month battle with an inoperable tumor, was a living example of a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary, friend, wife and mother.
Born in Montreal to Rabbi Sholom Ber and Leah Gurkov, Shternie Vogel grew up in a home steeped in Chassidic life. It was only natural that after graduating from Montreal’s Beth Rivkah Academy and marrying in 1987, she would become a Chabad emissary together with her husband. “She had a very strong impact on many families,” Rabbi Yehoshua Rosenfeld, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Colombia, tells Chabad.org. “Twenty-five years later, she is still remembered with so much love. Shternie gave her full heart and soul to every individual that entered the Chabad House and was a totally dedicated gan (‘preschool’) teacher.”
In Iowa, the couple worked to establish Jewish infrastructure for families that were settling in rural Postville for jobs in the local kosher-meat production plant. They helped get a fledgling boys’ and girls’ schools off the ground, and Shternie served as attendant for the only mikvah between Des Moines and Chicago.
Vogel’s role was much larger than school and mikvah administrator, says her brother, Rabbi Levi Gurkov, director of Chabad of Oceanside on Long Island, N.Y. “In the early years of the Postville yeshivah, she cooked all the food herself, in her own kitchen. She managed every aspect of the mikvah; she was the plumber and electrician,” says Gurkov, noting that due it being the sole mikvah for in a vast area, his sister made herself available whenever necessary. “Midnight, 3 o’clock in the morning—it didn’t matter how inconvenient it was for her after a full day’s work and raising a family. She was dedicated to the mitzvah of family purity.”
She led by example, in her quiet, non-judgemental way. Modesty was very important to her, recalls her brother, but she never uttered the word. “She didn’t talk about it; she lived it,” he says.
Vogel enjoyed hosting community gatherings in her home, from Shabbat meals to lively Chassidic farbrengens with the yeshivah students. She would join the students and share her own inspiration with them.
A year ago, the mother and grandmother was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor. “She wanted to do everything she could to get ahead of it,” says her brother. “G‑d gave her 12 months almost to the day; she never complained about her illness or her hardships. Now it’s up to her family and friends to continue the mitzvot she was so passionate about.”
In addition to her parents and husband, Shternie Vogel is survived by her children, Chaya Risa Simmons, Aizik Vogel and Mendel Vogel, and grandchildren.
She is also survived by her siblings: Rivky Stillerman (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Faigie Gurkov Hilel (Montreal); Malkie Junik (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Mendy Gurkov (Montreal); Levi Gurkov (Oceanside, N.Y.); Nechama Dina Sirota (Nachlat Har Chabad, Israel); Meir Gurkov (Pomona, N.Y.); Eliezer Gurkov (Pomona, N.Y.); and Chaya Gurkov (Montreal).
