Ada Winsten – survivor, leader, social worker

Ada Winsten

When someone asks you who are the most important people in your life, you probably say your family. For Ada Winsten, this sentiment is true – especially after losing so many family members in the Holocaust. Winsten, her parents and her sister escaped from Poland during World War II and were refugees in Lithuania. From there, they traveled to Japan and then Shanghai – and that’s when her world really began to change.

As a young child, Winsten and her family lived off support from American Jewish organizations – there were soup kitchens, clothing closets and other resources for anything they needed. When the Winstens settled in Shanghai, however, Ada began to notice the breadth of need in her community.

At a very young age, Winsten understood that there was a huge need for help – and the importance of giving that help. 

“I was 7 years old, and that’s when I became a social worker,” Winsten remarked. “I used to walk the streets and on every corner we had beggars … every day I’d walk by them and I would cry because I would feel so sad for them. My biggest wish was that when I grew up I was going to become a millionaire so I could give money to all those people.”

When Winsten’s family immigrated to the United States, they settled in New York. She finished high school and college, and eventually married and moved to Rhode Island. In Rhode Island, she became a clinical therapist, working on the East Side, which she still does today. She also joined a Soviet Jewry group and from there became heavily involved in the Rhode Island Jewish community. She served on the Board of the Women’s Division of the then Jewish Federation of Rhode Island, the United Jewish Appeal, and on committees in the community. Additionally, for 50 years, first the Federation and now the Alliance has been able to count on Winsten to make phone calls to raise money.

“Jewish causes to me are something I probably will always try to work on,” said Winsten.

But Winsten’s need to help others did not stop there.

“When I came to the States, I always tried to do something to help other people,” she said. When her children were younger and they had jobs, “I had my kids always take out a week’s pay – a week’s pay for UJA.”

Winsten felt it was very important to instill the ideals of philanthropy in the next generation.

“They feel very Jewish,” she said of her children. “We’re not religious, so our Judaism doesn’t come from the religious end, but we feel very strongly about the existence of the state of Israel.”

Winsten’s ties to Israel come from a deep-seated belief in the need to preserve the Jewish people. “Our whole family was wiped out in the Holocaust, so for me replacing Jews is important,” she remarked.

“And I also believe that Jewish values and Jews are pretty special people. I don’t think we’re chosen to be better than anybody else … . I care about people - I happen to be Jewish, so particularly I care about the Jewish people.”  

Ada Winsten: a woman who embodies what it means to be Jewish – and tikkun olam. 

HILLARY SCHULMAN is a development associate at the Jewish Alliance.