Those close to Meta Buttnick referred to her as Meta the Meteor.
“She was just indefatigable,” said her daughter Gwen Buttnick Francis. “She would never run out of strength.”
But on April 24, Meta Bloom Buttnick finally did run out of steam. She had just turned 99. Longtime readers of this newspaper may remember her columns on Seattle Jewish history, as would members of Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath, where she had been documenting the synagogue’s history since the 1940s.
“Because she knew the history of so much of the Jewish community in Seattle, she could always relate to people because she knew their ancestry — oftentimes better than they knew themselves,” Francis said.
Meta was an exacting and accurate chronicler of Seattle’s Jewish history, but she also helped to create it. Her son Jack was a member of the first class of what is now known as the Seattle Hebrew Academy. She helped to co-found the Washington State Jewish Historical Society in 1968. She started the first local chapter of American Mizrachi Women, later known as AMIT, a worldwide organization that helped orphaned children in Israel. Her family was an active part of Congregation Bikur Cholim, and it was her interviews with founding members for the synagogue’s 50th anniversary in 1941 that began her ongoing documentation of Bikur Cholim’s members, rabbis and buildings for 70 years.
“Over the years she chronicled sketches of all of the rabbis who served at the Bikur Cholim and Machzikay Hadath congregations,” wrote Larry Altose, her editor at the Bikur Cholim Tribune, in an email. “She surveyed the physical history, too, covering the halls rented, sanctuaries constructed, as well as other facilities. Few synagogues can lay claim to such a well-chronicled history of their first century, so often drawn from “˜primary sources.'”
But her old typewriter didn’t stop with her own synagogue and Seattle’s pioneering Jewish families.
“She wrote the history of many other institutions. She wrote the history of Herzl,” Meta’s daughter Gwen said. “Her writing was endless.”
Outside of the Jewish community, she worked with the state historical society and had appointments from at least one Seattle mayor, to sit on a task force on bomb shelters, as well as contacts with governors such as Albert Rosellini.
Interestingly, for someone as entrenched in the Seattle community as she was, she didn’t arrive here permanently until 1939. Born in Fairbanks, Alaska, to Lithuanian immigrants, her father took it upon himself to teach the Jewish men stationed there and hold Passover seders and other holiday celebrations, which contributed strongly to Meta’s Jewish upbringing, according to a profile of Meta written for the BCMH Tribune by member Karen Treiger.
Meta’s parents sent her and her two sisters to Ireland, where they had family, to attend Trinity College. Meta then became a teacher upon her return to Fairbanks.
“At a time when it wasn’t popular, she was able to achieve high education — college degree, a Master’s degree,” said Meta’s granddaughter Gabriella Fridman.
Meta spent her post-college summers in Seattle to earn her teaching credits at the University of Washington. It was then that she met Harry Buttnick. The two were married and Meta settled here permanently in 1939. Soon after, her historical documentation began in earnest.
“She updated timelines and helped younger co-volunteers procure local historical photographs, always serving as the “˜go-to’ source to ensure an accurate account,” wrote Altose. “She took special pride in working on the 100th and 120th anniversary observances in 1991 and 2011.”
Meta’s grandchildren knew she was one of the city’s great historians, but when they were younger, “my brother, my sister and I were her whole life,” Fridman said. “Her communal work came second, her family always came first.”
Education was foremost on the agenda with Meta’s grandkids.
“She always really cared about our academics, our schoolwork,” Fridman said. “She stayed on top of every detail of our work, which was always impressive.”
Meta would, however, pull the children out of school one day a year — for the annual AMIT luncheon.
“She always wanted us to see how important it was firsthand to see a charitable institution,” Fridman said.
Growing up in the same city meant Meta’s grandchildren would spend Shabbat at her house, and would often have as many as 20 kids running through the house on a Saturday afternoon and eating the cookies she’d baked.
The Sabbath remained a central component of Meta’s life, even in her last years when it became more difficult for her to get around.
“To her it was very important to come to synagogue on Shabbos when she was able to do so,” said Rabbi Yechezkel Kornfeld of Congregation Shevet Achim on Mercer Island. “We’re very honored that the last years of her life she attended our shul.”
Meta “always carried herself in a very regal way,” Rabbi Kornfeld said. “She was very comfortable with who she was, and she was very articulate.”
Meta is preceded in death by her husband Harry Buttnick, who died in 1960. She married again in 1967, to Jack Kaplin, who died in 1974. She had three children: Jack, Morrie, who died in 2009, and Gwen; three grandchildren, Gabriella, Samantha and Harris; and one great-grandchild.