Dorothy Welan

Dorothy "Dotty" Pollack Welan, who was born on November 27, 1922, died peacefully on
November 3, 2025, at the age of 102. She was predeceased by her parents, Morris and Sarah
Pollack; her brothers, Nat and Eddie; and her husband, Irving "Willy" Welan, who was the love
of her life.

Dotty was born Feiga Terebesnik in Warsaw, Poland, while her family was en route to the United
States after fleeing a pogrom in Malin, Russia (in present-day Ukraine). Her family sailed across
the ocean from Amsterdam, arriving at Ellis Island on July 6, 1923. Immigration authorities saw
the teething baby's runny nose and marked her with an "X," denying her admission. Her quick-
thinking mother noticed that the people who had been marked with an "X" were being taken
away, spit in her hand, and wiped away the chalk mark, turning that "X" into a check and
keeping the Pollack family together.

Dotty and her parents joined her father's relatives in a small apartment in the Bronx, New York.
After learning that he was not cut out to be a longshoreman or a butcher, her father started a
small bakery with her Uncle Max. To charm Uncle Max, her mother told him that the baby had
been named Devorah, after Max's mother. The family began to call her Dorris or Dorrie, and
this later became Dorothy due to a misunderstanding when Dorrie's father registered her for
school.

Dotty attended Brooklyn College, where she was introduced to Willy by her longtime friend,
Esther, who needed someone to join her on a double date. As Dotty would say, "the rest was
history." They fell madly in love and married shortly before Willy deployed in World War II.
They raised three children, Elliot Welan (Sue), Michelle "Shelly" Weinstein (Marty z''l), and
Jeffrey Welan (Renee). Dotty was very proud of her children. She worked as a public school
teacher and school librarian in upstate New York and Montgomery County, Maryland, to help
support her family, many decades before it was common for women to work outside the home.
After Willy's untimely death in 1980, Dotty built a fulfilling life on her own. She was always busy
with bridge, mah jong, and canasta games; volunteering to teach English; serving as a docent at
the Octagon House and the Corcoran Gallery of Art; ushering at the Kennedy Center;
participating in many book clubs; traveling with Elderhostel; and taking continuing education
classes at Temple Beth Ami in Rockville.

She doted on her beloved grandchildren: Jennifer Morris (Dana), Justin Welan (Lena), Brian
Weinstein (Broque), Ilene Ziegler (Drew), and Joy Welan. She also adored being an involved
"GG" to her great-grandchildren: Jeremy, Jason, Rachel, Sharon, Mason, Madeline Dorothy,
Sloan, Will, and Ethan.
The family held a private funeral and interment. In lieu of flowers, please direct contributions in
honor of Dotty to HIAS (hias.org) or the National Council of Jewish Women (ncjw.org).