Few people in England will have heard her name, but it is very likely that any Indonesian Christian you meet will ask whether you know her.
Born into a Jewish family in Germany, the descendant of many rabbis, Dorothy came to school in England in 1938. Arriving without a word of English, she discovered that she had better Latin and Greek than her teachers. She had one last visit back to Germany before war broke out, but after that never saw her parents again. Her mother died in Auschwitz, but her father’s fate was unknown. With funds cut off she had to abandon thoughts of university, but when she was 17 her life was completely re-orientated, as she had a dream of Jesus that brought her to faith. She became a member of Cheam Baptist Church and, after study at Ridgelands Bible College, was accepted as a member of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship in 1953. In 1957 she landed in Indonesia.
Bandung
Initially she worked for a Chinese church in Jakarta and she was to be associated with ethnically Chinese churches for all of her ministry. When she moved to Bandung the church ordained her. With this status she was able to minister to political prisoners after the events of 1966 that had overthrown President Sukarno. This also opened up the way for her ministry at ITB, the leading technical university in Indonesia. It was in Bandung that Dorothy began to blossom as a preacher. She used acrostics, to the delight of many. These were part of her teaching style at ITB and other universities. Indonesia made a rule that all students should receive instruction in religion and ethics. Dorothy was the lecturer for Protestant Christians in many universities and she became the spiritual mother of many students who rose to prominent positions in Indonesia. It was her former students who cared for her and financed her final years in care homes. She died on 17 December and, as an Indonesian citizen, is buried there.
