Sharon Edith Goldman Mayer

Sharon, Edith Goldman Mayer was born March 24, 1942, to Morris “Murray” and Ruth (Silberman) Goldman, In the Bronx, New York. Sharon was raised primarily in Teaneck, New Jersey. Graduating from Teaneck High School in the Class of 1959. Sharon married Bob Ratner in 1960 and had three children, Lisa, Joseph, and Rosalind. Sharon later married Marty Mayer, who preceded her in death in 2006 after 31 years of marriage.

As an empty nester, in the mid 80s, Sharon, with her husband Marty, relocated to North Carolina from their home in Sussex County, New Jersey where they had raised their children. Once settled and embraced by the Jewish community in Raleigh, Sharon pursued a long awaited dream of completing her college degree which was put on hold for many years to raise her children. Graduating from college in 1997 with the long-awaited Bachelors, Degree, she continued to educate herself taking classes in anything that drew her attention. She became an afficionado of Biblical Archelogy and traveled in the late 90s to Israel to participate on a dig.

Sharon’s adult life was highlighted by her commitment to the education of Jewish women and children and teaching Torah to hundreds of students from synagogues in the Raleigh area including Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh and Temple Beth Shalom in Cary. Sharon also served for a time as the religious school director at Temple Beth Shalom and as president of the local Hadassah Chapter and Beth Meyer sisterhood. The impact that Sharon had on the Raleigh Jewish Community is immeasurable and her contribution is fondly remembered by the women and children she educated.

In the early 2000s, Sharon went back to college to pursue a Masters Degree in Jewish Studies, and in 2009, three years after the loss of her husband, she received her diploma. The following year, Sharon fulfilled a lifelong dream and made Aliyah to Israel, settling in Karmiel, where she lived for 10 years. During her time in Israel, Sharon continued to maintain contact with her Raleigh community, opening her home to travelers and evening tutoring her grandson for his Bar Mitzvah via Skype. Sharon was actively involved in synagogue in Karmiel, as well as participating in a movement known as the Women of the Wall, a movement striving to bring equality to women to have the right to pray at the (Kotel) western wall.

In the summer of 2020, because of ill health and the worldwide COVID epidemic Sharon moved to Austin Texas to live with her daughter and son in law Rosalind and Bryan Weil, where she lived the remainder of her life.

Sharon died peacefully on February 10, 2026 with her daughter at her bedside.

Sharon is survived by her daughter Lisa (David) Levine, grandchildren Noah (Samantha) Levine and Caleb Levine, her son Joseph (Emma)Ratner, grandchildren Victoria-Rose Ratner and Chase Ratner,

and her daughter, Rosalind “Roz” (Bryan) Weil grandchildren Rachel (Jenna) Slier , Nathan (Kaylee) Weil great grandchildren Sadie Grey and Rainer Weil, and her brother Avery (Hope) Goldman , niece Sophie and nephew Max.