Liora Dvora Moriel

The Moriel family moved to Montréal Canada in 1959.

Liora initially attended McGill University. Then in 1967 she returned to Israel in musical performance with Les Petit Chanteurs de Montréal and subsequently completed her undergraduate education at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Liora was a woman of extreme intellect and talent and had a passion for her family, writing, teaching, music, languages, friends and the State of Israel.

She was a reporter for The Jerusalem Post covering the Negev region of Israel.

Liora earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at University of Maryland College Park (2003).

Throughout her career she was a teacher – teaching music to middle schoolers and teaching Comparative Literature as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland.

She retired from teaching in 2013, after publishing a dozen acclaimed articles in academic journals.

Liora published articles in the Jewish Women's Archive's Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women about Barbra Streisand and Evelyn Torton Beck.

Liora served as president of the Aguda, The Association for LGBTQ Equity in Israel and was active in the Israeli feminist movement. Liora, Susan, and Liora's mother, Ruth, appeared on a national TV program as the first out lesbian couple on Israeli TV. In 1994 she helped organize a month of LGBTQ events in Israel, which included Israel’s first Gay Pride happening, and an event at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial to honor homosexuals who perished under the Nazis.

Liora was a talented lifelong musician as a singer, songwriter, violinist and guitar player.

She organized and performed in music festivals. She produced the International Women’s Music Festival in Beersheba, Israel (1986) and the Festinegev World Music Festival (1990).

While organizing the International Women’s Music Festival, in 1985, she met a festival volunteer, named Susan Kirshner, who quickly became her life partner. Liora and Susan held a Life Joining Ceremony in 1987 in Durham, NC.

Liora moved to Susan’s hometown of Durham NC in 1986. In 1988 the -Moriel-Kirshner couple moved back to Israel and then, in 1995 they moved to Silver Spring MD.

When same-sex marriage was enacted in Canada, Liora and Susan legally married in 2004

Liora and Susan turned to medical science and family ties to build their family. Liora, Susan and Liora’s cousin, Yuval Haruvi, welcomed into the world twin sons Noah Moriel-Kirshner and Ben Moriel-Kirshner, in 2004.

Despite being much older than most first-time parents of newborns, Liora instantly took to motherhood and considered it her greatest role in life. Of all her accomplishments, she was most proud of her children. She often said: “anything for my boys”.

Liora is remembered most for being a lover of people. She lived the Will Rogers adage in that she never met a stranger. She was charismatic, friendly, creative, had the ability to talk to anyone at any time on any topic, had a facility for learning languages, and possessed boundless energy.

She passed away peacefully and was surrounded by her family in Holy Cross Hospital, where she was treated with great dignity and kindness by the hospital staff. She had been bravely battling a congenital lung disease all of her life.

She was predeceased by her parents and her sister Ada Moriel.

She is survived by her wife Susan, her two children Ben and Noah, her cousin Yuval, and many friends whose lives she touched so deeply.

Liora’s funeral service will be at the Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park in Clarksburg MD at 10 AM on Sunday January 11.