In the closing hour of Shabbos Teshuvah, the ’Shabbos of Return’ that falls between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Edith Liebenthal’s breathing , which had been increasingly plagued by lung cancer, reached a crisis. For several weeks she had been unable to eat or drink, only the prescribed sedatives brought her relief in the form of sleep, and so she fell asleep once she received those medicines, but her need for an adequate amount of air could not be satisfied, and so exactly four hours later, unconscious, Edith Liebenthal’s soul was returned.
If you have ever known a saintly person, it was our mother, Edith Liebenthal, born to Grete and Robert Friedler, an only child who asked for nothing and provided for everyone. She was not forgiving because she didn’t judge any one. Her motto in life was that every person had his/her personality and that one must accept every person for who he or she is. Together with her parents she was a Holocaust refugee who escaped Vienna to England courtesy of the Kindertransport, following Kristallnacht. She was a kind and altruistically engaging person with an uncompromising determination, who never competed and had conducted herself with a stiff upper lip, which one may assume she acquired during her one year stay in England. She arrived there alone, and for six long months didn’t know if she would ever see her parents again. And then they arrived; three days later Germany invaded Poland, England declared war on Germany, and her father was whisked away by the British authorities to a concentration camp at the Prees Heath Royal Army base in Shropshire. Several months later he was released and informed that they had a deadline to meet: find another country of refuge or it’s back home to certain death. That was no way to grow up, but Edith wound up making the best of it. A valuable lesson never went to waste with her.
She did so by becoming the hero of her family. When she became pregnant with her son Gordon, her third child, it became immediately evident that their small two bedroom apartment wouldn’t suffice, and since her husband wasn’t up to the task, the task fell to Edith. She quickly applied for admission to college, was accepted, and began classes in 1961, at CCNY, and so, four years later, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Education. She got a job as an elementary school teacher. And then, after six months, she quit, but she didn’t just quit, she returned her license to the Board of Education and walked out
Well, Edith Liebenthal held out her fist and squeezed. Several blocks from her new home she discovered a construction site with a large and bold sign that read, ‘future site of the new Social Security Administration’s New York Payment Center’. That was clear enough. Edith Liebenthal got busy, found out about Social Security Administration’s employment requirements, took the required federal civil service exam, and a household bread winner was born. She could walk three blocks in the rain or snow to and from work, and on the way pass a supermarket and a post office to boot. Her husband demanded supper on the table upon his entry into the house, and Edith never stopped providing.
Edith was her children’s first instructor in feminism. When she became pregnant in 1952, she was determined to have a female obstetrician. She found one, female, Jewish, in 1952.
Pirkei Avot has more about Edith Liebenthal: ‘a fence for wisdom is silence’, and ‘the crown of a good name surpasses all else’; that Aaron, the high priest, loved peace and pursued peace, that he loved his fellow beings. So too, did Edith Liebenthal, just ask her Mah Jongg friends who she was always quick to accommodate and for whom she always provided, stepping in to fill almost any need, and who went to great lengths to avoid conflict and confrontation.
We are further told in Pirkei Avot, the ‘Saying of the Fathers’, that if the spirit of the people is with a person then so too is the spirit of heaven. We can all be assured that Edith Liebenthal, who was loved by all she touched, is enjoying a wonderful afterlife.
Edith is survived by her two sons, Daniel Liebenthal and Gordon Liebenthal, her daughter in law, Martha Ataly, and grandchildren, Trevor Liebenthal, Collin Liebenthal, and Eric Liebenthal.
Graveside services were held in the Jewish Section of Forest Park East Cemetery on Tuesday, September 29, 2020
In Lieu of flowers, Memorial donations may be made to the charity of your choice.
May Edith Liebethal’s memory be for a blessing and may her family be comforted among all mourners in Zion and Jerusalem.
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