Marilyn Hirsch

Marilyn Hirsch a descendant of the Oringel Pincus family from Odessa, Russia, whose grandparents immigrated to the U.S. and settled on New York City’s Lower East Side—died before dawn on Thursday, Oct. 24, in Sunrise, Florida. She was 81 years old.

The second child of Nathan and Nettie Katz, Marilyn grew up near Flatbush Ave. and Church Street in Brooklyn, not far from three Oringel aunts (Ida, Jean, and Cissy), three Oringel uncles (Ben, Joe, and Danny), and many of the 19 cousins coming of age close to Marilyn and her brother Jerry.

Following graduations from Walt Whitman Junior High in the class of 1957 and Erasmus Hall High School in 1961, Marilyn enjoyed a memorable summer plucking chickens on the farm and eating peaches straight off the trees at Kfar HaNassi, an Israeli kibbutz near the Golan Heights.

Putting family first, she left Israel, albeit reluctantly, to attend a New York Dental Laboratory Association dinner honoring her father Nathan, who had served the association as president. A portrait of Nathan from the association hung in Marilyn’s home for almost 60 years.

When Marilyn met Howard Hirsch, a descendant of the Brandwein family who went to work as a chemist and emerged as a specialist in thin-layer chromatography, she was attracted by his love of family and strong work ethic. The couple settled in the Westchester County suburbs and married in November 1972, subdued in their celebration by Nathan’s passing earlier that year. By 1975, they had purchased a home in Bethel, Conn. and set down roots to start a family.

Marilyn kept diligent records of all major parenting milestones starting with gifts for the birth of her daughter Debbie (“Alan Basch – Mickey Mouse tee shirt and pants”) and later the birth of her son Matthew (“Sharon and Burton Strom – Pat the Bunny”) and continuing with nursery school diplomas, Girl Scout and Cub Scout mementos, and grade school artwork.

In 1988, Howard succumbed to lung cancer, at age 49, and Marilyn finished raising the kids as a single parent. By 1994, Marilyn led the family to Coral Springs, Fla., where she would no longer have to shovel snow and where she could be closer to her mother Nettie.

After the children left home for college, Marilyn stayed active as a recreational tennis player, an enthusiastic volunteer at the Holocaust Documentation & Education Center in Dania Beach, a lifelong learner who continued pursuing a college degree into retirement age, and a volunteer classroom aid in the public schools.

Marilyn, who loved family more than anything, is survived by her brother Jerome Katz and sister-in-law Sandra Katz of Manhattan, N.Y.; daughter Debbie Hirsch of Riverdale, N.Y.; son and daughter-in-law Matthew Hirsch and Hannah Boal of Berkeley, Calif.; and four grandchildren, Emmett Hirsch, Isabella Rios, Hazel Hirsch, and Emilia Rios.

Rabbi Thomas Gardner will lead a funeral service and burial Sunday, Oct. 27, 1:30 p.m. at the Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, N.Y. Memorial contributions may be sent via hdec.org to the Holocaust Documentation & Education Center.