Sylvia Raphael

Beloved wife of the late Coleman Raphael, mother of Hollis (David) Weisman and Gordon (Mindy) Raphael, cherished grandmother of Andrew (Laura Kaplan-Weisman) Weisman, Kara (Jerry Vitiello) Raphael, and Craig Raphael; great grandmother of Juliet, Lily and Oliver. Born in New York, a graduate of Hunter College, Sylvia was president of the Jewish Council for the Aging, a member of the Maryland Board of Elections, and director of Seniors Organized for Change at the Jewish Community Center.

Sylvia Raphael, born May 28, 1927 to Fannie and Abe Moskowitz, grew up in the Bronx. She went to public schools and attended Hunter College, where she completed a bachelor of arts and master’s degree in history. She obtained a teaching certificate and taught high school history in some of the roughest neighborhoods in the Bronx.

Sylvia was working as a buyer at Sachs Quality Furniture when she met Coleman Raphael, who worked as a receptionist at Sachs. They started dating, and married four years later in 1948. Their children, Hollis, was born in 1952, and Gordon in 1955. Sylvia and Coleman moved from the Bronx to Queens to Glen Cove, Long Island, where they lived for the next nine years. Sylvia’s promised one-year sabbatical turned into a permanent sabbatical from teaching, but Sylvia never stopped working and learning. As a stay-at-home mom, she became president of the Glen Cove League of Women Voters and maintained an active presence in local politics.

In 1965, Sylvia and Coleman moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where they stayed for 49 years. During those years, Sylvia remained active in local and national League of Women Voters affairs. She served as president of the Jewish Council for the Aging, worked at the Jewish Community Center in Rockville as the director of Seniors Organized for Change, lobbied Congress and the Maryland legislature on emergency matters, worked to re-establish civics education in the public schools and never lost her belief that education should be free and available to all. They also spent half the year in Longboat Key Sarasota, where they hosted friends and family regularly.

During those years, Sylvia encouraged her daughter Hollis, who became a lawyer, and her son Gordon, who became a doctor. Hollis married David, and they had a son Andrew, who is a physicist married to Laura, a doctor, and the father of two daughters, Juliet and Lily. Gordon married Mindy, a nutritionist and medical research director, and they had two children, Craig and Kara, both doctors. Craig is in practice in Pennsylvania, and Kara, in practice in New York, is married to Jerry, another doctor, and the mother of Oliver and a soon-to-be-born daughter.

Sylvia was known among her friends for her cooking and entertaining skills. For 30 years, she was part of a gourmet group that met several times a year to cook and dine on gourmet food. A tennis player and golfer, she and Coleman loved to host large parties – for their anniversaries, for summer evenings, for family birthdays and graduations, and for any excuse they could drum up. She and Coleman traveled all over the world, making forever friends each time.

When Sylvia and Coleman moved to Riderwood nine years ago, Sylvia’s attention was at first focused on Coleman, who died in 2016. But even that did not stop her activism. She resurrected a moribund League of Women Voters and became program chair of the Democratic Committee. She was a generous contributor to the Riderwood Jewish Council and active in book clubs. She organized trips from Riderwood to the Maryland legislature in Annapolis. She lobbied passionately for gun control and voting rights. In 2020, she talked the Boards of Elections in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties into setting up voting drop boxes on the Riderwood campus. She enrolled in classes in art, music, history, culture. Her curiosity about the world remained unabated, and she wanted to know everything.

Funeral service January 9 at 10 a..m.. at Riderwood Chapel, 3140 Gracefield Road, Silver Spring, 20904. Burial to follow at Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park, 14321 Comus Road, Clarksburg, MD. 20871. Shiva Tuesday and Wednesday, at 6 -8PM at Riderwood Retirement Village in the Chesapeake Room in Montgomery Station, 3120 Gracefield Road, Silver Spring.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to: George Mason University, the Coleman Raphael MBA Scholarship Fund; or to the Jewish Council for the Aging, Rockville, MD; or to the Dr. Coleman and Sylvia Raphael Endowment for Older Adults, Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington.