Helene Markus

Helene Markus was a brilliant biochemist, a talented geriatric dentist, a loving mother and Oma, and a dedicated member of the greater Philadelphia Jewish community.

Helene Markus (nee Babad) was born on the 21st of March, 1940 in Paris, France to parents Rivka Babad and Elias Babad. Amidst rising threats of fascism and anti-semitism Rivka fled to the Bronx, New York with Helene and her older brother Harry, becoming US citizens on May 5, 1947 with the help of the Joint Distribution Committee. Life as an immigrant in the Bronx was challenging, and Helene expressed her gratitude to the charitable organizations that she stated 'kept her from starving" to her children and grandchildren throughout her life.

Helene attended Elizabeth Barrett Browning Junior High School through 1952, and graduated from Hunter College High School in June 24, 1957. Upon graduation, Helene earned a biological science award from the New York Association of Teachers of the Biological Sciences. Helene received a B.S in biochemistry from City University of New York on June 14, 1961, graduating Magna cum Laude. The City College of New York was established to provide children of working class and immigrant families access to a tuition-free, merit-based higher education. For many years, its student body was largely Jewish and for most it was “City College or nothing” at a time when quotas and cost kept Jews out of most institutions. In college, Helene was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 1960 and earned a Regents College Teaching Fellowship in 1961.

Following graduation from City University of New York, Helene earned a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of California Berkeley between 1961-1965 where her research focused on Lactose Synthetase and she published in prestigious academic journals including Science and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Helene became a member of the Berkley Chapter of Sigma Xi in 1964.

Between 1965-1967 Helene competed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship focused on exocrine secretion at the Department of Biological Chemistry at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. It was at Hebrew University that Helene met her husband Henri (Zvi) Markus, a Holocaust survivor who was completing his studies in Biological Sciences. The two were married on July 19, 1967 in Jerusalem before emigrating to Pennsylvania. In Wyncote, Pennsylvania Helene raised her two sons Maurice (1971) and Elliot (1970) to excel both academically and as violinists in the Jenkintown Music school while she simultaneously worked to receive her second doctorate in dental medicine from Temple University in 1985. Maurice and Elliot were bar-mitzvahed at the Beth Shalom synagogue before their maternal and paternal grandmothers Rivka Babad and Charlotte Markus, representing the first generation to celebrate their Jewish heritage without fear. 

Helene is preceded in death by her husband Henri (Zvi) Markus, her parents Elias Badad and Rebecca (nee Greenspan) Badad, and her brother Harry Babad. Helene is survived by her sons Maurice (Moshe) and Elliot (Eliahu) Markus as well as her grand children Anneliese (Chana), Claire (Shimona), Cayla (Yisha), and Addison (Rivka) Markus. Her descendants honor her legacy by recognizing the importance of education to transform a life and by proudly following Jewish traditions.

Family and friends are invited to a Grave Service, Sunday, March 29, 2026, 9:30am at Montefiore Cemetery, 600 Church Road, Jenkintown, PA 19046.

Contributions in her memory may be made to any Jewish organization of the donor's choice.