Marsha A. Berman

Marsha Berman

December 6, 1941 - November 7, 2024

16 Kislev 5702 - 6 Heshvan 5785

Marsha Berman (neé Wilderman), age 82, passed away on November 7, 2024 after a long illness. She was the beloved wife of Rubin ("Ray") Berman, who predeceased her in 2014, the loving mother of Paula Berman and Alex Jay Berman, and loving mother-in-law to Paula's husband Theodore "Ted" Paxton and Alex's wife Vicki (Bates) Berman (Vicki in particular considered her a second mother). To her one and only grandchild, Hunter Berman, she was "Bubbe," the title she cherished above all.

A 1959 graduate of Northeast High School, she met Ray at a "shul fight" dance in 1961, and the two were married soon after in 1963. After a few years, they were able to buy their first (and only) house on Horrocks Street, where she spent most of her adult life and formed lifelong friendships. Marsha and Ray welcomed daughter Paula in 1967 and son Alex in 1971, and Marsha threw herself into motherhood and homemaking, skills which were appreciated despite her occasional insistence on feeding her children creamed spinach and chicken liver, the latter of which could only be choked down with floods of mustard to cover the taste.

At the beginning of the Eighties, Marsha rejoined the workforce as a permanent substitute teacher’s aide in the Philadelphia School District, first at Austin Meehan Middle School and later at Abraham Lincoln High School. Working in education was an easy transition for her, after years as a very active PTA and synagogue Sisterhood volunteer. (Her husband used to say, “When they ask for volunteers, Marsha puts two hands up!”)

Later, she worked as an administrative assistant and executive secretary in the mental health field, starting at Friends Hospital and moving several years later to Woodhaven MH/MR. She took her duties seriously, convinced the organizations couldn’t function if she took too much time off and couldn’t do payroll on Monday herself.

Marsha loved reading and music, instilling in her children a love of books, movie musicals and musical theater. She loved to sing the songs and standards she enjoyed, though she had apparently been gifted with an ear of the finest tin. "Just sing with me," she would say, "and it'll keep me in tune."

(It didn't, but that never stopped her.)

She was active at synagogue, participating in Women's Council at Oxford Circle Jewish Community Center (OCJCC), and later at Adath Jeshurun when that shul absorbed OCJCC. It gave her great pride that, in her mid-sixties, she was Bat Mitzvahed--and actually sang Torah and the prayers on key!

Marsha's truest calling, however, was being a friend to the world; if you stood next to her in the grocery line, you spent the entire time in happy conversation. She was never shy. Whether it was sitting out with neighbors on the block, on Mahjong nights with her friends, at synagogue, or in the dining room and function rooms at Rydal Park, the retirement community where she spent her last decade, Marsha was happiest when she could delight in the company of others--especially when she could do what gave her the greatest happiness: Gushing about her children and her grandchild.

Family and friends are invited to her Funeral Service on Monday, November 18, 2024, 11:30 AM precisely, graveside at Washington's Crossing National Cemetery, 830 Highland Road, Newtown, PA 18940. This will be followed by a gathering from 1-3 PM at Rydal Park, 1515 The Fairway, Jenkintown, PA, 19046, in the Tower Room on the 3rd floor of the Hillside Building.

Contributions in her memory may be made to Congregation Adath Jeshurun’s Education Fund (https://www.adathjeshurun.info/donations).