(Ed: A reader ask that we share this brief obituary. BD”E)
Nee Smith, Born in Cleveland, OH. Age 85. D.o.b. 3.30.28. Life-long resident of Cleveland.
Died: 27500 Cedar Road, Beachwood, OH
Date of death: 1.15.14
Member of Park Synagogue
Funeral held on 1.17.14 at Park Synagogue East with burial at Bet Olam Cemetery.
She was a graduate of Shaker Heights High School.
She graduated from Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA with a major in Philosophy. She also earned a Masters in Elementary School Education at Case Western Reserve University.
She taught elementary school for a brief time in Cambridge, MA.
Margery Kohrman was devoted to Jewish Education at all levels. She served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Agnon School from 1972-9, and as Vice President for four of those years. She also served on the College Board of Governors of The Siegal College of Judaic Studies in Cleveland for nearly 20 years. As a Friend of the Aaron Garber Library of Siegal College she worked hard to foster its growth. She was honored at the Library’s Bene Bash in 2002.
Margery Kohrman worked tirelessly for her entire life as a volunteer for Women’s American ORT and for the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ). She traveled extensively for both organizations.
She was a charter member of the Cleveland Chapter of ORT in 1953 and President of the then greatly expanded Cleveland region 8 years later. She then served on ORT’s National Board and was a member of the National Executive Committee for over 30 years, holding positions of Corresponding Secretary and Vice President. She also served on the Editorial Board of the Women’s American ORT Reporter for many years. ORT, The Organization For Rehabilitation and Training raises funds to build and operate technical high schools around the world wherever there are impoverished Jewish communities whose children are at risk.
She served as Assistant Secretary on the Executive Committee of the NCSJ from 1980-84. She traveled to the Soviet Union several times, first in 1981, to bring support and hope to the Refusniks, Russian Jews trapped in the Soviet Union, having been refused exit visas. Often these visits to individual Refusniks had to be made in secret, in order to protect them. She would casually walk out of her hotel in Moscow and make her way to a public telephone. Speaking no Russian, she had been instructed to merely say “Shalom” and then in a mixture of Hebrew and English to make arrangements for secret rendezvous. On a later trip, in 1989, as part of a NCSJ Leadership Delegation, she was part of breakthrough talks with high Soviet government officials on the subject of Jewish emigration and cultural and religious rights. In 1991, she returned again for an International Human Rights meeting in Moscow and then to Kiev to witness an extraordinary historic event, the first time that Soviet officials acknowledged that most of the 100,000 people slaughtered at Babi Yar had been Jews. At the time Margery noted what a sea change had occurred during that 10 year span of time in the Soviet government. On that trip she also had a second mission, on behalf of the Seigal College of Judaic Studies. A library consisting of hundreds of boxes of books, confiscated during the Stalin era, and locked away for decades in a cellar at kiev University, had just been discovered. Margery was the first person from the West to gain access to the collection to help assess its value to the larger Jewish community.
In 1983, Margery Kohrman was also one of the first American Jews to go to Ethiopia. Traveling as part of a fact-finding mission of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC), she went to meet with members of the Ethiopian Jewish community that was growing so anxious to immigrate to Israel. She served on the Task Force on Ethiopian Jewry for many years.
At the same time as she served on these many Boards and Executive Committees she also took great delight in the act of working with her hands and creating things. She was a gourmet cook who experimented and refined her own recipes, and catalogued and reworked the recipes in her many cookbooks. She was a gardener and a serious student of horticulture. Her gardens were chosen more than once for the Gracious Gardens of Shaker Heights Garden Tour. She was skilled in knitting, beading, and needlepoint; and for a time loved the challenge of sewing her own designer quality clothing. And she loved variety and the discovery of new things. With her family she traveled extensively to all five continents. She was an excellent bridge player, a delightful pianist, spoke fluent French and was a life-long student of Hebrew and Jewish Studies. As a young woman she enjoyed golf, tennis, and skiing. She was a devoted friend and for the last 62 years she was a remarkable wife, mother and grandmother and she will be terribly missed by many.
Surviving Spouse’s Name: S. Lee Kohrman
Surviving brother: Michael Smith, Miami FL
Surviving Children: Bruce Kohrman, Miami FL; Katherine Kohrman, Newtown, CT; Jonathan Kohrman, Whately MA; Matthew Kohrman, Stanford CA
8 surviving grandchildren: Samuel, Hannah, Max, Eliana, Lila, Yossi, Clara, Amos, Asa, Ezra
She is also survived by those who loved and cared for her during her last years, including her sister-in-law Renee Bradley, and devoted caregivers Linda Katz, Noreen Mendolera, Allyn Michel, and Carolyn Nye
Predeceased by Father: Kal Smith; Mother: Marian Smith; one grandchild: Eli Kohrman
Contributions in her memory can be made to:
1) ORT America, Inc—Cleveland Region /24100 ChagrinBoulevard/ suite 300/Cleveland, OH 44122
2) National Conference on Soviet Jewry/2020 K Street NW/suite 7800/Washington DC 20006
Contact Information:
S. Lee Kohrman, spouse
2163104939
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