We regret to inform you of the passing of Nili Adler, the wife of Rabbi Moshe Adler of Beth El-The Heights Synagogue in Cleveland Heights, devoted her life to teaching people Hebrew and the importance of Hebrew education. After a long battle with an illness, Adler died on Feb. 25. She was 71. “She was extremely passionate about making sure the Hebrew language didn’t dissipate and die out,” said Sheryl Hirsh, the assistant director of Jewish Lifelong Learning of the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who worked with Adler for 15 years.
“She certainly kept the Hebrew department going and got the students in,” she said. “There was nowhere you walked without her approaching you and saying, ‘Come take a Hebrew class!’ She loved the language.” Born in Israel on Aug. 29, 1942, Adler earned a bachelor’s degree in Hebrew and Arabic from Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, and a master’s degree and doctoral studies in curriculum and instruction from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She taught at Oberlin College, CWRU, Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., and the University of Minnesota. She also lectured on Israeli culture and Hebrew literature. Once in Cleveland, she was hired as head of the Hebrew department for Siegal College and director of Akiva High School in Beachwood. “Nili brought her love of Hebrew to her role as director of Akiva High School. She took Hebrew education seriously and was uncompromising in her insistence on excellence in Hebrew teaching,” said David Ariel, the former president of Siegal College, who hired Adler. Brian Amkraut, the executive director of the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program, worked with Adler for almost 15 years. “She was so dedicated it’s beyond belief, to her craft, to her students, to her colleagues, to the institution and to the community,” Amkraut said. “She was very determined. She would literally do whatever it would take to get someone to come to a Hebrew class.” Amkraut estimates that at least 20 Hebrew teachers at Siegal College worked for Adler over the years, and collectively they trained dozens of Hebrew teachers in the community to teach at day schools and synagogues. She also was one of the first to teach the Hebrew language over the Internet. “Her legacy is really in the love of the language. In some respects the impact is immeasurable because she had inroads in so many places,” Amkraut said. Along with her husband, Adler paved the way for Hebrew education in the local community. She also initiated the annual Israeli author program, which brought some of the best contemporary Israeli writers to Cleveland. “Simply put, she was a woman of principle, integrity and devotion to Hebrew,” Ariel said. “But she was also a warm and caring human being who brought her Jewish sensibilities to her work.”
Adler’s legacy will live on at Siegal and everywhere else in the Jewish community. “She leaves an incredible legacy with every student whose life she touched,” Hirsh said. “She made sure that every student who took a class here in Hebrew loved the language as much as she did. And they do.” Funeral services were held at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb 26 at the Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel in Cleveland Heights. She will be buried in Israel.
May the family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. Ha’Makom yenachem eschem b’soch she’ar avay’lay Tzion v’Yerushalayim
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