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Dr. Moritt

On this all Saints' Day, I remember and celebrate the life of my grandmother, Dr. Shirley Felman Moritt. A child of Russian immigrants, she achieved a new level of education and became a school principal. She kept her family afloat on her salary despite my Grandfather's gambling addiction. She tolerated no fools and once sent me out to buy new clothes because I'd brought a (long) denim skirt on a visit to her. Denim, in her mind, was not an appropriate fabric for going to dinner. She told me my mother (her daughter) was a hard ass. Even though she wasn't crazy about women on the bima, she was prepared to come to my ordination, but she died just 3 weeks before. Her brother died with no children, so my daughter has her maiden name, Felman, an honor to this incredible woman whom I miss regularly.


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