Fae Asher was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1926, the youngest of three children to Morris and Nellie Snyder. In March 1946 she was introduced to a young rabbi, a refugee from Nazi Germany, Joseph Asher, at a Jewish holiday social. They were married in November and immigrated to Cincinnati (via a stopover in San Francisco) in 1948.
From 1949 to 1968 Joe and Fae, very much a rabbinic couple, served four congregations from New York to Florida to Alabama and then to Greensboro, North Carolina, before coming to Congregation Emanu-El in June of 1968, that most turbulent year. When interviewing for that prestigious pulpit, which he had admired in ’48, Rabbi Asher was asked by the selection committee if they could meet his wife, a practice frowned upon by the Reform rabbinic conference. Joe Asher famously replied that to do so “wouldn’t be fair to the other candidates!”
Fae Asher, indeed, in her understated way, made as deep and lasting an impression on the S.F. Jewish community as did her charismatic husband. Not only did she bring warmth to the congregation, but she was a model Woman of Valor by her long-term volunteering at Mount Zion Hospital, Glide Memorial Church, and making in-home food deliveries during the most virulent years of the AIDS epidemic. She recharged her batteries through her work and many friends at numerous Jewish service and social organizations and by singing in the pews and in the lay choir at Emanu-El. More privately she helped maintain her husband’s equilibrium and good humor throughout an exciting but challenging era of S.F. Jewish history.
Fae proudly watched sons Raphael (Jennifer) and Daniel (Maryrose) follow generations of service to the synagogue and Jewish community. She is also the loving grandmother of Mira and Jocelyn, who sustain Fae’s caring and classic beauty, and Robert, Kristine and their children, who remember her many kindnesses.
Donations can be made to the Rabbi Joseph Asher Lecture Fund at Emanu-El or to the synagogue of your choice.
Sinai Memorial Chapel
(415) 921-3636
Hadassah Kramer passed away peacefully at the Reutlinger Center for Jewish Living in Danville on Saturday, July 9, 2016, at the age of 93. She was born in Zgierz, Poland, on Sept. 16, 1922, the only child of Moshe and Helen Goldberg. In the winter of 1928, she arrived in the United States bound for Oakland, California, where her father became the first rabbi of Temple Beth Abraham. She entered U.C. Berkeley as a freshman in 1939 and became active at Hillel, where she met her husband, Ralph Kramer. In March 1944, several months after her graduation from the School of Social Welfare, Hadassah traveled with her mother and future mother-in-law to Wichita Falls, Texas, where she and Ralph were married in a small ceremony officiated by a U.S. Army chaplain.
After the war, Hadassah and Ralph returned to the East Bay, where they remained for the rest of their lives. They became active in Jewish and civic life and formed the Bay Area Jewish Forum in 1947 — one of the first chavurot. Hadassah helped to organize Young Judaea on the West Coast in 1959 and, with Ralph, was a founding member of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley in 1989. She was a social worker for single mothers and then for adoptive parents in the 1960s and a group worker for seniors in the 1970s. She was active in the Piedmont League of Women Voters and a lifelong patron of the Oakland Public Library.
From 1967 to 1992, she and Ralph made over 20 extended trips to Israel, during which Hadassah made close friends, volunteered in schools and other organizations, conducted research interviews and spent invaluable time with her Israeli grandchildren.
She cooked extraordinary meals and baked delicious desserts for innumerable dinners and simchas. She was a woman of uncommon generosity, integrity, diplomacy and keen intellect. A devoted wife to Ralph, her husband of 72 years, she is survived by him and their daughters, Miriam and Alisa (daughter Debby died in 2001), six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Contributions may be made to Congregation Netivot Shalom, Mazon—a Jewish Response to Hunger, Friends of the Oakland Public Library or the organization of your choice.