Visitors calling on Goldie Abers would often find her at the kitchen table sorting through sky-high piles of mail, much of it charity solicitations. Those organizations knew Abers was a good prospect since the San Francisco resident spent her long life giving to others.
When she died on July 28 at the age of 98, the Bay Area Jewish community lost one of its most dedicated activists.
“She was just amazing,” says her friend Ava Brand, executive director of AMIT, an organization Abers served for many years. “She was president of her chapter, president of the council, and stayed on the board. She used to come into the office almost every day until the last few years.”
AMIT was only one of the Jewish organizations that benefited from Abers’ involvement. She was also very active with Hadassah, Israel Bonds and, together with her late husband, Jacob Abers, was a founding member of San Francisco’s Congregation Ner Tamid.
“You can’t go through life thinking only of yourself,” she told the Jewish Bulletin(now j.) at a 1998 event honoring her volunteer work on behalf of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Hospital.
It was a creed she swore by all her life.
Born March 3, 1908 in Chicago to Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, Goldie Hurwitz and her family moved to Orange County when it really was a mass of orange groves. Her father moved the family twice more, first to Oregon and then to the San Joaquin Valley, where Abers attended high school.
“She grew up in an atmosphere where her Jewishness came completely from the home,” noted her daughter Ruth Abers of Santa Ana. Goldie Abers went on to graduate from UCLA in 1931 with a degree in English, followed by an advanced certificate in social work from University of Southern California.
Not long after, while joining her parents at a party of Litvaks (Jews from Lithuania), she met Jacob Abers. The two hit it off, and were married in 1935. He earned a doctorate in English from Stanford University, but after taking the civil service exam, he settled into a government career. The couple moved first to San Mateo and then, in 1941, to San Francisco where they spent the rest of their lives.
Abers had a son, Ernest, and continued to work as a social worker until the birth of her second child, Ruth. That’s when she launched her new career as a homemaker/Jewish community activist. “I remember sitting at the dining room table collating the local Hadassah newsletter with her,” recalls Ruth Abers. “Israel Bonds also occupied much of her time. She became women’s division chair.”
But AMIT, an organization that supports education in Israel, occupied more of her time than any other organization. “She started our calendar/ad journal we sent out every Rosh Hashanah,” says Brand. “She gave very large gifts and was a major donor for decades.”
Abers’ daughter theorizes that her mother’s Jewish activism stemmed from her Orthodox upbringing. “One simply becomes involved in Jewish activities,” she says. “It wasn’t something she thought about. It was a natural thing for her to do.”
Even after the death of her husband in 1992, she continued her indefatigable volunteer work. “She was a real role model for younger professional women,” says Brand. “When she would come in the office, she would go through the mail like she was still president. I really valued her opinion.”
Added Ruth Abers: “Her activities didn’t change. On her 94th birthday she took the car out of the garage and drove to her favorite gas station in Daly City, where they give a senior discount.” Abers had a continuously active California driver’s license for nearly 80 years.
Though she lived nearly a century, no one close to her imagined life without her. But she leaves behind a legacy of kindness and good works. “I never heard anyone say a bad word about her,” says Brand. “She really had a shem tov [a good name]. Goldie was a good name for her: She was golden.”
Goldie Abers is survived by her children Ernest Abers and Ruth Abers, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.