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In Memoriam: Shirley Goldstein
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Annette vAn de KAMp-WrIght Editor of the Jewish Press hirley Gershun Goldstein passed away on Wednesday April 26 at the age of 94. She was preceded in death by her husband Leonard “Buddy” Goldstein. A Memorial service was held on Friday, April 28 at Beth El Synagogue. “I grew up in my aunt Rose Rosen’s backyard,” Bruce Friedlander, Jewish Federation of Omaha’s president, remembers. “She and her husband Ben lived behind Shirley and Buddy Goldstein. As children, there were times we needed a break, and we’d always flee to the Goldstein home. Shirley and Buddy would welcome us every time. We’d be frazzled and loud, and they always calmed us down. Little did I know back then the impact they would both have on this world.” That impact, in Shirley’s case, has been tremendous. “The Angel in Omaha,” the Omaha World Herald called her in 1996, on the occasion of the honorary doctorate of Humane Letters Shirley received from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Shirley received the honor for her lifelong efforts helping Jews escape the former Soviet Union, for which she was also named the Jewish Federation of Omaha’s Humanitarian of the Year in 1982. Originally from Council Bluffs, Shirley lived in Schuyler, NE as a child. She graduated from Abraham Lincoln High
School and worked at the Martin Bomber Plant before she married Leonard. She stayed home to raise their three children while Leonard was busy in his transportation business. ‘Just a regular housewife’ is the phrase that pops up, again and again, throughout the vast number of articles written about Shirley. Even a 1979 JFO volunteer-of-the-year form, signed by Mary Fellman in her role as President of the Jewish Federation of Omaha, names Shirley’s occupation as housewife. “Mother of three,” Fellman adds, “grandmother of two, devoted daughter to mother in Dr. Sher Home for the Aged. Wife of immediate Past President of Jewish Federation of Omaha, charming hostess for many groups in home.” Fellman continued: “Shirley has performed uniquely as chairman of the Omaha Committee on Soviet Jewry, almost single-handedly carrying on the work of keeping the local community informed about the position and need of Soviet Jewry, contacting the political leadership on their behalf through letters, phone calls, personal contacts on an almost daily, totally involved, basis. In her work as chairman, she has visited Russia four times and made contact with many families there. Her knowledge has enabled her to speak before many local groups and in other communities.” Shirley’s passionate work on behalf of Soviet refugees made her, of course, anything but a ‘regular housewife.’ She first
became involved in the Free Soviet Movement during the early 1970s. This did not happen in a vacuum; having grown up watching the efforts of her father, Ben Gershun, who resettled Jewish refugees from post-World War II Europe in Council Bluffs, Shirley understood the concept of ‘welcoming the stranger.’ She and Leonard often opened their home for international students and even sponsored a Cambodian refugee family. So when she began to learn more about the dire situation for many Soviet Jews, she jumped into action. “Not content with merely educating herself on the subject,” Leo Adam Biga wrote in 2006, “she went to the USSR seven times, meeting with leaders and rank and file Jews alike. She took chances, brazenly ignoring U.S. State Department warnings and Soviet orders to steer clear of ‘troublemakers.’ She became a familiar figure to Refuseniks in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Odessa and other cities. A benevolent angel from the West bearing contraband gifts. A tiny rebel with the brass of a cat burglar. She recorded testimonies and snapped pictures, concealing cassette tapes and film cartridges under her clothes. She sneaked things in and out with a kind of mischievous glee. A true believer unafraid to upset the Politburo or defy the KGB, who knew of her and tried discouraging her, but she carried on anyway. She was on a mission.” See Shirley goldstein page A11