Bernice Plafsky

Bernice Plafsky, 90, of Maplewood and Palm Beach, Fla., died Nov. 6, 2011.

Mrs. Plafsky attended Barringer High School, Newark.

She was a member of the Green Brook and Maplewood country clubs, and was active with Hadassah, the United Jewish Appeal of MetroWest NJ, and Daughters of Israel. She was a member of the Achim Society, the highest level of giving to the UJA MetroWest campaign.

She and her husband, Nate, Sustainer members of the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest’s Lester Society, were major benefactors to Daughters of Israel in West Orange, which renamed its campus the Daughters of Israel Plafsky Family Campus following the couple’s establishment of a major endowment in the 1990s. She was a longtime member of DOI’s Women’s League and chair of its annual luncheon. One of her initiatives was to spearhead a greeting card campaign through the League in which she worked alongside residents hand painting greeting cards that were then sold in the gift shop.

A UJA volunteer since 1958, she served as Initial Gifts cochair, Special Gifts chair, Pace Setter’s chair, as a Lion of Judah Campaign Associate, and trustee of the Women’s Department (now Women’s Philanthropy).

“Bernice with Nate were stalwart supporters of our community and Israel at the highest giving level of UJA,” said Max Kleinman, executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. “Bernice had a great passion for serving the elderly as manifested by the Plafsky Campus at Daughters of Israel and in their support of the Jewish Community Housing Corporation. May her great deeds serve as her legacy.”

“The lives of our Jewish elderly have been enhanced and their burdens lessened by the incredible generosity of Bernice and Nate,” said Gary Aidekman, the immediate past president of UJC MetroWest and former DOI president. “In the conference room at Daughters there is a portrait of these two unassuming philanthropic leaders who with quiet passion have made sure our Jewish elderly receive the best of care.”

She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Nate; her daughter, Joanna Plafsky; her son, Robert; and two granddaughters, Danielle and Liza Plafsky.

Services were held Nov. 7 at Sharey Tefilo-Israel.