Gail Liebmann
Gail Liebmann (born Abigail Liebman) of West Orange died Aug. 4, 2018. She was born in Manhattan in 1923 and lived in West Orange since 1952.
As a teenager in Brooklyn, she became an active member of the Labor Zionist Hashomer Hatzair youth movement, and would work as a volunteer on a Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz in Israel many years later. When she was 16, she met her future husband, Abe Liebmann.
Mrs. Liebmann attended Hebrew Union College, from which she received her Hebrew Teacher’s license after completing night classes while raising three children. She was a Hebrew teacher to thousands of children at B’nai Shalom/Jewish Center of West Orange, where she taught for over 42 years. In the mid-1980s, The Gail Liebmann Fund was established at B’nai Shalom by her family to recognize a Hebrew School student of distinction chosen by the school’s principal each year.
In 1989, she earned the title “Master Teacher,” qualifying her to mentor colleagues in the MetroWest community. Upon her retirement in 1996, she was formally commended for her decades of service to the Jewish community at B’nai Shalom, with West Orange Mayor Samuel Spina proclaiming May 1, 1996, “Gail Liebmann Day.”
She was also on the faculty of Hebrew Union College, the Jewish Education Association’s Midrasha Institute of Jewish Studies, and B’nai Shalom’s adult education program. For many years, she served as president of the Hebrew Teachers’ Association of Essex County.
She was a past president of B’nai B’rith Women (now Jewish Women International) and a life member of Hadassah.
Predeceased by her husband of over 60 years, she is survived by three children, Robin Liebmann (Alan) Wallack, Rory (Kay) Liebmann, and Dana Liebmann; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Services were held Aug. 7 with arrangements by Orland’s Ewing Memorial Chapel, Ewing. Memorial contributions may be made to The Matthew J. Ryan Hospital for Small Animals at University of Pennsylvania.
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