REMEMBERING JANE

On Wednesday, March 13, Jane Abraham, our co-president passed away. This is the first time in this Section’s history that a sitting president has passed on.

Jane was a wonderful woman who was loved, is missed, and will always be cherished. Our Jane was an amazing wife, mother, grandmother, co-president and dear friend.

After retiring from a career at the UJA Federation, Jane became an active member in the Bergen County Section of National Council of Jewish Women with a special interest in advocacy.

It was apparent from the first time the Board met her that her energy, passion, and high degree of integrity marked her for an executive position. She didn’t expect it would happen within the first two year of becoming active but her sharp intelligence and consistent calm under pressure was exactly what the Section needed. In 2017, the three of us were elected co-presidents. We quickly became a threesome. It was a steep learning curve to become co-presidents after such a short time in the organization, but we learned together and had fun doing it. We quickly became fast friends and almost part of the furniture at Matthews Diner in Bergenfield where we had long meetings that lasted well after the waitress left for the day.

The three of us had new grandchildren a month apart and, to be honest, one of the reasons our meetings lasted so long was we didn’t start talking about NCJW until we shared the latest photos and brought each other up to date on our children’s latest accomplishments.

As we built our platform, Jane’s focus for the less fortunate was a powerful voice that shepherded our advocacy work. She understood that advocacy meant turning passion into action and she passed that concept on to the executive committee, board and members. No advocacy meeting was too far away, too late or too early. She promoted the vote, understood the need for immigration reform, marched for Reproductive Choice, spoke out for the LGBTQ community and against human trafficking, and was always mindful of the problems facing our aging population and those suffering from poverty, hunger, and domestic violence.

She was courageous both personally and professionally, and don’t be deceived by her slight stature. She was actually quite tenacious. In recent months we admired Jane more than we can say for her courage, positive attitude and dignity in dealing with her illness. She made light of her situation. She insisted on coming to all the meetings she could manage because, she said, “I LOVE doing this.” She continued to answer emails about NCJW until two days before she died, and only in the very last message did she say she wasn’t feeling well.

Jane’s kindness, understanding, and wonderful sense of humor made working with her easy and rewarding. We’ll miss her smile, her encouragement, but mostly her friendship.

May her life be for a blessing.

In sadness, Elizabeth and Ruth