It’s never easy to ask for handouts. But clients of the Jewish Community Pantry — Jews and non-Jews alike — were always welcomed with a smiling face and treated with the utmost respect and dignity by longtime volunteer and project chair Elaine Elkon.
After the community identfied the need, the pantry was organized in 1984 and became a joint program of the Jewish Community Center and the Women’s Division of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. Elkon was among the original volunteers and continued the rest of her life. At the time of her death, she remained honorary chair.
The longtime community volunteer, homemaker and avid gardener died Jan. 4 after a long illness.
Born in Milwaukee to Jack and Ada Gronik, she graduated in 1940 from Shorewood High School and attended Drake University. She enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a Wave in 1942 and attended storekeeper school at Great Lakes Naval Base near Chicago. She was stationed in Grosse Ille, Mich., and Tulsa, Okla., until 1945.
After the war, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she met and married her husband, Edward Elkon, in 1947. The moved to Milwaukee in 1949, following the death of her brother, Arthur Gronik.
Following the death of her parents in a house fire in 1965, she became involved in volunteer work. She coordinated a book sale to benefit Brandeis University, which she continued for several years. Further, she became an active volunteer, serving on the boards of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun Sisterhood, Jewish Family Services and the Women’s Division.
In 1993, she received the Joe E. Smith Distinguished Volunteer Award from the Jewish Community Center for her work as chair of the pantry.
According to Howard Karsh, the JCC staff person who served as the first liasion to the pantry project, “For all the years Elaine was involved in the pantry, her only goal was to provide a service to the community. And, she was responsible for the concept of protecting the dignity of the receiver.
“Also, I believe it was because of Elaine that so many volunteers stayed with the pantry over the years.”
Her son, Arthur Elkon said, “She was a committed individual who brought her strong organizational skills and dedication to every task she performed. A private and unassuming person, she shunned recognition of her accomplishments, maintaining that the work was its own reward.
“She believed that volunteer work was vitally important and satisfying, benefiting both the organization and the volunteer. Through her work, she met talented and dedicated people, learned valuable skills and enhanced her confidence and self-esteem.”
In addition to her husband and son, she is survived by daughter Barbara Elkon Sindic and a grandson, all of Milwaukee.
Rabbi Marc Berkson officiated at the funeral on Jan. 6. Burial was in Mound Zion Cemetery.
The family suggested memorial contributions to the Jewish Community Pantry, c/o of the Harry and Rose Samson Family JCC.
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