Milwaukeean Edith “Edie” Adelman, nee Margoles, died on July 20 at the age of 91.
Born in Atlanta, she grew up in Chicago and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in social work from Northwestern University in 1937. She married Albert “Ollie” Adelman in 1938 and the couple settled in Milwaukee, where they raised three sons.
A very active member of the Jewish community, Adelman was campaign chair, president (1965-68), and honorary board member of the Women’s Division of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. She also won the division’s Esther Cohen Community Service Award in 1970.
She was elected to the National Women’s Board of the United Jewish Appeal in 1969 and in 2002 she was honored by Women’s American ORT for her many contributions to that organization. Her name is permanently attached to the Women’s Division’s Political Awareness Series, for which she created an endowment.
She and her husband were also very involved in securing the Marc Chagall tapestry for the Helfaer Community Services building, which her husband — former campaign chair and president of the federation when it was called the Milwaukee Jewish Welfare Fund — helped build in 1970.
In addition, she wrote a regular column for The Chronicle in the late 1960s and early 1970s called “Serendipity.”
Interviewed for The Chronicle’s Community Portrait series in 2001, Adelman said she “drifted” into her volunteer work for the federation because “she just wanted to be a part of it.” All of her life, she said, she “did things that Jewish girls don’t usually do,” including sports and political advocacy work.
According to Women’s Division director Evelyn Garfinkel, Adelman “was one of the innovators” who emphasized the idea of women contributing money in their own names, rather than subsumed with their husband’s.
Her husband describes her as a “very classy, beautiful woman.” She was, he added, a “great wife and a very successful mother.”
She was also an “avid and profound” reader and enjoyed attending Bible class and playing bridge.
In addition to her work in the Jewish community, she volunteered as an English tutor for the Urban League, and former Wisconsin Governor Warren P. Knowles appointed her to the Wisconsin State Committee on Children and Youth. She worked for three years at the Juvenile Court as a consultant for the Legal Aid Society.
She was a member of several local auxiliaries, including Mount Sinai Hospital, Hadassah — Milwaukee Chapter, Planned Parenthood, Women’s American ORT, Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Technion University in Israel, the Milwaukee Symphony and the Jewish Home and Care Center Hand In Hand Women’s Service Auxiliary, among others.
She is survived by husband Ollie Adelman and sons Lynn (Betty), Gary and Craig Adelman, all of the Milwaukee area; sister Jean (Robert) Solomon of Highland Park, Ill.; and three grandchildren.
Cantor Miriam Eskenasy officiated at services held at Congregation Shalom on July 22. Burial was in Greenwood Cemetery.
The family appreciates memorial contributions to the Edie Adelman Political Awareness Endowment Fund, 1360 N. Prospect Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53202.
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