Sheldon W. Fishman of Milwaukee died June 4. He was 76.
He graduated from Washington High School around 1956. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee but did not earn a degree. He served in the National Guard for about three years.
He owned a landscape business, Greenleaf Landscaping, for about ten years; and also worked for UWM for about 25 years, becoming lead supervisor of the buildings and grounds division.
In fact, according to his second wife, Bobbie Fishman (nee Florine Schulman), he loved gardening so much that he provided such work for friends and family-members for free.
He was a member of Congregation Beth Israel (now Beth Israel Ner Tamid) and of the Jewish War Veterans.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by children Abbie (Patrick House) Fishman and Melinda (Thomas Grabowski) Fishman and stepson Brian (Jennifer) Hillman; brother Gerald (Carole) Fishman; sister-in-law Shelly (Arnold) Snap; and three grandchildren.
Goodman-Bensman Whitefish Bay Funeral Home handled arrangements. Rabbi Jacob Herber officiated at a graveside service June 5 at Second Home Cemetery.
The family requests memorial contributions to Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid or the charity of the donor’s choice.
Prominent Milwaukee attorney and Jewish community activist Robert H. Friebert died Sept. 5 of lung cancer. He was 75. (See Editor’s Desk on the home page.)
He was a Milwaukee native. He earned both his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
After working as assistant U.S. attorney for Wisconsin’s western district and as the state’s first public defender (1966-68), he helped found the law firm of Friebert, Finerty and St. John in 1971.
He had a long record of community service and political activism. He was former chair of the Wisconsin Civil Liberties Union, former special counsel to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents; and former Medical College of Wisconsin trustee. He also served several terms on the Democratic National Committee.
In the Jewish community, he was a member of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun and served on its board of directors and as its president. He was a president of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, the founding chair of the Wisconsin Jewish Conference and a board member of the National Jewish Democratic Council.
He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Susan (nee Sweed); children Jonathan (Susan Anderson) Friebert, Ellen (Brian) Schupper and Leslie Friebert; brothers Marvin (Annette) Friebert and Jerry (Sherry) Friebert; sisters-in-law Sheila (Ely) Fishlowitz and Judy (Mort) Grodsky; and six grandchildren.
Blane Goodman Funeral Service handled arrangements. Rabbi Marc Berkson officiated at the funeral on Sept. 9 at Emanu-El. Burial was at Second Home Cemetery.
Rabbi Bernard Grossfeld, Ph.D., a leading scholar of Aramaic and former teacher at and chair of the Hebrew studies department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, died July 16 in Chicago. He was 80. (See Editor’s Desk on the home page.)
He was born in Vienna, Austria. Before World War II, he and his family escaped to Shanghai, China, where he lived for nine years. He came to the United States as a teen in 1948.
He attended the Ner Yisrael yeshiva in Baltimore, then the Mesifta Tifereth Jerusalem yeshiva in New York City, where he received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.
He then went to the University of California to earn undergraduate (UCLA) and master’s (UC-Berkeley) degrees in Hebrew and Semitic literature. He served as a military chaplain in the U.S. Air Force, during which time he met his wife, Sylvia Kleinman; they married in 1964. He earned his doctorate in Near Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University.
He taught for 26 years at UWM, retiring in 1995. He then moved to Chicago and joined the faculty of the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership as professor of Hebrew and rabbinics. He was also on the faculty at the Hebrew Seminary for the Deaf in Skokie, Ill.
He was an authority on the Targums, the ancient Aramaic translations of the Jewish Bible. He translated many of them into English and participated in symposiums around the world.
In addition, according to a news release from Spertus, Grossfeld was a beloved teacher, both at the school and in the community.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by children Chaim (Jeffrey), Michael and Ruthie.
Services were held July 17 at Chicago Jewish Funerals Skokie Chapel, followed by burial at Ridgelawn Cemetery.
Carolyn (Lynn) Kagen Hoffman, nee Laev, died Aug. 24. She was 90.
She was born and raised in Whitefish Bay and graduated from the high school there in 1940.
She was a member of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun. Along with June Lewis she founded and ran a gift boutique named Giraffe during the 1970s and 1980s.
Her first husband of 49 years, orthopedic surgeon Louis Kagen, died in 1989. She is survived by her second husband of 20 years, orthopedic surgeon Burton Hoffman; children Robert (Loni) Kagen, Susan (John) Pereles, Jeffrey (Barbara) Hoffman, Robert (Janet Ewing) Hoffman and David (Debbie Friedman) Hoffman; brother Bill (Agie) Laev; sister-in-law Marlene (the late Allen) Kagen; eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Blane Goodman Funeral Service handled arrangements. Rabbi David Cohen officiated at the funeral on Aug. 27. Burial was in Spring Hill Cemetery.
Milwaukee musician Raphael B. Kianovsky died Aug. 31. He was 82.
He graduated from North Division High School and studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Minnesota, UW-Madison and the Mozarteum in Saltzburg, Austria.
He was a composer, conductor, arranger and multi-instrumentalist. He taught music at UWM, Marquette University and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, serving as dean of the latter.
During his life, he was a member of several synagogues, including Milwaukee Congregations Anshai Lebowitz and Anshe Sfard Kehillat Torah, and Beth Israel Center in Madison.
His wife, Rochelle (nee Franklin), died in 2010. He is survived by children Sarah (Frank Friedman) Kianovsky, Zev (Arlene Lukin) Kianovsky and Nahum (Sarah Rosen) Kianovsky; and seven grandchildren.
Blane Goodman Funeral Service handled arrangements. Cantor Beth Levin officiated at the funeral on Sept. 2. Burial was in Second Home Cemetery.
The family suggests memorial contributions to the Jewish Home and Care Center Foundation.
Milwaukee native Jerold Perlstein of Scottsdale, Ariz., died Sept. 4 of complications of brain cancer. He was 76.
He graduated from Shorewood High School and earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a U.S. Navy Reservist and the former chief executive officer of Bonded Messenger Service in Milwaukee, from which he retired in 2000. He was a past president of the Messenger and Courier Association of America.
He was a member of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun when he lived in Milwaukee, and later of the Synagogue of the Summit in Frisco, Colo.
He was a former board president of the Florentine Opera. He also served on the boards of the Arizona Opera Company, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, where he chaired the camp committee.
His special interests included skiing, motorcycling, opera, cars and the Green Bay Packers.
He is survived by his wife Sandra (nee Friedman); daughter Linda (John Miller) Perlstein; sons Steve (Jennifer Block) Perlstein, Rick Perlstein and Ben Perlstein; sister Sandra (Hank) Albert; brothers-in-law Michael (Harriet Friedman) and David (Lisa) Friedman; and three grandchildren.
The Neptune Society in Phoenix, Ariz., handled arrangements. A memorial gathering in Milwaukee is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 27, 4-8 p.m., at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun.
The family suggests memorial contributions to Make-A-Wish America, the Steve and Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken JCC, Hospice of the Valley or Synagogue of the Summit.
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