Pauline Levinson

Relatives and friends are invited to the chapel on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, beginning at 10:30am, where funeral services will begin promptly at 11:00am.

Shiva will be at Pauline's residence on Tuesday, from 3:00pm to 5:00pm. Shiva will also be at Barry and Marcia's residence from Wednesday to Monday, with Minyan starting at 7:00pm.

The family requests that contributions can be made to any of the following charities in Pauline's memory: The Jewish Community center, The Jewish Federation, Alzheimer's Association, American Heart Association, Epilepsy Foundation, Lion's Gate, or Friends of Yad Sarah. The links to the charities can be found below.

Arthur Levinson’s Eulogy for Mom

Good morning, I’m Arthur, mom’s youngest. I appreciate all of you being here to
honor my wonderful mother’s life. Many thanks to Bianca and Gay who looked
after mom with relentless patience for the last years of her life.

Mom was a strong, selfless women with a patient and very caring soul. I have
fond memories, from my childhood, my mother being so welcoming to all my
friends, making them feel at home. Mom knew how to entertain, hosting many of
the family’s holiday dinners. In my younger years, I remember mom enjoying the
simple joys of life—dancing with my father and singing along to her favorite songs
on the radio.

Mom was a meticulous homemaker, managing to keep everything in order
despite having to pick up after three messy boys—and my dad!

Mom had a gift for making people feel at home. As an adult, every time I visited, I
looked forward to her famous banana cake—she always had it ready for me. I
know many of you also remember her delicious banana and apple cakes.

More than anything, Mom was my unwavering source of emotional support. No
matter the circumstance, she always had my back. And it wasn’t just me—she
cared deeply for everyone who entered her life. I know that my own sense of
compassion and kindness comes from her.

She showed extraordinary patience and love, especially for my older brother Ira,
who struggled with serious mental health challenges. Her dedication to helping
him never wavered. If not for her relentless love and care, my brother would
have ended up on the streets. She truly had the patience of a saint. Thank you
mom for the lessons, love, and support you showed me and so many others.

Mom leaves behind a beautiful legacy—her kindness, strength, and values live on
in her two grandsons and eleven great-grandchildren. In this way, she will always
be with us.

Today, we say goodbye to a precious soul. Mom, I love you, I miss you, and I will
carry your love in my heart forever. Rest in peace

Barry Levinson's Eulogy for Mom

Thank you for coming to honor my mother. Mom-mom to Eli and Avi, and to her 11 great-grandchildren, of all of whom she was immensely proud. First of all, I want to thank the aides who assisted Mom during the past few years, in particular Bianca and especially Gay, who has been with her full time the past two years. Mom lived longer and had a better quality of life due to your careful and loving attention. Thank you.

Mom had a tough childhood, about which she rarely spoke. Late in her life we managed to get a few details, although by then, some of the chronology was hazy. I’ll tell you a little of what I’ve pieced together, because I think it helps explain how that history gave her an inner reservoir of toughness in the face of adversity. Yet in spite of, or perhaps because of, those experiences, Mom was always a sympathetic listener, and had a kind word and lots of empathy for the woes of others.

Mom was born in 1927, to recent immigrants from the same little town of Faleshty in Bessarabia, then a Romanian part of the Russian Empire, and now in Moldova, on the border of Ukraine. In the Ellis Island database, I found that Itzik (Ftzik in the database) Ghitzes arrived on January 19, 1921 at the age of 21, and Maria (Miriam or Mary) Nisenman arrived on July 1, 1923 at the age of 23. They settled in Brooklyn, and in 1925, had a son, my Uncle Al, may he rest in peace. I never met either of those grandparents—my older brother, alav hashalom, was named after Itzik, and I was named after Itzik’s father, Berel. But mom said he was a gregarious man, who could chat with anyone – I guess Art was the one who got that gene.

Mary died at the age of 35, when Mom was 7 years old. Mom and her older brother were cared for by a succession of neighbors and friends while her dad worked as a furrier. Mom used to say that she’d never had as warm a coat as the one her father pieced together from scrap pelts for her. When we were growing up, we sometimes had visits from aunt or uncle so and so, most of whom weren’t actually related to us, but had cared for Mom and Al. Itzik remarried, but that didn’t last long; Mom said the second wife didn’t like children. They had just moved to Strawberry Mansion in Philadelphia when Itzik succumbed to pneumonia at the age of 47. So Mom found herself at the age of 19 an orphan, and she and Al took care of themselves, until he shipped out to Wakayama, Japan with the Navy. He brought her back a pearl necklace, which she treasured all her life.

Somehow, with all the moving around, Mom did finish high school, and became a bookkeeper. She became inseparable friends with two other young ladies, Alice and Phyllis. We visited “Aunt” Alice (another fake relative) many times in NE Philly when we were growing up. Late in life, Mom went back to work at a law office in center city Philly, helping out her friend Phyllis. And despite all the challenges I’ve only briefly touched upon, she was not bitter, but always patient, friendly and sympathetic. In 1953, she married Dad, and the rest somehow feels to me less like history than like current events.

Mom raised the three of us boys, through more than the usual childhood adversity, and was a steadying force through Dad’s heart attacks in his 40’s and 50’s, bypass surgery in his 60’s and cancer surgeries in his 70’s. By then, she had her own medical issues, twin knee replacements, a hip replacement and 3 successive cardiac pacemakers. But she fought her way back each time. Unlike her parents, it somehow seemed she would just keep going and going – the Energizer mother. I always had an affinity for Mom’s birthday, being only a few days apart from mine in July, and I was hoping to celebrate her 98th with her – Mom, you almost made it.

May her memory be for a blessing.