Ursula Merkin

Ursula Merkin (1919–2006) was a German-born, American-Jewish author and philanthropist.

She was born born in Frankfurt, Germany to Isaac Breuer, a noted German Rabbi as Ursula (Sara) Breuer. At the age of fourteen in 1933, she left Germany with her family for Palestine where she remained with her father, to whom she was very close, until his death in 1946 at the age of 63 in Jerusalem. Shortly thereafter, she emigrated to the United States where she found a teaching position at a Jewish girls' school in Paterson, New Jersey.

In 1950 she met and married [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940CE0DE1F3FF933A25750C0A96F958260 Hermann Merkin] , a German-Jewish businessman, who was twelve years her senior. They had six children and were married for over forty years until his death in 1999 at the age of 91. Ursula and Hermann Merkin sponsored the well-known New York venue Merkin Concert Hall and were involved in a variety of Yeshiva University functions as well as with other Jewish philanthropies. They were also deeply devoted to [http://www.5as.org/ Fifth Avenue Synagogue] , of which Hermann Merkin was Founding President.

She was a granddaughter of Solomon Breuer, a great-granddaughter of Samson Raphael Hirsch, and mother of the novelist and cultural critic Daphne Merkin. She was best known for her involvement with [http://www.reuth.org/ Reuth] , an Israeli charity for the elderly begun by her mother and Paula Barth. She maintained a strong tie to and a great love for the Holy Land until her death in 2006. She was known fondly by most of her friends as "Ullah," which is affectionate for Ursula.

She also wrote many novels; most notably, [http://www.israeli-books.com/borrowed_lands.asp Borrowed Lands] , which was published by [http://www.rubin-mass.com/enter.asp?w=1024&h=768 Rubin Mass Ltd.] in 2000 in a second revised edition. She died in New York at the age of 86 after a long bout with lung cancer.Her brother was the noted historian of German Jewry Mordechai Breuer(Historian).

References

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940CE0DE1F3FF933A25750C0A96F958260 Paid Notice: Deaths MERKIN, HERMANN - New York Times, March 10, 1999]
* [http://spider.mc.yu.edu/news/in_print/..%5Cin_print%5C_pdfs%5CYU_Today-Orientation06.pdf YU Today] , Yeshiva University, Orientation 2006, Volume 11 No. 1, p.6
* [http://www.afyba.org/newsletter/newsletter-fall06.pdf YBA On the Front, American Friends of Yeshivot Bnei Akiva] , September 2006, p.4
*Daphne Merkin, [http://www.forward.com/article/519/ She Contained Multitudes] , [http://www.forward.com/ The Jewish Daily Forward] , July 28, 2006
*Tim Boxer, [http://www.15minutesmagazine.com/archives/Issue_33/mon_0202-05.htm "RE'UTH - No need for compliments to honor Rabbi Sol Roth"] , 15 Minutes, Issue 33, February 2002
*Masha Leon, [http://www.forward.com/articles/1910/ The Power of the Pen] , The Jewish Daily Forward, January 13, 2006
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E5DB1F3AF937A15754C0A9609C8B63 Paid Notice: Deaths MERKIN, URSULA - New York Times, July 24, 2006]

ee also

*Isaac Breuer
*Daphne Merkin
*Hermann Merkin
*Mordechai Breuer(Historian)

External links

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E5DB1F3AF937A15754C0A9609C8B63 Paid Notice: Deaths MERKIN, URSULA - New York Times, July 24, 2006]
*Ursula Merkin, [http://www.israeli-books.com/borrowed_lands.asp "Borrowed Lands, A Novel of Immigrants"] (Jerusalem: [http://www.israeli-books.com/ Rubin Mass Ltd.] , 2000)
* [http://www.5as.org/ Fifth Avenue Synagogue]
* [http://www.yu.edu/ujs/page.asp?ibc Isaac Breuer College of Hebraic Studies (IBC)] , [http://www.yu.edu/ Yeshiva University]
* [http://www.kaufman-center.org/mch/ Merkin Concert Hall]
* [http://www.reuth.org/ Reuth]
* [http://www.afyba.org/ Yeshivot Bnei Akiva]