Obituary
Please note that the Graveside Service is limited to family and close friends by invitation only. Those attending the service should meet at the office for Beth Moses Cemetery, located at 1500 Wellwood Avenue, West Babylon, NY 11704 at 10:00 am. We will proceed to the Graveside around 10:15 am. The The service will be open to others via Zoom. Please contact the family regarding the Zoom and Shiva invitations.
Renee Lifshitz passed away on August 6, 2020 after a long illness. She was 93 years old.
Renee was the third daughter of Tillie and Samuel Jackera, who immigrated to the US from eastern Europe. She was a life-long true New Yorker. She was born in the lower east side of Manhattan, raised in the Bronx, lived in Stuyvesant Town during the early years of her marriage, and then moved in 1955 to Queens where she, along with her husband, Martin, and their three children, settled in the Glen Oaks and then Deepdale communities.
Renee graduated from William Taft High School in 1944. She was smart and a good student. She was interested in attending college but instead worked to assist her family and support the war effort, and then committed herself to raising her family. In 1965 she started working at Hillside Hospital as a secretary, and eventually rose to the ranks of Medical Legal Coordinator. She worked at Zucker Hillside Hospital, (part of the Northwell Healthcare System) for 53 years, and was beloved for her professional competence, hard work, diligence, as well as her powerful presence and friendly style. Revered as an icon, her colleagues knew that she would never voluntarily retire and honored her with a large surprise party for the occasion of her 50 years of service.
She started dating Martin ‘Marty’ Lifshitz when she was just 15 years old, and they married in 1947, a year after he returned from serving in the military during WWII. He was the love of her life, and they remained loving spouses and deeply devoted to each other all through their 73 year marriage. They renewed their vows in 2015 in a touching ceremony held during their grandson’s wedding. Together they raised three children, Barbara, Edward and Judy. They instilled in their children values of love and commitment to family, hard work and professional dedication, integrity, compassion, fairness, and celebration of life. Renee was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She deeply loved and was enormously proud of her growing family – now numbering 25 people, including Renee and her husband, three children and their spouses, six grandchildren along with four of their spouses, and seven great-grand children.
She had an indomitable presence, enormous emotional strength, and an outsized personality. Renee loved music and theater. She was a natural entertainer, gracing our lives with her gift for song, dance, and performance. She performed in community theater and office talent shows – frequently winning the top prize! She was always on the move and had boundless energy, often outpacing others half her age. She loved parties and family celebrations. She had remarkable social abilities, and had an uncanny way to engage with friends, colleagues and strangers in a friendly and mensch-like way that endeared her to everyone. She opened her heart and her home, and made people feel like family. In her long and meaningful life, she impacted the lives of so many people, who all felt part of her extended family.
Renee is predeceased by her parents, and her sisters Frieda Brown and May Stiffman. She leaves behind her devoted husband, Marty; her loving children and their spouses Barbara and Bruce Klein, Edward and Deborah Landon, Judy and Ned ‘Skip’ Cooney; her adoring grandchildren and their spouses – Rafael and Jaclyn Klein, Jennifer and Kurt Kopchik, Sarah Cooney and Marcel Hamel, Daniel and Samantha Cooney, Aaron Landon, and Hannah Landon; and her beautiful great grandchildren Brianna, Ella, Leila, Julian, Charlie, Oliver and Fiona. She also leaves behind others that she loved as family including her sister-in-law Marilyn Shtulman, nephews and nieces, remarkable caregivers who loved and comforted her, and countless friends and colleagues who admired and loved her.
She touched the lives of so many and will be deeply missed.
Arrangements by Sinai Chapels. jewishfunerals.com