Erica Jesselson, 86, Benefactor of Jewish Institutions
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Erica Jesselson, a benefactor of Jewish education and the arts in America and Israel who supported major institutions including Yeshiva University and the Israel Philharmonic, has died. She was 86.
Jesselson died Wednesday from natural causes at her home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, according to her son, Michael Jesselson.
She also had a home in Jerusalem.
Jesselson was the driving force behind the Yeshiva University Museum, serving as board chairwoman from 1973 until her death. As renowned collectors of Judaica, she and her husband helped the university acquire rare materials, making the collection accessible to students and scholars.
“Erica was quite simply a magnificent woman of extraordinary intellect and unwavering devotion, who was involved in every phase of Jewish education, art, and culture throughout the United States and Israel,” Yeshiva University’s president, Richard Joel, said.
Born Erica Pappenheim in Vienna in 1922, she was sent to England along with her sister before World War II as part of the “Kindertransport” of Jewish children from Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany to Britain. The sisters were reunited with their family in 1940, when the Pappenheims moved to New York.
Jesselson’s husband was a powerhouse in commodities and trading, and together, the Jesselsons financed a synagogue at the Haifa Technion, also known as the Israel Institute of Technology; founded a religious school for girls in Jerusalem; endowed a program for rabbinic scholarship at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, and helped build Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem.
They also contributed to the Israel Museum and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
In America, through the Jesselson Foundation, she supported organizations including the Riverdale Jewish Center and the SAR Academy and High School, billed as a modern Orthodox learning complex.
Jesselson is survived by sons Michael and Daniel Jesselson, both of New York; Benjamin Jesselson, who lives in Israel; her sister, Lucy Lang, of New York, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
