obituaries
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Illuminator Extraordinaire
M
erry Silber was a passion-
ate and accomplished artist
and musician who inspired,
encouraged and supported others of all
ages to pursue their own dreams and
passions.
Although never formally educated
in the arts, Merry was a pianist, piano
teacher, promoter, collector, curator,
lecturer, sculptor and much more.
"In praising Eleanor Roosevelt, Adlai
Stevenson paraphrased an ancient
proverb: 'She would rather light candles
than curse the darkness," said daugh-
ter Julie Silber of Albion, Calif.
"The candles Mom lit in her 97 years
here are beyond count and measure;
she will not soon be forgotten by any-
one who knew her or even met her
briefly."
Merry Silber, of West Bloomfield,
died July 22, 2011.
In the 1970s, after 40 or so years of
collecting "fine art:' she discovered
the rich world of the American quilt.
Never a quilt-maker herself, she began
to gather and collect antique quilts.
Nothing made her happier than sharing
this newly discovered art form, which
her fine eye and open heart embraced
with passion.
Increasingly generous and gen-
erative, Merry exuberantly shared her
enthusiasm for the beauty and mean-
ing she saw in the quilts made by past
generations of women. She found great
joy in connecting with the growing
number of people who also discovered
the deep meanings of quilt-making or
collecting. She found brilliantly creative
ways to share her sense of discovery
with others. She produced an annual
series of well-remembered quilt shows
at the Somerset Collection in Troy:
"QUILTS: An American Romance?'
She curated other, even more ambi-
tious quilt shows in
Michigan, including a
nationally recognized
one at Meadow Brook
Hall in Rochester,
another (of crib and
doll quilts) to ben-
efit the Henry Ford
Hospital Pediatric
Ward called "Keep
Me Warm One Night"
and still another
focusing on quilts
with a Judaic con-
nection. For these
and other efforts, she
was one of a handful Merry Silber
of American collec-
tors, organizers and artists honored as
a "Quilt Treasure" by the prestigious
Alliance for American Quilts
(www.allianceforamericanquilts.org ).
At age 70, after a lifetime of partici-
pating in a variety of artistic pursuits,
Merry "accidentally" found her own
true medium: sculpting in stone. This
was the one, she told her friends and
children, where she could "work all
day and never feel the time go by?'
She became quite accomplished and
worked into her 90s, leaving some
exceptional pieces.
One stone sculpture, made late in
her career, summed up so much of
who she was and what mattered to her.
In the 1990s, a series of coincidences
led Merry to discover that some of
the survivors of Kindertransport,
a project that quietly transported
10,000 Jewish children to safety during
Hitler's Holocaust, were making a quilt.
Each survivor, now an adult, made a
small quilt square
describing his or
her experience —
leaving their par-
ents and families
to be transported
by train to a safe
new home. Most
of these children
never saw their
original families
again. The indi-
vidual squares
were put together
into quilts, which
now are housed
at the Holocaust
Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills.
One square was made by a woman
who remembered sitting at the train
station as a little girl. Her mother had
packed her suitcase and dressed her in
pretty clothes. The girl's vivid, heart-
breaking memory was of sitting on her
suitcase, waiting for the train to take
her away, confused and crying.
Merry adapted that applique cloth
square into stone, a truly beautiful
work of art and a tribute to that woman
and all involved in Kindertransport.
Finding how few people knew about
the entire Kindertransport phenom-
enon, Merry went further. She created
a lecture using slides of the full quilts
and the individual squares. She felt
that the nearly 100 lectures she did on
the Kindertransport quilts, while in
FANI ADELSBERG, 87,
of Southfield, died July
25,2011.
Born in Drohobytz,
Poland, she was a sur-
6 usT vivor of the Holocaust.
Ho11
Sut ir oR She survived three
concentration camps,
Plashov, Birkenau and Auschwitz. Mrs.
Adelsberg was a past president of her
B'nai B'rith chapter. Fundraising and
charitable works were her passions.
She is survived by her husband of 63
years, Norman; daughters and sons-
in-law, Marjorie and Tzvi Burstyn of
Southfield, Nancy and Bruce Elman of
Windsor, Ontario, and Sandi Adelsberg
of New York; 11 grandchildren; 14 great-
grandchildren.
Interment at Hebrew Memorial Park.
Contributions may be made to a Jewish
day school of one's choice. Arrangements
by Hebrew Memorial Chapel.
was a trusted confidante to countless
friends of every generation, a gentle
beacon of compassion. Nearly all of
her kids' adult friends adopted her as a
second mother. Everyone else's feelings
came first. Her assertiveness blossomed
as a fierce resistance, living indepen-
dently as possible in her latter years.
Ms. Berman kept up to date through
the New York Times, the New Yorker and
Rachel Maddow.
She is survived by her son and his
fiancée, Daniel Berman and Joanne
Stone; grandchildren, Julia and Zoe
Berman; friend, Ellen Stross; sister-in-
law, Helen Samuels, and her children,
Steve, Laurie and Neil; their spouses,
Janet, Ross and Jill; their children;
Oscar's family, Ellen, Jeff, Jon, Wendy;
JULE BERMAN, 91, of
Bloomfield Hills, died
July 30, 2011.
In 1939, Ms. Berman
earned 37 cents per
hour at Macy's, often
walking home to save
15 cents bus fare for
Berman
a movie and soda.
c. 1995
She was a graduate of
Hunter College and a luminary of the
Detroit Study Club.
Along with her husband, Bob, she
managed a parking lot business. She
her 90s, were the most important and
gratifying work of her life.
On her last trip to Florida in 2006,
while she was waiting for luggage, a
porter asked her age and what she did.
She replied with a room-lighting smile,
"I am 92 years old, and I am a teacher?'
"Mom's last two years were bright-
ened and enriched in the nurturing
environment of Fleischman Residence
and the care by her independent care-
givers and companions, led by Dorothy
Reisman of "Hands Holding Hands:'
said daughter Julie.
"Mom was called and visited, fre-
quently, by family and friends who,
without exception, admired, enjoyed,
learned from, loved and felt genuinely
loved by this extraordinary, beautiful,
fun-loving, compassionate and life-
affirming woman?'
Merry Silber is survived by her son
and daughter-in-law, Marc and Stefany
Silber of Berkeley, Calif.; daughter,
Julie (Jean Demeter) Silber of Albion,
Calif.; brother, Paul Kurtz of Sarasota,
Fla.; nieces and nephews, Deborah
(Kenneth) Tucker, Gary (Sukie Brown)
Gussin, Ronald (Linda) Sherr, Paul
(Rita) Sherr, Judee (Jim) Royster,
Joyce (Gary) Kolb; grandchildren,
Jordan (Margaret) Silber, Rufus Silber,
Alexandra Silber; great-grandchildren,
Leila, Naima, Hannah, Madison, Asher.
Mrs. Silber was the beloved wife of
the late Albert Silber; the mother of the
late Michael Silber.
Contributions may be made to
CARE House of Oakland County or to
a charity of one's choice. Interment
at Workmen's Circle Cemetery.
Arrangements by Dorfman Chapel.
grandchildren, Jack and Carly. She trea-
sured Zoe's new family, Virginia Lang,
Dean Michelson and Yuwen Michelson
Lang, as a new branch of her own.
She was the devoted daughter of the
late Samuel and the late Esther Samuels;
the dear sister of the late Henry and the
late Irving Samuels; the beloved wife of
the late Dr. Robert Berman; the loving
mother of the late Sheila Berman; part-
ner of the late Dr. Oscar D. Schwartz.
Interment at Clover Hill Park
Cemetery. Contributions may be made
to Hospice of Michigan, 400 Mack Ave.,
Detroit, MI 48201, www.hom.org; or
Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network,
6555 W. Maple, West Bloomfield,
MI 48322, www.jewishhospice.org .
Arrangements by Ira Kaufman Chapel.
Obituaries on page 54
August
2011
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