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ed working with the Jewish 
National Fund when Israel 
became a state in 1948.
Mrs. Newman was president 
of Hadassah’
s Greater Detroit 
Chapter for 13 years and 
received several honors over 
the years for her dedication 
to the organization. She was 
also a member of the National 
Board of Hadassah, the editor 
of the Hadassah Headlines and 
a creator of the Hadassah Thrift 
Shop, all which were started 
under her presidency. 
She served as the chairman 
of the Building Committee for 
the Sarah and Ralph Davidson 
Hadassah House, and she was 
chosen Woman of the Year for 
Israel Bonds while co-chairing 
many of their programs.
In addition, Mrs. Newman 

has been involved in Brandeis 
University’
s National Women’
s 
Committee, ORT, Federation, 
Ladies Auxiliary of the 
Jewish National Fund, United 
Foundation, Shaarey Zedek 
Sisterhood and was vice pres-
ident of programming for the 
Sinai Guild.
With 35 trips to Israel, 
Phyllis was the recipient of the 
Jerusalem City of Peace Award. 
Phyllis and her late husband, 
Al, established an endowment 
fund at Hadassah Hospital in 
research for pediatric audiology, 
as well as an endowment fund 
at Technion University in bio-
medical cardiology.
Another program she and 
Al created was Hear Oh Israel, 
which started as a Hadassah 
project that collected thousands 

of used hearing aids from 
all over the world, had them 
reconditioned and sent out to 
Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem 
at the Ein Karem Speech and 
Hearing Department to distrib-
ute to the elderly and disadvan-
taged at no cost. This project 
was started when the Israeli 
government’
s insurance funding 
for hearing aids was phased out.
Phyllis was inducted into the 
Eight Over Eighty Senior Adult 
Jewish Hall of Fame in 2004.
Mrs. Newman is survived 
by her daughters and sons-
in-law, Sharon Abrial and 
Jean-Pierre Bouquet, and 
Judith Newman and Peter 
Trepeck; son and daughter-
in-law, Fredric and Marsha 
Newman; grandchildren, Erik 
and Anne Kershenbaum, Amy 

Kershenbaum and Mariano 
Montenegro, Nicole Kovacs, 
Rachel Layne, Adam and 
Sharon Layne, Jaime Ray 
Newman and Guy Nattiv, and 
Beth Newman; great-grand-
children, Jonathan, Simon, 
Benjamin, Ma’
Ayan, Ellie, 
Rebeca, Emilia, Jayde and Bob, 
Jake, Jayme, Alma, and Mila; 
sister-in-law, Jeannette Ross. 
She is also survived by Gloria 
Beck; and many loving nieces, 
nephews, cousins and friends. 
Mrs. Newman was the 
beloved wife for 69 years of the 
late Albert Newman; the loving 
sister of the late George and the 
late Dottie Wener. 
Interment was at Clover Hill 
Park Cemetery. Contributions 
may be made to Hadassah-
Greater Detroit Chapter, 

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