Elaine Feldman:Elaine Feldman, who has died aged 90, was an observant orthodox Jew who was deeply involved in voluntary and charitable work. Elaine, in addition to rearing three children and numerous other activities, was co-founder of Stratford College in Rathgar, Dublin, was a lecturer in Judaism at the Adelaide Road Synagogue, a founder member of the Irish Council of Christians and Jews, headquarters officer in the Irish Girl Guides and lady life president of Edmondstown Golf Club, Dublin.
Born in 1916, the second child of Ada née Price and Maurice Freeman, Elaine grew up in Harold's Cross, Dublin. Following national school she was educated at Wesley College, Dublin, from which she won a Leaving Certificate bursary to Trinity College. As a schoolgirl she had persuaded the then headmaster, Dr Irwin, of the necessity for day girl prefects and was appointed as the first.
Having declined the bursary for family reasons, Elaine entered the Civil Service where she excelled, being appointed initially to the Department of Finance and following the declaration of the Emergency in 1939, to the Department of Defence. Elaine, the civil servant, used to cycle to her first posting in Dublin Castle and in the evenings as she rode out the gate there was usually a large crowd gathered to watch her.
Nothing sinister and it amused her to retell the tale, it was their first opportunity to see what a Jew looked like and she must have been both a striking and reassuring sight with a head of flaming red hair like many other Irish.
In 1941 Elaine married Jack Feldman and was required to resign from paid employment. They moved to Neville Road, Rathgar, in 1943 and this was her home for more than 60 years. Elaine and Jack were a close partnership until his untimely death in 1985.
They enjoyed a wide social circle both within the Dublin Jewish and the greater community. Their hospitality, and Elaine's cooking and baking, was famous especially among the transient student population, as always both Jewish and non-Jewish, that was befriended by their children as each moved through teen and university years.
In the early 1950s the choices available to Jewish children for secondary schooling was very limited. Primary education was provided by the Jewish National School in Bloomfield Avenue, off the South Circular Road, and for those who attended other national schools, the Talmud Torah provided religious schooling after hours and on Sundays.
There was an unspoken quota on the number of Jewish children any of the Protestant schools would accept and it was not suitable for a Jew to attend what were then intensely religious Catholic schools.
It was with this knowledge that Elaine attended a public meeting called by the then Chief Rabbi, Emmanuel Jakobovits, to consider establishing a Jewish secondary school. The upshot of this meeting was all four of those present became the founders of Stratford College. In addition to the Chief Rabbi and Elaine, the founders were Dr Harris Tomkin, the eye specialist, and Dr Ezekiel Teller, well-known educationalist.
For the next 17 years as honorary secretary to the board of governors, Elaine, with Jack's strong support and invaluable help, effectively managed the school through daily attendance.
Stratford began life in 1952 in Stratford House, Terenure Road East, which was the home of the Talmud Torah and not very suitable. In 1954 Elaine negotiated the purchase of the house and lands for the sole use of the secondary school at Zion Road, Rathgar, for £4,250. Having concluded the deal with a handshake, Elaine walked away only realising as she walked out the gate that she had no money whatsoever for the purchase.
In some panic she contacted Jack who, totally unphased, advised going to the bank. The manager of the Northern Bank at Leonard's Corner was familiar with all the Jewish communal institutions and, congratulating Elaine on the splendid buy, extended £5,000 to cover purchase of desks etc - on condition that five men each guaranteed £1,000. These trustees for the school were Jack, his bachelor brother and three other bachelor friends.
During her period of involvement with the school, Elaine, relying on introductions eased by Ben Briscoe TD, successfully negotiated for resources directly with any number of ministers including Jack Lynch, Paddy Hillery and Donogh O'Malley. Dr Dermot Ryan, subsequently Archbishop of Dublin, was the expert whom she convinced to recommend that Hebrew became a recognised subject for State certificate examinations.
She also assured secondary education for any number of needy boys and girls. With advice from the Chief Rabbi, Elaine would arrange to meet parents of children who were in their final year of primary school and inform them that: "X has been awarded a scholarship to attend Stratford". When the parents would demur and admit that they could not afford the incidentals let alone the uniform and books, Elaine would assure them that all was covered by the scholarship.
Only the Chief Rabbi, Elaine and the concerned families ever knew who these children were; the fund was provided by that wide circle of friends, knowing that whenever Elaine asked, the cause was legitimate and just. Nobody in school through charity was known as a charity case - an expression of Jewish charity in its highest form, anonymity of both donor and recipient.
For 15 years, during the 1970s and 80s, at the insistence of Chief Rabbi David Rosen, Elaine gave lectures on Judaism in the Adelaide Road Synagogue to coachloads of schoolchildren and other groups from the 32 counties including rabbis, bishops and seminarians.
It is estimated that probably in excess of 10,000 attended these lectures. Because of the demand generated, including return visits by enthralled audiences, this involved weekly lectures and Elaine insisted on speaking without visible reference to her carefully researched notes. It was during this period, again at the Chief Rabbi's insistence, that Elaine was a key member of the Irish Council of Christians and Jews.
In the mid-1960s, Elaine became involved in an enduring relationship with the Irish Girl Guides. She was appointed a headquarters commissioner and was primarily responsible for building the guide shop from a tiny operation to a major retail business.
Always a keen golfer, Elaine played in Edmondstown Golf Club until, much to her annoyance, in the 1980s a snapped achilles' tendon put paid to her enjoyment. Arising from her activities in the club she was conferred with the title of lady life president. She had been responsible for getting the lady members of Edmondstown connected with the Ladies Golfing Union and was one of the key movers in gaining membership rights of the club for ladies well in advance of the mainstream movement.
Suffering from chronic debilitating illness throughout her adult life, a perverse boast was that she had been a patient in almost every hospital and nursing home in Dublin. During her own children's time in Stratford, Elaine's illness could be chronicled by her unavoidable absence through illness from every alternate annual school prize-giving.
Her extensive global travels with Jack were punctuated with unexplained recurrences and his own comment: "My wife has been sick in every capital city in Europe." One of her earlier prescriptions, following a massive life-threatening haemorrhage, was to consume a daily pint of Guinness the taste of which she hated. As this was the only nourishment she could retain, Elaine trained herself to drink the "medicine" in a couple of taste-free gulps, a skill that resulted in her winning more than one fastest pint drinker competition against the astounded male afficionados connected to their wide circle of friends.
Never prim but always proper, with an envious command of English, her elegant and upright demeanour had many diverse people saying that meeting Elaine was how they imagined an audience with the queen mother in England would be. She was not universally admired - her opinions were too forthright and it was evident that she did not suffer fools gladly - but what mattered to Elaine was that she was universally respected.
The "creaking door" survived all of her generation in the family into which she had married; Jack had been one of 10 and the children have settled throughout the world. Thus, Elaine became the matriarch of the extended Feldman family and, in the view of many, matriarch of the Dublin Jewish community.
She died in her own home in the warmth and care of family and friends. She is survived by Maurice, Alec, Estelle, Barbara, Susan, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, her older brother, Bernie Freeman. The students of Stratford College lined both sides of Zion Road with their teachers as Elaine's cortège passed. She would have approved of the many Christian children who made the Sign of the Cross.
One of Elaine's favoured sayings was that there is a difference between vanity and consciousness of worth although she never seemed to be truly conscious of her own worth and how remarkable her achievements, especially for a woman of her generation, were.
Elaine Feldman: born, March 31st 1916; died October 19th 2006