On June 22 at age 96, way too soon. Beloved wife of the late Dr. Kurt Pine. Loving mother of Alfred Marc Pine and Annie (Yaakov) Reuveni. Adored grandmother of Kenan (Ronit), Ohad and Li-Shai. Devoted sister of the late Frances Schwartz and the late Dr. Herbert Hadler. Bessie was born in Toronto, Canada where she graduated with honors in psychology from the University of Toronto. At age of 21, she became a branch director at the Toronto Jewish Community Center. After getting her MSW from the University of Pittsburgh she spent the bulk of her career at JCC Association of North America, where she became an institution. Bessie, widowed at age 43, combined her career and brought up her young children at the same time. In 1990 she was awarded the Professional of the Year from the Association of Jewish Center Professionals where she said "the vow I made to myself was to treat people the way I would like to be treated. Maintaining my integrity and credibility has been my ongoing effort and most important accomplishment on the job." The Jewish communal workers in 1993 ran out of awards for Bessie, so they gave her a new one - Tikkun Olom. Our loss, unimaginable, unbelievable, and incredibly painful is heaven's gain where Bessie Pine is already treating people with warmth, generosity, objectivity, compassion, sensitivity and menschlichkeit - and she's just getting started. "Too short time, not enough time, never enough time." Funeral services will be held on Sunday, June 28 at 11:30am at Sherman's Flatbush Memorial Chapel, 1283 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn.
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