Community matriarch Sara Stone succumbs at 102
SARA BERENSON STONE died at her home early on Saturday, February 3, 2018, surrounded by her family. She was 102.
SARA B. STONE
Stone was the grand dame of the New Orleans Jewish community, whose commitment to others was legendary and whose principles guided most of the top leaders who followed her. There is not one Jewish charitable organization that didn’t know of her incredible largesse and generosity both philanthropically and spiritually.
Born in the sawmill and papermill town of Bogalusa, Louisiana to immigrant Russian parents in 1915, Stone left for Duke University when she was just 16. She was named one of six outstanding students in her senior year. She continued her studies as a graduate student at the Tulane School of Social Work, where she did fieldwork with destitute families in the French Quarter. At age 20, she took an apprenticeship with the Southern Women’s Educational Alliance, giving vocational guidance to teachers in poverty-stricken Breathitt County, Kentucky. Stone thus dedicated herself to others in need and amassed more than eight decades of service to others.
In the spirit of her parents’ commitment to community service, she joined the boards of organizations such as the New Orleans Community Chest (later the United Way), the Social Welfare Planning Council, the Community Volunteer Service, Kingsley House and the Volunteer Committee at Charity Hospital.
But the main focus of Stone’s life became clearer after the Second World War. In 1946, she joined the board of the New Orleans Section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), where she served as president and, for many years, as chair of the Scholarship Committee, and where she remained an Honorary Vice-President. Through the NCJW, in 1949, she joined a volunteer committee that welcomed and helped to resettle Jewish refugees arriving by boat at the Port of New Orleans from Displaced Persons (DP) camps in Europe. Galvanized by news of the horrific events during the war, and by the desperate condition of the new arrivals, Mrs. Stone determined to dedicate herself to protecting and supporting Jewish families, especially children. She was elected honorary vice-president and served for decades on the scholarship committee of the Jewish Children’s Regional Service (JCRS), which supplies tuition assistance to needy students, and where separate funds and awards have been established in her name.
She chaired the Women’s Division and the Lifesaver Division of the Jewish Welfare Fund (JWF), and worked to raise money for the newly-established State of Israel. Stone served on the boards of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, the JWF and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). She served on the Board of Governors and was a lifetime Honorary Trustee of Isidore Newman School, where a Chair in the Arts bears her name.
Among many other honors, she received the Enduring Leadership Award from the National Board of the NCJW, the Hannah Solomon Award and the Harold Salmon Award of the New Orleans Section of the NCJW, the Tzedakah Award from the Jewish Endowment Foundation, the A. I. Botnick Torch of Liberty Award from the ADL and the Roger Bissinger Memorial Award from Federation. Her modesty in accepting these awards was well known.
Stone was a voracious reader and maintained a massive library of first edition novels and memoirs by various literati, history and art books, travel guides, books of local interest and cookbooks. A balletomane, she attended ballet and theater performances in New York well into her nineties, combing through The New Yorker to see “what looked interesting.”
Stone loved to travel, especially to Italy and France. Both in New Orleans and abroad, she was a connoisseur of good food, achieving legendary patron status with restaurant owners, waiters and staff. People of all ages would flock to pay their respects to the lady in the elegant suit, pearl earrings and the perfectly coiffed silver hair as she sipped her Beefeater martini on the rocks. In Florence, Rome and Venice, she was as famous at the Hassler Hotel and Harry’s Bar as she was at Galatoire’s – and at Antoine’s and Manale’s, where pictures of her hang on the wall near her regular table.
Stone was preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, Saul Stone; her son David L. Stone and her son-in-law John S. Wright. She is survived by her brother Gerald S. Berenson (Joan); her sons Richard B. Stone and Harvey M. Stone (Danna), her daughter Carol R. Stone (Patrick McNamara); her daughter-in-law Sophia H. Stone, ten grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held at 12:00 noon on Monday, February 5, 2018 at Shir Chadash Synagogue, 3737 West Esplanade Avenue, Metairie, with Rabbi Gabriel Greenberg, Congregation Beth Israel, officiating. Interment followed at Hebrew Rest Cemetery #3, 2100 Pelopidas Street.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Sara and Saul Stone Scholarship Fund at the JCRS, P. O. Box 7368, Metairie, LA 70010 or also by clicking here.; the Sara B. Stone Educational Enrichment Fund at the NCJW, 6221 South Claiborne Ave., Suite 208, New Orleans, LA 70125; the Sara Stone Chair in the Arts at Isidore Newman School, 1903 Jefferson Ave., New Orleans, LA 70115; or the charity of your choice.
Tharp-Sontheimer-Tharp Funeral Home of Metairie was in charge of arrangements.
