Celia Fishman

PITTSFIELD -- Celia Fishman, 81, of 12 Andover St., died Tuesday at home of pancreatic cancer.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 25, 1926, daughter of Joel and Mary Wisotsky Mintz, she graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn in 1943 and from Brooklyn College with a degree in sociology in 1949.

While in college, she was employed by the Educational Alliance as a social worker and also worked as a diamond cutter. After moving to Rochester, N.Y., in 1949, she worked as a fourth-grade teacher at the Harley School there.

Active in the Jewish community, she was a member of Pioneer Women and Hadassah in Syracuse, N.Y., where she lived for 19 years until the family moved to Pittsfield in 1971. In Pittsfield, she was an active member of Congregation Knesset Israel. She was also a volunteer for the Soviet Re-settlement Committee, for the Morningside School after-school reading program, and for the table meal program at St. Stephen's Church. She was a native speaker of Yiddish and had sung Yiddish songs on the radio station WEVD as a child in New York.

Mrs. Fishman leaves her husband, Herbert Fishman, whom she married on June 11, 1949 in Brooklyn.

Besides her husband, she leaves two sons, Joel Fishman of Cambridge and Benjamin Fishman of Dorchester; two daughters, Marcia and Shelley Fishman, both of Cambridge; a brother, Sol Mintz of Brooklyn; and a granddaughter.

FUNERAL NOTICE-- Services for Celia Fishman, who died Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007, will be conducted Sunday at 1 p.m. at Congregation Knesset Israel, 16 Colt Road in Pittsfield, by Rabbi David Greenspoon, spiritual leader. Burial will follow at Congregation Knesset Israel Cemetery, Pittsfield. There will be a meal of consolation at Congregation Knesset Israel after the burial. The family will observe the traditional Shiva period. Both evening services and calling hours will be held at the family home at 12 Andover St., Pittsfield. Services will be Sunday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and calling hours will be from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 8:45 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to HospiceCare in the Berkshires or to the Celia and Herbert Fishman Endowment Fund at Congregation Knesset Israel, in care of the FLYNN & DAGNOLI-BENCIVENGA FUNERAL HOME, 5 Elm St., Pittsfield, MA, 01201. Mrs. Fishman also leaves a daughter-in-law, Lesley Watts-Fishman; two sons-in-law, Philip Kelsey, and Gregg Singer; a sister-in-law, Sydell Mintz; a granddaughter, Claire Singer of Montclair N.J.; and several nieces and nephews; and many loving neighbors, friends, and relatives.