JESSE LURIE

LURIE--Jesse Zel,

December 4, 1913 - April 10, 2017. He was a journalist for most of his life, up until a few months ago. He worked for the Palestine Post in the 1930s and then was the United Nations correspondent for the Jerusalem Post once Israel became an independent country. He was the editor and publisher of Hadassah Magazine for 35 years, turning it from an 8 page newsletter into a nationally known Jewish magazine. Since his retirement from the Hadassah Magazine in 1983, he continued writing columns for the South Florida Jewish Journal and the San Diego Jewish Journal. His last column was published in January, 2017. He claimed to be the oldest American Journalist still working. He was a mentor to many authors, encouraging and criticizing their work and sometimes publishing them for the first time in the Hadassah Magazine. He has been advocating peace and coexistence between Jews and Palestinians from the 1930s up until 2016. This passion to bring peace to Israel went beyond journalism and he actively worked with bi-lingual schools where Jewish and Palestinian children learn together in both Hebrew and Arabic. In particular, he was active in the American Friends of Neve Shalom, Wahat al Salam, a village of Israeli Jews and Arabs in the center of Israel which has a bi-lingual school and other programs which foster coexistence. He became the patriarch of the family, being the last survivor of six brothers born to Jacob and Ida Lurie. He stayed connected to his many nieces and nephews, attended their weddings and bar mitzvahs, and invited them to his many birthday celebrations. His crusty authenticity and earnest idealism inspired them all. He was loved by many women, including his wife, Irene (Jupie) Blayzor, during 50 years of marriage, and after her passing, by his companion, Dorothy Cline, for the past 28 years. He is survived by his children, Susan and Ellen, his grandchildren, Alon, Natalie, Laura and Joe, and his great-grandchildren, Noah, Teve, Pele and Oriah. When he was asked what he hoped would be his legacy, he said "To have been a good man," and he was.