Maggie Hilda Weisberg

Maggie (Hilda) Weisberg passed away peacefully on Saturday afternoon, September 20, 2025, in her apartment at The Willows in Bellingham, Washington, with family by her side. Maggie was 101 years old – awake, alert and aware to the end. Maggie is survived by her sons, Saul (Shelley) and Mark, nephew Burt Boltuch, grandchildren Ryan (Wilson), David (Lynn), Greg (Elizabeth), Teal (Alex), Heather (Mason) and great-grandchildren Emeline, Joshua, Lily and Sova. She was preceded in death by her husband Irv, siblings Jack and Layah, and daughter-in-law Barbara. Maggie was on Hospice for 21 months and was grateful that M.A.I.D. (Medical Aid in Dying) is available in Washington State, giving her the opportunity to choose when, where and how she would die. Following her wishes, her body is being composted by Natural Organic Reduction (Terramation), her choice to cause the least environmental impact. She will rest in the gardens of family and friends, and in the mountains and forests of the Pacific Northwest. Maggie wanted to share her personal reflections about aging with her family and friends. These are included after her obituary. Thank you for being part of Maggie's community. A memorial will be held on Saturday, November 8 (2:00- 3:30 pm), at The Willows (3115 Squalicum Parkway, Bellingham WA). In lieu of flowers, Maggie suggested donations to: Partners for Progressive Israel (https://www.progressiveisrael.org/), Gaza Soup Kitchen (https://gazasoupkitchen.org/) and Palestine Children's Relief Fund (https://www.pcrf.net/) = = = = Maggie Weisberg was born February 24, 1924, in the Bronx, New York City, to immigrant parents Rose and Barnet Shorr, from Babroisk, Russia and Kovna, Lithuania. Maggie was the youngest of three children. From an early age, Maggie believed that people need to work together to make the world a better place. Though it took different forms throughout her life, Maggie strived to be part of building a just society – as a young revolutionary, child educator, civil rights activist, anti-war protestor, social worker and family therapist, and as a loving partner, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend. Maggie discovered a passion for modern dance in high school and trained in advanced techniques in the school of modern dance innovator Martha Graham. When she was 15, Maggie joined Hashomir Hatzair, a progressive Socialist-Zionist youth movement whose core values included youth-led decision-making, a commitment to social justice and the establishment of a peaceful, democratic home for both Jews and Arabs in Palestine/Israel. After graduating high school in 1942, Maggie moved to the Chava, a collective farm in Hightstown, New Jersey, where members of Hashomir Hatzair prepared to go to Palestine/Israel to form socialist kibbutzim. These collective communities functioned without private property, shared work and responsibilities equally, and practiced collective, consensus decision-making. At the Chava, Maggie managed the apple orchard and coordinated work details for the collective farm. In 1946, Maggie met her future husband, Israel (Irv) Weisberg when he arrived at the Chava, following his discharge from the Navy. Maggie assigned Irv to do the ironing on his first day. When Irv said he didn't know how to iron, Maggie replied that all men had to learn, and she taught him. After the Chava, Maggie and Irv lived in the Bayit, a cooperative house in Burrough Park, Brooklyn with other Hashomir Hatzair members. For Maggie, the movement gave her a continuing identity and purpose within her Jewish heritage, and a means to practice living in a socialist community. Planning to immigrate to the new state of Israel, Maggie and Irv married on March 28, 1948, shortly before the 1948 war began. Their goal was to establish a kibbutz for Jews from the Hashomir Hatzair movement. Following the holocaust, the movement sought to build, from the ground up, a refuge of safety for the Jewish people in their historic homeland. In contrast to the anti-Arab and regressive, mainstream Zionist movements, Hashomir Hatzair worked for a society of equality across gender and religious lines, believing that Jews and Arabs could live together at peace in a binational state. Maggie and Irv had to make a convoluted journey to the Middle East since travel to Israel/Palestine was prohibited at that time. They traveled as tourists on a ship from New York to France, then took passage from Marseilles on a freighter carrying holocaust refugees and Jewish orphans to Israel. When they arrived, Maggie and Irv worked on rebuilding kibbutzim that had been destroyed in the 1948 war. They continued learning agriculture and building skills they had begun at the Chava. In January 1949, Maggie and Irv were among a small group of Hashomir Hatzair who founded Kibbutz Sasa in the Galilee region, south of the Lebanon border. They spent their first year working the rocky land barely viable for farming. They lived at Kibbutz Sasa until September 1949, when they returned to New York for Irv to attend medical school. Driven by her belief that education should empower children, Maggie studied early childhood education at Bank Street College. Upon graduation, she taught at Bank Street Preschool from 1951-1953 when her first child, Saul, was born. Maggie and Irv believed preschool provided a necessary foundation for a child's growth, but when Saul was 3, they couldn't find any preschools for him to attend. In response, Maggie and a friend organized neighborhood parents to form a cooperative preschool. Maggie played a central role in developing curriculum and finding teachers for the preschool. She also incorporated her love of dance, teaching dance and rhythm to kids at preschool and a local synagogue. In 1957, Maggie gave birth to her second child, Mark, just as Irv finished his pediatric residency. Soon after, the family moved from New York to Cleveland, Ohio for a newly developed Fellowship in Pediatrics and Psychiatry for Irv with renowned pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock at Case Western Reserve University Medical School. Maggie and Irv both resonated with Dr. Spock's groundbreaking approach to childrearing, emphasizing children as whole human beings, whose unique developmental needs should be honored and respected, instead of having strict schedules imposed upon them. Their relationship with Dr. Spock continued for many years and when he moved on in 1967 (to dedicate more of his time to anti-war efforts), Irv succeeded him as Director of the Family Clinic at the Medical School. In Cleveland, Maggie became the head teacher of a preschool for children with developmental disabilities. In 1962, she went back to school to get her Bachelor's in psychology and sociology from Case Western Reserve University and later completed her Master's in social work in 1966. Maggie then began a long and rewarding career as a family therapist at Jewish Family Services Association, where she worked until she retired in 1998. During this time, she became active in Cleveland as part of the Civil Rights movement, organizing alongside the black community against housing and school segregation. In 1963 she joined the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In these turbulent times, Maggie and Irv were able to keep family central to their convictions. They sought to instill in their children the importance of doing something to make the world a better place for people from all walks of life and experiences. Every summer Maggie and Irv took time away from their jobs for a month-long family camping trip with Saul and Mark. These beloved trips to National Parks and Forests played an important role in their family, both as intimate time together and putting the family in touch with nature – the basis of Saul's career in natural history and environmental education and Mark's career as an environmental scientist. Maggie was proud that her children were also her teachers, helping her understand the values of conservation and the dangers of environmental degradation and climate change. In December 2006, Irv, Maggie's husband of 58 years Irv passed away. Maggie stayed in their home for another 3 years, then moved to Bellingham, Washington in November 2009 to be near her son Saul and his family. She moved into the Willows Retirement Home where she found a wonderful community and discovered she could still make best friends in her 80s and 90s. At the Willows, she took up new interests, including improv, drumming, Yiddish, book groups, yoga and writing. She also discovered mindfulness meditation which became very important to her; she practiced daily meditation for the rest of her life. In Bellingham Maggie developed deep connections with her grandchildren as they moved into adulthood and started their own families. Maggie remained curious and open to the world; she never stopped learning, growing, and listening, seeking new ideas and perspectives, questioning and challenging her own assumptions. Maggie reflected on and grappled with the complexities of the world and her own life, including the painful legacy and contradictions of her time organizing for Jewish settlement in Israel/Palestine and her deep commitment to social justice and human rights. She supported many Jewish and Arab peace organizations, as well as environmental and conservation causes, including the Weisberg Family Endowment at North Cascades Institute. Maggie was blessed with a long and rich life. In her early 90s she said, "I am having a very good old age." As she passed 100, with an amazing birthday party with her extended family, and then 101, she admitted that she was getting tired. Even as she continued the activities most important to her – meditation, improv, Yiddish club, and time with family and friends – she began to pull back from others. Hospice provided some assistance and the Willows continued to be a wonderful place to live. In June 2025 Maggie said that all the puzzle pieces of her life were coming together, and she was ready for her time to come to an end. As summer days began slipping into autumn, with her family by her side, she took advantage of Washington's Death with Dignity/Medical Aid in Dying Act. At peace with her decision, she was a dancer until the end.