Gladys Handelman

Gladys Handelman, daughter of Max and Sophie (nee Urfirer) Braver, and husband of Stuart Norman Handelman (z'l) died peacefully on March 5, 2023, aged 91 and seven months after a long life and brief physical decline.
Gladys was a member of Temple Israel along with her late husband Stuart since they moved to Westport in 1972. She is survived by sons Ken (Lisa) and Bob, and grandchildren Lexi, Cassie, Josh, Elana (Cam), Aaron (Yarden), and Dalia, and by her niece Mallory Singer Leone and nephew Bill Singer. Her siblings Marvin and Evelyn predeceased her.
Gladys was a first-generation American, Max and Sophie having immigrated to New York City from the village of Kalarash in what is now Moldova (greater Ukraine) prior to World War I. She grew up on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx and fortunately did not become a Yankee fan, given her future to marriage to Stuart who hailed from Brooklyn and was firmly committed to the Dodgers. Gladys graduated from Hunter College, the first in her family to attend university. She went on to a varied career in communications and publishing, including stints at Vogue, the Girl Scouts of America, the Westport News, Executive Editor of Early Years Magazine, and founding her own business, Imprints Unlimited. Gladys was famous among her grandchildren for a variety of talents, to include being able to sink a basket in the family hoop, backwards. She loved and was dedicated to her family, including showing her grandchildren Westport's many attractions (Levitt, the Yankee Doodle Fair, Compo Beach, etc). After Stuart's death in 2009, Gladys was fortunate to attend the bnai mitzvot of grandchildren Aaron and Dalia, and more recently Lexi and Cassie, and Elana and Cam's wedding in August 2022.
A funeral will be held at 11:00AM, Friday, March 10, at Temple Israel, Westport, CT, with interment following immediately after at the Temple Israel Cemetery in Norwalk, CT. The community and friends are welcome to join the family after interment for Shiva. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Temple Israel Youth Group fund in Gladys' honor.