Zola Emily Dincin Schneider

1925 - 2022

SCHNEIDER

ZOLA EMILY DINCIN SCHNEIDER

Died on May 28, 2022, in her 97th year. Born in New York City in 1925 to Jewish immigrant parents Renee Meyerowitz Dincin from Romania and Herman Dincin from Ukraine, she was named in honor of the French novelist and human rights activist Emile Zola. She was educated at P.S. 161, Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn College, the University of Wisconsin, and Columbia University Teachers College. After a year working in Paris, where she arrived on her own not knowing any French, and then working as an editorial assistant at the Saturday Review (where she carried a Newspaper Guild union card) and Yale University Press, she moved to the Washington area where her beloved husband Irving Schneider was beginning his psychoanalytic training. There she raised three sons, Peter, Norman, and Daniel. She worked for many years as a teacher of young patients at the Chestnut Lodge hospital before beginning a 40-year career as an educational consultant, advising hundreds of high school students on college choices and admissions. A pathbreaker in the field, she saw her role as helping young people understand their own needs and wishes so they could make the best choices for themselves. She co-authored three books on the subject: The College Connection, Countdown to College, and Campus Visits and College Interviews. An early opponent of the Vietnam war, she participated in many antiwar demonstrations, including the Jeannette Rankin Brigade organized by Women Strike for Peace in 1968. She was a firm supporter of abortion rights and other progressive causes. A resident of the Town of Somerset since 1962, she served for many years on its Board of Elections and was proud to make it easy for all residents, regardless of whether they were U.S. citizens, to register and vote in Town elections. She was grateful to live long enough to see the former president defeated, but she remained deeply concerned about the future of the country and the planet. In Somerset, she also co-founded Helping Hand, which enables neighbors to help neighbors in need. She was predeceased by her parents, her husband, sister Dian Dincin Buchman, and brother Jerry Dincin. She is survived by her sons Peter, Norman, and Daniel, daughters-in-law Susan DeJarnatt, Linda Kanefield, and Leslie Reagan, grandchildren Benjamin and his wife Stephanie, Paul, David, Rafael, Jacob, and Rosie Schneider, and Max Goodman, great grandchildren Ayla Zola and June (who both gave her great joy in her final years), niece Caitlin Kraft Buchman and nephew Bruce Dincin, among many loving nieces and nephews. She was intensely proud of them all. Although she was a strong, fiercely independent force, she valued family above all. Burial will be at Arlington Memorial Cemetery at a later date. She requested that any contributions in her memory be made to Woodley House, woodleyhouse.org, a community-based organization dedicated to helping people with mental illness live full and healthy lives with dignity, or Posse, possefoundation.org, a non-profit that helps minority and disadvantaged kids through college.