An era of Anglo-Jewish history ended with the death of the matriarch of the Lew family, Rebbetzen Sorah Devorah (Doreen) Lew, who has died aged 100. She had been widowed for 31 years following the death of her husband Dayan Dr Myer Lew in 1987. Barely married seven months when the Second World War broke out, the young couple faced the trauma that hit their local Stoke Newington community during the blitz in 1940.
She helped her husband in the daily challenge of dealing with the injured and bereaved. Stoke Newington was badly affected by bombing and many of the tasks undertaken by the young couple were extremely difficult. Eventually, the Lews were forced to evacuate to Letchworth, where their eldest daughter, Gillian was born.
Doreen Esterson was born in Newport, South Wales into a distinguished rabbinical family. She was the daughter of the Rev Woolf, minister of the Hambro Synagogue — one of the original five synagogues that formed the United Synagogue — and Kate Esterson, whose grandfather was the first rabbi of the Cardiff community in 1858.
She was educated in Stoke Newington and, with her three sisters, attended the Stoke Newington Synagogue in Shacklewell Lane. Musically talented, she also learned to play the piano.
Later, Doreen attended the City of London College and worked at the West End Great Synagogue in Manette Street, Soho. In 1936, the Stoke Newington Synagogue had appointed Rev M S Lew to his first communal position. At secretarial college, Doreen had befriended one of his sisters and, after meeting the Lew family she and Myer became engaged and married in February, 1939. The couple set up their first home in Queen Elizabeth Walk, Stoke Newington.
In 1946, Rev. Lew was appointed minister of the Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue in Norrice Lea, having already been awarded a doctorate from London University. Doreen had assisted him in the production of his doctoral thesis on the Jews of Poland.
Despite the needs of a young family — two daughters, Gillian and Estelle and a son, Merton — Doreen continued to play an active role within the Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue, assisting her husband whose duties had increased due to his appointment in 1953 as a Dayan of the London Beth Din.
During a 20-year association with the Council of European Rabbis, Dayan Lew frequently represented the London Beth Din at their conferences in Europe.
During his ministry at the Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue between 1946 and 1969, the community benefited enormously from Doreen’s input and physical contribution. She was active in visitation work, ladies’ guild matters, as well as giving general support to her husband.
Tragedy hit the family in February, 1966 when, at 17, Merton, then a student, died in Israel. His early death deeply affected the family. Until then, the custom for both Lew and Esterton families was to spend Purim Seudah at the Lew family home, but on Merton’s death the practice was discontinued.
After 1969, when Dayan Lew retired from the shul the couple found more time to devote to family matters. Family values and personal relationships were paramount and Doreen created endless opportunities to help others in difficult circumstances, including offering unlimited hospitality at their East Finchley home.
On Dayan Lew’s retirement from the London Beth Din in 1976 he concentrated on producing a halachic work, The Humanity of Jewish Law. As with his doctoral thesis, Doreen helped by typing endless drafts of the book until it was passed to the publishers.
In 1988, after her husband’s death, Doreen, then over 70, invited her eldest sister, in her mid-80s, to live with her permanently, so that she could look after her. The arrangement lasted for ten years.
Until she reached 96, Doreen herself never required medication or hospitalisation. She lived alone in the family home until one-and-a-half years ago, when she required professional nursing care at Schonfeld Square. It was there that she celebrated her 100th birthday last October with her family, friends, and carers, and it was there that she passed away peacefully.
She is survived by her two daughters, Gillian Feigenbaum and Estelle Lawrence, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
John Lawrence
Doreen Lew: born October 24, 1917. Died July 8, 2018
