Sydelle Levin | Jewish activist, 99
Sydelle Levin, 99, who was active in the Jewish community in Philadelphia for many years, died Saturday, Nov. 17, at home in Mission Viejo, Calif.
Mrs. Levin, the former Sydelle Fleishman, was born in Kyiv, Russia. She emigrated with her family in 1920 and settled in Philadelphia.
She quickly learned English, and graduated with her class from William Penn High School in 1931.
“At the time, there was great emphasis on assimilation,” her son Joel said.
After graduating, she joined her family in operating a series of butter-and-egg stores in the area of Girard Avenue and Marshall Street in North Philadelphia.
Her husband, Morris Levin, was a soft-drink bottler who ran the Sweetie Beverage Co. at Spring Garden and American Streets.
The Levin family lived in the city’s East Oak Lane section and later moved to Cedarbrook.
Mrs. Levin was devoted to synagogues and Jewish charities. She served as president of the Theodor Herzl Chapter of Hadassah and the Beth Sholom Sisterhood, now based in Elkins Park.
But she was best known for starting Yiddish clubs wherever she went. She would take the Russian songs of her childhood and sing them in Yiddish for older people who understood that language. She accompanied herself on the piano.
The concerts were very popular, her son said.
When she moved to a senior community in California in 2000 to be near family, she continued singing. Her family persuaded her to allow a videotaping of one of her concerts in May 2000 when she was 87.
The video can be seen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvIHnHdNZL0.
In addition to her son, Mrs. Levin is survived by another son, Stanley; a daughter, Julie Burden; six grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1987.
The funeral is planned for 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 30, at Goldsteins’ Rosenberg’s Raphael-Sacks Suburban North, 310 Second Street Pike, Southampton. Interment will follow in King David Memorial Park, Bensalem.
Contributions may be made to Heritage Pointe, 27356 Bellogente, Mission Viejo, Calif., 92691.
Philadelphia and Regional Obituaries
Watch a video of Sydelle Levin singing one of the Yiddish songs of her childhood in Russia at