BRAVERMAN, LIBBIE LEVIN

BRAVERMAN, LIBBIE LEVIN (20 Dec. 1900-10 Dec. 1990) was a teacher, educational consultant, and writer. Braverman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Rabbi Morris A. and Pauline Drucker Levin. She and her brothers, Sol and Harry, attended school in various locations. When her father became director of Community Hebrew Schools in Cleveland, she came to this city and graduated from CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL. Braverman studied the Talmud, often the only girl in the class, and began teaching Hebrew school as an adolescent, first in Chicago and then in Cleveland at the Euclid Avenue Temple (later ANSHE CHESED) and B'NAI JESHURUN. On 23 Nov. 1924 she married architect SIGMUND BRAVERMAN; they lived at 2378 Euclid Heights Blvd. in CLEVELAND HEIGHTS. She received a certificate from Cleveland Normal School in 1920 and a Bachelor of Science in education from Western Reserve University in 1933, and took graduate courses at Harvard, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Cleveland School of Art. After a brief stint of public school teaching, Braverman became education director for the Euclid Avenue Temple (1946-52). She designed and published curriculum and books of educational activities for religious school, collaborating with people such as NATHAN BRILLIANT. Her works included Children of Freedom (1953) and the two-volume Teach Me to Pray (1955, 1957). Braverman served on the faculty of the Cleveland College of Jewish Studies (1945-ca. 1960); the school made her an honorary board member and in 1981 presented her with an honorary doctorate. Braverman lectured for the Jewish Chatauqua Society, belonged to the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, and served as regional president and board member of Hadassah, among other activities. Braverman died at the MARGARET WAGNER HOUSE. Her ashes rest in the Mayfield Mausoleum at Mayfield Cemetery.

Braverman, L.L. Libbie: An Autobiography (1986).