obituaries
Jewish Community Leader
Ruth Magil Perry Dies at 88
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
R uth Magil Perry, a Jewish com-
munity leader known for her
40-plus years of service to orga-
nizations like the Jewish Th eological
Seminary and the American Jewish
Congress, died on July 21 at her
Jenkintown home. She was 88.

According to family members, Magil
Perry served the Jewish community in
Philadelphia and New York City in paid
and volunteer positions. She also was
a fundraiser, speaker and offi cer for
Temple Sinai in Philadelphia, the United
Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and
the Camp Ramah Commission, among
others. But they said she was proudest
of her two elected terms at the helm of
the Women’s League for Conservative
Judaism, which represented more than
200,000 sisterhood members.

Th rough her advocacy, Magil Perry
ended up dining with the father of
modern Israel, David Ben-Gurion, and
sharing cigarettes with the mother of
modern Israel, Golda Meir. Th e former
homemaker was driven by a core belief,
according to her son Daniel Perry.

“Th e world should have Jews,” he
said. “She always felt that there was a
certain moral obligation to do the right
thing and teach those ethics and pass
them on.”
Magil Perry is survived by her
children Dan (Jennifer Haskell) and
Stephanie Perry (Ronan McGrath), as
well as her three grandchildren. And her
descendants have vivid memories of the
Jewish home that she created with her
husband of 50 years, M. Milton Perry.

On Shabbat, the matriarch welcomed
a house full of people. She cooked
chicken soup, matzah balls, roast
chicken, challah and “the best chopped
liver ever,” Dan Perry said. If she had 18
guests, she would make chopped liver
for 18. Her children were not allowed to
miss it even when they got older, though
they could bring friends.

One of Dan Perry’s best friends from
growing up in the Philadelphia public
schools, Benjamin Th ompson, was not
Jewish. But he came over for Shabbat
dinner every Friday night between the
Ruth Magil Perry
Courtesy of the Perry family
ages of fi ve and 15.

“We dubbed him the Shabbos queen,”
Dan Perry said. “Mom would go all out.”
Magil Perry’s rule about making
enough food extended to all Jewish hol-
idays, her son explained. It also applied
whether the food was brisket or chicken
or turkey.

And in her preparations for meals,
Magil Perry made sure to involve fi rst
her children and then her grandchil-
dren. Th e family did not stop at the
biggest celebrations, either. On Sukkot,
they built a sukkah every year. On
Simchat Torah, “we went all out,” Dan
Perry said. For Chanukah, Magil Perry
even took a page out of the Christmas
playbook and decorated her house in
color, with blue, silver and white replac-
ing Christmas red and green.

Stephanie Perry recalled that, if a
guest was invited in one time, he or she
would inevitably be invited back. Aft er
the children left for college, their friends
kept stopping by to say hi to their mom.

“Th ere was always an assortment of
people,” Stephanie Perry remembered.

“She took Jewish family living seriously.”
Joel Beaver, who served on the board
of the AJC during Magil Perry’s tenure
as director, used to go to the Perry house
for Th anksgiving dinner, Passover
seders and Rosh Hashanah dinner.

“I became an unofficial mem-
ber of their family,” he said. “She
was very knowledgeable about
Judaism. Dedicated.”
Magil Perry was the daughter of a
rabbi: Reuben J. Magil, the spiritual
leader of Harrisburg’s Jewish commu-
nity in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. Magil
was a man with “unbelievable curiosity,”
Dan Perry said. He had three doctor-
ate degrees and spoke 10 languages.

Th e grandson remembers visiting his
grandpa’s Harrisburg home and seeing
newspapers in every language all over
the place.

Magil Perry worshipped her father. As
Dan Perry put it, they were “amazingly
close, on the same page and of the same
mind.” Th e daughter grew up to become
the valedictorian of her high school
and a University of Pennsylvania grad-
uate. She also carried her father’s Jewish
traditions, of observing the Sabbath,
attending shul and celebrating all of the
holidays, outside of his home.

“You are Jewish, and this is what we
do as Jews,” Dan Perry explained of his
mother’s philosophy.

When Ruth met Milt Perry, the
6-foot-2 football player and bodybuilder
with movie star looks was acceptable to
her father for one reason.

“He had a bar mitzvah in Atlantic
City,” Dan Perry said.

For a while aft er they got married,
though, Milt Perry worked in the paper
business and Magil Perry made their
Jewish home. But aft er seven or eight
years, she became president of the sis-
terhood at her synagogue, Temple Sinai,
in the early 1960s.

“Th at gave her a taste of, ‘Hey, I can be
a leader,’” Dan Perry said. JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
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