Virtual Dementia
Support Groups
Specially Designed for Families and
Caregivers on Zoom
The 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the Month
February 2 and February 16, 2021
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Joining is easy!
Call 215.321.6166 or e-mail Yardley@arden-courts.com
to register and receive the link to join the support
group. You do not need to download the Zoom application
to join the event.

Memory Care Community
If you are caring for someone with dementia,
who is caring for you?
You are not alone. This virtual informational, supportive
group will help you to learn more about the disease as well
as understand their feelings about the changes dementia has
made on their daily lives. Support groups can also help you:
• •
• •
Learn practical caregiving information
Get mutual support
Learn about your local community resources
Find solutions to challenging behaviors
arden-courts.org 13899_Yardley_Feb_5.5x11.indd 1
6 JANUARY 28, 2021
H EADLINES
Labor Leader Ted
Kirsch Dies at 81
O B I T UARY
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
TED KIRSCH, A TEACHER
and labor leader well-known
for his work in Philadelphia and
across the country, died on Jan.

19 at his home in Jenkintown.

Kirsch, who had been retired
for about 18 months, was 81.

Kirsch’s children, Joel
Kirsch and Jodie Kirsch
Lachman, said their father,
who had traveled the world,
visited the White House and
went to jail in 1973 during a
picket line protest on behalf of
the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers, had not quite fi gured
out what retirement looked
like. But even so, the man who
dedicated his life to the cause
of teachers and students was
content. “In the last few months,
this is what my dad would
say. He would say, ‘I lived my
life. I have no regrets,’” Kirsch
Lachman recalls.

Kirsch was born in South
Philadelphia to two trade
unionists, and was educated in
Philadelphia public schools on
his way to becoming the fi rst
person in his family to earn
a college degree, from what
was then West Chester State
Teachers College and Temple
University. When he was 18, he met his
future wife Roberta on a blind
date. Th ey were married for 57
years, until her death in 2017.

“Th ey were symbiotic,” Joel
Kirsch said. “It was just one of
those couples, where you say,
‘Oh, it’s Ted and Roberta.’”
Kirsch started out in the Th e
School District of Philadelphia
in 1960, teaching social studies
at Th omas Junior High School.

According to Th e Philadelphia
Inquirer, he is believed to
have taught the fi rst African
American history class in the
history of the school district
while he was at Overbrook
High School. Kirsch also taught
at Washington High School
and, at each destination, he
saw overcrowded classrooms,
overworked teachers and not
enough resources. In 1964,
he joined the Philadelphia
Federation of Teachers, still in
its infancy.

It was with the PFT that
Kirsch fl ourished. He met
Martin Luther King Jr. when
the civil rights leader came
to Philadelphia in support of
the union and, within three
years of joining, Kirsch was
elected to the executive board.

Soon aft er, Kirsch began to
work for the union full time.

Following a long stint as vice
president and staff director for
former PFT president Marvin
Schuman, Kirsch was elected
president in 1990.

For 17 years, Kirsch lead the
PFT through trials and tribula-
tions, strikes and negotiations
and everything else that comes
with leading a union of
thousands of state employees.

He became well-connected
within the world of Democratic
politics, becoming friends
with the Biden family and the
Clintons. Serving as secretary-
treasurer of the Philadelphia
Council AFL-CIO, Kirsch won
praise from national labor
leaders. Randi Weingarten,
president of the American
Federation of Teachers, told
Th e Philadelphia Inquirer that
Kirsch was “foundational to
the AFT, one of the people
who kept our movement
together.” At the end of his
time as president, he led the
state chapter of the union,
American Federation of
Teachers Pennsylvania, until
his retirement in 2019.

Arthur Steinberg knew
Kirsch for the majority of his
time in the movement, and
remembers his friend and
12/18/20 12:04 PM
JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM