Libby Sherbin, a resident of Beverly Hills, Michigan, died on November 27th, 2022 at the age of 91. Funeral services arranged by The Dorfman Chapel.
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Raised in Chicago’s West Side, Libby and her twin sister Shuly were born less than a year after her parents Paische and Rachel were reunited following a years-long separation forced on them by quota restrictions. Her father was unable to enter America due to limits on Russian immigrants and waited in London while still supporting her mother and older sister Fagle, who remained in Minsk running the family dry-goods store. A younger brother, Arnold, was born several years later.
Libby’s large Yiddish-speaking family lived in a small two-bedroom apartment, supported by her father’s work as an ice- and coal-delivery man using a horse-drawn wagon, one of the last in Chicago. Libby was an active member of HashomerHatzair, the Labor Zionist movement and considered making Aliyah in 1949. She attended University of Illinois Champaign Urbana on a scholarship, where she studied anthropology and worked summers at the Jewish resorts in South Haven, Michigan.
In the summer of 1950, she met Jerry, who was working as a waiter at Lester’s Clover Lodge, and he proposed to her the following year at Cranbrook’s Orpheus Fountain. Together, they raised three sons, Robert, David and Joshua.
When her sons were old enough, Libby went back to school to complete her undergraduate degree and masters degree in Speech and Language Pathology from Wayne State University and spent 25 years working in the Detroit Public School System, including more than 15 years at the Detroit Day School for the Deaf. She became fluent in American Sign Language, immersed herself in the deaf culture and spent much of each school year raising funds to allow underprivileged students to spend summers at the Shady Trails Camp for the speech and hearing impaired.In 2006, she was honored for her contributions, and was thrilled to have a tree planted in her name on the grounds of the camp.
After retiring, Libby worked for many child-focused, charitable and cultural causes, including Oakland County’s Court Appointed Children’s Advocate Program, which she chaired for a number of years, as well as the National Council of Jewish Women. In 2016, in recognition of her years of work supporting children, Jewish Senior Life presented her with an Eight Over Eighty Tikkun Olam Award.
Libby was an avid reader, bridge player, opera and chamber music enthusiast and loved doubles tennis. She and Jerry traveled extensively throughout the world and loved spending the month of February in Mexico. They enjoyed a broad circle of life-long friends, many associated with the Birmingham Temple, where they were early members. They were avid supporters of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, which they attended annually beginning in the late 1950s, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
The greatest passion and joy in Libby’s life was her cherished family, whom she inspired, advised, loved deeply and fed constantly. She was preceded in death byJerry, her beloved husbandof 65 years. She is survived by her three sons and daughters-in-law Robert and Mollie, David and Abbe and Joshua and Lisa; and her eight dear grandchildren Isaac, Baila and Judith; Liza and Anna; and Eve, Noah and Sophie; her brother-in-law Herbert Sherbin, cousin Evelyn Diskin and many nieces and nephews.
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