By Goldie Fields, Executive Editor

Paul Feder, a founder and benefactor of Shalhevet, died July 28 at the age of 94 after a long illness. An ardent supporter of Israel and other Jewish causes, Mr. Feder was a Holocaust survivor and community leader, and a fervent proponent of Jewish education.

With his wife Margaret and children Donald, Helene and Steven, Mr. Feder supported Shalhevet financially and also provided advice when the school was founded in 1993.  His daughter-in-law, Esther Feder, was  Board President from 2008 to ‘11, and his grandchildren Josh ’10, Ariana ’13, and Nicole ’15 have all attended.

“He always supported Shalhevet,” said Dr. Jerry Friedman, founder and head-of-school emeritus.  “He also gave that love of Jewish education to his kids.”

Dr. Friedman said he and Mr. Feder worked together to gain rabbinical and community approval for the first co-educational Modern-Orthodox school in Los Angeles. He called his relationship with the Feder family “one of the best relationships we had personally and we had at Shalhevet.”

A funeral service was held July 2 9 at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Simi Valley, attended by more than 200.  There were 10 eulogies, delivered by a range of rabbis and relatives including Joshua and Ariana.

Dr. Friedman, Shalhevet Head of School Rabbi Ari Segal, Board President Larry Gill, Executive Director Robyn Lewis and Director of Development Claire Benyowitz attended.

Born in 1920 in Frankfurt, Germany and raised in Rzeszow, Poland, his grandfather — who was later killed by the Nazis — inspired him to achieve Talmudic success.

According to Josh and Ariana, at the age of 13 Mr. Feder earned one of only two scholarships to the famed Yeshiva Chachmai Lublin — “the Harvard of Yeshivot,” the said — by mastering and memorizing 250 pages of Gemara as part of the entrance exam.

One month before the Nazis invaded Poland, Mr. Feder, 17, was imprisoned by Russian troops. In terrible conditions in a Ukrainian prison, Mr. Feder demonstrated tenacity and strength, his son Donald said.

Protesting his imprisonment Mr. Feder set out to petition Russian leader Joseph Stalin to release him.  When prison guards refused to provide him with paper to write his appeal, he went on a hunger strike until the guards relented.   Later, when Mr. Feder was sentenced as a revolutionary and spy, he is said to have laughed in his captors’ faces.

Ariana said her grandfather lived by Reb Nachman of Bratzlav’s saying: “The whole world is a narrow bridge and the main thing to recall is not to fear at all, adding that he often told his grandchildren,“No matter what someone can take from you, they can never take your education.”

After his release from prison in 1942, Mr. Feder fled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan and built a successful business with his brother and cousin.  He eventually moved to Los Angeles with his wife and established a thriving real estate business.

Responding by e-mail to Boiling Point questions, Robyn Lewis called Mr. Feder “an icon in the community.”

“He and his family so generously supported Shalhevet, that without their support, Shalhevet would not be in existence today,” Mrs. Lewis wrote.

Mr. Feder is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren, and by the entire Shalhevet community.