Marlene Glickman, 87, Jewish community leader who bettered many causes

Wherever Marlene Glickman went, she rose to the forefront.

First active in the Sisterhood at the former Temple Beth Am, now Shir Shalom, she twice served as president.

She also was elected president of the synagogue in 1978, the first woman to hold the office, and was returned for another term in 2002.

She went on to become the first woman president of the Northeast Lakes Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1982, overseeing 67 congregations in a five-state area.

She chaired the women’s division of the United Jewish Fund and, in 1982, chaired the fund campaign’s first Super Sunday telethon. She also chaired a division for the United Way of Buffalo and Erie County.

“She wouldn’t say no,” her son Joseph said. “They found out she was a good leader, a good organizer and a good fundraiser.”

She died Jan. 22 after a period of declining health. She was 87.

Born Marlene Foreman in Evansville, Ind., the second of three children, she grew up in Cincinnati and Portsmouth, Ohio, where her father, Morris J. Foreman, managed shoe stores.

A talented vocalist, she majored in music at The Ohio State University, where she met another music major, Marshall L. Glickman, singing in the choir at Temple Israel in Columbus. They were married Jan. 9, 1956.

She and her husband came to Buffalo in 1961 when his uncle offered him a position as sales manager at Ruslander and Sons, a fifth-generation company that was the parent of Jewett Inc., a refrigerator manufacturer.

Mrs. Glickman and her husband joined newly-formed Temple Beth Am in Amherst and sang in the choir. She became active in the Sisterhood, started the Judaica shop and chaired committees, along with the temple’s annual Carousel Ball.

She was elected Sisterhood president in 1969 and 1976. Then she was elected to the national board of governors of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods.

At that time, she also was secretary of the board of…