Ruth Siegel is turning 100!

Born in Baltimore, Maryland on November 26, 1920, Ruth was the oldest of three children (Elaine and Billy). Ruth’s father, Benjamin C. Benjamin, came from Slabodka, Russia when he was a young child, and her mother, Reba Lipnick Benjamin, was also born in Baltimore.

At a young age, Ruth and her parents moved to Tarboro, North Carolina where her father opened a dry goods store. There was no Jewish community, and they had to get their kosher food from Norfolk. To this day, Ruth remembers vividly the racial inequity and the segregation in every area of life. When Ruth’s paternal grandfather passed away, the family returned to live in Baltimore so that her father could help with her grandfather’s business. 

Unlike most young, Jewish girls of her time, Ruth attended Hebrew school. She was an excellent student and skipped two grades to graduate from high school at the age of 16. Ruth was the only one of her friends who attended college (Towson Teachers’ College then; they could not afford a four-year college), which today is Towson University. Because Ruth received a teaching degree, which in those years was a two-year degree, she was determined to go back to school for a four-year college degree. She returned to Delaware and attended the University of Delaware in the 60s and received her BA degree in 1968.

While in college, Ruth accepted a job teaching Hebrew school on Sundays at an ultra-orthodox shul. They asked her if she was shomer Shabbat and whether she danced with boys. Ruth, true to herself (as she always was!) told the truth . . . and they hired her anyway.

In addition to attending secular college, Ruth’s father sent her to Hebrew College; he used to say, “If you educate a man, you educate one person; if you educate a woman, you educate a family.” Education was of utmost importance to Ruth’s family; Ruth would later propagate this value to her own children.

Ruth and Bernard Siegel grew up on the same street in Baltimore and dated all through high school and college and were married in 1941. Ruth began to work after graduating teachers’ college as a 2nd grade teacher for $15 a week. Bernard went into business in Elkton, Maryland at the end of 1944, and in May of 1945 the couple moved into a four-bedroom house in Elkton without even seeing it first. Bernard promised to stay for only a year (because it was a small town with few Jews), but they remained in Elkton for 9 1/2 years.

In time, four children were born: Miriam (1942), Roslyn (1946), Debbie (1948), and David (1952). The family moved to Wilmington to Brandywine Hills where Ruth still lives today, and true to Ruth’s non-materialistic nature, the home is almost exactly the same!

Staunch Zionists, Ruth and Bernard travelled to Israel for six weeks leaving four children home . . . her children still kid her about that to this day. The couple became very involved in the Jewish community in many ways. Ruth was the chair of Women’s Division of Israel Bonds. She chaired Torah Fund Luncheons and Sunday night Lecture Series, and taught pre-school at the JCC from 1968-1974. She served on both the Synagogue and Hebrew School boards. Ruth taught Hebrew to adults and tutored adult immigrants in English and tutored underprivileged children in the inner city.

Ruth, dedicated to education in general, and Jewish education in particular, recognized the need for secondary Jewish education for students who had completed Bar and Bat Mitzvah and wanted to continue their education. She worked with Gratz college in Philadelphia to establish the Gratz Hebrew High School Program in Wilmington and was the first president of that branch of Gratz College and held that position for 10 years. Ruth was involved in Hadassah through Congregation Beth Shalom, and she was involved in a Mishna study group for years. Unusual for her generation, she learned to read Haftorah when she was in her 50s and was a frequent reader of Torah and Haftorah, chanting a portion at her grandchildren’s B’nai Mitzvah.  

In addition to Ruth’s four children, she has ten grandchildren and seventeen great grandchildren. She has been an incredible role model and matriarch to all of them. Ruth is admired, respected, and beloved by all. She has a reputation for trying to educate everyone, all of the time, as she always clipped articles and mailed them to children and grandchildren. It was a family joke that everyone would get at least one article from Ruey (that’s what they call her) every week. Ruth was crowned queen of “saving the planet” . . . always turning out lights, recycling EVERYTHING, and lecturing her family when they did not follow suit. She would even cut her paper towels in half so as not to waste them.

“Mom is always positive and pleasant. She never complains, is always appreciative and supportive of all of us no matter what. She greets us with happy ‘good morning wishes’ and ends the day with laila tov and cheerio! Always with a bounce in her voice,” shares daughter, Roslyn.

“She has truly been the matriarch, the glue that keeps us together and teaches us what is important in life – family. And we are all grateful for that.”