Lola E. Jaffe (nee Schweitzer), beloved wife of the late Edwin A. Jaffe, passed away peacefully at home of natural causes on July 7, 2021 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Lola was born on January 3, 1926 and grew up in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan. As a young child, she appeared on the radio as “Baby Lola,” reciting works of poetry. She studied theater at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon).
When she married Ed Jaffe in 1947, she moved to Fall River, Massachusetts, where she became the proud mother of four children: Walter, Allan, Bob, and Donna. During their early life together, Lola and Ed were extremely active in social and political activities in Fall River and southeastern Massachusetts. She was an avid bridge player and achieved Life Master status. After Lola and Ed built their house in 1968, they divided their time between Stockbridge and Manhattan.
Lola had a lifelong love for the performing arts, which she instilled in her entire family. Lola served actively on the board of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the world-renowned dance mecca in Becket, Massachusetts, for 17 years. She also was active for many years on the board of the Friends of the Israeli Philharmonic. Lola and Ed were honored by the American Israel Cultural Foundation and received The King Solomon Award.
Lola’s proudest achievement was the creation of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington in 2003. This jewel box of a theater, whose stage is named after her, injected new life into Great Barrington and has become one of the major performing arts centers in the United States.
Among Lola Jaffe’s many honors, she was named 2006 Person of the Year by the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce and the 2007 Citizen of the Year by the Great Barrington Rotary. She received an Honorary Doctorate from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) in May 2008, the 2010 ISPA (International Society for the Performing Arts) Angel Award, and the 2016 Berkshire Museum Berkshire Award.
A special focus of Lola’s was exposing young people to the arts. She and Ed supported an annual fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center. She was proud to establish ALFEA (Anne Levinson Fund for Experiencing the Arts), a program in which Lola brought Berkshire high school students to New York City to expose them to the fine and performing arts.
Lola was the daughter of the late Anne Levinson. She leaves behind her four children and their spouses, Walter Jaffe and Paul King, Allan and Toby Jaffe, Bob and Jill Jaffe, and Donna and Bill Fishbein, her eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Sunday, July 11 at 11:30 a.m. at Berkshire South Regional Community Center, 15 Crissey Road, Great Barrington, MA. The wearing of masks is preferred. A memorial service in the Berkshires will be planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, P.O. Box 690, Great Barrington, MA 01230.
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July 09, 2021 at 04:24AM
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Lola E. Jaffe, 95, founder of Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center - theberkshireedge.com
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