| The Highland Park community is saddened by the January 21, 2016 loss of Ms. Claire Berkowitz, who served on the Highland Park School Board of Education from 2012 to 2015 and who distinguished herself in the community as a passionate advocate of civic engagement, social justice and quality education for all children. The Highland Park Education Foundation (HPEF) has set up a fund for social studies education and civic engagement in her honor and memory at the following link: http://www.hpefnj.org/the-claire-s.-berkowitz-memorial-fund…Ms. Berkowitz, wife of Daniel Goldstein and mother of Benjamin and Elias, had resided in Highland Park with her family since 2005 and turned 50 years old only a few weeks ago.The funeral will take place on Monday, January 25 at 10:30 am at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple followed by interment at the Montefiore Cemetery in Jenkinton, PA. The family will sit Shiva at their home in Highland Park on Monday following interment and Tuesday from 3 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Shiva will continue at Julie and Henry Berkowitz’s home, 745 Camp Wood Road in Villanova, PA on Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Services will be held each evening at 7 p.m.Claire started her career in the nonprofit world after receiving a degree in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. She moved to Tucson, AZ in 1990, where she discovered her love for and commitment to excellence in education and obtained her teaching certificate, working as a high school social studies teacher for several years in the Tucson Unified School District. She received her master’s degree in education from Miami University of Ohio and then taught at a middle school in Worcester, MA, where she developed innovative social studies curricula. After relocating to Highland Park in 2005, Claire earned a supervisor’s certificate and took a position as Supervisor of Social Studies and Art in the New Brunswick Public School System, where she remained until fall of 2015. A fluent Spanish speaker, Claire also spent many summers and sabbatical years with her family in Bolivia, forging deep connections with communities in Cochabamba, where she taught English at a local school and extended her skills and expertise to teachers through professional development workshops. Throughout her career, Claire cared deeply about providing high quality education for all children and sought innovative ways to bring social studies to life in ways that spoke to children’s lived experiences. |