Calendar

Felicia Shpall, Class of 1988

Remembering Felicia Shpall: Community mourns the loss of a teacher, spiritual leader

By Tracy Sullivan, from the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, April 15, 2005

Felicia Shpall, education director at Congregation B'nai Israel in Northampton and spiritual leader of Temple Beth Torah in Wethersfield, Conn., lost her battle with cancer on April 1, 2005. She was 34.

Shpall, who lived in Shelburne Falls, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. In the fall of 2004, she learned that the cancer had metastasized in her body. She died while seeking treatment in California.

Hundreds of people came to B'nai Israel on April 6 to pay tribute to Shpall. During her funeral, the sanctuary was filled with family, congregants, colleagues, students and their parents, friends - including fellow performers from the Double Edge Theater in Ashfield, Mass., bandmates from Klezamir, and fellow Buddhist chanters - and others whose lives were touched in some way by Shpall.

As friends and family gave eulogies, they remembered Shpall as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, Jewish educator, rabbi, singer, actress and friend.