It was a battle she had fought for years, and a battle she ultimately lost. Joyce Shane was well-loved in her two overlapping Jewish communities — that of Congregation Beth Shalom, where she had long been involved as a member and educator, and of the Seattle Jewish Community School, where she served as head of school for 10 years.
Joyce succumbed to cancer on July 2. She was 69 years old.
“There’s going to be a big hole in Jewish education here,” said Joyce’s husband, Barry Shane.
Joyce Levy was born in Boston, Mass. in 1941 and lived in a Jewish section of the Dorchester neighborhood. She met Barry Shane at the age of 10.
“We were in the 4th grade together, the 6th grade together, we went to Hebrew school together,” Barry said.
They had their first date in high school, and the two married in 1965.
Joyce’s life was steeped in Jewish education. Upon her high school graduation, she spent a year in Israel, then attended Barnard College. She earned Master’s degrees in Hebrew literature from Hebrew Teachers College and in education from Oregon State University.
Joyce held the position of director of education at Congregation Beth Shalom during a sabbatical year in Seattle in the late 1980s — Barry is a college professor — before returning to Portland to serve as assistant principal at the Portland Jewish Academy and director of her congregation’s Hebrew school.
The Shanes came back to Seattle in 1995, when Joyce became principal of what was then known as the Seattle Jewish Primary School. She retired due to her fight with cancer.
According to Debra Butler, who both preceded and succeeded Joyce as head of school at SJCS, Joyce had a deep, abiding love for children.
“Joyce loved the school and the staff, but she especially loved the students,” Butler said in her eulogy at Joyce’s funeral. “For the rest of my life, I think that Joyce’s memory of goodness and derech eretz [the way of kindness] will accompany and guide me. Even though she will not be here physically, her advice and inspiration will continue, as we remember her.”
Butler noted that in their friendship they had a mutual love for theater — including one outing to Late Night Catechism — and ice cream sundaes.
When in Seattle during the sabbatical year, the Shanes attended services at Beth Shalom. Though Joyce had taught many children their Bar Mitzvah portions, she had never ascended to the bima herself. But with urging from then-Rabbi Dov Gartenberg, she began to lead services and read Torah.
“And then of course she blossomed, because she was the best,” Barry said.
“Joyce became a truly beloved shaliach tzibur (service leader) and leyner (Torah reader) whose radiance filled the room when she davened or read Torah,” said SJCS Judaics teacher Beth Huppin in her eulogy. “For her, it was always about helping us connect to God and to the Torah. And she succeeded. When Joyce led Kol Nidre, she transported us.”
But, as a teacher, she was also a stickler for method and detail.
“Her attention to proper pronunciation and nusach (proper melodies) was well-known,” Huppin said. “Anyone who wanted to learn how to lead services or read Torah properly went to Joyce. If she trained you, you put the accents in the right place.”
Still, said Barry, “she had a grace about her that people respected because she was so accepting of everyone and had very high standards of behavior.”
One of Joyce’s other loves was singing. When she and Barry were first married, “she applied for a job at a summer camp,” Barry said. “To show her skill, she wrote down the names of 100 songs that she could both play on the guitar and sing at the same time.”
To that end, Joyce’s family is working to build an online resource of weekly Torah portions, haftarot, and services she recorded over the span of 40 years. They are asking anyone who has possession of a tape with Joyce’s lesson to deliver the tape, with the owner’s name and contact information, to Congregation Beth Shalom, 6800 35th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98115. All recordings will be digitized and returned to their owners. They are also seeking small donations to get the site up and running.
The site, which will be online in the next few weeks at http://www.morahjoyce.org, will offer these educational resources as a free download to anyone who wants them.
In addition to the many students at both SJCS and Beth Shalom, both formal and informal, she leaves behind husband Barry, children Bryna and Joshua, daughter-in-law Shoshana, and her grandson, Spinoza.
— Joel Magalnick