Rabbi Margaret Holub, of the Mendocino Coast Jewish Community, conducted the funeral service for Barbara on May 13, 2013.
Barbara had asked that five friends and colleagues, gathered from different phases of her life, be invited to speak as well. Their remarks are shared here:
- Rabbi Margaret Holub
- Jane Zones, women’s health activist and former Breast Cancer Action board member
- The Honorable Thelton E. Henderson, US District Court, Northern District of California
- Heather Sawitsky, attorney and college classmate
- Barbra Wiener, women’s health activist and former executive director of the Minneapolis Women’s Cancer Resource Center
- Kathleen Purcell, partner at Remcho, Johansen and Purcell, attorneys
Barbara’s life and passing have also been memorialized in a number of obituaries, both in print and on the internet (some of these posts/stories draw on each other):
San Francisco Business Journal
New York Times (partially reprinted in the Boston Globe and elsewhere, and chosen as the Obituary of the Day on wnyc)
Los Angeles Times, reprinted in the Washington Post with a headline that would have offended Barbara (never the breast cancer awareness advocate). For BCA’s response to the Post’s headline, click here.
MsBlog: two posts: one by Gayle Sulik and one by Peggy Orenstein
Canadian Women’s Health Network
Airheads, a blog by Alan Muller
And, finally, this post – which is not an obituary, but which carries on the spirit of Barbara:
Mastectomies, Movie Stars, Media, and Medicine, by Elayne Clift
I have heard rabbis say that death ends a life, but not a relationship, and these beautiful words are reminders that the relationship Barbara had with so many of us will never end and that her fight for justice will be continued by those she touched.