Alice Ahart

October 7, 1932 - May 2, 2021

Alice Ahart, our beloved mother, sister, and grandmother of Germantown, Tennessee passed away peacefully in her sleep on May 2, 2021. Alice Ahart was born in Windsor Ontario, Canada on October 7, 1932. She was the eldest child of Rita Seigel and Isador Glattstein who immigrated from Romania and Poland in the hopes of a better life for their children. Alice arrived in Detroit Michigan at the age of 14 and became a U.S. citizen in 1954, one of the proudest moments in her life. Alice had a life-long love of reading and education which she attributed to an enthusiastic librarian at the Windsor public library who issued her, her very first library card at the age of 9 and to her parents who encouraged her education as a path to a better life. Alice was the first person in her family to attend college and received a bachelor’s degree from Marietta College and a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota. She had a distinguished career as a speech and language pathologist providing services to disabled children and adults in Illinois and later in Tennessee. Alice was an advocate for the rights of the disabled and received the Francis J. Gerty Award from the State of Illinois for her work with disabled children and their parents. At the age of 60, she relocated to Tennessee which was her home for 28 years. Alice had a curiosity and zest for life that was infectious. She loved the arts, was a volunteer docent at the Dixon Museum, and loved attending music and theater performances in the Memphis area. She served on the board of the Cordova Friends of the Library and was a volunteer radio reader for the Memphis Public Library program to bring books to the blind. Alice was an active member of Temple Israel, helping arrange cultural programs including a feature on Albania’s little-known history of rescuing Jews during World War II. Alice was always interested in learning about other cultures and travel. She was a host family to international university students in Illinois and joked that she dreamed of seeing the Taj Mahal before it was turned into a McDonald’s. In her later years, she was able to realize this dream, traveling with her daughters to India, Pakistan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Germany, France, and Austria. Alice was an inspiration to her daughters, Ariel and Shoshanna Ahart and to her grandchildren Kip and Aliya Lu. She lived everyday to its fullest with compassion, kindness, and an unending curiosity about life. She is survived by her loving sister Louise Oram, her daughters and their husbands Donald Lu, Andreas Karlstetter, her grandchildren and a wide circle of family and friends around the world who love her dearly and will miss her laughter and enthusiasm for living life. In celebration of Alice Ahart’s life, those who wish may consider a donation to: (1) Friends of the Cordova Library https://www.memphislibrary.org/about/locations/cordova-library/ ; (2) plant a tree in Israel https://usa.jnf.org/jnf-tree-planting-center/