Miriam Strickman Levitas papers

Shmuel Yankel Goldstein (1858) immigrated with his family to America from Zabludow, Poland in 1905 due to the steadily increasing pogroms in Russia in the early twentieth century. After arriving in Atlanta, the Goldstein family made roots and became one of the largest Jewish families in the southeast. Goldstein’s sixth child Ida, after graduating from high school in 1913, married Louis J. Levitas in 1920. Ida became president of the Atlanta Chapter of Hadassah as well as the chairman of Atlanta’s Welfare Fund Campaign. Ida and L.J.’s eldest son, Theodore, became a loved children’s dentist of the Atlanta area, earning his degree from Emory University after returning from World War II.

In 1976, Miriam Strickland married Ted Levitas. After 40 years of marriage, Ted died in 2016, at the age of 92. Ted was involved in the Jewish community of Atlanta through his Ahavath Achim congregation membership, as well as being a leader in the Anti-Defamation League and B’nai B’rith. Both Ted and Miriam were connected to the esteemed late Rabbi Harry H. Epstein, and his wife Reva Epstein, who were both successful promoters of Conservative Judaism in Atlanta- revolutionizing the Ahavath Achim congregation and creating the Epstein School- Solomon Schechter School in Atlanta.

Miriam Strickman Levitas is highly involved with the Atlanta Jewish community, earning the Woman of Achievement award from the Atlanta Jewish Federation in 1993. In 2018, she was presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Who’s Who award, in tandem with the same posthumous award for her husband. Currently, Miriam is a member of B’nai B’rith International, the Atlanta Film Festival, the Ahavath Achim Synagogue, and the National Council of Jewish Women.