Highly respected seminary editor Shari Friedman, 90

Shari Friedman (née Ostow), a 60-year resident of Riverdale and a 53-year resident of Fieldston, died at home on Feb. 21, 2020. She was 90.

Born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 1929, she attended the Crown Heights Yeshiva, and after a brief stint at Erasmus Hall High School, graduated from The Dalton School. She then earned her bachelor’s degree from Smith College, and her master’s degree in English from Columbia University.

She began her professional life as an assistant to Dr. Louis Finkelstein, then chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and later worked at the seminary as a highly respected editor for more than three decades.

She was a longtime member of Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale.

She was a talented cook and hostess, a voracious reader, a lover of classical piano, and possessed a first-rate design sense. Her curiosity about other cultures and places can be seen in her travels, which took her to the Arctic, Siberia, Lapland, Iceland, the Outer Hebrides, China, Bhutan, Ladakh, Turkey, Kamchatka, Mongolia, and along the Silk Road.

She was married for 35 years to Stanley Friedman, a pioneer in the field of securities law, who in 1971 founded the law firm Shereff Friedman Hoffman & Goodman. He died prematurely at 64 in 1992.

She is survived by her children, Jessica Friedman, Alexandra Friedman and Sophia Roslin; grandchildren Aron and Jonah Wander, and Sydney, Chloe and Noah Roslin; sister Evelyn Mandelker; and son-in-law Matthew Roslin.

Her brother, Mortimer Ostow — also a longtime Riverdale resident — died In 2006.

The funeral was held at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel in Manhattan on Feb. 24, 2020.