Marcia Burnam

92, Los Angeles

Four years ago, Marcia Burnam began thinking seriously about her legacy. But she was not concerned with how the world would remember her charitable efforts or her decades of groundbreaking activism. Rather, she wanted to make sure that her seven grandchildren knew who she was and could carry on some of her wisdom. She decided to make a video for them.

“The only thing you can keep in life is what you give away,” Burnam said to start the message. “That’s what I’d like to teach my grandchildren. We all have a responsibility for each other.”

Burnam could not have foreseen that those words would play an integral part of a memorial service for her that had to be streamed online because of social distancing measures.

She died April 1 of complications from the novel coronavirus at age 92 in West L. A. Days later, hundreds of admirers from around the globe gathered virtually to pay their respects.

“If there was a woman who proved we can be together while physically apart, Marcia Burnam was that woman,” said Senior Rabbi Ken Chasen of Leo Baeck Temple, who presided over the memorial. Passionate about justice and interfaith and interracial understanding, Burnam headed the Portraits of American Women panel in the 1960s. She later held leadership positions at the American Jewish Committee. She also served on the national board of overseers of Hebrew Union College, where she mentored students.

“The relentless shaper and builder of the Jewish people, a student hungry for Jewish learning, a leader committed to Jewish growth and excellence, a visionary driven to unite people despite and sometimes because of their differences,” Chasen described her.

Burnam was the daughter of Moses Garbus, who she said was among the first entertainment lawyers in Hollywood. But she took after her mother, Grace Garbus, who at 30 was the president of the National Council of Jewish Women in Los Angeles, working to settle refugees from Germany during World War II. Burnam attended Vassar College, where she said she was mentored by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She left there for the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.

She returned to West Los Angeles, where she met and married Norman Burman. They had two children, Beth and Bruce. She found her calling by earning a certificate in counseling and working as a social worker in the 1970s.

In 1983, the Burnams took in an Ethiopian 14- year- old named Tewodros “Teddy” Gedebou, who wanted to come to the U. S. to be a doctor. With Burnam’s help, he studied at Stanford and UC San Francisco and later returned to Ethiopia, where he became a renowned surgeon and started the Marcia Burnam Surgicenter.

“The one constant in my ever- changing life was Marcia’s purest love,” Gedebou said in the video.