In the days after her death, stories about Vivi Sadel began to surface — former students who said she shaped their lives, community members who recalled her showing up whenever help was needed, and friends who said she made each of them feel like they mattered.
Those memories reflected a life defined by teaching, Jewish commitment and an unwavering connection to Israel, said her sister Estee Solar. “I would say it was in her DNA.”
Sadel, of Holland, was a Jewish educator and Zionist activist whose love of Israel and commitment to Jewish life shaped nearly everything she did. She died on Feb. 26 at 56.
Born in Haifa on July 28, 1969, she was the youngest of three children of Holocaust survivors Ezra and Sara Sherman. Her father survived the war after escaping into the forest as a boy and later joining the Palmach, the elite pre-state Jewish fighting force in British Mandate Palestine that later became part of the Israel Defense Forces. Her mother reached Palestine aboard the Exodus, the refugee ship that became a symbol of Jewish resistance before statehood.
Those histories were not distant family stories but part of Sadel’s understanding of herself and her responsibilities as a Jew.
After the family left Israel following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, they lived briefly on Long Island, New York, before settling in Northeast Philadelphia.
Their Pine Valley home was not strictly observant, but Judaism and Israel were always present. Hebrew was spoken at home, holidays were observed and Israel was discussed often.
“We had a very Israeli household,” Solar said. “Israel was always spoken about.”
Sadel strongly embraced that identity. Her husband, Dr. Keith Sadel, said she was the most openly Zionist member of her family and remained deeply connected to Israel throughout her life. She visited often in her younger years and maintained close ties to relatives there.
The couple met in a Spanish class at Baldi Middle School, remained friendly through high school and reconnected at Temple University. They married in 1994.
“We just gelled,” he said. “She and I just always had a good time.”
Even as a teenager, she gravitated toward Jewish life. As a counselor at Golden Slipper Camp after high school, she led Shabbat services for campers.
Sadel attended George Washington University and Drexel University before completing her studies at Temple and later earning a master’s degree from Arcadia University while working full-time.
She worked as a substitute teacher, including at Neshaminy High School, while her husband was in medical school, and later in Philadelphia schools, including work with students with additional needs.
Those closest to her said her deepest teaching passion was Jewish education.
Over the years, Sadel taught Hebrew school at Congregation Shaare Shamayim in Philadelphia, Ohev Shalom in Richboro and Tifereth Israel in Bensalem. Fluent in Hebrew, she ran the resource room at Ohev Shalom, helping students who struggled with reading the language. She also tutored children for bar and bat mitzvah.
Sadel was known for meeting students where they were, using visual and hands-on methods to help them learn.
“She loved teaching Hebrew,” her husband said. “She loved teaching the history, she loved teaching the language. It was her passion.”
Her impact lasted. Former students came to her funeral, including adults who still remembered her from Hebrew school. One woman told the family Sadel inspired her to become a teacher.
Sadel brought the same intensity to family life. After the births of her sons, Benjamin in 2000 and Sidney in 2002, she devoted herself to raising them.
When one of her sons was injured as a child, she researched education options, changed schools and took a job at AIM Academy so she could be nearby.
“She did everything for her family, everything for her kids,” Keith Sadel said.
She also became an important partner in her husband’s medical practice, helping him open his own office and later transition to concierge medicine.
“If she didn’t know a topic, she would teach it to herself,” Solar said.
Her sister described their relationship as unusually close.
“We were best friends,” Solar said. “We would talk or text seven or eight times a day.”
Vivi Sadel referred to them as the “rescue sisters,” because whenever something needed to be handled for the family, they were the ones who showed up.
After Oct. 7, 2023, Sadel’s advocacy intensified. She became involved with the Israeli-American Council and the Zionist Organization of America, lobbying in Harrisburg and Washington on issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
She also created “Operation Ezra,” named for her father, to raise money for equipment and supplies for the Golani Brigade, an elite infantry unit connected to relatives in Israel.
After Oct. 7, Solar said, her sister was “extremely vocal any which way she could be,” attending rallies, wearing a hostage dog tag and handing out yellow pins. “She was the true sabra” a native-born Israeli Jew and prickly pear cactus, “strong on the outside and sweet on the inside.”
She also helped preserve her family’s Holocaust history by bringing her father into schools to speak with students and supporting efforts to document her parents’ experiences.
Three years ago, Sadel became active at Newtown Chabad, where she made close friends and volunteered regularly.
The day before she died, Sadel went twice to Chabad to help prepare for Purim, including making hamantaschen.
Those who knew her said it captured something essential about her life — always showing up and helping others.
“What would I want people to remember?” Keith Sadel said. “Just the kind of person she was and how smart she was and how giving she was. She was such a good Jew.”
Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer.