Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Lillian Jacobs, Lived on Block for Century, Dies

Lillian Jacobs, who was recently featured in a New York Times article for living on the same block for 100 years, has died.

Jacobs, who moved to East 84th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side when she was 2, died Sunday on the same street at age 102. Her story was reported last month in a Times story titled “100 Years of Staying Put.”

Jacobs arrived on East 84th in 1911 or 1912 with her parents, who owned a candy store in the building. She has lived in five homes on the block, all within 1,200 feet of one another.

For many years Jacobs worked at Ramaz, a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school in the area. Though her title was assistant to the principal, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, the current principal and founder’s son, told The New York Times that it does not begin to describe her work at the school.

“She was the registrar, the admissions officer, the fund-raiser, the director of food services, the nurse, the school psychologist, the parent liaison – I’m not gilding the lily here,” said Lookstein.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version