Lois Roisman (March 29, 1938 – June 2, 2008) was an American philanthropist, playwright and poet.

Background

Lois Levin was a native of

Fayetteville, Texas Fayetteville is a city in Fayette County, Texas, United States. The population was 246 at the 2020 census. History The town is located in an area that was originally granted to Alex Thompson and George Cumberland. Fayetteville's first immigra ...

, and a graduate of the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

. Following her marriage to Arnold Fagin, with whom she had three children (Barry Fagin, Dan Fagin and Lisa Fagin Davis), she spent much of her early life in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

, where she was a medical editor, ran a charitable group and helped start a summer arts program for grade-school students. Following her divorce in 1976 she married Anthony Roisman and relocated to

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

in 1980.

Career

Roisman was the first executive director of the

Jewish Funds for Justice Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, the first national Jewish grant-making organization focused on supporting non-Jewish causes in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Roisman was previously executive director of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation. Roisman spent over 20 years in the field of philanthropy. The

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wi ...

in 1986 reported that Roisman believed that "political and religious developments were causing Jews to reassess their position in American life. "The

Moral Majority The Moral Majority was an American political organization and movement associated with the Christian right and the Republican Party in the United States. It was founded in 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell Sr. and associates, and dissolv ...

's call for the

Christianization Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individu ...

of America underlines the importance of a more active Jewish participation in efforts to create a just society", she said. Initial grants made by the fund were to

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

s in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, homeless

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

s in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and

low-income Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse

Mexican-American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...

s in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

." The group was also an early funder of a young community organizer in Chicago named

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

. While living in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, Roisman and others founded the charity, Silent Partners to give assistance, albeit anonymously, to the Neval Thomas Elementary School in the struggling

Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast (Washington, D.C.), Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Marion Barry Avenue (formerly Good Hope Road) SE and the neighborhood contains commercial and gover ...

section. According to Roisman's June 13, 2008 obituary in ''The Washington Post'', Silent Partners purchased supplies and provided unrestricted funds to use throughout the school year to pay for field trips and other activities. In 1993 she was quoted in the '' Washingtonian'' magazine that the "silent" aspect also taught a lesson to the children of the more-affluent donors, that "the highest form of philanthropy is anonymous".

Death

Roisman later moved to Lyme, New Hampshire, with her second husband, the environmental attorney Anthony Roisman, where she concentrated on writing plays and poetry. She died in Lyme, New Hampshire from congestive heart disease in 2008, aged 70.

Plays

Her seven plays included ''Nobody's Gilgul'', a comedy about a female lawyer and an angel from the

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

or poor Jewish community. It was performed at community theaters nationally and won the Outstanding New Play award at the 1993 Source Theater Festival in the District of Columbia. This was later memorialized in her anthology, ''Making A Scene: The Contemporary Drama of Jewish Women'' and another drama, ''The Linden Tree'', earned Roisman the 2001 Vermont Playwrights Award.

Poetry

Her poetry was frequently published in journals, including the ''Litchfield Review and Light Quarterly'', and she won the 2005 Petra Kenney poetry competition in the category of comic verse. Her first book of poetry, published posthumously, was ''The Verse Within: Conversing with Hasidic Tales''.Lois Roisman's official webpage
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roisman, Lois 1938 births 2008 deaths Writers from Oklahoma City People from Fayette County, Texas People from Lyme, New Hampshire American women poets American women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American poets 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American philanthropists 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women