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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/19075/full/19075/louise-taub-peace-activist-and-teacher-dies-at-61/ <br /><br /> <b>Louise Taub, peace activist and teacher, dies at 61</b> <br /> Friday, January 3, 2003 | by dan pine <br /><br /><p>One of the East Bay's most tireless peace activists and advocates for children has died.<br /><br /> Louise Taub, a veteran teacher at Temple Beth El's nursery school and a longtime member of Berkeley's Kehillah Community Synagogue, succumbed to breast cancer on Dec. 1 at her Berkeley home. She was 61.<br /><br /> "Louise had a million best friends," says Jill Shugart, former director of the Beth El nursery school and a close friend of Taub's since the early 1970s. "She absolutely lit up the room with her upbeat, incredibly warm personality."<br /><br /> As an active member of Kehillah, Taub taught religious school and tutored children preparing for their b'nai mitzvah ceremonies. "She was a radical Jewish feminist," recalls Shugart. "Louise took Jewish rituals and traditions, and made them her own."<br /><br /> Born in Los Angeles, Taub was, according to Shugart, "a red diaper baby. She grew up in a progressive, politically active home." After living for a time on an Israeli kibbutz, Taub attended U.C. Berkeley at the height of the social unrest of the 1960s.<br /><br /> After graduating from Mills College and earning an elementary school teaching credential, Taub taught at Berkeley's Berkwood Hedge School for a time. Later, she chose to work with preschoolers, settling in for a 17-year tenure at Temple Beth El.<br /><br /> "We had an amazing group of women at the school," recalls Shugart. "We were all together there for a long period of time together. Louise's forté was being with individual children and giving them her undivided attention. Amid the clamor, she would kneel down to their level, look them in the eye, put her hand on their shoulders and truly pay attention. Kids always remembered her. She was the Pied Piper."<br /><br /> As a teacher, Taub tried everything to reach her students. "She would use puppets and dress in costumes and wigs to make a point," said Shugart at Taub's memorial. "She would tell elaborate, improvised stories that kept the children spellbound. And she was our social conscience. Under her direction, children wrote letters to Julia Butterfly, sang the worker songs she grew up with and even told their parents that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to shop at the Gap!"<br /><br /> Beyond her work with children, Taub ran an independent massage therapy practice, and also worked for a variety of progressive causes in politics, the environment and the arts.<br /><br /> Nineteen years ago, Taub traveled to Mexico to adopt a daughter, Chela, now 24.<br /><br /> Being diagnosed with breast cancer some years ago only inspired in Taub a new direction for her social activism. "She became very active in the fight against breast cancer," notes Shugart. "Somehow, Louise dealt with the diagnosis very well, staying upbeat, doing a lot of swims and walks for breast cancer. She saw it as her job."<br /><br /> Even as cancer continued to take its relentless toll, Taub never gave in to despair. "She had a tremendous life force," says Shugart. "Louise was extraordinarily playful and always savored the moment. That's what she taught people. Her message was to live life fully."<br /><br /> At Taub's memorial service, Shugart said of her friend: "She once told us that she might not be cured from cancer but she would be healed. And healed she was, courageously shining a light on the underbelly of her fear and anxiety."<br /><br /> Shugart went on to say, "At the end, she told us that she really didn't have any reality on dying. All she really knew how to do was live. She was aware of what the doctors had told her, and she figured that one day she'd just get too tired and would be ready to let go. But for right now, she was just having too much fun."<br /><br /> Louise Taub is survived by her mother, Berte Taube of Walnut Creek; her daughter, Chela Taub; and her sister, Phyllis Greenleaf of Sonora.<br /><br /> Memorials may be made to Breast Cancer Action, 55 New Montgomery St., Suite 323, San Francisco 94105; Peace Action, 2800 Adeline St., Berkeley 94703; or East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, 339 11th St., Richmond 94801.</p>

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