Fanny Myers Falk

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3AUS-QQS-mss54...

Fanny Edel Falk (1879-1910), daughter of Freda and Jacob Edel, was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, and raised in Richmond. She was graduated from the Richmond Women’s College at the age of fourteen and later attended Madame Isaac’s School in Auteuil, France. This school was established to educate the daughters of the Jewish elite in France, England and America. After spending a year in France, Fanny moved with her family to San Francisco, where she spent the following two years.

At the wedding of her cousin in January of 1900, Fanny Edel, the maid of honor, met Leon Falk, the best man. They were married the following November. Their first child, Leon Falk, Jr., was born in 1901, followed by a daughter, Marjorie Falk (later Marjorie Falk Levy) born in 1904. Both Leon and Fanny Falk were very involved in Jewish community life in Pittsburgh. Leon was a life trustee of Rodef Shalom Congregation, as well as a director of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association and a trustee of the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. Leon was also very interested in progressive education; he made significant financial contributions to the Community School in Pittsburgh. Leon and Maurice Falk together established the Falk Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh.

After the death of Fanny Edel Falk in 1910, Leon Falk donated money for the creation of The Fanny Edel Falk Memorial at Rodef Shalom; it contained a library, gym and swimming pool. Leon Falk’s second marriage was to Ruth Levy, a daughter of Rabbi J. Leonard Levy. Leon Falk, Sr. died in 1928. His children carried on his support of progressive education by establishing, in 1931, the Fanny Edel Falk Elementary School, an alternative, progressive institution which absorbed the earlier Community School.