Mira Furth, an energetic and cheerful 80-year-old who lives in the Bayit Balev Jerusalem retirement residence across the street from Sacher Park, spends much of her free time working with the children of the two kindergarten classes that meet in the Bayit Balev building, ranging in age from four and a half to six years old, developing arts and crafts projects. On a warm June Jerusalem morning that presaged the hot summer weather on its way, I met with Furth, who recounted her life experiences and how art and working with children have enriched her life immeasurably. As we drink coffee in the lobby, the woman in charge of the coffee bar exclaims, “There is nothing like this woman.
You will not find anyone like her!” Furth was born in Jerusalem, served in the IDF in the early 1960s, and lived in Kibbutz Mahanayim for a decade before returning to the capital. She met her future husband at work and married in 1985. Furth, together with her husband and daughter, moved to Ma’aleh Adumim, spending most of her career working in the computing unit of the State Revenue Department, when computers were operated by punch cards and later by terminals.
She retired in 2004. “My mother didn’t understand what I did,” she recalls, smiling. “The work was unusual and interesting, and I was successful.
” Furth never considered herself artistically gifted. It was only after retirement that she began taking classes in patchwork and quilting, and found within herself a heretofore hidde.
