Gail (Jaffe) Korinow, 63, of Haverhill, wife, mother, bubbe, teacher and leader, died Friday morning after a long battle with cancer.
Her last few months were surrounded by family and friends and will be missed by many for her commitment to Jewish life. Yaffah, as her students called her, grew up in Mattapan followed by Brookline, graduated Barnard College and earned a masters in Hebrew Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. She taught Hebrew at a number of synagogue Hebrew Schools in New York as well as at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Westchester County in White Plains. She and her husband, Rabbi Ira Korinow, spent three years in the Chicago area where she taught at the Solomon Schechter Day School in Skokie, Ill. She moved to Haverhill in 1981 where she was instrumental in beginning the Solomon Schechter Day School of the Merrimack Valley (later known as Kadima Community Day School) in Haverhill. Since 2009, she has been the Hebrew and Jewish Studies teacher in the first grade at the Jewish Community Day School of Greater Boston, Watertown, where she taught up until her death, a testament to her commitment to Jewish continuity and the impact she had on many student’s lives and Jewish education. Since 1989, Gail has been the family educator at Temple Emanu-El in Haverhill. Her love for hosting Shabbat and holiday meals was felt by so many throughout the community.
In addition to her husband of 38 years, Korinow is survived by her sons, Morry and his wife, Alicia, Doron and his wife, Elana Fein, Raanan and his wife, Shira Novack, and three granddaughters, Orly, Meirav and Nadia. Services were Sunday, Nov. 15, at Temple Emanu-El, 514 Main St., Haverhill. Interment was at the Children of Israel Cemetery in Haverhill. Shiva will be observed at the Korinow home in Haverhill beginning after the interment through Wednesday evening with a minyan each evening at 7 p.m. Shiva will continue Thursday through Friday at 2 p.m., at the home of Elana Fein and Doron Korinow, Newton Centre, with a minyan Thursday at 7 p.m. Arrangements are by the H.L. Farmer and Sons Funeral Homes, Haverhill and Bradford.