Gail Weinstein has been a resident of East Rockaway for 43 years. Born in Lakewood, N.J., she lived in Asbury Park until the beginning of eighth grade, when she and her parents moved to Liberty, N.Y., where her father ran the coffee shop at Grossinger’s Hotel for 20 years. Having earned B.A. and A.B.D. degrees in Spanish from the University of Massachusetts and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively, Gail taught mostly at the college level for many years.

 

In 1995, she left teaching to manage her husband Mel’s solo internal-medicine practice in Manhattan. They retired in 2011, just in time to start welcoming their first grandchildren. Their two sons and “daughters,” Robert and Amy, and Michael and Courtney, have blessed them with four granddaughters, Belle, Alice, Nora and Aviva (in order of descending age). Besides playing a big role in helping to care for the girls, Gail has enjoyed renewing her passion for needlepointing and is especially proud of the more than 11 tallis bags that she has stitched for family and friends. 

 

When Gail retired, inspired by her deep-rooted belief in the importance of education, she was determined to finally get the formal religious education she lacked. She enrolled in the Adult Bat Mitzvah class at Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre, and at the age of 65, read Torah and some Haftorah at her group Bat Mitzvah. Since then, she has been a frequent Torah reader throughout the year. In October 2023, to celebrate her 75^th birthday and the 10^th anniversary of her bat mitzvah, she read Torah as well as chanting a complete Haftorah for the first time. Recently, she was thrilled to read Torah at her oldest granddaughter Belle’s bat mitzvah and is looking forward to doing the same at Nora’s bat mitzvah later this year.