Former Baltimore Hebrew Institute Student Turns 100

Press release from Towson University:

By Rebecca Kirkman on December 21, 2020

Mollie Witow received hundreds of cards, notes and gifts for her 100th birthday on
Oct. 20. Known throughout Baltimore for her inquisitive nature and support of the
arts, Mollie has been at the center of the city’s cultural hub for decades. The messages
she received for her birthday, which she celebrated with family and friends in a physically
distant party and over Zoom, reflected her broad interests and the deep impact she
has made in Baltimore and beyond.

“Everybody in town knows her and looks forward to seeing her,” says Alison Witow,
Mollie’s daughter. “She’s a mainstay of the cultural life of Baltimore.”

Among the centenarian’s well-wishers were the Enoch Pratt Free Library, where Mollie
worked as a librarian, as well as the Walters Art Museum, American Visionary Art Museum,
Spotlighters Theatre and Baltimore Center Stage. Frank Summers, director of the Hubble
Space Telescope public lecture series, gave Mollie a shoutout in the virtual November
lecture with a visualization of the birthday cake nebula.

“Mollie is amazing,” Summers says, noting that she has attended the lectures since
he started giving them 30 years ago. “When we’re able to have it in person, she sits
in the front row. She’s always got inquisitive questions.”

Also celebrating its centennial is the Baltimore Hebrew Institute at Towson University. The Baltimore Hebrew Institute, formerly the Baltimore Hebrew
University, was founded as the Baltimore Hebrew College and Teacher Training School
in 1919 and integrated with TU in 2009. Mollie and her family have a multigenerational
connection to the institution, beginning in the 1960s when she attended adult classes
with her husband, Morris.

“BHI sent congratulations to Mollie on her special birthday, and we look forward to
seeing her at future events,” says BHI director Jill Max. “BHI is proud to carry on
the legacy of BHU and takes pride in knowing that Mollie and her family continued
to learn and be part of BHU.”

Barry Gittlen, Towson University biblical and archaeological studies professor and
former interim president of the Baltimore Hebrew University, recalls seeing Mollie
often at BHU since he began teaching there in 1972.

“She’s a great advocate for Jewish education for adults,” says Gittlen, who also taught
Mollie’s children, Alison and Jason. “I got to know her as a force to be reckoned
with—in a really positive way. She knew what she wanted, and she went out and got
it.”

Gittlen has stayed in touch with Mollie and her family through a book club. “She’s
still going strong. It’s incredible,” he adds.

Mollie took dozens of classes at BHU over several decades, including archaeology with
Gittlen and Talmud and Rabbinic literature with Rabbi Joseph Baumgarten.

“Barry Gittlen played a significant role in the development of Ma's interest in archaeology,”
says Jason.

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When Mollie was born in 1920, her parents were in the midst of fleeing what is now
Belarus during the Russian Civil War. After arriving in the U.S. at 6 weeks old, her
family settled in Baltimore. She attended Eastern High School and Goucher College
before pursuing a career as a librarian.

After they were married, the Witows worked at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
in Ohio during WWII—Morris as an engineer and Mollie as an archivist. They returned
to the Baltimore area in the 1950s.

A mother of two, grandmother of six, and great-grandmother of one, Mollie has inspired
a legacy of scholarship and Hebrew study in her family. Her children say her desire
that they attend Baltimore Hebrew College alongside their secular high school and
college education molded them into the people they are today.

“Judaism is very important in our lives, and I think we’ve succeeded in making Judaism
very important in our children’s lives, too,” says Jason, who graduated with a bachelor
of Hebrew letters (BHL) in 1976. “The Hebrew College is not an inconsequential or
insubstantial part of that recipe, which has produced a younger generation that is
still interested in, devoted to and excited about Judaism and being Jewish.”

Alison began studies at age 11, graduating with a BHL in 1975.

“We had wonderful teachers, and there were wonderful kids at the school,” Alison says. “Sixty years later, I am still friends with people I met through the Hebrew College.”

In fact, she’s married to one of them. When longtime faculty member Louis L. Kaplan
hosted Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel at the college
in 1969, Alison was seated at a table with her now-husband, Jack Tucker, who attended
the Hebrew College from 1959 to 1966. Kaplan later officiated at their wedding.

Mollie also passed down an insatiable curiosity.

“She just took class after class after class,” says Tucker. “It wasn’t just classes
at the Hebrew College. She continued to find different things that she was interested
in but in incredibly diverse ways.”

From yoga and opera classes to lectures at the Pre-Columbian Society of Washington,
D.C., Mollie has never stopped trying new things. She traveled around the globe to
visit archaeology sites and witness more than a dozen solar eclipses.

“She went to virtually every continent,” Tucker adds.

For her 97th birthday, she crossed a hot-air balloon ride off her bucket list. “It’s
an experience I’m glad that I had,” she told the Baltimore Jewish Times.

Witow’s curiosity and genuine interest in others attracts friends of all ages. “She
laughs at people’s jokes because she appreciates them. And she wants to hear their
stories,” Jason says. “And people really like it when you want to hear their stories.”

Surrounded by the outpouring of notes and gifts on her birthday, Mollie remarked that
she was surprised to see the difference she has made for so many people.

“I’m glad to have had an impact,” she says.

Her children emphatically agree. “She has influenced many, many generations and generations
to come—there’s no question,” Jason says. “It’s a legacy that will live for a long
time.”

This press release was produced by Towson University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.