Sydelle has been a member of UUCP for more than fifteen years. While her initial goal was to find a meaningful spiritual experience for her family, she has remained a member because she has found a community of caring, committed and exceptional people. She has served on the Committee on Ministry, the Religious Education Team, and the Finance and Fundraising Team.

Sydelle was raised in an extended, working class family of mostly secular Jews in the Western Queens neighborhood of Astoria, which, at that time was composed of Jews, Italians, Germans, Greeks and Eastern Europeans, many of whom were first generation immigrants. Through her relationships with several older cousins she was introduced to the world outside their neighborhood. She began to explore and experience the greatness of New York City. Through her cousins she also became more aware of the inequities of our society and travelled with them, by bus, to the now famous March on Washington in August 1963. In college and beyond she devoted time to progressive political causes and women’s rights.

For the past thirty years Sydelle has worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor at several agencies serving people who are blind or visually impaired. Many of her clients have, themselves, faced immense injustice in their lives and she has learned a great deal from them about determination, patience and advocating for ones’ rights.

She is now seriously contemplating retiring from her current position and has begun to plan this next phase of her life. She is looking forward to travelling more (her favorite travelling companion right now is her 24 year old daughter, Hannah). She also wants to continue learning and taking classes (dance, drumming, maybe even cooking) and determining new ways in which she can be of service to her community and the larger world.