Joy future funeral ad 120

Joy Krauthammer  ad 120.

Joy Krauthammer (Gila Rena Tzohara bat Yosef v'Leba bat Etel bat Perle bat Etel) released her body and returned her neshamah to The Compassionate One on ___evening, January 1, 3001 13 Adar 7777_in Northridge, California.  She was 120. Devoted wife of the late Marcel, z”l (2006); loving mother of Aviva (Brett) Krauthammer; adoring grandmother aka Bubbie of Maya and Eliana.  Beloved loving sister of Faye (Jim) Melton, and of half-sister, artist Arielle. Born in cultural New York as a pure neshama to a secular Jewish family, and as a young teen with a drive, self-motivated always, tried teaching herself Hebrew and learning Judaism. Later as an adult, Joy always found herself wonderful teachers and rabbis, live and on-line.

Joy loved bike riding beyond boundaries (and trespassing her own), and dancing as a child to TV's Dick Clark's rock 'n roll American Bandstand, skating, skiing and ocean body surfing, and ball sports in which she excelled through schools as teams' captain (as later did her daughter). She was a leader in High School politics. Joy didn't bother with HS graduation ceremonies but instead went to Spain to study art at the Prado Museum. Joy loved NY subways and theatre, Butoh theater, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Central Park, Greenwich Village vibes, and crazy hitch-hiking with maps to distant summer Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals and beaches farther than Jones Beach. She loved Yonah Schimmel's kosher potato knishes on the Lower East Side, hot dogs with saurkraut, 2nd Street Deli, and Italian pizza and festivals and Chinatown's steamed dim sum buns and syrupy dessert kumquats, and finding rare parking spaces in Manhattan by MOMA, and Metropolitan Museum, and looking up at tall art museums with reflections of clouds in windows.  

Joy played piano, and her grandfather's violin and clarinet in school orchestras, but didn't love them. She loved her dance lessons (and decades later her drumming). In the Sixties Joy the activist served in NY peace marches and in anti-war Guerilla Theater, and trained with friends in La MaMa Theatre and participated in happenings and "sit ins" blocking entry to the college president's office. No drugs nor alcohol, nor beer but she did appreciate exotic sweet liquors, halvah, baby gherkin pickles and kishka and Pesach Seders. She hand-brewed loose teas with friends, grew mint, and ate brown rice with sesame seeds in East Village cafes with Hare-Krishnas and gurus' spreading love messages.

After walking out of her Queens College (with multiple majors) graduation with the Dr. Spock, her graduate ceramics work was (with a full scholarship won by her talent) in Brooklyn Museum School of Art on Eastern Parkway.  Down the street at 770 Eastern Parkway she met The Lubavitch Rebbe in 1970 and her life for the next 50 plus years included Chassidic Chabad energy. Joy was also very active, happy and fulfilled with friends in Jewish Renewal, Feminist, and neo-Chasidic Kabbalistic spiritual worlds for four plus decades.

Joy was a sixties' NY happy "hippie artist" teaching ceramics in art schools (and Jewish schools) on both coasts through the decades. After graduate art school, Joy postponed her passionate ceramics profession to 'prove herself' as a respectable worthwhile 9-5 working future daughter-in-law to please her future in-laws. 

A few years later, she gave up her Social Work licensed hospital career in Brooklyn, and escaped from cold, snow and ice (and critical orthodox future-in-laws) to flower-filled sunny California in 1974 to marry in a Chabad wedding, her NY orthodox-raised boyfriend with his new Los Angeles MD hospital job and later as medical school professor.

Joy received her Non-Profit MBA at LA's University of Judaism/AJU, working in Public Relations' consulting, serving as ARTS editor for a dozen years for a monthly Jewish magazine, and passionately created and directed neighborhood adult ARTS and Jewish education programs. Her 316 pages thesis was on Strategic Planning in the ARTS. 

Another favorite accomplishment was manifesting her dream and Joy opened for the City of Los Angeles a needed arts school for young kids in the San Fernando Valley, where she also taught ceramics. She continued all her days in Torah study, and especially Kabbalah, which she taught the basics of when she wasn’t doing daily mitzvot from before dawn, especially for Bikur Cholim/ visiting the sick, creating caring healing cards for many. 

Awesome expriences for Joy include her Art & Architecture of Synagogues studies at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, semester living at Mishkenot Sha'ananim (Artists' House), and meeting Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and becoming his drummer, another message she 'heard'. Blessed to also drum for Reb Zalman and Theo Bikel, and Debbie Friedman, and Rabbi David Zeller,  Babatunde Olatunji, all of blesssed memory, and more.

Joy loved travels through distant lands to the South,  California, Nova Scotia, Montreal & Vancourver, Canada, Alaska, China, Tibet, Hong Kong, Thailand/Asia, Sibolga, Penang, Pedang, Bali/Indonesia, South Pacific, Russia, Turkey, Brazil/South America, and Morocco/North Africa, Spain, Greece, Rhodes, Italy/Europe, Costa Rica/Central America, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and family holidays in Israel, Italy, Mexico, Jamaica, and Hawaiian Islands.

Through the decades, Joy also studied modes of healing with masters of energy, hands on and off, sound, crystals, and massage. She was told that her writing and music provided healing. and that encouraged her to offer healing. Joy appreciated being a recipient of Chinese accupuncture healing. 

Because of Joy's years of devoted caregiving for her husband, z"l (with cancer), she could not accept the administrative arts positions offered to her with the LA Israeli Consulate, and Jewish Federation. She didn't further pursue employment she desired at the Jewish museum or the Arts university. She also didn't accept the invitations to rabbinical schools following her interviews.  Joy realized that although she mamash loved being active in LA community, and doing good work, her most important job instead, was to care for one of G*d's children, when Marcel was ill during the 18 challenging years. 

Into her 60's and 70’s as a baby boomer 'Simchat Chochmah' wise woman, Joy continued through a 3rd decade as professional percussionist, and poet, writer, and loved leading and teaching groups for Nature Photo Walks (especially honoring World Water Day). She inspired participants to see more and take better photos revealing G*d's Face, and exhibit and publish photos as she did regularly for years in shows and with photo clubs.  Joy served for decades as photographer-in-residence for organizations, enhancing their websites. (Joy created at least 90 personal photo and story-filled artistic websites.) Joy also shared her arts annually on International Women's Day, and loved participating in Daniel Pearl, z"l, World Music Days, and shooting water and making prayers annually on World Water Day as she led photo walks.

Endless thousands of hours were spent on 5 decades of creating her extensive Family Tree both on line-Geni and on her private websites, and worked as a detective researching genealogical ancestors’ lineage and sharing with expansive family. (And also for her husband’s, z”l, long family tree.) For over an active decade Joy served as 'Captain' for her Neighborhood Watch, working with LAPD/Police as area's volunteer lead safety guide, and also learned and served with LAFD/Fire as CERT volunteer/ Community Emergency Response Team.  

Membership at LA's art museum meant rare happy day trips with Joy's loving helpful younger sister Faye, and with gratitude, shared many experiences.  Both sisters while in college, buried their artist mother too soon in 1969, and 3 decades later in 1999 buried their creative father, and buried their artist older sister Arielle in 2017, all from cancer. Joy's beloved artist maternal grandmother Ethel, z"l, immigrant to America in 1912 from Russia, died in Atlanta from heart attack in 1988. Grandma Ethel, sadly for Joy, was the only grandparent she had ever met. Joy created her own stories, poetry and art filled websites so that her grandchildren could know her and her love for them, through the sites she created for them.

Joy's favorite times were visting in Maryland, her adored 2 granddaughters for their birthdays, playing, reading and laughing with them. Joy felt fulfilled that her daughter Aviva has successful  professions, home, friends and family and Jewish life with wonderful husband Brett, and that their family connections include meaningful and fun activities. They will inherit Joy's immense home library. 

Joy was greatly appreciative over the decades of all the support and love shared with her by family and friends especially in challenging, and artistic endeavors. 

Joy's happiest moments were spent creating in ceramics, drumming, 'performing' with amazing musicians, photography, creating her over 90 websites, creating spiritually with mamash dear loyal friends in relationships lasting decades, with loving caring family, and with clergy at shuls and retreats. She loved travel,  learning Torah, swimming, kayaking, dancing when younger (with good knees), sewing, intensive wild weaving, and meditating daily with prayers and camera in hand in the garden as the sun prepared to colorfully rise for a new day. 

In the 1980's Joy enjoyed serving as guide for her Jewish LA Art Tours by bus, running a Jewish gift shop, Jewish gallery, and for Jewish community producing concerts and directing the women's adult education consortium. 

As a spiritual musician, Joy understood that there are no recordings of her performing because of her agreement with Hashem. Joy's soul-filled joyous music, she was told by congregants, brought them to shul to daven/to pray. Joy was an inspirational gesher. This was part of Joy's mission on earth, serving G*d in joy.  Joy heard, received 'messages' on her own and from others (even strangers) and was deeply touched and in awe, and learned she must follow the messages that she heard, and before that she functioned on instinct before realizing there were messages. She heard she had to meet Reb Shlomo Carlebach and perform with him, that she had to open the LA art school, she had to sing and dance, and be active at the Jewish Center. Joy continued to listen. She worked also with her pendulum for herself and others, and did muscle-testing for answers. Joy studied with masters of energy, healing, and the arts. Her teachers in piano, clarinet and violin did not tap into her needs, but later she found the best drum teachers and her own beat. 

It took several decades but Joy discovered and acknowledged that her talents and passions came from her parents, Libby and Joe, z"l, and she was grateful. Joy never had enough hours in a day to accomplish what she needed, and wanted for herself and others.

Joy Krauthammer, a spiritual true Gemini woman loved the color purple, 'Served G*d in Joy' as a Caregiver Warrior Angel, visual artist, passionate performing percussionist, sound healer, poet, photographer, artist of life, spiritual guide who led Jewish women's life-cycle rituals, and "Joyous Chai Lights" publisher for three decades, publicist, Torah student, and Kabbalah workshop leader, educator, dedicated Omer counter, and science museum nature observer/reporter, and gardener connected to G*d, living in Porter Ranch, CA, USA, UniVerse. 

Joy shared, "My kavanah/intention is that my creative expressive gifts are inspirational, uplifting and joyous. In gratitude, I love doing mitzvot/ good deeds, and connecting people in joy. In the zechut/ merit of Reb Shlomo Carlebach, zt'l (I was his drummer), I mamash love to help make our universe a smaller world, being a gesher/ a bridge, one revealing more spiritual consciousness, connection, compassion, and in Chesed/ lovingkindness, and in the image of G*d, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod and with Malchut, to make visible the Face of the Divine..."   

Serve G*d in Joy / "Ivdu Et Hashem B'Simcha", Don't Postpone Joy, and "Tzedek, Tzedek, Tirdof / Justice, justice, shalt thou pursue" I do believe.

Written for the future (just as she designed her own matzeivah) 
by Joy Krauthammer 
(requested by daughter, day after Joy's mother-in-law, z"l was buried). 

https://joys-prose.blogspot.com/2006/11/joy-future-funeral-ad-120.html

MANY JOY sites: here's a few:

http://joys-music.blogspot.com
http://joys-artist-statement.blogspot.com/ 
http://joys-art.blogspot.com
http://joy-shared.blogspot.com/2014/03/creative-soul-featured-artist-interview.html
http://thecreativesoul.org/news/featured-artist-joy-krauthammer
http://joys-photos.blogspot.com/
http://joys-fun-fotos.blogspot.com/
http://joys-favorite-fotos.blogspot.com/
http://visions-of-joy.blogspot.com/
http://joys-inthemorning.blogspot.com/