Temma Ehrenfeld: Women in Ethical Culture by Phyllis Ehrenfeld

In observance of National Women’s History month, Temma Ehrenfeld, daughter of Phyllis Ehrenfeld, will read Phyllis’ program talk entitled “Women of Ethical Culture 100 Years and Plus” and will add a few tales of her own about her mother and their relationship.
Phyllis Ehrenfeld, former President of National Ethical Service, grew up in Quebec City and studied social work at McGill University School of Social Work in Montreal. She came to New York City with $1,000 she borrowed from her aunt to pursue a PhD in the Department of Contemporary Literature at Columbia University. She wrote novels, poetry, and plays, often with ties to current political events or social issues. She received the Arnold Gingrich Award for The Fellowship in Prose from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Five of her plays have been presented in Bergen County. For ten years she was the editor of the American Anorexia Bulimia Association Newsletter, after writing a novel about a bulimic heroine, and was a contributing editor to the Ethical Culture Review of Books. As representative to the UN from the AEU’s National Service Conference, she reported, together with her husband Sylvain Ehrenfeld, on the UN in monthly articles which appeared in a number of newsletters and websites. She co-founded with her Sylvain the Bergen County Chapter of UNA-USA, a group that informs Americans about the work of the United Nations. She died in 2009, leaving behind her husband and two children.
Temma Ehrenfeld is an award-winning journalist on health, relationships, psychology, and finance. She has published several short stories and other pieces. “I would hire her anytime for anything,” wrote Jane Bryant Quinn of Newsweek. She has been from childhood a member of the Bergen Society.