The Maplewood Township Committee held a moment of silence for Ruth Perlmutter at its October 21, 2025 meeting.
Perlmutter died at the age of 97 this past July. “Ruth was an old friend of mine, back in the day,” said Mayor Nancy Adams, “Both she and her husband Ben were very active in the community. Ben was the chair of the economic development committee that I was on back in ’91/’92, and Ruth was the founder of the Jersey Animal Coalition and a volunteer and cherished member of the community.”
Ruth Perlmutter
Read Perlmutter’s obituary here:
Ruth Lurie Perlmutter was born on December 19, 1927 in Jersey City to Hannah Francis Lurie and Cecil Joshua Lurie. She grew up in East Orange, West Orange and Maplewood.
She attended Skidmore College. Once having graduated she pursued a career in music, studying voice in NY with Vera Murray Covert.
She was a noted soprano and teacher whose career included performances as soloist in concerts at the Newark Public Library sponsored by Dr. Alfred Mann of Rutgers University, recitals at Lincoln Center, soloist with the New Jersey Symphony, the Cathedral Symphony Orchestra of Newark under Maestro Thomas Michalik, and the Amato Opera Company, among others.
Her love of animals and her concern for the lack of any facility for lost, abandoned or stray animals in her community led her to found the Jersey Animal Coalition and its state of the art shelter in South Orange, a no kill facility where during its 30 year existence found homes for more than 25,000 animals. She was especially proud of the fact that in all those years no animal was euthanized unless it was suffering from a terminal illness.
She volunteered at Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital in New York for seven years, served on the Board of the Colonial Symphony and was the recipient of many awards, among which were the NJ State Jefferson Award for Volunteerism, and the Onyx and Breezy Heart Award. She was honored during Essex County Women’s History Month and by a Joint Resolution of the NJ Senate and General Assembly “for her remarkable record of community leadership and exemplary volunteerism and for the depth of her compassion and breadth of her kindness to the quality of life of the lost and abandoned animals that were successfully placed with loving families since JAC’s inception. She has established a model to emulate and set a standard of excellence toward which others might strive.”
She found beauty and wonder in life, and hoped that her life made a difference.
She is survived by her daughters Risa Perlmutter Goldstein (Eli) and Amy Perlmutter, two grandchildren Adam Julian Goldstein (Kim) and Hannah Serena Goldstein, and her great grandson, Ricky Goldstein.
Contributions can be made in her memory to Fly Away Home Animal Rescue (https://flyawaynj.com/), and/or an authorized organization aiding the welfare of military dogs.
