Florence Sack Gilbert, 92

Florence Sack Gilbert, 92, of Bala Cynwyd, director of volunteers at Hahnemann Hospital from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, died Monday, May 9, at Lankenau Hospital.

Born in West Philadelphia, Mrs. Gilbert graduated from West Philadelphia High School and earned a medical technician's diploma at the former Philadelphia Normal School.

A daughter, Beth Reisboard, said Mrs. Gilbert worked briefly at the former Mount Sinai Hospital in South Philadelphia.

In 1949, Reisboard said, Mrs. Gilbert was among the founders of the former Yeadon Jewish Community Center, a synagogue and service organization, where she established and helped run youth social groups.

After completing her Hahnemann career, Mrs. Gilbert was a volunteer docent in the 1970s and 1980s at the National Museum of American Jewish History.

In 1981, her daughter said, Mrs. Gilbert traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg to deliver clothing and religious items to Soviet Jews.

In recent years, she said, Mrs. Gilbert was active in calling attention to Jewish communities in Ethiopia.

A lifetime member of the Sisterhood of Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley, she earned a lifetime-achievement award from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

Besides her daughter, Mrs. Gilbert is survived by another daughter, Valerie Swarbrick; a son, William; five grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren. Her former husband of 24 years, Alfred, died in 2007.

Services took place on Thursday, May 12.