Ida Goldman

“Ida was always happy and quick to offer a compliment. She was a joy to be around and will be missed by everyone here.” An unsolicited comment from a supervisor at the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington, DC, where Ida spent the last seven years of her life. The sentiment was typical of all who knew her.

At approximately 6:00 AM on 30 March 2025, Ida Goldman, age 101, passed from this world. Born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, NY, on 31 January 1924, daughter to Meyer and Jennie Breslow, who immigrated from Latvia or Lithuania and Ukraine, respectively, in the 1920s, Ida made her way in a tough neighborhood at a tough time—the height of the Depression. She had two younger siblings who had passed earlier, Seymour Breslow and Nevet Montgomery.

Despite her family’s financial difficulties, Ida excelled in school, particularly in math, and graduated in January 1941 at age 17. While in school, she worked at an apparel manufacturer in Manhattan, where she taught herself bookkeeping, managed the company’s ledgers, and occasionally modeled clothing. She worked intermittently as a bookkeeper throughout her life. On her way home from work one day, while carrying an arm full of shopping bags, she met a rather gentlemanly man fourteen years her senior at the local elevated train station. He offered to help her carry her bags home; she accepted. They began dating and soon fell in love. His name was Marty Goldman, a former lightweight boxing sensation on the East Coast and local bookie and gambler. As Ida would always say in her heavy Brooklyn accent, “He was well off. He was the only one in the neighborhood with more than one suit.”

Ida’s parents disapproved of Marty, so the couple eloped in March 1942, shortly after Ida’s 18th birthday. For much of 1942, Marty served in the Coast Guard, mostly in New Jersey. After being discharged, they moved to Baltimore, where Marty took a job painting Naval vessels at the shipyards. Ida always recalled the time she went to a local beach and insisted on having someone take her picture in front of a sign warning, “No dogs or Jews Allowed.”

After the war, the couple returned to Brooklyn, where Marty used his boxing contacts to purchase a luncheonette. Ida worked the register and managed the books for the business, which did well but required long, hard days. Ida continued working full-time, even while pregnant with their first child, Rena Goldman, born 10 April 1947.

In the early 1950s, the couple sold the business, and Marty became a union painter. They lived for two years in Beech Hills, Queens, where Ida was a regular columnist for the neighborhood newspaper, the Hill and Dale. While there Ida gave birth to her second child, Mathew Goldman, born 27 May 1952. In 1954, the family moved to Seaford, NY, where they bought a new home using veteran’s mortgage benefits. In 1960, the couple welcomed their third child, David Goldman, born on 15 April.

Marty retired from painting in 1972 and worked a series of Nassau County security jobs. In 1980, the couple sold the house and moved with many of their friends and neighbors to Delray Beach, FL, where they purchased a small, two-bedroom home in a duplex. Marty passed there in 1988 at age 77. Ida remained in Delray for another 23 years and moved to Maryland, where her children Rena and David lived, for health reasons.

In addition to her three children, Ida is survived by four grandchildren—Marna Schoen, Adam Schoen, Mandy Goldman, and Laura Goldman—and three great-grandchildren—Maxwell Schoen, Leo Borovay, and Solomon Borovay. She was also blessed by a fifth grandchild, Jenny Goldman (Z”L), who had passed. The funeral will be held at noon on 2 April 2025 at Judean Gardens, 16225 Batchellors Forest Road, Olney, MD 20832.