Gina Michele Fried

Age 53, died in her home on Sunday, March 6, 2016, of metastatic breast cancer. Gina was born and raised in Chicago and attended the Francis W. Parker School. After high school she moved to Israel, where she studied theater at the Hebrew University, and met her former husband, Ted Miller.  After working as a stage manager in New York, Gina settled in Boston, where she raised her children, Zach and Zoe Miller. Here she found her true passion and gift, teaching, both as a high school English teacher and in Jewish congregational schools. In 2001, Gina met her spouse, Rabbi Toba Spitzer, and together they created a loving home first in Lexington and then in Waltham. Gina was a woman of boundless energy and deep compassion and warmth.  She had a huge creative spirit, evidenced not only by her teaching, but also by her intricate Sculpy creations, blog writing, blanket-making, complex birthday cakes, and countless published letters to the Globe. But Gina’s true legacy, in addition to her children, was her teaching. She offered her students both learning and love, and that love was reciprocated in fullest measure throughout her career and in her last days.  She taught not just literature or Judaism but critical thinking about the world in which we live. She inspired her students to become their best selves and to work for a world free of oppression. For the past 15 years at Weston High School, Gina was devoted to the METCO program, and she worked to make both her classroom and the school community inclusive of diverse views and identities.  Her fierce love of her children, deep partnership with her spouse, devotion to her extended family, ability to delight children of all ages, and passionate friendship with so many who loved her, will live on. Funeral services will be held at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at Congregation Mishkan Tefila, 300 Hammond Pond Parkway, Chestnut Hill. Memorial observance will be held at her residence on Tuesday 7-9 pm, Wednesday & Thursday 3-5 & 7-9 pm, and Sunday 4-6 pm. Donations in Gina’s memory can be made to the Gina Fried Memorial Scholarship at Weston High School –  ℅ Business Office, 89 Wellesley Street, Weston MA 02493.