Judith Lee Weinstein's Obituary
Judith Lee Weinstein (80), wife of 61 years, mother, grandmother, glamourous matriarch, trial lawyer, patron of the arts, world traveler, fashion maven, font of all knowledge and a brilliant and brassy woman who has been a Miami Beach fixture since the 1960’s, passed away August 9, 2022 from heart failure at Mt. Sinai hospital, the same hospital where she gave birth to her three children, Mark, Andrew and Jill (Dokson). Born Judith Meltsner in the Bronx in 1941 a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, she attended the University of Miami where she met and married law student Marvin Weinstein. After giving birth to their youngest child Jill, returned to the University of Miami to finish college, and then somehow managed to juggle car pool and child rearing responsibilities with law school at Nova University, graduating in 1983 magna cum laude and finishing fifth in her class of over two hundred. For decades until her retirement she was Senior First Assistant City Attorney for the City of Miami Beach, heading the civil litigation department and representing the City at numerous trials. But that is just a fraction of the remarkable, wonderful life she led. In the early 1970’s she used her encyclopedic brain on “Jeopardy.” She and Marvin travelled the world each and every year, often multiple times, visiting just about every country big and small in Europe, Asia, Nothern Africa, the Middle East and South America. She rode a yak in Mongolia, climbed the pyramids of Egypt, explored the ruins of Machu Pichu and strode the Great Wall of China. Her last trip was only a few months ago, retracing the wake of Henry the Navigator in Portugal. In the 1970’s and 80’s she was a member of ORT, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, and in organizing the annual “Love & Hope Balls” for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. From the age of 25 to 29, she was the “First Lady” of Surfside, where Marvin was Mayor. A member of Temple Beth Shalom since the early 1970’s. She was forever a “broadway baby,” supporting the Arsht Center, the Miami City Ballet, and other local theaters, and in addition to being a Broadway Series subscriber since the 1970’s through present, each year she would travel once or more with Marvin and often their children to New York City to binge at least five broadway shows in as many days. A movie buff, she and Marvin were a fixture on the annual Turner Classic Movies cruises. She was a fashionista so impeccably dressed, devoted to her weekly salon hair appointments that even when overseas, she would seek out a salon. She adored Bal Harbour shops. And still she was she was a vociferous life long football fan, a loud and diehard fan who for decades attended each and every Dolphins and Hurricane game, travelling out of town to Hurricane bowl games. She was the biggest fan and critic of her kids and grandkids, tough love but unconditional, but in the end the answer was always “yes.” She was truly, to those who knew her, the most interesting person in the world.
In addition to her husband and children, she is survived by her grandchildren Julia, Emily, John, Aaron, Nathan and Zoe Weinstein, and Lindsay and Ryan Dokson, as well as many close friends, including Barbara Weiss and Dava Lipsky. Services will be held Friday, August 12, 2022 at noon at Levitt-Weinstein/ Beth David Memorial Chapel, 3201 N 72nd Avenue, Hollywood, FL 33024. Arrangements by Levitt-Weinstein Blasberg-Rubin-Zilbert Memorial Chapel (305) 932-2700
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