Ida Sarah Kramer (nee Gewarter), 88, of Davenport passed away on January 3, 2015 at Ridgecrest Retirement Village.
Ida was born on May 30, 1926 in Philadelphia, PA to Ethel and Philip Gewarter. Ida graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls at the age of 16. She won a college scholarship, but went to work instead to help support her widowed mother and younger sister. She married Herbert Kramer in 1945 and the couple moved to the Quad-Cities in 1948. He died in 2003.
Ida served as the first woman Scott County auditor in 1966. Ida was the first woman appointed as executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Quad-Cities where she served for 25 years.
She taught Sunday School and devoted much of her life to educating students and the community about the Holocaust. Ida was the recipient of many awards including her most recent 2013 Hope for Humanity Award for her Holocaust work.
Her community activism included reading to the blind. She was treasurer of the Rock Island YMCA and served on the board of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
She was a regional board member and past president of Hadassah, a member of the Beth Israel Sisterhood and a board member of the University of Iowa's Hillel organization as well as the Iowa Jewish Community Relations Committee.
Ida is survived by her three children and their spouses, Jeannette and Chaim Kadosh of Haifa, Israel, Phillip and Gail Kramer of St. Louis, MO., and Becky and Howard Bender of Chandler, AZ. She has six grandchildren, Leraz Cohen Kadosh and her husband Miki, Sagee Kadosh and his wife Liron, Mindy and David Kramer, and Ellen and Donald Bender, a sister, Roz Goldstine and her husband Abner of Los Angeles, CA and seven great-grandchildren.
Services are 10:30 a.m. Monday, January 5th, at the Beth Israel Congregation at the Tri-City Jewish Center, Rock Island. Burial is in the Tri-City Jewish Cemetery, Davenport. The family will be accepting condolences at Ridgecrest Retirement Village, Cove Lounge, 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday, January 5th, and 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, January 6th. Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home, Rock Island, is in charge of arrangements. Memorial contributions may be made in Ida's name to the Tri-City Jewish Center, The Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities, The Ridgecrest Foundation, or a favorite charity.