In Loving Memory of Alice Wolf
Hon. Jay Blitzman (Retired), Interim Executive Director
It has been said that the true measure of a person is how they are remembered. By this measure Alice Wolf lives forever. She will be remembered by everyone who was privileged to have met or worked with her as a truly iconic figure, the paradigm of a champion who fiercely advocated on behalf of children and had a huge impact addressing the needs of youth facing inequities.
MAC had the privilege of working closely with Alice for over 15 years. It was a time when special education laws were increasingly under attack, and Alice was a key leader and ally, advocating zealously and brilliantly to help ensure equal opportunities for youth with disabilities. Over the years she remained a key champion, leading a multitude of campaigns including initiatives to create trauma sensitive schools, ensure equity, and remove barriers for all the Commonwealth’s youth. During her last session, Alice successfully led efforts that led to the enactment of a Chapter 222, a groundbreaking school discipline law.
As the lead legislative sponsor for Chapter 222, Alice was tenacious in her efforts to pass the seminal law that would set a precedent for the entire nation in disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline. She always kept her eye on the prize, always reminding us that “if a student is not in school, they cannot learn”.
Alice with Tom Mela and others celebrating the enactment of Chapter 222 at the State House on July 21, 2012.
Upon retiring from the legislature in 2012, Alice joined MAC as a Senior Advisor, generously volunteering her time. The staff at the Massachusetts Advocates for Children were honored to have Alice’s leadership, guidance and mentorship. To the end she always made herself available. As current and former MAC staff can attest, including yours truly, Alice was sending messages during her last weeks regarding strategizing and legislative campaigns and, incredulously, apologizing for having missed Zoom meetings.
As we all know, Alice’s advocacy career began long before joining MAC. Her immigrant experience and boundless empathy informed her path of being engaged in virtually every issue related to equity and human dignity. In her moving obituary in the Boston Globe, Alice’s observations about her childhood memories of living in Vienna in the early 1930’s are quoted: “You should know what can happen in the day-to-day life of a family when there is gross discrimination. I was a little kid, and my parents could not take me to the local playground because we had to wear a yellow star because we were a Jewish family. Others wore other colored stars. There were gays and lesbians, Catholics, and gypsies.” This statement was made in the State House in February 2004 as law makers debated legislation in response to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Goodrich recognizing same-sex marriages.
I was a proud Cambridge resident and one of the reasons was having Alice Wolf as a city councilor and then Mayor. Before Alice became a state representative, she was already a trail blazer in supporting equity for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing Cambridge as a haven for immigrants and always standing for whomever society tried to classify as “the other.”
Alice advocated tirelessly for youth facing inequities, often those who were Black or Brown, who had disabilities, and who identified as LGBTQ+. She was a treasured leader, mentor, colleague and a friend to us all. Alice Wolf remains our North Star. Her vision and inspiration burn brightly in each one of us. She truly lives in our hearts forever.