To those who knew her, Sheila Lambert — the Jewish philanthropist and lay leader who died last week at 78 after a battle with colon cancer — was a collector. That tendency was reflected outwardly in the vibrant artworks that covered the walls of her New York City home, as well as what her friends described as her impeccable sense of style. But those close to her say she was, above all, a collector of people.

“Sheila had this impeccable taste, both in her art selections and her house, and also in the way that she presented herself in the world,” Mishy Harman, the CEO of Israel Story, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “And there’s a very, very lucky group of people around the world, from Project Kesher to Bottomless Closet to the Jerusalem Biennale and Israel Story and [New York City’s Marlene Meyerson] JCC, who became Sheila’s tribe and benefited tremendously, tremendously from her wisdom and her advice and her energy. Until the very end, Sheila was just unstoppable.”

Israel Story, a narrative podcast telling human-centered stories about life in Israel, is one of many projects that Lambert personally championed, both with her financial resources and perhaps even more so with her time, according to Harman. Involved in causes spanning arts, culture and Jewish life across New York City and Israel, Lambert’s daily schedule was a tightly packed jigsaw puzzle of meetings, right until the end of her life.

Lambert built a long career in philanthropy, focused on art, education — Jewish and more general — and support for underserved communities, particularly women and children. Lambert founded and served on the boards of the Friends of Israel Story, the Jerusalem Biannele Circle of Friends, and Bottomless Closet — a nonprofit that helps women living in poverty enter and succeed in the workforce. Lambert also acted as chair emerita and president of the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and as president of the board of JCC Global, an international network of Jewish community centers. 

Holding leadership roles across several organizations, often at the same time, Lambert weaved those she worked with into a community, offering resources, connections and support to everyone within her network. Those who knew Lambert came to know each other.

“Even though I had just one Sheila, Sheila had many ‘me’s, as was evidenced at her funeral and shiva,” said Harman. “There were many people for whom Sheila really represented their closest confidant and their sort of compass or North Star.”

He continued: “If you’re a young social or cultural entrepreneur with a vision, what you’re really looking for in life is someone who says, ‘Hey, you know what? I believe in what you believe in, and I want to make our joint vision the reality.’ And that’s exactly what Sheila did for me and for a lot of people. Whenever I’m in the position to ‘do a Sheila,’ to elevate people, to convince them of their own worth, to try to open their eyes and allow them to dream big, I will do that, and it’s all really motivated by her.” 

Before turning her attention to lay leadership, Lambert built a decades-long career in human resources, including 20 years at The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, where she rose through the ranks to serve as its vice president of human resources and later as senior vice president and publisher of Moody’s Investors Service.

Rabbi Joy Levitt first met Lambert 25 years ago when Lambert joined the MMJCC board during Levitt’s tenure as CEO of the organization. According to Levitt, Lambert’s background in human resources gave her a keen understanding of people and a strong sense of responsibility for protecting and supporting the staff of every organization she served. But most notable about Lambert, said Levitt, was her seemingly unending pool of energy. 

“Sheila was not a ‘hands-off’ board member. She got to know people. She cared about them. She made sure they had Hanukkah presents. She asked about their children. She was engaged fully, particularly with the staffs of these institutions,” said Levitt.

At a time when “our community was not necessarily as focused on Israel as one might have expected,” said Levitt, she and Lambert held a shared goal of increasing engagement, particularly with Israeli art and artists. 

“We made a lot of good trouble, What can I say?” said Levitt. “Sheila would begin a sentence with, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if…’ It started with Israel.”

Lambert went on to consistently support a number of Israeli and Jewish causes, including Hebrew Union College, the Israel Policy Forum, the Jewish Museum and Project Kesher, among many others. At the Marlene Meyerson JCC, she also provided the funding to create the David A. Sonabend Center for Israel, named for her father, and The Lambert Center for Arts + Ideas, named for her family. 

“I think she had a strong sense that she had enormous resources, and I’m not just speaking about financial. She was very smart. She was very clear about what she cared about, and she used every minute to the fullest to make sure that she was advancing opportunities, primarily for people who had no voice, for women, and, of course, for her beloved Israel and Jerusalem,” said Levitt.

When Levitt retired and went on to become the CEO of the Jerusalem Foundation, she asked Lambert to join the board. “Of course, the minute she joined the board, she became the head of the nominating committee. She never missed a meeting, and this was true of every board she was engaged with,” Levitt said.  

According to Rami Ozeri, the founding director of the Jerusalem Biennale art event, while Lambert’s progressive politics often brought her out of step with the Israeli government, she was always arm in arm with the Israeli people. 

“She was very Zionistic,” Ozeri said. “She loved Israel, she loved Jerusalem. She had her criticisms, of course, of our government, but she knew how to separate between the people of Israel — and especially the artists of Israel — and the politics and the bad things that are happening in the country. She really believed in creative people.”

For the final six years of her life, Lambert was receiving treatment for colon cancer. Despite that, her energy never wavered. “Even Sheila tired made the rest of us look like slackers,” said Levitt.  

In May, a small group of JCC-affiliated women, including Lambert, planned a trip to Israel to learn from women Torah scholars and meet Israeli artists, according to Rabbi Joanna Samuels, CEO of the MMJCC.

“She was in the middle of receiving treatment for cancer. But she absolutely positively was going to come on the trip, like it didn’t matter. But the thing that did matter is the day that she was supposed to fly was the day that the Houthi missile came very close to hitting the Ben Gurion Airport,” said Samuels. 

While other participants had already arrived or were on flights unaffected by the missile attack, Lambert’s flight was cancelled six different times. She scrambled to find other travel options, eventually booking a coach ticket at the back of the airplane set to arrive in the early morning on the first day of programming.

“We got her ticket, and she got right on that flight. This is someone who was 78 years old,” said Samuels. “She shows up the next morning while we’re all having breakfast in the hotel. She is beautifully dressed and ready for a whole day of running around Israel, and couldn’t have been happier to be there. And she was just such a force. Such a force in this world. Her energy never lagged, her enthusiasm never lagged. She just was going to get on that plane, no matter what, you know? No matter what.” 

Lambert is survived by her husband, Bill, her son Phineas, grandsons Roark and Colson, her twin sister, Erica, and her brother, Andrew.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated Lampert’s age and cause of death.