Longtime Malibu resident and award-winning writer Marlene Adler Marks, who penned the column “A Woman’s Voice” for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, died on Sept. 5 at Cedars Sinai Hospital. She was 54. Throughout her two-year battle with lung cancer, she continued to write and fulfill her role as a spiritual and political inspiration for the Los Angeles Jewish Community.
Marks was born in New York. She graduated from Queens College and went on to earn a master’s degree in journalism from USC. Her prolific career included writing for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, the Herald Examiner, and, more recently, for the Los Angeles Times and Hadassah Magazine. In 1982, she launched her own monthly magazine, Los Angeles Jewish Life. In 1987 she was named the managing editor of the Jewish Journal and began writing her column, for which she won the Rockower and Smolar awards for commentary in the field of Jewish journalism. Because of her writings, she made numerous appearances around the world, including attending an international conference on Jewish women in Russia in 1994.
Marks also wrote several books. Some of her most memorable writings are a collection of personal columns in her 1998 book “A Woman’s Voice: Reflections on Love, Death, Faith, Food & Family.”
Friends and colleagues were inspired by her intelligence, curiosity, caring and her ability to live life to the fullest. In addition to writing, Marks enjoyed the theater, music, studying the Torah and cooking with friends.
Dr. Ronald Natale, Marks’ oncologist, in a letter read at her funeral on Monday, called her an inspiration and wrote “… the greatest message that this angel delivered to me and to others was the message that life was meant to be lived with joy and enthusiasm. Marlene had a spirited joy for life that was inspirational and contagious. Despite cancer, chemotherapy, and radiation, her energy and enthusiasm were boundless. This messenger taught not only how to inquire, probe and learn, not only how to let go of anger and fear-but how to live life. How not to waste a precious moment-because a lifetime of moments, whether your lifetime is long, or like hers, cut short, is not ever enough.”
Marks is survived by a daughter, Samantha, two stepchildren, Spencer and Peggye Marks, her parents, Jack and Anne Adler, and a brother, Alan.
Donations in Marks’ memory can be made to the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue, Temple Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, or Beit T’Shuva in Los Angeles. Donations can also be made to Dr. Ronald Natale’s Cancer Research Foundation, 446 23rd St., Santa Monica CA, 90402.