The Amalgamated Houses and the larger Jerome Park community is mourning the recent death of Cecilia “Ceci” Greene at the age of 91. Friends have offered an outpouring of tributes to the German immigrant who grew up during and survived the Nazi occupation only to seek and find lifelong friends and a better life in America. Greene died on Jan. 23.

 

Ray Pultinas, founder and director of the James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center (JBOLC) and Meg’s Garden, both located on the campus of Sedgwick Avenue’s DeWitt Clinton High School, paid tribute to Greene in an online post. Pultinas described her as a “garden supporter,” a “spirited dancer at our events,” as well as a “singer in the community choir.”

Pultinas later told Norwood News, “She frequented the market, hung out with the other elders, and was delighted by all the children.” He went on to say, “For being in her 90s, she certainly had spark! She shared some of her background with me, and I came to know that she truly lived through some of the worst times as a survivor of the Second World War.”

 

Pultinas continued, “Her city of Dresden, Germany was destroyed but she survived, and eventually landed in America. But despite the trauma that she witnessed as a 10-year-old girl, she overcame and had a real zest for life. We miss her dearly.”

 

Another friend, Jay Hauben, recalled Greene’s activism, telling Norwood News, “Besides the many battles at Amalgamated, Cecile, Ronda and I attended many rallies and protest demonstrations. Cecile was a solid progressive fighter against war and for social justice.” Hauben said that she had also told him that as a child, she and her schoolmates protested the Nazis by going deep into the woods and shouting “WE HATE HITLER!”

Cheryl Warfield, director of the MORE Opera Community Chorus, of which Greene was a member since its inception in 2018, said of her late friend, “She was no nonsense, and she was very active in a lot of things. If it was something that resonated with her, she was all in!”

 

Warfield recalled losing touch with Greene during the COVID pandemic, but said that when in-person gatherings returned, the group performed before thousands of people at the San Gennaro Festival in Manhattan’s Little Italy in the fall of 2022.

 

According to Greene’s son, Malcolm, the late activist was born in Dresden, Germany, in January 1933 at the start of the Hitler regime. Her father was a Catholic German, and her mother was French.

Malcolm said when his mother was 12 years old, she survived the bombing of Dresden by British and American forces, a bombing that would claim the life of her mother.

 

Greene went on to say that after the war his mother was reunited with her father and another sister and the three came to New York City in 1953. Years later, Greene and her own three children moved into the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative in the early 1990s which, Malcolm said “were some of the best years of her life.”

 

Greene added, “From anti-war movements, to supporting the striking Stella D’oro cookie workers, to her support of the Palestinian people in their fight to return [to] their homeland, she was always on the right side, the side of working people. She had grown up in a world of fascist dictators and was adamant about speaking truth to power wherever and however that fascism showed its face.”

Greene said that according to the medical examiner, the highest probability was a hypertension-related “cardiac event.” Members of the MORE Opera Community Chorus will be hosting a Black History Month concert on Thursday, Feb. 15, at 2 p.m. which will feature a musical performance, poetry reading, and a tribute to Greene at Vladeck Hall, located at 78 Van Cortlandt Park South.

 

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify remarks shared with us by Malcolm Greene in terms of what the City’s medical examiner said regarding his mother’s death (there was no autopsy) as well as one remark by Jay Hauben, which had been misattributed to Malcolm Greene. This has since been corrected. We apologize for these errors.