Andrea Askin

Andrea Askin, 55, of Monroe Township died Sept. 20, 2018. Born in Newark, she also had lived in West Orange, Honolulu, and Bethesda, Md.

She was a 1984 graduate of Bennington College in Vermont, and received her teaching degree from William Paterson State College.

A bat mitzvah at Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston under religious leader Dr. Joachim Prinz, in high school she led a movement to bar the transport of nuclear waste through Essex County streets.

At Bennington, she spent non-resident terms in internships at Columbia University, at the first magnet school in Montclair, and in an arts program in San Francisco, where she remained after graduation.

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She and her ex-husband, Al Goldfaden, were proprietors of Wild Whims, a gift and flower shop in Lake Tahoe, Calif., where she also sold her own ceramic jewelry creations. After her divorce, she returned with her son to West Orange, where after receiving teacher certification, she taught at Solomon Schechter Day School. Later she moved to Dundalk, Md., before returning to New Jersey.

She is survived by her son, Jacob; her parents, Frank and Marilyn Askin of Delray Beach, Fla.; two brothers, Jonathan and Daniel Askin; a half-brother, Steve Askin; and her partner, Brian Hoffmann.

A memorial service is being planned in New Jersey. Memorial contributions may be made to charities that include championing democratic, environmental, or civil liberties causes.