When an Israeli dance instructor forgot a step in a dance she had choreographed herself, someone in the room knew exactly who could help. Barbara Jeffe quietly supplied the missing movement.

Friends said moments like that were common. Whether she was dancing Israeli folk dances, exhibiting paintings at the Rockville JCC or helping prepare weather satellites for launch, Jeffe seemed to carry an encyclopedia of details in her head. The Baltimore native, who died on May 3 at 85, spent decades pursuing passions that bridged science, art, travel and Jewish life.

Colleague Anita Wellen worked alongside Jeffe on five weather satellite launches connected to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.

Wellen described Jeffe as thorough, detail-oriented and widely respected by colleagues. Over the course of her career, Jeffe worked on weather satellite systems supporting NASA and NOAA, eventually becoming deputy operations manager for a polar-orbiting weather satellite program before retiring in 2009. Her work stretched from early Earth-observation projects that helped lay the groundwork for modern satellite imaging to weather satellite programs that monitored conditions around the globe.

“She knew the software inside out, but she knew everything about the satellites,” Wellen said.

Born on Aug. 5, 1940, Jeffe’s life was shaped by loss early on. Her father, Sam Zuckerman, died in a fire when she was 2 years old. Her mother, Dorothy, later remarried Sam Smith, who adopted Barbara. She grew up in Baltimore’s Forest Park neighborhood with her younger sisters, Carole, Susan and Marilyn.

Jewish life surrounded her from an early age. She attended the predominately Jewish Forest Park High School. She celebrated Jewish holidays at home, attended synagogue and spent summers at Habonim Dror Camp Moshava in Northern Maryland, where her connection to Jewish culture and Israel deepened.

After her junior year at the University of Maryland, where she studied physics, Jeffe left for a yearlong work-study program in Israel. She spent months studying and traveling throughout the country before returning to complete her degree, an experience that helped shape interests she would carry for the rest of her life.

She graduated from University of Maryland in 1963 and headed west to UCLA for graduate study in physics. There, she entered a field where women remained rare. According to her husband, Richard Jeffe, she hoped to continue toward a doctorate but encountered barriers common for women in science at the time. Although she completed her master’s degree, opportunities for women in advanced physics remained limited. She remained and became involved in research projects that exposed her to emerging technologies like the method for sending text over telephone.

Among the programs she worked on were early satellite-related efforts that helped pave the way for Earth-observation systems. Later, after moving to the Washington area, she joined Computer Sciences Corporation and built a career as a computer scientist, applying her physics background to increasingly sophisticated satellite programs.

Israeli folk dancing remained a constant from the time she began dancing as a teenager in 1952. It also led her to the person who would become her husband. She met Richard Jeffe at a dance cafe in Los Angeles, and the activity that first brought them together remained a centerpiece of their nearly 59 years of marriage.

The couple lived in Iran, where their younger son, Michael, was born, then immigrated to Israel before returning to the United States and settling in Aspen Hill in 1975. Their first son, Steven, was born in Los Angeles.

Richard Jeffe’s work took the couple to Iran. There, Jeffe explored local markets and culture while raising a young family. Later, the couple made aliyah, where she deepened friendships and continued participating in dance activities that had become part of her identity.

The couple became involved in international folk dancing, square dancing, contra dancing and tap dancing. Their travels took them to festivals and cultural gatherings throughout Europe, Asia and North America.

Along the way, Jeffe became a familiar presence in dance circles well beyond the Washington area.

If someone forgot a sequence in a dance, there was a good chance Jeffe could supply it. Friends remembered her willingness to share knowledge and encourage newcomers.

At her funeral and shiva, friends from multiple circles arrived: dancers, artists, former colleagues and longtime family friends. Many were meeting one another for the first time despite having known Barbara for years.

“She intersected with so many different interest groups,” Richard Jeffe said.

Painting provided another lifelong outlet. As a child, she attended art classes at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Eight decades later, she was still painting.

In retirement, she attended classes at local senior centers and regularly exhibited work in the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington’s senior art show. Just before her death, she submitted another painting for exhibition. It remained hanging on the wall during the show’s reception, which she was unable to attend because she was hospitalized.

She also devoted years to genealogy research, tracing family roots through Eastern Europe and Russia. But family members said her greater gift was keeping people connected.

She maintained relationships with cousins and relatives spread across multiple branches of her family, preserving ties that might otherwise have faded with time.
Judaism remained woven through her life.

The family belonged to Tikvat Israel Congregation in Rockville. She observed Jewish holidays, attended High Holiday services, hosted Passover Seders for years and maintained traditions she considered important. Before Rosh Hashanah, she often visited family graves, placing stones on headstones and remembering earlier generations.

Wellen described her as deeply interested in Judaism, Israel and tikkun olam, the Jewish concept of repairing the world.

Whether she was helping someone master a dance, researching family history, exhibiting a new painting or maintaining ties with relatives and friends, Jeffe remained engaged with the people and activities she cared about.

Looking back on their long marriage, Richard Jeffe said one quality stood out above all others.

“People loved her,” he said. “She just befriended everybody.”

Ellen Braunstein is a freelance obituary writer. She welcomes suggestions for individuals who had meaningful ties to the greater Washington Jewish community. Email csix@midatlanticmedia.com.