Sylvia Goulston Dreyfus worked to improve Boston both through community activism and through her support of art and music. Dreyfus graduated Wellesley in 1914 and supported the college throughout her life as a member of the alumni association’s publication committee and their vice–chairman for national publicity. She was president of the Hecht Neighborhood House (inspired by Jane Addams’s Hull House in Chicago), which offered classes, health services, and vocational training to Jews. Dreyfus also served as a trustee of the New England Conservatory of Music and honorary chair of the Palestine Orchestra (later the Israeli Philharmonic) Fund, and sat on the advisory board of the Berkshire Music Festival. She wrote an account of her friendship with Serge Koussevitzky, who became conductor of Tanglewood’s summer music concerts in 1936. Despite her lifelong passion for music, she did not perform, although she did become involved in the arts as a bas-relief sculptor.
Occupations
Date of Birth
November 12, 1893
Date of Death
September 14, 1942