The following is a Counterpoint:

By Fred Guttman

The greater Greensboro community and the Greensboro Jewish community have lost an incredible friend in Claudette Burroughs-White. The details of her amazing biography as a civil rights activist and long-term City Council member have been in numerous recent articles.

Claudette was a personal friend of mine. We got to know one another when we co-chaired Greensboro's commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Woolworth sit-ins. We also worked together on the board of the National Conference of Community and Justice.

In 2001, Claudette was our featured speaker at our annual Martin Luther King Jr. service. I remember so fondly the traditional Sabbath meal that we had at our house with Claudette and Gerald.

Claudette loved Israel, and together with the NCCJ and the Greensboro Jewish Federation was instrumental in planning and recruiting for three interfaith missions. The missions have been helpful in increasing the level of social capital and cooperation among the various faith communities in Greensboro.

Claudette loved homemade matzah ball soup. I was privileged to bring some to her house during her illness. I was also privileged to visit her several times in the hospital, and together, with Gerald, to pray for her recovery.

Greensboro will miss this giant of a woman with her signature gray "afro." Temple Emanuel and the greater Jewish community will miss her as well. She was truly one of a kind, a righteous woman of valor whose presence will live on in the acts of goodness that she performed and the hearts of all of us who cherish her memory.

Zacher Zaddika leveracha. May the memory of this righteous woman be a blessing!

The writer is rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Greensboro.