Fae Asher was born in Sydney, Australia in 1926, the youngest of 3 children to Morris and Nellie Snyder. In March of 1946 she was introduced to a young rabbi, a refugee from Nazi Germany, Joseph Asher, at a Jewish holiday social. They were married in November and emigrated to Cincinnati (via a stopover in San Francisco) in 1948.
From 1949 to 1968 Joe and Fae, very much a rabbinic couple, served 4 congregations from New York to Florida to Alabama and then to Greensboro, North Carolina before coming to Congregation Emanu-El in June of 1968 that most turbulent year. When interviewing for that prestigious pulpit, which he had admired in '48, Rabbi Asher was asked by the selection committee if they could meet his wife, a practice frowned upon by the Reform rabbinic conference. Joe Asher famously replied that to dos so "wouldn't be fair to the other candidates!"
Fae Asher, indeed, in her understated way, made as deep and lasting an impression on the SF Jewish community as did her charismatic husband. Not only did she bring warmth to the congregation, but she was a model Woman of Valor by her long-term volunteering at Mt. Zion Hospital, Glide Memorial Church, and making in-home food deliveries during the most virulent years of the AIDS epidemic. She recharged her batteries through her work and many friends at numerous Jewish service and social organizations and by singing in the pews and in the lay choir at Emanu-El. More privately she helped maintain her husband's equilibrium and good humor throughout an exciting but challenging era of SF Jewish history.
Fae proudly watched sons Raphael (Jennifer) and Daniel (Maryrose) follow generations of service to the synagogue and Jewish community. She is also the loving grandmother of Mira and Jocelyn who sustain Fae's caring and classic beauty, and Robert, Kristine and their children who remember her many kindnesses.