Melvin E. Lewis
2007
Melvin E. Lewis, 90, former chief accountant for the U.S. Postal Rate Commission who was active in several Jewish organizations in Washington, died of pneumonia March 12 at his home in Haifa, Israel, where he had lived since 2005.
Before joining the postal rate commission, Mr. Lewis was with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Commission from its inception in 1961 as an accountant and later as its first executive director. He also taught cost accounting at American University into the 1980s, when he retired.
A native Washingtonian, Mr. Lewis grew up in the old Southwest section of the city, where he learned the Torah and the traditions of Orthodox Judaism. He graduated from the old Central High School and attended Southeastern University. He received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from George Washington University. He served as a combat soldier in the First U.S. Army during World War II and landed on Omaha Beach with his tefillin, prayer book and Bible in his pack. He also helped to liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. His awards include the Bronze Star.
After the war, Mr. Lewis supported and participated in numerous Zionist groups. He traveled to the Soviet Union on behalf of the Campaign to Free Soviet Jewry, was a member of the Jewish War Veterans of the USA, and supported the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.
Mr. Lewis and his wife, Beatrice F. Lewis, took a leadership role in establishing the Hebrew Academy of  Washington. He served six terms as president of  Washington's Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah congregation, overseeing its expression. He also was active in Boy Scouts.
His wife died in 2003.
Survivors include three children, Betsy Lewis Yizraeli of Haifa, Steven Lewis of Newton, Mass., and Michael Lewis of Los Angeles; three sisters, Libbey Sussan of Gainesville, Va., Mollie Lewis Berch of Silver Spring and Rose Lewis Glaser of Bethesda; one brother, Philip Lewis of  Washington; 13 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.