By Carl Zebrowski
Editor

One of the many things Bill Markson likes about the Lehigh Valley is that you have to put in some effort to be Jewish here. It’s not automatic. 

The new board president of the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley has seen it both ways, thinking back to his days growing up outside New York City. “Almost our whole neighborhood was Jewish, and 70% of high school as well,” Billy says. “A lot of the Jewish stuff you just took for granted.

“It was all around you culturally, but you weren’t really making a choice. Here in the Lehigh Valley, it does require you to make a choice to live in a Jewish way. I think that enhances the satisfaction of it.”

The Lehigh Valley has been a satisfying place for him to live and live Jewishly for close to 40 years, since moving here with his wife, Jane, in 1989. His family roots go even farther back. His grandfather Marko Markowitz, an Romanian immigrant, had textile mills in downtown Allentown. Billy’s father was born here and spent some time here as a kid, though he grew up mostly in New York.

His dad attended Philadelphia Textile Institute and served a hitch in the U.S. Air Force, then resurrected part of the family textile business in Walnutport. Young Billy attended cousins’ bar and bat mitzvahs at the old Temple Beth El on Hamilton Street.

Jane has roots in the Lehigh Valley too. Evidence of that remains for all to see in the form of photos of Gotlieb family members hanging on walls in the JCC. 

After settling here themselves, the Markson’s sent their kids to the JCC and Jewish Day School. As you’d expect, frequent visits to both places followed. They made a lot of friends fast. 

After Jane’s father, Milton Sanders, died, she and Billy brought Jane’s mom, Audrey, to town. A bunch of friendly Jewish women welcomed her, and she worked at Jewish Family Service as a therapist. She provided a second home for the Marksons’ kids.

Today, their son Jon and his wife, Julia, live in Allentown. Their daughters Becca and Liz live elsewhere, but both consider the Lehigh Valley a second home. 

By day (and no doubt some nights too), Billy is a cardiologist with St. Luke’s University Health Network. Jane is also with St. Luke’s, as assistant general counsel in the legal department—which is headed by none other than Robbie Wax, senior vice president and general counsel, and Billy’s friend and predecessor as Federation president.

Billy has long experience volunteering the Jewish community. He was on the JCC board for years and chaired the committee for the JCC’s celebration of 100 years in the Lehigh Valley in 2018.

For the Jewish Federation, Billy served as president of the Maimonides Society of healthcare professionals until 2022, cochair of the Annual Campaign for Jewish Needs until this July, and now board president. 

No one reading this needs to be told it’s a tough time to come into a role like this, supporting and advocating for Israel and the Jewish community here and around the world. “We have a lot of challenges right now,” he says, “partially because of the October 7 Hamas invasion and the aftermath of that, all the protests on campuses related to that, and a lot of people suffering in Gaza.

“We are traditionally a community of people that have had to overcome a lot of problems. To have it appear to the outside world that we’re causing problems is difficult for us, difficult internally and difficult for us know what our place is in the world.”

Bill says it’s important to put all this in context and to keep the Jewish people’s history and traditions alive as the global community navigates its way into the future. “We still have this shared heritage that make us feel like we belong to something,” he says. “We have a story that’s stretching back over 2,000 years, and we tell the story often. We can concentrate on the challenges, but we also need to concentrate on who we are separate from our enemies.”

He sees this as a big part of keeping the Lehigh Valley Jewish community alive and vibrant. “I hope our organizations thrive,” he says, “that they remain or become an important part of everyone’s life.”

His role as Federation president puts him among the public faces of the ongoing effort to ensure that happens. “I’m 66 and I’m planning to live here for the rest of my days.”