Willa Radin Swiller Passes Away on August 22, 2024

Former Scarsdale resident and Democratic political activist Willa Radin Swiller, died one month short of her 84th birthday on August 22, 2024.

According to Legacy.com, Swiller was born on September 23rd, 1940, the first child of Rabbi Jacob Radin and Ruth (Falk) Radin. She had two younger brothers, Jonathan (Chaim Yoshua) and David. She graduated from Cornell University and received a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University. Shortly after college she met Hillel Swiller. Hillel became a psychiatrist and professor at Mount Sinai and they were married for 56 years until his passing last year and had four sons (Ari, Josh, Zev and Sam) four daughters-in-law (Martha, Leah, Mari and Katharine) and seven grandchildren (Olivia, Hannah, Jane, Josiah, Asa, Shaw and Mateo).

As a young college graduate in the 1960s Swiller toured the south with an integrated theater company, an extremely dangerous undertaking, and she continued to be passionately and fearlessly dedicated to justice and democratic politics until her Parkinson’s disease made it impossible.

Willa never wanted nor cared for attention and accolades. She never cared about personal financial benefit. She just did what she believed was right. To be with Willa was to be in a powerful, wild and beautiful presence, full of deep wisdom, incredible wit, and an unshakeable understanding that what matters in this life is to do right by one another. With her you never felt that you were an imposition but always a valued and necessary fellow traveler. Her door was always open, her fridge was always stocked. Another call could be made. Another check could be made out. Another place could be set at the table.

Willa did right by more people than we will ever know; from politicians seeking higher office to immigrants seeking asylum to rabbis needing fundraising and emotional support, to young tradesmen starting careers and seeking referrals, to the children of friends and the friends of children. To all, she gave whatever she could provide.

Willa was supported by her deep Jewish faith, which, as in all her passions, was based in love, work and justice. Her father was a beloved Rabbi in northern Manhattan and she loved her community at the Hebrew Institute of White Plains, and her Rabbi, Chaim Marder. For many years she set her evening schedule around the Rabbi’s class.

She was remarkably physically strong and uncomplaining, running marathons after giving birth to four children, swimming four mornings a week. She once treated a leg broken while skiing with a pitcher of margaritas. She was a talented painter who cared most for the process and for supporting other painters, not for the praise, and for decades guided the Reilly League of Artists, a studio collective, making sure the doors stayed open for whoever wanted to paint.