Goldgar, Vida nee Daab - July 18, 2004
Vida Goldgar nee Daab, 74, of Atlanta, formerly of Columbia, died July 18, 2004, in Atlanta. 
She was born October 18, 1929, the daughter of the late John A. and Adele Marie Daab nee 
Schein. She is survived by her son David (Constance) Goldgar of Salt Lake City, Utah, Dirk 
(Mary Ellen Curtin) Goldgar of Pennington, N.J., Dean (An) Goldgar of Covington, Ga.; 
daughter Deborah Barber of Alpharetta, Ga.; sister, Adele Fox of Cincinnati; and eight grand-
children. Mrs. Goldgar was a member of The Temple in Atlanta. She began a career in journalism 
in 1973, following a conversion to Judaism in the 1950s. Following her divorce she began 
working full-time at the Southern Israelite, eventually becoming the paper’s editor and publisher. 
In 1979, Goldgar purchased the paper and later sold it, but she rarely missed her column deadline 
until just a few weeks before her death, when she became seriously ill. Goldgar’s columns and 
reporting are widely credited with helping build bridges in Atlanta’s Jewish community, said 
friends. Goldgar was proud of her faith, telling friends and reporters, “This is what I was and I 
was proud of it.” In a 40-year career in Jewish journalism that spanned 1964 to 2004, Goldgar 
reported from Beirut in the middle of the Lebanon war, walked with more than one American 
president and with several Israeli prime ministers. She became the first woman president of 
the American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) and she was the first woman president of the 
Atlanta chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. “She always wrote with intellect and 
heart,” said Alvin Sugarman, former senior rabbi of The Temple. Her funeral was at The Temple. 
She is interred at Memorial Park in Atlanta. (Information, photo courtesy of Southern Israelite and 
Dressler’s Jewish Care of Eternal Light.)