Rebecca Patt (May 18, 1941–April 17, 2020) was born and spent most of her life in The Bronx. She was the daughter of Dr. Emanuel and Brucha Patt and the granddaughter of Jacob Pat, Jewish labor activists, Yiddishists, and refugees from Nazi-occupied Poland. Patt graduated from Walton High School and City College, later completing an MA in Business Education from NYU. She had two daughters with her first husband, Jack Gallers. As a first-generation American, Patt dedicated her life to family, community, and service to others, first as a NYC public school teacher, then later working in Jewish organizations including Council of Jewish Federations, the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the Workers Circle (then called the Workmen’s Circle), and the Jewish Council of Yonkers. Well into her retirement, Patt taught Holocaust education lessons in public schools by sharing her family’s story and connecting the European genocide to the students’ knowledge and experience of racial injustice in the U.S. She was politically engaged throughout her life, committed to civic participation and social justice. She also volunteered her skills at her synagogue and on the Board of her apartment building on Sedgwick Avenue. She loved and retained her native Yiddish language and culture throughout her life, her interest expanding to include other aspects of Jewish culture and history in the U.S. and around the world. Since the 1970s, Patt was an avid collector of vintage toys, postcards, and ephemera. With her second husband, Dr. Joseph I. Cohen, she assembled an extensive collection of ephemera focusing on two main themes: the history of the labor movement and the history of New York City.