Sallie Kochin Abelson, business entrepreneur and retired development director at University of Michigan Hillel, has died at 78
She created the trivia board game Aliyah in 1978 to make Jewish education more exciting and sold 10,000 over two decades. One player called it “fun and eye-opening.”
Sallie Kochin Abelson, 78, formerly of Havertown, founder and chief executive officer of Contemporary Designs gift company, and retired director of development at University of Michigan Hillel, died Saturday, Dec. 23, of heart failure at a nursing center in Richmond, Va.
Ms. Abelson founded Contemporary Designs in 1978 after creating a Jewish trivia board game called Aliyah. Later, she added greeting cards, stickers, stationery, books, puzzles, pencils, T-shirts, and hundreds of other gift items to her eclectic inventory.
She traveled to trade shows across the country, marketed Aliyah in 14 states, and eventually opened a manufacturing plant in Iowa that employed more than 50 people. It’s not surprising, her family said, that Hanukkah and Thanksgiving were her favorite holidays. “Her superpower was generosity,” said her son David. “Giving gifts was her thing.”
Seeking new ways to connect with young Sunday School students while living in Ames, Iowa, in the 1970s, Ms. Abelson dreamed up the idea for Aliyah. Players start the game in the United States, and the first to reach Israel is the winner.
Players advance by answering questions in 27 categories about Jewish history and culture. For example, how many days did Queen Esther tell the Jewish people to fast? The correct answer is three.
People loved the game almost immediately, and demand for it grew at schools, synagogues, and, later, retail stores. “I wanted to explain the traditions so people have a deeper understanding of Judaism,” Ms. Abelson told Tablet Magazine in 2021. “I hope they learned not just what we do, but why we do things.”
She consulted with a nearby toy factory to see how Parker Brothers made its popular board games and started her own operation in 1978 in her garage and basement. She organized the questions and oversaw production while relatives and neighbors were hired to assemble the tokens, dice, cards, and other parts of the game.
Later, she opened a manufacturing plant with printing presses and hired artists, designers, accountants, and a sales staff. “The whole business ran on her creative energy,” said her son David.
Inventory reached 1,500 different gift and novelty items with an annual revenue of nearly $2 million by the time she closed the business in 1997. She estimated in 2021 that she sold more than 10,000 copies of Aliyah.
“Jews are pretty proud of who they are, and they want to celebrate that pride,” she told the Detroit Jewish News in 1993. Her son Michael said in a tribute: “She had a rare knack for combining a deep commitment to Jewish education and culture with an incredible creative and entrepreneurial spirit.”
Ms. Abelson graduated from Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1967 and returned as the school’s Hillel director of development from 1998 to 2014. In that role, she helped support more than 40 Jewish student groups and raised millions of dollars for Michigan Hillel’s award-winning programs and events.
She was profiled in the March 2008 edition of the Washtenaw County Jewish News in Michigan after she donated the archives of Contemporary Designs to the university’s Jewish Heritage Collection. She said: “I am really proud that Contemporary Designs was one of the pioneers in the development of modern designs for Jewish materials.”
Born Aug. 23, 1945, in Philadelphia, Sara-Ann Kochin grew up in Havertown. Her great-grandparents, Abe and Anna Levis, founded the Levis hot dog restaurant in Philadelphia in 1895, and it remained in her family until 1977.
Called Sallie throughout her life, Ms. Abelson was an outstanding student at Haverford High School. She played varsity field hockey and basketball, and graduated in 1963. “She was a star,” said her older brother Levis Kochin. “She was difficult to follow.”
After her bachelor’s degree at Michigan, she earned a master’s degree in counseling at Pennsylvania State University in 1970. She married Geoff Abelson and had sons Michael and David. They moved to Iowa and divorced later.
An active Democrat who raised money for and worked on many political campaigns, Ms. Abelson visited President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore at the White House, and was recognized for supporting candidates in Iowa.
She valued experiences over possessions and was an expert at organizing extravagant parties and important events. She cultivated lifelong friends and was, her family said, a proud breast cancer survivor. “What a gift it was to have known Sallie,” a friend said in an online tribute. “Her joy and positivity were infectious.”
She moved from Michigan to Richmond a few years ago to be close to her son Michael and his family. Her son David said: “Sallie was a force of nature and had a magical way of making things happen.”
In addition to her sons and brother, Ms. Abelson is survived by two grandchildren and other relatives.
Services were held Dec. 28.
Donations in her name may be made to Hillel International, Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center, Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building, 800 Eighth St., NW Washington, DC 20001.