Judith Schneider “understood people better than almost anyone I’ve ever known,” her husband, Norbert Weissberg, recalled in his eulogy. “She could see through pretense; sense what mattered to someone, what hurt them, and what they were really saying when they said something else.” She was “a woman with instinctive and profound human intelligence.”
She died at home on Further Lane in East Hampton on Aug. 19. She was 90 and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Ms. Schneider, who had a practice in clinical psychology in New York City for 35 years, was an early supporter of the day care center in East Hampton now called the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center. She served on its board and played a critical role in establishing its book program for toddlers with the East Hampton Library.
Along with her significant support for the Eleanor Whitmore center, whose founder had been a close friend, she was a founder of the ENACT project for civic engagement at Brandeis University, a member of the project’s advisory board, and a member of the advisory board for the university’s International Center for Justice, Ethics, and Public Life.
Born in New York City on May 18, 1936, to Abraham Feinberg and the former Lillian Farber, she grew up in Mount Vernon, N.Y., going on to earn a bachelor’s degree at Sarah Lawrence College.
An early marriage to Bert Schneider, a movie producer with whom she had two children, took her to Hollywood. When the marriage ended, she earned a master’s degree in social work at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a doctor of psychology degree from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, Calif. She moved to Boston, where she was awarded a fellowship at a Harvard-affiliated hospital, and then to New York, where she established her own practice in 1982.
She and Mr. Weissberg were married on Dec. 26, 1985. They divided their time between Manhattan and East Hampton, eventually moving full time to Further Lane.
In addition to her husband, Ms. Schneider is survived by her children, Audrey Simon of Lyme, Conn., and Jeffrey Schneider of San Anselmo, Calif., two stepsons, John and Jed Weissberg of New York City, and eight grandchildren.
A service was held on Aug. 20 at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, with Rabbi Debra Stein officiating. Ms. Schneider was buried at Chevra Kodetia Cemetery in Sag Harbor.
Her family has suggested memorial contributions to the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, online at ewecc.org.
