Liz was born in Montreal, Canada. A bright and social student she excelled in her studies in high school as well as in music. After high school she did a B.A. at New York University in Music Therapy and practiced in the field for 8 years in Rockland County. She then returned to complete an M.A. in Social Work and Business at Columbia University and worked with substance abusers of employees of a few large companies. She went on to work with a Mental Health Clinic for the Orthodox Community in Long Island.

She was active in Jewish outreach in Manhattan in Shabbat programs and educational seminars and continued this work at Congregation Ohev Shalom where her husband Rabbi Jay Yaakov Schwartz was spiritual leader, after their marriage in 1993. After she and Rabbi Schwartz moved to Young Israel of Oceanside, she played a special role in the congregation with that personal amiability and touch that only Liz had. She continued her congregational and professional activities even while mothering her daughter Ayala. All who knew her were shocked by her passing in July 1999 after a fierce struggle with cancer, and mourned deeply this communal loss felt far and wide. May this Foundation bring some of her light and warmth to the Jewish people at large.