Miriam Weiss, survivor, longtime JCF employee, dies at 73

Miriam Weiss, who worked for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation for several decades, died Monday, Nov. 17 in San Francisco. She was 73.

Weiss was born in a Polish shtetl on March 17, 1930.

After the Nazis invaded Poland, she managed to flee to Hungary with her mother and brother. They had procured some false papers saying they were Catholic. She spent the duration of the war in Hungary, in hiding with a Catholic family.

After the war, she first went to Germany, but she became very ill with tuberculosis. She recuperated for some three years in a Swiss sanitarium before coming to the United States in 1951.

When she first arrived, she lived in a residence especially for single Jewish women. Her TB led to disabilities, and she underwent surgery several times.

"She was a sick person; it was always one thing after the other, but she was a fighter," said her brother, Joseph Sattler of San Francisco. "Nothing set her back, even having all the misfortune of being disabled, she was always a go-getter and strived to do her best. She suffered so much."

Weiss worked for about 30 years at the JCF, overseeing the data department, in the pre-computer age.

"She was a very special person," said Elle Hoffnagel, who worked with Weiss many years ago.

"She was a very exuberant lady. If you were married, she always asked when you were having children, and if you weren't married, she tried to marry you off. She was like an aunt to everyone."

Hoffnagel suspected this came from her wartime background.

"Given what she had been through, she cared very much about keeping the Jewish world going and wanting life to go on."

Gene Kaufman, now executive director of Sinai Memorial Chapel, also worked with Weiss at the JCF.

"She cared tremendously about the work she did, and the mission and purpose of federation, and also about the people who worked there," he said. "They were her family."

William Lowenberg, who has been involved with the JCF as a lay leader over the years, called Weiss "the backbone of our staff at the federation, very dedicated and a diligent worker.

"She cared immensely about the Jewish community," he said, "and was especially loyal to the lay community with whom she worked so well."

In addition to her brother Joseph Sattler, Weiss is survived by nieces and nephews.

Donations can be made to the Jewish Community Federation, 121 Steuart St., S.F., CA 94105.