Edna Zohar passed away on September 8, 2022, at the age of 76. She leaves behind her husband, Yigal; two daughters, Sharon Zohar and Tammy Zohar Lyman; one son-in-law, Christopher; one sister, Judith Koren; two nieces, Anat and Yael; two step-grandchildren, one great-aunt, many cousins, and close friends who became family.

She was born shortly after the end of World War II in Hungary, where life was pretty challenging for most folks, but everything was that much more difficult for Jews, as well as the Romany and anyone else targeted by the Nazis.

Her parents’ marriage was a troubled one, and they separated while Edna was quite young. Soon afterward, Edna’s mother took Edna on a difficult, perilous, and illegal journey across war-ravaged Europe with help from the Romany, eventually arriving in the newborn state of Israel, where life was also very challenging, albeit for different reasons. Edna and her mother had to learn a new language and adapt to their new country.

Soon after arriving, Edna’s mother was introduced to a gentleman, marrying him a year later. Edna’s stepfather was a furniture craftsman in his family’s custom furniture shop in Tel Aviv, happy to provide for his new wife and the stepdaughter he embraced as his own. A year after the marriage, Edna’s sister, Judith, was born. Then Edna’s stepfather fell ill and couldn’t work for an extended period of time. Out of necessity, Edna’s mother had to start earning an income. Since she had some experience in a hair salon in Hungary, Edna’s mother opened her own beauty salon in Tel Aviv, and it was a successful business for many years. Edna and her sister could often be found at the salon when they weren’t in school. Is it any wonder that Edna turned out to be such a shrewd businesswoman, entrepreneur, and money manager??

When Edna was a teenager, she spent a year in England with a branch of the extended family. So she had to learn yet another language and adapt to another new country and culture.

Once she finished high school, she found an office job. Back then, phones were rare, and the entire office shared a single phone line. One of Edna’s coworkers was dating a young man who called the office to speak to her every day. During one of those phone calls, the coworker’s boss summoned her, so the coworker quickly handed the phone to Edna, and they struck up a conversation while waiting for the coworker to return

The young man enjoyed his conversation with Edna, liking the sound of her voice, and the next day, Yigal called the office to ask for Edna directly. Edna liked the sound of Yigal’s voice, too. When he asked her for a date, sight unseen, she agreed. After that first date, he asked her out again. And again. They saw each other daily. Three weeks later, they were engaged. Three months later, they were married. That was 58 years ago.

Not long after that, they crossed the Atlantic by boat to find opportunities not available in Israel, and moved to a tiny fifth-floor walk-up in Brooklyn. He applied to multiple prestigious engineering colleges. When New York University accepted his application, he enrolled in the school’s rigorous aeronautical engineering program.

Yigal found a job he could balance with his class schedule with a lot of juggling, and Edna also found a job. They weren’t planning to start a family right away, but life happens, and poor Edna found herself heavily pregnant in the height of the summer heat having to walk up and down multiple flights of stairs daily. Luckily for Edna, Sharon decided to show up a couple of weeks early, tiny but healthy. The first few years, Edna had to stay home with the baby because none of the jobs she could do would cover the cost of childcare. Money was tight, and Yigal was beyond busy. Somehow, they made it work.

The small family moved a few times, to other tiny affordable walk-up apartments in Brooklyn and then the Bronx. When Yigal finished his aeronautical engineering degree, the U.S. Department of Immigration asked him which vessel he was taking back to Israel, and when. Yigal and Edna weren’t ready to return, so Yigal decided to pursue a master's degree in industrial engineering, while continuing working. Finally, the couple could afford to leave the city, and found a — gasp — two-bedroom apartment — with an elevator, no less — in Yonkers, a city just north of the Bronx. They bought a car. Not too long after that, their younger daughter, Tammy, arrived. The couple had started cultivating a close group of friends who became a second family.

The couple realized that Edna needed to learn to drive. It took a little time, but eventually, she got her license, enjoying her new skill.

The couple scrimped and saved, and started looking for a house nearby. They found a “handyman’s special,” and moved the family to Tuckahoe. The kids went to school in Eastchester. Whenever either parent had a free minute, they could be found fixing up the house, sometimes recruiting friends and family to pitch in. Even the kids were occasionally conscripted to paint or sand or do other odd jobs once they were old enough. 

The one thing Edna hated most was the fact that there were stairs. Lots of stairs. Washer and dryer in the basement. Kitchen and living room on the first floor. Bedrooms on the second floor. Storage in the attic. Edna dreamed of a home with no stairs. Also, the parking situation wasn’t great. The detached single-car garage down a steep, narrow driveway was essentially unusable, except as more storage. There was just enough room at the top of the driveway to park their one car. When the family got a second car, it had to be parked on the street, sometimes at the farthest end. During bad weather, it was a miserable trek.

Edna and Yigal continued to cultivate their chosen family. The chosen family all shared holidays, joys, sorrows, and lives. Yigal and Edna loved to entertain, occasionally filling the house beyond reasonable capacity with people and food. 

One Passover, they planned their Seder for thirty-seven people in their tiny dining room. They removed the dining room furniture, and Yigal built three makeshift tables using plywood and wooden “horses” as table legs in a U-shape. They built benches to seat everyone along the inside and outside of the U. The day before, an old friend called to say he was passing through New York, and somehow they made room for him, too. They chose to use real dishware and flatware, refusing to resort to disposables. While many people contributed cooked dishes, Edna cooked enough to feed an army by herself, mostly from scratch. That Seder lasted for hours, and people still talk about it over thirty years later.

And Edna finally had room for bookcases to hold the many books that Edna had started buying to feed her growing addiction to reading.

Once the younger daughter started nursery school, Edna found a part-time job. Once Tammy was in school five full days a week, Edna became a bank teller. Through hard work and dedication, she earned promotion after promotion, surviving multiple bank mergers and branch transfers. Eventually, she became a vice president and managed one of the most successful branches of Chase Manhattan Bank, often acting as a personal banker for some of the most successful celebrities and business figures in some of the most affluent towns in Westchester County. For many years, she was the only person to reach her level of success with the bank without any college experience.

She also took up bridge, not just social bridge games with friends, but competitive duplicate bridge. She participated in regional tournaments, and earned a Gold Life Master ranking. She even won an amateur national championship one year. She became a very sought-after partner.

One of her bridge partners became a business partner as well. On weekends, Edna and her business partner would rent sales tables at different flea markets and street fairs, selling hair and nail care products, using the knowledge Edna gained at her mother’s feet in the salon to help customers select the right items for their needs. 

And of course, Edna and Yigal somehow found time to entertain.

All along, they continued to scrimp and save, to put their daughters through college, and to save for retirement. So each daughter went to college, and some years later, the couple decided it was time to retire.

The former fixer-upper house, with the much despised stairs, was sold, and the retirees had a house built in Boynton Beach, Florida. A house with no stairs whatsoever. A house with a two-car garage. A house with a master bedroom suite including multiple walk-in closets, a shower, a Roman tub, etc. A house that was finally what both Edna and Yigal wanted. 

There was a burgeoning Israeli expatriate community in their new neighborhood, and the retirees expanded their chosen family. When members of their chosen family struggled, Yigal and Edna were often the first to help. And they continued to entertain, of course, often for Jewish holidays, always with an unmistakably Israeli flair. Their Hanukkah parties were cacophonous and joyful, a house full of retired Israeli expatriates singing traditional songs at the tops of their lungs, mostly off-key. Their Passover Seders were rowdy, hilarious, and tasty, ending in more loud and off-key singing of traditional songs.

Edna continued to play competitive duplicate bridge, finding plenty of willing partners.

The couple also started traveling. They took a two-month road trip across the United States and through parts of Canada with Edna’s sister and brother-in-law, Edna doing the lion’s share of the driving. Edna and Yigal visited countries on almost every continent, sometimes directly, other times via cruises. 

Their golden years together were mostly what they’d hoped for.

Unfortunately, in the last few years, Edna developed pneumonia on a few of those trips, and last year, she was diagnosed with various lung issues, most likely due to years of smoking. She was in and out of the hospital. 

Last week, she was admitted to the hospital again. She was unwell, but holding her own. Unfortunately, she took an unexpected and severe turn for the worst early Thursday morning, and passed away a few hours later. She was surrounded by family, and passed peacefully.

The funeral will be held on Sunday, September 11th, at 1 pm, at Beth Israel Memorial Chapel, 11115 Jog Road, Boynton Beach, FL 33437. Edna will be laid to rest following the funeral at Eternal Light Memorial Gardens, 11520 State Road 7, Boynton Beach, FL 33473. The funeral will be streamed at https://bit.ly/3xezr0y for those who are unable to attend in person.

Shiva will be observed at the house in Boynton Beach from 12 - 6 Monday - Thursday, and 12 - 5 on Friday.