On Sunday April 16th, 2023 we lost Holocaust survivor, Sidney Moszer. Sid was born in Cologne, Germany on September 21st, 1925. He and his family escaped the Nazis shortly after Sid’s Bar Mitzvah and experiencing Kristallnacht in 1938. They went to England and then later settled in the U.S in Philadelphia.
Sid was drafted into the US Army in 1944 and after serving in Europe during WWII with the 14th Infantry Regiment of the 71st Infantry Division as an interpreter for the Counter Intelligence Corp., he was honorably discharged in June of 1946. He returned to the US and married Eva, a Kindertransport survivor, in 1954.
They were blessed with three sons, Richard, Jeffrey, and Gary. They were also blessed with five grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.
After retiring following many years of employment as an Aeronautical Stress Engineer at Boeing, he became a Bar & Bat Mitzvah tutor. He worked with Congregation Beth El and later added Congregation Brothers of Israel (CBOI) to his tutoring duties.
The latter Congregation honored him for his many years of service to their students in 2018. It gave Sid great pleasure to work with these individuals and was extremely proud of them.
Congregation Brothers of Israel partnered with the Daffodil Project and Am Yisrael Chai to build a worldwide Living Holocaust Memorial by planting 1.5 million daffodils in memory of the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust and in support for the children who continue to suffer humanitarian crises and genocides around the world today.
The shape and color of the daffodils represent the yellow stars that the Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. Yellow is the color of remembrance. Daffodils represent a poignant hope for the future. They are resilient and return with a burst of color each spring, signifying hope, renewal, and beauty. The daffodils also honor those who survived the Holocaust and went on to build new lives after this dark and difficult period.
On April 14, Congregation Brothers of Israel dedicated this Daffodil Garden in honor of Sid Moszer.
Camren Deutsch is a current Bar Mitzvah student at CBOI. Camren’s older brother and sister both had the opportunity to learn to read Torah from Sid. Camren led the daffodil planting project at CBOI with over 700 bulbs planted in the garden beds he prepared. Sid continues to touch the lives of the students and families at CBOI.
PHOTO CAP: Sid Moszer was a dedicated mentor to students of the Torah.