Longtime Milwaukeean Cyla Sztundel, nee Tinne, died Aug. 10 at age 88 in San Francisco.
Daughter of a mill owner, she was born in Czartorysk, Poland, and grew up in Maniewicze, in the Volhynia region of Poland. One of eight children, she was educated in Polish schools and learned to speak six languages.
In 1941, when the Holocaust reached Volhynia, she escaped with one brother to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where he later died of tuberculosis. The rest of her family was killed in Maniewicze.
After the war, in the Fahrenwald Displaced Persons Camp in Germany, she met Avrum Sztundel and married. Their first child was born there. One month after arriving in Milwaukee in 1949, she gave birth to their second child.
She was deeply involved with Congregation Beth Jehudah and had “great respect and love for the Twerski family,” according to her daughter Golden (Edward) Lerman of Napa, Calif.
Her greatest honor was receiving the congregation’s annual award, her daughter said.
“Cyla created an atmosphere of loving warmth and generosity that extended beyond the confines of home and family,” she said.
“She was recognized … as a pillar of generosity, extending her caring and nurturing and unparalleled Jewish cuisine to friends and strangers alike. Her home was always open to her friends, members of her congregation, traveling scholars, rabbis and refugees.”
She is survived by son Ksiel Wolf Sztundel of Oakland, Calif.; daughter Golden (Edward) Lerman of Napa, Calif.; and two grandchildren.
Funeral services were held in California.
The family would appreciate memorial contributions to Congregation Beth Jehudah.
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