Sarah Grossman

Fair Lawn - Sarah Praverman Grossman, a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and long-time resident of Fair Lawn, NJ, passed away peacefully on December 22, 2023, at the age of 98. She was born on October 3, 1925, in Chmielnik, Poland to Moshe and Rizel Praverman. She had two sisters, Malka and Toby, and two brothers, Abram and Mottel. She was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust.

Sarah met her husband Albert Grossman in the Landsberg DP camp after the war. Albert described Sarah as "the best-looking girl in town," with jet-black hair and a gentle face. The two married and had their first child, Joel, in Germany before arriving in the US in 1949. They first settled in Paterson before deciding to move to Fair Lawn. Sarah and her husband opened Al & Harry's Luncheonette with Al's cousin Harry Gray on Prospect Street in Ridgewood. As the chef behind the counter, Sarah quickly became a valuable member of the local community.

Not only a talented cook, Sarah was resilient, beautiful, charming, and incredibly tough. Her children recall stories of her time in a Nazi labor camp when she-as a testament to her bravery-used to quietly put sawdust into German bullets instead of gunpowder. Sarah and her husband instilled a deep devotion to the Jewish identity and the survival of the Jewish people in her children and grandchildren. As a child, Sarah always dreamed of living in America, particularly in New York, to escape the history and antisemitism of Eastern Europe.

Sarah is preceded in death by her husband Albert Grossman and son Robert Grossman. She is survived by children Joel, wife Jamie, and Edith, husband David, who were with her when she passed. She was a grandmother to eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Warm thanks and gratitude to Sarah's caring and wonderful aides, Lisandra Reyes, Elvia Marin, and Nora Diaz Demendoza. She will be terribly missed. Funeral services were held at Mount Moriah Jewish Cemetery in Fairview, NJ. Donations in her memory can be made to the US Holocaust Museum, Holocaust Museum Houston, or Jewish Family and Children's Services of Northern New Jersey.