HANS WERTHEIMER

WERTHEIMER--Hans, (Harold). Four months after his 100th birthday celebration, our father, grandfather "Pappa," and great-grandfather passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by his children Rebecca Kopans (Ramat Hasharon, Israel), Jonathan Wertheimer (Geneva, Switzerland) and Sarah Rosand (Washington DC). He is now finally reunited with his beloved late wife Barbara. Born in the small village of Kippenheim, Germany on May 24, 1925, Hans fled the Nazis with his parents Berta and Richard and his sister Pia when he was 12. The family settled in Manhattan, where his high school teacher made him change his too-German name from Hans to Harold. After high school, the young refugee proudly joined the US Army, where he became a US citizen, acquired a life- long love for cigars, and, in Europe, took part in D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Bergen Belsen. After the army, Hans received a BA from City College of New York and began working in the tobacco industry. In 1962, he went on a blind date with Barbara Zeitlin whose family, like his, was among the founders of Congregation Habonim in New York City, all of whose original members spoke English with a heavy German accent. A few weeks after their first date, they got married and Barbara moved to Paris, where Hans lived at the time, and where soon thereafter their three children were born. The family remained in Paris until 1982, when they moved to Geneva, Switzerland. In 2017, Hans and Barbara returned to New York City. Hans's two big loves were his family and Socotab Leaf Tobacco, the company he headed and developed throughout his life. Hans was deeply loved and admired by Rebecca and Moshe's offspring, Itai and his wife Sheery and his first great-grandson Nadav, Ella and husband Ilai, and Dan; Jonathan and Vanessa's children Louis, William and Emma; and Sarah and Eric's sons Sam, Leo and Henry. In addition to his immediate family, Hans will be deeply missed by his niece Vivian, friends, relatives and colleagues around the world.