H EADLINES
Survivor, Business Owner Suzy Ressler Dies at 93
OB ITUARY
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
EDITH “SUZY” RESSLER,
who died at 93 on July 3, was a
Holocaust survivor, which, of
course, is a feat unto itself.

But it was what she did with
the blessing of survival that
ultimately defi ned her life,
according to her grandson,
David Israeli.

Ressler left behind a
successful, Philadelphia-based
food business, Mrs. Ressler’s
Food Products, a daughter,
four grandchildren and 13
great-grandchildren, as well
as the indelible memory of
her Holocaust experience in
the Auschwitz and Stutthof
concentration camps. She
started speaking about those
experiences later in life at
schools and synagogues, as
well as in the media.

Ressler survived the menace
of Nazi Germany only to face
another one aft er World War
II: communist Russia, which
invaded and took over the
native home, Transylvania,
that she had returned to upon
liberation. So Ressler and her husband,
Emerich, who died in 2004,
“fl ed in the middle of the night
with few possessions,” as a 2017
Exponent story explained. Th e
couple reached the United
States two years later.

But the eventual matriarch
never expected to get here. She
never even thought she would
live past 17, Israeli said.

“She oft en said she was
living on borrowed time,”
he added. “And she certainly
made the most of that time.”
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4 JULY 22, 2021
Suzy Ressler was a Holocaust survivor, successful businesswoman and matriarch of a large family.

Photos courtesy of Michael Israeli
Suzy and Emerich Ressler
founded Mrs. Ressler’s Food
Products in 1954 and built it
from a small chopped liver
company into a national
business, with more than 50
products and 130 employees.

Suzy Ressler still came into
the company’s Philadelphia
headquarters every day into
her 90s.

Israeli, now the president
of the business, learned all he
needed to know from watching
his grandmother.

“Business, like life, is about
relationships,” he said. “Th at’s
what she was really good at.”
Ressler valued relation-
ships because she lost most of
her family in the Holocaust,
Israeli said. But no relation-
ships were more important to
her than those with her family
members. The Resslers had one
daughter, Katherine, who
had four children with her
husband, Joseph Israeli: David
and his siblings Lisa, Michael
and Emily. All four married
and had their own kids, trans-
forming Ressler gatherings
into full-scale family reunions.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Suzy Ressler, sitting, with all 13 of her great-granchildren at a gathering in
2019. Th e matriarch hosted her and three of Ressler’s four kids
loved ones for Shabbat every work for the business.

Friday night. Every Ressler
Just weeks before her death,
born in the U.S. remains in
See Ressler, Page 24
the area, according to Israeli,
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM