‘Joie de vivre’ says so much about Sylvia Kummer Margolis, who died on March 15 at the age of 89. She loved life, love, words, dancing, food, people, travel, books, learning, Judaism, her family and her friends, all with a passion not easily equaled. Sylvia Beatrice Weichman, born on the Lower East Side in New York City on July 10, 1922, personified beauty, elegance and eloquence. She left a mark on every continent she graced and on every person she encountered. She kept a majestic Spanish home, built in 1930 and purchased in 1949, in the Huntington Palisades, where she entertained with poise and style, often relying on the musical talents of her husband, her children and grandchildren to fill her home and her heart with pride. Sylvia raised four children in the Palisades, where she and her husband, Dr. Jerome M. Kummer, M.D., helped found the Reconstructionist Synagogue, Kehillat Israel, now being led by their former son-in-law, Rabbi Steven Reuben, who beautifully officiated her funeral services at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park in Burbank. Sylvia was a renaissance woman; she wore many hats and wore them all exceedingly well; she was a registered nurse specializing in public health nursing’you could see her over the years in her white nurse’s gown and cap, directing the Pacific Palisades flu-shot clinics. A loving and devoted wife, she encouraged and supported her husband, Jerome, who became the first practicing psychiatrist in Santa Monica to write books (which she lovingly edited), give talks, and eventually, with the help of Assemblyman Zad Leavy, to modernize outdated abortion laws and become the international speaker about abortion for the American Medical Association. Sylvia served on the National Safety Council and taught public heath nursing. She spent several decades as a cultural ambassador, arranging and leading magnificent People to People tours and benefit concerts hosted by local dignitaries, hospitals and doctors around the world for the California Doctors Symphony, founded by her husband. Sylvia was quite a pied piper and people loved to travel with her groups because she spoiled them all with truly personal care. From holding hands across a busy Argentinean boulevard; giving personal small cocktail parties for them in her own suite/cabin; ‘holding-court’ during dinner onboard a cruise ship as if she were having a dinner party in her own home’all with such love and care. So many people over the years recounted these special trips as the most exciting and most memorable times of their lives. People always gravitated toward Sylvia. Her smile, her beauty, her caring, her intelligence, her loving and compassionate ways, as well as her charming boldness made her an amazing force of nature and someone who made a difference in peoples’ lives as well as someone who really made a difference in this world. Sylvia was the devoted wife of Dr. Jerome M. Kummer, M.D. (deceased) and later to Dave Margolis (deceased). She is survived by her children, Neil (Israel), Darleen, Sharon and Roberta, who were blessed to have such an amazing, caring, supportive and loving mother and friend; her grandchildren, Gilead & Chani (in Israel), David, Tal, Daniel, Tamara and Deborah; her five great-grandchildren; her brother, Dr. Jack Weichman (wife Geraldine); her beloved companion, Munro Silver, and her loving caregivers, Joy, Lilia and Jenny.
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