Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Submitted by the family

On Dec. 13, 2021, Sonia Margolis Mandell (known to friends as "Sunny" or family as "Ma"), a beloved wife, mother, and Jewish community leader, passed away peacefully surrounded by several generations of loved ones in her condo in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. She was born Jan. 27,1927.

The most important part of her life, as she describes in a memoir, written for her grandchildren, began when a debonair Brooklyn native and WWII vet named Lester Mandell asked her on a date within minutes of meeting at a local Miami dance hall. She was impressed by his self-confidence, though she was not a woman easily won over. They soon married and began a life full of love, adoration, and adventure that would ultimately usher her into the role of matriarch for her very own clan.

Despite being so young - Sonia was 19 when she married Lester, then 26 - she threw herself into making their 800 square foot house a home as Lester worked to provide for their future. Starting with scraps and loose change, they began building a life together, welcoming four children, Bobby, Alison, Ricky, and Aimee. With Sonia as the propulsive force beneath her husband's wings, Lester started the climb to establish a family-owned construction business, Greater Construction, beginning first in Miami and moving to the pre-Disney landscape of Orlando in the mid-1950s.

It was there that this Baltimore born-gal began making her mark as a leader of the greater Orlando Jewish community and role model for her sons and daughters. Matching Lester's leadership skills, Sonia started as the president of the Temple Israel Sisterhood in the 1970s; she became the first individual to raise over $1 million dollars for the Orlando Jewish community and later became the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando in the 1980s. As a result of the contributions she made to the greater Orlando Jewish community, she was honored with the Jewish National Fund's Tree of Life Award in 1993.

Never one to sit on her laurels, at the age of 60 Sonia opened a designer dress store and a home goods store on Park Avenue, which she and her business partner named Deux Femmes and The French Country Store.

Arguably one of her greatest joys was when a cascade of noise filled her home: her growing family and grandchildren, their friends and new neighbors, laughter echoing down the stairway at the Alabama condo building over Sunday dinners, Passover seders and Chanukah celebrations. As her family grew to include nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, in the last years of her life her greatest joy was spending quality time amongst them - traveling, playing games, and laughing.

Unguarded, unfiltered and steadfastly loyal, what Sonia valued most were the bonds built between the generations of her family. Her beauty was not just in her everyday glamour but in her constant warmth toward those who found themselves sharing her space: childhood friends with whom she made annual trips to Atlantic City, young families to whom she became a second grandmother, and kind acquaintances looking for company on holidays. She set the bar high for her family and community on what encompasses a life filled with meaning and purpose.

She will be remembered forever by her adoring children - Bobby (Julie), Rick (Gail Caruso), Allison (Kim Knapp), and Aimee; grandchildren - Zachary, Xan (Colleen), Marni (Ram Nathaniel), Andrea (Andrey Tolmachyov), Hali (Wade Riewerts), Darci (Dan Cohen), Melissa and Rebecca; and great-grandchildren - Evan, Logan, Austin, Oliver, Sawyer, Elai and Maor.

A family graveside service was held at Temple Israel Cemetery with Rabbi Sholom Dubov officiating. In memory of Sonia Mandell, the family requests contributions to the Holocaust Memorial Research and Education Center, 851 Maitland Avenue, Maitland FL 32751, or online at https://secure.qgiv.com/for/holcen/. Be sure to note in the memo that donation is in memory of Sonia Mandell and donors' names and address.

Arrangements entrusted to Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel, 640 Lee Road, Orlando FL 32810, 407-599-1180, http://www.bethshalommemorialchapel.com.