Hedy Kaufler - NNN 2026

Mrs. Hedy Kaufler (née Apter) was born on March 28, 1927, in Vișeu de Sus (Visheves), Romania, a vibrant Jewish town led by the revered Vishiver Rav, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hager zt"l, eldest son of the Ahavas Yisroel of Vizhnitz. She was the daughter of Chaim Meyer and Pessel Apter and grew up with her seven siblings in a deeply rooted Torah household.

Around Pesach of 1944, Hedy and her family were forced into a ghetto established in their hometown. Six weeks later, they were deported on the first transport from Visheves to Auschwitz. From there, she was transferred to the Gelsenberg Lager, a subcamp of Buchenwald, where she was forced to work in a munitions factory under brutal conditions.

After liberation by the Russian army, Hedy made her way into Hungary and eventually arrived in a DP camp. There she reunited with and married her childhood friend and neighbor, Al (Avroham Yosef) Kaufler. Together they rebuilt their lives, eventually settling in Los Angeles, where they established a beautiful Jewish family.

Today, Hedy Kaufler is the proud matriarch of a remarkable family of more than 60 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, a living testament to resilience, faith, and the enduring strength of the Jewish people.