Widower who lost parents to COVID died in Surfside with daughter and son-in-law

Harry Rosenberg purchased his second-floor condo just last month after a difficult period in his life. He lost his wife, Anna, to cancer last summer and both his parents to COVID-19 earlier this year.

The asset manager had rented smaller apartments in Florida before settling on the Champlain Towers South apartment in Surfside. The unit was large enough so his family could visit.

Hours before the building collapsed early Thursday morning on June 24, the 52-year-old Rosenberg (Hebrew name Chaim ben Sara) returned from a trip to New York. There, he attended his second grandchild’s baby-naming ceremony before rushing down to Miami to host his 27-year-old daughter, Malky Weisz (maiden name Lisa Rosenberg, Hebrew name Malka bas Sara Rochel); and son-in-law, 32-year-old Benny Weisz (Hebrew name Yisroel Tzvi Yosef ben Toiba).

Rosenberg’s body was recovered July 7 by Miami-Dade police; Weisz’s body was found on July 8, Malky’s body, July 9.

Rabbi Aryeh Citron, whose small Jewish community Rosenberg had joined in Surfside, said he “lived to study Torah,” the Jewish Bible.

Citron said Rosenberg will be remembered as “one of those people who was very easy to talk to.”

“If a stranger came to the synagogue, he was the first to introduce himself, to offer help,” Citron said.

That spirit led Rosenberg to launch a mental health healing center at a hospital in Bnei Brak, Israel, for young adults in memory of his late wife.

Steve Eisenberg, a longtime Surfside resident with several close friends among the victims of the partial condo collapse, said that since Rosenberg’s death, he’s been shocked by the dozens and dozens of people who have come together to mourn his passing.

“People from New York, Chicago, LA, Lakewood, N.J., — it seems everyone is connected to this man. Everyone’s either a cousin of his, or knew his wife, or worked with him,” Eisenberg told the Miami Herald. “He’s like the cog of so many different Jewish communities; it’s really quite astounding.”

In Rosenberg’s marker before the memorial wall of the nearly 100 Surfside victims, the far-reaching grief Eisenberg spoke of saw a visual manifestation.

“Descansa en paz con Dios,” read one message, meaning “rest in peace with God.” Another was unsigned, “from Norfolk, VA.” A third inscription: “Z’L’” — the Hebrew signage for “of blessed memory.”

When Eisenberg first met Rosenberg at daily prayer, he said he was inspired by his strong faith.

“He really went through the crucible of life, and yet his devotion to God and his devotion to prayer was unbelievable to me,” Eisenberg said.

For three years while his wife was sick, Rosenberg “put his life on hold,” said Maurice Wachsmann, a friend of Rosenberg’s for more than 30 years, according to the Associated Press. Months after her death, his father died of COVID-19 in January, and weeks later his mother died of the same.

“It was extremely difficult,” Wachsmann told the AP. “He did everything for his parents. Family first, before everything.”

Malky was planning to return to work Monday after her weekend trip to see her father, said Shlomo Schorr, a co-worker at the New Jersey-based accounting firm Roth & Co. Her name tag, desk notes and coffee mug are still in the same place she left them, he said.

Schorr began working with Weisz about six months ago. She always had a smile and love for every person in the office, he said.

“The room was just different when she was in there,” he told the Miami Herald.

Shushy Bernholtz, who was a childhood friend of Benny’s and his roommate at Hebron Yeshivat in Jerusalem, told Chabad.org that his friend has “many talents” and a “huge heart.”

“Benny knows everything,” Bernholtz said to Chabad. “He can quote the works of the great German playwrights and poets like Goethe and Schiller and explained the most complex debates in the Talmud with relevant commentaries.”

Originally from Vienna, Austria, Benny Weisz studied computer science at Kings College in London, according to Chabad, and worked in finance after he married Malky and moved to Lakewood.

As for Rosenberg, Citron said he believed he had “found peace here” in Surfside.

This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 5:09 PM.