Grandmother who poured her love into her Friday Shabbat dinners died in Surfside collapse

The Surfside apartment of Nancy Kress Levin, a longtime resident of the Champlain Towers South, was a point of convergence for her tight-knit brood. Although her family was spread between Miami, San Juan and elsewhere, her Shabbat dinners brought everyone together.

“No matter what you were doing, no matter where you were, you always knew it was Shabbat dinners on Friday nights at her apartment in Champlain. And we were always invited,” said Josh Kleiman, her eldest grandchild.

Even when they were apart, the Kleimans followed the tradition Nancy had cultivated, wishing each other Shabbat Shalom and checking in on each other.

“She was the glue of the family,” said Josh.

Nancy, 76, had roots in Cuba, but spent her adult life in Puerto Rico and South Florida. She was identified as one of the victims recovered from the rubble of the Champlain Towers South collapse.

Her son Jay Kleiman, 52, had flown into Miami from his home in Puerto Rico to attend the funeral of a friend. He stayed with his mother, Nancy, in Unit 712. Her other son, Frank, 55, and his newlywed wife, Ana, 46, along with her son Luis, 26, lived on the same floor. All five disappeared when the 12-story condo tower collapsed on June 24, leaving loved ones in Puerto Rico and Florida praying the family survived.

The bodies of Ana and Luis were pulled from the rubble first, on June 26. Two days later, the remains of Frank were found. On July 5, search-and-rescue teams recovered the last two missing Kleimans, Nancy and Jay.

Nancy was born on Oct. 28, 1944. She attended Ruston Academy in the late 1940s and 1950s, a bilingual American school in Havana, according to school records.

She fled Castro’s government and moved to Puerto Rico, married Saul Kleiman, and the couple had two children, Frank and Jay. After she and Saul separated, Nancy took her two sons to live in Miami and in 1983, she moved into Champlain Towers. She later married Lawrence Levin, a dentist and professor who died in 2011.

She was a member of The Shul of Bal Harbour in Surfside as well as the Shaare Zedeck Synagogue in San Juan. She was also a member of the condominium board of Champlain Towers South, according to the New York Times.

A life filled with family, seven grandchildren

The family matriarch had seven grandchildren: Josh, twins Joel and Arielle, and Noah, who are Frankie’s children; and Samara, Ari and Eitan, who are Jay’s children.

Her social media was filled with photos of family: A smiling grandson covered in mud at the shores of the Dead Sea; Nancy and her sister, next to their mother on her birthday, all three dressed in black; A visit to an elder grandson at a college campus, her high-school-aged grandchildren in tow, standing in front of a leafy bright orange tree.

In one photo, her seven grandchildren are lined up, embracing and laughing.

“Mis siete nietos!!!” she exclaimed in a comment below the image. My seven grandchildren.

“She was the best abuela, she really was. She did anything and everything for the four of us and our cousins,” said Joel Kleiman. “She had the biggest heart. Anything we wanted, she would do to make it happen. She would take me to a baseball game, even if she didn’t want to be there.”

Although Nancy lived in Florida, and her grandchildren were a plane ride away in Puerto Rico when they were growing up, as kids they visited her in Florida about every three months. During the summers, they would spend weeks in her home. The distance didn’t matter to the loving grandmother.

“If we were sick, she would be there the next day with Gatorade,” said Arielle Kleiman.

Nancy was going to soon become a great grandmother for the first time: Arielle is expecting a baby girl.

“She couldn’t wait to become a great grandmother. Our cousin sent us a photo of our abuela looking at [the sonogram],” said Joel. “And my abuela just had such a smile on her face, and that photo is going to stick with me forever.”

The years went by, the grandchildren grew up, moved away. But Nancy’s weekly Shabbat dinners remained a constant, the memories and love of generations past and present as they gathered around the table.

“Those two hours that we’re all together, we were all smiling. Sharing stories, good memories, eating good food. Nothing else mattered when we were together,” said Arielle.

Nancy prepared an array of Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Jewish meals, Kosher style. Among her grandchildren’s favorites were picadillo, arroz con pollo, and a chopped liver made with mushrooms, a recipe Nancy guarded so fiercely she wouldn’t write it down.

Nancy was a “little hard of hearing,” but she still managed to join in on conversations and jokes at dinner. Even if her grandchildren were laughing about something she couldn’t catch, she would join in the laughter, causing everyone to chuckle along.

“She just laughed because we were laughing too. She just enjoyed being around us,” said Joel.

Weeks before the Surfside building collapsed, Josh, Joel and Noah had one last Shabbat dinner at their grandmother’s house. At the end of dinner, they played Rummikub.

It was the first time they played the board game together in a long time. The family had reunited in the Champlain Towers apartment to attend Arielle’s gender reveal party, a celebration of new life to come.

Frank, their father, watched as his mother played with her three grandsons, a big smile on his face. Noah triumphed in both rounds.

“We would always let our great grandmother win, growing up. And my abuela turns to Noah…,” said Josh.

“And she goes, ‘Don’t ever let me win,’” said Noah, finishing his brother’s thought in laughter.

There will be a memorial service for Nancy Kress Levin, her two sons Frank and Jay Kleinman, and Frank’s wife Ana Ortiz at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Temple Sinai of Hollywood, 1400 N. 46th Ave., Hollywood. Immediately following the service, there will a burial service at Levitt-Weinstein Memorial Chapel, 3201 N. 72nd Ave., in Hollywood, with shiva to follow starting at 4:30 p.m.

This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 1:49 PM.