Lancia Swerdloff

Lancia Swerdloff was born in Ottynia, Poland in 1938, the youngest of four girls. She was a holocaust survivor as her mother hid her under a bed from the Gestapo when she was two years old. The family maid, Olusha took her to her house and took care of her until she was 4 or 5. Lancia's cousins Sally and Monia came from Romania to find her and bring her back to the family. When she was seven her cousin Sally's husband David sent a picture to the Daily Forwards in New York (a Jewish newspaper) where the Schwartz family saw the picture and sponsored Lancia to come to the United States in 1945 through HIAS, a Jewish human rights agency that helped children to safety from concentration camps. When she arrived in the United States, she was adopted by Harry and Pauline Bernholtz.

Lancia grew up in Highland Park, Brooklyn and graduated in 1956 from Franklin K. Lane High School. This is where she met the love of her life and her husband of 64 years Mel Swerdloff. Lancia and Mel married in 1959 at the President's Chateau in Brooklyn, New York. They had their first child Elaine in 1961 and moved to Maryland in 1962. Their second daughter Amy was born in 1964. Lancia and Mel raised their family in Maryland.

While raising her family, Lancia worked as an Assistant to the Vice President at Market Tire before finding her dream job at Washington Hebrew Congregation as the Membership Coordinator where she worked for 25 years and was an active member of the choir until she retired in 2011. Lancia had many friends and loved to sing and play piano, was a master knitter, made award winning latkes, was an expert mahjongg player, and was an active day trader - she loved playing the stock market and was good at it!

What she loved most was her family. Whether it was cooking for the high holidays, knitting a scarf, or finding the perfect gift, Lancia put a tremendous amount of love and thought in everything she did. She is preceded in death by her parents Itzchack and Elka Zweig and her 3 sisters Hanna, Rochelle & Sarah who perished in the Holocaust. She is also preceded in death by her adopted parents Harry and Pauline Bernholtz. She leaves behind her husband Mel of 64 years; daughters Elaine and her husband Alan and Amy and her husband Frank; her grandchildren Ashley Dubin, Scott Dubin and wife Sondra, Alexa McKnight and her husband Colin, Hailey Mitkoff and her husband Zach, and Dani Banda-Savelli and her husband Zach; and her great-grandchildren Zoey and Maisy Dubin.

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly suggests that memorial contributions be made to The American Cancer Society.

The family will receive friends and observe shiva at the Banda residence following the interment from 4:00 pm until 7:30 pm during which Minyan Service will be held at 7:00 pm.

TO VIEW LIVESTREAM OF SERVICE: please go to gardenofremembrance.org then scroll down to the light blue block on the right side (which lists services), then click on LIVESTREAM in the dark blue block, or simply cut and paste this link: https://venue.streamspot.com/b57031dd