Lola Margulies

Lola Margulies, a longtime professor of biology and Holocaust educator, was born on April 14, 1930 in Galicia, an area of Poland that is now in the Ukraine. A Holocaust survivor, Lola hid from Nazi persecutors during World War II, at one time living for several months in a makeshift bunker underneath a farmer’s chicken coop. Along with her parents and brother, Michael, Lola entered the United States in 1946, having been sponsored by relatives in New York City.

Having missed years of education during the war, Lola eagerly sought education in the United States; she received a B.A. from New York University. In 1950, she married Josef Margulies, a Holocaust refugee from Vienna, Austria who had spent a decade in Shanghai, China with thousands of other Jewish refugees during the wartime years. Josef and Lola shared a love of tennis, classical music, literature, and theater. On their first date, they saw Laurence Olivier’s film version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Josef became a Certified Public Accountant, practicing in New York. Josef also read widely in European history, particularly about the emergence of totalitarianism.

Lola and Josef had a wide circle of friends in New York, including Freddie Jacobson, who as Fred Jay became a celebrated songwriter in Europe, penning the international disco hit, “Rasputin.” Other friends included Susan Silk, who first got to know Lola when both young women were refugees in wartime Europe. Susan became a chemist in the United States. Susan’s husband, Bob, was a distinguished lawyer who argued two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Another lifelong friend is Lusia Milch, the subject of the film, A Survivor’s Journey. Lusia translated a compelling book by Abraham Weissbrod, Death of a Shtetl, about the Holocaust’s impact on the Galician village of Skalat, where Lusia and Lola lived during the Nazi genocide.

In 1956, Lola gave birth to a son, Peter, and became a devoted mother. Peter subsequently attended Colgate University and Columbia Law School. Influenced by his parents’ experiences of persecution and ultimate immigration to the United States, Peter is currently a professor of immigration law at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island.

After taking some years off to parent Peter, Lola returned to education and earned her Ph.D. in genetics from the City University of New York in 1968. Lola conducted post-doctoral research at Columbia University with the legendary biochemist Erwin Chargaff and became a professor of biology at Mercy College in Westchester County, New York. She also conducted research in genetics at New York Medical College. Her influence as a teacher was strong; some of her students became scientists in their own right.

In the 1990s, after her son Peter married fellow Columbia Law graduate and disability rights lawyer, Ellen M. Saideman, Lola treasured her time with two beloved grandchildren, Sarah and Emma. She was a fun-loving Grandma; she enjoyed playing games with them, swimming with them, teaching them to make gnocchi, and taking them to the ballet. Today, Sarah is a trial lawyer with the United States Department of Labor and Emma is a landscape architect. Sarah’s husband, Josh Kurtz, is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School who teaches writing at Boston University and weaves tapestries as part of the thriving Jewish crafts community.

Starting in the 1990s, Lola became active in Holocaust education, speaking widely at schools, temples, and churches about her own story, the impact of the Nazi genocide, and the importance of human rights. Her story was featured in the movie Testimony of the Human Spirit, produced for Westchester’s Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center. A video of one of Lola’s talks is available on YouTube and has been viewed almost 500 times.

In retirement, Lola studied ceramics and watercolors. She also became active in the Democratic Party in Somers, New York, wielding her trademark persistence to tirelessly knock on doors and raise money for Democratic candidates. Lola viewed her work on behalf of Democrats as part of her lifelong commitment to progressive causes. She was predeceased by her husband, Josef Margulies, and her brother Michael Ellis, who had become a well-respected dealer in diamonds and other precious gems on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

She leaves behind her loving son Peter, devoted daughter-in-law Ellen, her beloved granddaughters Sarah and Emma, Sarah’s husband Josh Kurtz, and her nieces and nephews, Mark and Lisa Ellis and Caren Ellis Fried and Arthur and their children and grandchildren.

Donations in Lola’s honor may be made to the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, 4 West Red Oak Lane, Suite 204, White Plains, NY 10604, https://www.hhrecny.org; Dorot Westchester, 925 Westchester Avenue, Suite 200, White Plains, NY 10604, https://www.dorotusa.org; and the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, 401 Elmgrove Avenue, Providence, RI 09290, https://bornsteinholocaustcenter.org.

A Funeral Service will be held at Boulevard-Riverside Chapels, 1450 Broadway, Hewlett, NY 11557, US, on June 12, 2026, from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm.

A Committal Service will be held at Beth David Cemetery, 300 Elmont Rd, Elmont, NY 11003, US, on June 12, 2026, from 1:30 pm to 2:00 pm.