Piri Davis

Arrangements are entrusted to Bernheim Apter Kreitzman Suburban Funeral Chapel, 68 Old Short Hills Road, Livingston, New Jersey. Services will be held at 11:45 AM on Friday, December 29 with Rabbi Mark Finkel and Cantor Joel Caplan officiating. Interment is at Beth Israel Cemetery, Woodbridge, New Jersey.

Born in what was then the Slovakia region of Czechoslovakia, Mrs. Davis was only 15 years old when seized by the Nazis and interned in a succession of ghettos and concentration camps. She survived the death camps of Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen, suffering the loss of her entire immediate family and being liberated, alone in the world, at the age of 16.

She married her husband of blessed memory, Nate Davis, in Prague in 1948 and, with him, lived in Czechoslovakia, Israel, Canada, Ohio, New Jersey (twice) and Texas.

From the time of her liberation she worked as a factory laborer, physician’s assistant and finally in partnership with her husband in a series of delicatessen/ restaurants that they ran and built together in Ohio and New Jersey. She and her husband retired in 1987 to join their children and grandchildren in Dallas, Texas, returning to New Jersey with the entire family in 1992.

Together with her husband, she was a founding member of Temple Israel in Springfield, New Jersey and a member and contributor to Congregation Ahavath Zion in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Her greatest pride was in her family. For 64 years she was the devoted wife and business partner of her husband, Nate. She was the beloved mother of Gene, Jeffrey and Ronnie, beloved mother-in-law of Stacey, Babette and Linda, proud and loving grandmother of Jordan, Pamela, Kylie, Jared, Joel, Madison, Brandon, Raina and Mira and, most recently, the adoring great-mother of Paige, Avery and Noah.

Contributions can be made to the Café Europa Program of the Jewish Family Service of Greater Metrowest New Jersey or the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest New Jersey.