Miri Nash

Miri Nash, beloved mother and grandmother, passed away on her seventy-ninth birthday in Palm Desert, California. After an active life, she faced some health issues that she could not overcome and spent her last days with her family.

Miri was born in Poland to Marian Mundt and Donna Mundt, her father a dentist and her mother an accountant. Her father had escaped the Holocaust by fighting in the Russian army and had taken the unusual step of moving back to Poland at the end of the war. The family subsequently emigrated, first to Israel, then to Chicago, where Miri attended high school and college. In Chicago, Miri met her first husband, Yehuda Nacson, with whom she moved to Montreal and started a family with three children. After a decade of enduring Montreal winters, they escaped to Los Angeles and California became Miri’s home.

In Los Angeles, Miri began a career in public relations that would sustain her through her working days. Her most fulfilling role was supporting the cause of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), a nonprofit group dedicated to the well-being of the men and women serving in the IDF, which in effect means supporting almost every young person in Israel. She did this first through the firm she founded with her second husband, Richard Mahan, and then as the executive director for the Western Region of FIDF. Through her passion and personality, her division set records in fundraising and hosted galas that were the talk of the town. She was honored for her work by having the IDF Heritage Center in Israel named after her and was described in the press as a “powerhouse of Jewish philanthropy.”

Beyond her working hours, Miri was a devoted friend, mother, and an even more devoted grandmother. She had an instant gift for connecting with anybody that she met. In a few minutes’ conversation, she would know everything about your life and you would have a new friend. She was known for her generosity to her friends and never missed an opportunity for a thoughtful gift or gesture. With her daughters, she was a constant source of support—always happy to chat for hours about matters serious or light. The only bond stronger than with her daughters was with her grandchildren, whom she all adored and adored her back. To them she was always “Bama.” Until her last days, she found the energy to play silly games with the youngest grandkids and have heart to heart conversations with the older ones that they could have with nobody else.

Throughout her life she was an elegant presence and a charismatic and enthusiastic hostess, happy to whip up a brisket for a dinner party or invite another guest or ten to Passover. No conversation with her was complete without a sprinkling of Polish or Yiddish or any one of the many languages she had picked up along the way.

After retiring to live in Palm Desert, she quickly became the center of a wide social circle, always ready for happy hour or a theater visit with her friends or organizing parties and events at her housing development—less star-studded than the FIDF galas but just as fun.

Miri is survived by her three daughters, Ronit, Elanit, and Sigi, as well as four grandchildren, Eden, Zach, Ozzie, and Ivor. We will always miss her, cherish her memory, and hold the love she had for us in our hearts.

Please give donation to the IDF on behalf of Miri Nash in lieu of flowers.