Jordan Hochstadt
Denver native Jordan Hochstadt died Feb. 11, 2022, at the age of 82. A service was held Feb. 13 at Mt. Nebo Memorial Park, officiated by Rabbi Bruce Dollin and Rabbi Salomon Gruenwald. Feldman Mortuary made the arrangements.
Mr. Hochstadt was born April 19, 1939. He attended Colorado Teachers College and the University of Denver Law School.
In 1959, Mr. Hochstadt married Sue Pearl; they were married 63 years before his passing.
While Mr. Hochstadt was a lawyer by trade, he was also well-known for his tutelage of a multitude of Denver’s Jewish youth.
“Jordan Hochstadt spent a lifetime of purposefully teaching, learning and living a Jewish life,” his family said. “He will be remembered lovingly by the many Bar-Bat Mitzvah, confirmation and Hebrew school students he taught, by the many charities and organizations he served, and, most keenly, by his family and friends, who felt his love every day.”
Mr. Hochstadt was a co-founder of Herzl Jewish Day School, now part of Denver Jewish Day School. He was also active at the East Denver Orthodox Synagogue, Legal Aid, Lawline 9, American Cancer Research Center, Special Olympics Colorado and the hearing department at Denver Health.
Survivors are Mr. Hochstadt’s wife, Sue; children Doug (Katherine Moss) Hochstadt, Steve (Stephen Sass) Hochstadt, Laurie (Phil) Goldmeier and Devra (Neal) Bobrick; and seven grandchildren.
Contributions can be made to the Hebrew Educational Alliance, Jewish Family Service of Colorado, EDOS or the DAT Minyan.
Eva Hecht
Holocaust survivor Eva Hecht died Feb. 8, 2022. She was 94. A service was held Feb.9 at Mt. Nebo Cemetery, officiated by Rabbi Dani Rapp.
Mrs. Hecht was born Eva Karfunkel on Nov. 16, 1927, in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary. She and her sister Magda were deported to Auschwitz in May, 1944. They eventually were sent to Dachau, before being liberated by the US Army in 1945.
In 1949, Mrs. Hecht married Emil Hecht in Bayerisch Gmain, Germany. They emigrated to the US and settled in Denver in 1952. Mr. Hecht, himself a Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia, passed away in December, 2010, at the age of 86.
Mr. and Mrs. Hecht were pillars of Denver’s Jewish community, endowing the Emil and Eva Hecht Chair at DU’s Center for Judaic Studies.
As Mr. Hecht became a successful businessman, Mrs. Hecht shared in their endeavors, building and managing apartments. In addition, she became a stock market day trader.
Mrs. Hecht created a lasting imprint on Denver’s landscape in additional ways; she was instrumental in the creation of the Mizel Museum.
“Eva Hecht was a force of nature,” said Mrs. Hecht’s daughter-in-law, Mindy Hecht. “She and my father-in-law both survived the Holocaust, found each other and built a life that should serve as an example of how to beat all the odds and live with generosity, dignity and grace.”
A portion of Mindy Hecht’s eulogy paid a poignant tribute:
“Yesterday (Feb. 8) Eva woke with a long list of things to do. She was going to work, because all 27 year-olds (as you know that was all she would admit to) should teach themselves to trade stocks in their eighties and then spend better than a decade working full time in a time zone two hours ahead using a technology that had not been invented when she was born. But it meant that when the New York Stock Exchange closed at four o’clock and it was only two o’clock here in Denver and there was still plenty of time for other things. But, alas, only some of the trading on her account was going to happen, because as we all know, man plans and G-d laughs. Today we all woke up in a world that is lesser than it was yesterday. There is less strength and less fight and less moral certitude.”
Mrs. Hecht is survived by her children; Jeffrey (Mindy) Hecht, Judy (Gilbert) Dumontet; and five grandchildren.
Clara Lawson
Longtime Denver resident Clara “Sarah” Lawson died on Dec. 28, 2021. She was 94. A service was held at Golden Hill Cemetery on Dec. 30, officiated by Rabbi Tzvi Steinberg. Feldman Mortuary made the arrangements.
Mrs. Lawson was born in Iowa on June 24, 1927. She and her late husband, Thomas Lawson, moved from Omaha, Neb., to West Denver in 1957. Mr. Lawson passed away in 1974.
“A wonderful homemaker, she was always upbeat and positive,” said the family, “and it didn’t take much to make her happy. She enjoyed the simple things in life.”
The family added: “She would always say, ‘Take time to smell the roses.’ She was generous and caring and a good friend.”
Mrs. Lawson is survived by her children; Joshua Lawson, Carol Harroche, Hillel “Tom” Lawson, David (Alexis) Lawson, Miriam Rosen, and Daniel (Traci) Lawson; and 17 grandchildren. She was predeceased by her daughter, Esther (Michael) Rowland.
Contributions can be made to Hillel Academy or Zera Abraham.
Ida Garnek
Holocaust survivor Ida Garnek passed away Jan. 25, 2022. She was 98. A service was held Jan. 28 at Mt. Nebo Memorial Park, officiated by Rabbi Bruce Dollin and Cantor Marty Goldstein. Arrangements were made by Feldman Mortuary.
Mrs. Garnek was born on August 6, 1923 in Zgierz, Poland. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Mrs. Garnek and her two siblings fled to the Soviet Union.
In 1946, Mrs. Garnek married Morris Garnek. They emigrated to the US in 1950, and by 1951 settled on Denver’s West Side.
In the mid-1960s, Mr. and Mrs. Garnek shared a bar and restaurant business. She retired in the early 1980s. The couple was married almost 70 years until Mr. Garnek’s passing in 2015.
“She was a true ‘Yiddishe Mamme’ who exemplified everything that was good, positive, giving and nurturing about a Jewish mother,” Mrs. Garnek’s family said. “She maintained her independent spirit and strong will to the very end.”
Survivors are children Tilly (Howard) Rollin, Sam Garnek and Joe Garnek, all of Denver.
Contributions may be made to Jewish Family Service, the Hebrew Educational Alliance or Denver Hospice.
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