GUSTI ENGELBERG, 98

Gusti Engelberg, 98 years young, of Atlantic City, passed peacefully after a brief illness. Gusti was born in Munich, Germany, and immigrated to America to escape the Nazis in 1938, just months before Kristallnacht. The greatest sorrow of her life was never seeing her beloved parents again.

Gusti eventually settled in Atlantic City where she worked tirelessly to raise her children. She owned and operated Gusti's Dress Shop for many, many years. She had impeccable taste and was a wonderful seamstress. Gusti's women always looked fabulous. Gusti lived her entire life with great tenacity, inner-strength, and generosity of spirit.

Gusti was known for her love of learning, her love of Judaism and her unwavering support for so many community institutions. She volunteered visiting elderly patients at Seashore Gardens, some of whom were actually younger than she. Gusti was a life member of Hadassah and the Brandeis Women's Auxiliary in whose classes she has studied for years.

She was a supporter of Avoda, The Jewish Community Center, and the Jewish Federation. But, Congregation Beth Israel truly filled her heart and soul. She has been an active and integral member of Beth Israel for over sixty years. Gusti was an involved member of the Beth Israel Sisterhood and an insightful member of the Board of Trustees. Her devotion and dedication to her synagogue and her fellow congregants is unsurpassed. Her dynamic presence, her joyous spirit, her compelling smile, and her bright, inquisitive, sparkling eyes, will forever inspire the community that she so loved. She could always be seen at services, and lived for the classes, which she never missed.

Among her chief joy is the annual Visiting Scholar Program dedicated in her name to commemorate her 80th birthday. Though she never had a Bat Mitzvah as a girl, she celebrated that event by reading from the Torah in her nineties, with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren present.

Gusti is survived by her beloved and devoted children, Edith Kramer, and Alfred and Gail Engelberg, by her grandchildren, Michael and Suzanne Kramer, and Debra and Steven Blum, and by her great-grandchildren, Harris, Jenna, Annie, Sam and Chi Chi. She will live forever in the hearts of her Beth Israel family, her many friends and admirers.

Funeral services were held at Congregation Beth Israel, in Northfield, on Sunday Dec. 7. Interment followed at the Beth Israel Cemetery, Egg Harbor Township. Contributions in Gusti's memory may be made to Cong. Beth Israel. Arrangements were by Roth-Goldsteins Memorial Chapel, Atlantic City.