Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sid and Carole were pillars of their synagogue community, Kehillat Ma'arav, almost since its inception
Sid Meltzner, born in Lithuania on November 12, 1925, passed away peacefully on September 26, 2024. Sid moved with his mother and older sisters to Chicago in 1929, following his father by two years, and proudly enlisted in the US Army after graduating high school, to fight in the final year of World War II. After the war, Sid completed a bachelor's degree at Illinois Institute of Technology, and then moved to Southern California to pursue a career as a mechanical engineer in the aviation and defense industries.
In 1964, Sid started his own company, Condor Pacific, initially in California, and later also in Israel. After selling the company and nominally retiring in 2002, he came out of retirement at 82 years of age in 2007 to start a new company by the same name, to offer employment to loyal employees who had lost their jobs after the original company downsized - one of many examples of how Sid looked after those he cared about.
Sid always did things his way, and he will be remembered for his unique sense of humor, his love of family, and his tremendous and far-reaching generosity. Sid is predeceased by his wife Carole (née Axelrad), with whom he shared a loving marriage for half a century, and by both of his sisters, Shirley and Rena. Sid and Carole were pillars of their synagogue community almost since its inception.
Sid is survived by his son and son-in-law, Aron and Nick; by his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, David and Wendy; by nieces and nephews, including great and great-great nieces and nephews; and by many loved ones whose lives he had touched deeply. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, October 8, at 1:00 pm at Mount Sinai Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, and shiva will follow at Kehillat Ma'arav in Santa Monica. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Kehillat Ma'arav (https://www.km-synagogue.org).
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