Obituary of Margarita Brill

Margarita Brill, Margalit bat Yehoshua v'Estella z"l, mother of our dear congregant Natalie Brill (Tony Schaffer), and grandmother to Jacob & Jennifer, a week after her 90th birthday. Born in Mexico City and daughter of Sephardic immigrants, Margarita grew up speaking Ladino and being extremely proud of her heritage. She spent a lot of time at the Sephardic Synagogue of Mexico City and kept her family's traditions alive by making delicious foods including Natalie's favorite, Turkish style green beans (with tomato sauce) and her pasty Passover charoset made using a special meat grinder. In 1957, Margarita travelled to San Diego to visit her sister who was living there at the time. While in San Diego, she attended a picnic where she was setup to meet Karol, her husband, who ended up being the love of her life for 54 years. Karol was Ashkenazi through and through and the two were able to create a "mixed" household celebrating each family's traditions. Margarita was extremely easy going, kind and strongly believed in education. She was a bilingual aid and secretary in the San Diego school system for many years helping children of all backgrounds with their needs. Upon retirement, she turned her time to The Organization for Rehabilitation through Training (ORT) and the City of Hope. In addition, Margarita loved crafting, attending synagogues of every denomination, making the best enchiladas (that Natalie now makes), and supporting her family in everything they did. She was so proud of her three children and her seven grandchildren.