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Judy Spiegel with her son Josh Spiegel
The family of Judy Spiegel, a former Southampton resident who is among those missing in the aftermath of the tragedy in Surfside, Florida, is still holding out hope and praying for a miracle.
The Champlain Towers South residential building collapsed early last Thursday, June 24, and the Spiegel family has not been able to contact Ms. Spiegel, who was in her apartment while her husband Kevin was on a business trip in California, since.
The family has a deep connection to the Southampton community, where they raised their three children, Josh, Michael, and Rachel, who attended Southampton High School. In 2017, the couple moved from Southampton to Miami to be closer to their children and grandchildren.
Robert Ross, vice president of community and government relations at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital said he first met Mr. Spiegel when he was Southampton’s deputy supervisor, and Mr. Spiegel was the senior vice president and chief officer at the hospital.
Mr. Ross said that those who know Mr. Spiegel, those whose children went to Southampton High School with his three children, heads of major hospitals, and Southampton residents are all reaching out to offer support, and pray for the family.
“It’s just heartbreaking, still seeing the images on TV,” Mr. Ross said. “We’ve been doing a lot of praying here at the hospital. All the folks that worked with Kevin, and know him and his family, are heartbroken.”
The family rushed out to Miami late last week, where they have been anxiously awaiting any type of news. The couple’s son, Josh, said getting information from those on site has been difficult.
“We can’t be at the site 24/7, so they’ve set up some Zoom links to call into these family meetings,” he said. “We’re waiting to hear some good news, but there’s not much news at all.”
Unaccounted for are still 150 people, and that not-knowing is the hardest thing to cope with, Josh Spiegel said.
“We’re in this weird limbo where we don’t know what to do,” he said. “They’re not going to let us go through the rubble ourselves. We’re a family that likes to get things done and be in control, and we have no control at all in this.”
Family and friends of the Spiegels have flown to Miami over the past couple of days to show support for the family and offer prayer. The family, who is deeply devoted to Judaism, regularly attended the Chabad of Southampton, and has been attending the local shul in Miami every day since the tragedy to hope and pray for good news.
“Judy is just a wonderful person,” Rabbi Rafe Konikov at the Chabad of Southampton said. “She was a pillar of our community in reaching out to people and welcoming people to our Hebrew school and congregations.”
On Saturday, at the main services for Shabbat, the Chabad had the entire congregation stand and recite special songs in English and in Hebrew for all the people of Surfside, with Ms. Spiegel in mind.
“The entire family is wonderful. They are intelligent, kind, warm, hospitable, and community oriented,” Mr. Konikov said. “We’re still praying for a miracle.”
The family set up a support fund which will raise money to replace the family’s items that were lost in the tragedy. The funds will also go toward the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, and Eva Schloss, an Austrian-English Holocaust survivor and author, two organizations in which Ms. Spiegel is involved. The fund is at giving.veracross.com/tbam/give/Judy_Spiegel_Fund.
