July 11, 1932 to February 2, 2024

Nina Gottlieb, a champion bridge player and beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, died after a brief illness on February 4, 2024, at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. She was 91.

Gottlieb, a Holocaust survivor, achieved fame late in life as the star of the 2023 New Yorker documentary “Nina & Irena,” an award-winning film that took her on the lecture circuit all over the country. In December, she was invited to celebrate Hanukkah with Kamala Harris at the Vice President’s residence in Washington, D.C., the highlight of a whirlwind year.

Known for her strength and determination, she lived independently at her home in Port Washington, where she navigated two sets of steep staircases and tended to a collection of houseplants that thrived under her care. Her backyard was filled with neighborhood birds who knew they’d find a well-stocked feeder – and a friendly woman who would rescue them if they ever got injured, caring for them in a shoe box before setting them free again, fully recovered.

Until her last days, Gottlieb did everything herself: cooking, laundry, cleaning, food shopping, driving everywhere in her speedy little Subaru – particularly to visit family and to compete at her duplicate-bridge games, where she excelled as a player and rose to the status of Life Master. She also enjoyed yoga classes, participating remotely from her dining room.

She always believed in being kind to people, and in treating others the way you’d like to be treated yourself.

Born Janina Vogel on July 11, 1932, in Kielce, Poland, she survived the Holocaust with her parents but lost her sister, Irena, and most of her extended family.

After living in Prague and Paris, she came to the United States in 1951, met Stan Gottlieb on Brighton Beach in 1952 and was married in 1953. She lived in Brooklyn and Queens before moving to Port Washington in 1967.

Gottlieb was a math whiz who took pride in her skills as an accountant and a controller. In her twenties, she worked at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and after spending more than a decade as a stay-at-home mother, she returned to the workforce in the early 1970s, before it was fashionable for married women to work outside of the home.

During her long career, she also held positions at Alfred Publishing, Utensco and K Design Interiors, and was still working as a freelance bookkeeper, spending many weekends at the kitchen table with her adding machine and her carefully handwritten notes.

Her marriage was a love affair that lasted until Stan’s passing in 2008. They did everything together, except for bridge (Nina) and playing the drums (Stan) and never argued about anything.

She missed him terribly after he was gone, and yet she pushed herself to go on, creating a new way of approaching life, on her terms alone, for the past 15 years.

Gottlieb is survived by her children, Linda (Eytan) and Larry (Leslie); her grandchildren, Dylan (Lee), David (Rachel), Zachary (Valerie), Daria (Joseph), Daniel, and Renna (Blake); and five great-grandchildren.

Always positive, she woke up happy every day.
She will live forever in our hearts.

Donations may be made to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, where a chair will be inscribed with her name. https://898a.blackbaudhosting.com/898a/IMO-Nina-Gottlieb