Three More Victims Identified in Building Collapse in Surfside

Three more victims of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida have been identified by authorities. Nancy Kress Levin, 76 years old, and her son Jay Kleiman, 52 years old, whose bodies were recovered on Monday, July 5, were identified on Tuesday.

In addition, the remains of Francis Fernandez, 67 years old, was recovered on Monday and identified on Tuesday.

* * *

Having left Cuba following the 1959 Communist revolution, Nancy Kress Levin and her two sons, Frank and Jay Kleiman, joined the Jewish community in Puerto Rico. Later moving to Florida, they settled in Surfside’s Champlain Towers, a building popular with Jewish Cuban emigres, in the 1980s. Nancy became a member of The Shul community with her late husband, Lawrence Levin, and was known for being a doting “Abuela.” (Grandmother)

Frank Kleiman lived on the same 7th floor of Champlain Towers South as his mother, with his wife of three weeks, Ana, and her son, Luis, both of who remain missing. A father of four, Frank Kleiman had just launched Private Postal Systems after a career as a sales manager at Zesnah, a sports apparel brand. His remains were recovered on June 28th.

Jay Kleiman returned to Puerto Rico as an adult to join his father’s garment business, but returned to Surfside in recent weeks for the funeral of a friend lost to the coronavirus, and was staying with his mother on the night of its devastating collapse.

“It is so tragic that he flew in for a friend who died from COVID complications, and ended up there,” Mark Baranek, a friend in the community, told the Miami Herald.

Deborah Berezdivin, a cousin of the Kleimans, remains among the missing.