Saul Srebnick's Obituary
Born in Havana, Cuba, Saul Srebnick was the only child of Polish Jewish emigres Abraham and Bertha Srebnick. As a youngster, he was an active member of a Zionist youth group and he vividly remembered celebrating on the streets of Havana when the State of Israel was founded in 1948. He graduated from Ruston Academy, where he excelled in math and played multiple sports. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but he could not afford to attend. Instead, he enrolled at the University of Havana, where he became the starting goalkeeper for its soccer team.
Saul fled penniless from Cuba in 1960 after the communist revolution. He married a fellow Cuban refugee, Mariita Horenstein, in Miami. Together, they had three children: Howard Srebnick (Sharon), Scott Srebnick (Jessica), and Eliza Weber (Jon). They founded a business in Wynwood, Scott Notions, Inc., that supplied zippers and thread to the apparel industry for more than 50 years. Saul also founded another business, Target Store Fixtures, in the 1980s. Saul had a reputation for being honest and fair. His word was good as gold in any business deal.
Saul was the sweetest person. He was kind to a fault and saw the goodness in people. He was a genuine mensch. He was also a great “kibitzer;” the trash talking among his “Jewban” friends was a prominent feature of their regular softball games at North Shore Park in the early 1970s. Following those Sunday games, he would take his two young sons to the Orange Bowl, where they would sit in the last rows of the upper deck to cheer on the Miami Dolphins during the 1972 perfect season.
Saul was a leader of the Jewish community. He served as President of the Cuban American division of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and was a Torah student of Rabbi Eliot Pearlson and Rabbi Chaim Kovacs at Temple Menorah, where he was a member for nearly sixty years.
In 1991, Saul met his second wife, Rita Milner, who would remain the love of his life for 32 years. He loved Rita’s three daughters, Jenny Benezra (Joseph), Julie Feldman (Lenny), and Jessica Beiting (Danny), like his own, and they loved him. Rita was extraordinarily devoted to Saul. Together, they enjoyed eating Cuban food and visiting with their sixteen grandchildren. His grandchildren were his pride and joy; he loved to perform magic tricks and make them laugh, routinely “finding” missing objects in their ears and noses. He rarely missed a sporting event of any of his grandchildren and, in his later years, enjoyed watching the livestream of Ransom Everglades football games.
Saul is survived by his wife Rita, his six children and their spouses, and his sixteen grandchildren: Jack, Luke, and Ariela Weber; James, AJ, and Mack Srebnick; Roman and Sofia Srebnick; Alexa, Allison, and Jason Benezra; Sal, Jake, and Zack Feldman; and Sean and Ryan Beiting.
Funeral services are being held at 1:30pm on Monday, October 2, 2023, at Levitt Weinstein Memorial Chapel, 18840 West Dixie Highway, Miami, FL 33180. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, tax-deductible contributions be made to “Team Luke” to fund rare cancer research through Cycle for Survival. www.cycleforsurvival.org.
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