Longtime Real Estate Broker Dies at 82

Claire Pearl Weiss, who excelled as a real estate broker in Monmouth and Ocean Counties and who later brought care and comfort to area residents as a community volunteer, died on September 18 after a brief illness.  She was 82.

Mrs. Weiss was a leading real estate broker with Sterling Thomson & Associates and Weichert Realtors during the 1970’s and 1980’s, listing and selling hundreds of homes during a period of rapid expansion in Central New Jersey.  She was named to the distinguished “Million Dollar Sales Club” multiple times during her career in recognition of her excellent salesmanship and business achievements. 

After her retirement Mrs. Weiss dedicated herself to community service in Freehold and Englishtown, New Jersey.  As a volunteer with the New Jersey Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly, she worked with local nursing home residents as an advocate to protect their health, safety, welfare, and civil and human rights. 

She regularly visited the sick in local hospitals as a long-standing member of the Bikur Cholim Committee of Congregation Sons of Israel in Englishtown.  She was also a volunteer member of the Freehold First Aid and Emergency Squad, where she helped to raise funds and organize local charitable events. 

Mrs. Weiss was active in numerous organizations dedicated to the advancement of the arts, humanities, the environment and Judaism.  She was a member of Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York City Opera and was a past president of the Freehold chapter of Hadassah.   

Claire Weiss was born Claire Kuschuk in Manhattan on December 31st, 1930 and was the first of three children born to Russian immigrants Rose and Irving Kuschuk. She spent her early childhood on the Lower East Side, where her father sold and delivered bread. 

She moved to Central New Jersey in 1940, when her father purchased the first of a series of local farms on his way to establishing I. Kuschuk Poultry Farms, a family egg business, in what is now Manalapan, New Jersey. She married Martin Weiss, of nearby Roosevelt, NJ in 1951, and moved to Freehold Township in 1963, where she raised her family.

Mrs. Weiss attended New York University and was a graduate of Jamesburg (NJ) High School.   

She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Martin Weiss of Freehold Township; her daughter Roberta Weiss and son-in-law Isaac Kotlowicz of City Island, NY; her son and daughter-in-law Steven and Dara Weiss of Manhattan; brothers Herbert Kuschuk of Toms River, NJ and Gerald Kuschuk of Livingston, NJ; and three grandchildren.

Those who wish to honor her memory may make donations to:

http://www.sonsofisrael.com/Donations_Form.htm

Bikur Cholim Committee

Congregation Sons of Israel

33 Gordon’s Corner Road

Manalapan Township, NJ 07726