Hazel Hundert

Hazel (Friedman) Hundert was born on February 11, 1928, to Tinnie (Bernstein) and Nathan Friedman, a World War I veteran, and older sister Irma, in the Bronx, New York. When Hazel was 3, her father died. She, her mother, and sister then moved in with her mother’s sister Rose, Rose’s husband Abe Levy, and their daughter Helene. In this blended household, Abe was a loving and generous father to all three girls and the main breadwinner, Tinnie worked six days a week in retail to help contribute to supporting the family, and Rose was the homemaker, making sure the kids got off to school each day.

In 1948, Hazel married Irwin Hundert, also from the Bronx. They had 66 years of married love and devotion together and were a role model of marriage for all of us. They lived in New York for a few years when they were first married, and then Irwin got a job at Chevron Oil Company in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and they moved “all the way out” to New Jersey, eventually settling in Woodbridge. They raised their family, moved to Needham, Mass., for two years when Chevron transferred Irwin, then moved back to East Brunswick, New Jersey, where they lived together until Irwin’s death in 2013. Hazel remained in East Brunswick until her death on Thursday, August 28, 2025, at the age of 97, after a very brief illness. Until the end she lived independently in her condominium, with the help of some wonderful women who came during the day to assist her.

Hazel graduated high school at age 16 and went to work. At that time, many jobs traditionally held by men were being done by women while so many men were serving in World War II. Hazel was the personal secretary to two women whom she greatly admired and served as wonderful mentors to her; both of them eventually had to give their jobs back to the returning men. While her children were young, she was a homemaker. Then she returned to work as a secretary, then an executive secretary, eventually working for the president of Royal Food. The company had a difficult time keeping office managers who oversaw a staff of 35 in accounts payable and receivable. After yet another office manager was fired, Hazel went to her boss and said she could do the job. He wisely realized she was right and he made her the office manager, in which position she transitioned the company to more modern business strategies including eliminating many rooms of business files through the technology of microfiche (don’t forget this was the 1970s and 80s). Eventually, she suggested to the next president that she could become the company’s internal auditor, working with each department to help the manager and staff think through efficiencies. She was the internal auditor for the last several years of her career. Over her life she was an avid bridge player and bridge teacher, active in her synagogue, a lifelong reader, with a switch to audio books in the past few years, and someone who loved to travel the world with her husband.

Wherever they lived, Hazel and Irwin made friends and kept them for life. Irwin attended City College of New York and joined the fraternity for Jewish engineering students, Phi Delta Pi. He became editor-in-chief of the student newspaper and president of the fraternity, and his fraternity brothers and their wives were their lifelong friends. Those of the group who remained on the east coast met monthly. They had friends from their community in Woodbridge, New Jersey, Needham, Mass., and East Brunswick, New Jersey. Hazel and Irwin were both looked up to by everyone; each of them had more people who would say about them “that’s my best friend” than anyone else. They were each warm, thoughtful, and loving as children to their mothers, niece/nephew to their aunts and uncles, friends, parents, grandparents, and surrogate parents or mentors to the children of their family and friends, and Hazel lived to be a loving great-grandmother. If you did not know Hazel Hundert, it would be difficult to understand that such a thoughtful, moral, caring person could really exist. But while she was incredibly kind, she was not a pushover. She had many ideas about the right way to behave and she lived her life with integrity adhering to those ideas. And she had a wonderful, witty sense of humor.

Hazel was predecessed by her husband Irwin, her son Alan, and sister Irma. She is survived by a family who gave her joy and all stayed in close contact with her: children and children-in-law Ed and Mary Hundert and Karen (Hundert) and Alan Novick; grandchildren and grandchildren-in-law Tamar (Novick) and Meir Weiss, Ora Z. Novick, Aviva (Novick) and Michael Sterman, Carol (Hundert) and Grant Gonzales, Laura (Hundert) and Nathan Thomson, and Anna Hundert; and seven great-grandchildren Shlomit, Ahuva, Gila, Hallel, and Moshe Sterman and Tehilla and Rena Weiss.

Having each lost a parent very young, Hazel and Irwin did not initially believe they would have long lives, but Irwin lived to be 88 and Hazel lived to be 97. Both were realists about the fact that life will end someday and they planned for the future. She asked that in her obituary requests for donations should be made to the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, which researches cures and treatments for mental illness; but being Hazel, she added that she understood that many people are reluctant to donate to new organizations because they will be on the mailing list for life, so alternatively people can donate to any organization that supports people with mental illness, their families, or mental health research.

A private funeral and burial is being held on Friday, August 29, with shiva held at 140 North 7th Avenue, Highland Park, New Jersey at the following times:

• Saturday night, August 30: 9:00-10:30pm
• Sunday, August 31, through Wednesday, September 3rd: 9:30 - 11:30am, 1:30 - 5:00pm, 8:00 - 9:30pm