Sara and Sam Schoffer
Sam Schoffer and Sara Rubanovicz were both born in Vilna, Poland (today Vilnius, Lithuania), Sam in 1923 and Sara in 1924. Sam’s father was a businessman. When the Soviet Union occupied Vilnius in 1939, Sam was working in a Jewish-owned pharmacy and general store. When the Soviets nationalized the business, employees voted to make Sam the manager. His post was short-lived, because the Germans invaded and occupied the region in 1941. Sara’s father was also a businessman; his main occupation was supplying transportation for goods by horse-drawn wagon. At the beginning of the German occupation, Sara’s father, Benzion was arrested along with other leading members of the Jewish community; Sara never saw him again. The rest of the Rubanovicz family was confined in the Vilna ghetto, as was the Schoffer family. Sam worked in slave labor groups outside the ghetto and smuggled in provisions for his family. Rumors of the killings of Jews at Ponar on the outskirts of Vilna circulated in the ghetto. In 1943, before the remnant of the Vilna ghetto was liquidated, Sam escaped through the sewers and joined partisans in the forests and swamps. Of his immediate family, only Sam’s brother Berel survived the war. Sara and her siblings also escaped through the sewer. She met Sam when she joined his partisan group made up of both Ukrainians and Polish-Lithuanian Jews. The two married under a canopy in the forest while Partisans, and both survived the war.
After the war, Sara and Sam returned briefly to Vilna, where they learned that most their families had not survived. In late 1945, Sara gave birth to a daughter, Luba (Lynda). Sara and Sam then traveled to Germany, where they lived in the Geislingen “Displaced Persons Camp” in the Southern part of Germany near the border with Switzerland. After leaving the DP camp Sam and Sara rented an apartment in Munich, Germany. During this time, Sam made a living by operating in the in the post war black market by bringing in chocolate, cigarettes and other desirable commodities into Germany.
The Schoffers emigrated to the United States in 1948, first to Boston, then to Brooklyn. In 1951, they bought a chicken farm in Egg Harbor Township. In 1952 Sam built a new and larger farm on the Black Horse Pike, which they operated until 1960. During that period, Sam built farms and houses for friends and family. They had a second child, Leo, in 1952. In 1960, Sam began his successful career in construction and real estate development. In 1966 the family moved to Margate, New Jersey. Sam and his son, Leo, created Schoffer Enterprises in the early 1980s. The company’s initial focus was developing residential and commercial real estate. With the legalization of casino gambling in Atlantic City in1978, Schoffer Enterprises also focused their business on developing commercial real estate for resorts and casinos.
The family was also very active in the community. Sam and Sara were proud to be a part of the South Jersey’s Holocaust survivor community. They contributed much time and resources to many organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Atlantic and Cape May Counties. The Schoffer family provided support for the expansion of the Stockton University’s Holocaust Resource Center, which was renamed the Sara & Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center in 2007. Leo Schoffer has served on the Stockton University Board of Trustees since his election in 2011, and served as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Sara Schoffer passed away in 2001, and Sam in 2014. They are survived by their children, Luba (Lynda) and Leo, four grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
