- December 13, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Carol Siegler comes from a long-lived family.
However, when asked for advice on longevity, the centenarian urges people to look for something greater than themselves.
Another quality that runs in Carol's family is her interest in building community, and it's something that she has worked to instill in her three daughters, Meg Callahan, Jan Kliger and Kim Shaffer.
On Oct. 23, Siegler celebrated her 100th birthday, with festivities taking place across three days and involving her community of Plymouth Harbor.
“I would recommend it,” she said of turning 100. “I would recommend it if you're feeling all right, and you have your wits about you. And I have devoted children who make sure that I don't miss a step.”
Siegler calls her home of Plymouth Harbor "a very giving kind of a community."
She has lived there for about 10 years, having previously lived in L'Ambiance at Longboat Key.
It's the kind of community she says she also experienced growing up in pre-revolutionary Cuba.
Her parents, Charles and Wilma Shapiro, moved to Cuba from Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1920, with Charles opening a textile factory and a department store, Los Precios Fijosin, in Havana.
Their other children were Jeffrey Shapiro and Dorothy Tanenbaum.
Both Wilma and Charlie helped provide business opportunities to Jewish refugees from Europe, so that they could earn a living in Cuba.
"They were like, I would say, the foot soldiers for those people that ended up in Cuba," Carol said. "My parents’ home was always like a safe haven, and they were respected for it.”
Men would begin selling coffee, and women who had never held a needle before would become seamstresses, Carol said.
"It was an interesting time. And my parents were always there," she said.
Siegler said the refugees would not be permitted on the island without paying fees, noting the American Jewish Committee in New York City would send the necessary money.
During the initial unrest of the Cuban Revolution, Charles stood by his businesses, but the family had to flee in 1960, while the store burned to the ground and the family's financial assets expropriated.
"They were ‘Down with the Americans,’ and a lot of nefarious things were going on, and you had to be out of there if you were anything but a Cuban," Carol said.
The family made it to the United States with nothing, although she says that friendships her parents had formed in the past, helped them to find a new start.
“It was too bad, because my dad really worked so hard for everything that he was able to develop, and then lost it all," she said. "It's something you have to learn in life, is to be able to pick yourself up and start over again, and if you have good friends that you've helped over the years, they're bound to come back and help you, which is exactly what happened.”
Siegler's philanthropic work in Sarasota is inseparable from that of her husband, Mort Siegler, who died in 2018 at the age of 95, and known for supporting numerous organizations alongside her.
Carol says one of her proud accomplishments is providing the capability for Temple Emanu-El, where she is a member, to livestream its services and other events.
She established the program alongside Mort a few years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and says it filled an important need for people who were older or not able to access the services.
"I set that up in the temple so that on Friday night, you could sit home and listen to good Shabbat," she said.
The initial gift from the Sieglers allowed the temple to purchase equipment and cameras and subscribe to a livestreaming service, which Rabbi Elaine Glickman says made it the first Jewish congregation in Sarasota to offer livestreaming.
Her husband, Rabbi Brenner Glickman, said he was initially worried the service would discourage people from attending in person if it was raining or there were other obstacles.
However, he said he realized it was "absolutely" worth investing in when he saw what it meant to the congregation.
He said virtual attendance skyrocketed during the pandemic, while after the pandemic, attendance returned to normal levels, but with a nearly equal number of people attending online every week.
In 2021, the temple received the Siegler Family Virtual Fund, which continually funds the project. Today, it has four cameras instead of one, and a technician who monitors the sound and the camera angles.
He said the gift has been especially meaningful for those who are sick or disabled, and he says when people attend through livestream, they don't feel as if they are watching a video, but feel present, as they worship and offer prayer with the congregation.
"It was a transformative gift of philanthropy that Carol did for our congregation, for our community, and for thousands and thousands of people who attend every year," he said.
She and Mort also served in other roles in the community, including supporting arts organizations, and serving as guardians ad litem for children in the court system who had been removed from their homes.
They were involved extensively with the American Jewish Committee, for which Carol currently serves on the national board.
"I find that they are able to be very helpful in difficult situations, when Jews are involved in worldly affairs, and they are a very well-known national organization. Well, actually its international," Carol said.
One area in which she and Mort were instrumental was in helping to create the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, said Brian Lipton, the director of AJC West Coast Florida.
"I say, every day with Carol Siegler is a job interview," Lipton said. "You've got to be on your game, and she is a wonderful person to work with, because even at 100, she has great suggestions and great ideas, and it is amazing. She always has, and she's always been generous in sharing her suggestions with me and with other staff."
He also said Siegler has also done an excellent job in communicating the organization's importance to her daughters.
"There's a Jewish expression, 'l'dor v'dor,' that means 'from generation to generation,' and you don't always see that with donors, that (they) are able to instill their beliefs, and the importance of giving back, to their children, and the Sieglers certainly have."
Carol's daughter Kim Schaffer agrees that Siegler's approach to life passes to the next generation.
"I have two sisters that are very involved in their communities and very involved in just making life better for other people, and we learned that from our parents, because... that was their thing, is to live a lovely life, but make sure other people around you are also doing okay," she said.
At 100, Carol says she's in good health.
"I guess I had a healthy body to begin with, and that has seen me through, because I eat everything," she said. "There isn't anything that I'm not able to eat, and I don't see a doctor from one year to the other."
However, she still has some advice for those who wish to live a long life.
“Surround yourself with really nice people, people that are involved, people that see life as bigger than themselves," she said.
