Overview

Evelyn Kozak, born Eva Chavka Rivka Jacobson on August 14, 1899, was an American Jewish woman who reached supercentenarian status. A supercentenarian is a person who lives to at least 110 years of age; Kozak lived to 113 and was, for a time, the oldest verified Jewish person in history. She was born in New York City to immigrant parents who left the Russian Empire and raised a family in the United States.

Early life and background

Kozak’s parents, Isaac and Kate Jacobson, were part of a large wave of Jewish migration from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century. She grew up in New York during a period of rapid social and demographic change, when many immigrant families settled in urban neighborhoods and established roots. Her original names reflect Jewish and Yiddish naming traditions; she later adopted Evelyn as an Anglicized form used in daily life.

Longevity and records

During the final years of her life Kozak became notable to researchers and record keepers who verify extreme ages. On November 6, 2012, at age 113, she surpassed the verified age of the previous record-holder for the oldest documented Jewish person, becoming the oldest known Jewish person at that time. Records of supercentenarians are typically confirmed by cross-checking birth, census and other official documents. Kozak’s longevity placed her among a small global group of people born in the 1800s who survived into the 21st century.

Family and personal life

Kozak married and raised a family; at the time of her death she was survived by two of her five children. Her extended family included ten grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson. These relationships were an important part of accounts about her life, and family members provided much of the biographical detail used by researchers and journalists.

Death and historical context

Evelyn Kozak died of a heart attack on June 11, 2013, in a hospital in Brooklyn, New York. Her death occurred shortly before the passing of Jiroemon Kimura, who at the time was recognized as the world’s oldest living person; Kimura is often mentioned in contemporaneous accounts of global longevity and is accessible in databases that track oldest living people Jiroemon Kimura. Time-zone differences and the timing of verified death records can make comparisons of near-simultaneous events complex—see general discussions of time and record keeping for context.

Legacy and notable facts

  • Kozak was one of the last people verified as having been born in the 1800s.
  • Her life illustrates broader themes in American history: immigration from Eastern Europe, urban Jewish life, and demographic change across the 20th century.
  • Her period as the oldest verified Jewish person was part of an ongoing sequence of longevity records that are occasionally surpassed as new verifications emerge.

For readers seeking more details about verified supercentenarians, Jewish longevity records, or immigrant communities in early 20th-century New York, consult specialized databases and historical resources that compile birth records, census entries and family histories. Additional biographical notes and contemporary reports can be found through archival and genealogical services as well as dedicated longevity research groups supercentenarian research.