The Horowitz-Margareten Company — famous for its familiar blue and yellow boxes of matzos — has been a household name in Jewish homes around the world for more than a century. Behind the brand’s enduring success is the former family matriarch Regina Horowitz Margareten who took on leadership roles at the company after her father’s passing just one year after the company was established.

Known as the “Matzoh Queen” and the “Matriarch of the Kosher Food Industry” Regina graced the pages of the New York Times several times in her long career. Even at the age of 91 she was described by the newspaper as a “sturdy mentally alert little woman.” A reporter later recounted how at the age of 95 Regina was still at her desk every weekday morning at 8:30 a.m. staying until 7 p.m. during the bustling months before Pesach. She worked until two weeks before her death in 1959 at the age of 96.

Remembered for her fierce loyalty to family Regina was likewise devoted to her greater family of the Jewish people. A paragon of tzedakah she not only supported more than a hundred charity organizations but played an active role in many of them. As a revered role model she would speak on the radio in both Yiddish and English during the 1940s and ‘50s to deliver her annual pre-Pesach message to the Jewish community. And during World War II she instructed her eldest son to complete hundreds of affidavits on behalf of many Jews in Europe trying to immigrate to America thus saving countless Jewish lives.