Ervin Vidor remembered as builder of cities, family and faith

Ervin Hugo Vidor AM, a Holocaust survivor who arrived in Australia as a teenage refugee and went on to co-found one of the nation’s leading property and hotel businesses, has died in Sydney on 11 September aged 92.

His funeral drew tributes to his vision, generosity and deep Jewish commitment. In his eulogy, Rabbi Levi Wolff of Central Synagogue described him as “a true giant of our community.”

“His story is one of courage, curiosity, and creation. His life bore witness to the darkest chapter of Jewish history, and yet his response was not anger, not despair, not fear… but strength, gratitude, and building.”

Ervin was born in Budapest in 1932. His father, Bela, died on the Russian front, and Ervin survived the Holocaust with his mother, Piri, in the Glass House, a fragile refuge under Swiss protection. After the war, Ervin’s mother arranged for him to be smuggled out of Hungary with a group of children heading for Israel. On the train journey, Ervin became overwhelmed by what was happening and escaped in Vienna, where fellow Jews guided him to the Rothschild Hostel. There, he connected with a Hungarian family migrating to Australia.

He arrived in Fremantle in 1949 aged 17, unable to speak English and without family. He was welcomed by the Jewish Welfare Society and received a £10 note from a Mr Brandt, who told him to “pay it back when you can.” “Ervin never forgot those words,” Rabbi Wolff said. “He repaid that act of generosity not once, not twice, but thousands of times, through a life of service, of helping others, supporting newcomers and strengthening community. He became the Mr Brandt to so many.”

Within weeks, Vidor found work and started a small business making shoe tips while studying English at night. In 1958, he married Charlotte at the Great Synagogue. Their 67-year partnership combined business success with family devotion and Jewish values.

Together, they founded the Toga Group in 1963 with builder Antonino Stillone. From modest beginnings in Glebe, the company went on to deliver major projects, including Harbourfront Balmain, Bondi Boheme, Jones Bay Wharf, the Darwin Waterfront precinct and the redevelopment of the Crown Street Women’s Hospital.

In the 1980s, the Vidors launched Toga Hotels after seeing serviced apartments in the United States. That business grew into TFE Hotels, a joint venture with Singapore-listed Far East Orchard in 2012. Today, the group operates more than 100 hotels across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Asia under brands such as Adina and Vibe. Charlotte was inducted into the Property Council of Australia’s Hall of Fame in 2024.

Property Council of Australia CEO Mike Zorbas told the AFR, Ervin had “the best traits of our most successful city builders … Alongside his wife Charlotte, Ervin and his family have built a business known for quality and giving back.” Toga itself said, “Despite his enormous success, Ervin remained a modest, generous and caring man with a strong social conscience. Ervin’s legacy extends beyond the bricks and mortar of buildings created.”

Rabbi Wolff told mourners that for Vidor, “life itself was an invitation to build. He built businesses, homes and neighbourhoods. He built community. But above all, he built family. He built relationships, and he built a legacy of loyalty and love.”

He was also remembered for his warmth and humour. “Beneath the achievements, we all know Ervin for his mischievous humour too, his warmth, his stories. He was entertaining, enterprising, warm, loving, and always loyal,” Rabbi Wolff said.

A staunch Zionist, Vidor gave generously to Israel and to many local Jewish causes, including medical innovation and communal organisations. “He lived through an era when an entire world was destroyed, and yet he refused to be defined by loss,” Rabbi Wolff said. “Instead, he chose to plant, to build, and to hand down hope to the next generation.”

Ervin is survived by Charlotte, their children, Gary, Allan and Michelle, and a large extended family of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Ervin Vidor, born September 29, 1932, in Budapest, Hungary; died 11 September 2025, Sydney.