No, the title of this piece is not what you’re probably thinking. It’s not as morbid as you might imagine. Read on.
It’s a story in three parts that all came together on Pesach 5783/Passover 2023.
PLEASE PRAY AT MY UNCLE’S GRAVE
Our connection to this story started a number of years ago, when a woman from Brooklyn called us to go look for her uncle’s gravestone in one of the cemeteries down the street from us on Fuller Road. She wanted to know its condition, she wanted us to work on improving it, and to gather up a Minyan to say Psalms there on his winter-time yartzeit. We’re not really in the gravestone business, but we are down the street, so while it took some cajoling on her end, we did make our way over to find it.
Turns out easier said than done. Her uncle was buried on the other side of Fuller, closer to Nanotech and the Freedom Quad dorms. That cemetery is not as cared for and looked after as the cemeteries on this side of the street, also it is hillier, not as flat, with trees growing throughout, almost as if in the woods. Most of the gravestones there date back quite some time, and they’re not all in the best state. Some have fallen over, others sunken in, and there are those which are better cared for and or preserved.
It took quite a bit of looking by a number of us to find the gravestone, actually a footstone (something which concerned the niece) of Ted Schonfeld. It was sunken into soft ground, partly obscured by snow. But we found it.
We’ve gone back each year with some students on or near his yartzeit (Hebrew anniversary of his passing), to recite some Tehillim (Psalms) in his memory. Most recently we saw that it had been improved, with a proper base to better support it. The newer stone lists his Hebrew name and his father’s Hebrew name and mentions his involvement in building (the new, I assume?) Albany Mikvah near the JCC. (The older Mikvah was built on Elm Street downtown and dates back to just after WWI or so until the mid 1980’s I think).
I asked my father about Ted Schoenfeld, because I remembered that name from my childhood growing up in Albany. He said he was from the Kindertransport of children rescued just before the Holocaust from Vienna and sent to England. He was close friends with Moshe “Mike” Sinai, who also was from the Kindertransport. We knew Moshe Sinai well, he was a fixture in the synagogue growing up, my father would recruit him to be an Inspector Clouseau (from the Pink Panther) look-alike to promote the search for Chametz before Passover. So while Moshe Sinai (and his wife Joan) I knew well, I heard the name Teddy Schoenfeld mostly as a good friend of his. My father also told me that while he didn’t see him much at the synagogue, he would visit him sometimes at home, and another stand-out memory of Ted Schoenfeld was that he had beautiful Tefillin.
A PASSOVER BUNNY!?
Fast-forward to this year, 2023, when my daughter and I were making the rounds doing our annual delivery of Shmurah Matzah to UAlbany faculty and we were in the newly renovated Catskill Building when I got a call. An accountant was on the line, she was calling from a firm in NJ which runs a number of assisted living facilities including one near us in Albany NY. It’s a Jewishly-owned company but these are not Jewishly run facilities. She was doing routine bookkeeping and came across an entry for an Easter Ham Dinner for the residents in Albany. Then she thought, what about Passover? So she called up the local facility management and was told that for Passover they are bringing in a bunny. A bunny for Passover!? This accountant is Jewish and hearing “Passover bunny” she almost fell over in her chair. She immediately dialed the closest Chabad which is how she came to call my phone and insisted that we go in to do something there for Passover!
That’s the backstory of how we ended up walking over with our younger children, brining Matzah and Kugel and Applesauce, with macaroons and other Passover treats to the assisted living on the afternoon of the second day of Passover to do a program for them.
Most of the residents who attended our short program were not Jewish, and one of them, Rebecca, shared a fascinating local story:
THE TRUCK ON CENTRAL AVE:
Years ago, when she was much younger, she worked at a motel on Central Ave. The owner was a Jewish man, and he was observant of the Sabbath. She remembers how no matter how busy the motel was or what emergencies came up, he would never come into work on Saturdays. She remembers him being super strict about the Sabbath and one story more than any other illustrated that for her. Once he was driving home from work late on Friday and as he pulled onto Central Ave from the motel, his truck died, smack there in middle of Central Ave! A police officer came by and this man told the officer that his Sabbath was coming, he could not stay to deal with the truck. Whatever the police have to do they should do, but its too close to the Sabbath for him to deal with it. So he left. Rebecca was working the motel at the time, this all unfolded on Central Ave in front of the motel and she couldn’t get over it and would never forget it.
I was so curious. I knew a few older Jewish men from my youth in Albany who drove pickups trucks. Most of the people who were Sabbath-observant I would have been familiar with. I asked her a few names but none rang a bell. Then she remembered, his name was Ted. Somehow I asked, “Ted Schoenfeld, perhaps?” Yes, yes, she remembered, it was Ted Schoenfeld!
I confirmed with my parents, that yes, Ted Schoenfeld owned a motel on Central Ave in the 1970’s, maybe even into the 1980’s, it might have been called the Skylane Motel.
We heard this story on the 2nd day of Passover. That night was Friday night and we had students here for Shabbat of Passover dinner. We shared this story and it was especially meaningful because some of those present were among those who have gone over to say Psalms at his grave each year, and one of them, about to graduate with his masters, was the one who first found his partially hidden gravestone when we first went looking for it about 5 years ago or so!
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PS: This Rebecca lady asked us where our children went to school and some related questions. Later she said that she asked all these questions because as a person of faith (she’s Catholic, not Jewish) she’s especially interest how the faith is transmitted from generation to generation, especially in these times of tremendous change, and what it takes for children to retain, continue and cherish the values of their parents and grandparents.
What an important question any time of year, but especially Passover with the focus on the intergenerational Seder and continued transmission of the Haggadah and the Exodus….