Book of Memories

We’re here today to mourn the passing but also to cherish the life of Renee Gewirtzman Glassner, beloved mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother and cherished friend in our community.

This Shabbos, we will read a sedrah of the Torah Shelach Lecha, in which twelve scouts go out to look at the land of Israel. Ten come back and say there are giants in the land and we will look like grasshoppers and we cannot conquer the land. We should go back to Egypt. (more…)

I just want to add a few words to that very wonderful tribute.

Since Owen wrote it, and Sue and Larry helped, there is a part missing. These three adult children have been astonishing during this last stage of their father’s life, complicated by their mother’s hospitalization. Stan was at home dying, and Barbara was in the hospital, and somehow they got him down to the hospital to see her and be with her. (more…)

We’re here today to mourn the passing but also to honor the life of Milton Greenhouse, beloved father and grandfather. We know that this was his time and that he died knowing that he was loved. (more…)

We’re here today to mourn the passing but also to cherish the life of Helen Drucker, beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Helen was born 98 years ago on April 20, 1921 in Manhattan. She grew up with her younger brother Leo. Her parents owned a candy store and she helped out. She would have a sweet tooth her whole life. (more…)

So we’re feeling different things today. On the one hand, we are very sad. A very wonderful man, a man who loved life and loved his wife and sisters and children and grandchildren and cherished his friends, has died. Last Thursday, Dalia said: “It’s just a matter of time.” We were sitting at their kitchen table, and Larry was eating and drinking. And even though she said that, very realistically, I never imagined we’d be here in less than a week. After everything he’s gone through, and all of the other frightening times, it’s been hard to realize that this has actually happened. We have shed a lot of tears, and we will shed a lot more. (more…)

We’re here today to mourn the passing but also to honor and cherish the life of Dr. J. Lawrence Tanenbaum.

Larry never feared death. After he hit 80 over ten years ago, he said, “This is all gravy.” And so he died in his beautiful home where he lived with Diane’s love all around him, in his sleep, at 90 ½, the way I wish we all could go. Peaceful. Content. (more…)

We’re here today to mourn the passing but also to cherish and honor the life of Edward Litto, beloved husband, father, brother, and dear friend. As everyone knows, these last two years since his stroke have been extremely difficult and a combination of medical factors took their toll on his body, and even with the best of care, it was all too much, and it was time for him to go. We are at peace with that aspect of things. (more…)

I feel like we’ve been hit by an atomic bomb.

I feel like we are precious glass in a box marked “Fragile – Don’t Breakn and somebody dropped us.

And now we are shattered glass,

and we have to pick up our shattered dreams.

Because, you see,

Jeff Litto was every parent’s dream,

and what happened to him is every parent’s nightmare (more…)

We’re here today, in the sanctuary that meant so much to him, to mourn the passing but also to honor and cherish the life of Alexander Weiss, beloved husband, father, brother, grandfather, great-grandfather, businessman, past president of this synagogue, and just a wonderful man.

He was born at home in Newark; the doctor said he weighed 16 pounds and while he was a big baby, this was a slight exaggeration. Still, they paid the doctor 2 dollars for the good job he did. He was raised with his siblings Jacob, Sidney Irving, whom we remember with respect today, and mourn with his sister Leona. (more…)

We’re here today to mourn the passing but also to honor the life of Annette Greenhouse, beloved wife, mother, grandmother and cherished friend. Annette has suffered and she was ready to go. It was enough, and she knew that this was her time. She laughed just before she died, bantering with a wonderful nurse. And yet, even though we are content that she always had the loyalty and attention of her family and the best of care, we are still very sad that she has passed on. Today, we are not going to focus on her death but on her life, because she had a wonderful life. (more…)