Just Say the Word    

Phil Schneider’s passion to help others find their voice has taken him from the inner-city classrooms of the 1970s all the way to Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn. Determined to help stutterers conquer their shame instead of remaining locked in their silent world, Phil, with his son Uri at his side, have made a family business of helping others find their strengths and move forward from there

Phil Schneider was just beginning to take an interest in Yiddishkeit when he decided to poke his head inside a local shul, the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, one evening. Confronted by the sight of men speaking in Hebrew, bent over huge, impenetrable tomes, he began softly backing out.

Rabbi Murray Schaum, who was in the beis medrash, was having none of it. “Come in!” he sang out across the room. Too embarrassed to turn tail and run, Phil came closer. “What’s your name?” the rabbi asked.

“Phil,” he answered.

“No,” Rabbi Schaum persisted. “What’s your real name?”

Phil thought back to his bar mitzvah and dredged up an old memory. “Pesach,” he replied.