One Mother, One Family 

As told to Rivka Streicher by Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld

They lost their spouses just a month apart, spouses who were buried just a few graves over from each other. Destinies thus intertwined, Mrs. Ruth Schindelheim and Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld joined forces and married. As the newly minted Rebbetzin Schonfeld, Ruth created a home for their orphaned children and helped her husband lead the thriving community of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills. Her stepson, Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, recalls the warm and loving haven the Rebbetzin created and the marvelous woman she was

MYmother, Lottie Schonfeld, has been gone now over 63 years. For decades following her petirah, I would dream about her several times a week. Then, about 20 years ago, the dreams abruptly stopped. I don’t know why.

What I do know is that to this day every time I see an old tree, I think to myself, That tree was around when Mommy was alive…. When I see workers pouring cement to make a new sidewalk in my community of Kew Gardens Hills, New York, I sigh. Don’t remove the sidewalk that my mother walked on.

When Hank Aaron retired from baseball in 1976, and everyone was buzzing with it, all I could really think was it’s a shame that a ballplayer who was active during Mommy’s lifetime was now gone from the scene. Inane. My mother knew nothing about baseball, but to me it was a connecting link.