Obituaries for Stephen Weil

Stephen Phillip Weil

Stephen Weil of Delray Beach, FL. passed away on March 5, 2019 from injuries sustained in a recent automobile accident. He was 76.

With his dear wife Shelly, Steve traveled the world from Europe and Israel to the great U.S. National Parks and Canadian Rockies. Closer to home, he was an avid skier, biker, and beach goer. He never missed a chance to debate politics, lose himself in a novel, or enjoy a good meal. Some of his happiest moments were spent camping, hiking, or rafting with his sons Eric and Shawn. And, as the president of the condo association, he was adept at addressing big problems and small. Steve was soft spoken, but loved the company of friends and family.

The son of the late Jack and Marian (Goldner) Weil, Steve was born in 1942 and raised in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. He was a 1960 graduate of Lafayette High School and a 1964 graduate of the City College of New York (CCNY). It was during college that he met the love of his life, the former Rochelle “Shelly” Telles, also of Brooklyn. They were married in 1965.

After serving  in the Naval Air Reserves from 1964 – 1970, Steve and family moved to the White Meadow Lake community in Rockaway NJ. For many years Steve worked in the telecommunications industry, installing telephones in the skyscrapers of Manhattan’s financial district. Steve retired in 2000 and moved to Delray Beach in 2011 after a short time in Boston.

Steve is survived by his wife of 53 years, Rochelle (Telles) Weil; son Eric and daughter-in-law Andria (Cook) Weil of Jamaica Plain, MA; son Shawn and daughter-in-law Elana (Messer) Weil of Melrose, MA; sister Marcia (Weil) and brother-in-law Arnold Goldstein of Boynton Beach, FL; and grandchildren Jacob, Sophia, Asher, Paul, and Joss. He also leaves behind many beloved nieces, nephews, cousins, and dear friends.

The funeral will take place at the Goldman Funeral Chapel (174 Ferry St., Malden, MA) at 1PM on Friday March 8, with burial to follow at Temple Shalom of Medford Cemetery (Rte. 128 Yankee Division Highway, Peabody, MA).    

Shiva hours are scheduled at the homes of his sons. An additional gathering to remember Steve will take place at his home in Delray Beach at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider making a donation to InTandem (www.intandembike.org), the Democratic National Committee, or Hadassah Hospitals.

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An official obituary appeared in the Palm Beach Sun Sentinel.

Published in Sun-Sentinel on Mar. 7, 2019

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A short article about my father's accident also appeared in the Sun Sentinel.

Eulogy for Stephen Weil

My father, Stephen Weil, died tragically on 5 March 2019 from injuries sustained in a recent automobile accident. This is the eulogy I gave at his funeral at the Goldman Funeral Chapel in Malden, MA on Friday 8 March 2019.

A Toast From My Dad

Dear Family and Friends

Thank you all for joining us on such a somber occasion. Before I continue with my eulogy, I wanted to take the time to describe how thankful I am.

• Thankful for my mother Shelly who doesn’t realize the strength and resilience she has.
• Thankful for my wife Elana for being unfailingly supportive.
• Thankful for my brother Eric who successfully navigated the past few weeks as both pained son and competent healer.
• Thankful for my children who ground and amaze me with their perceptive comments.
• Thankful for my sister-in-law Andria for providing perspective with so much depth.
• Thankful to my Uncle Marty for his decisive nature and my Aunt Marcia for her constant support.
• Thankful to Rabbi Hamilton for somehow being in the right places at the right times to provide comfort.
• Thankful to all of the first responders and medical professionals who worked so hard to help my father heal and then provided comfort to him when it became clear that recovery wasn’t to be.
• Thankful to my children’s mother Beren for managing two family crises simultaneously – with sensitivity and love. For those who aren’t aware, her beloved grandmother Barbara Rosenblum passed away the same day as my father. She was very special to me and my grief is doubled.
• And – most of all – thankful to our communities for your overwhelming support. We are humbled and grateful for you all.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. My father – fit and friendly and lively – should have had many more years to enjoy his retirement with my mother. But that simply wasn’t to be. So here we are, gathered to remember a man who really defied categorization.

What do I mean by that? Well…

• My father wouldn’t have considered himself to be an “intellectual,” but you’d rarely see him without a book in his hand and a Sudoku puzzle half completed in his bag.
• My father wouldn’t have considered an “athlete,” but he was always on his bicycle, in the pool, on the slopes, or in the gym.
• My father wouldn’t have considered himself particularly “ambitious,” but when need be, he always rose to the occasion. I know the residents of his condo are going to feel the absence of their capable president.

Steve Weil was a humble guy. He wasn’t one to boast or complain. He was one to offer a helping hand without being asked. He was one to tinker and fix (or, sometimes, break).

Born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, and carried his accent proudly wherever he went. And his accent rubbed off on those around him. I was a teenager before I realized that I wasn’t pronouncing “mirror,” “vanilla,” and “drawer” like my friends did!

Dad rarely talked about his time in the Naval Reserves. He was never active duty during Vietnam. Country and freedom were important to him, but he would never have overly emphasize his service when so many others had given so much. Still, he always had his dog tags near him. A reminder, maybe, of the friends of his youth.

My father was at Ground Zero on his way to work when the airplanes hit the towers on 9/11. He found shelter in the Chase Bank vault until the coast was clear and then walked miles to safety. But it wasn’t something he brought up very often. He didn’t want anyone’s pity or undue attention.

Some of my favorite moments were spent outdoors with my father and brother. Skiing as a child at Vernon Valley or Mt. Snow. Camping at Otter Lake. Hiking in the Adirondacks or the White Mountains. Rafting on the Delaware, Hudson, and even the Colorado. My father loved being outdoors in any weather, and I relished the time spent with him.  Except when he taught me how to ride a bicycle and left me to coast uncontrollably into the pond by Copeland Middle School in Rockaway.

He wasn’t overly emotional, but he had no trouble telling my mother, brother, and our children that he loved them. We seldom spoke on the phone, even though I speak to my mother often. But he wanted to know everything that was going on in our lives and would get daily reports from Mom.

The last time I saw my father was Thanksgiving, when he (1) tried out my nephew’s hoverboard and fell – into the arms of his granddaughter and (2) snuck out of the house, drove up to New Hampshire, and went skiing despite the significant protests of my mother. Did I mention that he pretended to be 80 years old to get a free lift ticket?

Dad lived without regrets. He didn’t hold grudges because he knew how to avoid or resolve conflict. And didn’t suffer from artifice, preferring to be true to himself regardless of the situation. That situation might have been on a nude beach with a joint in his hand. He encouraged me to embrace this philosophy. My father once told me that I should always be myself; that I shouldn’t change who I am in response to the group I’m with or the company I keep. I try to live up to this ideal.

But as central as this is to the way I try to live my life, it isn’t the aspect of his personality that I most aspire to live up to. No – that was his dedication to our family. My father sacrificed a lot to provide for my mother, brother, and me, commuting every day from suburban New Jersey to New York City; getting up early and spending hours in cars and trains. On weekends, rather than sleeping in, he would always find ways to spend time with us. To eat with us, throw a Frisbee, or go for a bike ride. Those are memories I’ll always cherish and behaviors I’ll always respect.

Musically, my father was among the most tone deaf people I’ve ever met. Literal tone deafness. Hearing him sing “Happy Birthday” or “You Are My Sunshine” made me cringe as a musician. But as his son? It was marvelous. It reflected a man who was rarely self-conscious; who was always true to himself. And I wish I could hear him sing those songs off key one more time.

I loves you, Dad.

Happy New Year 2019

Wishing You a Ferocious 2019!

May it be a year filled with all of the things you love. Looking forward to our paths crossing again soon.

ROAR!!!

The Weils

Pogrom Parallels

In the aftermath of the Russian revolution, the various factions (White Russians, Bolsheviks, Greens) fought bitterly throughout modern day Ukraine. One was nationalist, one was socialist, one was populist (roughly). They differed in terms of politics, vision, and ethnic/cultural makeup.

But these three bitterly opposed groups had one thing in common: antisemitism. All told, the estimates of Jews killed by these three groups in the Ukraine of 1918 - 1920 was 30,000 - 70,000 (Gitelman 2001). Each faction attributed their problems to Jewish meddling, Jewish money lending, Jewish witchcraft. My grandmother's family fled one of these "pogrom" attacks when she was an infant. Her family's political persuasion was irrelevant because all of the opposing groups had some fanciful justification for their hatred. The end result was the same: dead Jewish families.

19th Century engraving of a Jewish Progom

With the slaughter of 11 innocents in a Pittsburgh synagogue, I'm reminded of this time period today.

The murderer on Saturday was a far-right white nationalist convinced that the Jews are behind the mass migration of Central American "invaders" and "terrorists." (Mind you, those people are refugees fleeing violence like my grandmother's family did, not causing it). Alt-right bigots like the gunman have been been whipped into a dangerous frenzy by ugly rising populism and a divisive media.

But that attack could have conceivably been carried out by a left-wing gunman, convinced that the non-violent activist tactics of intersectionalist movements are insufficient to move the dial on Palestinian occupation. Violence against the Zionists in a Jewish congregation, they might think, would lead to more action and change. Such an atrocity would not be supported by any mainstream group, but I imagine there would have been dancing in the streets in some places.

The bigger threat to our country generally, and Jews in particular, is white nationalism. We need to address the root causes that have emboldened those who would harm marginalized communities. But we should not fool ourselves into thinking that antisemitism is a left/right issue. We don't know the political beliefs of the slain, but like 1918 Ukraine, it's irrelevant. Antisemitism runs deep in all directions.

Happy New Year - 2018

Happy New Year

Wishing you a year of new adventures, small comforts, and continued successes!

Older Cards

Honeymoon to Havana - 1938

There are always new things to discover on Ancestry.com. My grandfather, Jacob Weil, was born in the US. So I was surprised when Ancestry had a "hint" about his immigration. Turns out it was the passenger manifest of the ship he and my grandmother (Marian Goldner Weil) took on their honeymoon cruise from New York to Nassau, Havana, and Miami on the S.S. Munargo in 1938! According to the manifest, they left on Feb 6 and returned on Feb 17.  They were married on 31 January 1938, so the honeymoon was only a few days later.

Below are some photos and documents putting it all together - including my grandmother's original labels from the back of the photos with corresponding dates.

The S.S. Munargo in New York Harbor

Marian Goldner Weil "On Boat (Going) Carribean Sea - (Feb 7, 1938)"

Jack & Marian Weil - "Nassau (Feb 8, 1938)" 

Marian & Jack Weil - "Paradise Beach - Nassau (Tues Feb 8, 1938) - Macy"

Marian & Jack - "La Playa Beach, Havana (Feb 11, 1938)"

Jack, Marian, & Unknown Couple - "Nassau - Paradise Beach (Feb 14, 1938)" 

Detail of Passenger Manifest. Note the second-to-last column for naturalized citizens. Marian immigrated as a child and was naturalized when her father became a citizen.

The Telles and Birnberg Family Origins

Itzak, the son of Chiam Telefus was born around 1891 in Khotyn, Ukraine, located on the banks of the river Dnister. The family was very poor - family lore is that Chiam sold water to make tea in a samovar. Following his sister Sheava Fisherman and her family, who immigrated around 1908. Itzak traveled on the S.S. Kroonland to the Ellis Island in 1909. Itzak had a brother Pesah who immigrated to Israel, and another sister Anna who came to the US. The name Telefus was changed to Telles soon after he immigrated.

In 1913, Itzak married Sarah Birnberg, the daughter of Meyer Birnberg and Ruchel Schneider. Although Sarah was born in Ukraine as well (in Medzhibozh), it was in America that they met. Sarah, the daughter of Meyer Birnberg and Rachel Schneider, was the only daughter in a family with five brothers/half-brothers. Joseph Birenberg remained in England, where they had stopped on their way to America. Jacob Birnberg left for Argentina, where he worked with livestock. Louis Berenberg and his wife Bessie were involved with the garment union in New York, but eventually moved to Cleveland, OH where their sons had a drugstore. Nathan Birnberg and Ettel Birnberg lived in New York, which is where Sarah immigrated to in 1910 on the S.S. Noordam.

Itzak and Sarah lived in Brooklyn, where Itzak made a living as a furrier - a family business taken over by his three sons: Jack, Sam, and Harry. Itzak passed away in 1951, and Sarah in 1965.

Telles and Birnberg Descendant Charts

Aron Telefus, b. before 1830

+unknown spouse

└── Chiam Hirsh Telefus, b. at Khotin, Bessarabia, d. after 1909 at Khotin, Bessarabia

    +Mary Cohen, m. before 1865

    ├── Rachel Telefus, b. circa 1865

    │   +(--?--) Marcus

    │   └── Bluma Marcus, b. 1897

    └── Sheava Telefus, b. between 1872 and 1873, d. 1955 at NY

        +Aron Fisherman, b. between 1869 and 1870 at Khotin, Bessarabia, m. 1892

        ├── Louis Fisherman, b. 1894 at Khotin, Bessarabia

        │   +Sadie (--?--), b. 1901 at NY, m. 1918 at NY, d. 1929 at NY

        │   +Rose (--?--)

        ├── Minnie Fisherman, b. 1898 at Khotin, Bessarabia, d. 1987

        │   +Melvin Presser, b. 1903, m. 1948, d. 1988 at FL

        ├── Anne Fisherman, b. between 1901 and 1901 at Khotin, Bessarabia, d. 1984

        └── Mickey Fisherman, b. between 1902 and 1902 at Khotin, Bessarabia

            +Roberta (--?--)

    +Leah Berenstein, m. circa 1875

    ├── (--?--) Telles, b. at Khotin, Bessarabia, d. at Khotin, Bessarabia

    ├── Pesach Telefus, b. at Khotin, Bessarabia, d. 1970 at Tirat-HaCarmel

    │   +Frida Appelboim, b. at Bessarabia, d. 1935 at Bessarabia

    │   ├── Lea Telefus, b. 1919 at Khotin, Bessarabia, d. 2004 at Tirat-HaCarmel

    │   │   +Rafael Faige, b. 1922, d. 2011

    │   └── Chana Telefus, b. 1931 at Bessarabia

    │       +Efraim Sholimovich, b. 1931 at Kostansa, d. 2002 at Tirat-HaCarmel

    │   +Rivka Vrombrant, d. 1967 at Tirat-HaCarmel

    ├── Anna Telefus, b. 1887 at Khotin, Bessarabia, d. 1968 at Riverdale, NY

    │   +Chaim Telefus, b. 1887, m. 1910 at NY, d. 1922 at NY

    │   +Max Lichtenstein, b. 1877 at Odessa, m. 1931 at NY, d. 1961

    └── Isador Telles, b. 1891 at Khotin, Bessarabia, d. 1951

        +Sarah Birnberg, b. 1893 at Khotin, Bessarabia, m. 1913 at East Villiage, NY, d. 1965

        ├── Meyer Jack Telles, b. 1913 at NY, d. 2003 at CA

        │   +Helan Konsky, b. 1915 at NY, m. 1936, d. 1994 at CA

        ├── Sam Telles, b. 1917 at NY, d. 1972 at Borough Park, NY

        │   +Rose Broitman, b. 1918 at Savran, Podolie, m. 1938 at NY, d. 2011 at West Orange, NJ

        └── Harris Telles, b. 1923 at NY, d. 2002 at TX

            +(Living)

Meyer Birenberg, d. before 1910

+Rachel Schneider, m. before 1880, d. after 1910 at Khotin, Bessarabia

├── Joseph Berenberg, d. at London, England

│   +Rachel (--?--)

│   ├── Anne Berenberg

│   │   +William Rosenberg

│   ├── Lilian Berenberg

│   │   +unknown spouse

│   ├── Deborah Berenberg

│   │   +unknown spouse

│   ├── Sarah Berenberg

│   │   +unknown spouse

│   └── Esther Berenberg

│       +unknown spouse

├── Nathan Birnberg, b. between 1863 and 1864, d. 1945

│   +Nachuma Schechter, b. between 1872 and 1873, m. 1894, d. 1952 at NY

│   ├── Fischel Theodore Birnberg, b. 1895, d. 1980

│   │   +Sonia (--?--), b. 1895, m. 1924 at NY, d. 1974

│   ├── Sarah Birnberg, b. either 1897 or 1897 at Medzhibozh, d. 1977

│   │   +Sam Walowitz, b. 1900, m. 1926 at NY, d. 1990

│   ├── Meyer Birnberg, b. 1902, d. 1987 at Santa Clara, CA

│   │   +Eva Elman, b. 1906, m. between 1930 and 1931, d. 1992 at Santa Clara, CA

│   └── Irving Birnberg, b. 1906 at Medzhibozh, d. 1997

│       +Augusta (--?--), b. 1908, m. 1925, d. 1994

│       +Jean Shafran, b. 1914, m. 1949 at FL, d. 1984

├── Jacob Birenberg

├── Edel Lab Birenberg, b. either 1880 or 1881 at Medzhibozh, d. 1953

│   +Ida (--?--), b. before 1881, m. before 1901

│   +unknown spouse

├── Louis Berenberg, b. 1884 at Medzhibozh, d. 1959 at Cleveland, OH

│   +Bessie Cohen, b. 1886 at Minsk, m. 1911 at NY, d. 1980 at Beechwood, OH

│   ├── Meyer Berenberg, b. 1912 at NY, d. 1980 at Beechwood, OH

│   │   +Mollie Bader, b. 1909, m. between 1927 and 1957 at OH, d. 1997 at Deerfield, IL

│   └── Abraham Berenberg, b. 1915 at NY, d. 1987 at Phoenix, AZ

│       +Edith Polsky, b. circa 1918

└── Sarah Birnberg, b. 1893 at Khotin, Bessarabia, d. 1965

    +Isador Telles, b. 1891 at Khotin, Bessarabia, m. 1913 at East Villiage, NY, d. 1951