Remembering Bill Freund

Dolly Parton. Tim Curry. Hayden Panettiere.

These were big losses felt by many, many people. No matter how you get your information, you’ve probably heard, read, or seen the stories about these three individuals who passed away in recent days. People will honor them by watching their movies or singing their songs, helping to fill the void created by their deaths.

Here, in our small corner of Summit, New Jersey, we lost our own rock star or celebrity – Bill Freund. He was certainly not as well-known in the wider world as those three individuals, but his impact on our community was immense.

Bill passed away just nine days before his 100th birthday, and everyone who knew him just assumed that he would make it to 100. Of course, everything can change in the blink of an eye.

Bill was a Holocaust survivor who shared his story through speeches and the children’s books he authored. He was the chief economist of the New York Stock Exchange and a professor of economics. He chanted the Book of Jonah on Yom Kippur morning in our synagogue every year. He donated the Shabbat and Festival Prayer Books that we use in our sanctuary. He was the patriarch of his family, including his 10 great-grandchildren.

Like I said above, he was a rock star.

Today, though, I would like to focus on one small thing that Bill did over the course of the past six years or so.

Back in 2020, when we were forced to move all of our worship services to Zoom because of COVID, Bill started logging in to our evening Zoom minyan each night. He was 93 years old at the time, living on his own, but he figured out the technology. He has been a regular attendee virtually every day since then – usually the first person to log in each evening.  In a sense, we knew that we only needed to get nine people each night because Bill would always be there.

There are many ways to honor the memory of someone who has passed away. We can perform acts of tzedakah in their name. We can study Torah and dedicate that learning to them. We can quote their favorite sayings.

In the case of Bill Freund, I would like to suggest one more way we can honor him: join our daily Zoom minyan in his stead.

You may not be able to make it every evening as he did. But maybe you can pick one day a week to log in. Just join us whenever you can.

No one person can fill the shoes of someone like Bill Freund. But maybe, if we all pitch in, the loss will seem slightly less profound.

May his memory be a blessing.