On the Sunday and Monday of UAlbany’s Fall 2025 Move-In Week we (Raizy and Mendel) headed out on a 4-part trip that included (1) a mini-reunion in Crown Heights Brooklyn, (2) an alumni engagement party in West Hempstead, (we stayed the night at Raizy’s sister in Morristown NJ), (3) we attended the funeral of a mother of an alumna north of Philly, (had car trouble following that – more on that in our Piston Problem Post) and made it (in a rental) just in time back to Long Island for (4) alumnus’ son’s Pidyon HaBen ceremony in teh backyard of the grandparents who are also UAlbany/Shabbos House alumni! (Then headed back to deal with the car on NJ Route 17 and got home at 3am).

So it was a whirlwind of a 2-day trip, both in terms of mileage and travel but also emotionally. And as Baal Shem Tov taught us there are lessons and takeaways from everything we see, hear or experience. So will try to unpack some of the riches in this post.

THE MINI-REUNION IN CROWN HEIGHTS

It was planned and announced late, and we didn’t have expectations of a crowd (or even a few) but were very grateful to the people, dear friends from over the years, who came out to this special reunion held on the top floor conference room of the Shluchim Office (and thanks to them for the space) on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights.

Because it was smaller and more intimate, we got to connect with children of alumni, with a spouse of alumni, and more importantly got to discuss some important matters with individuals, life questions, meaningful stuff.

And a few of those present used the opportunity of already being in Crown Heights to go up Kingston Ave to pick up new Mezuzahs and other Judaica. Loved how this turned into a Mitzvah opportunity! This visit we didn’t plan ahead for a 770 Tour, but another time we’ll do that again.

THE ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT IN WEST HEMPSTEAD

BH for Simchas! It’s beautiful to celebrate alumni occasions, especially Jewish couples setting out to build Jewish homes together! And this was an especially close and beloved alumna. We already celebrated the engagement with them back up in Albany, then at Rebbe’s Ohel, but this was a bigger celebration for her extended family, hometown community and broader circles of friends.

Aside for all the Mazal Tov celebratory aspects,  getting to know family and enjoying time with other UAlbany alumni, we also got to meet for the first time some interesting Albany and UAlbany connections! We met a family friend from the neighborhood who was a rabbi up in Saratoga Springs in the late 1970’s early 1980’s, and remembers Mendel’s father from back then. And the bride’s uncle is a UAlbany alumnus from the early 1980’s (now living in Israel) who remembers some fellow alumni we know from back then, and remembers Rabbis Rubin and Chanowitz from Shabbos House back then!

EVENING IN WEST HEMPSTEAD

After the engagement party we went with Shaun, an alum of Class of 2021 (and his eldest son) to a local small Shul for Mincha & Maariv. It so happens that on the shelf behind me I found a nicely redone set of Ritvah Talmud commentary and found the source text that Rav Schachter quoted in Tannersville the night before on Sat Night. See this Rav Schachter, the Ritvah and Life’s Mixed Bag of Blessing on why it felt especially meaningful and relevant to me.

Shaun and his family also gave us a big assorted box of different honey – one sourced in the Southwest, another from Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes etc. The ideas is that the nectar honeybees collect in different regions has a slightly different or distinctive flavor profile, so it will make for good table conversation on Rosh Hashanah at Shabbos House. And he gave us a coupon to use at the local Kosher chinese for their Sunday night buffet which we especially enjoyed, as it offers a nice sampling array of  different dishes, quite flavorful!

THEN THE NIGHT IN MORRISTOWN NJ

From West Hempstead we drove to Morristown, where Raizy’s sister ND and husband SB live, very close to the Yeshiva there. We were without kids on this trip, and they were home alone with their children away at camp, so we had a nice evening together. I also took the time to write an update email to Rivka, Esther Miriam and Bassie in camp, as they look forward to our almost-daily emails.

THE FUNERAL IN TREVOSE, PA

There’s an alumna (and her husband, also an alumni) who graduated almost twenty years ago who lost her mother and the funeral was Monday morning in Trevose PA. Raizy was especially close with this alumna, and her mother’s life has been a struggle for a very long time. As we were in Morristown, it was just about an hour and half to the funeral in Roosevelt Memorial Park in PA. We drove down, and twenty minutes away, car-engine light starts flashing, car did some jerking and shaking, but we had to first get to the funeral.

Kohelet/Ecclesiastes recommends: “better go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting”, because you can a learn a lot more there. It’s not our usual preference, of course we’d much rather be celebrating at weddings and births etc, but there’s truth to this, there’s so much we can learn at a funeral, and especially at this one. Our alumna friend spoke so deeply, honestly, articulated with such meaning. It lent much insight into “lost and found” relationships, people’s intense personal struggles, and how the impact of our own struggles can have much bearing on others. It was a profound funeral, very meaningful.

THE PISTON RINGS PROBLEM

We’ll try to write a full post of its own and turn it into a Dvar Torah or life message of some sort, but we kind of knew what we were dealing with regarding the car. Back in March we had the same failure, we did a cheaper fix, and here it presented again. We knew it could still drive, but not too far and not too fast, so we drove back up into Jersey, and got a one-way rental at Newark Airport, and left the car at a Park and Ride. See “The Piston Rings Problem” for more on this issue and mis-/adventure.

Wait – but didn’t a generous donor gift you a new minivan especially for these types of alumni trips? Yes! But for this trip we had to divide up. Our daughters took the newer minivan in and our on Sunday and we took the older gray minivan to continue on for the Monday piece.

THE PIDYON HABEN IN NORTH WOODMERE

Pidyon HaBen is a 3o-day special ceremony for a naturally-born firstborn baby boy, whose neither parents are a Kohain or Levi and meets other criteria. It’s a biblical mitzvah that involves 5 Silver Coins, a Kohain, and a redemption. The father of this particular baby was a beloved alumnus who served as Lchaim President and other campus roles, and the baby’s Bris was on Shabbos a month ago, so we wanted to make the extra effort to be at the baby’s Pidyon HaBen. It was held at the grandparents home in North Woodmere – and both the grandparents are UAlbany/Shabbos House alumni as well!

We had all that car trouble and delay, and getting the rental and situating our car in a strategic Park and Ride to return to, and then finding traffic in multiple spots on our way back east, but we did make it to North Woodmere twenty minutes late and just in time! The ceremony left by the couple’s rabbi from Oceanside NY was about to begin. We also met the outgoing and incoming rabbis from North Woodmere, and several UAlbany alumni from the 1970’s and 1980’s as well!

The alum asked me to say a few words. First I did a play on the parents (secular) names, to turn that into a wish. And a few fond memories and lasting legacy of his involvement at Jewish UAlbany. But then I shared the Parsha Re’eh Mixed Bag of Blessing message gleaned from Rav Heschel Schachter of YU speech from Sat Night. People there very much appreciated it, especially as there were quite a few people present who were Rav Schachter’s own students.

BACK TO THE CAR AND THE TWO TOW TRUCKS

But then we had to get back to the minivan and arranged for it to be towed up to Albany and back to the dealership. AAA isn’t an instantaneous service, and once we got back to the Park and Ride it took another hour until the first tow truck came. Alas, he was not interesting in a 140 mile tow! So we had to cancel that one, and request another, and an hour later, just after midnight, we got the good man and his second tow truck, to take the car all the way. We got home in the rental at 3am.

BUT WHAT A TWO DAYS…

Looking back, we’re so grateful to have met so many different alumni over these two days at our summer’s end, and to have been there for important life milestones: This time an engagement, a Pidyon HaBen for a newborn and a funeral for a mom. Of course, the moods and vibes vary, but the feeling of closeness and connection is at the heart of all these experiences.