At Toast to My Uncle Myron (Rabbi Fenster) on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday

Every workshop I have attend on Jewish identity, - that’s an overstatement 97% of the workshops, I have attended about Jewish identity begin with the same questions:  Who is your Jewish hero?  Ben Gurion often gets a significant nod as does Golda Meir, and Moshe Dayan.  Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev is mentioned with the same frequency as Howard Stern and Sammy Davis Junior.  But through hundreds of these sessions, my response is always the say “Uncle Myron”.  And, although I never quite knew why, I knew it as true.

And then at the age of 54, when I first developed the capacity for symbolic thinking, I began to understand.  Uncle Myron represents all I love about Judaism.  Judaism affirms our humanness and demands our humanity. It compels us to embrace the joys and gifts that God has given us, as well as the pain, sadness and despair that is part of the human condition.  Uncle Myron teaches us this just has he lives this.

But for all of us here and for thousands and perhaps tens of thousands more, Uncle Myron means much more.  Uncle Myron is special to each person and connects with each individual in a way that finds its way into our hearts and into our souls. For me, he is avuncular with a capital A. He is my Sandek, my godfather with a Capital S or G, if you forego the Mario Puzo reference. By the way, at my bris, he gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. But he also is an Abba with a capital A, a Bal with a Capital B, a Macha Tunnin with capital MT, a Zaidi with a capital Z and, of course, a Rabbi with a capital R.

On Simon Peres’s 88th birthday, he was offered a traditional Jewish greeting, Ad “meyah v’ esreem” “May you live till 120,” without missing a beat, he retorted, “Don’t be stingy.”  Thus, we say to you Rabbi, Aba, Zaidi and Uncle Myron “ad meyah v’ hamishim – to 150.