The journey home he had already arranged

I can still hear Paul Reichenbach’s voice in my head any time I’m planning a trip and especially when I have airport duty for Camp Ramah. No one did logistics like PJR. But what made him truly unique, as many have noted, was his ability to combine this type -A personality with an even deeper sense of mentschlekeit. I was the fortunate beneficiary of this unique blend at a very difficult moment.

I was a mechanech (educator) for a NFTY-in-Israel trip in the summer of 1995 and we were on our first day of yam l’yam. As we were coming to basecamp in the middle of nowhere for the first night, someone came running up to me with a satellite phone (this was 1995), and Paul was on the line with my parents. They gently informed me that my grandfather had died and that Paul had already arranged a car that was waiting for me at the basecamp to take me to the train station in Hadera. I took the (very old and slow)!train to Tel Aviv, where there was a car waiting to take me to Ben Gurion. I was ticketed for a flight home that night at midnight. He had arranged for everything and I make it from the Galilee to Florida in less then 24 hours. I attended the funeral, stayed for shiva and then rejoined the trip a few days later. That was Paul.

I worked with Paul for many summers, one year as an intern in the national NFTY, 2 years while I was NFTY regional advisor for NYC, 3 years of periodic work while I was at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and 2 years as director of Kesher. We always got along very well and I learned so much from him. We didn’t keep in touch but we’re always happy to see each other. He was an important mentor for me in many ways and I feel his loss intensely. Rabbi Paul Kipnes wrote a beautiful piece to describe this type of grief. Yehi zichrono barukh.