A kindness she never forgot

Like so many others, I am saddened by the death of Paul Reichenbach, a colleague at the URJ throughout my 17-year tenure. Although we did not work together closely, this anecdote encapsulates so much of what others are saying about Paul as a mensch and a truly genuine and wonderful human being.

In 2007, as a flight chaperone on a NFTY L'Dor v'Dor trip, I accompanied 48 16-year-olds on a flight from JFK to Prague. When we arrived, we had one missing guitar and one missing suitcase. The guitar was delivered the next day, but the suitcase—thankfully, it was mine and not one of the kids'—remained MIA. My understanding is that while I trekked around Eastern Europe with the teens and their real chaperones, Paul and Laurence "Jake" Jacobs went to JFK daily, or nearly so, to try to track down my bag, a tremendous kindness that I have never forgotten. (Eventually, the suitcase was found, long after my return home, and delivered with its contents intact. The bar-coded tag had fallen off, and it had floated around JFK for several weeks before it somehow made its way back to me.) And just last year, I was prompted to post this on FB after reviewing a plenary script for a conference for a Jewish organization other than the Union for Reform Judaism: "I was this many years old when I learned that all conferences use “VOG” for the announcer in plenary scripts. I thought it was only for Paul Reichenbach! 😂" May Paul's memory be a blessing—now and always—to all those whose lives he touched and whose hearts ache at this sad time.