Kiddush to Mark 1st Yartzeit of Shloime Freundlich

By: Aliyah Fine

A year ago this Friday, Shloime Freundlich obm, known as “Bundy,” was texting everyone he knew, on every platform he could, to try to get us to attend his live online Kaddish for his beloved father, Moshe ben Shlome, and answer Amen.

Bundy spoke beautifully and eloquently that day, and ended with a wish and blessing that the darkness would end soon. He passed by my window an hour later, and I had the privilege to tell him how beautiful I thought it was, and he beamed as he kept walking. I didn’t know it then, but it would be the last time I would ever see him. A few days later he was taken from us, in the same week as his father and grandfather to whom he was incredibly close and had inspired his lifelong Holocaust remembrance.

I know he would love that he was described as a pillar of our community in our CAY obituary for him, and he was that, but he was so much more too. He was a friend to the friendless, a champion to the underdog, a person who felt and commemorated every sadness the Jewish people experienced, he was hilarious, a diva, a pot stirrer, and also the glue of our community. Not only had he mentally mapped out the entire Jewish geography of everyone he had ever met and interrogated, but he was a connector that then united all of those people through his persistence, managing to bring everyone together (and donate!), again and again at his meals and whatever was his latest cause du jour. Out of these gatherings sprung a Bundy universe of friendships, roommates, relationships, and of course Shabbos meals that Bundy then attended with pride.

Because he was at every event possible, he was the person you could always spot and find safe haven within a crowd of strangers, and as Alter Deitsch commented, “always with an interesting thought, a new cause, the latest news, the funniest jokes, an outlier opinion.”

Those of us who were blessed to know him will never forget him. I look for him sometimes when I walk these streets and its devastating to think that I won’t ever see him again, but I take comfort in knowing that Bundy lived every moment of his life to the fullest. He grabbed life by the horns and celebrated every birthday like it was his last, he treated himself to his favorite things at every meal, he attended everything he was invited to, and everything he wasn’t invited to, he was fearless in telling the hosts that he wanted to be included too- he embodied YOLO more than anyone I’ve ever met and he will forever serve as an inspiring reminder to live large and fearlessly and always look out for your fellow man.

It’s been a year since Bundy wished for the darkness to end, and while Corona still rages on outside, there are lights that he left us in the form of all of his traditions to help us light the way for him this year. We are honored to light them and with your help will keep lighting them as long as we are able. May the neshama of Shlome ben Moshe have the highest Aliyah in Gan Eden!

Open Invitation from Danny Freundlich, Shloime’s Brother:
Please join me for a Kiddush this Shabbos at Beis Shnuer, 570 Crown Street, starting around 12:15. Kiddush is in honor of the Yartzeits of my Father, Moshe ben Shlome, 10 Nissan, Grandfather, Eliezer ben Shlome, 13 Nissan and My brother, Shlome ben Moshe, 15 Nissan. Also L’zechus refuah shelaima for Esther Bas Toba. Looking forward to seeing you.