The Shidduch Story of a Trumpet Player and a Data Scientist

By COLlive reporter

Bashert, in more than one way…

The L’Chaim engagement party of Michael Bogart and Esther Richler held at the Jewish Children’s Museum in Crown Heights last week was a joyous celebration. It also revealed how Hashem governs our lives and the power of the Rebbe’s brachos.

Bogart, a professional trumpet player, first appeared on COLlive.com when he visited the Rebbe’s Ohel in Cambria Heights, Queens, on Gimmel Tammuz 5783. As reported then, Mike Bogart had begun to embrace Jewish observance and grappled with performing on Shabbos while touring with a famous American R&B and funk band.

After much soul searching and speaking with S. Diego Shliach Rabbi Eli Fradkin, Bogart went to the Ohel to inform the Rebbe of his decision to quit his dream job and leave the band. He asked the Rebbe for a blessing that he should have the strength to make this transition.

As he was leaving the Ohel, something caught his eye. On the ground, right by the holy gravesite, there was a piece of paper with a drawing of a trumpet on it, the very instrument that Bogart plays. He took this as a clear answer from the Rebbe.

Bogart shared the story and agreed for renowned lecturer and author Rabbi Shais Taub of the Five Towns, NY, to share it on social media. Rabbi Taub had just shared a hashgacha pratis story of his own about a miracle of the Rebbe which led to his son Yisroel’s engagement to Malky Groisman on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz. Bogart said that because he was so inspired by the story that Rabbi Taub had shared, he would give permission to share his own story.

Bogart then learned that the picture of the trumpet was actually a monogram from the wedding invitation of Aryeh Dov Eidelman and Leah Wilansky, a Chabad couple whose mother had placed it at the Ohel for blessing before the wedding.

Upon learning this, Bogart disclosed that he had actually asked the Rebbe for two blessings during his visit to the Ohel. Besides seeking strength to leave the band and fully observe Shabbos, he had requested a blessing to find a shidduch. Discovering that the paper was a wedding invitation, he realized that he had received an answer to both requests at the same time.

A match idea in Cleveland

The story continues two months later in Elul when Bogart flew from S. Diego to perform at the wedding of Rabbi Taub’s son as a gift to the bride and groom. On the morning of the chuppah, Bogart visited the Ohel again. There he met Rabbi Taub and the chosson, and joined them to study the Rebbe’s maamar L’cha Dodi. He expressed his hope that it would soon be relevant in his life.

Bogart stayed in New York and spent every day at the Ohel. On the last day of Sheva Brachos, Rabbi Taub thanked Bogart for participating in his simcha and commented that he was traveling to Cleveland as the featured speaker of a farbrengen in honor of Chai Elul. The event had been arranged to take place months earlier, but had been postponed due Rabbi Taub’s daughter’s wedding the last Chanukah.

Bogart asked to accompany the trip to Cleveland and Rabbi Taub agreed. At the event, arranged by Daniel Eleff of the website Dan’s Deals,  Rabbi Taub had Bogart play his trumpet to accompany the niggunim. During the evening, Bogart was asked to share a few words about his own journey. He then told his long and winding path to Torah observance.

He said it began in Hong Kong while he was in the U.S. Navy and encountered Shliach Rabbi Mordechai Avtzon. He told about his recent story at the Ohel and about the many moments of clear hashgacha pratis in his life.

Attending the farbrengen was Mrs. Chana Golda Lisbon, who had just moved to Cleveland a few months earlier. When she heard Bogart speaking, she had a strong feeling that he would be a possible shidduch for her best friend, Esther Richler, a data scientist working in Las Vegas. Interestingly, in all of their years of friendship, Lisbon had never before suggested a name she felt was right for her friend. This time she had a hunch that it was right.

It turns out that Richler, originally from Montreal, Canada, had spent 10 years living in S. Diego while working at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies doing neuroscience research. This meant that she and Bogart both lived in the same city and were both involved in Chabad at the same time but in different parts of town. They had never met before.

Bogart flew to Las Vegas for the Shidduch, and the two began dating. While dating, there was another uncanny sign that the Rebbe’s answer at the Ohel was continuing to unfold. While in Las Vegas, Bogart started learning Tanya with a local Shliach named Rabbi Sholom Wilansky. He later learned that he was none other than the brother of the kallah from the trumpet wedding invitation.

After the tragedies of October 7, Mike Bogart and Esther Richler decided that their response to the massacre of Jews in Southern Israel would be to build a Jewish home together. Together, they went to the Rebbe’s Ohel, as customary, and announced their engagement. “May the miracles continue to reveal themselves,” their friends wished them.