Zaydee turns 80
I spent all weekend with the extended fam for a cousin’s bar mitzvah celebration, which culminated with an 80th birthday party for my Zaydee (poo poo poo). Zaydee is a man of humble means, whose resume reads janitor, milk truck driver, and chazzan. Can’t say who would have won a cantor-battle between him and Jeremiah Lockwood’s grandfather. During davening, a pretty standard revue of centuries-old Shabbat prayer melodies, Zaydee angrily turned to us and asked, “Who chose these tunes? It sounds like an Irish wake!” That stood alone as a pretty good zinger. But then he threw in this bold claim: supposedly, he and Bubbie stayed up ’til five in the morning with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach the night that the singin’ rabbi composed his melody for Ein Keloheinu
. That might sound outlandish, except that Zaydee has a knack for backing up his stories with remarkable minutiae–in this case, a location: a club on 41st Street that was supposedly a well-known venue for Jewish and Israeli musicians. Anyone know the name of this place?
We love you, Zaydee. Keep those stories coming ’til 120 