MAY THE CONNECTIONS NEVER END — Sharon Mark Cohen

While in the Bay Area to attend a cousin’s bat mitzvah, my husband and I got together with several other cousins from various sides of our family who live in or around Berkeley. One of those get-togethers was with Jeff Kramer, my third cousin once removed.

Greeting Jeff as he met us at the Berkeley Botanical Gardens, I feverishly rehashed the background of our family connection. And so the story goes…Your maternal grandfather, so fondly remembered by my father, was the one who suggested my father apply to work at the Post Office. That was in the 1940s. Taking his cousin’s advice about a regular, secure government paycheck, he worked there until his retirement 24 years later.
My father also regaled stories of your great-grandparents. Your great-grandmother Tabl or Tillie was a real character. My father said her husband Schnaer, a house painter, was a really nice guy. They housed my grandfather when he first came to America in 1911. I videotaped my father telling the stories at their gravesites a row in front of my grandparents at the Chudnover Section of the Talmud Torah Cemetery in Newark.
My paternal grandparents were first cousins before marriage and were each first cousins to your great-grandmother. I added, “That’s a very close connection.” “They’re buried a row apart at the cemetery in Newark. I visit all their graves yearly on the Sunday between the High Holidays when they have armed guards at the historic Newark cemeteries [I was there visiting on October 6 this year].”

Jeff said, “My mother, (Cynthia) is turning 93 in a few days.” In my devoted quest to find all of our long-lost relatives, I connected with Cynthia about 25 years ago. See the article I had published in the Jewish News dated December 3, 2014.

Several years ago, Jeff attended one of the parties at our house where he met our children. He bonded with our son Moss over their common interests and college choices, having each graduated from NYU.

On June 19, 2024, Jeffrey was in from the West Coast. He picked me up and we went to visit his mother in assisted living. We sat in the beautiful yard in Roseland, New Jersey, chatting for hours before heading to her room to see a collection of her photos. The one that gripped us, was the wedding photo of her parents from July 6, 1930, in Newark, New Jersey.

That day, I took a short video on my iPhone of Cynthia regaling the story of her father working at the post office in Newark. That’s the connecting link, as it was her father, who encouraged mine, to work at the post office.

We’re super happy to keep the connection going and keep the memories of our ancestors alive. The best is yet to come.