I don’t usually provide follow-ups to my articles.

More often than not I modify and alter identities and sometimes even genders in order to guarantee the privacy of my characters. However this one time I used actual names. This one time I felt assured that the characters of my tale of almost 45 years ago would never see this article. After all of the participants who at the time were not frum one of them was now living in Israel and was a rebbi and two had gone on to their “next station.” There was only one person whose whereabouts I had no idea of but felt certain he’d never see the article.

And then came the phone call.

Remember the article I wrote before Succos (#477)? The one entitled “A Succah Grows in Brooklyn” about the neighborhood Jews who helped me build my succah in Canarsie in 1971? Remember Lenny Waldman? The fellow who helped my cut down s’chach for the succah? The fellow who I was so sure wasn’t connected with the world of Mishpacha that I felt comfortable using his real name?

Last night Lenny Waldman called me.

I was sure he was kidding.

There was no doubt in my mind that he was pulling my leg.

As I looked at the caller ID however the name matched. Although his name isn’t that uncommon.

But how could he be contacting me just hours after my article in Mishpacha hit the stands? How could he have seen the article in Mishpacha? We have no common connections (or so I thought).

However when he gave the exact house location and even corrected one of my memories I knew he was legit. The last person I could have ever imagined would have seen the article in Mishpacha was calling.

Lenny Waldman called me last night and said proudly “I am now a frum Jew!”

Lenny Waldman who I thought was distanced from Judaism called me last night to excitedly relate to me that as I was writing how he helped me build a succah back in 1971 he was at that precise moment helping his own grandchildren build their own succah!

Lenny Waldman who from my somewhat insular and childlike perspective was incorrectly sized up as an “never-to-be-frum-Jew” is now a proud practicing Jew!

Lenny explained how a friend of his from his current shul in New Jerseyhad seen the article in Mishpacha and excitedly called him wondering if he could be the same Lenny Waldman mentioned in the article.

Lenny called and corrected me that the old evergreen tree from which he carefully and lovingly cut s’chach for my succah was actually my tree and he clearly recalled for me the childhood antics and mischief that my brother and I were involved in.

Lenny Waldman who I naïvely and childishly thought was too distant from observance to return was calling me proudly to tell me he is back and had really never left.

Lenny Waldman called me last night and we talked and laughed and although we have not been in contact or set eyes on each other for more than 25 years we picked up as only two landsleit could with love and affection for each other.

And as I reconnected with Lenny Waldman and his wonderful wife I marveled at the ways of He who knows our hearts and was humbled as I (once again) underestimated the power and innate connection of a pure Jewish soul to its maker.

Lenny Waldman called me last night and I will remember that call for the rest of my life.