For over three decades, Yisroel and Leah Neuberger have been beloved members of our community, opening their home and their hearts to guests from near and far. Exemplars of chesed and hachnasas orchim, they have inspired thousands of individuals who had wandered away from the Torah lifestyle to return home and embrace their heritage.

Born to great wealth and raised in the lap of luxury by their respective families, Yisroel and Leah found that their previous lifestyle was spiritually bankrupt. Fifty years ago, the Neubergers found themselves sinking in a spiritual abyss. Back then, he was Roy, scion to Wall Street legend and art collector Roy Rothschild Neuberger, who founded the highly successful firm of Neuberger Berman. Ensconced in this upper caste existence, the Neubergers quickly assimilated, living the “American dream” as they shed any vestige of their Jewish identity. Although his grandfather’s family had been observant in Salant, Lithuania, they gave up their religious practices in America. Settling in the Upper East Side, they soon acclimated to the wealthy lifestyle of the Germans and Eastern Europeans.

For Leah’s family, the assimilation process had been similar to that of their future mechutanim. After fleeing Lithuania to avoid the draft, Eli Vilensky, Leah’s grandfather, landed in Scotland, where he found work as a cabinet-maker and furniture craftsman. A celebrated master craftsman, he was commissioned to design the Russian Pavilion for the World’s Fair in Glasgow in 1900.

A descendant of rabbis, Eli Vilensky abandoned the Torah tradition of his forefathers in Scotland, refusing even to make a bar mitzvah for his son, Moshe. Eventually, Eli brought his family to New York, where Moshe launched Maurice Villency, the high-end furniture company that bears his name.

It was at Manhattan’s prestigious Ethical Culture School that Roy Neuberger and Linda Villency met. Several years later, one of Roy’s professors informed him that this was a place “for Jews who didn’t want to be Jewish.” Indeed, while the Villencys had a modicum of Jewish tradition, the Neubergers had Christmas trees, hung Christmas stockings, and colored and hunted for Easter eggs.

Linda and Roy were married at 19 and 20, while attending the University of Michigan. Born to great privilege, they travelled the world, dining in the finest restaurants and savoring earthly pleasures.

Still, happiness eluded them. Although they lacked nothing, their lives were lacking. Youth, affluence, education, and unlimited opportunity notwithstanding, Roy and Linda felt a terrible feeling of emptiness, a lack of purpose. Some 40 years later, Yisroel’s memories are still vivid as he recalls the terror he experienced on January 10, 1966. Then a 23-year-old college student, he awakened at 2:00 a.m., overcome by a sense of dread and unable to breathe. “My marriage was disintegrating, my grades were falling, and I felt totally out of control.” Could there be a reality beyond his comprehension. Was there, indeed a Creator of the Universe?

After graduation, the couple spent a year in England, continuing their academic studies at Oxford. Their quest to find happiness and fulfillment led them to explore Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism, but to no avail. It never occurred to them to check out their own religion. “Roy grew up with an atheist father who thought religion was responsible for all the evils of the world,” Linda explains. They didn’t even go to shul on Yom Kippur or have a Pesach Seder. I had seen a little more; my grandmother lit Shabbos candles, and we made a sort of family Seder. But neither of us had grown up around anybody who really believed in G-d, let alone anyone Orthodox.”

Dissatisfied, dismayed, and still seeking answers, they embarked upon a mission dedicated to the greater good, embracing such causes as civil rights, conservation, and the Vietnam War. But a sense of restlessness raged within them. Perfunctorily, they went on with their lives, going through the motions, but it was robotic. Was that all there was to life?

In the ensuing years, Roy worked on Wall Street and served as director of conservation for the City of New York during the Lindsay administration. He even bought a small weekly newspaper in Cornwall-on-Hudson, and served as its editor. By then, the couple had two small daughters, Juliet and Susan, and had settled into the lovely, close-knit community. Linda was busy raising their little girls, who were ready to start school. Continuing the family tradition of academic excellence, Roy and Linda sought a school that would meet their high standards and provide their young daughters with the best possible education.

After researching the local schools with due diligence, they reached a decision: the Catholic school provided its students with a superb education. What would be the harm? Besides, several of their friends, unaffiliated Jews, as well, had sent their children there and waxed poetic about the quality of the faculty and education. Religion would pose no problem; like their friends’ children, their daughters would not participate in prayer services.

But there exists a pinteleh Yid deep within the heart of every Jew, regardless of how far removed from Judaism he may be. And although the son of Roy and Marie Salant Neuberger was, at that time, disdainful of his Jewish heritage, the son of Roy and Marie Salant Neuberger would be destined to reclaim the spiritual legacy of his sainted ancestor, HaRav Yisroel Salanter, z”tl. Little did either Roy or Linda know that the pinteleh Yid was struggling within each of them, longing to stir their lost souls. At that time, an advertiser in Roy’s newspaper had invited the couple to hear a guest speaker at the Newburgh, New York synagogue.

“We wanted to go because we had tried every other lifestyle and philosophy we could think of,” Yisroel explains. “I truly believe it was the right time.” They were about to experience a spiritual metamorphosis that would forever change their lives. Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis came to Newburgh, spoke, and captivated her audience, particularly the Neubergers. On that summer evening in 1974, the couple experienced a spiritual awakening. They were about to embark upon a life-altering journey that would save their souls—and their marriage.

“We sat there amazed,” Yisroel recalls. Here was this young, articulate, modern woman, saying all the things I had been trying to find out my whole life!”

The effect was intense and immediate. The Rebbetzin had spoken about the beauty of a Torah lifestyle, and how all of our neshomas had been present at Har Sinai.” Her words had made an indelible impression on Roy and Linda, touching their hearts and reaching the very depths of their souls. “We were transfixed!”

They began attending Rebbetzin Jungreis’s classes at her Hineni organization regularly, eagerly anticipating the long drive into Brooklyn. Several months later, they accompanied the Rebbetzin on a speaking tour to Israel. It was at Kibbutz Lavi that they spent the first Shabbos of their lives. And it was on this momentous trip that they learned about Shabbos, tefillin, and taharas hamishpachah, and began what would become a lifelong friendship with the Rebbetzin and her exemplary family, forming a bond that would one day make them mechutanim.

Returning from Israel on a spiritual high, the couple realized that they could never go back to the life they had led. They packed their bags and moved to North Woodmere, the Rebbetzin’s community, to be close to her, and to continue their spiritual awakening. Roy found a job as an editor at the Long Island Press, and they bought a house a block away from Rabbi Jungreis’s shul. They enrolled their adorable little girls at Torah Academy for Girls; Yaffa and Sarah would always be a source of much nachas to their loving parents, now called Yisroel (after his illustrious ancestor) and Leah.

Barely had they unpacked when Yisroel and Leah received a call from Rebbetzin Jungreis, “Can you take in three guests for Shabbos?” Amid Leah’s protests; they had just moved in three days prior and were newcomers to Shabbos and mitzvah observance, the Rebbetzin persevered. In the tradition of Avraham and Sarah, this charming couple is renowned for their hachnosas orchim and for their gracious hospitality, hosting from two to six sleep-in guests every Shabbos, with many becoming “part of the family” for months. That their children continue this family tradition in their own homes is not surprising; this great mitzvah has been an integral part of their growing-up years. Active members of our community, Yisroel and Leah Neuberger are true Ambassadors of Torah, an honor awarded to them by Torah Umesorah several years ago. They travel the world, reaching out to unaffiliated Jews, bringing them back home, no matter how distant they may be. An internationally acclaimed author, Yisroel utilizes the power of the written word to inspire his readers and spread his spiritual wealth. Always giving of themselves to others for the greater good. Yisroel and Leah Neuberger are two of our community’s treasures.