Esther Schneider

Born in Brooklyn to Rose and Harry Goldsmith, married to Max Schneider in 1947, a mother as of age 24 in 1948, Esther embodied New York City grit, wisdom, resilience, intelligence, realism, and candor until the very end.

Esther brought an astute, spicy, and straightforward approach to her understanding of contemporary politics, to her social life, and to her close relationships. She read the newspaper daily, seeing today’s political realm with objectivity and realism. At home, and over the decades, her phone always rang—calls were from her siblings, Judy and Dave, her two sons, Andrew and Howard, her sister-in-law Iris, her grandchildren, old friends, new neighbors. Esther made and kept connections with people over the course of her life, and many felt they could reach out to her for that sense of connection and continuity that keeps us going daily; Esther was also empathic and could perceive and understand the stressors and practicalities others contended with.

Overall, Esther brought a spirit of survival to her work and family life. Immigration and resettlement for any Jewish family, like her parents and grandparents, had meant upheaval—by Esther’s teenage years she knew working was important, moving out and starting her own family was important, and so she did. She met Max in 1943 in Williamsburg, where she worked as an assistant in the office of a glazier. Shortly afterward, Max enlisted in the Marines. They exchanged letters until he returned from Guam in 1946 and were married in 1947. For her wedding, she wore a long-sleeved blouse and a hat with a wide felt brim that folded upward in the front and was held with a pin. Esther worked as a secretary for many years in the department of Radiation Physics at the State University at Downstate, becoming invaluable and drawing energy from the dynamism of an academic workplace.

Coming from a line of women with talent in the kitchen, Esther’s passion for food and shared meals was evident in her preparation for holidays, her opting for fine China and shimmering crystal goblets in her and Max’s two-bedroom Sheepshead Bay apartment—chicken noodle soup, pepper steak, meatballs and spaghetti, eggplant parmesan were a few specialties. She created a family table daily, bringing a flourish to the most casual meals, laying a bed of lettuce underneath a plate of cold cuts for sandwiches and always having a freezer full of Italian bread, bagels, and Dove mini-ice cream bars. In Brooklyn, she and Max stocked the kitchen with Brooklyn delicacies regularly like bialys and bagels, Chock Full o’ Nuts Coffee, fresh produce from a grocery on Nostrand Avenue, meats from Silver Star, and blackout cake from Butterbun Bakery. In South Florida, she returned time and again to her favorite dining venues with friends and family, like the Okeechobee Steakhouse and John G’s, and with her sister or grandchildren, an evening at TCBY or Friendly’s was the ultimate in happiness. She was always up for a game of dominoes or Scrabble with her granddaughter Amy and Amy’s husband Derek, and always managed to get a card in the mail for a birthday or a holiday for her children and grandchildren.

Living to her centennial year brought Esther pride and radiance, and she delighted in the joyful reunion and celebration of her life that included new friends and old in January of 2024. She will be remembered for her honesty and spunk, her resilience and survival instinct, for her way of holding onto friends and loved ones in the prime of her life, for the great care she took with her style, relishing fashion and interior design, for her epicurean instincts, and for the way she created unbreakable bonds with friends and family members. Lissette, a dear friend and kind helper in her last months brought her some clothing while she was recuperating in a rehabilitation center in South Florida. We had every expectation she would recover as she always did (her son Howard nicknamed her “Benjamin Button” for a reason). Esther looked at the sizable bundle of clothing and said, “How long do you think I’ll be staying here, a year?”

She is survived in the hearts, minds, and memories of her sons Andrew (Debbie) and Howard, her grandchildren Amy (Derek), Robert, Christopher, and Douglas, her sister-in-law Iris, and her many nieces, nephews, and cousins. If you would like to make a donation in her memory, Esther’s family asks that you consider the Jewish Community Services of South Florida or the Veterans Association of West Palm Beach Health Care System.