How does one incorporate a lifetime of memories in one email? Will do my best...
Passaic-Clifton was a different community back in the 70s-80s. We had a communal day school, Hillel Academy, today known as YBH. (Yeshiva K'tana hadn't arrived on scene just yet.) We were a small community that consisted of families with different religious backgrounds. NCSY was a popular presence and we kids were very involved in our local chapter. Back then Rabbi Singer was known to us all as "Cantor" Singer as he was the chazzan for Adas Israel. He would reach out to each of us, inviting us to his home for shabbos meals, zmiros, and my personal favorite...Pirkei Avos with chips and soda. Before there was PTI, before the garage had been converted, there was the Beis Midrash in his basement. His rebbetzin ,Ita a"h, made sure we had snacks while he spent time learning with us.
Rabbi Singer soon started his "yeshiva" at his dining room table with several Ba'al Habatim...one of whom was my father, a"h. My father didn't come from a religious background...in his day Passaic public school was followed by cheder. So, learning gemara would be a challenge for him. Rabbi Singer took him under his wing and it continued for years. My father would become an expert on Sukkah...lol. As the community grew through years, so did the small yeshiva that started at a table. First it was located in their converted garage and eventually in a house (coincidentally owned by a deceased relative of mine) which is the present location.
Fast forward to the 90s and you can imagine how pleased Rabbi Singer was when he learned that my now-husband was a talmid at Ner Yisroel. You would've thought he won the lottery. Such simcha...the contagious kind.
When we moved back to Clifton from Baltimore, I was thrilled to learn that Rabbi Singer was teaching a shiur at the Herzfeld's nearby. Each word, each concept that he spoke exuded enthusiasm. It brought me back to those days of chips and soda.
The passing of Rabbi Singer, to me, represents the end of an era. L'Havdil, he was our Mr. Rogers.
May his neshama have an aliyah and may he be a melitz yoshor for klal yisroel...