obituaries
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
O n the aft ernoon of Oct. 6, the
doorbell rang at Carol Stein’s
Bryn Mawr home. It was the
sprinkler man.

Stein knew it was time to turn off the
sprinklers for the season, but she hadn’t
gotten around to it yet. It used to be her
husband’s job.

But the man was not ringing her
doorbell to ask about that. He said he
knew something was wrong because
he hadn’t heard from her husband,
Jerome “Jerry” Stein, recently. Jerry
Stein would call him just to talk or ask
him if he saw the Phillies game.

Later that day, at the bank drive-
thru, the tellers told Carol Stein that
they missed her husband. And aft er
that, at Dairy Queen, employees said
Jerry Stein
the same thing.

“Everywhere I went yesterday,” Carol
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Stein said. “He took that extra step to
make people feel important.”
Jerry Stein died Sept. 18 at home
“aft er a short illness,” according to a
death notice published in the Jewish
Exponent. Th e man who owned Camp
Green Lane in Montgomery County for
more than 40 years was 92.

He is survived by his wife of 35
years and partner for more than 40,
Carol, as well as his children Lee
Stein (June), Lynda Smith (Jonathan),
Michael Banks (Lori), Debbi Weidman
(Peter) and David Banks. He is also
survived by 16 grandchildren and 13
great-grandchildren. Jerry Stein initially went into the
automobile business but found his true
calling aft er his father, George Stein,
bought Green Lane in the 1950s. As
“Uncle Jerry,” the son grew into the
camp’s friendly, high-energy public
face. He would ride around on his golf
cart and wave to everybody; he would
make time for any camper who needed
to talk to him; he would watch from
the living room of his camp house and
count buses aft er out-of-camp trips just
to make sure everyone got back safely.

His favorite part about the summer,
according to his wife, was watching a
kid walk in shy or homesick on the fi rst
day, and then walk out on the last day
smiling and laughing with friends.

“He knew every camper’s name,”
Carol Stein said.

Years aft er he sold the camp in 1995,
“Uncle Jerry” returned with Carol
Stein for a visiting day. Th e couple
ran into grandparents they knew from
Green Lane whose grandchildren were
now campers.

Many former campers attended
the shiva at the Stein house aft er the
funeral, according to Jerry Stein’s son-
in-law Peter Weidman. Several were in
their 60s. One told a story about how
he broke his arm in camp playing ball.

Uncle Jerry drove him to the hospital
and stayed with him all night. Th e
boy’s parents could not make it up in
time, and he was scared.

Weidman’s three daughters, Hilary,
36, Rachel, 32, and Katie, 29, all
attended camp. Rachel got married
three years ago, and four of her brides-
maids were from her bunk at Green
Lane. Katie’s camp friends remain
among her closest friends, according
to her father. Hilary was a competitive
gymnast, so she stopped going a little
earlier than her sisters, but next sum-
mer she’ll be sending her 8-year-old
son Brody.

A little over a month before Grandpa
Jerry died, Brody called him with the
good news.

“Pop Pop, guess what?” he said,
according to Carol Stein. “I’m going to
Green Lane next year.”
Th e grandpa smiled from ear to ear.

“Another generation,” Carol Stein
said. Stein’s children Lee Stein and Lynda
Smith are from his fi rst marriage, while
Michael Banks, Debbi Weidman and
David Banks are from Carol Stein’s fi rst
marriage. But none of them, least of all
Jerry Stein, saw it that way. Th ey were
just a family.

Th e patriarch took his children,
grandchildren and great-grandchil-
dren to Villanova University men’s
basketball games; he called himself a
“judge” when he wanted to book a res-
ervation for them at a nice restaurant,
claiming the label because he had once
“judged” Color War sing; he called
them all with his wife on their birth-
days to sing happy birthday.

Weidman said 10 grandchildren gave
eulogies at the funeral.

“He was always concerned with
their lives, careers and personal lives,”
Weidman said.

In his eulogy to his grandfather,
Sammy Smith, Lynda Smith’s son,
talked about how much he would miss
him. But he also said, “More important
than what I’ll miss is what I’ll keep.”
“I’ll keep working on the, in his
words, grandfatherly advice, he gave
me,” he said.

“How to make everyone around you
feel like the most important person
in the world,” he concluded. “And his
fi nal lesson: how to live beyond your
years through the stories and relation-
ships you create.” JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
Courtesy of the Stein family
Camp Green Lane Owner
Jerome ‘Jerry’ Stein Dies at 92



d’var torah
F TAY-SACHS
REE Looking Through
God’s Eyes
BY RABBI GREGORY MARX
T Sukkot
he holiday of Sukkot is with-
out a doubt one of my favorite
festivals. Th e moon is full, the
weather is, more oft en than not, cool
in the evenings. Th e leaves are turning
from their verdant green of the sum-
mer to the reds, yellows and oranges of
fall. It is a wondrous time.

As for me, I am coming “down,”
if you will, from the pressures of the
High Holy Days. I love Sukkot.

Where else can we look for a critical
lesson about appreciation and wonder-
ment for the times of our lives than
the Torah reading for the Shabbat of
Sukkot? In it, we learn about Moses approach-
ing God and asking to see “God’s face.”
Th is is actually not a particularly
unusual request. It says elsewhere in
Torah that Moses knew God “face to
face.” Most religious teachings focus on
its founder “knowing God.”
But here, during the intermedi-
ate days of Sukkot, God pushes back
against Moses’ request. God says, “I
will make all my goodness pass before
you, and I will proclaim before you the
name Eternal and the grace that I grant
and the compassion that I show… But
you cannot see my face, for no human
being may not see me and live … See,
there is a place near me. Station your-
self on the rock. And as My Presence
passes by, I will … shield you with My
hand until I have passed by. Th en I will
take My hand away and you will see My
back, but My face must not be seen.”
What actually transpired at that
moment? Th ere are some who say that Moses
was only allowed to see traces of God.

It has been compared to seeing the
wake of a boat but not the actual vessel.

Or, perhaps, human wisdom, compas-
sion or generosity are the traces of God
that we can “see,” while not actually
knowing God. Others believe that it is
a teaching about life aft er death. Moses
would be able to see God face-to-face
upon his demise but not during life.

I would like to suggest a fourth
option. Moses was allowed to see what
truly mattered in life. He could see
in an instant when God revealed His
back, the sacred not the profane. If
Moses was seeing only God’s back,
then Moses was looking in the same
direction, theoretically, as God. Moses
was allowed to perceive what God was
seeing. It is the diff erence between
looking into God’s eyes and looking
through God’s eyes.

Imagine for just a moment that
Moses could see what truly mattered
in life. Rudolph Otto, the theologian,
called this the Mysterium Tremendum,
the great mystery of being. For that
brief moment, perhaps it was just an
instance, Moses had that “aha” moment
where he could see and realize the pro-
fundity of life as opposed to the small
annoyances of everyday living.

Too oft en we get distracted or aggra-
vated by the little things of life. Having
to wait on the phone for a customer
representative who “values my time,”
but makes me wait for 45 minutes,
the dripping kitchen faucet that we’ve
been meaning to fi x which consistently
annoys. Too oft en, the little things in life dis-
tract us from the beauty and the won-
derment of life. A friend of mine once
called it “the missing tiles syndrome.”
If we look up at a magnifi cent fresco
or mosaic, we, too, oft en gravitate to
the missing tiles, the fl aws, the imper-
fections, rather than marveling at the
wonderment. Th ere are some faiths that will tell
us that the essence of life is to look
into God’s eyes, to have a personal
relationship with God. All we can hope
for, according to the Torah, is to look
through God’s eyes and to see what
truly matters in life. And what does
our tradition value? All the intangi-
ble things that cannot be qualifi ed
or quantifi ed. Life is made meaning-
ful with wonderment, gratitude, love,
hope, faith, courage and integrity.

As we celebrate this glorious season,
& CANAVAN
SCREENING may we “look through God’s eyes”
as Moses briefl y did and give thanks
for the splendor and majesty of the
moment. JE
CALL (215)887-0877
FOR DETAILS
Rabbi Gregory Marx is the senior rabbi
at Congregation Beth Or in Maple
Glen. Th e Board of Rabbis of Greater
Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse
perspectives on Torah commentary
for the Jewish Exponent. Th e opin-
ions expressed in this column are the
author’s own and do not refl ect the view
of the Board of Rabbis.

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