A long-time member of Congregation Beth El, Rick Schwag z"l died after sundown on September 18, 2023. I'm sorry that my husband David Kanell z"l cannot be one to talk about Rick's many contributions to the Jewish community in Vermont. As a subscriber to the New York Times, I was able to access this article on one of those contributions, from July 5, 1987—please click on the image to read it:
Dr. Toll's obituary (appended below) missed quite a few details that this 2012 article includes. A child and grandchild of Jewish immigrants, Dr. Toll was a long-time member of Congregation Beth El in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
Dr. David Toll: A Beloved Country Physican, by Amy Ash Nixon, Caledonian-Record, December 128, 2018
DANVILLE — A visit to Dr. David Toll’s pediatric practice was like a step back in time.
If a child was sick, you were instructed to come right in, and often Dr. Toll himself would take the phone call and talk to the child’s parent to find out what the concern was.
He had a laboratory upstairs in his building, so getting a strep test, or bloodwork done was fast and he had the results almost immediately.
Dr. Toll’s office was Norman Rockwell-esque, vintage Fairbanks scales in the patient rooms, his office itself a converted Main Street white wooden house, with toys for the kids and magazines for the parents on tables.
He was known for never turning anyone away for inability to pay.
The death of Dr. Toll, 93, over the weekend, caused many in Vermont’s rural Northeast Kingdom to offer their condolences to his family, and to share stories of what the region’s most treasured pediatrician meant to them, their children, and their lives here.
“The Kingdom has lost a friend,” shared Darcie McCann on behalf of the NEK Chamber of Commerce. “We have lost Dr. Toll.”
McCann said, “Medical professionals like Dr. Toll came from a different era, one we will never see again. It was not just the longevity of his practice but how he put his heart and soul into the tens of thousands he treated during his decades of service. Being a doctor was not just a profession to him; it was a calling. His life was truly extraordinary on how many lives he touched in his own long life.”
Sue Willey of Kirby shared, “I had a trusting love for this wonderful friend and doctor. Shared my family with him from day one of Tracy’s life (50 years ago), then Christy for 17 years and Dallas’s into college even … So so sad … love to his family and his office staff that made every visit with him pleasant. Took the girls in once when they were covered with red spots and Dr. Toll entered the room took a look from across the room, announced ‘Your cats have fleas!’ followed by a few helpful suggestions about flea terminating and grinning left the room.”
Dr. Tim Thompson of Kirby, now retired, arrived in the Northeast Kingdom in 1973 and knew Dr. Toll for many years.
The three tenants which Dr. William Osler, remembered in history for being the father of modern medicine, are what Dr. Thompson pointed to in remembering Dr. Toll and his care of children in the Northeast Kingdom – availability, affability and ability.
“David had plenty of ability, and that’s not to make it the last one, but he was amazing at being available to his patients. He had people coming from all over the Northeast Kingdom and New Hampshire to see him. It was a great testimony to his persistence, to his ability to convince people he could really take care of them. He was just a wonderful doctor here for a very long time.”
Dr. Thompson continued, “His interest was in really making sure that kids had access to care, and it’s amazing that he did that as a single practitioner. St. Johnsbury was a pretty interesting place (to choose to practice in.)”
Of Dr. Toll practicing until his 90th birthday, Dr. Thompson said, “David didn’t know what else to do. He wanted to continue being a doctor and it was really important to him. His patients were very dear to him. He was sick once and I put him in the hospital and he said, ‘I’ve got to go take care of my two patients first,’ and he went to discharge them. I couldn’t stop him.”
Dr. Thompson said Dr. Toll’s wife, Bridget “took great care of him, she was a great wife and a great caregiver.” Running a medical practice as the sole practitioner for so many years is a huge commitment and “Bridget gets a lot of credit,” for being at his side, he said.
Dr. Thompson said Dr. Toll’s work here and reputation was “why a lot of people were willing to stay here,” and make their careers in St. Johnsbury.
People adored him, and trusted him with the care of their children, he said.
He said, “David was the standard here for pediatrics … I think everybody respected his persistence and his capacity to be able to deliver care.”
Paul Bengtson, the recently retired CEO of Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, worked with Dr. Toll for many years. “I worked with him as a board member and sometimes president of the medical staff,” said Bengtson. “I worked with him actively for more than 30 years. He always had a very active intellect, which personally I enjoyed. He wasn’t particularly enamored of administrators, but I could roll with that because I actually could understand his point of view a lot of times.”
“He had a very long and I would say vibrant and interesting career. He enjoyed a huge following, almost like I’d never seen as a medical professional. He was a very smart diagnostician,” said Bengtson. “A lot of people would approach him I guess around the region for his ability to diagnose, particularly conditions with children.”
Bengtson said, “He is one of those people who was a legend - and he was a legend in his own time. He leaves behind a very nice, large extended family. He was very aware and smart culturally, too. One of the things I enjoyed about him was his enjoyment of classical music.” Dr. Toll also was a reader of The Book of Ecclesiastes, and he and Bengtson would discuss things from it, he said. “He knew The Book of Ecclesiastes very well,” said Bengtson. “He made many references to it.”
Toll continued to see some patients well into adulthood – even their 50s, said Bengtson.
Holly Blair of Kirby on Monday said her mother, Merrillee Blair, worked as a lab tech for Dr. Toll in the years prior to his retirement.
“He was my doctor from birth until he retired when I was 33,” said Blair, now 35. “He was such a great man … I have a million fond memories of him – which is something to be said considering I do not typically like doctors and have been sick a lot over the years. Dr Toll saw me through everything from routine childhood illness of strep throats and stomach bugs to more complicated situations like hospitalizations … (he) probably saved my life several times.”
“The world has lost so much with his passing and we were so lucky for the many years of service he gave to so many,” said Blair.
Carrie Peters of Groton on Monday said Dr. Toll took care of her four children, Torie, 22, Shelby, 21, Wyatt, who died at 15, and Luke, 12.
“When I was pregnant with Torie I was trying to decide on a pediatrician and I thought it would be neat to go to the same doctor as my husband had,” she said. “So that started our journey. Things were pretty uneventful with my girls but when my son Wyatt was born with special needs then there was lots of visits to Dr. Toll and lots of questions. Wyatt was born with Microcephaly and had all sorts of neurological problems.”
“Of course we spent lots of time at Dartmouth, but it was Dr. Toll who when I asked him how long did he think Wyatt would live to be told me ‘a teenager,’ that Wyatt’s brain would not be able to keep up with his body’s needs,” Peters said. “Oddly enough the specialists at DHMC told me many different answers – from as long as 50-60 years old to Wyatt will just keep getting pneumonia and die. In August of 2015 Wyatt passed away peacefully at 15 years old, exactly how Dr. Toll predicted, not multiple pneumonia’s, just peacefully at home with us. It still amazes me today how he knew this. And Dr. Toll and Bridget coming to Wyatt’s funeral and coming over and hugging me meant the world to me and I will never forget that.”
When her son Luke was about 5 and was admiring the sailboat pictures on Dr. Toll’s office wall, Dr. Toll invited him on a 3-day sailing trip, which Luke went home and packed for, said Peters.
Peters said, “There are many stories about how he fit us in any day no matter how busy his schedule was,” said Peters, who said she still misses his ability to diagnose what is going on with her children. “I always knew I could call, get in, and that Dr. Toll would take great care of my children.”
A celebration of life service for Dr. Toll will be held at The Creamery Restaurant in Danville from 1-4 p.m. on Friday.
My husband Dave Kanell (1952-2019) used to talk about "institutional memory": the capacity for an organization to know and understand its past. In many ways, Dave tried to BE that set of memories for Congregation Beth El in St. Johnsbury.
Recently I realized that the history of the Jewish burial area at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery had faded from most people around me. Dave is no longer here to tell the story, but I think these documents speak well to what happened and the flaring emotions around it.
Between us, Dave and I kept many scraps of paper, photos, cards, from our years as part of Congregation Beth El in St. Johnsbury. Dave probably first stepped into the sanctuary in 1970 and committed right away to leading in every way he could; I arrived on his arm in 2002.
Here are some of our treasures.
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| Ben and Rosalie Harris shared this on their 50th wedding anniversary. |
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| The other side of the invitation card. |
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| Three long-term presidents of the congregation: from left, Ben Harris, Al(fred) Zeller, and David Kanell. |
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| Ladies in front: Phyllis Pegula Benoit, Gloria Caplan, Sheila Aronoff. Back row, Steve Dolgin, Harvey Caplan, Steve's sister Laura, Sid Nurenburg, Rayna Caplan. |
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| Announcement of the service for Harvey Caplan's father Joseph Caplan -- may their names be for a blessing. |
Three long-term presidents of the congregation: from left, Ben Harris, Alfred Zeller, David Kanell.
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Art that hung in the entryway.
West Wall art by Chick Schwartz, on the west wall of the sanctuary.
[Originally published in The Caledonian-Record.]
Some reading this obituary may remember Rosalie fondly from her more active years, while others will never have heard of her, or of the impact that she and her husband Ben (1913-2014) had in the Northeast Kingdom for more than half a century. This is what happens when one reaches the age of 102.
Born and raised in Montreal, Rosalie learned early to establish strong interpersonal relationships of support and mentorship, becoming an anchor within her large extended family of cousins which, even today, gathers monthly for global video calls, reflecting the spirit of family and community that Rosalie spread. She studied, practiced and graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1940 from the Women’s General Hospital School of Nursing in Montreal, and received a certificate in First Aid to the Injured from the St. John Ambulance Association in 1941. Her nursing credentials were recognized by Vermont in 1962.
In October 1941 Rosalie met Ben Harris of St. Albans on a blind date and they were married three months later on their fifth “date,” in Montreal, beginning a 72-year marriage. After Ben’s military service, during which Rosalie worked for the Red Cross in Boston, Mass., the couple settled initially in Montpelier and then moved to St. Johnsbury in 1949 when Ben opened the local branch of his statewide business Nate’s, then Vermont’s Largest Men’s Clothier. From that time on, Rosalie committed herself fully to advancing the civic, religious, and cultural life of the NEK. Her public service record includes:
- Caledonia Home Health Care, President and founding member
- Northeast Kingdom Mental Health Services, Inc., member
- Congregation Beth El, Sisterhood President, Secretary and Teacher
- Community Concert Series, Secretary, Publicity Chair
- Northeastern Vermont Kingdom Concert Series, Board
- Methodist Church Fashion Show, narrator and fundraiser for the St. Johnsbury Community School
- Vermont Assembly of Home Health Agencies, Board of Directors
- American Red Cross Blood Bank, Technician
- Fairbanks Museum, Board member, Fellow, Director and Clerk of the Board
- Girl Scouts, Board of Directors
- St. Johnsbury Junior Woman’s Club, President and advocate for the pre-school polio vaccination clinics
- St. Johnsbury Woman’s Club, Member
- Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, Corporator, Trustee, Member of the Executive Board, Chair of the Policy and Procedures Committee, Library Staff Volunteer, Central Services Volunteer
- American Cancer Society, Vermont Division Secretary and Publicity Chair
- St. Johnsbury Youth Recreation Council, Member of the Board, Secretary
- Arlington School PTA, Secretary and representative to the public school Social Studies Curriculum Committee
- Kiwanis Club of St. Johnsbury, volunteer
- Northern Vermont University, Lyndon Campus, Foundation founding member, Visitors Board member
- Gilman Housing Trust, now RuralEdge, Board Member
- St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, Board Member
- Northeast Kingdom Chamber of Commerce, Trustee Emerita
- Profiled in the book “To Life! A Celebration of Vermont Jewish History”
Familiar to many through all of these activities and through her boundless optimism and positivity, Rosalie is perhaps best known to a generation in St. Johnsbury as the person who explained Jewish beliefs and traditions through her annual talks in the Sunday Schools of almost every church in town. Rosalie had a way of making Jewish traditions and beliefs accessible and understandable to non-Jews within the context of their own religions, breaking down the barriers which too often divide our communities. Rosalie continued her representation of the Jewish community as a guest at St. Johnsbury Academy graduation ceremonies where, for several years, she delivered the invocation and benediction.
In response to Rosalie and Ben’s commitment to building bridges between the Jewish and non-Jewish communities, their children endowed a Fund which sponsors annual programming in the NEK to share culture, arts and ideas across religions. Rosalie and Ben themselves endowed the Harris Prize at St. Johnsbury Academy and a Nursing Scholarship at Northern Vermont University, Lyndon Campus.
Rosalie’s tireless civic commitment was recognized with many honors including:
- David G. Rahr Community Service Award, with Ben, from the Vermont Community Foundation, 2009
- Community National Bank Community Service Award, with Ben, 2005
- Recognized by the Governor’s Commission on Volunteers, 1994
- St. Johnsbury Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year award, 1978
When not busy serving the community, Rosalie devoted her time to her immediate and extended family and to many hobbies and interests, including piano, embroidery, crocheting, knitting, calligraphy, and painting. She also sought and enjoyed conversations in Yiddish and French.
Rosalie is survived by her children Gertrude (Chips) Naparstek and her husband David of Boxboro, Mass.; Andrea Harris of Brighton, Mass.; and Bill Harris and his wife Marcia of Cambridge, Mass.; by grandchildren Mark Naparstek and his wife Ember of Las Vegas, Nev.; Sam Harris and his wife Miriam of Dedham, Mass.; and Jake Harris and his partner Rachel Slusky of Delray Beach, Fla. Rosalie’s beloved granddaughter Amy Sara Naparstek pre-deceased her in 1995. Great-grandchildren, Emerson and Zander Naparstek, live in Las Vegas, Nev.; and great-granddaughter Nora Harris lives in Dedham, Mass.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Amy Sara Naparstek Fund at Congregation Beth Elohim, 133 Prospect St., Acton, MA 01720; the Ben and Rosalie Harris Fund of Beth El Synagogue, PO Box 568, St. Johnsbury, VT 05819; or the Ben and Rosalie Harris Scholarship in Nursing, Northern Vermont University Lyndon Campus, 1001 College Rd., PO Box 919, Lyndonville, VT 05851.
Funeral services and interment were held at a private family ceremony at the Hebrew Holy Society Cemetery in South Burlington, Vt.
UPDATE: A memorial service held on November 17, 2021, can be viewed HERE.
Irene (Goldberg) Silverman, “Nanny,” Labor Day 1909–May 2002
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| Irene (Goldberg) Silverman |
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| Sam and his mother Irene |
When Irene’s son Sam was 12 years old, his mother began to work outside the home, at “The Sweater Joint.” Sam says, “She was profoundly popular.” His father drove Irene to work each day and collected her at the end of her work day, and then the two of them would cook dinner together. Sam enjoyed being his mother’s helper, and observing the contrast between his parents: His mother shone in family get-togethers, keeping the laughter and the conversation going, while his father was quiet and work-focused, as well as bright and self-taught. As a youth, Bob had been valedictorian of his high school and was offered a full scholarship to college, but opted instead to join his own father’s business, building skills and finally establishing his own carpentry business.
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| Irene loved gatherings ... (center, Alice with drum) |
In the 1970s, Bob’s heart disease inspired the couple to move to Hallandale, Florida. Here too, Irene worked, all the way to age 88. Sadly, Bob died 23 years before Irene, so she spent her golden years without him. Sam and his wife Alice welcomed Irene’s visits to their home in Amherst, Massachusetts, then to their home in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. When visiting here, Irene took part with her usual enthusiasm in social events; Sam especially remembers when she took part in a 50th anniversary celebration for local synagogue leaders Rosalie and Ben Harris, held at Lyndon State College. “She joined right in, and danced with her walker!”
Sam went to Florida in 2001 when Irene had a mini stroke and seemed saddened and alone, and he brought her back to Vermont. When this visit turned out to be shorter than first envisioned, Sam took her to Florida again, where she almost immediately experienced a mini stroke. Concerned for his mother’s health, Sam arranged for the two of them to go right back to Vermont, where Irene spent the last nine months of her life.
“She was a favorite of my friends,” Sam recalls now. “She was very active her whole life, and she always fit right in.”
Her burial stone in the Jewish section of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery includes her grandmothering name of “Nanny,” a reminder of how much she enjoyed Sam and Alice’s sons. Sam was able to visit the site almost daily for ten years, before he and Alice moved to Montpelier, and he felt the connection to his mother continue through those years, along with reflections on what an active and joyful person she had been. “She survived on her winning personality,” Sam noted. Irene gave this joy of life as an enduring memory to her family.
[To read more local Jewish personal stories and history, browse the whole blog: https://jewsinvermont.blogspot.com]
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| Craig (left) and Marc Schein, brothers. |
There are only a few stones so far in the Jewish section of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. It meant a lot to me to be able to choose this for my husband Dave Kanell's burial location. It seemed to me important to know more and share something about the others there. The following narrative was written with Marc Schein's brother Craig, who provided this photo.
Marc David Schein, 1958-2017
Marc Schein was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 13, 1958, and grew up on Long Island. His parents David Schein and Geraldine Lou Braunstein Schein had also grown up in New York. He attended Hauppage High School and was very athletic, enjoying in what was then a rural area many opportunities for riding motorcycles and dirt bikes. His brother Craig recalled, “He would be doing jumps and spins, he just loved that!” In 1975, while Marc and Craig were teens, the family (which also had a daughter) moved to Florida.
A cheerful “jack of all trades,” Marc found a niche in the time-share real estate market. Although he was not religious, he carried his Jewish cultural heritage and thoroughly enjoyed bagels and lox.
Marc never visited Vermont, but his brother Craig, a doctor who lives in Peacham, Vermont, visited Marc once a year. On March 2, 2017, Craig took Marc out to lunch. Tragically, the next day, Marc suffered a fatal heart attack.
Faced with an immediate decision to make, Craig chose the Jewish segment of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery for his brother’s burial. It is a meaningful location for the Schein family here, active members of Congregation Beth El for many years, with three daughters called to the Torah at the local shul.
There are only a few stones so far in the Jewish section of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. It meant a lot to me to be able to choose this for my husband Dave Kanell's burial location. It seemed to me important to know more and share something about the others there. The following narrative was written with Betsy Shulman's daughter Naomi, who provided this photo.
Betsy Shulman, 1934-2015
Elizabeth “Betsy” Emmet Leroy von Stackelberg was born in Munich, Germany, in 1934. Her parents were Curt Ernst Ferdinand Friedrich von Stackelberg (whose family came from the Baltic region) and Ellen Biddle, an American born and raised in New York City. Ellen and Curt divorced in 1941, and Ellen brought Betsy and her three brothers to the United States in 1946.
Betsy attended Barnard College and married David Rothenberg, then Gail Chandler, with those marriages ending in divorce. Meanwhile, her mother Ellen had moved to Albany, Vermont, in 1960. As a young mother with twins to raise (Christopher and Julie Chandler), Betsy also moved to Vermont in the 1960s.
Here Betsy met and married Alvin Shulman of Lyndonville. The two were both musicians: Alvin played violin and taught music at Lyndon State College, and Betsy played and taught piano, along with elementary school music. The couple’s two children, Naomi Shulman and Matthew Shulman, grew up in a strongly Jewish home. Betsy embraced Judaism actively at Beth El Synagogue, with her children. In 1980, Betsy added a formal conversion to her Jewish life, with her two young children accompanying her in the mikveh in Burlington.
Betsy contributed greatly to the thriving community life of Congregation Beth El. When she joined, the group still held services in an upstairs room in downtown St. Johnsbury, over a department store, and then transitioned briefly to space at the local Catholic school. Her daughter Naomi recalls the exciting move of the congregation to its own structure on Hospital Drive, a building that Betsy's family helped bring to reality. In photos at the synagogue, several of them hold spades for the groundbreaking. Betsy also provided artwork made with liquid embroidery for the synagogue; the piece hung for decades at the top of the stairs in the shul.
Betsy and Alvin divorced in the mid 1980s. Years later, Betsy moved to western Massachusetts. She regularly attended services at Congregation B'nai Israel in Northampton and enjoyed her role as grandmother. When she died on November 9, 2015, her children agreed that the Northeast Kingdom would be the best location for burial, where her extended family still living in Vermont could visit the marker stone, and the Jewish community where she contributed so much could continue to enfold her.
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| Aaron Solnit, MD, in his role at the Ammonoosuc Community Health Center |
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| Photo by Darcie McCann. |
