The word is beshert. It’s a Yiddish term. Loosely translated, it means “soulmate” or “destiny” and it emerged as the best way to describe what happened Saturday afternoon in Boynton Beach.
Phyllis Felsenfeld and Elaine Wyler, who were close friends in elementary school at PS (Public School) 130 in Brooklyn from 1945 to 1949, reunited for the first time in 73 years.
“It’s amazing,” Elaine said. “I’m still in a daze.”
Beshert also best describes the initial June 2020 meeting between Phyllis’ and Elaine’s grandchildren, Alex Horowitz (Phyllis’ grandson) and Carly Gorodetzky (Elaine’s granddaughter), who are engaged to be married in January. They were set up on a date because Alex’s parents happened to move into a neighborhood near Carly’s father’s childhood best friend. And although Alex and Carly have known each other for more than a year it wasn’t until last week they discovered their grandmothers were close friends as children.
And beshert describes another amazing factoid that wasn’t discovered until Saturday – 86-year-old Elaine and 86-year-old Phyllis were born two days apart. Elaine, whose maiden name is Lowin, turns 87 March 10; Phyllis, whose maiden name is Kamil, turns 87 March 12.
Saturday’s reunion, which happened at Alex’s parents’ house, featured hugs, tears, laughs and recollections.
Phyllis said she and Elaine would play jacks, pickup sticks, and punch ball at school among other childhood games. After school, they’d hang out at each other’s houses. They recalled the roller-skating rink that was near their school as well as nearby Prospect Park.
Some of their recollections were sparked by a class photo, others were stirred by a school album filled with signatures and well wishes Phyllis brought.
“Not everybody saves these things,” Phyllis said.
On one of those pages was a poem Elaine wrote to Phyllis, her good friend:
“We had some fun,
We laughed a lot,
And, oh, the trouble in which we got.
And now that we must go away,
I hope I see you again some day.
Love & luck,
Elaine Lowin”
Carly’s parents, Jeffrey and Shari Gorodetzky, were at the reunion along with Alex’s parents, Craig and Bonnie Horowitz, and a few other family members. Everyone was moved, but the stars of the show were moved more than anyone.
“You remember this,” Phyllis said to Elaine as she showed her a picture. “This is when we were really best friends.”
Elaine nodded, later quipping with a smile, “I’m starting to feel old.”
This entire experience is mind-blowing for the two families, including the part where Elaine and Phyllis unknowingly reared their children a few minutes apart. Elaine lived in the Oyster Bay section of Long Island while Phyllis lived in Jericho.
Now, they live about 20 minutes apart, Elaine in Boca Raton and Phyllis in Tamarac.
Alex and Carly owe their introduction to another among the numerous coincidences in the story.
Carly came to Florida from New York City during the COVID lockdown in 2020 to stay with her parents. She needed a brief change of scenery. A few years earlier, Alex’s parents befriended a neighboring couple in their community in Boynton Beach. It turns out the man was the lifelong best friend of Carly’s dad.
“My parents, who are typical Jewish parents,” Alex said, “kind of talked about their single son with their neighbor a million times.”
The neighbors told Alex’s parents they knew a single woman who just came down from New York and perhaps they should get Alex and the woman together. They went on a date, and now they’re engaged to be married Jan. 14.
Now, let’s go back to last Saturday.
Alex and Carly were at Elaine’s house chatting. As Elaine talked about growing up, living in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, and attending Erasmus Hall High School, Alex began to get curious. He knew Phyllis grew up in Flatbush and attended Erasmus Hall. He decided to call Phyllis and he asked whether she knew Elaine Lowin.
“As soon as he said, ‘Elaine Lowin’ I said, ‘Are you kidding?!’ That was one of my four best friends in elementary school,” Phyllis said.
That’s when they decided to put Phyllis and Elaine on a FaceTime call.
“It was very emotional,” Alex said. “I was almost coming to tears myself.”
That’s when they decided they needed to get the women together for a face-to-face meeting, and that meeting took place Saturday. The women hope it’s the first of many lunches and meetings.
The bizarre thing is if Alex and Carly wouldn’t have met with Elaine last weekend and put the pieces together, it’s likely Phyllis and Elaine would have attended the wedding in January, been introduced to each other as Phyllis Felsenfeld and Elaine Wyler, and never known they were Phyllis Kamil and Elaine Lowin, close childhood friends.
It’s beshert.
“I really do believe that this is that,” Carly said. “It’s a ‘meant to be’ type of thing.
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