Monday, February 21, 2011

In Memory of Danny (Daniel) Berkowitz A"H

Many yidden were shocked as I was, by the recent passing of Danny Berkowitz. Danny was very musically talented and I had the pleasure of working with him on a recording project. Although that project never materialized, I got to know him quite well and he was truly passionate about  music and was a very caring and giving person. Danny moved on to become an important member of the group called Menucha, an Eli Gerstner production and had performed at many concerts. Danny was also a proud member of Hatzolah for many years and he had doubtlessly saved countless lives. His day job was as an IT systems engineer at ISO, a job he held for at least a decade and was a true expert at.The news of his passing as he simply had not woken up that shabbos afternoon, hit me hard on many levels. Besides having spent so much time in my home, he was young (mid 30's) and seemingly in great shape. Although I have not seen him or spoken to him in many years, this story still had a great impact on me. Proof of this was the fact that the this past motzei shabbos when I heard of his passing, I had the most vivid dream in which he appeared to me. It gave me goose pumps the next day and I think it gives us pause to contemplate how fleeting life truly is and how we should live it accordingly. Here is a video that shows an interview with Menucha and Danny starts to speak at about 2:44.







2 comments:

RonBonBoo said...

i dont know where else to post this but i wanted to tell the story of how danny and i met...

several years ago for rosh hashana i was set up at a random family in queens. they were a really nice family, very welcoming. the 2nd day of lunch the wife tells me as i am setting the table that todays guests are kind of different but her family is open minded and i said what do you mean and she said its a man and a woman who are just friends who want to have lunch together. at lunch we were talking and it occured to me he is danny from menucha i love menucha especially the song menucha vsimcha on the 1st cd so i was like OMG U HAVTA SING IT TO ME and he said no bc the past 2 days he had been chazan and his voice was bothering him... later on we were talking about how i am a redneck and he made a joke and felt bad so he sang me the song... turns out years later we have mutual friends and i got to be a reference for him for a possible shadchan... such a shame such an amazing person oh and he told me if i married a frum man and had a frum wedding he would be my singer... hashem works in weird ways

Vincent F. Careri said...

Danny was a gentleman and a friend. He had respect for all living things, other people's opinions and would always reach out in with compassion. We had many conversations about a wide range of topics; they were always productive. We often spoke about politics, religion, and basically all the things that are best not to talk about; yet, Danny spoke with respect and open minded intelligence. We had interesting conversations about the differences in our religions as well as the amazing amount of similarities therein. Dan's musical interests and his EMT service displays a person that walked a path of robust life energy. Looks like God, in whatever spelling or form you believe that to be, needed another angel, or spirit, or soul, or whatever form of benevolent afterlife you believe in... Well, Danny filled that request. May his soul be blessed.