LOCAL NEWS

HEAR

Lost Heir

Continued from preceding page

DR. ALAN KEYES

Diplomat, Middle East Scholar and Author
at the

Opening Event

of the

1991 Allied Jewish Campaign

On vacation in Cuba are John Eisen, Gertrude and David Newberger,
and friends Morris and Esther Birer.

Thursday, January 17
7:30 p.m.

Congregation Shaarey Zedek
27375 Bell Road, Southfield

No Campaign gift required
No solicitation
$15 includes dessert reception before meeting

To make your reservation, or a gift
to the 1991 Allied Jewish Campaign,
call 965-3939, ext. 121.

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back of my mind and forgot
about it," he said.
Mostly, the two men main-
tained contact through
phone calls and letters. Mr.
Eisen's correspondence was
often filled with sadness. He
wrote Mr. Newberger, "I
work, eat, sleep and dream
— sometimes bad," and "I
have no one in New York,
nobody. All gone."
In February 1988, Mr.
Newberger opened his
mailbox and discovered a
letter he had written to John
Eisen. Across the front was
printed: "Deceased. Return
to Sender."
Mr. Newberger returned to
New York to serve as exec-
utor of the Eisen estate. It
was then he remembered
"the hole in the wall," where
he discovered John Eisen's
will.
For the first time, Mr.
Newberger saw that his
. friend had amassed more
than $300,000.
"I was amazed to see that
he had so much money," Mr.
Newberger said. "I always
thought he lived from hand
to mouth."
Paying his own fare, Mr.
Newberger traveled to Israel
to distribute the $130,000
Mr. Eisen had designated for
charity. Among the organ-
izations receiving funds
were Hadassah Medical
Hospital, the Jewish Na-
tional Fund and Ben-Gurion
University.
Then he returned to the
United States and began the
search for Ada Greenberg.
Mr. Newberger hired a ge-
nealogist, who has been able
to discover little about Mrs.
Greenberg's life after she
left New York. Government
documents show that she
died in 1973 in Harper
Woods, but Jewish funeral
homes here have no records
of Ada Greenberg.
If alive, Mrs. Greenberg
would be 83 years old. She
was born Nov. 3 in New

DAVID BURKE

SALES & LEASING

851-7200

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1991

4

York City. She may also be
known as Ida Greenberg, or
Ada Eisen or Ada Eisenman.
She is believed to have been
childless.
Bertha, the youngest sister
of John Eisen and Ada
Greenberg, died when she
was in her 30s.
Mr. Eisen was last seen
alive several days before his
death. As usual, he arrived
at work at 8:30 a.m. and left
at 4 p.m. He spent time
visiting with. Michael
Benishty, who worked at a
store next door on 42nd
Street.
Mr. Benishty remembers
his former neighbor as lone-
ly, "a very, very closed per-
son. He never spoke about
his family."
When Mr. Eisen didn't
show up for work for two
consecutive days, Mr.
Benishty worried. John
Eisen was not the kind of
man who missed a day on
the job.
So Mr. Benishty went to
Mr. Eisen's residence and
asked for the landlord. Just
one hour earlier, the super-
intendent had discovered
Mr. Eisen dead in his
apartment.
Mr. Eisen left behind very
little: $40 in cash, some
silverware and two silver
plates, a gold chain, a pocket
watch and 14 subway
tokens.
Most of his worldly goods
were auctioned off in March
1988; the furniture sold for
$135.
The Graenum Berger
Bronx Jewish Federation
Service Center arranged for
Mr. Eisen's funeral. He was
buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery
in Mespeth, N.Y., where Mr.
Newberger pays for
perpetual care.
Because Mr. Eisen had no
known friends or family in
the area, the Bronx Jewish
Service Center organized a
minyan to attend his funeral
and say Kaddish. ❑