Masha Vogel, 64, Mother to Countless Students in Rochester

Masha Vogel was a refined, humble woman, whose legacy speaks more than she’d ever have admitted. For decades, the mother of 10 was a surrogate mother to many, many more students at the University of Rochester, where she and her husband, Rabbi Nechemia Vogel served as directors of Chabad-Lubavitch at University of Rochester. Juggling her own children and feeding, caring for and teaching scores of college students a week couldn’t have been easy, but Vogel never complained. This was the life she had chosen—a life of service, giving and sacrifice.

Masha Vogel passed away on Yom Kippur, 2022, at the age of 64.

“Masha was the ruach hachayim [‘life force’] of Chabad on campus,” says Rabbi Vogel. “She was very involved with the kids, especially the girls, and drew them closer and mothered them.” When, in recent years, the Vogels’ children Devorah Leah and Rabbi Asher Yaras took over their work on campus, the senior Vogels took on a larger role within the local community, running the Kessler Family Chabad Center.

Vogel’s role in the community though was always broader than her campus position. She was integral to all of Chabad’s programs in the Rochester community, including serving as the founding director of Rochester’s Gan Israel day camp. When a local synagogue’s preschool was in danger of collapse, she came in and revived it, even teaching there. She was also involved with the local Chevra Kadisha (burial society). Musically gifted, she played the accordion and guitar, and held regular musical farbrengens and women’s events.

Caring for every Jew, she would visit Jewish women in jail.

“What drew people to her is that she was very genuine and really cared about people. They picked up on it. She truly wanted to help,” says her husband, adding that her role wasn’t merely spiritual; she advised women on health and nutrition and took older ladies shopping.

Rabbi Vogel recalls when a woman in the community came home after giving birth and Masha was at her home every night helping.

Rabbi Nechemia and Masha Vogel

Raised in Pioneering Chabad Family

She was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1957, to Rabbi Shmuel Meir and Batsheva Silberstein, pioneers of Antwerp’s Chabad community. When Masha studied at Beth Rivkah in Paris post-high school, she became friends with Hadassah Vogel, who subsequently introduced Masha to her brother, Nechemia.

They married in 1978, and after Rabbi Vogel completed his studies at the kollel in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., they moved to Rochester in 1981 with their oldest, Devorah Leah, while expecting their second child.

What she truly excelled at, above all else, was the one-on-one relationships she formed with countless students over the years, says her husband.

Ronit Maimon was a young mother living in Rochester, a transplant from Israel. She came to Chabad to find a synagogue for her son’s upcoming bar mitzvah and wasn't sure what to expect. “The concept of a shul was strange to us. We were secular. Living in Israel, we never went to shul; it wasn’t a part of our life,” she tells Chabad.org. Sitting in the back of the shul and feeling lost while everyone else went to the kiddush after the service, she saw a woman walking towards her. “Masha,” she introduced herself, sitting next to Maimon. “In fluent Hebrew, she was asking about our family, what brings us to Rochester. I don’t remember what we talked about. I do remember how I felt. I felt welcome. I felt like she really cares,” she recalls.

Several days later, Maimon received a call from Vogel, inviting her family for Friday-night dinner. Asking if she could bring anything or help, Vogel responded that she has “only” five children at home now. “I couldn’t stop laughing … ‘only’ five kids at home,” says Maimon.

Coming inside that Friday, she was surprised to see some Israeli friends from the neighborhood sitting around the table. “A few days later, I asked Masha how she possibly knows our friends; I know that they never went to shul before.” Masha explained that she asked around who their friends were so that they’d be more comfortable at her Shabbat table. “At that point,” says Maimon, “my heart simply melted. She made me feel welcome and loved. She made me feel like family.”

Vogel’s role in the Rochester Jewish community was always broader than her campus position.

When Rivkah Meiselman, a grandchild of survivors, who studied at Rochester University from 1985 to 1989, met the Vogels, it stirred something deep inside her. “I saw her children. I looked into their eyes and saw such purity. There was something here that isn’t in the rest of the world,” she told herself. “It was my own religion—without the nightmares, sadness and persecution. They showed me that being a Jew can be joyous.”

Meiselman became close with Vogel and slowly began to incorporate more Judaism into her life. “She set an example,” explains Meiselman. “She wasn’t judgemental and never said anything about what we did. She was so pure. She never preached or lectured, never imposed on anyone else.”

By the time she graduated, Meiselman was keeping kosher and Shabbat. “I went to Israel and met my husband there. We’ve been married for more than three decades, and our kids and grandkids are all due to them,” she says, crediting the Vogels for her commitment to raising a Jewish family.

Maimon recalls working together with Vogel on her son’s bar mitzvah: “The Chabad kitchen became my second home. I taught her how to cook my Sephardic food; she taught me how to bake her delicious desserts. We worked hard, but we laughed, we talked about everything—from kids to G‑d and everything in between. We enjoyed every minute we spent together.”

In addition to juggling her own children and feeding, caring for and teaching scores of college students a week, Vogel was a beloved teacher.

A Cherished Birthday Present

Several months later, celebrating Vogel’s 50th birthday, her daughters planned a birthday party and asked guests to accept a mitzvah resolution in lieu of gifts. “613 mitzvot, and I couldn’t come up with one!” laughs Maimon. Eventually, she wrote: “Masha, I will keep one Shabbat in your honor.”

Meeting Vogel again several days after the party, “I thought I was going to hear how happy she was about my mitzvah. Her first words were: ‘I got your card, Ronit. It says you will keep one Shabbat.’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Just one?’ she replied. ”

One was hard enough Maimon told Vogel, and she didn’t know how she would even keep that one Shabbat. Eventually, gathering the courage, she chose a week and told Vogel she’d keep that Shabbat. “To say that it was not easy is an understatement,” she says. “No TV, no electronics. How do I entertain five kids for 25 hours?”

Upon hearing from Maimon how she struggled to keep that Shabbat, Vogel gently responded: “If it were easy, what’s the point? How do you appreciate something that is easy? The hardest challenges in life are the most rewarding.”

The next week, after her family lit Shabbat candles and made kiddush, as she got up to turn off the lights, “I stop. I can’t. I hear Masha’s voice, ‘Just one Shabbat’? If it were easy, what’s the point?’ I skip the light. I don’t watch TV. I don’t answer the ringing phone. I keep another Shabbat.”

And another. And another.

It wasn’t easy, and she confided her struggles in Vogel.

“We became closer friends. Masha let me into her world of giving, I could feel her true pure self, so selfless, no ego, always thinking of others, putting herself last. She loved everyone, always saw the good in people, in total strangers, everyone had a special spark. Masha’s wings of kindness touched people’s hearts and they felt good about themselves.

“Masha’s flame of love lit that spark and spread light everywhere she went. One person at a time, one candle at a time, when you were around Masha you felt the bright light that surrounded her. I learned from Masha about the true meaning of friendship—how to become a better kinder person, mostly when it feels challenging.”

Maimon leaves an emotional tribute to her friend: “I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to know you Masha, to call you my friend. A friend that you may find once in a lifetime.”

In addition to her husband, Masha Vogel is survived by their children: Devorah Leah Yaras (Rochester, N.Y.); Rishi Hein, (Rochester, N.Y.); Rabbi Levi Vogel (S. Augustine, Fla.); Rabbi Chaim Vogel (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Rabbi Moshe Vogel (Rochester, N.Y.) Mushkie Posner (Kingston, Pa.); Rabbi Chezky Vogel (Missoula, Mont.); Shayna Vogel (Rochester, N.Y.); Mendel Vogel (Brooklyn, N.Y.); and Yossi Vogel (Rochester, N.Y.).

She is also survived by siblings Risha Slavaticki (Antwerp, Belgium) and Rabbi Eli Silberstein (Ithaca, N.Y.).

She was predeceased by her brothers, R’ Yossi Silberstein and R’ Zelig Silberstein.

With children in Rochester

The Vogels were leaders and role models for Jews living in Rochester.