(Courtesy of the Vogel Family) Murray Vogel passed away on Friday evening, October 22, during Shabbat, three days after his 80th birthday.
Vogel was born in New York City and grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He attended Rabbi Jacob Joseph School (RJJ) and Yeshiva University. He received his master’s degree at Columbia University’s Teachers College.
He married Yvette (Rotenberg) Vogel from the Upper West Side in 1969 and they moved to the Riverdale section of the Bronx in 1972, where they raised their family and lived until the present.
When Murray and Yvette were new to Riverdale, they lived near the Riverdale Jewish Center, where they were active in organizing the young couples’ activities. They had four sons, who all graduated from SAR Academy. When their fourth son was born, they moved from their two-bedroom apartment to a house in North Riverdale and became members of the congregation that would become the Young Israel Ohab Zedek of North Riverdale/Yonkers.
Vogel was a science teacher in Riverdale at M.S. 141 and SAR Academy. He ran the science fair at Riverdale Junior High School 141, where his students won more science fair prizes than any other junior high school group in the city. He placed his students to work in laboratories with scientists, researchers and doctors. In the 1980s Vogel was invited to Washington by the Reagan administration to talk about his science program.
He was also fondly known as Mr. Nature, as the nature counselor at Ma-Tov Day Camp. Vogel and his students were frequently featured in The New York Times, The Riverdale Press and on the evening news. Many of his students were inspired to pursue careers in medicine and in the sciences.
“My dad was my teacher in seventh grade at SAR,” said son Mark Vogel. “I think my classmates liked him because he made science fun. He would conduct science experiments that resulted in spectacular but controlled explosions. We would watch from a safe distance inside the school from a window. One rainy day he decided to do the experiment indoors and subsequently blew a small hole through the classroom ceiling. The students loved it but when the assistant principal saw what happened, I don’t think she was too happy!”
Vogel was also known by many as someone who loved to make you laugh. If he didn’t pursue teaching, he may have become a stand-up comedian. In the 1980s he would call local radio DJs and the Joan Rivers radio show to tell jokes on-air and read monologues that he wrote. It became so common that when he called they would introduce him as “Murray from Riverdale.”
In 1986, the Vogels were thrust into the spotlight when their rental tenant in their two-family home, Gennaidy Zakharov, was arrested by the FBI and accused of being a KGB spy. The Soviets then arrested an American journalist in Russia, Nicholas Daniloff, and accused him of being an American spy. It made international headlines for several weeks because President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev were planning to have a summit to discuss reducing nuclear weapons. Eventually the two countries traded the alleged spies so the two world leaders were able to meet.
In one television news interview, Vogel (quoting his wife) said, “If the United States and the Soviet Union got along as well as the Vogels and the Zakharovs, then maybe there would be peace in the world.” Two years later the Berlin wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed. “President Reagan received much of the credit, but perhaps my parents deserved a little credit too,” Vogel’s son Mark said jokingly.
Vogel took great pride in studying the Torah and Gemara. When his youngest son, Joey, passed away in 2012 after a brief illness, Vogel decided to participate in Daf Yomi, the daily learning of the Gemara where tens of thousands Jews worldwide learn one page of the Gemara every day. The learning culminates in a Siyum HaShas celebration after the Gemara is completed in approximately seven and a half years. Last year, Vogel joined thousands of other participants at MetLife stadium in New Jersey for the most recent celebration.
Vogel will be remembered as a kind and generous man. He always went out of his way to help not only friends and family, but complete strangers he would meet on the street. When people would ask him for money at the Skyview shopping center, not only would he comply, but he would offer to buy them food and drinks from the local restaurants.
Even while Vogel was battling pancreatic cancer this year, he was always thinking of others. He would give out flashlight pens and pens that look like medical syringes to the nurses and doctors who cared for him.
Many years after Vogel retired from teaching, former students would come up to him in Riverdale and tell him how much they enjoyed his class or how he inspired them. Even one of the visiting nurses who cared for him recently at home was a former student.
A funeral was held at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale and Vogel was buried in Eretz HaChaim Cemetery in Israel.
Vogel is survived by his wife, Dr. Yvette Vogel, who practices psychology in Riverdale; sons Mark and David of New York; and son Adam and his wife, Tovah, along with their 10 children, in Israel. Vogel’s youngest son, Joey, passed away at age 31.
Donations may be made in Murray Vogel’s memory to the Joey Vogel’s Gifts Foundation, which was founded in Vogel’s late son’s memory. The foundation works to support mental health research and organizations that promote social good. Checks may be sent to Joey Vogel’s Gifts, Inc., 5951 Riverdale Avenue #300, Bronx, NY 10471 or donations may be made online at: JoeyVogelsGifts.org.
