Sharing a Mailbox With ‘The Boss’

Every week, for over a decade, “The Boss” and I have “shared” the Sunday New York Times. Hmm, do you think he knows about this? I always look forward to seeing the address label on the newspaper wrapper in my post office box.

Let’s take a step back in time, to when thousands of Bruce Springsteen fans attended the E Street Band concerts at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, N.J.; for me, it will always have that name – not the Izod Center and not MetLife Stadium. My friend and I brought canned food to donate to a local food pantry, as requested by Springsteen, “The Boss,” as he has been known.

Somewhere during our meanderings along the walkways, we happened upon a vendor for The New York Times. Maybe we were an easy mark, maybe we were in chatty moods; definitely, as public school teachers, we were ready for freebies. “For the very low cost of . . . . ” Gotcha! That person reeled us in. I signed the white cardstock and ordered a Times. In the following weeks, a paper addressed to Springsteen and me appeared on my porch.

Eventually, the paper started landing in my mailbox, outside the door. But then, after many years, where was the Sunday New York Times? For a few weeks, there was no newspaper and then there was an email. Basically, due to delivery concerns, someone identifying herself as an employee of The New York Times reached out to me: The names on the address label were causing confusion; hmmm . . .  tell me it’s not so after all these years!

What to do? Reply to the email? Confirm its legitimacy? File for a change of name? With my mind buzzing, I took a few steps. First, I confirmed the accuracy of the sender. Then, I went to the local post office to speak with the postmaster. She smiled as I shared my story. Then she said, “For a few years, I’ve been meaning to ask you about both your name and Bruce Springsteen’s name being on the same address label each week.” I confirmed it was the Bruce Springsteen. “Yes, it was legit,” I said and told her about signing up for home delivery many moons ago at one of his concerts. But was it now a problem? Did I need to change the delivery information?

The pages of the Times and I have a long history, going back over 50 years. In my home, newsprint was used as paper mâché, drop cloths, wrap for fragile items, images for Silly Putty and research material. Sometimes, it became litter for rabbits, and later for cats. Letters and words were cut for art projects and, occasionally, editions were saved for posterity. Right now, I can picture my dad, sitting at the head of the table, carefully folding the paper and reading it. No one touched it until he was done.

So why was someone on the other end of a customer service email asking me to remove Springsteen’s name? Why was I being asked to become a single subscriber? Why break up the duo dynamics – even if it began as a mistake? It’s as close to The Boss as I get, and boy did I want to hold onto it.

Quirky? Perhaps. Necessary? That depends. Fun? Yes. Memorable? Definitely. Made all the more so because during my middle teen years, as I was becoming a Springsteen fan, his music was allowed in the house because my folks thought he was Jewish. With a name like Springsteen, why not? Remember this was before social media and, for us, a one-TV with rabbit ears household – one car, no mobile phones, no cable and no MTV.

Heck, for a little bit of time, in our house, Hank Aaron was also thought to be Jewish. Thanks to Rabbi Lapidus, there’s a song giving such a nod to Hammerin’ Hank (see “Rabbi Lapidus Pens Tribute to Legendary Hank Aaron” in the Atlanta Jewish Times. So, one for The Boss can’t be far behind. He’s already had a nod from Adam Sandler in “The Chanukah Song, Part 2” (Bruce Springsteen says he’s often mistaken as being Jewish and was called ‘Springstein’ just a month ago).

In undertaking readings for this column, I found interviews and articles about Springsteen’s Jewish connections. These have appeared in The Forward (“The Secret Jewish History of Bruce Springsteen”), The Atlantic (“Bruce Springsteen Is Jew-ish) and in other print and online platforms.

I share this story because given names leave their marks. Some have longevity, others are simply fading footnotes. Some are notable, others erasable.

Hadassah takes such monikers very seriously, as it did in recently going through a lengthy process to choose and trademark the one-word term “lifechanging” as its new tag line. Be it nicknames for pop culture icons, font selections or the names given to newborns in memory of someone special, all these choices have immediate and long-term impacts, sometimes unforeseen.

So, while the initials of my first name and middle name are “H” and “S,” and mirror the first name initial and last name initial of Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah, this shared likeness was certainly not intentional 64 years ago at a hospital room in Minnesota. Yet, the zest to learn and the curiosity often attributed to Henrietta are something I also embrace.

My initials also connect me to Springsteen. For over two decades, I used a two-word surname, and those two names, Blecher and Sass, coincide with his initials “B” and “S.” Alas, if only we were to meet, what a wonderful conversation we would have!

I for one, am grateful that the postmaster continues to acknowledge Springsteen and me as residents of the same PO Box. And for those who are curious, I declined the suggestion to streamline the names on the address label. See it for yourself in the photos that accompany this article.

Read on, write on, sing on, and keep being creative, and lifechanging.

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The author does not speak on behalf of Hadassah and the views expressed herein are the author’s own and not necessarily those of Hadassah.

Hope is a member of the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, a dynamic and diverse writing group for leaders and members to express their thoughts and feelings about all the things Hadassah does to make the world a better place. It’s where they celebrate their personal Hadassah journeys and share their Jewish values, family traditions and interpretations of Jewish texts. Hadassah members are proud of their Zionist mission and their role as keepers of the flame of Jewish values, traditions and beliefs as well as advocating for women’s empowerment and health equity for all. Since 2019, the Hadassah Writers’ Circle has published nearly 800 columns in The Times of Israel Blogs and other Jewish media outlets. Interested in writing? Please contact hwc@hadassah.org.