Louis Chaiken

SURVIVORS

Father of Fred (Rita) Chaiken
Grandfather of Aaron (Tal) Chaiken and Elliot (Jenna) Chaiken
Great-grandfather of Jordan, Maya and Abby

FUNERAL SERVICE:  A funeral service will take place 9:00 am on Friday, April 19 at Bloomfield Cooper Funeral Home Manalapan NJ followed by a graveside service at Mt. Hebron Cemetery, Queens NY.

ZOOM LINK for the funeral service: Click HERE  Meeting ID: 919 0214 8365, Passcode: chaiken

SHIVA: Shiva will be observed in Atlanta Sunday only (cut short in light of Pesach) at Congregation B’nai Torah; Mincha at 6:15 pm and will then be receiving condolences from 6:30 - 8:00 PM

DONATIONS: Donations may be made to the Special Needs Fund of Congregation B’nai Torah, Adult Disability Medical Health, 2520 Windy Hill Rd SE, Marietta, GA 30067
OR Polio Network of New Jersey, Monmouth County Seabrook Village, 300 Essex Rd, Tinton Falls, NJ 07753

OBITUARY

Louis Chaiken was born on June 25, 1928 in Brooklyn New York, the third child of Russian immigrants, Isidore and Frieda Chaiken. Louis graduated from Harren High School in New York and City College of New York, where he received his Batchelor’s Degree in accounting. He worked his entire career as a public accountant, mostly in his own practice, not retiring until his early 90s.

As a young man, Louis was stricken with polio just a short time before the successful introduction of the first polio vaccine. Already married with two children, the loss of strength in his right leg hospitalized him for six months, during which time he had to re-learn how to walk, took up swimming to gain the upper-body strength he would need to help compensate for the effects of his disability, and began a life replete with obstacles that he would never fail to overcome.

Challenged again when the youngest of his four sons was born with severe developmental disabilities, Louis dedicated many years of his life to overseeing not only the care of his son, but of many children and young adults with disabilities, having served as the President of the Parents Association of the Brooklyn Developmental Center for ten continuous years.

After an 18-year marriage to his high school sweetheart, Syma Chester, ended in divorce, Louis was presented with another life challenge. It was then that he began studying Kundalini Yoga under the guiding hand of Swami Rudrananda, in which he found great strength, solace and the inner peace that would carry him through a long and rewarding life, and new challenges yet to come. He took up oil painting and was an accomplished designer of personalized, computer-generated greeting cards.

Seventeen years after his divorce from Syma, Louis found and fell in love with Edna Roanes, a successful businesswoman in New York’s "garment district,” originally from a town outside London, England. It was not long after their intimate wedding at the famous Rainbow Room in New York City that Louis would again face down a new, devastating hurdle: Edna was diagnosed with cancer and died a short time later. His resilience shown through and he would often say, “I may be alone, but I never feel lonely.”

For the last 25 years of his life, Louis lived in the beautiful senior community of Seabrook Village in Tinton Falls, N.J. He was, in fact, a “pioneer,” one of the initial, and the last living, Seabrook Village residents of the community who lived there from the time it first opened. He was instrumental in creating the Jewish Community

of Seabrook Village, serving multiple terms as its President, taking a leading role in services, authoring its weekly newsletter, creating both the community’s beautiful Shabbat prayer book and High Holiday prayer book, and designing and printing each prayerbook donation inscription, among many other roles. He led weekly meditation classes and was a long-time member of, and advocate for, his post-polio support group.

Louis passed away in his sleep, in the comfort of the apartment he loved at Seabrook Village, on April 16, 2024, just short of his annual family weekend birthday party, the planning for which he had almost completed. Louis was preceded in death by parents, Isidore and Frieda, wives, Syma Chester Yellin and Edna Roanes Chaiken, siblings Lawrence, Edith Bloom and Nathan, and, in October 2022, his dear son, Andrew Lennard Chaiken. Louis is survived by his sons, Michael (Nathalie) of Grand Mere, Quebec, Canada, David (Ellen) of Jackson, N.J., Fredric (Rita) of Atlanta, Ga., grandchildren Stacey (Matt) Zimmerman, Tara, Laurie (Vincent), Kim, Audrey, Aaron (Tal), Elliot (Jenna) and thirteen great grandchildren.

Louis leaves a legacy of love, faith, courage, compassion, dedication, humor, and inner peace. Donations may be made in Louis’ honor and memory to the Special Needs Fund of Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mt. Vernon Hwy, Sandy Springs, Ga. 30328, Adult Disability Medical Health 2520 Windy Hill Rd SE, Marietta, GA 30067, or Polio Network of New Jersey Monmouth County, Seabrook Village 300 Essex Rd. Tinton Falls, NJ 07753.