The Late Murray Lender: Better Than His Bagels

By Andrew Simmons Mon., Mar. 26 2012 at 3:36 PM

Carl Lender/flickr

Bagels by Lender's

Lender's Bagels are simultaneously mushy and dense, insipid pucks of dough with holes in the middle. There's no point in comparing a once-frozen Lender's bagel and the puffed-up, chewy specimens a real bagelry turns out. Still, Murray Lender, son of the label's founder, deserves accolades for expanding the family business from a mere bakery into a household name. Lender died late last week. Judging from the accounts we've read, he was better than his bagels.

Lender's funeral was today. According to the New Haven Register, U.S. senators Joe Lieberman and Richard Blumenthal were among the hundreds of guests gathered at Congregation B'nai Jacob in Woodbridge to remember the bagel baron. Lender was lauded as a bit of a comedian, someone who took pleasure in loudly serenading fellow diners at restaurants and "impishly" jacking menus when waiters weren't vigilant. In addition, guests reportedly celebrated Lender's generosity and championing of numerous causes -- fundraising for the American Heart Association, the Leukemia Society of America and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, among others.

Murray may have won riches by freezing bagels, but clearly he earned respect for other endeavors. It'd be a shame if anyone's legacy were contingent on a foodstuff we'd feel bad about handing off to a pack of pigeons.

Tags:

Lender's Bagels, Murray Lender

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Kpro19

As someone who grew up just outside of New Haven, Connecticut I can assure you that Lenders bagels were a staple in our home. In the early years, our parents would bring home freshly baked bagels from Lenders bakery and I subsequently carried on the tradition until the bakery no longer sold to the public. There was no greater joy than a Lenders bagel in the New Haven area. I know the Lender family and am proud to say that they, unlike many who have achieved their level of success, are generous to a fault and genuinely concerned about humanity. I take offense that during a period when a philanthropic family has suffered a tremendous loss you would be so unfeeling and tasteless to reflect so negatively on a bagel which is no longer even produced by the Lender family. Murray Lender courageously lived on after suffering a massive stroke which left him without a voice and still put the community before himself. You should be ashamed to have included such a trite reflection on a fantastic man's life and legacy.