Murray Lender

By Judie Jacobson and Cindy Mindell ~ 

Murray Lender, a bagel baker, food executive and philanthropist, who helped bring the Bagel to kitchens across the nation, died March 21 at the age of 81. A former resident of Woodbridge, he lived in Aventura, Fla.

Along with his two brothers, Marvin and Sam, Murray turned the dream of bagelizing  America into a reality through the process of freezing the bagel, which the family pioneered in the early sixties.

Born into the family business, which his Polish-born father, Harry Lender, started in 1927 upon his arrival in America, Murray began counting bagels in their backyard bakery before he was eleven.  By the time he finished high school he had learned all about bakery production and delivery.

Upon graduating from the Junior College of Commerce with a degree in business (now Quinnipiac University in Hamden), he spent two years in the U.S. Army Military Police Corp. He entered the family business, which was still in their backyard garage, on a full time basis in 1955.

The three brothers ran the company until Sam retired in 1974.  Murray and Marvin continued on in what Marvin Lender calls “a perfect brother-business relationship” until the company was sold to Kraft Food in 1985.  Sam died in 2004.

During those years, Murray was specifically responsible for marketing and sales for Lender’s, A food marketing innovator, he took what was formerly only an ethnic product and made it a national staple.  In 1963, Lender’s introduced a branded retail pack of frozen bagels and the bagel boom was on. Murray saw frozen foods, which was a new category of products, as an opportunity for greater distribution and expanding the market to new users.

He popularized “cross promotions” as he partnered with many of the day’s popular breakfast staples.  In exchange for advertising on their bags, Lender’s could be seen on a range of products from Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Parkay, Welches, Smucker’s, and Minute Maid.  Free publicity was also a key to their success.  Murray could be seen presenting a life- sized bagel on the Tonight Show to Johnny Carson, or on Capitol Hill presenting Tip O’Neill with a giant green bagel on St. Patrick’s Day.  Even after its sale, Murray remained with the company as its spokesman.

In recent years, Murray directed his focus toward philanthropic work, particularly in his hometown of New Haven.

“The next part of our lives we devoted to community and philanthropy, and we became involved in many efforts together, and separately in others, always supporting one another as best brothers and best partners,” Marvin told the Ledger. “We were very appreciative of the fact that our father came to this country with nothing, with the coat on his back, and we were able to do in America something that couldn’t be done any place else in the world. Growing up, we were taught the Jewish value of helping and giving back and making the world a better place.”

Murray is remembered for a wide range of philanthropic activities throughout greater New Haven, working with Jewish causes and helping the community at large. He was also devoted to his alma mater, now known as Quinnipiac University (QU), where he served as vice-chairman of the board. He and Marvin funded the Lender School of Business and the Lender Court in the TD Banknorth Sports Center. The brothers also made possible the Lender Family Special Collection in the university’s Arnold Bernhard Library, home to one of the largest compendia of art and literature in the U.S. devoted to Ireland’s Great Famine. The gift was inspired by the Lenders’ friendship with QU president John Lahey.

Murray helped organize what became the Heart Walk fundraiser for the American Heart Association, an event that began as a Bagel Walk at Quinnipiac and is now held annually in many communities around the country.

Marvin, who now lives in Aventura, Fla., says that he and Murray always worked to build bridges between the Jewish community and others, a lifelong commitment that began in their old neighborhood in New Haven. “Because the bakery was at our house, we didn’t move out of the area to Westville with the other Jewish families,” Marvin says. “Our street was very diverse; there were a lot of immigrants, and people of color.”

In 1988, the brothers helped create the Holocaust Education and Prejudice Reduction Program, a teacher-education initiative managed by the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven. “We have reached 2,000 teachers, who have in turn reached hundreds of thousands of students,” says Marvin. “The program is a reflection of how dedicated we feel to the greater community.”

In 1997, Murray was responsible for bringing the Jackie Robinson Exhibit from the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance to the JCC of Greater New Haven. He had started the effort before he suffered the stroke that took away his ability to read, write, or speak, and Marvin completed arrangements for the program, Marvin says. Some 10,000 people, mostly children, visited the exhibition and took part in the related educational and cultural programming.

A product of the old Jewish Center of New Haven, Murray co-chaired the JCC of Greater New Haven’s Relocation Steering Committee when a new building was being planned in Woodbridge. Two years after the facility was constructed at its present location, the Lenders joined with several other local Jewish philanthropists to pay off the JCC’s mortgage. The building is named for the Beckerman and Lender families.

As a child, Marvin remembers walking with his family to services at the synagogue inside the Jewish Home for the Aged. Later, the family joined Keser Israel. “Most of our Jewish connection as kids was Keser Israel,” Marvin says. “Israel happened to us after the Yom Kippur War.”

In later years, Murray joined Congregation B’nai Jacob in Woodbridge.

“Murray’s life reflected his values,” B’nai Jacob’s spiritual leader Rabbi Joel Levenson told the Ledger. “He loved this country and he loved Israel.  He didn’t have to tell you in words; his deeds spoke volumes. His philanthropy extended to Congregation B’nai Jacob, the New Haven Jewish Community, and to all human beings.  He loved to make people happy, and his passing is a great loss for our community.”

As national president of United Jewish Communities (now Jewish Federations of North America) Marvin led numerous missions to Israel, visiting the country more than 225 times. Murray accompanied his brother on several trips. In the late ‘80s, the two created a joint venture with Kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon, home to a large commercial bakery and bakery-supply operation. “We went there to show them how to make bagels,” Marvin says. “But the idea was ahead of its time because Israel wasn’t ready for bagels.”

Unlike the U.S. market during the ‘60s, when the Lenders launched their hearth-baked answer to the ubiquitous white bread, “in Israel, there has never been a shortage of good baked products,” Marvin says. “The quality is similar to that in Europe.”

Today, Murray Lender’s legacy reaches to Israel, where, in some parts, the bagel is nearly as accessible as the pita.

In addition to his brother Marvin, Murray Lender is survived by his wife, Gilda Winnick Lender; his daughter and son-in-law Haris Lender and Evan Cohn of St Petersburg, Fla.; his sons, Carl Lender of Sunrise, Fla. and Jay Lender of  Los Angeles, Calif.; eight grandchildren. He was predeceased by his parents, Harry and Rose Lender, his two sisters, Anna and Helen, and his two brothers Hyman and Samuel.