Tobias Vogelstein, a writer and magician who died in November 2023 at 32, brought a lot of joy to other people’s lives. Several months after his passing, members of his family and friends have come together to found Tobias’s Tent, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing entertainment and social opportunities to homebound people of all ages.

At 6, Tobias Vogelstein was diagnosed with brain cancer. While he successfully made it through treatment and surgery, the procedures rendered him legally blind and deaf. But he loved entertainment, especially storytelling and music, and wanted to perform himself. His mother, Debbie Vogelstein, noted that it was a challenge for him to enjoy performances in large venues with big crowds, but he benefited from smaller, one-on-one performances that friends would do or that he would put on for them.

“He attracted numerous ‘best friends,’ and two of his most long-term friends were Stan Lustman and Brad Kauffman, who wanted to create a way to carry on Tobias’s legacy of entertaining others and bringing them joy,” said Debbie Vogelstein, who also serves on the board of directors of Tobias’s Tent. “So Stan and Brad, and now a board of trustees, founded Tobias’s Tent to recruit and vet volunteers from our local Jewish community to visit and uplift homebound individuals of all ages.”

Lustman first met Tobias Vogelstein when he served as his bar mitzvah tutor, while Kauffman was his counselor at Camp Simcha when he was younger. Both maintained friendships with him that spanned over 20 years.

“I can think of no greater tribute to Tobias than this organization that perpetuates his legacy, where we are uplifting the lives of people who are lonely or who are dealing with their own challenges through entertainment,” Kauffman said.

The homebound demographic that Tobias’s Tent is aiming to reach is a wide one, ranging from children who are homebound due to illness to older community members living in assisted living facilities. The organization’s website cites a 2023 study about the “Loneliness Epidemic” from Forbes, which found that 60% of Americans say they feel lonely in some way.

For most, this feeling of loneliness was exacerbated by isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. But for many people who are chronically ill, disabled or homebound for other reasons, it’s been a fact of their life for years.

“When my wife goes away for a couple days, I wonder how I’m going to make it without her,” Lustman quipped. “But when that happens, it’s usually because she’s on vacation. These people experience that feeling of loneliness every day, every minute, and we’re hoping that we can make a difference in their lives.”

Just as broad as their target demographic are the talents of their volunteers and the entertainment they can offer, including comedy, poetry reading, magic, juggling or just talking and playing games.

“We want to try and match people who have particular interests in terms of entertainment, so we can spice up these visits,” Debbie Vogelstein explained. “It can just be a conversation, which is always very comforting to someone who’s isolated, but it can also be someone who’s a good storyteller, singer, instrumentalist or magician. The person asking for the visit can request anything.”

As a fledgling organization, Tobias’s Tent is starting to make itself known by hosting events at local senior centers, providing entertainment for the residents. Eventually, they hope to send volunteers to private homes to meet with homebound individuals.

On Monday, Sept. 9, they had a soft opening at Sterling Care Assisted Living in Columbia. Cantor Avi Albrecht, the former cantor of Beth Tfiloh Congregation and a current volunteer, did a musical performance for the residents.

“He’s our resident expert cantor. I call him ‘cantor gadol,’ which means ‘ultimate cantor,’” Lustman said. “Cantor Albrecht would visit Tobias, sometimes just to say hello, and he would come up to him every time he saw him at Beth Tfiloh. They had a really wonderful relationship.”

Kauffman added that Tobias Vogelstein was a regular congregant at Beth Tfiloh, and he and Albrecht developed a close bond.

Overall, the soft opening was a success, with high hopes for Tobias’s Tent on the horizon. They are planning to establish a foothold at local congregations and day schools so they can have a wider pool of volunteers to vet and recruit for home visits.

“Many of these residents have been in their facilities for a while and do not get much interaction, which is really important for their growth and well-being,” Kauffman said. “[The residents of Sterling Care] were really thrilled, and it just encouraged us to keep doing what we’re doing to expand and improve our services so we can continue to see the reactions of these individuals.”