David Eiger Hochbaum, a Montclair native, died on Aug. 31, 2022, in Manhattan following a short hospitalization for a heart condition. He was 35.
Mr. Hochbaum was the son of longtime Montclair residents Victoria Eiger and Martin Hochbaum and was a 2005 graduate of Montclair High School.
He had a strong interest in the history of Latin America. He studied geography, history and Jewish studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 2010. He lived in Rehovot and Jerusalem, Israel, for three years.
Never interested in desk jobs, he worked, among other things, as a tree trimmer and landscaper, a long-distance East Coast truck driver, a local mover and a mate on a sailboat. Most recently, he worked at a friend’s popular Manhattan restaurant, 7th Street Burger, in the East Village.
A reader and a walker, an urban photographer and an enthusiastic traveler, Mr. Hochbaum visited 47 states during several cross-country trips in a well-used Ford Econoline van. He also traveled extensively overseas, visiting Egypt, South Africa and the Ivory Coast, among other places.
Often a participant in political rallies supporting social justice, he was generous to those in need. He invariably wrapped his leftover restaurant meals to distribute to unhoused people; when customers didn’t pick up their takeout orders at 7th Street Burger, he delivered the food to hungry people in Tompkins Square Park.
Besides his parents, he is survived by his older brothers, Eden and Lee; his maternal grandmother, Ida Eiger; his partner, Nora Worthington, and aunts, uncles, cousins and many friends.
A funeral service was held in September at the Jewish Memorial Chapel in Clifton, with burial in Mt. Freedom Hebrew Cemetery in Randolph.
Contributions in Mr. Hochbaum’s memory may be made to the Women’s Justice Initiative, which works to protect Guatemalan women and girls from gender-based violence: womens-justice.org.