Palmetto gets its first Hanukkah house on Entre Nous Tour of Homes

For the first time in its 39-year-history, the annual Entre Nous Holiday Tour of Homes has a Palmetto home on the tour to honor the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which begins Dec. 24 and ends Jan. 1.

Although, years ago, Entre Nous had two homes in Bradenton whose owners decorated for Hanukkah, when Dr. Richard Steinberg and his wife, Susan, recently agreed to put their remarkable 9,266-square-foot Mediterranean home on the Manatee River on the Dec. 3-4 tour, it became the first north of the river home decked out in Hanukkah finery, said Mary Widner, a Entre Nous home coordinator.

Even Palmetto Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant took note, proclaiming Dec. 3-4 “Honorary Entre Nous” weekend.

“It’s so exciting not just to have the Steinberg home, but we were also honored with a second home on this year’s tour, the Hoffner home,” Bryant said Wednesday.

Each year, the Entre Nous Club, which was started in Bradenton 89 years ago, raises roughly $60,000 by selling Tour of Home tickets in a booklet and food at the homes. Half of the money goes to community projects within Manatee County and half toward scholarships to college for high school students, Widner said.

Two miracles

When Tour of Home fans visit the Steinberg home at 2107 Fourth St. Ct. W., Palmetto, they will discover two miracles.

The first is the story, told through Jewish artifacts the Steinbergs have collected, of Hanukkah itself.

Each of the 28 Menorahs in the Steinberg home tells the second-century story of a scrawny army of Jews called “Maccabees” who somehow beat back the Greek army, which was in power in that time in what is now Israel.

When the Maccabees pushed the Greeks out of their Holy Temple they found only enough olive oil to light the six-branched candelabra with one main stem — which Jews call a Menorah — for only one day of services.

Since it would take eight days to manufacture more oil it seemed as though the Jews could not light their Menorah and have services.

But the oil lasted for eight days and nights.

“That was a miracle,” Susan Steinberg said Wednesday as she sat in her home’s grand living room near the majestic foyer, in full view of a handful of different Menorahs.

“And that’s why gifts are given for eight successive days,” said Dr. Steinberg, who along with Dr. Daniel Delrose, runs North River Dental in Ellenton.

The Steinberg’s Menorahs honor the miracle of the oil including several that are Disney-themed, something that the Maccabees would be pretty amazed to learn.

“Dick loves Disney,” said Susan Steinberg, a retired teacher from Bradenton Academy.

“Walt Disney was a true genuis,” Dr. Steinberg said of his Disney Collection, which is on display in the home. “But more than that, he never gave up on his dreams. He kept going. He’s a hero of mine.”

In fact, there is an family myth, which Dr. Steinberg confessed Wednesday may be true, that he married Susan because her smile is similar to Minnie Mouse’s.

“Each room in the house, except for the bathrooms, has one or two Mezuzahs,” Susan Steinberg said, referring to a small case containing a parchment which declares that the people living in the house abide by Jewish tenets, which is to love God and love thy neighbor.

The second miracle

The second miracle is the Steinberg home itself, which has rebounded with the tenacity of the Maccabees.

The Steinbergs had known about the home when it was under construction about six years ago but learned it may be priced when finished at a prohibitive $4.5 million, Dr. Steinberg said.

But the house, with its soaring ceilings, went into foreclosure before it could be finished. None of the plumbing was in. Some walls were in. It was vacant and open.

“We paid $1.2 million and we put in another $800,000 to finish it,” Dr. Steinberg said. “It took 14 months to finish it. Now, it is worth almost $3 million.”

“We wanted to be on the water,” Dr. Steinberg added when asked why the couple, whose two daughters, Marsha, 38, and Jessica, 36, are grown and living elsewhere, would want 8,600-square-feet under air conditioning for them and their shih tzu.

“This house was way too big for us and it was way to expensive for us when it was for sale originally, but we got it at the right time and we were willing to finish it off ourselves,” Dr. Steinberg added.

As Tour of Homes attendees will immediately learn when they see what the Steinbergs and their Entre Nous volunteer helpers, including home coordinators Carolyn Rummel and Widner and “elves” Carol Niebanck, Jennifer Scott, Sandy Law and Kim Harrison, have done to decorate the house, is that the four-bedroom home is all about entertaining.

Among the spaces for “entre nous,” French for “between us,” are a covered patio in the backyard near the summer kitchen, a formal living room, a “gentleman and gentlewoman cigar smoking room,” and a media room with a wide screen TV.

It also has a fully-functional kitchen with high-end appliances.

“This is an amazing house to entertain in,” Dr. Steinberg said.

Tour of Homes ticket holders can sample goodies from the trademark Entre Nous Life Member Sweet Shoppe set up outside by the Steinberg’s pool, overlooking the river. The Sweet Shoppe will have homemade black bean soup made by Jennifer Scott as well as baked goods made by some of Entre Nous’ 300 active and present members.

This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Palmetto gets its first Hanukkah house on Entre Nous Tour of Homes."