A man prowls through the streets of Lakewood like a black cloud. He’s deeply hunched and has a prominent hooknose. He walks around with a scowl, leaving a trail of anger and sadness behind him. He snatches ice cream cones from smiling kids, steals Rosh Chodesh donuts from dedicated rebbe’im, and snarls at passersby. Children scatter when they see him coming, and the kindest people cross the street to avoid him. He’s an absolute menace to Lakewood.

The man goes by the name of Barry Cudda.

Just a half a mile away from where Barry Cudda skulks, an English teacher in the Lakewood Cheder has his class completely captivated. He’s teaching Jewish History, and the intricate artwork he uses to illustrate his point makes his lesson come to life. The class is mesmerized. They listen, they learn, and when the recess bell blares, they crowd around the teacher’s desk and ask him to draw their portraits.

If you could peek into that classroom, you might notice something strange: The beloved teacher looks eerily similar to Barry Cudda. He’s just missing the caricatured hooknose.

The real name they share is Shaya Schonfeld.

Who is this man who has been blessed with extraordinary talents, from skilled acting to proficient painting? How did he get to where he is today, and what kind of obstacles did he overcome on the way?

This is his story.

In Monsey, New York, some decades ago, a small boy pores over books filled with the whimsical artwork of Norman Rockwell. This is young Shaya, getting his first taste of art.

“I was always fascinated by art,” he says. “I was practically born with a paintbrush in hand.”

Shaya would spend hours studying various artworks. He absorbed every detail, taking in every brushstroke and shadow.

“I wanted to create works of art just like the ones I was looking at,” he says.

He started drawing obsessively. Every spare moment was spent filling notebooks and scraps of paper with sketches that amazed his family and friends. Portraiture, in particular, called to him; it was a medium where he could capture the subtleties of a person’s expression and personality.

Shaya comes from a family of artists.

“A few of my siblings are talented, and my mother is artistic too,” he shares. “She recognized my skills early on and sent me to art lessons with Mrs. Sarah Schapiro.”

That summer, Shaya attended a few art lessons in which he learned the fundamentals of art, including drawing techniques, perspective, and layering.

“It was transformative,” he says.

The atmosphere is supercharged.

Teams red and blue sit on their respective sides of the gym, heads stiff under their themed cardboard hats. The captains stand beside their teams, ready to lead and direct as needed.

It’s the Grand Sing at Camp Agudah Toronto.

The night unfolds in electric succession: comedy, theme song, dvar Torah. And finally, here it is: the banner display.

A boy walks onto the stage, holding aloft an absolute work of art. The attention to detail is exquisite. The blend of color and shadow is brilliantly executed, and each brushstroke is breathtaking.

Fifteen-year-old Shaya Schonfeld proudly displays his masterpiece for the roaring crowd. And everyone knows: the young artist’s banner is fire, and his team is almost certainly going to win.

But Shaya did more than paint the color war banners at camp. He was everywhere art was needed that summer: painting sets for performances, creating immersive visuals for plays, designing posters to decorate the walls in camp, and so much more.

A few years later, while working as a staff member at Camp Agudah Midwest, he honed his art skills even further by running art projects, guiding fellow campers, and experimenting with new techniques.

It wasn’t only art that called to Shaya in camp. He also loved to act. He performed in numerous plays and skits during his summers in camp and enjoyed every moment. He would spend hours preparing and practicing his part, often investing the same time and energy into painting the backdrops used for the performance—and it showed. He always did a phenomenal job, breathing real life into the character he played.

Shaya thrived in camp.

“I was always a camp guy,” he says. “Everywhere I went, I wanted to create.”

Camp also provided the perfect medium of connection for Shaya, and he built many lifelong friendships and partnerships during his summers in camp.

One connection came in the form of Rabbi Yechiel Spero, his counselor at Camp Kol Torah, which he attended as a kid, and later a friend and collaborator. Years after camp, Rabbi Spero called Shaya with an interesting proposal.

“I’m publishing a children’s book,” he said, “and I need your help. I want you to illustrate my book.”

Shaya happily accepted the job and skillfully illustrated Rabbi Spero’s children’s books, Touched by a Story for Children, volumes one and two.

This was Shaya’s first step into professional artistic work.

The years passed in a pleasant medley of yeshivah, artwork, and action-packed summers in camp.

Shaya grew up and married. He spent two years learning in kollel in Lakewood and then moved to Brooklyn. As the son of a diamond dealer, it was only natural for him to want to live closer to Manhattan’s thriving diamond trade so he could join his father’s business.

And that’s exactly what he did. Shaya quickly learned the art of diamond cutting and was soon a skilled cutter and dealer.

But then 9/11 happened, and everything changed. With the collapse of the World Trade Center came the collapse of the diamond market. The economy was shaky, and no one was buying diamonds anymore. With demand plummeting, the market was in serious trouble.

Shaya needed a new job.

One day, his sister called him with an interesting career suggestion. As a born artist with a flair for creativity and color, she figured Shaya would be a fabulous graphic designer. And he was. He jumped at the opportunity to enter this relatively new field where he could combine his artistic talents with technical skill. Through his work, Shaya explored 3D animation, which was still in its infancy.

This led him to his next big project. After learning how to create professional 3D animations, Shaya produced a full-length animated film based on Abie Rotenberg’s classic story-tape, The Golden Crown.

Once again, he was entertaining with his art.

As a child, Shaya had focused on pencil and charcoal drawings, creating camp murals and experimenting with colors sparingly.

But now he was getting older and was ready to try something new. One day, he started experimenting with oil paints—and he never looked back. He was utterly fascinated by their depth, richness, and malleability, and would spend hours reading about the various methods of mixing paints. He started using oil paints to paint portraits, and layer by layer, they grew more intricate and lifelike, each brushstroke carefully placed, every detail perfected.

He had now become a professional portrait painter.

Word spread, and requests for his work began to pour in. Shaya’s art was so much more than a pastime—it was a living, breathing practice that connected him to others and brought their stories to life.

Several years later, Shaya returned to Lakewood, combining freelance work in graphics and animation.

One day, he received an interesting proposition.

“An acquaintance of mine told me that he had recommended me to the Lakewood Cheder English principals, Rabbi Wilhelm and Rabbi Basch, as a good candidate for an English teacher.”

Shaya was surprised to learn that the two English principals were old friends of his from camp. He met with the two men, and after being offered the position, he asked for some time to consider the offer. He’d never taught before and wasn’t sure he wanted the job.

But the principals didn’t really give him a choice. They recognized a star educator, and they weren’t going to let him go so quickly.

“You’re starting tomorrow!” they said.

Shaya took the plunge, and teaching Jewish history became his newest project. This time, his canvases were young minds. His students were captivated by his lessons and artistic talent alike. After discovering his skill for portraiture, they approached him during break time and asked him to draw their portrait.

Shaya estimates that he likely drew hundreds of faces throughout his years in the classroom.

He taught for 15 years.

How does it feel to wear a fake hooknose and act like a complete monster? Just ask Shaya Schonfeld.

During Shaya’s tenure in the classroom, Rebbe Hill, a close friend of his from Yeshiva of South Fallsburg, offered him a part in an upcoming video.

Shaya didn’t have many opportunities to use his acting talent, and he was super excited to join Rebbe Hill on this project.

He would play the part of Barry Cudda, the evildoer who can do no right until an ill-fated Erev Shabbos journey on his bus teaches him what’s truly important in life.

Shaya spent hours learning how to get into the character of Barry Cudda and say the lines with flawless inflection. He played the part to perfection, and kids still adore and mimic the big-nosed villain from Berel and the Bus Driver.

Of all the many different forms of art, portraiture had always captivated Shaya. He loves the many nuances in every portrait, and he makes a sincere effort to capture the soul of the person whose portrait he’s drawing or painting. Every detail is an integral part of displaying the essence of the person.

Oil remains Shaya’s preferred medium.

“There’s something about working in oil paint that’s just magic,” he says. “It’s soft, delicate, and flexible, which gives me great control.”

Shaya explains that acrylics can be rough because they’re water-based and dry very quickly, often before the artwork can really be developed.

“By contrast,” he says, “oil paints can sit for a while and still be wet, so they can be worked on and adjusted without time constraints.”

Drawing a portrait isn’t something that happens in one day. Each portrait is built over a series of two-hour sessions, starting with backgrounds, layering colors, and refining details. The final touch is always a small detail that breathes life into the portrait. It can be a sparkle in the person’s eye, a subtle shadow, or the hint of a smile, as long as it truly captures their essence. When you can look at the portrait and know this is me! the portrait is finally complete.

There’s a plethora of incredibly talented competition these days, but Shaya feels much more confident in his skills than he did years ago.

“The sheer years of experience behind me instills me with the confidence that I know where the project is heading,” he says. “A blank canvas isn’t as intimidating as it used to be.”

Of course, Shaya’s style has evolved tremendously since he was a young boy dabbling with paint, and he has learned a world of new techniques as well.

“The more experience I get, the more I realize that photorealism isn’t the point of art at all,” he explains. “If you want a photo, get a camera. The idea of art is to bring out the color, the feeling, the mood, and the expression, which is what people respond to.”

People love to see brushstrokes and texture, and how they really bring out the artistry inherent in the painting.

Authentic art, Shaya believes, should be an expression of the artist’s internal world.

Whether drawing with a pencil, acting in a film, teaching in a classroom, or using oil paints to bring a portrait to life, Shaya is thankful for the gift of making the world around him a more beautiful place and enriching people’s lives.

And that’s a true work of art.

For the past few winters, Shaya has been providing art instruction to a select group of young boys for the first time. He’s also occasionally hired to instruct children privately.

Sometimes Shaya is called on to provide art lessons for a child who needs a little extra attention. He’s even had mesivta rebbe’im calling for talmidim of theirs who are having difficulty sitting in class and can benefit from learning how to do something a little different. In each of these cases, the young student emerged from the art lessons with boosted confidence and greater emotional stability.

When teaching art, Shaya follows a specific outline:

Step 1: Basics of light and shadow. Students learn the fundamentals of defining shapes and creating the illusion of depth, how to use light to their advantage, and how to shadow a picture correctly. They work with pencil.

Step 2: Perspectives. In this session, students learn how to paint a picture from various perspectives.

Step 3: Still life. Here, students will begin painting still-life drawings of objects, using the fundamentals they learned thus far.

Step 4: Portraiture. Students start to learn the basics of portrait drawing.

Step 5: The Color Wheel. An introduction on how to use and mix colors.

Step 6: Your first painting. Students create their first full-color painting.

Pro tip: Shaya prefers to use acrylics when teaching art to children because oil can be messy and takes a very long time to dry.

Shaya believes that every work of art should be a medium of expression for the artist’s emotions. He puts his soul into every project, and the results are spectacular. Here are just a few of his masterpieces:

Shaya’s close friend, Yanky Judowitz, commissioned him to paint this magnificent portrait of Pinky Rosenberg. Pinky was a cherished friend of theirs from Telz Yeshiva who was niftar suddenly this past Pesach.

A former student of Shaya’s commissioned him to paint a portrait of Rav Yeruchom Levovitz. The student wanted to gift the portrait to his rebbi, who is a major talmid of Rav Yeruchom.

Shaya painted this portrait of President Trump on Trump’s Inauguration Day. He later auctioned it off on his WhatsApp status, and it sold for a tidy sum.

For this striking portrait, Shaya first painted the beautiful, sweeping background that lends a majestic and inspiring tone. He then added the faces in a way that encapsulates their illustriousness. This portrait is one of Shaya’s personal favorites.