Known to the world as the “Route 29 Batman”—after a video surfaced online of police officers in Silver Spring, Md., pulling over his black Lamborghini “Batmobile”— Leonard B. Robinson was truly a superhero to those who knew him. Dressed up as the caped crusader, he would pull in his custom “Batmobile,” and cheer up children in hospitals around the country.

Robinson, 51, was killed the night of Aug. 16, when another car struck him as he attempted to fix his own vehicle on a Maryland highway.

In December 2012, Rabbi Avraham Friedman, executive director of Chabad of Coral Springs, Fla., met Robinson while visiting a community member in the oncology ward at the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in nearby Hollywood, Fla.

As the rabbi entered the room, the caped and cowled Robinson turned to him, and wished him a “Shabbat shalom!” Seeing Friedman’s surprise, he confirmed that he was indeed a “member of the tribe.”

The two conversed for a few moments, and then Robinson donned tefillin for what he said was the first time in his life.

Friedman recalls the encounter warmly: “I was struck by both his good nature and his deep pride in his Jewish roots. He seemed touched by the chance to put on tefillin.”