On following the Orioles in Israel

Gary Rosenblatt's column on four generations of baseball fandom in his family got me thinking: those of us who made aliyah may have similar experiences, but with the added element that we are actually purveyors of this facet of American culture to our kids and, perhaps eventually grandkids.
I posted my thoughts on the Times of Israel and Camden Chat.

For the Sake of Clarification: I'm not a Rav Bina Hater

I thought that my last post was balanced in that it acknowledged that Rav Bina's methods work for most of the students who attend there. My criticism is that the yeshiva does not do enoughto minimize collateral damage.

I've posted about Rav Bina before - once I praised him for his ads sticking up for Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh (while a bunch of other blogs were piling on, I might add - see the comments there), and once I reviewed a biography of his father-in-law, Rav Boruch Milikowsky. Looking back on the latter post, there are some similarities between Rav Bina and his father-in-law.

Two Articles: One on Modiin and one on Baltimore

A few weeks ago, on the last day of Chanukkah, JID ran an article of mine on ancient and modern Modiin. I relate to Modiin as the Columbia, Maryland of Israel, but then move off of that to discuss a different dimension of my town. The article is here.

Today I posted on a Ravens fan blog, arguing (against conventional wisdom) that Joe Flacco actually played really well against the Texans. It's here.

I hope to post an update on my series about Eastern European rabbis in America this week.

Another Baltimore Petira

As has been well chronicled in the media, the recently murdered Ben-Yosef Livnat was the nephew of Minister Limor Livnat. Less known is the fact that his mother, Eva Blumberg Livnat, is a Baltimorean, a graduate of Bais Yaakov. An uncle of the deceased, Raphael Blumberg, is a friend, colleague in the field of translation, and fellow TA graduate. I reviewed his biography of R. Boruch Milikowsky here. The deceased's grandfather was Prof. Arnold Blumberg, who taught history and Jewish studies at Towson University for over 4 decades. Here's his Baltimore Sun obit. And here's his Where-What-When obit. I hope that these institutions and publications have the decency to acknowledge this senseless murder.

Among his other works, Professor Blumberg wrote a textbook on the History of Israel and another work on the "prehistory" of Zionism. His grandson has now become part of a tragic chapter of that history.

Long-time readers of this blog have an inkling of my politics and know that I certainly cannot be neatly categorized as right-wing. But there is no doubt at all that there will never be peace in this land until a Jew can go and pray unimpeded and unmolested at a venerated Jewish site. Aside from the fact that it is specifically mandated in the Oslo accords, as Yisrael has noted, peace will only come when each side acknowledges the other's attachment to the land; that acknowledgement is all but absent from the Palestinian narrative. Perhaps, in her capacity as Minister of Culture, Limor Livnat will now add Joseph's Tomb to the list of national heritage sites. Not that it will lessen the pain of her family and the Blumberg family.

Petira of R. Manuel M. Poliakoff

Rabbi Menachem Mendel (Manuel M.) Poliakoff, an alter Telzer who was a well-respected fixture of the Baltimore rabbinic establishment for well over half a century, passed away on Wednesday. The funeral took place in Jerusalem today.

I barely knew R. Poliakoff - met him maybe once or twice. He was a friend of my grandfather, who was a rav in Baltimore for much of the same period and who was about the same age. I crossed paths with several of his children and grandchildren over the years - I tutored one of his grandchildren and was tutored by another of them.

He was known as a classic Lithuanian independent thinker, as evidenced by his book Minhagei Lita, reviewed here and here, and by his position on using a microphone on Shabbat (perhaps the RCA will allow for temporary circumvention of their pay-wall). Though both exhibit independence, the former example is a diatribe against the contemporary yeshivishe world, which he claims has deviated far from the Lithuanian Torah world that it claims to imitate, and the latter is an exercise in real lomdus.

For many years, Baltimore has been blessed with interesting and fascinating rabbanim and talmidei chakhamim who seem to slip under the radar. Rabbi Poliakoff and R. Mendel Feldman, who I wrote about a few years ago, belonged to one generation of such rabbis, but their ranks are in no way depleted (ve-hamaskil yidom). I was gratified to see that R. Ezra Schwartz recently cited from the Torah of R. Michoel Forshlager, perhaps the greatest of Baltimore's unknown giants (a recent article about him is here, though I seem to recall that R. Dovid Katz wrote an earlier article, which I can't seem to find).

Here's a picture (from this archive) of R. Poliakoff as a US Army chaplain in France in 1945. I believe he's the once standing directly behind the young boy:

T.N.Tz.B.H.

Welcome to Jack (Abramoff) N the (Tov Pizza) Box

If it's true that there's no such thing as bad publicity, then good 'ol Tov Pizza in Baltimore just got more PR than any kosher pizza place in history. Their new hire has made the news EVERYWHERE. I mean everywhere.
It reminds me of the following classic sketch about orders being taken by another famous Jack:

A Tale of Two Aarons: Part II

I noted a while ago that Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Rav Aharon Feldman were actually classmates at TA in Baltimore in the early 1940s, in Rav Bobrovsky's shiur. I heard that tidbit (amongst many, many others) from Rav Yosef Blau.

Rav Lichtenstein notes this connection in a review of Rav Feldman's recent work, The Eye of the Storm: A Calm View of Raging Issues. Rav Lichtenstein criticizes what he perceives to be the angry tone (hardly a 'calm view') of the work, as well as the tendency to view certain ubiquitous phenomena in the Jewish world (such as Zionism) as zero-sum endeavors. He acknowledges that Rav Feldman gives his community a particularly articulate voice, but wishes that the differences that divide two people whose backgrounds and values are so similar would not be so great as to preclude 'mutual fruition'. In a touching coda, R. Lichtenstein recalls that he and R. Feldman were in R. Bobrovsky's shiur together, and that the Feldman boys invited young Aaron Lichtenstein to go sledding with them in Druid Hill Park. R. Lichtenstein asks rhetorically, "Can we ever go sledding again?"

Notes from the First Day in the Alter Heim

we're back in the US for a good chunk of the summer. We'll be in the DC area for the next few weeks (let us know if you're in the area and want to get together) before heading up to camp. The rebbetzin has a few teaching engagements lined up in Baltimore and DC.

Although I normally like having the opportunity of listening to regular MLB night games. Last night, the combination of jetlag and disappointment had me turning it off in the 4th inning, with the Sox up 6-1 and threatening to run up the score. What a mistake!

The rental car comes equipped with Sirius satellite radio. I found some stations with music from the 80s and 90s - amongst the first few song I heard were People are People (Depeche Mode), Welcome to the Jungle (GNR), and Mysterious Ways (U2). Needless to say, they're now pre-set and I'm trying to figure out how to get this set up in Israel.

The woman behind the service desk at the airport (I will not provide any more detail, though it should be fairly obvious that this took place at BWI) had a name tag that said LEWQUANDIS. And she wasn't even that talkative.

Rabbi Mendel Feldman, ob”m

Yedidai,

It is with great personal sadness that I note the passing for Rav Menachem Mendel Ha-Kohen Feldman, ob”m, in Sydney, Australia.

I was fortunate to have known Rabbi Feldman in many different contexts. When my father spoke of “Rebbi”, he meant Rabbi Feldman. Later, Rabbi Feldman became the rav of Khal Ahavas Yisrael Tzemach Tzedek, a shtibl (now with a proper building) on Park Heights Avenue, a block away from the house where I grew up. That was our shul for about a decade, from when it opened until the family made aliyah, like a number of Rebbi’s other close talmidim, in 1995. A few years after opening the shul, the Feldmans moved to a condo one floor below my grandparents’ on Park Heights.

An illness prevented him from being mesader Kiddushin at my wedding, but he spoke at Sheva Brachot and blessed the young couple with Birkat Kohanim, which was his trademark to the degree that it is possible for that ancient blessing to be the trademark of one person. In my mind’s eye, I can recall lining up after shul on Friday night, when all of the children would line up and be individually blessed by Rabbi Feldman. I still see the wispy ends of his never-shaven beard resting on his plain black frock coat, and still even smell him, as I bend my head to receive Rebbi’s Birkat Kohanim on Friday night. I remember doing the same at my Bar Mitzvah. In addition, he was Koreh Shem at my brit milah, and read the ketubah at the wedding of my parents. I remember my father lining up behind all of the children on his last Friday night before making aliyah from Baltimore. I remember Rebbi reaching up to give my father his bracha; they were both crying. He also lent my father a pair of Tefillin aliba de-Rabbenu Tam, so that his physical aliyah would be accompanied by a spiritual aliyah. My father still wears Rabbenu Tam tefillin daily (he bought his own set a year later). The following picture is of Rabbi Feldman being podeh my eldest nephew:

Rabbi Feldman, who passed away at the age of 89, was born and lived almost his entire life in the United States. He grew up in New York and studied in Yeshivat Tomchei Temimim, under the guidance of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, and at Mesivta Torah Vodaas. After a short stint as a rabbi in Jacksonville, FL, he moved to Baltimore with his wife, Rochelle/ Rochel (nee Simpson), where he served as a Rebbi at the Talmudical Academy and succeeded Rav Shimon Schwab as the Rav of Shearith Israel (the “Glen Avenue Shul”), where he served for over 25 years. After his retirement from AYTT after two decades, the Feldmans emigrated to Australia to be near their son, Rav Pinchas Feldman, Chief Chabad Rabbi of New South Wales, Australia. Rabbi Feldman outlived his wife by several years.

He made the greatest impression, though, with his personal humility, care and concern. He was never a charismatic speaker (though each of his drashot opened with “Yedidai” and ended by expressing belief in the impending arrival of “Mashiach Mamash” – I do not know if that practice continued after the passing of the Rebbe, ob”m), but he attracted a very loyal and devoted following in Baltimore with his warmth and humor, by being accepting and offering guidance to his devotees. Once he became a person’s Rebbi, he remained so for life. He was also an active member of Baltimore’s Beit Din, especially with regard to matters of giyur and gittin, and the chavruta of Rav Moshe Heinemann.

An aspect of his personality which often flew under the radar, especially in Baltimore, was his Ahavat Eretz Yisrael. A significant number of his devotees made aliyah, and he took a tremendous amount of pride in their decision. On one of his last visits to Israel, his former students met with him at a restaurant, and reported that they had never before seen him in such a state of ecstasy.

Tehe Nishmato Tzerura be-Tzror ha-Chayim.

Dealing with Sexual Abuse (in Baltimore)

I am so shocked and upset by this recent article that I just don’t know what to say. I remember when he passed away, after a long illness with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (or, as I prefer to call it, Franz Rosenzweig’s Disease). His son was my 9^th grade Rebbi, and was an excellent Rebbi. Another son was my wife’s high school principal, and is a living legend in the world of contemporary Jewish education. I remember the third son from growing up in Baltimore. We knew that something was up with him, but didn’t really know what.

I also knew that in Baltimore, the frum community tended to keep things under wraps, but genuinely take care of business. Rabbi Herman Neuberger was legendary for it; he could arrange that someone would never get a job in chinuch again without publicly embarrassing anyone, or so I thought.

It also makes me rethink my own school experience. Did I ever have a Rebbi who was a pedophile? There’s only one candidate I can think of. I had a Rebbi who would touch students, putting his hand under their shirts, etc. (we were 10-12 years old). We used to joke that it was a good thing he didn’t teach as Bais Yaakov. There was also a profile of the students he’d touch – ambitious, willing to work hard an kiss-up to get good grades, always wanting to be in the teacher’s good graces (definitely not me; I was actually frequently banished to the hallway, including once for an entire week). The Rebbi would play favorites, even giving them gifts or taking them to ballgames. I don’t think it ever went past that, though. It was certainly inappropriate (one parent threatened to dismember this particular Rabbi if he ever touched his son again), but not criminal, as far as I know. Point is, it never should have even gotten that far.

Education in this realm has got to become explicit, and there has to be a hierarchy of evils which acknowledges that people are people. I’ve been advocating for this for several years (see here, here, here, and here, for example), and only baby steps have been taken. Jewish sexual education must get serious. We can take our cure from R’ Kahana in Brachot 62 – ‘It’s Torah, and therefore must learn it’.

I also get the sense that Rabbinic abusers go after what’s available without distinguishing between different sexual crimes, considering all sexual violations of halakha to be equally problematic. Some value judgments need to be put forth. For example:

It’s better to watch porno and masturbate than to engage in an actual sexual relationship. It’s better to have a sexual relationship with a consenting adult – same sex or opposite sex – than to have one with a child, student, or otherwise vulnerable or trusting subordinate. Better to hire a professional than to risk ruining the life of an acquaintance. Better to have safe sex than unprotected sex.

This can be developed further, but you get the idea.

On Shtiebelization and Baltimore

As a 2^nd generation Baltimorian (Baltimoron is actually incorrect) with yiches and a sense of perspective, I wanted to record my thoughts, if not outright critique, of the posting by R’ Yitzchak Adlerstein on the Baltimore community and Shomrei Emunah in particular.

It’s true that Baltimore is a unique community in the United States. It’s probably the best place to be a balabos in America. I’m neither, though. I had a debate with a student from Teaneck once about which frum community is bigger, Teaneck or Baltimore. I know that Baltimore dwarfs Teaneck, but this student was clinging to his New-York-centric misconceptions. He compared the number of Kosher eateries in Teaneck to the number in Baltimore. Fair point. There are more in Teaneck.

Then we switched to shuls. There are at least twice as many Orthodox synagogues in Baltimore as there are in Teaneck, if not three times as many. It’s not that Baltimore is ‘shtiebelized’, although there are a great many shtieblach in Baltimore. There are just that many shuls. Most of Baltimore’s large shuls started out as shtieblach, though. They just kept growing, knocked down the house and built a building or just added on to the existing building. My grandfather had a shtiebl in Baltimore. The classic kind. He and his family lived upstairs, and the shul was downstairs. When he built it, there was no other local minyan.

That’s not the type of shtiebl that R’ Adlerstein is criticizing, though. He’s talking about when grumpy people form breakaways. At a certain point, though, there need to be more shuls. Geography and minhag are real factors.

Either way, shtieblach tend to grow up, eventually. As the shul grows and its constituents get older, they need social halls, larger buildings, a full-time Rabbi, etc. Makeshift solutions are temporary by definition.

With regard to Shomrei in particular, I find it to be very ironic that the shul being extolled as a paradigm for large-shul inclusiveness started off, as its name indicates, as the right-wing breakaway from a large Orthodox shul (in this case, Pickwick Jewish Center). I’m sure there were some very justifiable reasons for the break-away. But breakaway it was. The congregation bought a house just 2 doors away from PJC. Eventually, PJC sold their building to Shomrei, which became the ‘big shul’ in the neighborhood and continues to grow.

It’s also worth mentioning that ‘right-wing’ at Shomrei isn’t so far right, and the left isn’t so far left. Within a block or two of it, there’s a shul that’s more to the left, and a shul (maybe even two) more to the right. That allows it to maintain a certain distance from fringe elements. There would be many more inclusive shuls around if the extreme elements on either side could be bled off. There also aren’t any particular families which dominate the politics or insist on throwing their weight around, which makes for smooth functioning. It has truly defied the odds in keeping a reasonably diverse constituency happy, and with a Rav who can be appreciated by the different groups. Yes, it’s a testament to the Rav, to the community, and to the city, but also to a set of fortuitous circumstances.

One very wise move they’ve done is basically to ‘shtiebelize’ the big shul. There are a ton of minyanim there. You essentially have the benefits of big-shul membership and a shtiebel all in one. I think it’s an excellent paradigm, which exists elsewhere as well. Woodmere comes to mind (for it’s ‘diversity’ as well as the plethora-of-minyanim-in-a-big-shul paradigm). If you don’t like the Rav’s drasha – you can go to hashkama or the ‘beis medrash minyan’.

I’m a fan of this paradigm as the best of all worlds. I see a value in having a big shul, but also see the value of having shtieblach. Shuls serve a variety of religious and social functions; neither the cathedral-synagogue not the shtiebl will satisfy both. Creating paradigms where different combinations are available within the same shul complex (or ‘Synaplex’, to go a bit further afield) is very healthy, I think.

Immigrant Rabbi

I was thinking about my current situation – a new immigrant to a foreign country, a Rabbi trying to make a name and a career in the new land – and how frustrating it can be. Then I thought of my grandfather. He came to the U.S. after The War with three kids, not speaking the language. He took a bunch of odd jobs before finally deciding to go off on his own. He built a little shteibl in Baltimore which he ran for 30 years until his retirement. He never became wealthy, but was able to provide for his family and retire in comfort. It gives comfort to think that this path has been traveled before, in my own family, and not even so long ago.

Back in Baltimore

I'll be back in Baltimore, my hometown, later this week. I'll be officiating at the wedding of two UMD students under the same chuppah where my parents and sister were married, and in the same sanctuary where my grandfather, a"h, davened, was principal of the day school, and ultimately, where I was maspid him 14+ years ago. It will be a charged event for me.

Having grown up in Baltimore, I feel qualified to register my own 'oib'ism. Stylistically, it will be a bit different from the ones you'll see here and here. Baltimore is the only place on Earth where you can see a chassid in full regalia of shtreimel/spodek and kapote strolling down the street on Shabbos, walking his dog.

I'll be in Baltimore for the greatest sporting event to take place there in decades: the Baltimore Ravens will be hosting the still-hated Colts of Indianapolis, formerly of Baltimore, in an AFC playoff game. I remember the day that the Mayflower vans drove off, and know the years of agony that Baltimore suffered at the hands of Bob Irsay and Paul Tagliabue. That hatred will remain with Baltimorians until the legacy and name of the Colts is returned to the city of Baltimore (much as the expansion Cleveland Browns inherited the history of their predecessor, the franchise that became the Ravens). It's a philosophical thing; I don't even like football that much. I think it's way too violent.

Observations about the Naming of Synagogues

How do synagogues decide on their names?
I’ve always thought it interesting, and you can sometimes tell something about the character of the place. Here are some of my observations regarding shul names. I should note that I don’t know a darn thing about the naming of R or C synagogues:

• Any shul which bears the word ‘ahavah’ or ‘shalom’ in it’s title is a breakaway.
• Any shul which has a ‘siege-mentality’ name, such as Shearith Israel, Machzikei Torah, Shomrei Emunah, etc. was started by a group of people who refused to go along with the movement of an Orthodox synagogue away from Orthodoxy (either by the membership or in practice). Alternatively, it was established by a group of Holocaust refugees.
• Chassidic shuls will often couch the identity of the Chassidus they follow in the title of the shul - Tzemach Tzedek, Aish Kodesh, Arugas HaBosem, etc.
• The word ‘Tefilah’ is more likely to be in the name of an MO shul. The word ‘Torah’ more likely to be a more yeshivishe or chareidi shul.
• A shul won’t be known by the last name of the Rabbi unless the Rabbi is actually the founder of the shul. No shul that progresses from a minyan of balabatim to an actual kehilla with a Rabbi will be known by the name of the Rabbi.

And some funny shul names:

• I was once in a shul known as ‘Kesser Israel’. On one plaque, I saw it spelled as ‘Kesher Israel’ in Hebrew (i.e., quf-shin, not kof-sof). I suspected that the shul was founded by Jews of Lithuanian descent (who were notorious for not distinguishin between the ‘s’ and ‘sh’ sounds), and it turned out to be correct.
• 15 years ago, when the Kosher hot dog stand opened at Camden Yards in Baltimore, they instituted a minyan there (Mincha at day games, ma’ariv at night games). Many wanted to call it ‘Congregation Bais Ball’. I thought that was thoroughly uncreative, and so suggested ‘Khal Ripken’.

Baltimore: Anti-Disengagement Mecca

While we're on the topic, this is from Ryne Sandberg's speech upon being inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame yesterday:

It reminds me of the guy walking down the beach. He finds a bottle, pops the cork and a genie comes out to grant him one wish. The guy says my wish is for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Here's a map of the Middle East. The genie takes the map, studies it for hours and hours. Finally gives it back to the guy and says, "Is there anything else you want to wish for? This is impossible." The guy says, "Well, I always wanted to see the Cubs in a World Series." The genie looks at him, reaches out and says, "Let me have another look at that map."

A Tale of Two Aarons

Baltimore, Maryland, Circa 1943.

A classroom in the old Talmudical Academy building, at the corner of Cottage and Springhill Avenues, in the Lower Park Heights neighborhood.

The highest shiur in T.A. in those days before it opened a high-school was the equivalent of the 8th-grade shiur. It was taught by the European Rav Bobrowski.

That year in particular, his class gained a reputation for being stocked with iluyim, promising young Talmudic intellects. Two in particular stood out.

One was a native Baltimorean, one of three brothers, in an established family in the Baltimore Orthodox community. Nearing the age of Bar Mitzvah, upon completing his studies at T.A., he would go on to Ner Israel.

The second was 3 years younger than the first. A native of Paris whose family did a bit of moving around in his youth, an only son, very shy and reserved by nature and a fan of baseball, he would go on to study in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, celebrating his Bar Mitzvah during his studies there.

Both of these students went on to lead Yeshivot, and to become leaders and spokesmen for their communities.

Both, then, went by the name 'Aaron'.

The elder's last name was Feldman.
The younger's last name was Lichtenstein.