It was as controlled an environment as a fish tank. The temperature was right, the filter was working perfectly, there was enough food sprinkled on top for feeding.
Over 500 people don’t just come to a meeting on a freezing February night to hear what the Vaad HaRabbonim wanted them to hear. They, for the most part, ate the “fish food.”
Questions were controlled and filtered.
The man we really all came to hear was ostensibly silenced by a time limitation.
Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer, a man who knows of so much community pain and victimization,  is given the opportunity to speak…for an inordinately long period of time. He took from the time we could have used to get yet another question in for Dr. Pelcovitz.
So before we start thumping our chests about what a wonderful success story last Wednesday night was, this was opportunity missed.
Hug your kid, make him tougher, call your rabbi. That’s right, keep it in the fish tank, in the filtered water, in the community.
That’s pretty much all you have to know.
A letter from the Vaad went out on April 11 of 2007. Ten months later, we have a meeting. Did it ever occur to anyone why the numbers were so high at this meeting? Was it because we had nothing else to do on a Wednesday night? People are hurting. They need help. Some looked around the room nervously and took note of the friends and neighbors they saw there.
Where were the civil authorities to address us? Molestation is a felony, isn’t it?  Who do we call if we suspect something is wrong, a rabbi? Should I call a rabbi if I see a house burning down? Should I call a rabbi if a kid breaks his arm? Should I call a salesman if I want to learn about Shabbat?
Don’t accept last Wednesday evening. Demand that something better be presented.
Where were the 23 who so “bravely” signed that letter last April 11? I’d say less than half attended. A couple of the rabbis even left early
Maybe we should have a meeting without the rabbis. Maybe we’d feel less inhibited about asking real questions. Rabbis, did you look around the sanctuary last Wednesday? Did it dawn on you that some of these people were perhaps coming because they needed to be saved some how?
A small handful of rabbis showed admirable effort getting a full house last week. You brought the issue to the front, which I give you total credit for.
But we are all still wondering what to do now? Do we wait another 10 months?
The name of the program was “How To Protect Our Children.” An obviously frustrated man sitting near me had his own name for the evening. He simply renamed it a meeting of the “Catholic Conference of Orthodox Rabbis.”

In the winter of 1955, a 15-year-old by the name of Malcolm Walter Caplan passed away suddenly and shockingly.
He was a member of the Agudas Achim Synagogue and a teen who played his sandlot sports at the Towanda Playground.
The Jewish Times obit reported that he was the son of Harry and Tillie Caplan and the brother of Jeffrey Caplan. The family lived on Oswego.
If you remember Malcolm Caplan or know how to get in touch with any of his relatives, please call Phil Jacobs at 410-468-2711.

Another fatality due to drug overdose in our community.
Robyn Michelle Zayon became something like the ninth young Jewish adult to needlessly die in the past year.
We bring in our experts. One day it’s a famous rabbi. The next day it’s an author with a moving book.
But we keep attending funerals. And we look around the sanctuary at the funeral home, and we see so many young people we know who are in recovery. And we worry about what they are thinking and where they are going.
Then we are reminded of groups like Eternity, which was formed to offer support for the parents of young people who have over dosed. The last thing Eternity wants is to see its membership ranks increase. Yet, this week in Baltimore that happened.
Goodness knows without the work of organizations such as the Jewish Recovery Houses or Jewish Addiction Services or JACS, the numbers of fatalities would probably be worse.
But we have a real problem on our hands here. We have an insidious disease that cruelly snuffs the life out of our young people.
For the Zayon family and friends and loved ones, we offer our support, our love and our prayers.
For the community, we ask you not to get charged up about this now and then fall into a condition of apathy. Drug addiction doesn’t peak when a person dies. It’s almost as if we only react to a tragedy. But day in and day out, it can be out of our thought process. For us to understand, to help, to offer caring support and programming to those in recovery and their families, we have to see addiction as a day-to-day struggle. It has no grand opening or peak, and for many it’s only got a terrible ending.
But also, many have shown that it can be overcome.
It’s not easy.
It’s gut wrenching hard.
God, we’ve got to help people succeed.

There is a sign on the lawn of a synagogue that isn’t going to be seen by nearly enough Jewish people.
On the front lawn of the old Shaarei Tfiloh Synagogue adjacent to Druid Hill Park sits the sign, “Pray for the children of Ashelon and Sderot, Israel who are bombarded daily by terrorists.”
The sign was the idea of Rabbi David Herman.
While we rightly celebrate the notion of a sister city arrangement between Baltimore and Ashkelon, we need as Jews to take seriously the day-go-day terror the citizens of these towns face. Indeed, a Baltimore contingent to Ashkelon recently helped build a playground. It was an amazing day creating many friendships and wonderful memories.
But the terrorists hardly care. In fact, I am not so convinced that many of our friends and neighbors here in Baltimore really understand or care.
Imagine you had to go to work every day wondering if you were ever going to see your loved ones, your house or your street again, because missiles were being launched from Pennsylvania into Maryland. The problem is, it’s not as far as Pennsylvania into Maryland, it’s more like Reisterstown into Pikesville.
It’s got to stop.
And guess what, people with names like Hillary, Obama and McCain are going to be making all sorts of promises in the coming weeks and months.
Rabbi Herman’s sign needs to be duplicated and placed on the front lawns of synagogues all over the Jewish community.
In the meantime, every effort we can make as citizens to get the United States government to help Israel make these missile attacks stop, should be made.
Finally, I am tired of reading descriptions of the people firing these missiles as terrorists or insurgents or militants. They are soldiers.  They are firing artillery. They just don’t wear olive uniforms with ranking chevrons and medals.
They wear kafias and use hard to detect rocket launchers. But they the enemy. And they don’t care how hard Baltimore worked to build a playground in Ashkelon. If they could, they’d blow up that playground.
Put up Rabbi Herman’s sign.
Tell your politicians that this is a high priority for you.
Wake up.

I must confess.
I can’t rest easy.
I’ve been writing an ongoing Jewish Times feature on the first JCC Hall of fame inductees, and one really important person isn’t on the first list.
I’m sorry, I can’t live with it. So please, JCC nomination committee and all of those who have worked so hard on this, don’t be offended. I really mean no offense.
But I really think that an exception should be made and Henrietta Szold’s should be added to the list of June 12 inductees.
The nomination committee had the daunting task of cutting down a list of 220 names, and they managed to get it down to 11. This had to be difficult in itself. But sometimes I think we can be so close to a situation and so passionate about reaching a goal, that we might overlook the obvious. Indeed, the selection committee gave six months of their time and effort to put this together, and the list they produced is stellar.
Yet, I can’t help but think that this like Cooperstown’s first induction not including George Herman “Babe” Ruth as one of its inductees. It never would have happened. Shoshana S. Cardin, herself, one of the 11 deserving inductees, said that her only real regrets were that there weren’t more women inductees (she’s the only one) and that Henrietta Szold wasn’t included.
So with a polite prod to my friends at the JCC, I’m asking that Henrietta Szold be made an exception and given her proper place. The Hall doesn’t need any more credibility. Its first 11 choices are amazing. But I think this would be an exception you’d get little argument over, and I think it would be the honorable thing to do.
We have scientists and businessmen and Jewish leaders in our first 11, but this is a woman whose legacy is still very much alive. We’re talking about Hadassah, the largest Jewish organization in American history, created by Henrietta Szold of Baltimore. Every time a Hadassah member goes to a school to teach teens about breast cancer or testicular cancer screening and awareness as part of its Check It Out program, it is testimony to the legacy of this great lady. She’s still saving lives.
There’s so much more. It’s about Zionism, Hadassah Hospital, the love of other Jews, community service, the strength of Jewish women, the saving of Jewish lives from the Nazis.
This woman is a hero of our people, and if you went around the world and asked people to put together a Jewish Hall of Fame from anyone, anywhere in the Jewish world, Henrietta Szold would most probably be an automatic pick.
So, without being overly dramatic here, I know the list of first-year inductees was supposed to be 10, but it’s 11.
The list should be 12.
I know there will be those who say if we make it 12, then there’s someone out there who should make it 13.
Folks, this is Henrietta Szold for crying out loud.
Let’s not make this about red tape, politics or hurt feelings.
Just put her name on the list.
Everyone will be okay with it, I promise.
Henrietta Szold should be in our first group of inductees.
It’s the right thing to do.

This is the best Italian food in town. We have tried many others and nothing can top Fazzini’s. Everything is fresh, homemade and delicious.

The pizza here was undercooked and really doughy.
entrees on other tables looked good though.

we like fazzini italian kitchen because of good wait staff and consistently good italian food. everything there is homemade; pasta, sauce,bread,pizza dough,etc.  large portions and reasonable prices and no ambiance!