I’m not trying to be a cheerleader here.
But this Sunday, September 28, is Super Sunday at the JCC Park Heights.
It’s the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore’s day when we can take a short period of time, and volunteer to call our friends and neighbors for contributions.
It’s a time when you can give back to the community. We all know money is so tight that the word “tight” doesn’t even describe it for some families.
But our Associated, no matter how much it comes under scrutiny by some for whatever reason, is taking care of this community. With economic issues at their lowest in some time, nobody is expecting anything less in terms of care for our community.
So, whether you wear a black hat and have a beard or you hang your hat in an egalitarian minyan , your place on Sunday should be at the JCC Park Heights.
If you complain, and you didn’t bother to show up on Sunday, you know what, re-evaluate your complaints.
The Associated would love to give more and more and more. But they could sure use your help this Sunday.
Also, coming on Sunday will get you out of your bubble. Because one of the best things about Super Sunday is meeting Jews from all walks of life, secular, humanistic and religious. It just doesn’t matter.
With the economic safety net straining these days for all of us, it’s important we bolster our community somehow. Super Sunday is one way to do it.
See you there.

Silence of the Ravs

Amazing.
Rabbi Ben Zion Twerski has to step down from a New York task force looking into molestation, because of the impact of Orthodox society on is family, and precious few are saying anything in condemnation.
What, do we now live in the former Soviet Union? Is this Argentina all over again when people were deemed missing?
The fact that Rabbi Twerski, a wonderful man and champion of the dispossessed, lives in fear, screams volumes about Judaism today.
It is a scream that is louder than the sound of the Shofar.
The behavior of our community is treif.
In fact, if we heard there was a bug in a leaf of lettuce, or a maggot in a piece of meat, all heck would break loose in the Jewish community. But, the intimidation of a man, a holy man, well it just isn’t as important.
I am asking that Baltimore area rabbis who have the guts, that they should from their bimas openly declare this action, this immature silent treatment as a shanda, one that cannot be tolerated by a faith community.
Our protests should be as loud as the calls from the Shofar.
Rabbi Ben Zion Twerski was wronged.

Have you ever hurt someone so badly or had a quarrel with someone that went years before apologies were made?
For our Yom Kippur edition, I’m looking for stories of how relatives re-connected or maybe even missed an opportunity to just say “I’m sorry.”
I also would like to know how you go about saying “I’m sorry” these days.
What happens if you get turned down?
Your names will be kept anonymous. But I could sure use your help on this one.
How many times have we heard stories of families and friends breaking apart? Some are put back together, some are not.
Email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), and I’ll contact you.

Rabbi Doctor Benzion Twerski stepped down from a New York task force that would investigate molestation within the Jewish community, according to the New York JewishWeek.
“For several days, I was approached by individuals, some stating that they would cross the street if they were to meet me while walking with their children,” wrote Rabbi Twerski. “Others told me that they would not accept my child into their class if assigned. They used euphemisms that I refuse to repeat. Family members were likewise confronted by all sorts of comments and phone calls. My married children had been told to fear ever getting shidduchim for their children. Basically, I was left to choose between abandoning my family for this mission, or to take the painful step that I did.”

They got to him.

One of the bright lights in Orthodox America has been quieted. It was if a fragile candle flame wasn’t just blown out, but it was doused with a filled bucket of water.

Here we are in the month of Elul leading into the holiest of days, and yet these people, these “leaders”  have once again forgotten that they are not the ultimate judge. That one day they will have to account for their actions.

Rabbi Twerski, I am honored to be in your company. Here are just a few reasons why.

• A frum woman publicly accosted me at 7-Mile Market, questioning in a loud, intrusive voice why an area rabbi would want to have any association with me or with the Jewish Times.
• An Agudath Israel spokesman sent me emails attacking me and accusing me of writing stories on molestation because in his words I was trying to win the “Gary Rosenblatt Prize.”
• A man who I had learned with for many years, spoke to me in an inappropriate, hurtful way. He told me that I owed an explanation to him and others for writing the name of Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro, a deceased man who allegedly molested hundreds of times. I wrote him a letter of total respect thanking him for our learning, but putting an end to it. I haven’t heard a word from him since.
• Rabbi Heinemann wrote a letter that was posted on his building’s bulletin board, questioning the word “Jewish” in the name of this publication. He then urged his congregants not to allow our publication into their homes. He did this without the courage of a phone call or a meeting.
• I was told by a young rabbi in our community that based on how the older rabbis were behaving, I was doing more harm than good. He further said that many of the rabbis who signed the so-called April 11, 2007 letter from the Vaad addressing molestation, were now sorry they had signed the letter. The signatures were seen I was told as a validation of the Jewish Times’ stories.
• We used to have a mincha minyan here at the Jewish Times, but one of its participants, again a person with the title “rabbi” emailed folks and asked them not to support the minyan. Can you imagine, he would keep a person from saying Kaddish with a minyan?.
• The number of emails and anonymous blog responses urging my early death, the necessity of me to leave town, that my family should be cursed, that I should burn in hell.
• Even worse, the people who used to speak to me, who now don’t. I can’t even get them to say Good Shabbos. They say Good Shabbos to the floor or to the wall, but not to me. You know what it’s like to have people look not at you, but through you?

These are all people who wear black hats and sheitels and pray and keep kosher and call themselves observant.

Meanwhile, as Rabbi Twerski has found, there are no shortage of men and women who are finally feeling it important to tell their stories of survival. They are as close as I can define as being alive, but dead.

Rabbi Twerski, please don’t give in and please don’t give up.
This is about our relationship with HaShem, not the controlling forces of a group of frightened men who are covering their tracks and co-opting observant Judaism to do so. These posers know something.

They know that we know.

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!