So right off the bat, Ronnie Rosenbluth is a close friend.
Last week, camera men and news reporters and “investigative” reporters and all sorts of media both local and national discovered Tov Pizza.
They learned of it, because Ronnie was employing former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, giving Mr. Abramoff an opportunity of transition into the world after serving almost five years in prison.
In their rush for the “exclusive” interview, I hope they took the opportunity to learn more about this place that has done and is doing so much more than serving quality food.
It’s difficult to know where to start.
Over the years some of the kids who have worked at Tov sometimes get tagged with labels, the most popular being “off the derech,” or off the path.
For some of those young adults, Tov is a needed chance to succeed. Ronnie takes them, pays them and gives them an opportunity for a reference, to learn job skills and to get them on a path that has a good direction.
Many of those kids we see behind the counters have gone on to graduate from high school, get their GED or continue their education and graduate from college.
Where else but at Tov would a young black man from the Caribbean island discover a job that would lead into a conversion, a frum lifestyle, aliyah and marriage?
Or how about the flag football team Tov sponsors in Israel?
Name another restaurant, shop or any place for that matter where the community’s elected officials and police command come in for a bite to eat and a community briefing?
There really isn’t any other such place.
I have gone to Ronnie before when I knew of parents who didn’t have food on a particular day to feed their children. I left with enough food to feed many families.
Six days a week, people come in for a mincha minyan.
Tov was the headquarters of the birth of Shomrim, the public safety organization that has brought peace of mind to so many in the Orthodox community.
Ronnie, himself, is politically active. He registered Monday for an at-large Democratic State Central Committee seat. He’s the president of the Cheswolde Neighborhood Association and past president of the Hebrew Free Loan and vice president of Shomrim.
Most of all, he’s a friend to so many in so many, many ways.
It makes total sense that he’d reach out and give Jack Abramoff a safe harbor in his transition.
When Mr. Abramoff is finished at Tov, Ronnie and his restaurant will still continue to be one of the centers of friendship and kindness in this community.
He’ll still be reaching out to help.
Ninety nine percent of the people he helps aren’t well known. Yet he treats everyone with open arms.
Oh, and by the way, for all of us, after 26 years, we know Tov as the place to come and sit with our family and friends and just enjoy.
So, is it any wonder that Mr. Abramoff is at Tov Pizza?
No, he’s right at home there with good people.
People helping people.
Ronnie helping us all.

Air.
I paid 75 cents for air today.
I can hear my father’s voice coming down from heaven, “you did what?”
So I admit it.
A tire was a little low, and there wasn’t time to get it checked out. I pulled up to the service station air pump, and was greeted by a coin slot and the price. Used to be air was free. Now even air has its price.
Where were three quarters when I needed them?
So I parked, walked into the station and asked for change for $1 to use the air pump. The lady behind the counter gave me this little grin. You know the one where the two of you both know that you’re sort of a sucker.
This wasn’t four quarters for the quarters’ only parking meter. I wasn’t going to hear the clunk of a cold can of soda come through a vending chute. A DVD wasn’t coming my way.
No, instead three minutes of air.
Now as far as I know, it’s good air. U.S. grade A 100 percent pure air.
I remember the first time I ever paid for water in a bottle. It was in Israel in 1988, and even then, some three years after my dad’s passing away, I wondered there in Ben Gurion Airport what Morton Jacobs would say if he knew his son was paying for water.
My dad was the guy who knew where every nickel was spent. He was a
Great Depression person. After his passing, I found a book with notations from one year’s worth of expenses, down to the penny.
Getting back to the air. I only had one tire needing air. Took me mere seconds to fill it up. Oh, I forgot to mention that for 75 cents I also got a free tire pressure check.
Didn’t mean to sell this experience short.
Then two air pump issues faced me.
First, some kids on bikes came over to me. One kid’s front tire was dangerously low of air. He didn’t have any money.
Would I let him have some of my air?
I probably had two minutes left on the air machine.
So I gave him some air, but there was only one catch.
I had to do the pumping, because, after all, this was…my air.
Tire inflated, he said thanks and rode away with his friends.
While I was sharing my air with the kid, a man in an SUV pulls up to the pump.
The air machine was still humming. I had time left, man. This was my time on the pump. It was my air in there.
So, do I let him have the remaining minute of air?
He didn’t pay the 75 cents like I did.
Hmmmmm.
Meanwhile, time is ticking. I’ve got the pump. He doesn’t.
So I hand him over the pump.
He says “thanks.”
The machine stops.
No air.
I apologized to the man in the SUV.
Well, because air costs money, good money.
You can’t get such good air these days.
And at these prices?

I am feeling better for everyone today.
Rabbi Menachem Goldberger is staying as spiritual leader of Congregation Tiferes Yisroel Bais Dovid.
The buzz all over the Orthodox community since last week was about his candidacy for the vacant rabbinic position at Congregation Shomrei Emunah.
A bigger platform, a prestigious synagogue, the same shul that Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb led before moving on to lead the Orthodox Union.
Sometimes, however, “fit” is everything. And Rabbi Goldberger has the calm, demeanor to ascend to a bigger platform from the smaller space at Park Heights and Pinkney.
Both shuls and K’lal Yisroel will benefit from this decision.
I am a member of Rabbi Goldberger’s shul, so yes I guess I’m biased.
But, like you, I am a member of a great Jewish community.
This decision by Rabbi Goldberger and then the vote of Shomrei for its new rabbi in the coming weeks will make this community and the Jewish world even greater.
Yasher Koach to Shomrei and to Tiferes Yisroel.
We can all move “yashar, yashar,” straight ahead.

Ask Jewish community members where to find Tiferes Yisroel Bais Dovid, and the probability is they will be much more familiar with the name “Rabbi Goldberger’s Shul.”
As he informed his congregation, both through letter and then sermon on Shabbos, Rabbi Goldberger could be in the unfamiliar position of leaving the very synagogue that is known by his name.
If one used any part of Strathmore to connect themelves to the Park Heights Area or the Greenspring, Cheswolde areas last Shabbos, they were covered more by the conversation of the day than by the heat and humidity.
Rabbi Goldberger, for 24 years the only spiritual leader at Tiferes Yisroel, a shul known for its Chassidic singing, dancing, praying, warmth, love and connection to its rabbi, was talking about moving on, and at this writing was a candidate for the vacant job at nearby Congregation Shomrei Emunah.
His was the shul where people dressed in Birkenstocks and colorful tichels might pray from the women’s section. In the men’s section, men in fur streimels with long black coats would daven next to others in colorful knit kippot, pastel colored shirts, pink ties and khaki pants. Sometimes those men in the khaki pants would move in a direction of streimel or black hat. It just didn’t matter. At Rabbi Goldberger’s shul, for the most part, self-expression done modestly was welcomed.
Now, Rabbi Goldberger could be heading to one of this community’s largest Orthodox shuls. This is the same Shomrei Emunah that helped launch Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Weinreb to the national level as president of the Orthodox Union.
Over the years, Rabbi Goldberger and his wife and life partner Rebbetzin Bracha have created a following, a cult of personality, so important to its long-term and even its new members. He would and still knows who is in shul or who is missing on a particular Shabbos. Miss three weeks, and he’ll be asking for you by name.
Rabbi Goldberger knows the names of your children. He knows when they received their first siddur. He asks about their college graduations and years learning in Israel.
What is so important to understand is that this rabbi transcends his shul. Go into other parts of the the Jewish Baltimore community, and have a discussion with Conservative, Reform or unaffiliated Jews, be they old or young, and Rabbi Goldberger’s name will be familiar and bring a smile to their faces. His warmth and acceptance is a critical unifier for Baltimore’s overall Jewish community.
He is known by the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore as a “go-to” rabbi, a beloved man who can solve issues and always help us look ahead in positive ways.
The good news for us at Tiferes Yisroel is that Shomrei is here. If he should be voted in as rabbi of Shomrei, it might never become Rabbi Goldberger’s Shul. But it doesn’t have to be.
Truth is, Baltimore has become Rabbi Goldberger’s Shul. Travel out of town, talk to people from the 5 Towns to the midwest to Israel, and the name Rabbi Goldberger means Baltimore, it means holy, it is all that is right with Judaism.
For that, we all are fortunate to have Rabbi Goldberger.
We all have stories to tell about Rabbi Goldberger. With no disrespect to the other Shomrei candidates, I am sure that I’ll be telling a few more Rabbi Goldberger stories over the coming weeks in this space.
I feel sad now, like many of my shul brothers and sisters. I don’t want him to go. Yet, as many people find in their lives, there is a time to move on, a time to grow. Painfully for us, this is probably what he is saying.
Yes, Shomrei still has an important process to implement. Shomrei might even vote another worthy candidate into the position. But it’s still difficult for all of us.
When you build a cult of personality, words like “mid-life crisis,” “career change,” “moving on,” just don’t fit into an emotional template. we all thought we’d all grow old together on Pinkney Road with Rabbi Goldberger there.
It’s no one’s fault that he would want more, and an opportunity to grow. Who wouldn’t? The truth is, if Rabbi Goldberger grows, I have a feeling that all of K’llal Yisroel will have a better opportunity to grow as well.
We had him for 24 years, and we loved every minute of it. We share him now for the bigger stage.
It’s not easy.
But it’s okay.
We’ll all be okay.
Now for a story….
I was at a community memorial event at the Park Heights JCC for the Jews murdered in Mumbai. Because of some of the controversial issues written, there were still people who would not look me in the eye, shake my hand or even sit next to me. I sat and watched the video of the young Lubavitcher couple killed in Mumbai. I felt a trembling inside of tears. I looked for a door to get out of the auditorium, but I couldn’t make it out. The tears came out in a volcanic burst.
It was out of no where. I was being hugged suddenly, wrapped in the arms with my head buried in the shoulder of someone.
Rabbi Goldberger.
So where doe we go now?
Tiferes Yisroel needs to be there for the people who still I am sure will come, an perhaps attract some new people with new ideas and directions.
Maybe, just maybe we all need to move on sometimes.
The name “Rabbi Goldberger’s Shul” won’t wear off anytime soon.
How could it?
But Congregation Tiferes Yisroel won’t ever be left behind.
After 24 years, Rabbi Goldberger has pushed us way ahead.
On the bigger stage, hopefully the rest of you will sense the meaning of what Rabbi Goldberger calls “living life together.” Once you get that, maybe then you will catch up to the warm, loving shul on the corner of Park Heights and Pinkney.
You’ve got a ways to go.
Rabbi Goldberger gave Tiferes Yisroel a spiritual head start of 24 years.
For that we’ll be forever grateful.
We all have stories at Tiferes Yisroel

Who can be surprised at the public uproar over Israel’s takeover of a “peace” flotilla outside of Gaza earlier this week?
If it wasn’t the “peace” flotilla, it would have been something else. The world, drinking the toxic potion of Islamic hatred, has redefined the words “political correctness.” Now, to be politically correct means you’ll support the actions of those who would love nothing more than to see Israel dead.
While we’re basking in our desire to please everybody, let’s not forget that the same people who want to see Israel weakened or eliminated, have those same feelings about you and your country.
To borrow the overly used phrase, “it is what it is.”
There is no denying it.
When the creep who leads Iran is talking about eliminating Israel, we need to believe he’d try.
Last time we failed to believe someone like this, he had come up with a plan he called “the final solution.”
The Islamic world was extremely happy that Israel acted to defend itself. Were there other ways Israel could have stopped the flotilla? Perhaps.
When the U.S. is in a war with another nation or nations, it does everything and anything it can to defend itself. Let’s not forget that after the flotilla incident, the U.S. took out Al Queda’s number three leader with a rocket fired from a drone.
Any outrage there?
Was the U.S. worried about its image in the Islamic world when they took the Al Queda leader out?
Meanwhile, Israel’s development town of Sderot has a post traumatic stress syndrome percentage in its population that is daunting. Fifteen seconds can be the them between life or death when a rocket comes from Gaza.
There’s no outrage from Turkey or Egypt or anywhere else over the small children who have learned to count to 15, because that’s how long they have to get to a shelter.
Baltimore’s sister city Ashkelon is also in a position of target from the same people who want you to believe that they are in it for peace.
Israel would love nothing more than to be able to believe that there is such thing as a flotilla of peace.
But there isn’t.
Especially from the same people who brought you the Karine A, seized by Israel and loaded with weapons in 2002.
Stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
Israel has been positioned by its enemies that even a so-called peace flotilla is a trigger. The public relations risk?
It is what it is.
Israel has to risk bad public relations.
Let’s take security over bad public relations.
For political correctness, try drinking something else that isn’t mixed with toxicity.