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

Confession: I am a Goldberger Chassid. He brought me in. Picked me out of the shul after he returned from a Sabbatical when I was at a low point in life having just had a surgical death, my first. Put out a warm friendly hand, shook it, looked in my eyes and said Good Shabbos, and didn’t I meet you before at Bruce Blumenthal’s sons Bar Mitavah two years ago? Yes, I did. You are Dr. Leventhal. He recognized the invalidity of my wife’s conversion and gave us the room to grow and mature and understand the problem ourselves. Did my wife’s real conversion as well as the conversion of my kids who were by definition not Jewish. Remarried me and my wife for the third and hopefully final time. Has been there for me whenever I needed him as I have tried my best to be there for him when he needed me. There is only one Rabbi Goldberger. TY will not be the same if he leaves. But I would never begrudge anyone a move that they felt was necessary and in the best interest of them and their family. And while that is the intellectual mature side of me, the other side of me is in spiritual pain. Because he is my Rabbi and as important he is my friend. I wish Rabbi Goldberger well in whatever he does. And in whatever he does he will succeed, because of his midot, and ahavas Yisroel, and because well…. because he is Rabbi Goldberger. I don’t know if he will make this move. I do know this however, Shomrei Emunah does not realize what a gem he is. And with their size they will never get to know him on a personal level as we at TY have. One can only spread oneself so thin. I hope for his sake, if he makes the move, that there is enough Rabbi Goldberger to go around for such a large family as Shomrei. In any case, he will always be my Rabbi and just as important, he will always be my friend.