Once upon a time, long ago, all Baltimore children attended one of the Big Three: Talmudical Academy, Bais Yaakov, or Torah Institute. That situation persisted for a long time, but gradually, as the Orthodox population grew exponentially, many new schools were founded. Sometimes it was for ideological reasons and sometimes to cater to specific educational needs. And sometimes it was just to catch the overflow of children and provide them with a solid education in a smaller setting. Here are a few of them:

*  *  *

A small start-up school eight years ago, Cheder Chabad of Baltimore continues to grow rapidly. It was founded by Rabbi Elchonon Lisbon, Rav of Chabad of Park Heights, together with Mrs. Chani Feldman, an administrator and teacher in the school since it opened.

People often ask me how I come up with ideas for my articles. I tell them that all my articles are the result of Divine Providence – typically inspired by a random comment by someone standing in line with me or suggested by a reader or editor. But for some of them, I take sole credit. Take this article: I first learned about JAFCO (Jewish Adoption and Family Care Options), quite serendipitously, from Cece, a sweet, vivacious woman I had the pleasure of sitting next to on a Superior Tours bus last summer, as I traveled to my mini-high school reunion in Manhattan. Cece just couldn’t stop talking about JAFCO, and when the Florida snowbird found out I’m a writer, she encouraged me to visit the JAFCO Children’s Village in Sunrise, Florida, and write about it. So I did. Now, I can’t stop talking about it!

The Baltimore community is fortunate to have benefited from Mrs. Esther Badian’s Torah wisdom for decades, through her teaching in Bais Yaakov High School, in Maalot, and in Women’s Institute of Torah (WIT). Now our community can learn how to practically transform Torah principles into perfected middos (character traits), as she utilizes her teaching and pastoral counseling skills to facilitate her middos-transformation chaburas (groups).

As Rebbetzin Lea Feldman told WWW, “Esther Badian is a thinking person who is very much aware of the neshama of a human being and what we were created for – to improve ourselves. There is no human being who doesn’t have to perfect his middos – no matter how good you are, no matter how wonderful your middos are, there is always something that one can work on and improve on. Mrs. Badian has a feel for this. She can size up people and help people... I recommend her very highly.”

It’s been eight days since I returned from visiting my son Shimon and his family in Kiryat Sefer, and I still find myself looking at my watch between 9 and 11 a.m. – that is, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., Israel time. That’s the time my daughter-in-law Tziporah and her friends meet for “bench therapy.”

Right in front of my children’s apartment building, there is a large sandy playground that young mothers and their children flock to daily from far and near. Although there are playgrounds every fourth or fifth building, this one is among the most popular.

“After 55 years, I figured it was time to relocate,” explains Mrs. Joan Heber, who moved to Baltimore from St. Louis to be closer to her children, Rabbi Dovid and Rebbetzin Baila Heber. “The whole process was really basherte,” adds Mrs. Heber. “My kids said that I was welcome to move whenever I was ready but they never prodded or insisted. I never talked about moving, but about three years ago, I looked at various places in Baltimore. I knew that if I was going to relocate, it would be to Baltimore, for the simple reason that it is closer than Detroit (where my other son lives) to New York, where I have quite a bit of family. Also, I was told that senior housing is excellent here. When I made up my mind, over a year-and-a-half ago, it was kind of a snap decision. Certain things came together.”

Vicki Kampler had a decision to make. She lived 120 miles north of her married daughter in Baltimore, 120 miles south of her married daughter in Teaneck, and 6,000 miles west of her married son in Israel. And for almost 11 years, since her husband died, her kids had been urging her to move closer to them.

“I was living in my beautiful three-bedroom, three-bathroom, two-story home in Philly,” says Mrs. Kampler. “All my memories were there. I never thought I would move away from this place, where I was exceedingly happy for 54 years.” Mrs. Kampler woke up one morning intending to redo her living and dining rooms. “The wallpaper and drapes still looked fine, but I decided that, after 23 years, it was time for a change. As I was about to leave the house to pick out new wallpaper, I said to myself, ‘No, I’m not. I’m going to move!’”