The women of our community might seem to have a monopoly on doing chesed, perhaps, thanks to the formal chesed activities that were inculcated in them back in their school days. However, there are men out there, too, who do chesed, notwithstanding their often demanding daily davening, working, and learning schedules. This is part one of a series of articles that will spotlight just some of the men in the Baltimore community who take the time to do chesed, because they feel it is important to give back to a community that has given them so much.

Simcha Kossman’s typical day

This past Elul, when I was planning my annual pilgrimage to New Haven to visit my parents’ and grandparents’ kevarim (graves), I decided to do things a little differently. My first cousins, Morty and Elayne, who heard that I was making the trip, extended to me a very warm and open whenever-you-want-for-however-long invitation to stay at their Connecticut beach house, which was only about a half-hour drive from the cemetery. At first, I politely refused the offer, thanking Elayne profusely for her graciousness. Within 24 hours, after giving it much thought, I called her back.

“Wouldn’t it be great if, when

Are you one of those people who order the same dish again and again when eating out? Or do you prefer to try something new each time? Are you happily employed, or do you complain bitterly about the job you’ve had “forever,” while refusing to look for one that might bring you more satisfaction?

Change is an exciting challenge for some and a scary experience for others, especially when it comes to life decisions less mundane than a restaurant menu. Actually, personality development studies indicate that openness to new experiences, for both men and women, increases slightly until age 30 before

Speak to any native Baltimorean, and they will tell you how much our community has changed over the years. True, the city has grown, and you no longer know everyone, as you did back then, but the opportunities to perform chesed have grown as well. We are blessed to live in a community small enough to be called “out-of-town” yet large enough to support all-volunteer chesed teams like the ones found primarily in New York and other large cities worldwide. With much gratitude, WWW would like to spotlight those organizations that keep our wonderful community safe and sound.

A Friend in

I first encountered missionaries in the mid-70s, when I was a student living in Manhattan. I used to see Jews for Jesus members sporting bright yellow T-shirts that proudly advertised their affiliation targeting their prime proselytizing prospects (Jews, of course) in front of Macy’s. During that same period, I also saw hundreds of couples lined up outside Madison Square Garden just prior to their being married in a mass marriage ceremony by the infamous Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Back in 1976, it was estimated that close to 30 percent of these “Moonies” were young Jewish men and women who had

I began to suspect something back in September, when my eldest son asked me, out of the blue, if I’d heard of Rav Dovid Siegel. But the real “bomb” hit when he and his family came to visit for Succos, and he introduced their aspirations of making aliya by saying, “Ma, I have an amazing hasgacha pratis (Divine providence) story to tell you. This will make a really good article!

“I was in yeshiva and noticed a brand new sefer on the shelf,” continued Shimon. “I took the sefer down and skimmed it. I was happily surprised to discover that the