With spring here and summer not far behind, the relaxed warm-weather activities bring a plethora of safety concerns that our community needs to be vigilant about. The Chesed Fund and Project Ezra President Frank Storch recently received this heartbreaking email from a very concerned community member:

I’m not sure if you are aware of what happened this week with a bike accident in our community. On Tuesday, I was driving, and as I crossed over an intersection, a young boy slammed into the side of my car. It happened so fast… I really think something needs to be done for the safety of the kids in this community. He was riding a bike with a motor. He was going very fast and did not stop at the stop sign. Judging from the damage to my SUV, he had a serious impact when his bike hit the side… He flew into the air and hit the windshield with his head and elbow. Thank G-d he was wearing a proper helmet, but now, days later, he is still in the hospital.

 I’m still shaken, and he’s still in the hospital having needed surgery. B”H, it wasn’t fatal, but it could have been. Just a few seconds and a guardian angel for him and me, and thankfully he is alive. I see many kids biking, often unsafely in the streets. We teach our kids how to ride bikes, but more importantly we need to teach them bike safety. And when they are riding in the street, we need to teach them to read and adhere to road signs and basic safety on the road.

  When my coworker Haviva Bulka first mentioned that she was housing Baltimore’s new Proposal Gemach, my curiosity was piqued. What in the world is a proposal gemach? Does it make volunteers available to propose for you if you are as shy as Miles Standish? Legend has it that the leader of the Pilgrims wanted to marry Pricilla Mullins but lacked the confidence to propose. Instead, he sent his friend John Alden to pop the question. When John conveyed Miles’ proposal, Pricilla said, “Speak for yourself, John.” They got married and lived happily ever after – John and Pricilla, that is. I soon learned that the Proposal Gemach does nothing of the sort.

Faina Vaynerman was born in a large Ukrainian shtetl Piytegory, about 50 miles from Kyiv, where, historically, Jews and Ukrainians lived side by side. She was only two years old when World War II broke out. Fortunately, she and her parents were able to flee from the Ukraine in her uncle’s truck. Otherwise, she said, they would have shared the fate of the other Jews in their shtetl, who perished from the many massacres that were carried out in Europe.

Faina shares her family history going back another generation: “In 1919, when my father was seven years old, dozens of Jews from our shtetl were forced to gather in a local synagogue. Among them were my grandma, Chana Shlima, her older daughter Rivka, and three-year-old son. The Ukrainians set it on fire and whoever tried to escape the fire was shot. My two grandmothers were murdered by the Ukrainian nationalist anti-Semites. My other grandma, Hinda Khmelinsky had found her death in 1941. They were murdered only because they were Jewish.”

Dr. Lynda Zentman, aka Laytzee the Clown, says her clowning career began when she “retired from real life” about six years ago, after being a teacher and principal in Rockland County, New York, for many years. Now she lives, part-time, in Israel.

“Once I retired, I felt this was something I wanted to do,” explains Dr. Zentman, a great-grandmother who feels like a 16-year-old when she puts on her clown makeup. “I’ve always enjoyed production, acting, singing, and dancing – which were part of my previous life as well – but to dress up as a clown and go and make people feel happy was a dream come true.”

This Chanukah, as every year, Baltimore will be ablaze not only with the lights of the menorah but also with fond Chanukah memories from across the globe.

A Village in Germany

Mrs. Irma Pretsfelder grew up in a village of only two Jewish families, about 50 miles north of Frankfurt, Germany. She was almost 13 years old, in 1939, when her family fled the country for England. “Our family didn’t make that much of Chanukah,” recalls Mrs. Pretsfelder. “We lit the candles and sang “Moaz Tzur,” but as far as giving gifts, it didn’t happen in our house – there was no Chanukah gelt or gifts. My mother hand-grated her potato latkes and made her own donuts from scratch, with yeast. They were deep fried, unfilled, and dipped in sugar. How we loved them! We didn’t play dreidel; I learned that over here. It also wasn’t the custom to put our menorah in the window. Here I do, because everybody else does. During Hitler’s time, we were afraid of repercussions; we certainly didn’t have it in the window.”

What you are about to read shocked me, too. I first learned of it when my husband shared Rav Moshe Heinemann’s emotional plea on Selichos night at the Agudah about the hundreds of frum Baltimore children are not enrolled in Jewish schools. Without offering any further details, the Rav passionately stated that our community has a responsibility to deal with this issue. I was determined to find out more, and the investigative reporter in me took over. This is what I discovered:

It turns out that Seth Gerstman was also at the Agudah on Selichos night and heard Rav Heinemann’s plea. He took the initiative to gather further information for the Rav, and was most instrumental in leading me to those in the loop.