Beth Tefiloh

Moving Schools and People: My Favorite Teacher, Mrs. Cohen 

by Moshe Lewin

My favorite teacher, Mrs. (Megan) Cohen of Beth Tfiloh (BT) Middle School, demonstrates values of hard work, positivity, and love for teaching. After meeting her last September (2023), I knew she would leave a lasting impression on me, from her hard work, dedication, and love for teaching. Mrs. Cohen would work with us as a class and conference with each individual to spark their academic potential. Additionally, Mrs. Cohen would always have her door open for any questions or pieces of news to share. Many students, including me, felt happy to hear Mrs. Cohen’s advice both in and out of class. Mrs. Cohen’s presence elevated the BT atmosphere through teaching, field trips, and even Rosh Chodesh brunches. Our principal, Dr. Schor, even mentioned how Mrs. Cohen’s genuine smile during the interview process helped her win the job. Additionally, her class benefited from valuable advice relating to high school and important future endeavors we will embark on. From discussing Animal Farm parallels to the 2016 election to playing her in an end-of-year Scrabble game, I thoroughly enjoyed having Mrs. Cohen as a teacher. 

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For many Baltimoreans, winter includes motza’ei Shabbos with Rabbi Dr. Dovid Katz. Each Saturday night, starting around 8 p.m., Rabbi Katz continues an ongoing series on Jewish history in the modern era. I have been a faithful attendee for many years. The series started with the end of the Holocaust and the plight of postwar Jewry and continued with Israel’s war of independence. Each year, in about 16 lectures, Rabbi Katz covers several years. Many of these lectures are available online. This year, he is covering the years 2000 through 2004.

When I heard that this issue of the Where What When would focus on children, I immediately thought of Ahavas Yisrael, our incredible local charity run by Rabbi Boruch Brull and his very dynamic staff. Ahavas Yisrael helps children greatly – along with their families – as well as our aged and, really, any community member struggling financially. Next, I thought of two beautiful stories that I love to tell and that include children. Here they are:

Q: When is chesed “smart”?

A: When financial support is accompanied by education, training, and guidance that helps families achieve financial independence.

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The Israeli organization Lema’an Achai, under the direction of former Baltimorean Rabbi Avrohom Leventhal, strives to break the cycle of poverty, one family at a time, using “smart chesed.” Rabbi Leventhal, who volunteered with Ahavas Yisrael when he lived in Baltimore, says that this approach to chesed is, in the long run, more respectful and effective than simply handing people a check.

Here are a few of the thousands of cases Lema’n Achai has been involved with:

?During the past year I have, on several occasions, reprinted articles written by the award-winning British journalist Melanie Phillips. Because she lives in London and is not an American, Melanie has a unique objectivity when commenting on what’s happening in the United States. As mentioned in one of my previous articles, Melanie introduces herself as a “liberal who was mugged by reality.” Her most popular book is entitled Londonistan: How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within. Unfortunately, the United States and most other naïve Western democracies have also created “terror states within.”

On the day after the U.S. elections, Melanie wrote the following article, which appeared in several major British publications.
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by B. Halevi

In today’s world, almost everyone has heard of ADHD, but, sadly, most people don’t really understand what it is. Even in families where ADHD has been professionally diagnosed and they have read much literature on the topic, parents are often still lacking in their fundamental understanding of what ADHD is all about and what life is like for someone with ADHD. I mean, it’s not their fault. If you don’t experience the world through the ADHD lens, it’s difficult to ever fully grasp the full import of life with this disorder.

I have ADHD, and I’ll never forget the impact two videos I found online made on me. (Disclaimer: freely searching around on unfiltered internet is no longer something I would do or recommend to others.) These videos made me think, “Aha! That’s it! That’s how I feel! That’s the message I want to convey to non-ADHDers about my life!”

I’m no historian, but I remembered learning something about soldiers taking over private homes for their own use. The details, however, were elusive. I guess I should have paid more attention in American history class, but thankfully, Professor Google quickly refreshed me on the particulars.

With apologies to my British daughter-in-law, it seems that 11 years before the American Revolution, the British passed the Quartering Act, which required the colonists to provide housing and provisions to the British soldiers in their towns, at their own expense.

While it’s popularly believed that this allowed soldiers to take over citizens’ homes, the Professor tells me that that’s not actually correct. However, the public did need to come up with the funds to provide for the British troops’ needs. In any case, the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution severely curtailed the practice of “quartering” soldiers, requiring the consent of the owners.

Enough of the history lesson. If I didn’t pay sufficient attention the first time, there’s no reason why you should have to suffer through it now.

Miriam was born on my 25^th birthday; she weighed 5 lbs. 6 oz. and was 15 inches long. We were overjoyed that our two boys had a baby sister. Hours after her birth, she was diagnosed with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, an orthopedic disorder that would result in dwarfism. We thus entered the unknown world of skeletal dysplasia. These were the pre-Google days. We were sent home 24 hours later with some photocopied pages from a medical journal and instructions to take her to the genetics clinic at Johns Hopkins in the next several weeks. We were told that our baby girl would have extreme short stature, delayed gross motor development, and possibly other health issues. Nevertheless, her prognosis to lead a full, normal life was excellent.

Inspired by their Rosh Hashanah resolutions, many people are in the mode of doing more mitzvos. Not everyone can take on the running of a big organization or do big chasadim that take time and money. Here is a mitzva that everyone can do, young or old, rich or poor, Jewish or not Jewish.

The mitzva is kindness. Kindness is available to everyone and can be done at any time and to anyone, even a stranger or an animal. You just must be aware of what is going on around you. In some ways, it might even be a bigger kindness to do something that seems small than to do something that seems great. Everyone who is capable of it would save a person from drowning, even if they have terrible middos, but only a kind person will give tzedaka to a man who approaches him in the middle of the street. As we know from the Torah, Hashem chose Moshe to be the leader of the Jewish people because he took good care of a little lamb.

As we approach this year’s Yomim Nora’im, we cannot forget the horrors that occurred on October 7, 2023, which, last year, coincided with Shemini Atzeres.

A year ago, Jews in Israel were vociferously divided and rigid in their animosity towards one another. This culminated last Yom Kippur, when secular Jews broke up a group of worshippers in Tel Aviv claiming that they – the worshipers – were destroying the city’s secular ambiance. On Motzei Yom Kippur, when I read about the Tel Aviv tragedy, my heart sank. I knew that when there is such extreme animosity among Jews, we become weakened and vulnerable. I felt that something awful was going to occur. Then, just 13 days later, the slaughter happened. Of course, our enemies do not discriminate between secular and religious Jews. In their reptilian eyes, a Jew is a Jew.

Sadly, many of our Israeli (and Diaspora) brothers and sisters are still divided, but this Rosh Hashanah, our enemies in the North have served as the catalyst for some renewed internal unity among the Jewish people. How tragic it is that, for most of Jewish history, our unity has been inspired by those who desire our destruction.