Page 98 - issue
P. 98
survivors. And even though they came education for their child. They didn’t were two levels for kindergarten. I was
from chasidic homes in Poland, after ask, “Do you have a television in your placed in the lower one. For some reason,
spending five years in a concentration house?” They didn’t even ask if you I can’t remember my teacher’s name, but
camp or labor camp, you’re lucky to were shomer Shabbos. Had they had I remember the name of the teacher of
observe anything when you get out – such a policy, I probably wouldn’t be the “higher” class: Mrs. Kaplan. (Her
forget about the minutiae of the Mish- Orthodox today. And there were quite son, Binyamin, was in my class for a year
na Berurah. a few kids in my class who came from or two in elementary school. Last time I
non-Sabbath observing families. Our saw him, he was a rebbe in South Falls-
Still, the memory of their parents and class spanned the whole gamut – from burg, New York.)
homes in Poland hovered over them. non-Orthodox but “traditional” to
My father approached Mr. Eric Levi, the Yiddish-speaking chasidic kids from I remember a very large room with a
principal of the Beth Tfiloh Day School, Shearis Hapleita, who joined us for the partition, usually used to divide it into
to have me enrolled. Mr. Levi asked my afternoon secular classes. Somehow, two sections. One day, the partition
father about his background. When my we all learned how to get along with was pushed back, and both the upper
father told him that his dad was a Belzer each other. and lower classes –now joined togeth-
chosid, Mr. Levi shook his head and said, er – were told to sit on the floor. The
“Beth Tfiloh is not the kind of school that Many children became shomer Shab- teachers took out some kind of draw-
the grandson of a Belzer chosid should bos on account of TA. Remember the ir- ings. They looked as if they came from a
go to. I advise you to register him at the repressible Hyman Pressman, Baltimore coloring book. There were illustrations
Talmudical Academy.” And my father did City’s comptroller for 28 years (who ran of beautiful buildings and interiors of
just that. One man’s candor, integrity, for governor in 1966)? I remember his palaces. We were told that this is what
and sensitivity changed the course of my son Eliezer, who became so frum at TA the Jews built for Pharaoh when they
life and, eventually, the life of our family. that he ended up in Ponevezh Yeshiva were enslaved in Egypt. Then came the
And there would be more guardian an- and is today a rosh kollel in Bnei Brak. strange part: There was a sturdy wooden
gels. (oak?) door with a large mezuzah case
uuu on one of the door posts. We were told
TA was a community school, and that we would be called up one by one
their policy was never to turn a kid Another phenomenon on the level of with our English names. We were to
down whose parents wanted a Jewish the unexplainable tree occurred when I
was attending kindergarten in TA. There
90 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
from chasidic homes in Poland, after ask, “Do you have a television in your placed in the lower one. For some reason,
spending five years in a concentration house?” They didn’t even ask if you I can’t remember my teacher’s name, but
camp or labor camp, you’re lucky to were shomer Shabbos. Had they had I remember the name of the teacher of
observe anything when you get out – such a policy, I probably wouldn’t be the “higher” class: Mrs. Kaplan. (Her
forget about the minutiae of the Mish- Orthodox today. And there were quite son, Binyamin, was in my class for a year
na Berurah. a few kids in my class who came from or two in elementary school. Last time I
non-Sabbath observing families. Our saw him, he was a rebbe in South Falls-
Still, the memory of their parents and class spanned the whole gamut – from burg, New York.)
homes in Poland hovered over them. non-Orthodox but “traditional” to
My father approached Mr. Eric Levi, the Yiddish-speaking chasidic kids from I remember a very large room with a
principal of the Beth Tfiloh Day School, Shearis Hapleita, who joined us for the partition, usually used to divide it into
to have me enrolled. Mr. Levi asked my afternoon secular classes. Somehow, two sections. One day, the partition
father about his background. When my we all learned how to get along with was pushed back, and both the upper
father told him that his dad was a Belzer each other. and lower classes –now joined togeth-
chosid, Mr. Levi shook his head and said, er – were told to sit on the floor. The
“Beth Tfiloh is not the kind of school that Many children became shomer Shab- teachers took out some kind of draw-
the grandson of a Belzer chosid should bos on account of TA. Remember the ir- ings. They looked as if they came from a
go to. I advise you to register him at the repressible Hyman Pressman, Baltimore coloring book. There were illustrations
Talmudical Academy.” And my father did City’s comptroller for 28 years (who ran of beautiful buildings and interiors of
just that. One man’s candor, integrity, for governor in 1966)? I remember his palaces. We were told that this is what
and sensitivity changed the course of my son Eliezer, who became so frum at TA the Jews built for Pharaoh when they
life and, eventually, the life of our family. that he ended up in Ponevezh Yeshiva were enslaved in Egypt. Then came the
And there would be more guardian an- and is today a rosh kollel in Bnei Brak. strange part: There was a sturdy wooden
gels. (oak?) door with a large mezuzah case
uuu on one of the door posts. We were told
TA was a community school, and that we would be called up one by one
their policy was never to turn a kid Another phenomenon on the level of with our English names. We were to
down whose parents wanted a Jewish the unexplainable tree occurred when I
was attending kindergarten in TA. There
90 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
