Rabbi Avrohom Leventhal, a former Baltimorean and rebbe at Talmudical Academy, is now head of a major Israeli chesed organization, Lemaan Achai. He was in Baltimore recently, and we took the opportunity to speak with him.

Born in Annapolis, Rabbi Leventhal spent a number of his early years in Salisbury on the Eastern Shore, where his shomer Shabbos family used to host college students for Shabbos. Right after his bar mitzvah, he came to Talmudical Academy in Baltimore and, for the last two years of high school, learned in the Scranton yeshiva. Upon high school graduation, Rabbi Leventhal returned to Baltimore and spent the next six years at Ner Israel: three years in yeshiva and three years in kollel. His wife, Eshkie (neé Swerdloff), of New York, ran a popular daycare group for young children.

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting a very special young man. Gabriel Yair Shabtai, 29, was married in Israel about six months ago. On December 7^th, he returned from two months of active reserve service in the IDF. Think about that; he had been married for only four months when he got a late night phone call on Simchat Torah informing him that he had been called up. In Hebrew this is called millu’im, the reserves. Israel needed him to get on a plane and come as soon as he could. I asked him if he hesitated. “I didn’t hesitate for a second. I have a responsibility to the Jewish nation. I am not just a son, a brother, and a husband; I am also a soldier, and Am Yisrael is my family.

“My wife, Sarah, was shocked and afraid but also very proud. She was having an Israeli experience in Baltimore. She deserves a medal for being so supportive.”