The purpose of this article is not to make judgments; rather, it tells how frum life was back–in-the-day and how things have changed over the past 70 years. There have been some very positive changes and some negative ones. Let the reader draw his or her own conclusions.

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In the 1950s, I was a student of Talmudical Academy, my sister was a student at Bais Yaakov, and our family was a part of the very small and close-knit Baltimore Orthodox community. Our home and my parents were very frum, with many minhagim (customs) and special music for all Yom Tovim that were based on a strong German mesorah (tradition) passed down by our avos (ancestors) from generation to generation. Our home was one of hachnasas orchim, chesed, and tzedaka. Limud Torah was not visible in the home and was centered, instead, in our schools and our shul. Granted, there was no ArtScroll back then. Still, how was it that our home had practically no sefarim?

in collaboration with the Bamberger Family

Baltimore and klal Yisrael recently lost an ish chesed, an ish emes, a humble and unassuming individual. It is a shame that the younger generation did not know Reb Osher Bamberger, who contributed so much to the Baltimore community – but always below the radar. Reb Osher was an architect who laid the groundwork for the growth of Torah in this community. He shied away from any kavod (honor) even as he expended great effort to build and maintain the infrastructure we still benefit from in this community. He was a rodef shalom (pursuer of peace) and a role model to many.

Remember, two years ago, when ads suddenly flooded the frum Jewish media asking us to vote for a new “political party” to represent the religious community at the World Zionist Organization’s upcoming Congress? Few people in our community even knew what WZO did or why it was important. But we learned: The WZO has tremendous influence on the Israeli government’s policies vis a vis the Diaspora. It comprises parties that stand for the whole range of pro-Israel Jewish opinion, from far left to right, and the policies it adopts are determined by the vote at its Congress.

In our frum world, people are often judged by what is on their heads. But my dad taught me that what’s really important is not what’s on your head but what’s in your head. That wise saying has guided my hashkafa (religious outlook) in life.

I grew up in Shearith Israel, where a boy got his rite of passage upon his bar mitzva: a black hat. You could not get an aliya unless you wore a hat. A tallis over one’s head was frowned upon by this Yekkishe congregation. So my parents took me downtown to Joyce Hat Company, where I purchased my first black hat; it had a short brim and a red feather on the side, and I wore it primarily on Shabbos.

With cell phone in pocket or purse, we are all photographers these days. It’s so easy. Film has gone the way of the typewriter, and everything is digital. No need to load the camera; no need to turn the film to the next frame. The pace of life is fast, and it can be captured at an equally fast pace in pictures that preserve our most precious memories.

There are cameras on our doors, too, and on our PCs and laptops, in the streets, and in all kinds of buildings. The cameras keep clicking, covertly capturing our activities, and we do not always get to smile.

During these hot summer days, I visited three cemeteries in just a week’s time. First, my wife and I went to the cemetery in Woodbridge New Jersey, where her parents are buried, as we commemorated her mother’s yahrzeit. My mother-in-law was a Trenk, and the Trenk family plot is a very chashuv (prestigious) place. The Trenk patriarchs, Morris and Shea, brothers who ran the Morris Trenk Hosiery and Underwear store on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, are buried there. There also lie my in-laws (Morris’s daughter and husband), very special people; their cousins, the Schechters of Pioneer Country Club and the Granit Pesach hotel fame; and Reb Dovid Trenk, possibly one of the greatest mechanchim (educators) of this century; as well as his brother and other wonderful cousins.