It’s been eight days since I returned from visiting my son Shimon and his family in Kiryat Sefer, and I still find myself looking at my watch between 9 and 11 a.m. – that is, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., Israel time. That’s the time my daughter-in-law Tziporah and her friends meet for “bench therapy.”

Right in front of my children’s apartment building, there is a large sandy playground that young mothers and their children flock to daily from far and near. Although there are playgrounds every fourth or fifth building, this one is among the most popular.

“After 55 years, I figured it was time to relocate,” explains Mrs. Joan Heber, who moved to Baltimore from St. Louis to be closer to her children, Rabbi Dovid and Rebbetzin Baila Heber. “The whole process was really basherte,” adds Mrs. Heber. “My kids said that I was welcome to move whenever I was ready but they never prodded or insisted. I never talked about moving, but about three years ago, I looked at various places in Baltimore. I knew that if I was going to relocate, it would be to Baltimore, for the simple reason that it is closer than Detroit (where my other son lives) to New York, where I have quite a bit of family. Also, I was told that senior housing is excellent here. When I made up my mind, over a year-and-a-half ago, it was kind of a snap decision. Certain things came together.”

Vicki Kampler had a decision to make. She lived 120 miles north of her married daughter in Baltimore, 120 miles south of her married daughter in Teaneck, and 6,000 miles west of her married son in Israel. And for almost 11 years, since her husband died, her kids had been urging her to move closer to them.

“I was living in my beautiful three-bedroom, three-bathroom, two-story home in Philly,” says Mrs. Kampler. “All my memories were there. I never thought I would move away from this place, where I was exceedingly happy for 54 years.” Mrs. Kampler woke up one morning intending to redo her living and dining rooms. “The wallpaper and drapes still looked fine, but I decided that, after 23 years, it was time for a change. As I was about to leave the house to pick out new wallpaper, I said to myself, ‘No, I’m not. I’m going to move!’”

Mrs. Chava Temeral Ostreicher was already impressed with our community when I spoke to her, only five days after her move from Monsey, New York. She and her husband, a native of Williamsburg (in Brooklyn), are just one of the 21 pioneering chasidishe couples who will be living in town by Cheshvan, coming here to join Baltimore’s newest kollel: Khal Chassidim’s Kollel L’Horo’ah.

“I’m so amazed,” shared Mrs. Ostreicher, a mother of two, who was able to keep the school curriculum job she had in Monsey and work from home. “It’s such a nice community, and people here are so nice and so accepting. I love the way everyone lives for themselves, not because their neighbor or their friend does it. Everything they do is with purpose, not like some other places. You don’t feel peer pressure here. There are such special people. Everyone is so helpful, so kind, and so accepting. It is such a warm community and that’s what makes the adjustment much easier.”

The first time I had the pleasure of hearing international violinist Yonatan Grinberg play was at a fiery June performance at a most unusual parlor meeting/concert at the home of Frank and Danielle Sarah Storch. The concert was for the benefit of Aliyos Shlomo, an advanced kollel located in Yerushalayim, whose rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Dovid Lipson, also happens to be an accomplished pianist and accompanied the string ensemble.

Yonatan is a member of The Chamber Encounters. Together with his wife, cellist Andrea Grinberg, and violist Sarah Lowenstein, their performances – aside from the exquisite music – engage the audience to share, in a personal manner, the Grinbergs’ interpretation and connection to the music, through discussion, demonstration, and other media.

Following in the footsteps of his community activist parents, Barry and Florence Schleifer (former Baltimoreans who made aliya three years ago), Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer serves our district on the Democratic State Central Committee. He is also vice-president of the Cheswolde Community Association, as well as the Northwest Baltimore liaison to the State Attorney’s office, and on the board of a handful of organizations: his shul, Suburban Orthodox; Hebrew Free Loan Society; the Meyerberg Senior Center; and the Red Cross Young Professionals. In this exclusive WWW “shmooz,” which took place just minutes before Yitzy and his wife Lauren hosted the barbecue for National Night Out (an American and Canadian effort to increase awareness about police programs and other anti-crime efforts), Yitzy shared behind-the-scene insights that show how you and I can help our community benefit from untapped government resources and programs.