Recently, I was leafing through Mishpacha magazine. Among the articles was one entitled “Guardians of the City.” It summarized the lives of rabbis who arrived in America when it was still a spiritual wasteland. The article suggests that, during our vacation time, we take a road trip to visit the kevarim of almost forgotten Torah leaders in quaint locations around North America.

The first “hidden giant” was Rav Michoel Eliezer Forshlager,1884-1958, who is buried right here in Baltimore’s B’nai Israel Cemetery. I have seen how, over the years, his grave has been turned into a shrine, with place for candles to be lit by those who go there to pray. Rav Forshlager is buried in the same row as my wife Feigi’s father, Chester Siegel, in a section of this large cemetery reserved for shomrei Shabbos.

Although we are now far into sefer Bereishis, I am writing this in the week of parshas Noach, which brings back a memory that I want to share.

We are living in interesting times. As I walked to shul over Yom Tov, I rejoiced seeing so many observant young families passing by. The sight of a mother and father pushing a baby carriage, accompanied by a number of small children was the norm. Recently, I have been davening at Shomrei Mishmeres Hakodesh, whose Rav and Rebbetzin, Chaim and Devorah Schwartz, are welcoming and where the davening is inspiring and the weekly kiddush cholent delicious. The new shul is almost complete and the mikvah for Shabbos and Yom Tov use in the Cheswolde neighborhood is soon to open. Although I belong to three other shuls, Rabbi Schwartz is only a block-and-a-half from my home. It is not as easy for me to walk to Shomrei, although not so many years ago, I could walk six miles to Randallstown every Shabbos.

As the years pass, I am thrilled to see the fantastic growth of the Baltimore community. We see a plethora of new shuls opening and existing shuls building enlarged edifices. We see new schools opening to accommodate the exponential growth of our school-age population and the proliferation of new restaurants. I remember when going out to eat meant going to Liebes Delicatessen.

Several months ago, our daughter Shani called and suggested we visit my sister Elsie Blum. Shani had learned that my 93-year-old only surviving sibling had gone through a difficult medical situation and was now recovered. Elsie lives in a retirement community in Fort Worth, Texas. Shani made all the arrangements and insisted on covering all the costs. She drove up from her home in Richmond, Virginia, and we flew out of BWI on a Sunday and returned Monday. It was a wonderful opportunity to visit our Fort Worth family and to spend quality time with my sister. Shani got especially close to her family as she attended LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for a semester and visited the Blums. Elsie has always been close to us and came to all our family simchas.

Sadly, as time goes by and I think back to the people who played a role in my life, I don’t know if I really appreciated all of them. This article is a way to show hakaras hatov to someone who was significant in my early years.

In the 1960s, ehen I came up north from Montgomery, Alabama, for yeshiva, I learned, for the first time, that a large share of my fellow students were children of Holocaust survivors. Indeed, the renaissance of Orthodox Jewry is, to a very great extent, due to the impact of those survivors.

In the town where I grew up, there were hardly any Holocaust survivors. I recall Eric Knurr, who came from Germany. He was actually a relative of the Kranzlers of Baltimore. Mrs. Kranzler, a”h, told me he was a physician in Germany and came from a distinguished family. But aside from knowing his two children, Werner and Evelyn, I do not recall him being active in the shul, due to his owning a small grocery store. There may have been one or two other people who came because of the war, but I do not recall them.

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.

A benefit of writing articles for the Where What When is the opportunity to meet interesting people. Recently, Rabbi Dovid Katz asked me to interview one such person, Yair Halevy, who was in Baltimore garnering support for Yeshivat Shavei Chevron. When he is not abroad working for the yeshiva, he is doing post-doctoral work on “Chareidim in Israeli Culture.” Yair has a Ph.D. in Jewish history and thought from Hebrew University. This sounded like an unusual and intriguing combination, and I learned a lot from getting to know him.

Yair told me that he has been coming to Baltimore for 10 years, and he spent over a week here. Perhaps it shows how large and diverse Baltimore is that I had never heard of him before. I asked him his impression of our Jewish community. His response was the same as I have heard from others: “People in Baltimore ‘notnim et halev’; they give their heart.” He and others have told me that they are impressed with the kavod and derech eretz shown to them in Baltimore. “Maybe there are some cities where we raise more money, but Baltimore is tops when it comes to ahavat Yisrael,” he said.