Here’s a classic riddle about foreign language learning:

What do you call someone who is fluent in two languages? (Bilingual)

What do you call someone who is fluent in many languages? (Multilingual)

What do you call someone who knows only one language? 

American! 

Rav Yitzchak Blaser, often called Rav Itzele Peterberger, is usually considered the most prominent of the disciples of Rav Yisrael Salanter and is the source of most of the writings attributed to Rav Yisrael. Rav Itzele wrote several works, Ohr Yisrael, Kochavei Ohr, and Nesivos Ohr, which he states are comprised completely of the thoughts and opinions he learned directly from Rav Yisrael.

Aside from the many articles that Rav Itzele published in various rabbinic journals, his primary published work is called Pri Yitzchak. At the time he published the first volume of this work, he had no children, and he was the only surviving descendant of his father. Rav Itzele had two brothers, both prominent talmidei chachamim and rabbanim. Unfortunately, both passed away as young men without progeny.

Today I interviewed Ariel Goodman, owner of Pikesville Remodeling.

 How did you start your business, Pikesville Remodeling?

 When I was in fourth grade, our house was being remodeled. When I came home from school each day, I would play with the extra construction materials and look around at everything as it was being built. As I got older, I learned to work with my hands and got involved with carpentry and construction. At the beginning of my career, I worked for a carpentry company in Owings Mills. I learned many skills on the job and got my license. Soon after I got my license, I started my own company, Pikesville Remodeling.

If I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me in the past two years whether, and how, campus life has changed since October 7^th, I could probably retire from the very work that brought me to the campus in the first place.

But I wouldn’t. The task feels too vital.

Since that dark day, there have been shifts. Some are visible from the outside. Many are subtle and internal. And the truth is more complex than the headlines appearing on Jewish news sites and WhatsApp groups.

There are certainly students like Taylor, a young woman from a secular background who, almost overnight, became a fierce campus advocate. She tracks every incident of antisemitism from fellow students, professors, and administrators. Her documentation has been used by major national organizations. She has become, in some respects, an avatar of Jewish student activism.

Dear Rabbi Beren,

I’ve had children, both boys and girls, go through mainstream Jewish schools; some were bullied, some not. What I’ve seen is that when a child is bullied and perceived negatively, that perception becomes very powerful. You can’t just change one person’s mind; you have to change how a whole group thinks. How is it possible to shift a perception that so many people share and that seems completely set in stone?

Dovid

It’s that time of the year again when donuts will soon be everywhere. Those luscious and creamy confections will be in abundance as far as the eye can see. Large boxes, whose mysterious contents are hidden from view, will appear in the schools where I work. Grocery stores will display them with tongs at the ready to plunk into waiting boxes. My mouth waters just thinking about biting into a soft, fresh donut – something that is forbidden to me.

I haven’t had a donut since last Chanukah, and I’m proud of my year-long hiatus. Intellectually, I know that eating a donut can make me sick. Psychologically, I know that eating one donut is like eating one potato chip, and I’ve only met one person in my entire life who can pull off such a feat. I’m better off not indulging in any soft and creamy cravings, but it will be hard when I go grocery shopping and see wall-to-wall donuts. It won’t take much to convince me that eating them would be a festive thing to do.

My father, Henry Hausdorff, z”l, had a very heavy and cumbersome menorah. Made of solid brass and estimated to be 200 to 250 years old, based on some research, it might be a museum piece. Over 35 years ago, I saw a display of similar ones in in Tel Aviv at the ANU – Museum of the Jewish People (formerly the Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora.) Back then, those menorahs were valued between $800 to $1,200! Current values begin at $3,000, with more intricate ones valued much more.

According to that display, the menorahs were made in Poland. This makes me chuckle since Dad’s paternal family was very proud of their German ancestry. (Actually, the family roots can be traced to Posen, which was the Prussian name of the Polish town of Poznan, when it was part of East Prussia – from about 1815 until after World War I.)

Back to Dad’s menorah: Following his petira, I put the menorah on top of a tall bookcase in our house. We never used it. Dad’s menorah stayed on the bookcase, slowly accumulating a thick layer of dust.

Sarah Bickford is a young member of our community, a former Bais Yaakov student and former teacher at the JCC and Khal Chasidim childcare programs. Tamar Schulman, director of Khal Chassidim daycare said that Sarah is a much beloved, creative, and thrifty teacher.

Unfortunately, Sarah cannot work anymore. After a severe illness, her kidneys no longer function properly, and she must spend most of her time taking care of her health. Sarah’s diet is very restricted, and she is often very tired and weak. To stay alive, she must go to dialysis three times a week for three-and-a-half hours each time. If the kidneys are not working properly, the dialysis machine does the kidneys’ job of filtering the blood and removing waste products from the body.

Sarah has been accepted into a program at John Hopkins Hospital Transplant Center, which means she will be able to receive kidney if one becomes available. This could take from two to seven years according to the doctors. She must always be prepared to receive a kidney if a suitable donor is found. She works with a nurse transplant coordinator to make sure she is prepared.

Beth Abraham shul, affectionally known as “Hertzberg’s,” is tucked away on a small side street, a simple brick-faced building set back on a green lawn. You could pass it by without ever guessing its history and unique personality among the shuls of Baltimore.

I had the opportunity to interview Mrs. Chava Rosenfeld, the daughter of its first rav, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech, zt”l, and Mrs. Nechama Shifra, a”h, Hertzberg. I was interested to hear from Mrs. Rosenfeld about her parents, her shul, and how life has changed since she was a girl growing up in Forest Park.

Naomi Shabtai dedicated 24 years of her professional life to the Kennedy Krieger Institute, serving as a Service Coordinator for the Kodem Kol program through the Baltimore Infants and Toddlers Program. Her work was not just a career – it was a calling rooted in her deep commitment to her community.

As a proud member of Baltimore’s Orthodox Jewish community, Naomi understood firsthand the unique needs and cultural sensitivities of the families she served. In 2002, she was approached by her program supervisors with a visionary task: to launch the Kodem Kol program, designed specifically to support Orthodox Jewish families in Baltimore City. At the time, this community was significantly underrepresented in referrals. Thanks to a grant from the Maryland State Department of Education, Naomi took the helm and built the program from the ground up. Her leadership, cultural insight, and unwavering dedication made Kodem Kol a trusted and vital resource.

Naomi made a profound difference in the lives of the families and children she served. Her compassion, advocacy, and tireless efforts helped countless families access the support they needed, often during their most vulnerable moments.