As Torah-observant Jews, our desire is to teach each generation to cling onto our etz chaim, and we have established a multitude of day schools and yeshivas to accomplish that goal. To create healthy, wholesome branches within our children, I believe that incorporating the methods and tools of other educational approaches can stoke the flames of real Torah passion even further. I would like to share here some more specialties of Waldorf/Steiner education. As noted in my previous article on Waldorf education, the ideas I have outlined here are separate from Steiner’s general philosophies and beliefs, which are anti-Torah.

Back in 1979, when I moved to Baltimore, Jack’s Grocery was the “in” place to shop. It was a cozy, quaint, heimishe mom-and-pop grocery store, where everything from the freshest produce and canned goods to appetizing and hot take-out food specialties, all within two aisles. The proprietors, Jack and Rose Boehm, a”h, were hardworking, ehrliche, goodhearted Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovakia who worked their way up in America, despite not knowing a word of English when they arrived.

Today was an awesome, incredible, amazing day. As I write these words, and even before I begin, let me remind those of you who may have already forgotten that this was the day of the totally out-of-left-field snowstorm we experienced, beginning on Wednesday afternoon, the sixth day of Chanukah, and continuing into the night, also known as erev Zos Chanukah, a night of miracles for the Jewish people throughout the centuries.

In 2021, we take it for granted that we have day schools for our children to attend. We are hardly surprised when we hear that Bais Yaakov has six or seven parallel classes in each grade. It was not always like that. When I attended Bais Yaakov (I graduated in 1973) there was only one class per grade, and my class had about 17 girls. But, although the school was much smaller, I also took it for granted that I was entitled to attend a Jewish school and get a Torah education.

My sister, Debbie Burnstein, a”h, passed away in December, at the age of 66. Debbie was developmentally challenged and lived in a group home just about her entire life. She was raised in a generation when people didn’t talk about children who had such challenges. They were “put in the closet,” so to speak. But my parents were not like that. Unfortunately, their family and friends did have that mindset, so my parents had it hard. Even our relatives, as wonderful as they were, never called and asked, “How’s Debbie?” or “Where are you putting her?” And my mother was too uncomfortable to tell them that they had to put her in a non-Jewish place.

The date March 2, 2020 looms large in my mind. That is the date of the last occupational therapy mental health group I led, and I have proof: The date is still written on the dry-erase board in the rehab gym.

Since March and the onset of COVID-19, so many changes have occurred at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital in Baltimore, where I work as an OT (occupational therapist). Occupational therapists treat people who are recovering from illness or injury, focusing on ADL (activities of daily living)/IADL (instrumental activities of daily living) as well as cognition and psychological function. I mostly work on the four inpatient Brain Health units, with patients diagnosed with dementia and/or mental illness. I also cover on acute rehab, sub-acute rehab, and the “Households” (similar to assisted living) as needed.

WWW: Let me begin by saying thank you so much for joining us; we appreciate your time. I guess we will jump right in to the most pressing thing on everyone’s mind: COVID. You were just inaugurated. How do you think the city has handled COVID so far, and what do you think you can do better in the future as mayor?

Scott: I think that we have really done a good job of handling COVID thus far, under the leadership of the city health commissioner, Dr. Dzirasa, who is doing a fantastic job. But, yes, there’s always room for improvement. We are, first and foremost, going to continue following the advice of the public health professionals. I also want to say that I feel lucky to be mayor of the city that has 11 hospitals. It has Johns Hopkins, which is leading the world in COVID research. We also have University of Maryland Medical System; we are using them as well to help influence what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.

We’re going to communicate more frequently with the public, and we’re going to try to be more nimble in sending credible messages out into communities. We need to have the well-respected folks in the neighborhoods, including within the Orthodox Jewish community, carry the message so that it is reaching everyone and so that people understand how important this is and trust us as we move through this very trying time – especially as we prepare for the vaccine rollout.

Chaya Milevsky was born in the Jewish ghetto of Shanghai and moved to Cleveland as a baby, before life took her to Mexico, Israel, Toronto, and ultimately Baltimore. Her husband, Rabbi Dr. Uziel Milevsky, zt”l, a musmach of Ner Israel yeshiva, was the former Chief Rabbi of Mexico and founder/lecturer at Ohr Somayach Toronto. Chaya shared her incredible life story with me.

To the Shadchan:

I am divorced and in my 70s now. I have been alone for a long time, and I am thinking about remarrying. I would like to have a companion, someone to do things with, to make life more enjoyable and less lonely. I am financially stable, with the ability to support myself. I am healthy and young looking. Yet, while I am ready and willing to take on the normal responsibilities of married life, I don’t want to be in the position of being caretaker to a seriously ill person. I did that for a long time for a relative and am not willing to do it again. Yet I realize that that is the age when health issues come up. I know that no one has a crystal ball, but I am wondering if you have any wisdom based on your experience with people who married in their senior years as to how to go about it, what to be careful of, etc.

My mother died in childbirth with me at the age of 30. My father remarried one year and a month later, and I acquired a step-mother. There was a lot of shouting in my house growing up and nothing in the way of love. Through the pain and anguish, I knew that I was different. From the youngest age, I felt a hunger for I didn’t know what. I just knew that I wasn’t like my family.

When I was five-and-a-half, we moved to Cook County, Illinois: dirt road and a house that needed a ladder to get to the second floor. There was a cornfield at my backyard. My favorite color was red. I was a monochromatic kid, a red top, and red sneakers all the time. It was my only stability.