Chabad Lubavitch of Baltimore, at 6701 Old Pimlico Road, has received Baltimore County’s approval to build a 3,600-square-foot addition on the site of an existing playground.
But the synagogue’s Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan said there are no immediate plans to activate the plan. “It’s too early to know if we will build,” he said. “We have to do fund raising first.”
Don Rascoe, of the county’s Department of Permits and Development, said the congregation came to the county several times with versions of the addition proposal. “We agreed to a refinement of a previously approved plan,” he said.
The initial plan was submitted in October 2008. Paul Abrams, a neighbor, said he received a letter from the county informing him of a hearing. Mr. Abrams said he and about eight other neighbors raised questions about the plan and met with Rabbi Kaplan and his wife, Rochelle.
Mr. Abrams said his neighbors were satisfied with the Kaplans’ plan, but he was not.
Another hearing was held last January. County Deputy Zoning Commissioner Thomas Bostwick heard testimony about the plan for a 11⁄2-story addition that would be connected to the main building via a covered hallway. The plan required an amendment to the existing zoning, which Mr. Bostwick subsequently approved.
Mr. Abrams said he attended this hearing and protested the plan, which in his opinion would disrupt the neighborhood. He also brought up the issue of parking, saying the synagogue has a small parking lot that would not accommodate additional activities. No appeals were filed regarding Mr. Bostwick’s decision within the required 30 days.
Mrs. Kaplan said the addition is 11⁄2 stories because of the topography of the land. On the lower level, she said, there would be a social hall and on the main level an adult ed center.
Showing posts with label Baltimore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baltimore. Show all posts
Friday, June 05, 2009
Friday, December 26, 2008
Celebrating Rabbi Feldman
A tribute to the late Rabbi Mendel Feldman.
Kenneth Lasson
Special to the Jewish Times
By almost any measure that truly counts, Rabbi Mendel Feldman — who died on Dec. 13 in Sydney, Australia, at the age of 93 — was a remarkable man.
The details of his upbringing do not presage what he meant to those of us who knew him well. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., studied at Yeshivat Tomchei Temimim under the previous Lubavitcher rebbe, went to Mesivta Torah Vodaas, and assumed his first pulpit in Jacksonville, Fla.
In 1958, when the revered Rabbi Simon Schwab left Baltimore’s Shearith Israel Congregation (locally known as “the Glen Avenue Shul”) for a similarly prestigious post in the German-Jewish community of Washington Heights, N.Y., Rabbi Feldman was chosen to succeed him.
On paper, the two rabbis could hardly have stood in starker contrast. Rabbi Schwab, classically trained and erudite but speaking barely a word of English, had fled Frankfurt, Germany, at the beginning of the Holocaust; Rabbi Feldman, a staunch Lubavitcher and American, a handball player and New York Giants fan, a talmudic scholar, was ebullient and plain-spoken.
But both were exceptionally charismatic, each able to establish a lasting and loving rapport with most of their congregants.
Rabbi Feldman enjoyed an even longer tenure at Shearith Israel, almost a quarter-century, before establishing a new shul, Ahavas Yisroel Tzemach Tzedek (aka “Rabbi Feldman’s Shul”), farther up Park Heights Avenue. He retired after his wife, Rochel, passed away, and immigrated to Australia to be near his son, now Rav Pinchas Feldman, chief Chabad rabbi of New South Wales.
But none of those facts reflect the essential character and humanity of Rabbi Mendel Feldman.
An Abiding Faith
Rabbi Feldman cultivated friendships like flowers, with a quiet sensitivity, and they became permanent by mutual affection.
My friendship with Rabbi Feldman began when I was a teenager, with private classes for me and my friend, Jerry Zuriff, held in the small room behind the main sanctuary at Shearith Israel. Those sessions, punctuated by college and graduate school, continued in different permutations for many years.
Most recently, they were in my home, where every Thursday afternoon, Steve Grossman and I would meet with Rabbi Feldman to learn for an hour.
We had our own rituals of choice. Rabbi Feldman would hold forth over his favorite scotch and a bowlful of nuts. Steve drank beer, I had iced tea, and the three of us analyzed and debated a variety of texts and commentaries, including Shir HaShirim (the Song of Songs), Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) and Mishlei (Proverbs).
More often than not, the conversations devolved into a passionate discussion of faith and the existence of God.
Rabbi Feldman’s faith was abiding, but intellectual as well. He had no explanation for the Holocaust, but he could not bring himself to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In this regard, too, he was simple but profound: You can’t be a true believer, he said, unless you have doubts.
His knowledge of Talmud was encyclopedic. The rabbi respected all points of view, but defended both Orthodoxy and minhagim (customs) with equal fervor, meticulous in his own observance but unusually tolerant of those less so. He constantly preached achdus (togetherness), disdaining communal divisions of all kinds. But he disliked hypocrisy, especially when it came to kashrut.
He loved nature, coming every spring to my backyard to recite the blessing over new fruit blossoms, and once laughing with delight as he planted seeds in the garden himself. He liked to read National Geographic, which nurtured his belief that all creatures and human beings are made by God.
Thus, he had a kind word for everyone, making a point of saying hello to all who passed in the street on his daily walks to and from shul, including — if not especially — postal workers and other non-Jews.
He celebrated the yomin tovim with the gusto one might expect from a Lubavitcher Chasid. On Chanukah, he handed out silver dollars to children in shul. On Purim, he held court at his dining room table. With the steady parade of friends and disciples, there was really no difference between them for him, as they stopped by for a drink and words of wisdom.
Every fall, he made the long walk to our sukkah so he could make Kiddush from a large wine cup reserved exclusively for him.
Through it all, over a half-century in Baltimore, his over-arching qualities were genuine humility and essential kindness.
In all those years, I never heard him speak ill of anyone. I doubt others did either.
May his memory be a blessing.
Kenneth Lasson is a law professor at the University of Baltimore and an occasional writer for the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES
Kenneth Lasson
Special to the Jewish Times
By almost any measure that truly counts, Rabbi Mendel Feldman — who died on Dec. 13 in Sydney, Australia, at the age of 93 — was a remarkable man.
The details of his upbringing do not presage what he meant to those of us who knew him well. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., studied at Yeshivat Tomchei Temimim under the previous Lubavitcher rebbe, went to Mesivta Torah Vodaas, and assumed his first pulpit in Jacksonville, Fla.
In 1958, when the revered Rabbi Simon Schwab left Baltimore’s Shearith Israel Congregation (locally known as “the Glen Avenue Shul”) for a similarly prestigious post in the German-Jewish community of Washington Heights, N.Y., Rabbi Feldman was chosen to succeed him.
On paper, the two rabbis could hardly have stood in starker contrast. Rabbi Schwab, classically trained and erudite but speaking barely a word of English, had fled Frankfurt, Germany, at the beginning of the Holocaust; Rabbi Feldman, a staunch Lubavitcher and American, a handball player and New York Giants fan, a talmudic scholar, was ebullient and plain-spoken.
But both were exceptionally charismatic, each able to establish a lasting and loving rapport with most of their congregants.
Rabbi Feldman enjoyed an even longer tenure at Shearith Israel, almost a quarter-century, before establishing a new shul, Ahavas Yisroel Tzemach Tzedek (aka “Rabbi Feldman’s Shul”), farther up Park Heights Avenue. He retired after his wife, Rochel, passed away, and immigrated to Australia to be near his son, now Rav Pinchas Feldman, chief Chabad rabbi of New South Wales.
But none of those facts reflect the essential character and humanity of Rabbi Mendel Feldman.
An Abiding Faith
Rabbi Feldman cultivated friendships like flowers, with a quiet sensitivity, and they became permanent by mutual affection.
My friendship with Rabbi Feldman began when I was a teenager, with private classes for me and my friend, Jerry Zuriff, held in the small room behind the main sanctuary at Shearith Israel. Those sessions, punctuated by college and graduate school, continued in different permutations for many years.
Most recently, they were in my home, where every Thursday afternoon, Steve Grossman and I would meet with Rabbi Feldman to learn for an hour.
We had our own rituals of choice. Rabbi Feldman would hold forth over his favorite scotch and a bowlful of nuts. Steve drank beer, I had iced tea, and the three of us analyzed and debated a variety of texts and commentaries, including Shir HaShirim (the Song of Songs), Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) and Mishlei (Proverbs).
More often than not, the conversations devolved into a passionate discussion of faith and the existence of God.
Rabbi Feldman’s faith was abiding, but intellectual as well. He had no explanation for the Holocaust, but he could not bring himself to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In this regard, too, he was simple but profound: You can’t be a true believer, he said, unless you have doubts.
His knowledge of Talmud was encyclopedic. The rabbi respected all points of view, but defended both Orthodoxy and minhagim (customs) with equal fervor, meticulous in his own observance but unusually tolerant of those less so. He constantly preached achdus (togetherness), disdaining communal divisions of all kinds. But he disliked hypocrisy, especially when it came to kashrut.
He loved nature, coming every spring to my backyard to recite the blessing over new fruit blossoms, and once laughing with delight as he planted seeds in the garden himself. He liked to read National Geographic, which nurtured his belief that all creatures and human beings are made by God.
Thus, he had a kind word for everyone, making a point of saying hello to all who passed in the street on his daily walks to and from shul, including — if not especially — postal workers and other non-Jews.
He celebrated the yomin tovim with the gusto one might expect from a Lubavitcher Chasid. On Chanukah, he handed out silver dollars to children in shul. On Purim, he held court at his dining room table. With the steady parade of friends and disciples, there was really no difference between them for him, as they stopped by for a drink and words of wisdom.
Every fall, he made the long walk to our sukkah so he could make Kiddush from a large wine cup reserved exclusively for him.
Through it all, over a half-century in Baltimore, his over-arching qualities were genuine humility and essential kindness.
In all those years, I never heard him speak ill of anyone. I doubt others did either.
May his memory be a blessing.
Kenneth Lasson is a law professor at the University of Baltimore and an occasional writer for the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Indian forces end attacks
Former Loyola professor, daughter among terrorists' victims
From Sun staff and news services
November 29, 2008
MUMBAI, India
The coordinated terrorist attacks in India's financial capital ended today, with a former Loyola College professor and his daughter among the at least 195 people killed.
Orange flames and black smoke engulfed the landmark 400-room Taj Mahal hotel after dawn as Indian forces ended the siege in a hail of gunfire, just hours after elite commandos stormed a Jewish center and found six hostages dead.
"The Taj operation is over. The last two terrorists holed up there have been killed," Mumbai Police Chief Hasan Ghafoor told the Associated Press. Earlier, two suspected terrorists were killed and more than 140 hostages freed at the Oberoi, the other hotel that was targeted. Officials said the death toll rose to 195 as more bodies were discovered after commandos ended the siege on a luxury hotel.
Alan Scherr, 58, a former photography teacher at Loyola, and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, members of a spiritual community visiting from Faber, Va., were among at least 15 foreigners, including five Americans, who died during the attacks, Indian authorities said. Scherr and his daughter were killed while they were dining with friends at the Oberoi hotel's restaurant.
The two Americans were in Mumbai on a meditation retreat along with more than 20 other followers of the spiritual Synchronicity movement and its guru, Charles Cannon.
Before moving to Synchronicity's Central Virginia ashram with his wife, Kia, in the mid-1990s, Scherr lived in Silver Spring, according to property records. For six years he taught photography at Loyola's campus in North Baltimore, a college official said.
A brief biography attached to a New Age Web site article written by Scherr says he also taught art at the University of Maryland, but officials there could not confirm that yesterday.
"Alan committed most of his adult life to meditation, spirituality and conscious living," officials with the Synchronicity Foundation, which runs the ashram, said in a statement. "He was a passionate Vedic astrologer and meditation teacher."
Two other Americans and two Canadians on the retreat were injured, though most of the other members were barricaded in their hotel rooms after the shooting began and were rescued by authorities, said Bobbie Garvey, the ashram's managing director.
Kia Scherr did not travel to India; yesterday, hundreds of well-wishers from across the globe left messages of support for her on a tribute Web site, alanandnaomi.com.
Garvey said Naomi wanted to travel to India to learn about the ashram's roots, and she planned to write about her experiences as part of her application to a boarding school.
Also among those confirmed dead yesterday were six hostages, most of them believed to be Jews. Their bodies were removed from a Chabad Lubavitch Jewish outreach complex in the city, known as Nariman House, after Indian commando units stormed the attackers inside the building and ended the standoff there.
The terrorists had executed the hostages during the commando raid, the military said, adding that two attackers had also been killed. A rabbi from Brooklyn, N.Y., Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivka, were among the dead.
Holtzberg's sister and brother-in-law, who live in Park Heights, traveled this week to be with relatives in Israel, where Rivka was from, according to Chabad rabbis in Baltimore.
The couple's toddler son, Moshe Holtzberg, was smuggled out of the center by an employee and is now with his grandparents.
In the most remarkable of the counterstrikes yesterday morning, masked Indian commandos rappelled from a helicopter to the rooftop of the Chabad Lubavitch center as snipers laid down cover fire.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel's Channel 1 TV that the bodies of three women and three men had been found at the center. Some of the victims had been bound, Barak said. "All in all, it was a difficult spectacle," he said.
Local media reports, quoting top military officials, said two gunmen were found dead in the building.
Chabad Lubavitch is an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group that runs outreach centers in far-flung areas of the globe. The center in Mumbai served as a synagogue and cultural center for crowds of Israeli tourists and the small local Jewish community, the group said.
News of the Holtzbergs' deaths reverberated yesterday throughout Baltimore's ultra-Orthodox community, and local rabbis said they were struggling to find an inspirational message for this morning's Shabbat services.
"I really haven't decided what I'm going to say," said Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, Chabad's regional director in Maryland. "I do want to emphasize that we have been taught and trained that when tragedies happen we have to find the inner resources not just to overcome, but to begin again."
Kaplan said the Chabad outreach movement would return to Mumbai and send new shluchim, or representatives, there. "We will not let the evil overcome us," Kaplan said.
The Taj Mahal hotel was racked by hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions yesterday, even though authorities had said earlier that they had cleared it of gunmen.
Indian forces kept up a counterattack with grenades and gunfire on what authorities believed were one or two militants holed up in the ballroom. An hour after dawn, as the two sides traded gunfire, flames erupted and smoke billowed from several windows on the building's ground floor. Officials later declared the standoff over.
Meanwhile, authorities were working to find out who was behind the attacks, claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen.
President George W. Bush said the U.S. was working with India and other nations to uncover who was responsible. An FBI team was heading to India to help with the investigation, U.S. officials said.
India's foreign minister said clues appeared to point to Pakistan.
"According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks," Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.
Indian Home Minister Jaiprakash Jaiswal said a captured gunman had been identified as a Pakistani. Patil, the Maharashtra state official, said: "It is very clear that the terrorists are from Pakistan. We have enough evidence that they are from Pakistan."
Earlier yesterday, Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar denied involvement by his country.
Hoping to head off a crisis between the two nuclear-armed nations, officials in Islamabad agreed to send Pakistan's spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, to India to help investigate the attacks.
Baltimore Sun reporter Gadi Dechter contributed to this article.
From Sun staff and news services
November 29, 2008
MUMBAI, India
The coordinated terrorist attacks in India's financial capital ended today, with a former Loyola College professor and his daughter among the at least 195 people killed.
Orange flames and black smoke engulfed the landmark 400-room Taj Mahal hotel after dawn as Indian forces ended the siege in a hail of gunfire, just hours after elite commandos stormed a Jewish center and found six hostages dead.
"The Taj operation is over. The last two terrorists holed up there have been killed," Mumbai Police Chief Hasan Ghafoor told the Associated Press. Earlier, two suspected terrorists were killed and more than 140 hostages freed at the Oberoi, the other hotel that was targeted. Officials said the death toll rose to 195 as more bodies were discovered after commandos ended the siege on a luxury hotel.
Alan Scherr, 58, a former photography teacher at Loyola, and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, members of a spiritual community visiting from Faber, Va., were among at least 15 foreigners, including five Americans, who died during the attacks, Indian authorities said. Scherr and his daughter were killed while they were dining with friends at the Oberoi hotel's restaurant.
The two Americans were in Mumbai on a meditation retreat along with more than 20 other followers of the spiritual Synchronicity movement and its guru, Charles Cannon.
Before moving to Synchronicity's Central Virginia ashram with his wife, Kia, in the mid-1990s, Scherr lived in Silver Spring, according to property records. For six years he taught photography at Loyola's campus in North Baltimore, a college official said.
A brief biography attached to a New Age Web site article written by Scherr says he also taught art at the University of Maryland, but officials there could not confirm that yesterday.
"Alan committed most of his adult life to meditation, spirituality and conscious living," officials with the Synchronicity Foundation, which runs the ashram, said in a statement. "He was a passionate Vedic astrologer and meditation teacher."
Two other Americans and two Canadians on the retreat were injured, though most of the other members were barricaded in their hotel rooms after the shooting began and were rescued by authorities, said Bobbie Garvey, the ashram's managing director.
Kia Scherr did not travel to India; yesterday, hundreds of well-wishers from across the globe left messages of support for her on a tribute Web site, alanandnaomi.com.
Garvey said Naomi wanted to travel to India to learn about the ashram's roots, and she planned to write about her experiences as part of her application to a boarding school.
Also among those confirmed dead yesterday were six hostages, most of them believed to be Jews. Their bodies were removed from a Chabad Lubavitch Jewish outreach complex in the city, known as Nariman House, after Indian commando units stormed the attackers inside the building and ended the standoff there.
The terrorists had executed the hostages during the commando raid, the military said, adding that two attackers had also been killed. A rabbi from Brooklyn, N.Y., Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivka, were among the dead.
Holtzberg's sister and brother-in-law, who live in Park Heights, traveled this week to be with relatives in Israel, where Rivka was from, according to Chabad rabbis in Baltimore.
The couple's toddler son, Moshe Holtzberg, was smuggled out of the center by an employee and is now with his grandparents.
In the most remarkable of the counterstrikes yesterday morning, masked Indian commandos rappelled from a helicopter to the rooftop of the Chabad Lubavitch center as snipers laid down cover fire.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel's Channel 1 TV that the bodies of three women and three men had been found at the center. Some of the victims had been bound, Barak said. "All in all, it was a difficult spectacle," he said.
Local media reports, quoting top military officials, said two gunmen were found dead in the building.
Chabad Lubavitch is an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group that runs outreach centers in far-flung areas of the globe. The center in Mumbai served as a synagogue and cultural center for crowds of Israeli tourists and the small local Jewish community, the group said.
News of the Holtzbergs' deaths reverberated yesterday throughout Baltimore's ultra-Orthodox community, and local rabbis said they were struggling to find an inspirational message for this morning's Shabbat services.
"I really haven't decided what I'm going to say," said Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, Chabad's regional director in Maryland. "I do want to emphasize that we have been taught and trained that when tragedies happen we have to find the inner resources not just to overcome, but to begin again."
Kaplan said the Chabad outreach movement would return to Mumbai and send new shluchim, or representatives, there. "We will not let the evil overcome us," Kaplan said.
The Taj Mahal hotel was racked by hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions yesterday, even though authorities had said earlier that they had cleared it of gunmen.
Indian forces kept up a counterattack with grenades and gunfire on what authorities believed were one or two militants holed up in the ballroom. An hour after dawn, as the two sides traded gunfire, flames erupted and smoke billowed from several windows on the building's ground floor. Officials later declared the standoff over.
Meanwhile, authorities were working to find out who was behind the attacks, claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen.
President George W. Bush said the U.S. was working with India and other nations to uncover who was responsible. An FBI team was heading to India to help with the investigation, U.S. officials said.
India's foreign minister said clues appeared to point to Pakistan.
"According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks," Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.
Indian Home Minister Jaiprakash Jaiswal said a captured gunman had been identified as a Pakistani. Patil, the Maharashtra state official, said: "It is very clear that the terrorists are from Pakistan. We have enough evidence that they are from Pakistan."
Earlier yesterday, Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar denied involvement by his country.
Hoping to head off a crisis between the two nuclear-armed nations, officials in Islamabad agreed to send Pakistan's spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, to India to help investigate the attacks.
Baltimore Sun reporter Gadi Dechter contributed to this article.
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