My father-in-law, a”h, was for many years the chairman of the board of Yeshiva Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch. My mother-in-law, a”h, was also enormously involved in the Breuers kehillah. I’m not sure I can identify a couple as dedicated to, and involved in, their kehillah as they were, and that’s been a tremendous influence on me.
And Rabbi Grunblatt?
Rabbi Grunblatt was the consummate pulpit rabbi. He was a tremendous talmid chacham and also one of the most sensitive and caring individuals I’ve ever met.
Just watching him day and night do what he did – most of it under the radar with very few people even knowing the extent of the maasim tovim that he did – was a huge inspiration to generations of congregants.
He was just a remarkable human being and a remarkable rabbi.
He asked you to become president of the shul, correct?
Yes, it’s something he asked me to do and you didn’t say no to rabbi Grunblatt.
But I was very hesitant, since becoming president would mean my inability to sit next to my two young sons during davening. And his response to me was that it would be a more important lesson for my sons to see me sitting at the front of the shul and all that that entailed than my sitting next to them during davening.
It’s interesting he said that because many people today believe spending time away from one’s children, even for a worthy cause, is deleterious.
I think one of the most important lessons we can teach our children is the importance of being an osek b’tzarchei tzibbur. Not to the exclusion, by any means, of family obligations or our obligations to be koveia itim. But the importance of communal activity, especially in the times we’re currently living in, is enormous.
Can you elaborate?
Look at the shocking statistics of the Pew Report. It is a huge motivation for us at the OU, recognizing how American Jewry is being decimated right before our eyes.
And if there is a fundamental mission on the non-kashrus side of the OU, it really is in many respects to reverse, or at least to minimize, the effects that are represented in the conclusions of the Pew Report.
The vast majority of our program dollars go to NCSY and to its kiruv and chizuk activities. We’re dealing with thousands and thousands of teens all across the country with really significant success. This past December, we had a yarchei kallah that was attended by about 300 public school teens who gave up their winter break to come to the east coast and learn together for a week. For many of them it was the first taste of Torah they had ever had.
We’re now the third or fourth largest Birthright provider in the United States. And we supplement it with OU funds to make certain that it is not just seeing the sites. We have a strong educational component, and a large percentage of the teens we bring on birthright programs stay in Israel to participate in learning programs.
And yet, the statistics in the Pew Report portray a very dim future.
True, but we must never lose hope.
The Gemara in Yoma relates an incident involving Shimon HaTzaddik, who was the kohen gadol. One year, he gathered all his students and told them he was going to die that year. How did he know?
The Gemara explains that each year on Yom Kippur when Shimon HaTzaddik entered the Kodesh Hakodashim he would see a vision of a man dressed solely in white accompanying him into the Kodesh Hakodashim and exiting with him. This year, he explained to his students, this vision was absent and in its stead he saw a man dressed in black burial shrouds. Based on this vision he knew he was going to die.