The Legacy of Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald

Welcome back to the program. Mom, Zev, Brener with us once again, Si Gluck. He does so much for our community. He's with Amuim with Zaka. You name it, he's there. And we're here to pay tribute to a very special man who also was there for our community. I'm talking about the legendary Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald of Blessed Memory just passed away. A founder of Cam Mugan Aram. Cam Sternberg involved with some intrigue in the cold war with sp with swapping spies but also very much involved in on a day-to-day basis. So, thank you for joining us. No, please uh thank you for having me. I'm sorry that it's for this topic though. No, I'm sorry. It's under the he was I knew Ronnie. I went to Mugan. I had him on the air over the years. Very interesting, very special person. You go back with him even before you were born. Yeah, that's true. And then uh my father started work together for uh over a year in helping cla. So tell us because a lot of people know him, a lot of people that are listening may not be as familiar with him as they should be. So how would you describe Ronnie Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald, a legend? There's no other word to describe a man who literally lived selflessly for everybody else. very very humbled and really truly cared about each and every person that came to him for help and broke every barrier when it came to bringing very very sensitive topics in polyester to the forefront. Now you're involved in dealing with kids at risk and dealing with people of abuse and dealing with runaway kids. You name it, you're there. In a sense, Rabbi Ronnie Greenwood was there even before you got started in this. Yeah. Greenwald was a legend. When I first entered this field about 17 18 years ago, I had sat with Rabbi Greenwald to discuss with him what I was seeing and what I wanted to do and took his guidance and direction. and that's been carrying me for many years up until two years ago when we founded our own organization and he was with us from day one of the chairman of our advisory board and really involved in in many aspects of many cases and you know sleepless nights day and really I mean there's just no words to describe it. Now the Jewish community today, you can talk about you can talk about sexual abuse. You can talk about different kinds of mental illnesses. You can talk about all different issues that wasn't the case 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago. And and a lot of pe times people had issues and dealing with families and dealing with their private lives and there was very few people that you could turn to, but Rabbi Ronnie Greenwell was one of them. Rabbi Ronnie Greenwell broke the barriers of publicly talking about these topics. You know, as long as I can remember and even longer, whether it's the Igua Convention, Torah, Misora, venues, you know, you name it, he was up there. It didn't make it said what needed to be said. He discussed, you know, kids at risk, sexual abuse, addiction, you know, he founded, you know, a school in my academy for girls for, you know, people that the girls had nowhere to go. He always used camp as a method to keep these kids close to him. And he he he went in from the biggest politicians to the biggest to the biggest lifest he knew no barriers. He did not know how to not try to help somebody and he did not shy down when he knew that what he was doing was right. One of the things that I think a lot of people passed through his tutelage was the camps of Ram and Cam Sternberg. Muganavram was for boys. I remember when I was there, it was at Livingston Manor. It was in White Lake. It had a lot of different carnations. Cam Sternberg. I don't know if you went to Cam Mugget of Rum, too. If you did, um, or perhaps you can tell just some interesting stories by Rabbi Ronnie Griml that you heard or experienced. Well, the stories I really can't say because they're mostly going to be confidential. But my wife has been the nurse, one of the nurses in Cam Sternberg for the last seven, eight years. And I can tell you that many times issues came up in camp in the wee hours, early hours of the morning, late hours, at night, and he always got right up on the forefront and dealt with each individual camper as if they were his own child. Many times, taking them back after the summer to live by him, making sure that they had a place to go. I mean, just recently, this past summer, he called me right after camp about a girl that wasn't from for many years and had a child and then decided to become again. And as a single mother, it was very difficult to get this kid into a school. And he called me up and he said, "There's no stopping. This girl, this Jewish nish must be placed in a school. There's nothing anybody can say about it. Whatever the past was is irrelevant." And he fought to nail and barem. This is just one case that I know about where the odds were stacked against. No from school wants to uh take in the product you know of such a relationship and he pushed and pushed and baram got it done and then when I was relaying this story I kept hearing many many more. So he really took an interest in everything he dealt with as if it was his own family. that he certainly did and even though he was getting on in years but from what I understand he didn't slacken off from doing what he did for the cl for the community. I can just safely tell you that I I was on the phone with him yesterday um about 6 pm he had sent me a message to call him uh regarding a new case that came up and he wanted to discuss the details with me and there was no stopping him at all and this is the relationship that we've probably haven't had two to three days that went by in the last I would say two years that we haven't spoken even when he was at or when I was traveling there was always something And uh he really I mean for me for me personally I could say a role model and someone who showed me that you know you have to do what's right even when it might not be popular. No that's certainly the case. And by the way you have seen how the Jewish community has changed where people can deal with issues today which I think is healthy because if you don't want to deal with issues it just gets compounded and it gets worse. and you and I know in your day-to-day work whenever I'm calling you're involved and people calling you from all different kinds of communities and different places where people reside all different problems that that are there whether it's kids at risk and dealing with autopsies and dealing with all kinds of problems you're there that's a sense is the new activism um it really is and it's people you know Rabbi Ronnie Greenbold and people like my father who you know, also does and continue did and continues to do so much for clients role that really taught me and and shaped me and molded it not just for me but for so many people. I mean, my entire, you know, staff has has been very very close, you know, to Rabbi Greenwald and I can't even tell you how many times we've had questions of what to do and the answer is always simple. Paul Ronnie, he'll give us the answer. And it may not be the answer that we were expecting or it may not be the popular answer, but uh that was him. That that's what made him special. Who do you call now? Um that's a good question. I I I really really don't know. I mean, this is the person who broke every mold when it came to these sensitive issues that we deal with. And there's a tremendous void in all of Kasro and all over the globe. I mean, I could tell you stories whether it was in Europe and Asia and in Africa and the United States and Israel and he he somehow had a fingerprint on everything and he had a finger on the pulse. I mean, he kept up with the times and really, you know, age did not mean anything to him. And there was no such thing with him as we have to do it this way because that's the way it was done before. was always looking for new innovative ways to help people, finding new services, new programs, new treatment centers, always on the go, always running. I might add, by the way, we're speaking with S. Gluck, director, executive director of MMU, evaluing with today's abusive situation and other issues that come up very much involved with the Jewish community. His father is Rabbi Edgar Gluck, also an Oscan community leader, who is among his titles is currently the chief rabbi of Galitzia, which he travels to uh as well on a regular basis. Yep, that's very true. So, as we close out, if you had to sum up and say, what is the legacy of Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald, a blessed memory, who just passed away, what would you say his legacy is? to think of every person in pain as if they're your own family and do for them what you would do for your own family whether you know them or not. Now, as we close out, we focused on the Gilas and the and the kindness and the things that he did for the for the community. There's just another book out there about what he did in the Cold War with trading spies. I'm sure you heard about some of the stories. I know you don't have firsthand knowledge, but what do you know about his other activities that he did, the intriguing stuff, the stuff that was of international legend? So, I mean, spending Shabas morning after Davening in Camp Sternberg and having Kesh with the rest of the staff and hearing Rabbi talk about all the different things that he dealt with was something extremely inspiring. And you know, he never really went into much details on various cases. It was always, you know, a good story, but never to the point of breaking anyone's confidence. But what we learned is that while we were coming up with new stories and new problems, it was something that he's already seen one way or another and knew just what to say and how to say it to help to help figure it out. But uh you know it's there was never a week that we didn't hear something new that we uh were not completely amazed by the amazing work that him and I have to mention I mean his wife who is extremely extremely close to us. I know my wife very very close to her and and all of his children that are involved in in in having schools and involved in their own communities. Indonesia you've been involved everybody knows is involved in tremendous amounts of ais you know a girl cemetery there boy also he's really you can tell who somebody is by their family and the people around them and this is somebody that really was special that he certainly was and we're going to miss him I want to thank it sweet luck for taking time out of your busy schedule to give us a little glimpse into the personality The life of Rabbi Ronald Greenwald, the blessed memory, a founder of Cam Smuggen of Ram and Cam Sternberg involved a lot of work helping people in need. Also involved in spy swaps and other things that I'm sure more stories will come out in the next days and weeks and months. Speak luck. Thank you for joining us. We should speak for some. Thank you very much. Amazing. We're going to be right back. Don't go away. Stay tuned.