Chabad Reclaims Baltimore Key

By Neil Rubin, Baltimore Jewish Times

The mayor was late and the Previous Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch movement needed to leave for his next appointment.

But the political winds finally swept in Baltimore Mayor William Frederick Broening.

The problem: The politician had embarrassingly misplaced the fabled key to the city, which he was to hand to the internationally recognized Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.

That was Jan. 16, 1930 — 80 years ago this week.

But last Monday, Jan. 11, that small blot on the city government’s record was finally wiped clean as Mayor Sheila Dixon presented the missing item to a delegation of Chabad rabbis.

“So I’m told that you’ve been waiting 80 years to receive the key to the city,” she told Head Chabad Shliach of Maryland Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan and rabbis Elchanan Lisbon, Zev Gopin, Levi Druk and Velvel Belinsky.

“As you know, due to history the key is probably worth a lot more now, but taxes are higher, too, and this doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay them,” the mayor joked.

Rabbi Kaplan, who noted that a Chabad congregation first opened here in 1889, said that ironically had the previous Chabad leader been given the key, it might have been lost in the Holocaust.

This one, however, would be sent to Chabad Lubavitch Library in New York City with an explanation and a picture from the ceremony.

The event, held in the mayor’s lavish ceremonial room on City Hall’s second floor, also honored the next Chabad Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. 60 years ago this month, he took over the leadership of Chabad from his father-in-law.

As a result, Ms. Dixon declared the next two months — leading up to what would have been the late spiritual leader’s 109th birthday — “60 Days of Goodness and Kindness” in Baltimore.

As part of that effort, Rabbi Gopin, Director of Chabad of Johns Hopkins and Central Baltimore, gave the opening benediction for the City Council meeting later in the day.

The mayor noted that she was “impressed by what Chabad means, which is wisdom, understanding and knowledge. It’s interesting because the focus of my prayers for the past eight months was wisdom, understanding and knowledge.”

After a deal made with prosecutors last week, the mayor will step down from her position Feb. 4, which follows a conviction of keeping gift cards intended for the poor.

At one point, Councilwoman Rochelle “Rikki” Spector (D-5th) helped guide the mayor through the correct Hebrew pronunciation of Chabad. With the lesson quickly learned, the councilwoman quipped, “You’ll be a Chabadnik yet.”

Ms. Spector helped arrange the event with Betsy Gardner, the mayor’s Jewish community liaison.

The politician, who was chatting in Yiddish with the rabbis prior to the ceremony, tied together the past and the present in her comments.

“Part of my growing up was the expression that in order to know where you are going you have to know where you have come from,” said Ms. Spector. “Today, this brings me back to that.”

Rabbi Gopin, however, had the last word. In thanking the mayor, he said, “This is very meaningful for us. History has come full circle.”