May 2003 - נִיסָן .. אִיָּר תשס״ג Nisan..Iyyar 5763

On Friday evening May 2nd, my rabbi, Rabbi Barry H. Greene will be honored before becoming emeritus of my family's synagogue, Congregation B'nai Jeshurun. (When Shai was born, I was a student rabbi there, and Shai was 6th generation of Manhoffs that we can trace at that synagogue.) I will be there to honor my friend and teacher on that evening. This is the acknowledgment that I wrote for his tribute book.

Rabbi Greene is my mentor. I had many wonderful rabbinic role models including, Rabbi Pilchik, z"l, Rabbi Bernard Cohen (Temple Solael, Canoga Park, CA) and Rabbi Norman Patz (Temple Sholom, Cedar Grove, NJ), but it was Rabbi Greene who taught me what it meant to be a rabbi. When I was in high school and active in the TBJ-TYG (Temple B'nai Jeshurun - Temple Youth Group), Rabbi Greene knew that I wanted to be a rabbi so he would take me with him to visit the hospitals or to interfaith clergy committees. But what I remember most vividly were the days when he would dress in his naval uniform and take me with him into New York City to meet the officers and sailors of the Naval Reserve. (I am pretty sure that I disappointed him by never entering the Navy. While those visits were stirring to an impressionable young man, the Viet Nam War was more than enough to make me into a pacifist.)

As a teenager, what impressed me the most about our rabbi was that whenever I went to the temple, (and I was there quite a bit, for Religious School and Hebrew School and every TYG committee), Rabbi Greene was always there. I am convinced that he worked seven days a week, fifty-two weeks of the year, every year that he served as our rabbi. I never knew him to take a day off, a vacation or a sabbatical. (He still kids me about the sabbaticals that I have taken as a rabbi.)

When I served as a student rabbi at B'nai Jeshurun, I learned that my earlier impressions were true. But I learned another more important lesson. No matter how busy he was, whenever I needed Rabbi Greene he was there for me. We met for hours as he taught me what I needed to know about being a rabbi. But most of all he taught me by example. I stood with him at the door as he greeted every child and his or her parent coming to Religious School. I learned as I helped him with our schools and our Youth Group, and with him I even chaperoned a Presidents' Ball (or two) for all of JFTY (Jersey Federation of Temple Youth). We went to hospitals and cemeteries, etc, etc. To this day, I still strive to give our congregation a modicum of the time and energy that Rabbi Greene gives to B'nai Jeshurun.

In the end, I do not think that I can thank Rabbi Greene for a fraction of the caring that he has given to me and to my family. Through each of my parents' illnesses, the deaths of my grandparents and uncles, he has always been there for all of us. He continues to advise me and guide me in my rabbinate and in many more ways too personal to commit to writing.

May God bless Rabbi Greene in all that he does because he has truly earned it!

In gratitude,

—Rabbi Harry A. Manhoff, Ph.D.

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