Bills of Life

If you didn’t know Mike, my friend and comrade in arms, you’d probably think he was a rough and tough kind of man. And you’d be right. He was a tough guy with no filters. For example, though not very learned, Mike had tremendous respect for rabbis, but if he thought a rabbi was a phony, he would tell it to him straight to his face.

What you might not have guessed about Mike was that he had a huge heart, especially when it came to his fellow Jews.

Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Mike was influenced by Meir Kahane’s “Never Again” philosophy. Jewish pride was important to him, and there was a shtolz about Mike — a Jew, he felt, should always keep his head up high. Hate crimes were rampant in those days, and Mike wouldn’t keep his mouth shut (or his hands by his side) if he saw a Jew getting hurt. Mike was always involved in some activity to save Jews somewhere. But many people never knew about these activities because Mike was a humble man.

Mike recently passed away and I spoke about him at the funeral. To me, and to anyone who knew him well, he was the quintessential “Mi La’  Hashem Elai” man. He had many battle cry moments where he’d pick up the gauntlet and do what needed to be done for the sake of his people.