Individuals at every age and every stage somehow felt that Rabbi Hauer was “their person”
To my three-year-old son, Rabbi Hauer was the warm, smiling figure who gathered all the kids to the bimah to say Amen as loud as they could to the last Kaddish and then gave them candy from his stash.
When my son turned six, Rabbi Hauer gently encouraged him to daven Anim Zemiros, even weighing in on his weekly tune selection.
Which is why, when he found out that Rabbi Hauer was moving on to the OU before his bar mitzvah, my son was distraught. It was inconceivable that Rabbi Hauer would not ask him, like he did every bar mitzvah bochur, what he wanted to do with his life and talk about all of the wonderful things in his future. Of course, when Rabbi Hauer found out how he felt, he spoke to him 45 minutes, promised him that he would be at his bar mitzvah, and all was once again right with the world.
While Rabbi Hauer took incredible pride in the children of the shul, individuals at every age and every stage somehow felt that Rabbi Hauer was “their person.”
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