Leave it to the Pros

There is colorful, and then there is colorful, and then there is the shul of my youth.

Even the name of the shul was colorful. Well, I hardly knew the official name — I have been told that it was Ahavas Chesed of Parkville — but it was almost always referred to as “the Professionals’ Minyan,” or more commonly as “The Pros.” Rarely will one find such a concentration of personalities in such a small space. There was a never an official rav because as one of the members quipped, “There were too many chiefs and not enough Indians.”

Let’s start with the name — The Pros.

It had nothing to do with the members’ athletic prowess — through there was one, who is presently 89 years old (ad meah v’esrim) and still working as a second-grade rebbi, who was known to be quite the baseball player. The name “The Pros” rather derived from the fact that the original members were by and large professionals — doctors, psychologists, college deans and professors, with nary a businessman in the mix. Well, that didn’t last too long; there were plenty of businessmen, and some quite successful ones, who joined shortly thereafter.