Yiddish Translator

i live in Germany and the first time i heard my full name called at an appointment i almost missed it bc they butchered it so bad. i just use the German pronunciation of it now bc it’s easier for the people here. it’s not that serious.

I don't live in Lakewood and I'm not familiar with the details of this situation. But the discussion around it has me thinking about a bigger issue that deserves a thoughtful conversation: What is the role of kosher restaurants in the frum world today? On one side, some argue that when security has to disperse groups of teens, we should ask: "Where exactly do we want these kids hanging out? In non-kosher places?" On the other side, many say that when a restaurant turns into a teen hangout, it becomes uncomfortable (even questionably inappropriate) for others to eat there. This touches on something larger. Sociologists call these kinds of spots "third places" — informal public gathering spots that are neither home (first place) nor work/school (second place). Neutral, public places where people can just show up. In a secular world that has largely lost these third places (think of the dead malls), the frum community is one of the last bastions where they still exist. Yet I wonder: Throughout our entire history, in Eretz Yisrael and across the diaspora for thousands of years, did we ever have official kosher "third places" that weren't shuls (or batei medrash)? In the alta heim there were things like the simple tehoyz (teahouse), but they hardly had official corporate hashgacha — such things simply did not exist. And the fabled kretchme seems to have been largely a non-Jewish scene even if managed by Jews. Does the Jewish community have a responsibility to create kosher third places for those who may be on the fringe of observance? If not a responsibility, then at least a right to do so? Or is the whole notion ill-advised? I have some thoughts of my own, but I'd love to hear some informed perspectives first.

Rabbi Elkan Morgenstern was born in Posen in 1796. He immigrated to the United States in 1850, sailing from Hamaburg with his four children. They settled in San Francisco during the gold rush. His portrait hangs in the De young museum of fine arts in San Francisco.