Times Square Rabbi - Finding Hope in Lost Kids' Lives

Originally published in “The Leading Edge”, Vol.15, No. 3, February, 1998, written by Dr. Pat Montgomery and published by Clonlara School-Home Based Education Program

Ann Arbor, Michigan

I first spoke (via telephone) with Rabbi Yehudah Fine when he enrolled his family, as home educators, in Clonlara School — several years ago. Even the image of Rabbi which automatically flashed through my mind was that of an aging, bespectacled, bearded man, head slightly bent with the weight of accumulated wisdom, gray-white hair flowing from beneath a yarmulke and a broadbrimmed black hat.

That image was abruptly erased last year when I saw Yehudah’s picture on the book jacket of his Times Square Rabbi. Young — forty something — hale and hearty, spectacled, yes, with tinted light sensitive lenses, close cropped dark beard and mustache, wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap. Wisdom? It rises in abundance from every page.

Last month I read from the first chapter of the book to the teens who attend Clonlara’s campus school here in Ann Arbor. They were spellbound by the frankness of the accounts of “lost” kids their own age, and of the candor of the tale-teller, Yehudah Fine.

A few of them had experienced trauma of their own; so they could relate, in one way or another, to the horrible encounters.

“He (Rabbi Fine) tells the story in a way that holds my attention completely. He doesn’t drag it out and go ‘round and ‘round with it like lots of other authors do,” commented one young man. “This is real life; you can tell it by his (Rabbi Fine’s) direct, no nonsense reporting of things — just like they happened,” said another. “The way he writes makes me feel like I am right there on the scene, witnessing things firsthand,” a young woman added.

These are not tales. They are Yehudah’s life experiences in rescuing young people from their own bad choices and from the evils which devour them in a malevolent society. It is an account, more than anything else, of hope, liberation, and outreach to the lost kids who find their way to his door.

Yehudah designed an eight step approach which he calls, “The Path to Meaning and Hope.” He walks the young people through the process beginning with Step 1 Hurling Out The Pain; through to Step 8 Falling In Love With Life.

Prior to moving to New York, Yehudah ran a high school program for migrant farm workers in the Sacramento Valley, California. He also founded and directed an award-winning alternative high school in northern California.

“The message of hope and inspiration must not be drowned out in a busy world,” Yehudah wrote on a post-it attached to one mailing to me. Not a chance Rabbi Fine; not with the likes of you around, driven, as you are, by the Spirit. Times Square Rabbi, by Yehudah Fine, published by Hazelden, 1997, is available through Clonlara School Resource Center for $13.95.