When we first moved to Key West, the Conservative congregation didn’t have a rabbi, but having one in town gave them the impetus they needed to find their own. A few months later, a very nice man named Rabbi Grob moved down to take over leadership of the Conservative temple.
I was anxious to build a friendly rapport, so I called him right away to welcome him to town. I was nervous, not knowing if he saw Chabad as “the enemy,” or if he’d be willing to keep an open dialogue.
“Rabbi! I’m so happy to hear from you!” he returned my greeting. “Can you do me a favor? The congregation gave me a fully furnished home, but I’m not sure if the mezuzos are kosher. I know I can trust Chabad to check them. Can you come over?”
As I knew how to check mezuzos, I was more than happy to oblige. I checked through all his mezuzos, finding a few that were questionable. I showed them to him, explaining how they might be fixed, but Rabbi Grob waved me off.
“I’ll just get a whole new set of Chabad mezuzos,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
It was the start of a great friendship. A while later, Rabbi Grob asked if I wanted to have a chavrusa with him, to join in the new cycle of Daf Yomi.
“Of course!” I answered. We began a daily chavrusa, and Rabbi Grob often brought members of his shul to mine, to join in the learning session. We continued learning together for over three years, covering half of Shas!
During that time, we grew even closer. Rabbi Grob anonymously donated a sefer Torah to our shul, a gesture whose generosity shocked me. When I asked him what inspired a Conservative rabbi to give such a generous gift to a Chabad rabbi, he told me that before coming to Key West, he’d served as a rabbi in North Carolina, in a Conservative shul close to Rabbi Yossi Groner’s Chabad house.
“Rabbi Groner once brought me to New York to get dollars from the Rebbe,” Rabbi Grob told me. “When we finally stood face to face with the Rebbe, he handed me a few dollars and chanted, Pesachya Hakohen! More Yiddishkeit! More Yiddishkeit!
“Since then, I’ve tried my best to live up to the Rebbe’s expectations. I bring my shul members to you, so they can get more Yiddishkeit!”
