Dovey the Warrior

Dovey Greenglass loved to play soccer with his friends. The trouble was he spent every afternoon after school studying with Rabbi Lernsen for his Bar Mitzvah. He was twelve years old and his Bar Mitzvah was exactly six weeks away. It didn’t give him a lot of free time. He did however still get together with his friends Herschell Swartz, and Mordechai Gordon on Sundays. They would go to Central Park and play on the North Meadow field off of 84th Street.

The boys would arrive at seven am and be gone by seven-thirty. They loved kicking the ball around and made sure they disappeared before other players showed up. It was a great way to start the day. By avoiding other players they also knew they were saving themselves from any possible trouble.

There had been many stories of Orthodox Jewish kids being beaten up for no reason by haters. Mr. Greenglass had said that Dovey could only go to the park with his friends if he kept his cellphone on and reported in every half hour. He needed to know where he was and where he was going. He had instructed Dovey about different dangerous scenarios and how to respond to them. Mr. Greenglass besides being a very successful lawyer was also a member of Shomrim which was a neighbourhood watch. They were Orthodox Jewish men trained to handle difficult situations.