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seforim. I would lay down in the back of our station wagon going there, but on the way back, it was so filled with seforim I had to sit on the seat. Although my parents were not wealthy, they used their business resources to do chesed in the community.” For the Glenns, closing up the store is bittersweet. “My husband has been wanting to move to Eretz Yisrael for four years, since we got married, and he kept on saying, Hashem will tell us when it is time to go; things just fell into place,” explained Miriam. Miriam shared just one of the many fond recollections that she has of her 24/6 job as the 42-year proprietor of Pern’s: “You don’t know what effect your words will have on people. A woman came into the store, years ago, to buy a book. We started talking, and one of the things she mentioned to me was, ’’I will never understand ‘tznius’; I will never be able to keep the halacha of tznius. We’re trying to learn, we’re trying to grow. If we can’t get to services Friday night, we go online and study about Shabbat.’ I had to bite my tongue not to say, ‘You’re better off not doing anything”. Actually, her husband was not Jewish, so there was no reason why he couldn’t be online to read anything he wanted to read. “Then,” continues Miriam, “I told her a perspective that I had heard about tznius--that tznius for a woman is like Queen Elizabeth’s crown. She wears a magnificent diamond tiara that she keeps in a velvet case in a safe, under 24/7 guard. It comes out for a while, on occasion, but it isn’t there everyday for everyone to constantly see or look at. It just preserves the beauty of the tiara. The same thing for a Jewish woman. When we wear clothing that is not tzniusdik, it is just taking away from the beauty and luster of the Jewish woman. So, if we keep it covered and we keep it properly cared for, taking it out
in the right time and the right place for her husband, it shouldn’t be on display for everybody all the time, because it loses its luster. She said, ‘I never heard it presented that way, before.’ Fast forward: Her husband was m’gayer, she had a daughter (until then, she had three or four sons), and she came into the store wearing a skirt. When I questioned her about her change in dress, she said, ‘If I want my daughter to dress tznius, I can’t just tell her to dress it, I have
Pern’s original owners Reb Aaron & Freida Pernikoff, z’l (Photo courtesy Mrs. Debra Pernikoff Friedman).jpg
to dress tzniusdikly, also.’ They made aliya and today are all shomer Shabbos, Torah u’mitzvos! When you say something to somebody, you never know where it will lead them. She, B”H, is a success. You carry the responsibility of making sure that what you say doesn’t turn someone off. This always scared me. What if I say the wrong thing? What if I turn someone off, chas v‘shalom, to yiddishkeit? It‘s an awesome responsibility.” When people started hearing that Miriam was retiring, so many people came into Pern’s to tell her what an impact she made on their lives. “As frum yidden, we are on display 24/7. People look at us and want to know how to act and what to do. When you are among people constantly, you are even more on display.”
After speaking to some of the many customers, as they made their last Pern’s purchases, I experienced just some of the impact that Miriam had on our community. Brochel Diamond remarked, “It’s a very sad day, today.” Stan Hochman, told me: “I’m sorry that Pern’s is closing. I go way back with the original Pern’s owner, Mr. Pernikoff, and I’m close friends with the Robbins family all these years. But, I hear they are going to Eretz Yisrael, so hey, you can’t knock that. They should have a lot of hatzlacha!” Yitzi Schnidman, noted: “My whole life I’ve been coming to Pern’s; it has really been an establishment. I remember Rabbi Robbins well, behind the counter. What can I say? It has very much been a part of Baltimore. I’m talking 40 years ago.” “We live in an amazing community that looks out for one another,” feels Miriam. “There is achdus in the community that is really rare in other communities, and it is something that we will miss--that achdus; the camaraderie.” “It’s sad for me that Pern’s has closed, although I am happy for the Glenns,” concludes Debra. “I take pride in saying that my parents started a very thriving business. I feel the name Pern’s is synonymous with the community--it was a landmark in the community. And now, that memory of my parents is gone. Baltimore is going to lose a connection to the Pernikoffs. In a few years from now, some people may question, ‘What’s Perns?’ I never heard of it.’” Shani Shavalsky, perhaps, summed up not only Debra’s, but the Baltimore community’s sentiments best, when she said, “It’s an end of an era!” Much hatzlacha and bracha to the Glenns in their new, exciting chapter of their lives.
JULY 2, 2015
Sadly, I was one of Pern’s Hebrew Book & Gift Shop’s last customers, on June 23, when the Baltimore “institution” closed its doors, forever. For the benefit of all the Baltimore newbies out there, Miriam Robbins Glen and her first husband, Rabbi Aryeh Robbins, z”l, bought Pern’s from its original owner and founder, Reb Aaron Pernikoff, z”l, about 42 years ago. As hashgacha would have it, when Miriam’s present husband, Rabbi Avraham Glenn, was a yeshiva bochur, he worked for Mr. Pernikoff in Pern’s, selling Succos items. Just as incredulous is the fact that Miriam’s daughter-in-law, Yehudit’s, grandmother was first cousins with Reb Aaron’s wife, Freida Pernikoff, a”h. As Miriam remarked, “The Ribono shel Olam Has a sense of humor!” Pern’s originally opened in the early 1960s, in a house on Park Heights Avenue near Rogers Avenue. Then it moved to a storefront on Park Heights Avenue. Debra Pernikoff Friedman remembers those days well. “My memories are of the store in the mid-60s, when it was located on a business shopping strip, together with Wasserman & Lemberger and Raimondi’s Florist,” recalls Debra. “It moved to Colonial Village in ‘72 or ‘73. The store was sold to the Robbins in 1974, shortly before my family moved to Montreal, after a tragic fire broke out in my grandparents’ home. “Both of my parents worked very, very hard,“ continues Debra. “I have fond memories of my mother selling Israeli giftware and jewelry, which gained popularity at that time. She ran the daily retail and accounting aspects of the store. My father, who was an expert bookbinder, worked in sales and purchasing. When I was a young child, I remember traveling with him, sometimes, to the Lower East Side to H & M Skullcap to buy yalmalkas and talaisim, and to Brooklyn to buy the
Margie Pensak
THE BALTIMORE JEWISH HOME
Pern’s Closed Doors Marks the End of a Baltimore Era
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