Nobody probably knows Ronnie Greenwald the way that you knew Ronnie Greenwald. He somehow always felt that he could do big things. And he was right. To me, he was the most important guy there. My father just happened to be super. He became a Rebbe. They found that he really had a talent for bringing out the best in kids. So they started giving him the difficult kids. The kids loved him. And then he started Stern. Dey Seyakov said, if you go to Sturmber, don't bother coming back to school. You're telling me it's not suitable? All of a sudden, most of the staff backed out. He was not going to take this lying down. He got on the phone and he called every day school and every girl's yeshiva. That made Sturber what it is. They'd like people to fit in the box. People are far more complex.

Ronnie Grunel was a Rebbe, an educator and the founder of Camp Sturmberg, but his impact went far beyond camp.

He helped build Jewish day schools across the United States at a time when many communities were still finding their footing.

Quietly, he also became deeply involved in prisoner negotiations

and international efforts to help Jews imprisoned overseas, often stepping in when official channels

failed. To understand how one person moved between classrooms, camps, and international diplomacy,

you have to hear from people who lived the closest. This is Miriam Greenwald. Ronnie's wife,

she witnessed the decisions, the risks, and the cost of that life up close.

And this is Rabbi Khanani Greenwald, Ronnie's son.

He grew up watching a father whose work reached far beyond what his family could fully grasp

at the time.

This is the story of Ronnie Greenwald, a man who stepped in when systems failed and kept going

when others could.

There was a whole other life that he had, which was involved with prisoner negotiations and swaps

and politics.

I took a very long time until I understood the governmental things.

He was always on to the next thing.

He was always like, what next?

We got a call from a member of the Knesset.

Someone had called him and said, my son is in Mozambique. I just found out that he's in prison there. But why did he call Ronnie? Because he knew that he had connections. People saw him as a problem solve. He went to Mozambique. He put his life on the line to people. Do you think there's something that your father didn't finish? He's busy on the last day of his life. Hello, everybody, and welcome to this episode of the Meaningful People podcast. Yes, this is one of those episodes. I know it's a lot of vacation week for a lot of families. You could probably listen to this one with your kids, believe it or not. Good to have one of those unmeaningful people every now and then. Maybe it'll even be in 24 six who knows right this episode i sat down

with robinson greenwald yes the wife of the late the great ronnie greenwald ronnie greenwald an

absolute legend someone i wish i got the opportunity to sit down with an interview and i sat down

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