A rabbi and EMS chaplain who routinely phoned medics to wish them happy birthday was disciplined by the FDNY for accessing unauthorized personnel data.
Rabbi Mayer Birnhack, aka the �birthday rabbi,� was suspended without pay for 15 days after ignoring orders from brass to stop looking at confidential employee files.
�Nice guy, good intentions . . . but I�m a little uncomfortable with how much personal info he has access to . . . always seems to know more about where your career is in EMS than some of your supervisors,� one EMT wrote on an online forum.
But hundreds of others were outraged to learn the FDNY had muzzled the mensch. A Facebook page created last week in his defense got more than 700 members in a matter of days.
�I recall the rabbi calling,� one FDNY medic posted. �I thought it was an accident because I am Catholic. He introduced himself and went on to wish me a happy birthday . . . I asked a co-worker about him and everyone proceeded to say that Rabbi Birnhack was one of the few people on the job who actually cared.�
Another EMT wrote: �My birthday is in a few weeks. I eagerly anticipate his annual call and kind voice. I know he has my number.�
A phone-call campaign to FDNY headquarters and an online petition were also launched.
Birnhack refused to comment when reached at his Gravesend, Brooklyn, home.
The 45-year-old Orthodox rabbi has worked for EMS since 1988, when the Health and Hospitals Corp. ran the city�s medical service.
Shortly after EMS merged with the FDNY in 1996, the EMT-trained rabbi was assigned to the counseling unit. He makes $50,433 annually as an EMS chaplain.
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9 Responses
Fdny should have a level of info with birthdays and email addresses without anymore personal info….
1988 still at $50,433??
Seriously, this only shows a lack of cooperation. He is there to counsel the employees and he has no information on them? He calls them to wish them a Happy Birthday and there is a problem with him making a human connection with them? There own supervisors should have done that.
He’s clearly not in it for the money. He’s a good man.
Personal information is just that, Personal. If he was warned, and still did it, he deserves the suspension
First, I too get birthday and anniversary greetings from him and I appreciate it.
Second, he doesnt live in Gravesend, unless Gravesend moved.
Third, he needs a raise, NOW!!
Rabbi Birnhack happens to be one of the nicest people I know and he calls me also EVERY year on my birthday to give me good wishes, its one of the nice things he does. I’m happy to have him as a cousin!!!! Rabbi I wish you all the best and lots of chizuk.
7. Dont give yourself away!!
Seems that the NYFD doesn’t have a 5th shulchan orech. Rabbi Birnhack stands ready to help any human anytime. Not only so-called “heimishe” yiden, but as we saw, Catholics or whoever. I know Rabbi Birnhack since he was a baby. The man has a golden heart. The brass should definitely re0instate him. And give the poor guy a raise.