Road to Recovery, 12 Steps at a Time

Michael Rosen gives a quick and detailed description of what makes up his day.

“I fix faucets. We install showerheads. I get the car registration taken care of. ... As an old athlete, you’ve got to be able to fake left and go right," he said.

Rosen flashes his signature, thousand-watt smile, and then he gets serious about his new position as a recovery and addiction program manager at Jewish Recovery Houses.

“It’s been very rewarding,” he said.

Rosen's new job is at the largest and only drug and alcohol abuse recovery program in the country run exclusively for Jewish men and women—and it's in this area.

If the shortest path between two points is a straight line, then, like the old adage, Rosen has taken “the long way around Robin’s barn.” Now age 68, he spent 26 years in the real estate and construction business and 25 years coaching sports before uncovering his latest passion.

He just graduated summa cum laude from CCBC Dundalk, with an A.A.S. degree in chemical dependency counseling.

“I was always the oldest person in every class,” he said. "When I was young, I wanted to manage a major league baseball team or go into mental health counseling.”

But his father, who was in real estate and construction, always said, “I can’t wait until you’re in the business with me.”

Rosen is from the Bronx. He started in liberal arts before graduating from Tufts University in 1965 and ended up working for his father. But 10 years later, the honeymoon was over thanks to the corruption and payola Rosen saw in New York and didn't want to deal with.

Rosen was looking for a new start, and landed in Baltimore, where he, still in real estate and construction, worked for the Meyerhoff family for four years. Then he began working with Town and Country Management, where he eventually became CEO. He's been in the area for 36 years.

In addition, Rosen was always pursuing his other love: sports. Between coaching basketball and umpiring baseball, he spent almost 25 years devoting himself to sports, including eight years working full-time as a college baseball coach until he retired in 2001.

Rosen was then ready for a new chapter. He says his extensive experience working as a coach with kids prepared him in some ways for his next career.

It took Rosen a while to figure out what his next step would be, but when he did, he went after it with his characteristic zeal. He decided to become an addictions counselor.

“I finally got to do what I really wanted to do," he said.

In May of 2009, Rosen met with the head of the Chemical Dependency Department at CCBC and started classes in September. He raced through the program, interned at Sheppard Pratt’s Kolmac Clinic Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center, and finished his degree in December 2010. Rosen was named “Student of the Year” at graduation.

Having grappled with some demons of his own, Rosen says he chose this field for personal reasons.

“Addiction is a disease one never recovers from,” he said. "It’s like diabetes—you can be in recovery, but you’re never cured. Fifty to 75 percent of the people in all the classes I was in were recovering addicts. For many people in this field, it’s a matter of giving back.”

Rosen didn’t realize at the time that he would also have a chance to give back to the Jewish community. His first job offer after graduation came from the Jewish Recovery Houses. Although Rosen was brought up in a conservative home and had a bar mitzvah as a boy, he is a secular Jew who was hired for his new job based on his credentials as a chemical dependency counselor, not his Jewish background.

The program is aimed exclusively at Jewish men and women. Two houses in the heart of the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Upper Park Heights Avenue offer dorm-style living arrangements for 25 residents, with a men’s kosher kitchen, a staff rabbi who provides spiritual counseling, Shabbat dinners and a supportive Jewish community.

Rosen stresses that there is a very wide distribution of ages and denominations amongst the residents. He thinks that, in spite of their location in one of the most observant locales on the East Coast, most of the residents at the moment are reform or conservative.

“The fact that everyone is Jewish is a huge advantage," Rosen said. "They have a common bond.”

But the program is also firmly rooted in a very traditional 12-step recovery program with strict rules and consequences. The residents must attend an Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meeting every single day (except Shabbat for observant Jews) and provide random urine samples two to three times per week. If they test positive or don’t turn in their meeting slips, they must leave the program. 

“We are a recovery house, not a treatment center,” Rosen said. “Our residents will stay with us anywhere from six months to a year."

Residents will typically complete a 28-day rehab program, and Rosen said that people can get sober, but staying that way is the challenge.

"Staying sober is the challenge,” Rosen said. “The key is relapse prevention. They have to protect their sobriety. We want them to get jobs, transition into society. We want to be the last stop before they re-enter the community.”

Rosen talked about the joy of seeing someone change and helping those who need it. That's one of the best parts of his job.

He also realizes how fortunate he's been through the years.

“I have my health," Rosen said. "I have my two children.”

And he has a job he loves. There but for the grace of God ...

Ruth Goldstein is a freelance writer who writes about local people, places and events.