AN ABOVE-AVERAGE JEW
About 20 Geauga County kids put on “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” a play about the Theresienstadt concentration camp. I spoke to the actors at their theater in Chardon, Ohio. “My voice is blown out. I destroyed it at a gig [at Nighttown],” I said. And I had no mic to talk to the kids. I figured they’d be obnoxious, but they weren’t. I explained what a Jew is. (On one foot.)
They sang a Theresienstadt-based song for me. I asked them who, in their world, was the most famous Jew. I thought they would say Jesus. The answer: Billy Crystal.
The kids wanted to know about “the beanie “/ the hat / the yarmulke. I said the beanie (which I don’t wear outside of shul) shows the Jew’s humbleness, vis a vis God. Was I right? I gave the actors a couple Yiddishe Cup CDs and said, “The people at Terezin didn’t listen to klezmer music but enjoy these CDs anyway.”
Was I extremely Jewish? No. But I was above average!
On one foot
4 comments
As a representative of our people you did a fine job. With so many misconceptions about minorities I think it’s a good thing to be visible once in awhile.
I generally enjoy explaining some aspect sf Judaism to non-Jews, as long as the listener is attentive, respectful, and thus not argumentative. I feel I have some control over how balanced the information is, unlike the way others might handle it.,
Nu? How were you chosen to represent the Jewish community in this setting; happenstance?
To William Jones:
They just looked up a random Jew under “Stratton” in the phone book.
Seriously, it was somebody who knew somebody through Yiddishe Cup.
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