{"id":33995,"date":"2026-04-29T08:52:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=33995"},"modified":"2026-04-29T08:53:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:53:55","slug":"the-mensch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/29\/the-mensch\/","title":{"rendered":"THE MENSCH"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\nAfter I received smicha<\/em> (rabbinic ordination), I interviewed for a few rabbi gigs. This was around 1978. First I interviewed at the Hillel in Norman, Oklahoma, but I couldn\u2019t see myself there. I’m not a geography snob, but Oklahoma was not OK. I didn’t insist on a sexy spot like Encino, Marin, or Bethesda, but how about a place with some Jews?<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Mensch, 1978<\/p><\/div>\n

I took a stab at Omaha. Don’t underestimate the Jewish scene there. The board of trustees at BethSteak grilled me — grilled me hard. Back then I had a Jew-fro and looked like I’d just\u00a0 come off the beach in Venice, California (which wasn’t too far off the mark). A board member asked, \u201cHow would you liven up our Purim carnival?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d throw glow sticks all over the social-hall floor, and I\u2019d free the goldfish from the tank. I’d pass out <\/em>Free The Fish! signs.<\/em> What I actually said: \u201cI\u2019ll listen. I\u2019m a good listener.\u201d<\/p>\n

A trustee asked me how I\u2019d handle lifecycle events.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d show up,” I said. (Lifecycle<\/em> was a new word back then.)<\/p>\n

My responses to the board were all short. I was nervous, facing 20 AKs. At 28,\u00a0 it was difficult to string together wisdom for the elderly. Maybe I should have delivered my hard-hitting sermon “I’ve Got the Jewish Blues,” complete with blues harp accompaniment. Instead, I did a dvar Torah. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I ended with “The key is listening.” (I picked up some stock lines at rabbinical school.)<\/p>\n

A board member asked when I was getting married. I said, \u201cHave you got someone for me?\u201d That got a laugh.<\/p>\n

I flung some Hebrew; I knew more Ivrit<\/em> than they did. They weren\u2019t going to get anybody better than me.<\/p>\n

The board president asked the last question: \u201cHow would your friends and family describe you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you,\u00a0 Mr. President, for that question!<\/em>\u00a0I said, \u201cI don\u2019t like to talk about myself, but I suspect my friends and relatives would say, in a word, I’m a mensch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mensch — <\/em>that’s the password. It unlocks the door to the Holy of Holies and all the other Temple doors, including the pantry. If you’re a mensch, you’re in. I got the gig.<\/p>\n

And I turned it down! Me — geo snob. I wasn’t going to Omaha, Nebraska.<\/p>\n

I did one final interview, in Muncie, Indiana — even smaller latkes. (The word had gotten out that I had turned down Omaha.) The Muncie rabbi bought all the food for the kiddushes and spread out the hummus and poured the wine.<\/p>\n

I didn’t get the Muncie gig. A folksinging rabbi did. I heard her clips years later on YouTube. Not bad.<\/p>\n

I wound up in property management in Cleveland. I blame that on my father. He led me into the promised land:\u00a0 the dog-eat-dog world of apartment management. I joined the rabid\/ate.<\/p>\n

[fiction]<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Yiddishe Cup plays a free Mother’s Day concert 2-3 pm Sunday (May 10) at the Cuyahoga County Public Library, Beachwood branch, 25501 Shaker Boulevard [corner of Shaker and Richmond], Beachwood, Ohio. Best to register<\/a>. You can probably get in without registering, but it’s best to sign up.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  After I received smicha (rabbinic ordination), I interviewed for a few rabbi gigs. This was around 1978. First I interviewed at the Hillel in Norman, Oklahoma, but I couldn\u2019t see myself there. I’m not a geography snob, but Oklahoma was not OK. I didn’t insist on a sexy spot like Encino, Marin, or Bethesda, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33995"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34362,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33995\/revisions\/34362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}