While having dinner last night, my non-Jewish (see Pass Over Me entry) husband and I were perusing through our favorite reading material, the Pennysaver. The weekly issue is full of useful and useless ads, which I enjoy equally. Looks like Temple Sons of Israel in the neighboring village hired an eager summer intern for their PR department! In three separate announcements, the Sons invite native Hebrew speaking kids to attend their Hebrew classes, non-Jewish parents who are raising Jewish children (in most cases, mail order brides) to learn about how to do so successfully, and folks who are not yet ready to join a synagogue to attend their school for a year without membership. After laughing about the mail order bride support group, we focused on the last ad, which should really read: “If you don’t have the money for a full membership yet, we’ll take some of your money for a year.” This made me remember my days in Central Florida , where Rabbi Aaron Rubinger reigned over a “chamber of commerce” (astutely labeled by my dad at the time).
Before I go on with my grievances about Rabbi Rubinger and his helpers, I want to acknowledge that the Jewish community as a whole was extremely helpful and generous in the first few months of our transition.
As a fresh immigrant teen, I wanted nothing more than to fit in with that group of well-to-do insincere hacks. The temple graciously waived the annual membership fee for the “new Americans,” but my parents quit going even before the year was up. As I was describing the hypocrisy of this institution to my husband and getting worked up about it, he reminded me about the atrocities committed by Catholic Church; well, I hope he can share his experiences, but I will speak of what I know best - Congregation Ohev Shalom. Ohev Shalom promoted a relatively relaxed form of Judaism, one where members drove to the temple on Shabbat and repeated Hebrew texts like parrots, without understanding a single word. I, too, learned to read in that mysterious tongue, but never quite mastered the random bowing movements (bend bow left bow center bend bow release?).
On one blazing hot Yom Kippur, an observant family of recent Bukharian immigrants put on their “Yom Kippur” best and marched for miles to the synagogue. Upon arriving, they were turned away for they did not have tickets to attend the exclusive services. At about the same time, my cousin was having his Bar Mitzvah and Rubinger gave a touching speech about his family being the only Russian family to truly embrace the Jewish way of life and remain with the temple. Others, he said, got too busy with their lives to continue with their commitment. He never bothered to ask any of the other Russian families why they didn’t stay, and my family did
n’t bother to come back.
Rubinger, I hear, went on to divorce his ailing wife and marry a congregant, but continued preaching about family values. He managed to raise a few daughters, who look and act more like Madonna circa 1988 than say… Rachel. I am sure he is convinced he is holier-than-thou, but he better rejoice he’s not a Catholic or he’d be going straight to hell – as a Jew, he just won’t be raised from the dead when the moshiah finally shows up.
P.S. Thoughts on God: As I finished this blog, I just saw some breaking news - a registered sex offender won $57M in lottery.
1 comment:
Of course, hypocrisy and religiousness are essentially synonyms. While promising me an eternity in Hell if I didn’t accept Jesus as the true Lord and Savior, a protestant friend of mine once told me, “it doesn’t matter whether you sin, what’s important is that you know Jesus (when determining where you will end up).” An interesting view of things…I guess Heaven is just like the VIP lounge of a really bitchin’ club, and J.C. is the big black guy (although, let’s face it, with a name like that, he’s probably Hispanic) at the door. Also, I bet if any religious people read my comment, they will be most offended that I compared Jesus to a black guy.
Oh, one additional synonym for hypocrisy: “spirituality.”
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