“But you did come, and I forbid it.”
Schwarz shrugged his shoulders. He rose and the two men left. The rabbi stood by his desk, angry and baffled.
“What did he mean he forbids it?” asked Marvin. “Can he do something?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, call some board of rabbis-”
“Don’t be silly. Our temple is a completely autonomous body, and the rabbi is just an employee. He’s told us that often enough himself. The only thing he can do if he doesn’t like it is resign.”
“After what I just heard, that might not be such a bad idea,” said Marvin.
“You don’t like him?”
“I think we can do better,” said Marvin evenly.
“Yeah? How do you mean?”
“Well, I’m a businessman. Over the past few years I’ve had a lot of people working for me-salesmen and office help. I’ve got a rule about help. I don’t care how good they are, I don’t care how much of a world-beater a salesman is; if he can’t take orders, he goes.”
“That’s the way I feel, Marve. Say, who’s on your committee?”
“Summer Pomeranz, Bucky Lefkowitz, and Ira Dorfman. Why? Not one of them has done a damn thing, but they’re on the committee.”
“That’s three and you make four. Didn’t I appoint another so as to have an odd number?”
“You’re on it ex officio. That makes five.”
“Good. So all we need is one more for a majority. Look, Marve, why don’t you get hold of them. Tell them as much as you think they have to know and get their vote for this new road. Just in case the rabbi gets cute.”
“No sweat. They know I do all the work, and they don’t ever go against my decisions.”
“Right. When you get it nailed down, why don’t you call the rabbi and tell him you’ve taken a vote, and your committee is one hundred percent in favor of the new road.”
“That is a good idea, Mort. It will keep him from getting any fancy ideas.”
“Let me know how you make out. But act fast. I don’t want to give the rabbi a chance to block us.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Marvin was elated when he called Schwarz Friday morning. “I just got through talking to the rabbi. I didn’t crow, but told him I thought he’d like to know that the committee vote was unanimous.”
“What did he say?”
“He didn’t say anything.”
“Dammit, Marvin, he must have said something.”
“I’m telling you he didn’t say anything. Just, ‘I see,’ or something like that. No, come to think of it, that’s all he said, ‘I see.’ ”
“Was he sore?”
“I couldn’t tell, but since he didn’t say anything, I figure he knows he’s beaten. So the thing for us to do is go ahead full steam.”
“I’m not so sure, Marve. I’ve had some second thoughts on the matter.”
“How do you mean?”
“A thing like this-it could backfire on us. If he were to bring the matter before the Board Sunday-”
“And Wasserman and maybe Becker side with him and between them they’d pull over a few more-yeah, you got a point there. What do you think we ought to do?”
“What we need, Marve, is a consensus. Maybe I ought to talk to some of the members before the Board meeting. What are you doing tomorrow night?”
“Well, Mitzi suggested we take in this foreign film at the Strand -”
“Strictly a dud. Ethel and I saw it last week in town. Why don’t you come over, and I’ll contact some of the boys-”
“I get it. You’re going to show them the model.”
“Right.”
The group returned from the study to the living-room where Ethel Schwarz had prepared coffee and ice cream and delicious little French cookies. “You know, Mort,” Hal Berkowitz said, “what I can’t get through my noggin is why the rabbi, of all people, should want to do anything to keep that building of yours from going up. I mean, your chapel has class, and what’s more, it’s his-”
“That’s right,” chimed in Abner Sussman. “It’s his place of business, you might say. I was visiting my brother in Richmond Friday night and the rabbi was over. Most of the time we were talking business, and I had been telling them how I remodeled my store. After dinner we all started out for services, and when we got to the temple the rabbi says, “How do you like
“What gets me,” Berkowitz said, “our rabbi is supposed to be so traditional and the building we got now looks like anything but a synagogue. Now Mort’s scheme here makes it look like a real synagogue-”
“Seems to me you’re both missing the point,” said Nelson Bloomberg. “Here we’ve got a chance to make a giant step forward. We can make our temple a real showplace on the North Shore. I don’t claim to have any great aesthetic appreciation-although in the dress business, let me tell you, you better develop a sense of style or you’re in trouble-but to me, Mort’s is the kind of building that would get talked about. The kind of building you might expect to see pictured in some magazine. To me, it represents progress. And what’s standing in the way? A ghost. No, not even a ghost, a corpse-the dead body of this guy Hirsh who wasn’t even a member of the congregation. Here we have something that means progress for an entire community-something wholesome and alive-and the rabbi throws in a monkey wrench with a lot of ghoulish technicalities about graves and burials and death. It’s just plain gruesome, when you come right down to it.”
“Nel’s put the whole thing in a nutshell,” said Nate Shatz. “We had a pretty awkward situation here. This idea of having the driveway so everybody is satisfied, Goralsky, the widow, the temple-that’s the kind of thing the rabbi is supposed to dope out. And what happens? Marve and Mort figure it out, and the rabbi instead of being grateful says he forbids it. Either we like it or lump it. Well, I say the fat’s in the fire and we go ahead with the road. He can resign, for all I care.”
“What’s he ever done to you?” asked Jerry Feldman. “You sound angry.”
“I am. He acts as though he’s too good for the likes of us. I see him at the Board meetings and sometimes he says hello and sometimes he doesn’t. My wife gave a bridge and invited his wife, but when she got there all she would take was tea. If he’s too good to eat with us, he’s too good to rabbi for us.”
“Well, I wouldn’t condemn a man because he sticks to his principles,” said Feldman. “If a man wants to eat kosher, especially if he’s a rabbi, I see no harm in it. My mother always kept a kosher house with two sets of dishes and everything. When she’d come to my house, she wouldn’t eat with us either. At the same time-I say maybe we can do better. Personally I’d like to see a man who was a leader and looked like a leader. A man who would take hold and build this place up.”
“A lot of people come into your store, Abner, and you must have heard them talking,” said Schwarz. “How do you think people feel about him?”
Sussman rotated his hand. “
“Of course, I see mostly women in my place, and they’re always complaining about something. He’s not interested in their work. Half the time when he’s supposed to go to a Sisterhood meeting, they’re not even sure he’ll show up. But you know women; if he were a big handsome guy he could do anything he liked and they’d love it. On the other hand, there’s no doubt they’ve got a lot of influence with their menfolk.”
