LOOKING BACK

YAACOV LURIA

Special to The Jewish News

t hasn't been that easy
for my wife Miriam and
me. Launching boys in
our family on their careers as
Jews has been exciting but
hard. By now it's a tradition.
A brit for our male progeny is,
l'havdil, like splitting the Red
Sea without God's out-
stretched arm and a powerful
east wind.
When my son Billy (now
Zev) was gestating in 1945,
World War II was still in
progress and I was a weather
officer at an Army air force
base near a town in south-
eastern Kansas called Inde-
pendence. Billy having been
conceived in Independence,
Miriam and I opted to in- Illustration by Giord Carmi
troduce him to the world in
Independence. What an ad-
vantage for a future President
to be born in the geographical
We have held two traditional brits. The first, for our son, was at the end
center of the American heart-
of the war in the middle of the country.
land! We lived off the base, in
an apartment in an old frame
The
second,
for our grandson, was on top of a mountain.
house. Even with a military
installation buzzing close by,
tion until our two guests —
tying up cartons of records.
not impossible. How will I
Roosevelt, whom we had
Independence was quiet and
the last ones to get off the
One
of
them
is
PFC
Marvin
gather a minyan on Tuesday,
begun to think of as the eter-
as relaxing as a glass of warm
train, of course — step down
landsmann from
Cohen,
a
a
working
day?
In
town
are
nal President, died suddenly.
milk at bedtime.
from the 10:30 Streamliner.
New
York.
I
have
nine
men!
just three Jewish men —
Viewed in the perspective of
The Army was not in busi-
They are both portly, bespec-
Good — but not good
Mary
Locke's
husband,
Ber-
the national trauma, the
ness for our convenience,
tacled men in their sixties.
enough. Minyanwise, nine
nie; the elderly junk dealer,
problem Miriam and I were
however. Since the war was
With his small black satchel
equals
zero.
Unless
he
drops
Mr. Persky; and Mr. Litwin,
wrestling with was tiny: How
winding down, the base at In-
the mohel looks like a dig-
from heaven, I'll get no tenth
who
runs
a
dry
goods
store
on
were we going to manage a
dependence was dismantled
nified doctor; Mr. Nadel lugs
man.
If
I
had
enough
time,
Main Street. I need four more
traditional brit? For a brit, a
in March of that year, exact-
an overladen shopping bag.
and
if
I
could
drive
a
car,
and
male
adults.
minyan can be dispensed
ly the wrong time for us. Bil-
When we arrive at the hos-
if
I
had
a
car,
and
if
the
roads
I
call
Sam
Phillips
in
Cof-
with, but I was too young to
ly was due the next month.
pital,
none of our expected
didn't look like canals, I could
feyville, 18 miles away. Sam
concede that any obstacles
Airplanes and men were
minyan-aires is there yet. But
shamble
like
a
man-hunting
promises
to
break
his
neck
were insuperable. For our
shipped elsewhere, and I
Mercy being a Catholic hospi-
shammus from town to
trying to make it. Meyer
first-born son's initiation into
wound up at Big Spring,
tal, all the nuns who are not
town
.
.
.
But
the
brit
is
at
Frishman
of
Parsons,
30
the Jewish fold, nothing was
Texas, in mesquite and oil
on bedpan duty at the
noon
the
next
day.
It's
like
miles to the northeast, is
too much. We were going to
moment
have crowded into
country 800 miles away.
losing the basketball game in
shaky. He knows of some
have a mohel cum minyan.
Billy was born at three
Miriam's
room. They have
the
last
ten
seconds
of
play
back roads in the hills that
The first part of the com-
o'clock on the morning of
never
seen
a ritual circumci-
by
a
single
point.
I'm
down-
don't flood. There's a chance,
bination is easy. One phone
April 10th, while I was snor-
sion, and they look forward to
cast, depressed and discour-
just
a
chance,
that
he
could
call to Tulsa, Oklahoma, does
ing away peacefully in a bar-
an interesting experience. We
aged.
get into Independence by
it. Mr. 'Upheld, the mohel, will
racks at Big Spring. Happily,
try not to disappoint them.
Tuesday
morning.
I
now
have
But
some
mystic
force
—
a
make the 90-mile train trip
Miriam was not entirely
We break out wine and
eight men — possibly.
minor angel perhaps — is
together with the president of
alone. One of our civilian
sponge cake from Nadel's
working for me. Mr. Persky
On a sentimental impulse I
the Orthodox synagogue, Mr.
shopping bag and serve the
friends in town, a saintly
calls the hospital to leave
take the public interurban
Nadel. And they will also
nuns.
woman named Mary Locke,
word that his son Bert had
bus which still stops at the
bring with them a bottle or
had driven her to the hospital
unexpectedly come home on
Since the nuns have not
air
base.
With
water
up
to
the
two
and
some
kosher
viands.
and stayed with her through-
shore leave from the Navy.
had their lunch, the wine goes
hubcaps of the bus, its
Wow!
out. In response to Mary's
With the luck of the Irish, the
to their stomachs, then
almost like a boat trip. The
telegram, the Army gave me
Now for the minyan. Spring
Jews and Hairbreath Harry straightway to their heads.
base
is
a
ghostly
mess.
The
an emergency leave. I missed
flash floods have inundated
combined, I will have my They become talkative and
paper flaps in the breeze from
the agony, but came in time
the roads in the area so that
giddy. For them the brit is
minyan tomorrow.
abandoned
barracks
roofs,
for the ecstasy surrounding
Independence is temporarily
fun before its even begun.
Tuesday morning, April 17.
tumbleweed
whirls
over
the
an island. The Santa Fe
the birth of a first child, a
One man recalls that the cir-
Sunny
but
blustery.
and
coin-
bare runways. Only in the old
Streamliner from Tulsa to
cumcision of the infant Jesus
b'chor at that.
cidentally
my
thirty-first
administration building are
Kansas City, which passes
Billy's first week of life was
is mentioned in the second
birthday.
Bernie
Locke
and
I
some
lights
on,
so
I
poke
my
through the town, is running
a momentous one for every-
chapter of Luke. Another sis-
stand
and
shiver
at
the
sta-
nose in. A handful of GIs are
but travel by car is risky, if
body. On April 12th, Franklin

I

A Tale Of Two Rites

108

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1990