The Rabbi and The Rebbetzin (33 page)

“She
really wants to be a rebbetzin and work with me in a religious career. She
feels that if she is given the opportunity, she can help me bring the word of
God to people who want to hear it. If I achieve success as a rabbi, she could
very well retire from the law firm and devote full time to sacred endeavors. She
thinks that Ahavat Achim can be revived and is willing to support me until the
shul can pay me a living wage.

“Mr.
Stern, I would like to be named the rabbi of Ahavat
Achim and function
without compensation as the spiritual leader of the congregation. You know that
I am sufficiently religious and learned to preserve the reputation and
observance of the synagogue. I will make no compromises with traditional
practice and I am willing to work without a contract.”

The
Gabbai was pleased with Aaron’s words and he said, “If it were up to me, I
would hire you right away. We have to present your proposal to an executive
committee and our children have to consent. I understand that there is no money
involved, but there is a reputation of a synagogue that was established more
than 75 years ago which must be preserved. I will put your proposal before the committee.”

Aaron
was pleased that Stern listened to him. He asked the Gabbai are any of the
member’s children involved in the construction industry.

“Of
course, some of our kids have become well-known contractors.”

“If
you can recommend one, I would be willing to make an initial gesture to the
congregation. My wife and I will pay for a complete renovation and repainting
of the current synagogue, including a badly-needed heating system and modern
bathrooms. We will start the work after Passover and have it done before the High
Holidays. I will start my rabbinic work as soon as the congregation ratifies my
appointment. All I need is a letter from the shul, but if you feel more secure,
you can have your son the lawyer draw up a contract guaranteeing that we will
in no way harm the physical structure or the reputation of Ahavat Achim
.
”

Pinchas
Stern was overjoyed with Aaron’s proposal. He convened the committee and
secured their approval. After his son wrote the contract, the Gabbai sent
copies to some of the main contributors among the children of the members. They
were also enthusiastic. Some of them were suspicious of Aaron’s motives, but
since Aaron was bound by a contract and could be discharged at their will, they
felt they had no reason to fear.

The
first part of Aaron’s rebuilding project was to strengthen the daily minyan. On
some days when he arrived at shul he was the tenth man of the minyan,
especially on days of inclement weather. He realized if the group would lose
one or two more daveners, the minyan would fail and the shul would go down with
it. All his investment in the shul would become meaningless if the members
dispersed.

His
first thought was to approach the Hillel chaplain on a formal basis and ask for
permission to recruit students for a daily minyan. He hesitated about making such
an approach because the chaplain had no reason to cooperate with it. While
Hillel didn’t have a daily minyan, Rabbi Smith would instinctively feel that
Aaron would soon recruit from the Shabbos minyan. With that he would be
reluctant to cooperate because, if Aaron were successful in taking away the
more religious element from the Shabbos minyan, the services would become less
traditional then they were now.

When
he discussed the matter with Shulamit, she said, “Don’t go alone. Right now I
have been contributing some $20,000 a year to his needy student fund, and I
have done so even before our marriage. He probably will not be eager to
endanger my support by not cooperating with you.”

Aaron
and Shulamit arranged to see Chaplain Smith together. Shulamit was welcomed by
the chaplain because she was his main supporter at Hillel. The Hillel
organization did not have the resources to support a fund of this nature and
the student assistant fund was one of the main reasons for the popularity of
the organization.

The
Adlers explained that they would in no way compete with Hillel for Sabbath daveners.
They gave two reasons why they would not do so. First, the Shabbos minyan at Ahavat
Achim was well entrenched and there was no reason to fear its survival. Second,
the student worshippers would have to walk a long way to get to Ahavat
Achim
and it would force them to give up the comfort of a minyan close at hand.

Rabbi
Smith alertly asked them, “Wouldn’t you have this problem in middle of the week
as well?”

Aaron
answered, “We employ our own chauffer, who would be delighted to drive a
minibus to the campus and pick up the students who wish to come to the shul.
What we are asking you to do for us is to allow us to post notices of a
strictly Orthodox service in the neighborhood for strictly observant students.”

“Since
Hillel sponsors trips all year around, it would not be hard to gain permission
for a bus to come into the campus to make the pickup.”

When
Rabbi Smith consented, Shulamit assured him that she would continue supporting
the needy student fund and that she would add a supplement for Hillel programs
that needed additional money.

The
deal was struck and Shula enlisted Andrea Cohen to help with the publicity and
notices. She told her to include that orange juice would be served to the
students and the elder daveners before the start of the services, and coffee
and cake after the davening. The minibus would return to the campus in time for
students to attend 9:00 o’clock classes. Until she got someone else to help her,
Shulamit herself volunteered to serve the refreshments.

Andrea
loved to help Shulamit, and she wrote up the notices and advertisements for the
school papers and the
Law School Briefs
. Since the substantial part of
the University in Pennsylvania enrollment came from the New York City area and
many of them were observant young people, Andrea also placed ads and articles in
the New York Anglo Jewish papers. A minyan bus from a college to a shul was a
unique event, and Andrea made it sound more dramatic than it really was. Aaron
felt that a number of the girls on the bus were more interested in the men on
the bus than the davening, but when they came to the shul, they davened along with
everybody else.

 Students
were asked to arrive at 7:20 for the minibus. Bernie rented a minibus for the
purpose and was never late. Some of the new worshippers were able to conduct
services and relieved the Gabbai of one of his responsibilities. The program
was successful. The first bus trip drew only five students, two of whom were
girls. The news of the bus spread further by word of mouth and gradually the
bus was filled to its seating capacity of sixteen passengers, with a minyan of
boys and six girls.

Aaron’s
next problem was attracting middle-age worshippers to the synagogue on both
weekdays and Shabbatim. In the university section, there were a number of
observant families who would have come to daven, but they were working people
who couldn’t spare the time in the morning. He had to search for upper middle-class
men who could manage to daven before going to work or business. There were many
such men in Philadelphia, but those who were successful enough to have the
luxury of starting work at a later hour were usually not inclined to live in a
lower-class area such as the university neighborhood.

Nevertheless,
Aaron was able to recruit some new daveners for the Shabbos minyan, and their
presence was welcomed by the elder worshippers. They increased the financial
support of the synagogue by purchasing holiday seats and responding to appeals.
The only way to recruit more daveners for the weekday service was to recruit
among the faculty members of the university.

Here,
Aaron was successful in finding some faculty members who lived near the shul and
could come to the daily minyan on an intermittent basis. They would walk to the
shul, have a cup of coffee, and take the minyan bus to the campus where they
would arrive in time for 9 o’clock classes. The bus capacity had to be
increased to 24 seats. Bernie was qualified to drive buses of all sizes, and he
had no problem with a 24-seater.

Expenses
for Aaron’s projects were relatively trivial compared to the income from
Shulamit’s settlement funds. Shulamit realized, however, that while these
expenses were not more than a drop in the bucket, heavier expenses would be
forthcoming and would require capital outlays from her funds. She thought about
the question and arrived at a distinction in her mind. She would not ask her
father for help in shul expenses that involve programming or operating costs.
Where new buildings were involved, she would request her father’s help.

Following
the rules she set down, she arranged to pay for the renovation and painting of
the shul from her own funds, since those costs were considered maintenance and
not new construction. Her new home, however, would involve a new building. She
would therefore seek support for it from her father. Abe Levine was not lacking
for money because he was negotiating with several big computer companies to buy
Telacomp. The bidding had already passed $250 million, and would probably end
somewhere above that.

She
invited her parents to come for Pesach with her siblings, and reserved rooms in
the campus motel for them. Mrs. Shapiro with some extra help undertook to feed the
guests. The living room- dining room that she now had was adequate. During
Chol
HaMoed,
she reminded her father that he was the one who suggested that she
should have her own home.

“How
much are you thinking of Shulamit?” her father asked.

“If
we take a mortgage, it will be a half a million dollars. If not it, should cost
a million.”

Levine
was not in the least shaken by these figures. “In principle,” he said, “I have
always thought of providing my children with their own homes. Thank God I have
enough money to do so. Of course, if I build you a home, Shulamit, I will
someday have to build homes for all the others.

“To
put a limit on things, though, I will grant you 75% of what you are asking and
you will have to pay for the rest. Taking a mortgage is up to you, but my own
feeling is that it is not necessary or desirable. We have a few architects at Telacomp
and I will be glad to have them draw a few sketches for you to give to a local
builder. I take it that the estimate of a million dollars includes buying two
or three smaller properties for demolition.”

“Aaron
told me that it does,” Shulamit said, “and he would like to get started soon. Would
you want a plaque dedicated to you?”

“That
won’t be necessary. If I sell my business, I will have more time to visit with
you and your children. Make sure that you leave us three bedrooms on the top
floor.”

“Dad,”
she said, “I only have one child. Do you know something that I don’t know?”

“It
is only a supposition,” Levine said. “It’s not good for a son to be an only
child. He should have a few siblings and you are now financially able to
support a dozen with your own money.”

“You
are thinking perhaps of the twelve tribes of Israel, or perhaps the twelve tribes
of Aaron Adler?”

“No,
dear, I will be happy whatever children God grants you, as long as the total is
not less than four. I can’t ask you to produce more offspring than your
parents.”

“That’s
fair,” Shulamit answered. “Right now I am not expecting, and as long as I am
nursing it may not be so quick. I promise to notify you as soon as I am
expecting so you can get some money ready.”

“I’d
rather invest money in grandchildren than in brick or stone. See if you can
arrange to have twins so I can save money on airline tickets.”

Shulamit
kissed her father in gratitude and told him that she would be happy to send him
some airline tickets. “Don’t plan on a bris, however, because I’ve already decided
that my next child may be of any gender as long as it’s a girl.”

Shulamit
didn’t want to report her conversation with her father to Aaron during the
holiday week. When the holiday was over, she told Aaron to expect a call from
an architect at Telacomp who was designated by Abe Levine to make a preliminary
sketch for the local builder and his architect. Two days later he received a
call from David Fox of Telacomp, who asked for an appointment in Philadelphia for
Aaron and Shulamit for the next Sunday, on the assumption that both of them
would be free from work. They offered to meet with Fox at 1:00 PM and he agreed.

Shulamit
and Aaron told Fox the dimensions of the building and the homes that would have
to be bought and demolished. Then they described the three floors of the
building and their function. They also asked him to describe the plans to the
builder in a way that the project could be completed by the coming Chanukah and
not cost more than one million dollars. The meeting ended on a happy note and
Fox drove back to report to Abe Levine.

Shulamit’s
leave of absence was scheduled to end on Monday after Passover and she didn’t
seek any extension. She felt well and her figure was back to normal. Judah was
growing nicely and was adjusted to both his mother and his nanny, Shira Bartel.
She notified Albert Nash and Andrea Cohen. She had no indication that Andrea
would make a major affair in honor of her return.