Resolving the Washington Synagogue Scandals

 

[As mentioned by other blogers on other blogs, I am coming off a series of Jewish holidays.  I have been too preoccupied with other matters to do any posting, and blogging inactivity may well follow this current posting.  Wishing everyone a belated happy and healthy.]

Two major synagogues in Washington DC, each of which, in its own way, is more than a mere name to me.  Each of these synagogues has, within the past few weeks, been the subject of a scandal involving its respective alpha rabbi (though the word "scandal" may be a bit overly strong in the case of the first one discussed below).

The first controversy involved the Adas Israel Congregation.  Given my personal religious biases, I generally do not frequent this particular institution, though I make no efforts to discourage anyone who is so inclined from doing so.  Those congregations that go along with what is called "Conservative" Judaism have, over the years, allowed themselves to become instrumentalities of the leftist political agenda.  Forty years ago I did continue have a tenuous bond with a few specific Conservative congregations, but can no longer do so.  Seventy- and eighty-something years ago, when my mother-in-law was growing up in Washington, Adas Israel was the synagogue her family attended (back when it was at 3rd & G Streets).  My wife has a few cousins in the Washington area who still have connections of one sort or another with Adas Israel.  A number of years ago my wife and I attended a family wedding there.  Other than my personal religious inclinations and proclivities, I hold no ill will towards the congregation and trust that it will emerge honorably and intact from this current controversy.

It seems that Rabbi Gil Steinlauf, the Congregation's main spiritual leader, has revealed to his flock that his marriage is being terminated on account of his homosexual tendencies.

As much as I abhor such abominations, they are, without more, personal relationships into which I have no interest or business in insinuating myself.  In Gil Steinlauf's case, he did give the heterosexual thing an honest try, and it simply didn't work for him.  He is being honest, and, bedroom abominations notwithstanding, he has thus far handled the public aspects of his situation in an honorable manner.  To that extent, I wish him the best of luck.  My only concern is that he may, whether voluntarily or otherwise, allow himself to become a tool in the leftist deconstructionist political agenda that uses homosexuality as a pretext for its agenda of oppression.  This concern is not insignificant.

The second controversy implicates Kesher Israel, the Georgetown Synagogue.  My personal religious orientation is very highly compatible with this particular congregation.  Whenever I visit Washington on business I generally make at least one visit to Kesher Israel for prayer and/or study.

The Rabbi at Kesher Israel, Barry Freundel, has been charged with voyeurism.  He stands accused of placing a video camera in the mikvah at the synagogue, thereby intruding into the personal bodily privacy of the female users.  Aside from the criminal implications, this is a very serious matter because even the yet-unproven accusation can easily discourage women from taking the effort to practice observant Judaism.  To its credit, the Board of Kesher Israel has suspended Rabbi Freundel without pay, pending the outcome of the criminal matter.  Rabbi Freundel is, of course, innocent until proven guilty.

With tongue only partially in cheek, I propose the following resolution to the Washington Synagogue Scandals:  Have Rabbi Steinlauf and Rabbi Freundel switch positions.  The women who use the Kesher Israel mikveh would then be confidently assured that their new congregational rabbi, Gil Steinlauf, is definitely not interested in viewing surreptitious videos of their naked bodies.  And, if the charges against Barry Freundel stick, then Rabbi Steinlauf's wife Batya would finally be sleeping with a man whose hot interest in her female body will have been established beyond reasonable doubt.

In and Out of Washington

As mentioned on several earlier occasions, I always enjoy my trips to Washington, DC, regardless of how dismal the business is.  This time the trip was too short, and the business not totally dismal.

I arrived at my hotel Tuesday night after dark.  Early Wednesday morning I did my run along the Mall, all the way up to the Lincoln Memorial and back.  It's a good thing that I got that workout in, because the day consisted of an all-day meeting, and there was no time for a lunchtime stroll.

And then, after exiting the building, it was directly to Union Station for the first train back to New York.

After sitting for hours at the meeting, and for a few more hours on the trains, I felt the effect the inactivity had on my body.  Today, I made sure to get my usual workout in.

I don't know how appropriate it would be for me just yet to discuss the particulars of the business meeting.  It can be said, however, that my allies at the meeting were from unlikely segments of the sociopolitical spectrum, and that, at least on this particular set of issues, we may well be working together in the future.   And at least one of them, a very personable young lady, exuded some hint of a suggestion that she was entertaining some second thoughts over having cast her vote for Barack Hussein Obama. 

But it was not an appropriate time for me to get snide with her.  We may have to cooperate productively with one another not too far into the distance.  Besides, at the meeting I did get away with making a few double entendre statements using Obama and his Obamanoids as fodder.

No definite plans yet, but it is entirely plausible that I may get some short notice to revisit our Nation's Capital in the next 3 or 4 months.  If so, I sure hope that I will be able to spend some more time enjoying the sights instead of sitting all day at meetings and then having to leave so soon.

  .

Market Studies and Analyses

Companies pay marketing specialists millions of dollars to do studies in advance of product launches, real estate development projects, musical and dramatic and cinematic ventures, et cetera.

But then again, many entrepreneurs have extrapolated marketing data from a single isolated incident, and based upon such extrapolations, have gone on to earn respectable amounts of money and/or fame.

Such was the case with a number of automobile racetracks, whose founders figured, correctly, that the multiple spectators present at police busts of drag racing contests in abandoned parking lots were a viable customer base for a legitimate racetrack.

And, if legend is to be believed, back when Atlantic City was still Atlantic City (i.e., before the casinos), a little girl's enjoyment of a candy merchant's wares which were damaged by wind-driven water from the ocean gave rise to the Salt Water Taffy industry.

I am now in Washington, attending a conference and, as usual, enjoying the town. In some of the uberliberal neighborhoods, many of the cars have Obama stickers. But the lady in the gift shop of the hotel where I am ensconced told me that the Barack Hussein Obama coffee mugs, bookmarks, fridge magnets and other paraphernalia are not selling as well as the other tourist trinkets without BHO's picture.

During my first visit to our Nation's Capital, back when I was 6 years old, my sister and I wanted souvenirs with pictures of President Kennedy, just like all the other youngsters and oldsters were getting. I am not a marketing expert, but if the tourist trade is not putting down its money dollars on the St. Barack relics, then maybe the guy in the Oval Office has reason to be concerned.

From Washington

I’ve felt a little bit out of touch with reality for the past 2 days, but that’s all attributable to the fact that I am in Washington, DC, where that seems to be the norm.

No matter how dismal or boring the matter that brings me to Washington may be, I have always enjoyed the city, and this time is no exception. I have begun to run again, having been sidelined for the better part of a month with tendinitis in the knee. I’m still not pushing myself 100%, but this morning was able to run from the Capitol to the WWII Memorial. It was a dry mouth that made me decide to turn around after paying my respects to the WWII Memorial (my first visit since its completion), and not exhaustion or my knee.

En route back I essentially ran a block and then walked a block, alternating accordingly until stopping at a convenience store to get some OJ and H2O. Before I hit the convenience store, I stopped at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and paid respect to all of the fallen law enforcement officers mentioned previously in this Blog, and all of the others listed there as well. I hope and pray that the number of names added in future years will be minimal (unfortunately, it is unrealistic to hope for zero).

And I deliberately avoided those two side-by-side whorehouses at, respectively, 1500 and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It would be such a pity to spoil an otherwise scenic and enjoyable run.

Yesterday, I was able to run up the inoperative escalator at the DuPont Circle Metro Station.

And so, the business that brought me to Washington has been on the northern side of neutral, and my enjoyment of the city has, as usual, been very, very positive. Tomorrow I shall return home. I hope that the plane ride home will afford me more room than the trip down here, where the fatso woman in the next seat gave me less wiggle room than I paid for.

Our Day Trip to Washington

We spent money this past weekend. Yesterday we flew down to Washington for the day for a "cousins club" reunion on my wife's side of the family. Beautiful weather, uneventful flights, no unusually heavy traffic to or from the airport, and a close parking spot in the airport parking garage. We all had a good time.

We didn't actually go to Washingon, being that we were entirely outside the Beltway the whole time, getting picked up at Dulles Airport by my wife's cousin, who took us to his rather spacious home in Centreville, VA before turning around and going to the main event in Potomac, MD, where another of my wife's cousins has a house almost as spacious (though neither of the two houses is nearly as voluminous as some of those mansions on River Road in Potomac, near the Congressional Country Club).

My mother-in-law and her sisters each married men who, even if they did not come from a wealthy family, were industrious workers and beneficent providers. And while some of my wife's cousins no doubt have trust funds established for their children, nobody of the next generation seems to be a spoiled trust fund child; each seems headed towards their own respective achievements. While they all are quite well provided for -- both in terms of material goods and higher education tuition -- none of them seem to be particularly spoiled. Inherited wealth need not predestine one to a life of carefree indolence if the parents who pass down the wealth insist upon passing down personal responsibility as well.

The only times I had ever before flown out of Dulles were 20+ years ago, during my government service years; each occasion was a brief stopover to change from one flight to another. On one of those occasions I actually went inside the terminal building for a few minutes. In the past 20 years, there have been several changes, not the least of which has been the construction of two terminal buildings in addition to the landmark one designed by Eero Saarinen. When we arrived, we rode the shuttle to the Saarinen building, where my wife's cousin awaited us out front. When he dropped us off to depart, however, we walked, via the underground concourses, to the very end of the far terminal. It was a poor excuse for my own daily workout (I had run a few miles the night before, immediately after Shabbat), but for my wife, it was more than her usual exercise. Notwithstanding the moving sidewalks in the terminals, she did walk the route quite well, and she didn't delay me all that much.

My passages through Dulles have done little to inspire a sense of security. My liberal friends and relatives (including my wife's niece, who lives in Washington, works for a left-leaning social service group, and attended the family reunion) will not take kindly to the observations I now make.

First of all, the significant numbers of Muslim personnel who work the security system (x-raying baggage and monitoring the metal detectors) is not encouraging, particularly in light of the significant number of Muslim passengers who normally course the terminal. Of greater concern is the fact that the news stand concessions in the terminal are operated by Hudson News, a Muslim-run entity that also has Union Station in Washington, and Penn Station in New York, among other places.

Query: Are the inventories delivered to the vendors in the terminal screened like the passengers' luggage? Remember, you or I need medical documentation and special inspection to bring in a bottle of liquid containing more than 3 ounces, but thousands of bottles containing 12 ounces or more of liquid no doubt enter the terminal every business day! Moreover, the concessionaires in the airport have legitimate reasons to use boxcutters in the course of their normal businesses. You will recall that a box cutter was used to kill the pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston's Logan Airport on September 11 2001. It certainly would be easy to get boxcutters into the terminal via Hudson News, from whence they can be handed over to terrorists.

Perhaps I would not be so hung up if there were a Million Muslim March in Washington, where a million (or even a hundred thousand) Muslims would show up to declare that the Ft. Hood massacre was not what Islam is all about. But until something of that nature actually occurs, I stand by the foregoing comments.

After we flew back to New York, my wife and I decided to give ourselves a dinner out as a belated anniversary present (each of our schedules has really been busy for the past 2 months, so we didn't get a chance this year). So we tried this relatively high-priced kosher restaurant that purports to have Continental ambience and cuisine.

What they were lacking was service. There were only 4 or 5 tables occupied, so it wasn't that the waiters were too busy. But the waiter did not bring a plate of bread to the table until we asked him, and even then, there were only 4 small pieces (we did ask for seconds). We waited an inordinate amount of time for each course (not necessarily the waiter's fault). And we waited even longer for the check, even though we asked a number of times! One would think that a business would wish to get paid as soon as possible for the goods and services it provides. One would think that a waiter would wish to please his customers, who decide how much he will be tipped.

And so, on that latter point, I left far less of a tip than I normally would. I couldn't quite bring myself to totally stiff the guy, but he was pushing it close! I do not envision us dining at that establishment at any time in the foreseeable future.

Good News & Bad News

Rosh HaShanah was basically uneventful, which is not such a bad thing, considering our experience last year. No houseguests, but we did have a guest for lunch on the 2nd day. To everyone, I wish a happy and healthy and sweet and good year.

During the Rosh HaShanah holiday, while I was incommunicado from the high tech media world, some good and some bad things happened.


The bad news: The New York Sun has ceased publication. This former subscriber will miss it greatly.

The good news: The Government Accountability Office (formerly known as the General Accounting Office) now charges for copies of its printed publications. I say that this is good news even though I heretofore have, approximately once a month, ordered my free printed copies of GAO reports of interest to me. I now will have to either charge them to my credit card, or be satisfied to read the Internet versions of the GAO reports (and print out, at my computer, those which I really, really, really want in hard copy format.

But the GAO needs to set the example of accountability to all other government agencies. By instituting the new "no-freebies" system, the GAO is (A) reducing its printing and postage costs (which are really footed, in the final analysis, by the taxpayers) and (B) engaging in some entrepreneurship to approximate a fiscal responsibility so often absent from entities which have no profit motive. So, personal inconveniences notwithstanding, I do applaud the GAO's new system.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting to see what does or does not fall into place regarding a possible excursion to Washington and/or Baltimore in about a month. I was in Washington about a year ago, and, as mentioned in the posting, I have always enjoyed visiting Washington. As an adult I have always enjoyed visiting Baltimore (when I was a little boy, my uncle and aunt lived there, and the interpersonal dynamics between me, my sister and my aunt just didn't play well). Engaging and exhausting as such an excursion would be, I'm hoping that something does happen in that regard. It's healthy to get out of your office once in a while. It is too early to tell just yet, but I'm hoping for at least one overnight in either Baltimore or Washington.