“Well, maybe there’s some prayer-”
“Some bit of hocus-pocus? That I can make a few magician’s passes over the grave? Is that what you had in mind, Mr. Brown?”
“Now look here, Rabbi,” said Schwarz. “We are all practical men, I hope, and we are up against a practical matter. I’m not worried about the cemetery being polluted and Marvin here isn’t either. But this is something that Ben Goralsky, and evidently his father, take seriously. Call it superstition, if you will. Call it ignorance, but it bothers them.
“Now we’re practical men, Rabbi, Marvin and I. As chairman of the Cemetery Committee, Marvin is concerned with the effect on sales of cemetery lots if this story gets around, and I am concerned with keeping the Goralskys in the temple organization. We’ve worked out what I consider a practical solution to a sticky little problem, and what we want from you is just some information. What we have in mind is to build a circular road inside the cemetery. Like this-” And he took out the sketch. “Now here is where Hirsh is buried. If we keep him outside the road and from now on sell lots only on the inside, will that satisfy the regulations? Actually, Hirsh stands to gain. Since we can’t use the corner land naturally we’d want to beautify it-put in some shrubbery, trees. What we want to know is whether that would do it.”
The rabbi rose from his chair. He looked at each of them in turn, as though unable to believe they were serious. “Is a man a dog?” he demanded, his fury all the more intense because he kept it controlled, “that you presume to toss his body from one place to another as suits you? Is the service I conducted at his grave just a bit of mumbo jumbo of no significance and no meaning? Last week I joined with other rabbis in submitting a petition to our State Department asking them to protest the Russian government’s desecration of Jewish graves. And now you would have me party to a plan to desecrate a grave in our own cemetery to satisfy the superstitions of a foolish and ignorant old man and his equally foolish and ignorant son? Are our ceremonies to have a price to be sold to the highest bidder?”
“Just a minute, Rabbi, we’re not desecrating any grave. We have no intention of molesting Hirsh’s grave.”
The rabbi lowered his voice even further. “A woman not of our faith comes to us and asks us to bury her dead husband in our cemetery because he was Jewish. She regards it as her last act of loyalty and love to lay him to rest among his own people, and you propose to differentiate his grave from all the rest? And you don’t consider this desecration? In good faith, she paid her money-three or four times the price of a lot in the public cemetery, mind you-only to have her husband separated, markedly separated from the rest of the cemetery, as-as a thing unclean?”
“I’ll bet I could get her to agree,” said Marvin.
“It’s purely an administrative matter,” said Schwarz.
“You are a salesman, Mr. Brown, and a successful one,” said the rabbi. “It’s quite possible you could persuade a widow in her bereavement to consent to your plan. But you can’t persuade me. And I consider it something more than just an administrative matter, Mr. Schwarz. I will not be a party to it.”
“Well, I’m sorry you feel this way, Rabbi,” said Schwarz. “I consider it a practical solution to a practical problem. I am concerned with the living rather than the dead. I am concerned with the effect on our congregation of having the Goralskys as members rather than whether the grave of Isaac Hirsh who was not even a member of our organization is on one side of a road or another.”
“I cannot approve and I will so tell the Board when the matter comes up.”
Schwarz smiled. “I’m sorry we don’t have your approval, Rabbi, but I’m afraid we’ll have to go ahead without it. And it won’t come up before the Board. This is a matter in which the Cemetery Committee has full authority.”
“Of course, we’ll take a vote of the committee,” Marvin observed.
“Vote or no vote, I forbid it.”
“Look, Rabbi, we didn’t have to come to you in the first place. We just wanted everything aboveboard.”
“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-”