“But the money—”
“So what? If I’m not going to use my money for things I don’t care about, and I’m not going to use it for things I do care about, what am I going to use it for?”
“Just what do you have in mind?” asked Edelstein. “They’re asking eighty thousand—”
“Eighty thousand? For an old ark?”
“Shore front, Irv, shore front. And there’s a nice piece of land across the street that’s part of the deal. That would make a nice parking lot. Believe me, it’s a good investment even for a businessman.”
“You mean you want us to buy it outright, just like that with our own money?”
“Us and a few others I got in mind. We form a corporation and buy the place. Then we sell it to the new temple organization—at cost—and take back notes for our money. In the meantime it’s a tax deduction. When the temple organization raises the money, they pay us off, and not only are we in the clear, but we’ve done a fine thing.” He lowered his voice confidentially. “I’ll tell you, I was thinking of it originally as a business deal.”
“You mean you were planning to put up another bowling alley here?”
“You bet. But not just a bowling alley. I was going to combine it with a restaurant, maybe a dine and dance place, maybe billiards instead of bowling—it’s getting big these days. And then while we were talking last night, I got to thinking what happened the day before, Friday—”
“You mean Ted’s speech?”
“Believe me, that was just the climax. All day, from one town to another I got nothing but grief. You know, one of those days. So when we were talking last night, I thought to myself. What do I need another business enterprise for? At my age? Then I began thinking about this place as a temple. Lots of temples nowadays are converted homes—and a lot of them not half so fancy as this, let me tell you.
We could set in some beams and pull out most of the interior walls on the first floor. That could be the sanctuary, and it would seat a couple of hundred people easy. We’d have to put in a new heating system and maybe the plumbing. But that’s all. Structurally, it’s sound. And then all the rooms on the second floor and the third floor could be used for a school.”
“So you’d have an old ramshackle place,” said Kallen, “with a bunch of little bedrooms you’re going to try to make into classrooms and a sanctuary, which, no matter how you arrange it, will still look like a dining room and living room knocked together. Like that place in Salem that started with fifty members, and they’ve still got about fifty members. For the last ten years now they’ve been trying to raise money to build, and they still haven’t been able to.”
“That’s right, Irvbaby, but there’s a difference. Ours would be a shore front property.”
“So?”
“Let me show you.” He led them down the path to the beach, talking all the while.
“So what do people join a temple for? Some, because maybe they want to be big shots, but the great majority, they don’t want to be members of the board of directors. They know it costs money, that the members of the board are always being hit. Most of them just want a place to go for the High Holidays and a place where they can send their kids to a school. But once you get started, that isn’t what keeps a temple going. The High Holidays are only three days in the year. And daily prayers—there isn’t a temple in the entire area that can guarantee ten men for a minyan every single day of the year. As for Friday night services, how many are we drawing now? Fifty? Seventy-five? Now for all those things, our place would be big enough and more than big enough.”
He stopped abruptly to let them fully take in the water view. “The thing that really pulls in the members are the facilities for the Bar Mitzvahs and the weddings—the parties, in other words. Now you just think of the vestry in our temple, which is all we have for parties. Compare that with what we can offer here in Hillson House.” He led them to the sea wall. “Think of it during the summer when most weddings take place. Think of a patio out in front here with a view of the beach. Now you’re going to have a wedding, and you’re going to spend anywhere from three to ten thousand dollars, and your wife and daughter are determined that things are going to be just right. You may not care—You’re just the guy that foots the bills. But they care. They take a look at the vestry in the basement in the present temple, and then they come down to us. We show them they can have their wedding in a beautiful old mansion facing the ocean, and if the weather is warm, they can hold it outside, out of doors. You know, as a matter of fact, that’s the Orthodox way to have a wedding, outdoors under the stars. Which would get the nod, the old temple or our place? You can bet that they would come to us. And we could afford to be exclusive. We wouldn’t take just anybody. They’d have to petition for membership, and we wouldn’t act on them right away. And if you don’t think that would get them…”
“And what if the same thing happens again. Meyer?” asked Dr. Edelstein. “What if after a while the new members begin to outnumber us and try to take over?”
“I’ve thought of that.” said Paff “And I figure we can prevent it easy enough. We limit the number of members on the board, and then we write into the constitution that the founding members are permanent members. No sweat, believe me. And I’ll tell you something else: I don’t care if we don’t pull so many the first couple of years. I’m a little sick of these shoe clerks and insurance agents and commission salesmen we got running things. That
Gorfinkle crowd, they’re a bunch of small-time guys, and I’d just as soon have the temple made up of our kind of people, who you run an affair you don’t have to take them by the throat to squeeze the price of a couple of tickets out of them.”
“When can we take a look at the place inside?” asked Kallen, and Paff knew he had sold them.
“Now you’re talking.” he said jovially. “Did you see that coach house in the front? That’s part of the property. There’s a son of a bitch of an old Yankee living there who is like a kind of caretaker. He’s got a key.” He led the way to the coach house door and rang the bell. “I’ve got ideas for this place, too.” Paff went on. “How about this for a bride’s dressing room? Maybe connected with the main building by a kind of covered walk. Or maybe better, extra classrooms for the school? Or even a clubhouse with ping pong tables and some gym stuff for the kids?”
“I guess he isn’t in.” said Arons after they had waited for several minutes.
“Tell you what.” said Paff. “I’ll get the key from the broker, and we can meet here tomorrow night. How about half past eight?”
“Okay with me.”
“Suits me.”
“Okay by me, too,” said Arons. “But look, Meyer, you had this idea last night, right?”
“Right.”
“So tell me, why were you so anxious we shouldn’t say anything at the meeting this morning. Seems to me that if we had put up a fight, we would’ve got a lot of guys—”
Paff shook his head decisively. “You’ve got it wrong, Kerm. Years ago there was a little grocery store in Chelsea, where my mother, may she rest in peace, used to trade. It was run by two brothers, Moe and Abe Berg. Then they had a fight, and Abe moved out and started another store of his own down the street. But even though the new store was a couple of blocks nearer our house, my mother went right on trading with Moe. And carrying bundles that couple of blocks meant something. When my father, may he rest in peace, asked her why didn’t she trade at the new store, she said, ‘How can I? Everybody will think I’m going there because I think Moe was wrong and Abe was right. And I feel that Moe was right.’ See, this way, we’re not asking people to take sides. We’re not asking them to decide who’s right and who’s wrong, because if they decide against us, they won’t come over to us even if we offer them a better deal for their annual dues.”