It seems that an interview is not just an interview.  In my particular time to be interviewed I thought I would be able to tell my story and have it copied down by the interviewer.  She, however, thought the interviewee should answer her questions and tried very hard not to be abrasive by ignoring my injecting other strong points about my history in her pursuit of her story.  That story was a singular one.  It was about guys about my age who were having 2^nd Bar Mitzvahs

I learned later on that there were not many in their early 80’s who, using 70 as a baseline would have their 2^nd Bar Mitzvah at 83.  My muddling the issue with the Rabbis was to just have the ceremony at age 82 for there was an opening during the slow summer months and August 9, 2008 was chosen despite the section of the Torah being read was not the most inspiring being the initial pages of Deuteronomy.

The interview was arranged by Rabbi Young of Temple Sinai of North Dade who has a sense for these things because he has a theatrical background and worked with the Jim Henson group at one time.  I had talked the rabbinate into approving the idea of bringing a marionette of my self at the age of 13 along with me as we walked up to the Bimah so I could prepare the audience with what I (the universal teacher syndrome) had to tell them about the differences between my first ceremony in 1939 and this one in 2008.  I think the stretch of years between was significant but my way of thinking led me to believe I could include some of my old passions and experiences and make this Bar Mitzvah unique and filled with meaning.

So, as I have written before, I have made that marionette of myself at 13.  He is wearing a talit that was in a little blue velvet bag along with a fringed undershirt and teflilin (leather straps that placed special words between one’s eyes and strapped to ones arm.  I had given up on the kipa years ago when I really learned about Judaism in a classical Reform Temple and became a teacher there.  I taught history and theology as well as reading Hebrew.  I never learned to write it or really translate but my 13 year old simulacrum was willing at that time although playing outdoors and going to regular school soon occupied his whole being.  My becoming a teacher of Hebrew and Religious studies came when I earned my teaching degree at Rutgers and pursued graduate studies towards the uneven route to a doctorate.  It should be explained here for I completely forgot to nudge the interviewer to understand the complicity of my Utopian Studies as part of my preparation for this second Bar Mitzvah. 

I studied about alternative social systems in preparation for a masters’ thesis and doctoral dissertation.  I forgot and left these out.  I suppose that most will not understand the connection between my marionette self and utopia.