Being Jewish Abroad

In this final excerpt, I ask Paul if and how his Jewish identity changes each time he gets off the plane.
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(You belong to a Jewish congregation in Dallas and you belong to a Jewish congregation here. What are the differences that you feel or see or observe between the two places?)

Perhaps the most glaring difference is that in Dallas there are several congregations, and so one can pick and choose if they’re Reformed, Conservative, or Orthodox. You can pick and choose which congregation is most suitable to you. And then you can break it down into other choices. Do I want a smaller congregation, a bigger congregation? Is it closer to my house, not closer to my house? There’s other little things you can get very picky about. In Salvador, we have one congregation and a group of people that are a blend of Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. There’s a choice: do we want to get along or do we not want to get along with our different personalities and religious needs? Gratefully, this congregation has decided that we’ll embrace everybody. “Just come to services. Do what you want. Do what you can. Just be part of the congregation.” And it works, because we all understand that all we have is each other.

(So you feel like an integral member of the Jewish community here?)

Oh, yes, yes. I always have. I was fortunate in that I came into a community where my father-in-law was a very active and beloved member. But I see that anyone that comes into the Jewish community that doesn’t know anybody is very much welcome. So it wasn’t because I had the happy accident of having my father-in-law being one of the old-timers here for the reason that I was feeling so well accepted. Everybody’s well accepted here, and that’s a very nice thing.

(What do you think of the conversion trend that’s happening right now in this Jewish community?)

Ruth and I happen to belong to a synagogue in Dallas whereby the rabbi welcomed and taught those in the community that didn’t feel very comfortable with the idea, he welcomed people who wanted to become Jewish. Never campaigned for people to become Jewish. But those that made a studied decision, conscious decision to want to throw in their lot as a Jew in a world where sometimes it’s not the handiest thing to be, he gave them all the help he could. And they became integral members of our community, sometimes even more involved religiously and more learned religiously than many who were born Jewish and just know how to eat bagels and lox. And they consider themselves Jewish.

Here, this community has a different personality. We wouldn’t be a community if we didn’t accept the converted Jews. I understand that during the war, if it wasn’t for the noble efforts of the converted Jews, we wouldn’t have even the Torahs that we have today. We wouldn’t have the community that we have today. And I have found that people who convert to Judaism find it more meaningful than many who are born Jewish and just take it for granted. So I don’t see any reason why any community would not accept its converted Jews.

(Any final words, anything else you’d like to add, any questions I haven’t asked or stories you’d like to tell?)

Probably just to add a little bit more color to what we’ve discussed before, our kids, when they come back for the few weeks they can spend each year here, and they try to spend part of their vacation each year here in Salvador, they bring their kids, our grandkids, and they throw them into the activities at the synagogue. They feel very much at home here, very much at home. In fact, our little grandson from San Diego, Joel, he was telling his mom last week that one of the reasons he likes Salvador is because he has so much family here. Sandra, his mom, asked, “We do? Who is your family there?” And he mentioned Ruth and I, mentioned the cook and her helper, he mentioned the people he comes into contact with from the Jewish community. This is part of his family. That’s a beautiful thing. He comes into Salvador and he feels very much at home. Still has a lot to learn with Spanish, but you know, you can say an awful lot without words. The heart can read an awful lot more—especially the heart of a child can read an awful lot more than we can.

Transcript by Sandy Adler, Adler Enterprises LLC