What do you get when you squeeze a synagogue?

JEWWWSSS!



After a 20 year hiatus, I finally stepped foot into a temple for Friday night services. Helen wanted to check out the worship side of Judaism and, after a lot of sighing on my part, I gave in. We’re not big on organized worship, but it was an opportunity for her to find out what Judaism’s all about and possibly connect with the surprisingly-large Jewish community in Durham.

In the tradition of Lenny, the first Jew we encountered told us ALL about the temple, the history of Durham tribesfolk and every “famous” Jew ever to live in North Carolina. Then he called us “young people,” which sounded good to me.

The service: It went down as most Friday night services do: Some bits from Gates of Prayer, some standing, some sitting, some more standing, Hebrew, Hebrew, Hebrew, etc. They had the phonetic spellings so Helen could sorta follow along. Most of the tunes came back to me, but they had some new remixes I wasn’t familiar with. All in all, it felt like Temple Sinai circa 1980, but without my dad having to separate me and Steven because we were laughing every time we heard the word "Toosh b'chata." (Heh heh...Toosh)

Then they read the torah, which Sinai never did/does on a Friday night. What was cool about the reading was that the rabbi translated as he went along, then put things into context. It was more of a story that way and, I gotta say, it was pretty cool. I did not know Abraham had a second wife. Did'jew?

They also did a thing where they asked the congregation if there were any new folks there that night. Kind of a New Jew Review (Anyone get that reference? Anyone?). New Jews would stand up, introduce themselves and give a bit of background. I went first. I thought when I said my name was Keith Greenstein, half the congregation would shout back, “Oh, Lenny’s son!” But no luck. It was the only room I’ve ever been in where Jews didn’t know Lenny. Spooky.

The oneg (the bit in the social hall after the service: brownies, cheese, Coke products) was nice. A lot of people introduced themselves to us and were very friendly. When they asked what we did for a living, I got an unimpressed, “Oh…” Helen, on the other hand, was deliriously happy with LARGE number of “Ooooo!” reactions she got. I was in Bizarro World. I was like, “Did I mention my father is LENNY GREENSTEIN?!” Nothing. Who WERE these people?

ANYway, it was a lovely evening. Helen felt as anyone encountering temple for the first time would: A bit out of place. But, overall, she liked it. They could use a cantor that can sing IN key and maybe a bit more liveliness in the singing (name a temple that COULDN’T use that), but it was a good experience. We may even go back.