Peretz Rodman
|
||
I'll recall most of all, first of all, and -- I hope -- always, Dick's
smile. It bespoke thoughts that flashed across his mind that you always
knew would emerge well-shaped and designed to appeal and to challenge.
The first times I met Dick were when I worked with Al Axelrad at Brandeis
Hillel and Dick was regional Hillel director. I recall his joy at running
a session on non-competitive games, his playfulness and inventiveness
handling a parachute or imitating an animal. Those were in the days when I
still took rabbis to be a bit different from the rest of us. Dick was, but
not in the ways I expected.
Of the divrei Torah I remember hearing from Dick, the one that stays with
me almost 20 years later is the one on how he explains kashrut to fellow
passengers on airplanes. He wrote it up for _The New Kosher Cuisine_, so I
don't have to repeat it. The brilliance of the delivery was in the
brevity. All of us know how short is an audience's attention span, but no
one could distill a message into 4 1/2 minutes -- and stick to it -- like
Dick.
Miriam and I have been the recipient of so much kindness from Dick and
Sherry and have had so little opportunity to repay or even thank them. It
pains me to know that I've lost my chance even to say "thank you" to Dick
for his active help in my efforts to secure a job in Boston for the coming
year and for so much else. His enduring memory is his last gift to us.
Peretz Rodman