Good People

Remember these guys? Plotnik and Yossi are posing with two rabbis, at the pre-wedding lunch of a bride whose name Plottie has forgotten, held in the Shangri-la Hotel in Singapore a few years ago. One of these rabbis is from Melbourne, Australia and the other is from Israel. One or the other was posted in Mumbai, India. He isn't the young rabbi who was murdered with his wife the other day in the Chabad House in Mumbai, but he could have been.

The Great Plotnik has known quite a few of these overseas Hasidic rabbis, has spoken to everyday people who belong to orthodox congregations in faraway cities like Bangkok and Singapore and Sydney and Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai. He has been to the rabbis' homes for dinner, has formed a minyan with them to pray in a language he has never understood, had discussions about religious and social issues, has eaten in their restaurants, has played music for them and celebrated weddings and even helped them dedicate their new Kosher kitchen. Out of all these men, he has met only one he didn't like, even though they practice a form of religion that Plotnik finds exclusionary, insular and, in the end, probably harmful.

But you don't have to buy the orthodoxy to respect the work they do. Chabad Houses have a religious purpose ("Hey! Can I convert you over breakfast?"), but it comes second. First is the social goal -- to provide a safe haven, a bed and free meal to anyone who needs one, in any of their hostels and restaurants spread out in the most impoverished and unlikely cities around the world. These rebbes are not big city Western Jews pretending to be pious while building up portfolios, these are men and women who have dedicated themselves to their faith.

Yes, you say, but every religion is dedicated to its faith and some followers commit suicide and some burn churches and synagogues and mosques and some shoot AK-47s at innocent bystanders, all in the name of their God, who is also dedicated to His faith.

Comment noted. Nonetheless, this morning Plottie tips his baseball cap to Chabad House, and to his friends Rebbe Kantor and Rebbe Nehemiah (The Rabbis of Bangkok), who in his story he called Rebbes Karpas and Chrane. (You can read the whole Rabbis of Bangkok saga here, from Salon Magazine TEN years ago! Ten!)



Friends, Plotnik sits at his desk in faraway Saint Plotniko this morning, and hopes your good work is continuing. You are good people with big hearts. Looking at this picture, Plotnik remembers how hard you all had been dancing.