Subject: Ah hears there is a Jew in here!
Date: Fri, Oct 20 2000 00:00:03 EDT

Doc Rifenburgh's friend Carrie Milne was travelling through Texas, and she witnessed this event...

A Jewish man passing thru Texas for a few days stay on business checked into a rooming house in a very what you would call a frontier town. Not to be conspicuous, he dressed himself in western attire and went in to the only saloon in town. He was surrounded by men in cowboy clothes, wearing six shooters and looking very gruff.

He ordered a beer. While sipping his beer and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible the biggest burliest, scroungiest looking specimen walks in and proclaims, "Ah hears there is a Jew in here!"

The Jewish man cringes, says nothing.

"Ah know you're in here and you better speak up," says the Western man. The Jewish man knows that sooner or later he would have to face up to him and accept the consequences of being Jewish, especially in such a remote place as this.

He stands up proudly and says, "I AM A JEW!"

The Westerner stares at him angrily, "What the HELL are you hiding for? Come with me, ah needs you for a minyan."

For those non-Hebrew-savvy subscribers in our audience, a 'minyan' (according to Mirriam-Webster OnLine, www.m-w.com) is "the quorum of 10 adult Jews required for communal worship". I learned this myself a few years back when I was giving a friend a ride to her conservative temple for services. After a few weeks, she became greatly upset when the rabbi mentioned tht he'd been counting me toward minyan...