Entry 7 - From Calvin - My dad's oldest friend

Your grandfather was the Chazzan at a rather large synagogue in Montreal. Unfortunately two synagogues merged and the Chazzan of the other synagogue got the position. Your grandfather subsequently was the Chazzan at my bar mitzvah at another synagogue owned and run by the chief Rabbi of Montreal. Shortly afterwards, he was called to a New York synagogue. Your father had to complete his year at Sir George Williams University. My sister had recently married and moved away. So it was arranged that your father would stay with us. He became for a time the brother that I never had. I remember he had to write an essay on witchcraft for some course, which he discussed with me. He read some magazines put out by the Jews for Jesus movement and also by the world wide church of God. The latter took the Tanakh seriously and observed our holidays. I remember that as a consequence we had a major discussion about the verse in Isaiah, which Christians translate as a virgin will conceive. We stopped off at a book store run by the Anglicans (Episcopalians) and checked translations. We finally confirmed that the Hebrew word at the time actually meant "young woman" and not the modern term virgin. Jewish authorities feel that this term actually refers to a prophecy about the coming of King Hezakiah. I didn't see your father for some time afterwards, but kept in touch and my first wife and I were invited to attend the wedding of your father and his first wife. Your grandparents were very upset about this marriage and your grandmother had threatened not to come. Her eyes were red at the wedding. Subsequently your Father and Mother visited with me when I came to a conference in New York and then I think at some point visited with me in
Montreal. I called your father when my father died about 15 years ago and we kept in touch. I was very glad that my younger son, Ben and I had the opportunity to visit Feb 2007, that your parents stayed with us at the time of his high school reunion and that they and your brother came to my first wife's unveiling.

-Calvin  
November 30th, 2008