He is asked to explain what it is, perhaps he is smuggling trophies of horns of protected animals.
The rabbi then invokes the holocaust, as he says "sixty years ago you knew exactly what it was and we got liquidated because of religious items"...
I love it.
"He was in a bit of a panic," said Gigi Mechlowitz, a fellow Jewish passenger from Manchester, who stopped to help.
“They told him to open his bag and loads of security guards came around. The rabbi asked me how to say shofar in German.”
Mr Mechlowitz said: “Officers escorted the rabbi to a customs area suspicious the ram's horn was a trophy from a protected animal.
“The rabbi told them in English 'sixty years ago you knew exactly what it was and we got liquidated because of religious items'.
“I thought he was going to be arrested,” added Mr Mechlowitz, who defused the situation by suggesting the customs officials Google the item.
Ignorance is an awful thing as it turns out. Thanks God there's Google but if there wasn't, this Rabbi would definitely have had a number of problems.
ReplyDeletewhere's the funny part?
ReplyDeletetzvee - the funny part, for me, is the way he invoked the holocaust when they asked him what it is...I thought his chutzpa was funny.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine was once at the Churva shul - before the reno - davening Mincha, when a group of German tourists came in. So someone from the shul asked the group if they wouldn't mind waiting 15 min. until the prayer service was over, which they did.
ReplyDeleteAs the group was going outside to wait, one tourist said, "I've never seen a functioning synagogue before..." To which someone inside retorted, "Well if you hadn't burned so many of them down, you could have!"