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Saturday December 18 - French Final in College
Saturday December 18 - French Final in College
I declare that there is always something weird about a girl who majors in
French. She has entered into her course of study, first of all, knowing full
well that it can only lead to her becoming a French teacher, a very grim
affair, the least of whose evils is poor pay, and the prospect of which
should have been sufficient to send her straight into business or public
relations.
When I left the record store this December day, I happened to see
a classmate from high school, Fred Cohen, together with his
brother, Murray, walking down the street. Fred Cohen had been
in my French class at Central High School and was now a student
at the University of Pennsylvania. Today he is a practicing ob-gyn
physician as well as a licensed mohel, the person in the Jewish
religion who performs circumcisions. Fred Cohen and I were not
acquainted in high school, but he impressed me as a young man
of substance and character who had apparently grown up in a
conservative Jewish home. I once overheard him discussing a
point of Jewish law with a companion: “we are not allowed to
work on the Sabbath. So how is it that the rabbi can be paid for
their Sabbath duties? Is it not considered work?” I assume by his
name that Fred Cohen was a kohen, a descendant of Aaron,
patriarch of the Jewish priestly class. Did I associate my former
classmate with the idea of moral redemption?