Jewish in a Gentile World

This is the story of Reuben Kushner, the Jewish Robinson Crusoe. He was stranded on an uncharted island for ten years before he was finally rescued. When his rescuers arrived, they were amazed at what they found. Kushner had built himself only a small, humble home in the trees, but next to it was a magnificent building. "That is my synagogue," Kushner explained. He proceeded to give them the grand tour, pointing out with pride the ornately carved pews, bimah, podium and ark, the kiddush cup, menorah and candleholders, the ner tamid, everything a synagogue could want, all made with his own hands. As Kushner and his rescuers left his synagogue, the rescuers spotted another, different but equally ornate building next to it. "What is that?" one of the rescuers asked. "That?" Kushner spat with contempt...

A Jewish man was in Tokyo on Shabbat, and wanted to go to a synagogue for services. He doubted that there would be a synagogue in Tokyo, but much to his surprise, the hotel concierge directed him to a synagogue not far from the hotel. The man entered the synagogue and was surprised to see that everyone there was classically Japanese in appearance: the rabbi, the cantor and all of the congregants had typically Asian features. Their pronunciations of the Hebrew service were a bit unusual (Balukh atah... merekh ha-oram), but other than that, the service they performed was just like the one at his synagogue back home. After the service, the man went up to the rabbi to tell him how much he enjoyed the service. The Japanese rabbi said to him, "Thank you! Are you Jewish?" The man confirmed that he was. The rabbi said...