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in Temple Israel Center amidst a crowd that was very much Phyllis’s, a crowd that included her friends, congregants with whom she had a rela- tionship, her enormous family, and, naturally, that ultra-imperious man of the cloth, Arnold Turetsky, who wanted nothing to do with me—a fact for which I was grateful. The great thing about the good rabbi is that he couldn’t resist inserting himself into difficult situations, something he could easily do, as he commanded the microphone at the service. (A microphone on the Sabbath! Well, the “Shabbos goy” must have turned it on). Now, it would be disingenuous of me to omit to state that some (large) segments of the synagogue had been exulting in rumors to the effect that one factor in the demise of our marriage had been the clergy- man’s lavishing of disproportionate attention on Phyllis and her father. There is no question that Turetsky’s presence figured in our divorce, but I did not believe then, nor do I believe now, that there were any impro- prieties beyond the fact that the rabbi should have, but didn’t, treat all of his congregants alike.
Everyone loves a seamy story, especially when it is safe to repeat because the underlying text is just that, underlying, and repetition of the conjectures is not the same as tale bearing. Moreover, the target of the insinuations was a man disliked by many, rather than Phyllis, whom nobody disliked. The fact of the rumor was well known, but in polite society it was something that even the most unthinking of people would stay far away from in public, especially in the context of an event that centered on the couple’s son. But, if you were betting on discretion and good taste in the context of a religious ceremony, you would be out many shekels when the ceremony was being run by Rabbi Arnold Turetsky.
In 1987, the political parties were in the midst of the primary runs for the White House that would culminate in the November 1988 elec- tion of George H. W. Bush. Well, it happens that Senator Gary Hart, a very handsome candidate from Colorado, was very much in the news. Hart, who many thought to have a lock on the Democratic nomination, had made the horrible mistake of being photographed on the deck of a boat that was known as Monkey Business with an attractive young woman, one Donna Rice, sitting on his lap. Unfortunately, Ms. Rice was not Mrs.
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