So, What Do You Say to Him?

From Gutman Locks, a most interesting man who once had a conversation with my own father at the Kotel...

Enjoy:

A non-Jewish man from Latin America came to the Kotel yesterday with his son. He told me that his wife was Jewish. I told the boy that since his mother was Jewish, he too was Jewish. And since he is a Jew, when he grew up, he had to marry only a Jewish girl. I explained how we are a people and not a religion, but he was so young that it did not seem to make an impression on him, especially since he loved his father, and his father was not Jewish.

I asked his father what the boy’s Hebrew name was. He had forgotten it. I told the father to be sure that the boy received Jewish education. “He has a beautiful heritage, and you do not want him to lose it,” I told him.
They walked away. A few minutes later they returned. He had asked his wife, and she told him that the boy’s Hebrew name was Zvi. I felt that I really didn’t get to the little boy, so I tried one last thing.

I said, “Zvi, be smart like your father, marry a Jewish girl!” He smiled broadly. I think I got him that time.