4.2.12 WC: 191694 My mother was summoned to my high school so often that some of the students thought she worked in the principal’s office. One day, after I had done something especially egregious—I threw a “dummy” dressed like me off the roof of the building, after threatening to “jump off the roof’ when my teacher threw me out of the class'*—the principal demanded of my mother “what are we going to do with your son?” Without any hesitation my mother responded, “I don’t know what you’re going to do, but as for me, I’m going to keep him.” The principal threatened to send me to another school called “R.J.J.,” which we always said, stood for “Reformatory for Jewish Juveniles,” because some of the tougher kids—the disciplinary “problems”—went there. (The initials really stood for “Rabbi Jacob Joseph’’). Ultimately I was suspended for a few weeks on the ground of “lack of respect” and spent them at the local library and museum, where I learned considerably more than I was learning in my classes. It was not my first suspension, nor would it be my last. Nor would it be my first encounter with my principal, Rabbi Zuroff, who in my senior year, when he was finally resigned to my remaining in the school until graduation, called me to his office for some career advice. This is what he told me: “You have a good mouth, but not much of a ‘Yiddisher Kup,’” which means ‘Jewish head’ or brain, as distinguished from a Goyisher (non-Jewish) Kup”—a slightly bigoted concept suggesting that Jews are endowed with special mental qualities or capacities.'* He continued: “You should do something where you use your mouth, not your brains.” I asked him what he would suggest. He replied: “You should become either a lawyer, or a Conservative Rabbi.” (He was an Orthodox Rabbi who held his Conservative colleagues in utter contempt.) To make sure the latter part of his advice was followed, he urged Yeshiva University, which trained Orthodox Rabbis, to reject me, which it did. My classmates as well