"Reb Shimme, I think you are looking at things through dark spectacles;
they can't be so bad as you paint them."
"Just live in a Khille fifty years, and you'll know whether or not I'm
exaggerating. If you'd have known the president of the congregation,
Krakauer, _Doktor_ Krakauer, saving your reverence, you'd have said at
least what I say, that a Roshekol is a disagreeable fellow. Perhaps
you'd have said even more. Lots of people in the Khille were vexed at
his treatment of the poor officials, nebbich, and made a fist at him
behind his back. But they were too weak to do anything. I, too, Herr
Kreisphysikus. What can a single person do? But when I think of it even
now, my gall rises."
"Now, now, my dear Reb Shimme, if you excite yourself, I won't allow you
to speak one word about it." I tried to soothe him.
"Why? If one speaks from the heart, it doesn't hurt. Just let me tell
you quietly about Herr Doktor Krakauer, saving your reverence. I won't
make it a reproach against him that he came of a thoroughly ordinary
family. There are many Jews of low extraction who work themselves up
into a fine, noble manhood. Besides, if we recall our common stock,
everyone is justified in regarding himself as a nobleman of the most
ancient lineage. But then one should act accordingly, which most of us
unfortunately fail to do. Herr Doktor Krakauer, saving your reverence,
certainly did not behave like a nobleman. His father was a dealer in
raw hides in Peiskretscham, an industrious, decent sort of a Jew, who
couldn't read or write. His mother was a simple woman, formerly the cook
at Herr Bernhard Markus's. They were not young when they married, and
when a son was born to them, they were overjoyed. They decided to make
something remarkable of the child. The parents now had only one aim, and
the boy, who was a studious pupil, made it possible for them to fulfil
their desire. He was to study, become an educated, learned gentleman, a
doctor. Whatever the dealer in raw hides and his wife lacked, was to
appear in the son, and more, too. And they lived to experience the joy
of seeing him ashamed of them. After he had taken up the profession of
physician, and had received positions of trust in the city and the
congregation, he was very careful to keep the dealer in raw hides and
the Jewish cook hidden away. He was their son on the quiet and in
secret. To be known as their son might have hurt him in the eyes of the
world, and reflect on his public position. So the two old people, who
had worked untiringly day and night to put their only child on a higher
level than themselves, could watch the results of their efforts only
from afar. For his greed, his energy, his cunning, and his disregard of
other people had actually advanced him to a dazzling height. He married
into a well-to-do family; but the girl was so shy and stupid that she
yielded to his autocratic will, in constant terror lest she displease
him.
"Now, then, Herr Kreisphysikus, imagine such a man a Roshekol for years.
He oppressed and injured the whole Khille; it didn't have the courage to
oppose him. Everyone trembled before him. The old janitor of the
synagogue, the Shabbes Goy Marek, who died last year, always used to
say: 'When Krakauer comes to Shul, holding his head so high you'd think
he was trying to bump against the _Mogen Dovid_, and expanding his chest
as if to beat for _Al Chet_ upon it, the whole Khille trembles, because
he's so swell and eats _Trefa_, and treats the people like cattle.'
Marek was right, he was a sensible man. And more than the members of the
Khille, nebbich, those who were dependent upon him trembled before him.
But two people did not tremble, Rabbi Doktor Merzbach, who was too
aristocratic by nature, and still less, the 'haughty Rebbetzin,' who
openly called Doktor Krakauer an upstart, and returned his greeting so
condescendingly that he always took the other side of the street when he
saw her coming. By way of return he never failed when the occasion
offered to do harm to the rabbi and wound his feelings.
"His desire for vengeance was incredible; and the more he tried to keep
it from showing in his outward manners, the more it fermented in his
coarse-grained heart; and wherever it was possible to injure Doktor
Merzbach, he did it. No one seeing the tall, heavily-built,
broad-shouldered man with his ingratiating smile, his assumption of
aristocracy, and his courtly manners, would have supposed his exterior
concealed so black a soul. Well, his day of reckoning came after all.
But in the meantime he continued to gain influence; and he also had an
excellent practice, which later, to be sure, was sliced away a bit by
Sanitaetsrat Ehrlich. May no one suffer the fate they invoked on each
other--but before the world the best of friends. On one point they were
always agreed, to worry and annoy those who were under their control,
the officials of the congregation, nebbich! Herr Sanitaetsrat Ehrlich was
also a trustee; and the two ruled in the congregation for more than
thirty years. The first ugly trick they played on Dr. Merzbach was at
the dedication of the New Synagogue. I think I've told you about it
already, Herr Kreisphysikus. The building of the New Synagogue was due
entirely to Dr. Merzbach's efforts. Who would have paid any attention to
Herr Dr. Krakauer, saving your reverence? Dr. Merzbach's name had a good
sound, and one is not a son-in-law of Reb Salme Friedlaender of Posen for
nothing. That's exactly what Dr. Krakauer, saving your reverence, could
not forgive him, although he always performed his difficult duties
quietly and simply. The Rebbetzin, it is true, very clearly showed what
she thought of the son of Isaac Krakauer, dealer in raw hides, and Frau
Yetta, once cook at the house of Bernhard Markus. There's no denying it,
the Rebbetzin was proud. But in spite of that she was charitable and
noble, and all the poor people in the community loved her. She stood at
the beds of the sick and the dying. In the awful cholera time she
courageously went with her husband from place to place, showing no sign
of fear. She brought comfort to the sufferers, and took the helpless and
the orphaned under her wing. It was only to people like Krakauer that
she showed her scorn for upstarts, if, as she said, they did not also
elevate their minds and their morals. You can imagine, Herr
Kreisphysikus, that there were always 'decent' people in the Khille who
reported to the president every word the Rebbetzin said, only
exaggerated and adorned with extra flourishes. There were two
especially, fine men, Herr Meyer Nathanson and Herr Saul Feuerstein.
Nathanson was the _Shammes_ and treasurer of the Khille. He was called
the 'Caretaker of the Khille,' because he concerned himself about
everything, and was Dr. Krakauer's right-hand man. Feuerstein was a
well-known _Pleitegeher_, a professional bankrupt, and made a good
living from his profession. These two men acted as spies to ferret out
and report every word, every act of Frau Dr. Merzbach's. She didn't
concern herself about them; and sometimes she may have been glad that
the people learned what she thought of them. But there was always some
disturbance and annoyance; and finally the good Herr Rabbiner was the
one to suffer. I can scarcely get myself to speak to you about the way
Dr. Krakauer, saving your reverence, and his assistants imposed their
will on the meetings of the committee, and how, when the New Synagogue
stood there completed, all the difficulties overcome, they sent for a
rabbi from Berlin to hold the dedication speech. Did you ever hear of
such a thing? As though a rabbi were a prima donna! He comes and
preaches the dedication sermon and pushes aside our own rabbi! Dr.
Krakauer, and Meyer Nathanson, the caretaker of the Khille, and Saul
Feuerstein, the professional bankrupt, triumph; and with them the
'Saints,' whom the whole business of the New Synagogue doesn't suit
anyhow. I believe Dr. Merzbach suffered very much at the time; his
feelings must have been bitterly hurt; but he did not complain, and he
did not lose his joy in his work. When he stood in the pulpit on the
first Shabbes after the dedication, and thanked God for having permitted
the congregation to erect their new house of worship, and also thanked
the congregation for having made sacrifices and patiently awaited the
completion of the difficult work, which he recommended to their
protection, their fidelity, and their piety, as a place of upliftment,
of edification, comfort, and faith, the eyes of all were filled with
tears, and everyone felt that the real dedication sermon had not been
delivered until that Shabbes. Marek, the janitor of the synagogue and
Shabbes Goy, said that when the people came out of the synagogue, they
nodded significantly to one another: 'Even if the other man did come
from Berlin he's not a Dr. Merzbach.' But what they said in an
undertone, was publicly declared by the Rebbetzin when she left the
synagogue, proudly drawing up the black mantilla that had once been
draped about the shoulders of Teacher Sandberg:
"'The dedication of the New Synagogue did not take place until to-day,
praised be God, through the efforts of him who for ten years spent his
whole strength for the success of the work.'
"She said this as she stood on the top of the steps leading down from
the side portal to the street; and so loud that the 'caretaker of the
Khille,' who was standing near the steps, could hear the words, probably
was intended to hear them. By the afternoon he had already reported them
to the president, and the result was that the deputy to the convention
soon after held in Berlin was not the rabbi, but Herr Dr. Krakauer,
saving your reverence, and two other ignorant _Amrazim_."
"That's what you call punishment for the sake of discipline," I
interpolated laughingly.
"I don't know what you call it, but I know it's a shame that so large a
congregation as ours should not have been represented at the convention
by its rabbi, a fine Talmid Chochom, with a good name of the greatest
Yichus, but by an _Amhorez_ who did not know more of _Yiddishkeit_ than
a coarse dealer in hides and a Jewish cook could show him."
He came to a sudden stop.
"It sickens me and makes my gall rise to think of these things, Herr
Kreisphysikus. And I had to look on and let it all happen, because I was
weak and without influence. Nothing could be done."
A thoughtful, wearied look came into his eyes. I seized the moment to
take leave, because, in spite of my interest in his narratives, I did
not want him to exert himself any more for the present. Outside I
advised Feiwel Silbermann to see to it that his master go to bed as soon
as possible.