This past weekend was alumni weekend here at the UofC and included a 5th year reunion for Rachel's graduating class, the class of 2000 (perhaps the greatest ever). Apparently only one Hillelite, Eugene Rabinovitch, showed up from that class. Eugene's presence sparked Josef Stern to ask me who were the Hillelites from that class. I mentioned Rachel, Eve Krakowski, Dashiell Shapiro, and Daniel Pilarski among others. When I mentioned Daniel Pilarski, though, Josef simply had no recollection of him. This astounded me because Daniel was the Zev before Zev. Well maybe they weren't that similar, but they were both red-headed tyrants of Yavneh. I can only imagine that in five years, if someone mentions Zev Berger to Josef, his response will be a bewildered "who?". Now I think that it will be different for me. I will be better remembered than Daniel or Zev, if only because of my family's notoriety.
Conversation in 2011 between Josef Stern and Yehuda Halper (who has returned to the UofC).
Y: Do you remember Shmuli Soloveichik?
J: I think so. Wasn't he the guy whose kids dropped Hillel library books from the third floor in an attempt to get them in the small wastebasket next to the staircase on the first floor. (Shmuli- in all fairness only Yosef was trying to drop them into the wastebasket, Chaim thought the point of the game was simply to throw books)
Y: Yeah that's the one.
J: What about him?
Y: Do you know he still hasn't given me the Family Guy DVD's he bought for my wedding present.
J: Scoundrel.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
13 years ago
7 comments:
I will (IY"H) leave a cheese-ball endowment for all to remember and tremble before my mighty name.
You also forget that the new Hillel Rabbi took over right in the middle of these changes. As he will likely be around for some time, maybe our generation will be better remembered than those before. But do you really care?
And for the record, I do believe I have met Pilarski.
humm...zev doesn't have red hair..
I don't think I was there when your kids were throwing books out of the window. Wow. They did that?
Also, Shmuli, now that your time at Chicago is drawing to an end, are you thinking about your own legacy?
Your legacy would have remained in the walls of the Hillel House long after you had gone, if the JUF had not renovated the building. . . .
Danial Pilarski a tyrant? the "Zev before Zev? How so? I just dont see it.
Shmuli, I think that your legacy will be a long stream of relatives attending U of C. The real question is whether any of them will be able to drag it out quite as long as you did. (If we really try hard, maybe Mike can still be there when Yosef enrolls in fourteen some years)
PS- for all of you who are really confused by this post, I'm Shmuli's sister-in-law who's going to be attending the university this fall
what happened to Kedvale?
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