Thursday, June 12, 2008

PRIORITIES, SCHMRIORITIES!!!

6/12/08


Below is a letter I sent to the Wall Street Journal this morning, commenting on a Page 1 article concerning the lavish lifestyle of Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, the on the lam former CEO of Converse:


6/12/08

On the first page of today’s Wall Street Journal, we learn that ex-Converse CEO Jacob “Kobi” Alexander is living large in Namibia. For his son’s Bar Mitzvah, Mr. Alexander flew in 200 guests and a hip-hop band and had his friend, diamond factory manager Zvi Gorelick, officiate at the religious service, according to the Journal, “since Namibia has no rabbi.”

Hmm…

Mr. Alexander could fly in 200 guests and a hip-hop band but he couldn’t fly in a rabbi? Given my ethnic and religious background, I have limited experience with bar mitzvahs (but, having spent twenty years in the investment business and having a wife who was born on Long Island, I am not completely an innocent in such matters), and I know that we can have Baptisms without priests, but it would seem that a rabbi might be slightly more important than a hip hop band when planning a bar mitzvah. Apparently, given my age and concern with such quaint old notions as religion and faith, I have lost touch with modern American and, apparently, Namibian, culture.

Mark Quinn
Naperville, IL

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