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A FUNNY LADY
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
David Letterman and the other late night comedians are having a ball with the confirmation hearings of Elena Kagan.
Letterman said, "They're having the confirmation hearings down in Washington, D.C., with Elena Kagan. And so far, the woman has offered very few opinions. I thought to myself, well, my God--how do you find a woman like that?"
"It looks like the next Supreme Court justice could be a New Yorker. Her name is Elena Kagan. She has never argued before a judge before. But living in New York City, you know, she's argued in cabs, she's argued in subways, she's argued in delis, she's argued in her apartment, she's yelled at her super, she's argued in line." (FYI: The Yiddish word meaning to argue is "taynen.")
Elena Kagan has a supreme sense of humor.
She knows that a sense of humor can help
you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the
unpleasant, cope with the unexpected and
smile ("shmeykhl") through the unbearable.
Kagan appeared to be "Lebst a khazhershn tog" (really enjoying herself--living a day as a pig would) during her confirmation hearings.
Why even the staid Christian Science Monitor discussed Kagan's sense of humor. Warren Richie said, "She is smart. She is learned in the law. And she has the ability to function well under extreme pressure... Kagan is funny. And not just clever-witty, either. Sometimes she is laugh-out-loud delightful." (FYI: The Yiddish words meaning to delight are "Mekhaye zayn zikh.")
Fortune editor at large, Peter Elkind, describes Kagan as follows: "She wasn't a super-schmoozer, but she did cultivate relationships well."
What do we know about Kagan's personal life? She was born in NYC, "der mitn" (the middle) of three children, on the city's Upper West Side. Her mother, Gloria Gittelman Kagan, taught at Hunter College Elem. School; her father, Robert Kagan, was an "advokat" (attorney). Kagan's two brothers are public school teachers.
Kagan lived in a third-floor apartment at West End Avenue and 75th Street, and attended Lincoln Square Synagogue. Kagan was independent and strong-willed in her youth. Kagan clashed with her Orthodox rabbi over aspects of her bat mitzvah. Bill Lubic said, "She had strong opinions about what a bat mitzvah should be, which didn't parallel the wishes of the rabbi." They finally worked it out. She negotiated with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, who had never performed a ritual bat mitzvah before. They came to a conclusion that satisfied everybody. Kagan felt very strongly that there should be ritual bat mitzvah in the synagogue, no less important than the ritual bar mitzvah... "This was really the first formal bat mitzvah we had," said Riskin. Kagan asked to read from the Torah on a Saturday morning. Ultimately she read on a Friday night, May 18, 1973, from the Book of Ruth. Today, she identifies with Conservative Judaism.
What was the most humorous part of the hearings?
When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked where she was on Christmas Day, during the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane, she replied, "You know, like all Jews, I was probably in a Chinese restaurant." (Sen. Chuck Schumer clapped his hands animatedly.)
When Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) noted he was 12 or 13 years younger ("yinger") than Kagan, she DIDN'T say, "A sof, en ek!" (That's enough--stop it!) She quipped, "Maybe not after this hearing."
After confirming to Sen. Arlen Specter that she favors televising Supreme Court sessions, Kagan conceded: "It means I'd have to get my hair done more often."
When Tom Coburn said he would ask Kagan a "softball" question, "Promise?" Kagan replied, looking skeptical at first, and then grinning softly.
When Chuck Schumer questioned Kagan, he noted a recent study that among the current members of the Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia gets the most laughs, Kagan acknowledged that "He is a funny man."
Schumer added: "If you get there - and I
believe you will - you are going to give him
a run for his money."
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Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe says, "Humor is like a needle and thread ("nodl un fodem")--deftly used it can patch up just about everything."
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Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe is the author of
two books:
"Yiddish for Dog & Cat Lovers" and
"Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction? Yiddish
Trivia." To order a copy, go to her
website: MarjorieGottliebWolfe.com
NU, what are you waiting for? Order the book!
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