You know Neal Milner mainly as a retired University of Hawaii political science professor often quoted in news stories about local politics.
But he has a second persona as a Jewish storyteller who charms library audiences with often humorous tales of the traditions he learned from his childhood in the Jewish neighborhoods of Milwaukee.
Milner presents his stories in an entertaining new book, "The Gift of Underpants."
The stories cover why Jewish parents give their kids underwear as omiyage, taking jitterbug lessons from Al Leeb for the shul dance, the unofficial rules for breaking kosher, the perils of jumping the retirement home dinner line, standing in as rabbi at his father-in-law’s funeral to save $400, the Cousins Rule (invite them all or invite none) and its corollary, the Gonif Non Grata.
| "The Gift of Underpants," by Neal Milner (CreateSpace, $7.19) |
Interwoven with jokes that would pass muster at a Catskills resort are lovely spiritual riffs on Jewish traditions such as the wordless nigun melody and reflections on the cultural divide between the first Jews who came to America more than a century ago and their children and grandchildren.
Milner writes of his forebears: "Those folks had run away from pogroms, deserted the Tsar’s army, struggled to learn the customs and language of a totally strange place, busted their chops hanging onto their homes during the Depression, watched with powerful but mixed emotions as their children became American and their grandchildren became even more American and witnessed the destruction of 6 million Jews, including some of their relatives.
"They did this all while working in their taverns, groceries and tailor shops six days a week year in and year out without paid vacations. What they wanted after they quit work was … to sit in the backyard in their short sleeve shirts, suit pants and fedoras, kibitzing and drinking Minute Maid frozen lemonade if the Frigidaire was working well enough to make ice."
It’s a story that resonates in Hawaii, where our own immigrant groups started arriving around the same time.
It’s also a personal story of a boy from Milwaukee living the past 40 years of his adult life as a Jew in Hawaii.
"It’s a comfortable place for Jews, but people here have no experience with everyday Jewish life," Milner writes. "I may be a haole, but because of my stories I’m not just a haole."
