A Jew in St. Walburg

One time, back in the days when I was a travelling door to door encyclopedia salesman, I went to St. Walburg, a town of about 650 people in northern Saskatchewan.

Now, let me preface this by saying that I'm Jewish, but 16 years ago, when I was selling encyclopedias, I wasn't that Jewish, if you know what I mean.  I might have gone to synagogue once or twice a year, did something or other Jewish on some of the major holidays, but not much more than that.  But I certainly felt Jewish, and one Jewish thing I did every single day was to wear a silver Star of David necklace, and had been doing so for years.

But I'm no idiot.  When out in the rural areas of BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan (not a lot of Jews out there), I kept the Star of David under my shirt.  Until, that is, I walked up to a door in St. Walburg and saw a mezuzah.

I must have stood there staring at it for a whole minute.  I hadn't seen the slightest hint of a Jewish presence in my 5 months (at that point) of encyclopedia sales in any town smaller than 200 thousand, much less 650 people.  My curiosity was almost palpable.  I had to know: what were Jews doing here?  And not just Jews, but Jews with a mezuzah, of all things, on their door!

Well, out came my Star of David, and I knocked on the door.  A kindly elderly gentleman came to the door.  I felt a small tinge of disappointment, since I wasn't going to make a sale that day.  (Our encyclopedia package was geared towards families with small kids.  More about that in a future post.)  But nevertheless, I had to satify my Jewish curiosity about these people.

So I got myself invited in, and the man's equally elderly wife made me some cocoa, and we all sat down to chat.  I didn't really know how to bring up my main question, so we just shot the breeze for a few minutes.  I was, however, getting the firm impression that they didn't exactly seem Jewish to me.  Finally, after all my pathetic attempts at steering the conversation towards Judaism failed, I just came out and said, "Pardon me for asking, but are you folks Jewish by any chance?"

"No," they said.  "Why do you ask?"

Why do I ask?  Why do they think??  "Well, you know that thing you have nailed to your doorpost?  With the Hebrew writing on it?  It's called a mezuzah, and it's usually just Jewish homes that have them."

"Oh, that!"  Yes, that.  "Well, our daughter was visiting the 'holy land' a few years ago, and someone sold it to her.  They said it was a good luck charm, and that we should put in on our doorpost."

Well, that's when I realised that the Jew in St. Walburg was just me after all.