by
Rabbi Philip Graubart
Sometimes truth is just stranger than fiction. On his way to the
funeral of his well-liked longtime congregant, Marcello Rothstein,
Rabbi Graubart stops at a newsstand to look at the Daily News. The
full page headlines MILLIONAIRE MOB BOSS SLAIN BEHIND HOUSE scream
out at him. The subhead reveals something Barney, the police inspector,
had chosen to leave out. CHIEF SUSPECT: SPURNED WIFE. According
to unnamed sources Marcello Rothstien was suspected of running his
own drug mini-empire, importing opium from independent farms in
South America. It seems he was a violent gangster who'd ended his
tawdry life in an alleyway with a knife sticking out of his back.
Police sources reported that just two weeks earlier Rothstein had
kicked his wife out of the house after twenty five years of marriage,
and then announced to his family that he was planning on marrying
a twenty-five-year-old old model (whose picture graced most of page
6 of the newspaper). Family sources overheard the enraged wife Judith
threaten to kill Rothstien several times. They even reported seeing
her grab a kitchen knife and wave it around her head, while swearing
at her husband in Spanish.
"Can the dead communicate with the living?" asks Marcello's
wife as the rabbi enters the funeral home. "You see, I've spoken
to my husband."
"What does he say," the rabbi blurts out. Then, realizing
the absurdity of the question, thinks, What does a victim say to
his killer? Can I really get her to confess to her husband's murder
right here in the prestigious Fierburg Funeral Home?
Philip Graubart is the spiritual
leader of Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, California. He is
the author of three works of fiction, My Dinner with Michael
Jackson, Planet of the Jews, and My Mother's Song.
He also writes about Jewish culture for several journals, including
The Forward, The Jerusalem Report, and The San
Diego Jewish Journal. A Murder, A
Suicide Note, A Rabbi's Obsession with Death is his
first non-fiction book.
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