Disturbing reports of threats to Jewish Community Centers take me back to a happier time, the summer of 1986, when I was a camp counselor at the New Orleans JCC. My co-counselor (and future rabbi) Ari Goldstein compensated for my goyishness.
Just as I'd done with the team Hail Marys and Our Fathers uttered at city-sponsored basketball/baseball practice (First Amendment, hmm), I made my way phonetically (hee-nay-mah-toe etc.) through the faith-based incantations that were unfamiliar to me. My JCC experience was a rewarding expansion of my cultural horizons.
