'We're all going to Temple Friday night. Why don't you come with us? I mean, are you orthodox or conservative?'I considered. 'Well, I haven't gone in a long time... I sort of switch...' I smiled. 'I'm just Jewish,' I said well-meaningly, but that too sent Mrs. Patimkin back to her Hadassah work. Desperately I tried to think of something that would convince her I wasn't an infidel. Finally I asked: 'Do you know Martin Buber's work?'
'Buber... Buber,' she said, looking at her Hadassah list. 'Is her orthodox or conservative?' she asked.
'...He's a philosopher.'
'Is he reformed?' she asked, piqued either at my evasiveness or the possibility that Buber attended Friday night services without a hat, and Mrs. Buber had only one set of dishes in her kitchen.
'Orthodox,' I said faintly.
'That's very nice,' she said.
Philip Roth, Goodbye, Columbus (New York: Vintage, 1993) 88.
