“I would love to do this job, Mr. Dorfman. However, we are Orthodox Jews and we cannot take such a job”
Now, you know I can never resist a good joke myself, so I went into a quiet room, called my good friend Bunny Freedman, who I still consider to be the undisputed king of practical jokes, and told him I had to get these guys, for real. He didn’t need any further instruction from me; he took it from there, on his own.
I walked back into the thick of the hubbub and joined the group. About two minutes later, the Neginah phone rings and Steve Levine, the receptionist, picks up. He listens for a few seconds, starts hushing the people around him, and frantically tries to get the attention of Shelly Lang, who became owner of Neginah after he bought it from Isaac Gross in the 1980s.
“Shelly!” Steve shouts, as he puts the caller on hold for a second, “We got a live one here! You gotta take this call!”
Shelly picks up the phone and listens as the caller is looking to book a bar mitzvah in Detroit. He lets Shelly know right off the bat that money would be no object, and that he’s looking for a totally over-the-top-band, with all the fixings. As the conversation progresses, the bill keeps rising and rising. He wants a 32-piece band. He insists on MBD. He wants French horns, a harp, and percussions. He also requires a ten-man adult choir (and in those days, nobody had choirs at their simchahs).
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