Sunday, May 29, 2005

Me And Richard Joel And The Kite Story

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A few years ago a friend and colleague gave me a copy of a tape of another friend and colleague of hers. For years she'd been asking him to sit down and make a tape for her of some of the stories that he most enjoys telling. She asked me to do the same thing for her, which I did.

Her old friend was at the time the head of Hillel, and his name is Richard Joel. As you may know, today he is president of Yeshiva University.

A little over a year ago I heard President Joel speak at the YU - Model UN. He told a classic story, which is close to my heart, about the man who waved the lantern, but the train still crashed.

I had the pleasure of performing at the annual dinner of the synagogue he attends and he sat in the audience watching just like everyone else. (I did one joke in his honor: People ask me how I became a rabbi/comedian. Well, when I got my ordination I met with the head rabbi and he asked what I wanted to go on to be and I said "president of Yeshiva University," and he asked, "what are you a comedian?" And it was a lightbulb over head moment.)

The two emails pasted below confirm that he and I are kindred spirits. They are referring to the story that appears at the end of my post Inner Avot. As they emailed to me privately, I am disguising the names by just using the first initial.

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Hello Reb Nutta the Maggid -

Thought you may like to know that YU's President quoted you last night (well not quite you, but the famous kite story anyway). Thought it was a pretty cool coincidence. After his speech he presented a gift to each graduate - a kite!

Hope you are well.

- J

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Thanks Neil. I especially enjoyed the two stories you included. Richard Joel told the kite story on Thursday at the Y.U. graduation. (And by the way, they gave each student a kite with Y.U.'s emblem).

Hope all's well with you.

- R
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I wanted to end this post with a link to President Joel's speech. Apparently it is not yet on line. What came up at google was a graduation speech given by Billy Joel.

The same site has commencement addresses delivered by a wide variety of people including Lydon Johnson, Seamus Heaney, Robert Pinsky, Saslmon Rushdie, Tom Hanks, and Sting.

While I have never before found Billy Joel to be that articulate outside of his lyrics, I found his speech to be content filled and well done. Bob Newhart's speech ends with a serious explanation of why humor is important. He cites an impressive array of sources.

So, while I can't link you to Richard Joel's kite speech, you can click here and find many other graduation speeches. Enjoy.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know the kite story, but that joke about you becoming a rabbi/comedian is pretty funny.

;)

May 30, 2005 at 11:41 AM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

Thank you...thank you very much.

The kite story appears at the end of my recent post Inner Avot.

May 30, 2005 at 1:52 PM  

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