A young man is a guest at the Grossinger Hotel in the Catskills. One his first evening there he comes into the lobby and finds that it is full of well-dressed young people having a good time. But there is also
one old man in the lobby, dressed in black, and wearing a yarmulka, and with a long beard and payis. The young man goes over to the old man and
says, “You appear to be a very orthodox Jew, and I am kind of surprised that you are a guest here at Grossinger’s. The old man says, “I’m not really a guest. I am the mashgiach for Grossinger’s. The work is’t very onerous, the salary is reasonable, and I get free room and board at
the hotel. So it’s a pretty good deal.”
The next winter the young man is a guest at the finest hotel in Miami Beach. Once again the lobby of the hotel is crowded with fashionably dressed young people, and once again the elderly orthodox man is there. The old man explains to the young man that business at Grossinger’s is very slow in the winter, and, accordingly, he has come to the Miami Beach hotel to be the mashgiach there.
A couple of months later the young man finds himself at the King David hotel in Jerusalem. Here the lobby is crowded with many orthodox old men. The young man is surprised, however, to find the mashgiach there as well. He asks the mashgiach, “Has the King David Hotel found it necceary to bring you over from America to be the mashgiach here also?” To which the old man replies, “Certainly not! At the King David hotel, I am the golf pro.”