I was hanging out in the lobby of the Young Israel of Far Rockaway this past Friday night when I noticed a crowd of kids and teenaged boys hanging around the janitor and it got me thinking about the whole cool shul janitor concept and that there are always those kids who think they are extra cool because they get to hang around the janitor.
I think there is this fascination that comes with the non-Jews employed by Jewish organizations. You have the cooks, janitors and maintenance guys who are rarely Jewish. In my yeshiva we had a whole crew of non-Jewish employees, several black, some foreign and Sam the white middle America janitor – whom I could never figure out – mostly because I stayed away from these people.
I was never one to try and ingratiate myself to people to try and be cool. I did used to hang out with this one doorman in the building I grew up in, but there came a certain point when I realized that the doormen looked at all the tenants as rich snobs who didn’t appreciate a helping hand – we probably were – my family wouldn’t have been there had we not bought the apartment years ago, but still these people weren’t my friend, they were using my company to pass the time.
In yeshiva there were people that got close to the workers, they always ended up being those guys with the big key ring and all the knowledge about boiler room mechanics and what the cook or garbage man did before coming to yeshiva. Apparently our yeshiva cook had been trained in France and owned a restaurant; he also fought in Viet Nam and for some reason wound up cooking mac and cheese at a yeshiva.
I have been to countless shuls and seen the janitor with all the kids trying to talk to him phenomena. I think part of the reason this happens, is because these kids never get to come in such close contacts with non-Jews so often. I do find it funny because I can pretty much guarantee that many frum kids’ views of the non-Jewish world are shaped through the eyes of a janitor, not really the best influence if you ask me.
In our school, it was almost a mitzva to get on the Janitor’ nerves. He was an old Italian that didn’t speak any English and would throw his keys at us.
Later we got some Quebecois, their daughter and her boyfriend had porno pics hanging from the rearview mirror, we loved hanging around their car until the rebbis would spot us.
i used to score pot from the janitor
love the picture m’kay
hahaha fakewood, we used to get pot from the security guard
Drugs are bad…
m’kaaay
i never scored pot but i did watch him clean up vomit with a mixture of pink stuff and saw dust.. and then there was the time of the number 2 in the urinal….
Nothing like the pink stuff
omg at the elementary schools here- the janitor is god. the kids are always running up to him and talking to him… he was about to move away but then he didnt because he said, “this school is my family”.
its borderline creepy
We scored ciggs, never pot. Or pink stuff. Or porn. Jeez, we had boring janitors…
I wasn’t around but I heard shady stuff between some of the janitorial staff and the students at the yeshiva I went to went down after I left. I believe it was drug related.
The janitor staff is considered cool because in a world that is 100% Yid, it is considered cool to be down with them and go street.
Duke the guy from YIFR is a real nice guy and an excellent handyman
i think it comes from the facination of being around someone who isnt jewish. of course i was facinated with the shul janitor when i was six. he was cool . and he was also the only black person that i actually knew.
it’s b/c they can tell the kids the football scores on shabbos or have a radio on in the janitors shed for the same reason.
I remember befriending a janitor at my hebrew school back when I was in 7th or 8th grade.His name was John. The reason I liked him was because he was just a real practical guy that didn’t talk down to me and said it like it was. When you are that age that is a novelty. Apecialy when you deal with teachers all day that a basically totally not that way.
I remember him promising me he would stop smoking..yeah that never happened
My dad one time caught our shuls janitor stealing from the pushka – in yeshiva the janitor bought the guys alcohol and cigs.
There was this one story in which the janitor was breaking open a ceiling and all these pornos fell out – this janitor Rudy and old black dude was so happy because he thought all the guys in the dorm were gay.
You should have used this picture