When I came to Los Angeles in 1994, I was hosted several times for Shabbat and holiday meals by a nice Orthodox family in Pico-Robertson.<\/p>\n
Then, due to the raunchy nature of my blogging, the invites ceased.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 2001, the Jewish Journal<\/a> had Sheldon Teitelbaum<\/a> write a cover story on me. He read it to this woman who freaked out and called me and asked, "Do you want to commit suicide?"<\/p>\n She suggested that I offer the Journal $10,000 not to publish the piece.<\/p>\n Well, I did not try to stop the piece (it was never published, in 2007, Brad Greenberg wrote this profile<\/a> of me for the Jewish Journal), but I was shaken up by her call, and two days later I decided to sell my website lukeford.com<\/a> and resolved to lead an honorable life<\/a>.<\/p>\n A couple of months later, the family had me over for Succoth (and this woman set me up for another holiday meal with another family).<\/p>\n It was my first time at their home in more than three years.<\/p>\n It felt great to be back in their good graces.<\/p>\n That night, there were several single women in the Succah. One was a fresh-faced innocent looking blonde who was becoming interested in Judaism. She was seated right next to me.<\/p>\n She said she worked at a hospital. I think she was a doctor.<\/p>\n I know she could’ve healed me.<\/p>\n Over dinner, we talked about the lulav<\/a> and etrog<\/a>. She said she had never performed this mitzvah.<\/p>\n Like a good Jew, I leaned over to her and — I don’t care what anybody says, I did not put my hand on her knee — said, "Would you like to shake my lulav?"<\/p>\n "Oh, I can’t believe you said that," she replied.<\/p>\n I think she complained to the host who promptly wrote me out of her life.<\/p>\n I would keep passing them on the mean streets of Pico-Robertson but we simply exchanged cursory greetings. Still, it hurt to see their pain, disappointment and disgust.<\/p>\n A few years later, the host died.<\/p>\n I never saw the blonde again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I came to Los Angeles in 1994, I was hosted several times for Shabbat and holiday meals by a nice Orthodox family in Pico-Robertson. Then, due to the raunchy nature of my blogging, the invites ceased. In the summer … Continue reading