Take A Rabbi To Rotary Day

If many years ago a fortune teller had told me what I would be doing today I would have laughed in her face. But its true. Not only am I a Rotarian, strange enough in itself, but today I took along our new rabbi as my guest!
In a way it's not so strange. Every week I seem to meet some member of the clergy among the members, so it seemed only fitting that my religion should be represented too.
The journey there was simple enough, despite a heavy smattering of ice around the synagogue car park. We chatted about the song I would write for him to sing in my new musical. (Could this be any more bizarre?)
As a new member, I don't exactly know that many people myself, so I was relieved to find that the rabbi was pretty outgoing. Usually a bit of shrinking violet, in my new role as hostess and Jewish evangelist I threw myself at anyone I recognized.
"This is Nancy Wiersum who runs the local TV channel," I said proudly, desperately looking around for my next victim as they started talking. "Oo, and this man," I said, surreptitiously reading his name badge in the hope I he wouldn't notice. "He's expressed an interest in joining the synagogue. You must talk to him."
I tried, I hope without too much desperation to be light and witty, but I needn't have worried.
"Hallo, I see you're something of a name dropper," said the Rabbi to a complete stranger picking up a badge which had just fallen off some one's lapel.
By the end of the meeting he must have met half the room, been approached several times to join himself and bought a book from the guest speaker.
One thing I would never do in my role as hostess with the mostest would be to make fun of my guest's name, not easy at Christmas time when his surname is Rudolph. But I needn't have worried. Someone else did it for me. It went something like this:
"A Russian couple was walking down the street in St. Petersburg the other night, when the man felt a drop hit his nose. "I think it's raining," he said to his wife." No, that felt more like snow to me," she replied. "No, I'm sure it was just rain, he said." Well, as these things go, they were about to have a major argument about whether it was raining or snowing. Just then they saw a minor communist party official walking toward them. "Let's not fight about it," the man said, "let's ask Comrade Rudolph whether it's officially raining or snowing." As the official approached, the man said, "Tell us, Comrade Rudolph, is it officially raining or snowing?" "It's raining, of course," he answered and walked on. But the woman insisted: "I know that felt like snow!" To which the man quietly replied: "Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear!"