the Godfather

Inside of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, there is a cafe where I get the most amazing wireless. I pop in there sometimes on the way back from class and the Kotel. The manager of the cafe is a guy from North Carolina (by way of Jordan) and his four brothers. Little did I know, his father, who owns this cafe, is this big time antique dealer, which I should have figured out by the beautiful embroidered dresses/costumes and wares hanging up along the walls of the cafe. His father was also the author of a book on Middle Eastern antiquities I once checked out for research while doing my undergrad. While I'm sitting there, drinking my turkish coffee, hub-bub ensues. All the brothers run into the cafe and begin to clean up around me and the five or six customers inside. I ask if I should leave and they say it is no problem, their father has come for a visit.

An older man in a three piece pin strip suit too big on him (Cab Calloway-style) walks in and sits at the table across from me. The brothers are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, at their father's beck and call. He introduces himself as the father of the four brothers and asks how I like his cafe. I say that I like it very much (coffee and free wireless; what could be wrong with that). He asks about me: where I am from, why I am in Israel. I tell him that I once used his book for a paper in my undergrad which he even offered to autograph (unfortunately, it's lost somewhere in the Dewey Decimal System at the UCF library).

Noticing I am doing homework for Ulpan he invites me to improve my Hebrew by staying at the Crown Resort at the Dead Sea, free for one day. He says that he owns the three stores inside of the lobby and will comp a room, food, and spa. I say thank you graciously. He gives me his card and says to call later in the week. I don't think I'll take advantage of the offer considering I'm interested in passing Ulpan, but the hospitality, whoa! Pretty darn cool :)