A Special Christmas Gift

by Sandy Lewis Howell

In 1973, my father, Dr. David Allen Lewis, attended a B’nai B’rith meeting in California. The main emphasis of the meeting was to raise an alert concerning Jewish people who were living in the former Soviet Union and had been refused the right to immigrate to Israel. The vast majority of the audience was Jewish — then there was my dad. He was sitting near the front when he noticed a matronly woman staring at him throughout the meeting. It became so pointed that my dad began to wonder if he had food on his face or mismatched shoes on or some such thing. Anyway, the lecturer continued explaining how there were thousands of Jewish people in the USSR who desperately wanted to leave and make their way to Israel. However, the Soviet Union refused to allow them to leave, thus they became known as “refuseniks.” 

 At the end of the meeting, the Jewish woman who had been staring at my dad made a beeline for him. She said, “Rabbi, I feel compelled to give you this necklace.” Before she could continue my father said, “I’m sorry, you must have me confused with someone else, I’m not a Rabbi — I’m a Christian minister.” She became quite flustered and said, “Oh, I’m sorry to have bothered you, I didn’t realize that you weren’t Jewish.” Before she could leave, my dad asked her about the necklace and she said, “Oh, you wouldn’t be interested in this, it’s only of interest to Jewish people.” Finally, he persuaded her to show him the necklace. It was a large Star of David and the words inscribed were, “Prisoner of Conscience.” Also inscribed was the name of a refusenik who was being held prisoner in the USSR simply for being Jewish. My father said, “I would very much like to have the necklace, if you don’t mind. I will pray for the woman named here.” The Jewish woman responded in a dismissive way toward prayer saying what was needed instead was political action — writing letters to senators and congressman asking them to work on behalf of the refuseniks.