1984 - Creating Opportunities to Learn

In 1984, personal computers were first coming out, and they were costly. As a graduate seminary student, a home computer was out of my reach. In fact, it would not be until 1987, in my second year as a rabbi that I would switch from the typewriter for sermons, articles, research and letters, and enjoy the freeing possibilities of word processing. But the first realizations that I had of how much a personal computer could enhance writing, provide for efficiency in editing, and allow for a better product was when I would use a computer in limited usage when I would borrow some time on a friend’s or colleague’s computer. So in 1984, I decided to suggest those possibilities to my professor and rabbinic thesis advisor, who at the time was almost 90 years old. Dr. Marcus was a scholar who was active in teaching and writing; in fact, at the time this event occurred, he was at work in composing a five-volume history of American Jewish life, and had already authored over 20 books and articles and monographs too numerous to count. His secretary, Mrs. Callner, had worked at his side for over 30 years, painstakingly typing out every correction from Dr. Marcus’ handwritten notes on classic yellow tablets of paper. At the time, she was the young one in the operation, at an age approaching 80. I had to approach Dr. Marcus from the utilitarian perspective of a personal computer, suggesting that “Callner” could edit faster, and that even the most minor change he might suggest could be done almost as quickly and efficiently as he thought about it. I argued that the personal computer would allow him to make the most nuanced editing changes that heretofore, he might have let go so as to avoid having to retype an entire chapter for one small change. I had the hubris to suggest that this new technology would, at this late stage in his long distinguished and prolific career, offer the possibility of an easier approach to writing with the potential of a better product. Mrs. Callner was ecstatic with the possibilities as I demonstrated them to her in the store. Dr. Marcus remained skeptical, even after he agreed to purchase “the machine,” which became the term by which he discussed the computer, and always at a distance. It occurred to me at one point, that I probably should call IBM (They were using an IBM PC) and tell them that they had the perfect commercial in this older professor and his older administrative assistant, since in the early days the biggest obstacle to computers, after the price, was personal resistance felt among anyone older than age 25!

As for me, living down the street only two blocks away, and with my daughter Jenna soon to be born, I had to learn the computer along with Mrs. Callner; in fact I soon became her PC advisor and problem solver, available at any time at my professor and mentor’s beckoning. It was one of the many pleasures that I had in a wonderful relationship that continued on a daily and weekly basis until each of their deaths some 13 years later. And from it all, I learned a thing or two about the computer. There is no substitute for learning that is better than being the teacher!

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass