So I’m just moseying along on the internet when I learn that the president of the University of Michigan has sent hundreds of e-mails to someone called “the employee.”
How lovely, I hope. A university president wants to mentor someone.
I’m reminded of the Jewish waiter who taught Sidney Poitier to read, or the Jewish laundry owners who gave Louis Armstrong odd jobs when he was going hungry. I’m cherishing memories of my Jewish mom.
But the university president – also Jewish, alas – was not behaving well.
President Mark Schlissel’s notes to the employee included an article on sexual fantasies – definitely “inappropriate,” violating university policy. In one of his own notes, the Detroit News reports, the president wanted to “lure her with knish” – a Jewish baked, spiced snack.
Why did he write this stuff down? Freud, the great Jewish explainer, taught the world that we all have sexual fantasies and secrets. That was in the 1890s, long before we could make fools of ourselves by e-mail.
In Yiddish, that’s called mishegoss (crazy stupidity). But every language has a word for it.
