"Excuse me, are you Jewish?"

That's a strange thing to be asked on a street corner, but that I was this morning in Washington, D.C.  An Hasidic Jew was looking for two Jews to meet a quorem for prayer service.

I replied that I was expanding my mind, did that count?  "Not today", he said.

On noting the Nazi nature of profiling people on the street as to their ethnic appearance, he said "Nazi-like would be telling you you're nothing."  Reminding him that the Nazis profiled as to Aryan features he claimed he couldn't tell what I looked like with my sunglasses.

I took the opportunity to ask him about the new Pope, "while we're on the topic of Nazis", I said, hopelessly prefiguring his response.  "What are you going to do, he was just a kid.  Let's see what he does now, that's more important."

He went back to his search for two more Jews, and I to my wondering at the impact of this new Pope.