Island Idylls

Did you know Brooklyn College offered free admission for outstanding students in the 1950s? Did you know freshman students were treated to visiting lectures from Ayn Rand, Robert Frost, and Margaret Mead? Such was college life for Barry Menikoff.

In this final interview about Barry’s memoir, Stone Mother, Aaron asks his dad why he chose Brooklyn College. The two have a lengthy conversation about the trials of getting a college education in twenty-first century America. Barry also explains why he refused to learn about Christian art.

And about resorts in the Catskill mountains . . . this is where Barry worked to feed himself as a college student. Such resorts were frequented by Jewish families denied entrance to other, popular East Coast resorts. A dark day in American history, and another chapter in Barry’s life.

Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn--why is everyone so fascinated by Brooklyn? Barry, who grew up there, isn’t sure, but he does know that Brooklyn is the foundation of his life, and it’s a life worth remembering.

In this episode Barry paints a picture of growing up on the streets of Brooklyn in the age of pushcarts and trolleys. He even drops the word, haberdashery!

We learn more about his mother, Blanche, what she meant to him, and how the failures of his father shaped his own view of parenting.

As sad as much of his childhood was, it’s not all doom and gloom. Barry was a dancer, he laughed and played with his friends, and he loved Audrey Hepburn from afar.

Listen in as Aaron tries to get his dad to open up about all this, about life, and about growing old.

Everybody has a story, but most people don’t write them down. Barry did!

In his memoir, Stone Mother, Barry shares what he remembers about his early years. A family that escaped persecution in Poland. Growing up poor. Being alone. Being Jewish. Escaping New York.

In this episode, Aaron asks his father to define a memoir. Why doesn’t his memoir read like a novel? Does it matter?

They move on to discuss why his family preferred not to discuss the Old Country they left behind to settle in America and how Barry came to be shaped by the Holocaust (he prefers the Hebrew term, shoah).

We meet Barry’s father, known as Zeyde, a man of deep, Jewish faith deeply respected by children and neighbors alike. We also meet Ephrain, Barry’s father, a kind but indifferent man. We only briefly meet Barry’s mother--the person who shaped him the most.

It’s a conversation about family history, but it’s also a window into the thoughts of an immigrant, a Jewish-American, navigating life in the New World.

Barry and Aaron dive into the deep end of the pool as they discuss Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem, “System,” found in his famous Child’s Garden of Verses.

What do most people think about religion? Is it a “system” that blesses the good and punishes the bad--as the poem suggests?

Barry argues Stevenson found comfort (and helped scores of others find comfort) by rejecting this system and seeing Chance as the backdrop of the universe. Resigning oneself to the unknown is the only way one will be better.

Aaron presses the question of what the Old and New Testament actually teach about providence and chance, not a tit-for-tat “system,” but a theology of mysterious providence and divine grace.

On the answer to these questions, father and son agree to differ, and that’s what makes Island Idylls so interesting.

Robert Louis Stevenson, “System”:

Every night my prayers I say.

And get my dinner every day;

And every day that I’ve been good,

I get an orange after food.

The child that is not clean and neat,

With lots of toys and things to eat,

He is a naughty child I’m sure--

Or else his dear papa is poor.

Episode Two: Introducing Barry Menikoff

On this episode of Island Idylls we trace Barry’s journey from Brooklyn College to the University of Hawaii where he forged a career as a professor of literature.

You’ve found Island Idylls! In this inaugural episode, Barry and Aaron get to the bottom of the title. What island are they talking about (hint: Aloha) and what exactly is an “idyll”?

They explain the origin of the podcast. Long story short, it begins with a father who spent his life as an English professor and a son who loves to ask lots of questions.

Barry is a literature expert, and Aaron gets him to discuss the importance of expertise in a world where the transfer of knowledge has been democratized. There is so much to be thankful for in this data-driven digital age, but there’s a time to kick back and learn from those who have given extended time to study a particular subject.

Aaron and Barry explain what sets this podcast apart. It’s not just that they are father and son--thought that’s fun. But the one asking the questions--the son--is, gasp, an evangelical pastor. The one answering grew up on the streets of Brooklyn in an orthodox Jewish community.

It’s always a lively conversation.