“My grandfather always says you have to fight the good fight, for justice for everyone, especially people who can’t defend themselves. He says we have to make a difference in the world. I want to do that one day, but I’m never sure how. He’s a justice of the Supreme Court, so he can make a difference by interpreting the law and making important decisions, but so far, I don’t see what I can do to change anything.”
Meredith was still waiting for some kind of sign from the universe to show her what to do. She hadn’t found her own path or any of the answers yet. The only thing she did know was that the life her parents wanted for her, to get married and have children as her end goal, just wasn’t enough. She wanted to accomplish more than that, and Claudia did too. Meredith was glad that they had found each other, and on the first day. Now she had a friend at school. “I want to go to law school after we graduate,” she said. “I want to defend people who are disadvantaged in some way, and have no one to protect them.”
That sounded like a good idea to Claudia too. “I want to tell the truth with my words,” she said as they left the cafeteria.
“I have to go to the library to get some books for my English class. Do you want to come?” Meredith invited her. Neither of them had class that afternoon.
“Sure,” Claudia agreed, and they fell into step beside each other. They found the library, and Meredith got the books she needed, and they both checked out the first book they’d been assigned for their German class. And then they walked back to Lathrop House together. Claudia stopped at Meredith’s room and looked around, but Betty was out, so Meredith couldn’t introduce them. A few minutes later, Claudia went back to her own room upstairs. They agreed to meet at the dining hall for dinner that night. For the first time in years, Meredith felt as though she had made a friend. She hadn’t felt a bond with anyone she went to school with since she’d left Germany, and had felt like an outsider all through high school. And now, on her first day at Vassar, she had met this extraordinary girl who was a survivor and wanted to make a difference in the world too. It seemed like the hand of destiny that they had met.
They talked about their families in New York that night at dinner, and their parents’ expectations of them. Claudia said that the Steinbergs were very important at their temple, Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue. They wanted her to marry someone important in the Jewish community, preferably a doctor, a lawyer, or a banker, and they had warned her not to go out with any Christian boys while she was at Vassar, which seemed silly to her. She didn’t want to get married, and she was there to go to school. And they had warned her to stay away from Bohemians, presumably from other schools. They thought them unsavory and unwashed. She thought her parents’ outlook was limited and a little ridiculous, but she knew they meant well and wanted the best for her.
“My parents don’t want me to go to law school,” Meredith sympathized. “They think it will stop me from getting married, that I can’t do both, have a husband and family and be a lawyer. They think it’s a choice. My grandfather thinks law school is a great idea, but my parents don’t. They want me to play bridge every day like my mother,” she said in exasperation, and Claudia laughed.
“Mine plays bridge all the time too. And she shops a lot. My sisters do too. They think I’m weird because I’d rather read a book, or write one eventually. I tried to write poetry, but I’m not good at it. I went to a poetry reading in Greenwich Village, and my parents had a fit. And my father thinks jazz musicians are all on drugs. They don’t like black people either. I think that’s why they want me here, because even if most of the girls are Christian, there’s no one for me to date.”
Meredith smiled at that. “Not according to Betty and her pals. They’re all expecting to meet the man of their dreams at the mixers with the boys from nearby schools, and maybe they will. But there’s a lot I want to do before I think about getting married.” And then she remembered the debutante ball where they wanted her presented at Christmas, and she told Claudia about it, who listened with interest.
“It might be fun,” she admitted. “You could wear a beautiful dress. It sounds very fairy princess.” Her eyes looked dreamy as she imagined it, from Meredith’s description.
“That’s not what I want to be when I grow up. And they all do it to find a husband. That’s the whole point of events like that. I’m surprised your parents don’t want you to come out too.”
Claudia looked startled as she said it. “They don’t allow Jews to be debutantes,” she said with certainty. “No matter how much money their parents have. My mother told me that, otherwise I’m sure they’d make me do it too.” But Claudia sounded as though she wouldn’t mind. The big white dress was the lure, almost like a wedding. And she liked to dance.
“Is that true?” Meredith was shocked. It had never occurred to her. “Jews can’t be debutantes?” She knew black girls couldn’t be presented. But Jews?
Claudia nodded.
“That’s disgusting. Why not?”
“It’s just the way it is. It’s always been that way, I think. They can’t join certain clubs, or buy apartments in some buildings. My parents wanted to buy an apartment on Fifth Avenue, and they were turned down. They bought one on West End Avenue instead, and we have a very nice place. My father was so angry about it, he bought the whole building. Negroes and show business people can’t buy in fancy buildings either. Harry Belafonte owns the building next to ours.”
“That’s like Germany during the Nazis,” Meredith said with a look of outrage, and Claudia shook her head seriously.
“No, it’s not. It’s a lot different not being able to join a Gentile club, or buy an apartment, than not being able to practice law or medicine, or having your home taken away from you and looted by the SS, and losing everything you own, and being herded into a cattle car to be killed in a death camp. We have our own clubs and buildings. Maybe it doesn’t matter. But no one is killing Jews here, or dragging them through the streets.” She said it sadly, remembering the terrors of her childhood and the family she had lost.
“It’s still discrimination, and it’s very wrong. If I can come out, and I don’t even want to, why can’t you?”
“I just can’t. It’s not a matter of life and death.” Claudia knew the difference, and it didn’t bother her not being a debutante. She had never expected to be.
“But it could be one day. Maybe that’s how it starts. Why should Jews be treated differently?”
“They have been throughout history. That’s what the state of Israel is all about, a safe haven for Jews.” It had been established six years before and recognized by President Truman, who was a hero in the Jewish community. “My parents give a lot of money to Israel,” Claudia commented, and it made Meredith wonder where her parents stood on the issue. They never talked about it, so she didn’t know. “My father says it’s very important to support Israel, and they need our help. They went there last year. I wanted to go, but they wouldn’t take me. I was in school, and they didn’t want me to miss any of senior year.”