Mr. Kaufman. It is Rabbi Silverman’s synagogue. So, when this document says “active,” I wouldn’t know what they meant because frankly I don’t know the facts on which they base this conclusion.
Mr. Hubert. Did you characterize his attendance or his relationship to the synagogue as “active” when you were interviewed by the FBI?
Mr. Kaufman. Mr. Hubert, as far as the actual words used, I wouldn’t recall. I do say that he attended services more than usual during that period of time. As far as other activities are concerned, I don’t recall that he has been active. To that extent, though, that’s what disturbs me a little when they put this in their report.
Mr. Hubert. Were you one of the officials—a member of the board of trustees of the synagogue?
Mr. Kaufman. I have been. I’m not at this time, but I have been. In other words, in our synagogue we have an autonomous group which is—actually, we are a nonprofit corporation. We have a president and other officers and we have a board of directors, and I have served on two occasions as a director 3 years each. You cannot succeed yourself as director, and I was also secretary for a year in between my term.
Mr. Hubert. What I’m getting at is did you have occasion to observe whether Ruby was active in the normal sense of that word, with respect to religious activities?
Mr. Kaufman. Actually, that’s what disturbs me, Mr. Hubert. As far as I know, he’s never been on any committee, he’s never been an usher during the services—these things—so when you use the word “active”, he attended services.
Mr. Hubert. Did he attend regularly—there is a regular service, isn’t there?
Mr. Kaufman. Oh, there are services every day and there are services on Friday and there are services this morning, and in fact, if I wanted to have been very technical, I could have advised you I didn’t want to testify today, that it was in violation of my Sabbath.
Now, whether I myself could be one who could tell you this would be unfair, because frankly, I can’t say that I’m in attendance every day, and as a result I believe there is only one person that I know who could give you such an opinion and that would be a person such as a rabbi, a person who is in daily attendance, and I personally am not in that category and therefore I would rather not pass on it.