(Recollections of Joe Ragucci)
Little Jimmy was a character from the time I knew him.   Sometime after we were married, Jimmy married Miriam (Falcon) .  Miriam was VERY Jewish but Jimmy was raised Catholic like all his family.   Shortly after they were married Jimmy converted to Judiasm.  The story that I heard was the Miriam’s grandmother had in her will that Miriam would only get her inheritance if she was married to a Jewish man.  So Jimmy converted and the words used within the family for this was “Jesus was given up for 30 pieces of silver but Jimmy gave him up for $3000”.

Miriam’s parents moved to Israel so sometime later Jimmy and Miriam also moved to Israel as “immigrants”.   This meant that the government gave them  a home on a Kabutz and a job and seed money. 

Jimmy had 2 things going for  him there.  First he had been a chef in NY City and second he could speak Italian since he was born there and his mother spoke Italian to him while he was young.  After a while they moved to the outskirts of Jerusalem and Jimmy got  a job as a chef at a US hotel given his US experience as a chef.  During the daytime he would be a tour guide taking Italian speaking groups through the Christian sites.  Since he was raised Catholic he knew all the right places and words to use. 

Since his Dad was still in the US, he visited a few times.  It was clear that he was really a “Catholic” Jew since his roots were very Catholic.   He was proud of his “tour guide” activities.  

One of the side effects of being a “Jewish immigrant” was that Jimmy was expected to serve in the Jewish army.  When we last saw him, he talked about army training and having to carry a gun with him.  When the time finally came for him to serve in the military, he and Miriam fled the country to avoid serving.  They left everything they owned with her parents and fled. 

 But a strange thing happened.   He was traveling back to the US with a stopover in Rome.  Having been born in Italy, he had dual citizenship (actually triple).  So he was stopped in Italy for not serving in the Italian army and was detained.  Fortunately, the US embassy was able to get him released so he could continue on his way to the US.   They settled in Detroit where Miriam worked for a synagogue and Jimmy went back to being a chef.