“So many of my former students–especially those from my last stretch of teaching–were so tolerant of others’ psychosocial fragilities and resentments as to become intolerable themselves, junior Torquemadas, sophomoric Savonarolas, finding fault with nearly every remark, finding bigotry and prejudice everywhere.”

Ruben is commenting on the sensitivities of the younger generations attending university, meaning he is recently retired, and that he and others find these young students overly sensitive and critical. He compares these students to the famous Spanish inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada and the Italian (Florentine) Dominican Friar Girolamo Savonarola, who called for drastic civil, political, and religious reform. It is not only a comment on contemporary society but also an introduction to the myriad arguments of and for Zionism that will appear in the novel.

“Dr. Morse was a member of that church in good-standing, but then so too are all of us, goys and Jews alike, members in good-standing and even with good intentions.”

After Ruben introduces the anecdote regarding the Church of Assumption, his life-defining pun, he proceeds to mark its symbolic value by first placing Dr. Morse in the membership and then expanding to include all of humanity. Ruben is driving at the claim that everyone makes assumptions about everyone and everything else. Sometimes those assumptions will be proven correct and sometimes false. It is also an indication to the reader to be aware of their own assumptions regarding Zionism, Judaism, Jewishness, etc. and that those assumptions will be put to the test in the book.