After all, what does it mean to obstruct religious practice? In David Bezmozgis’s 2004 short story “Minyan,” Itzik, an elderly immigrant in a building of elderly immigrants, dies. Itzik was a regular at the building’s in-house synagogue; he consistently helped make the minyan. “You want to know what will happen to Herschel?” Zalman replies. He deprived them of the opportunity to practice their religion — what’s more, he obstructed the religious practice of those who depended on the victims’ presence.

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Persons: Bowers, —, David Bezmozgis’s, ”, Itzik, Zalman, Herschel, “, ” Zalman, Robert Bowers, Richard Gottfried, Daniel Stein — Organizations: Reconstructionist, Conservative, New