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Want to stump this “Father Abraham”? Sam Reichelson is preparing for that.

“I’m Jewish for 66 years, but in doing this research, I’m finding quite a lot about our religion and the history of our people that I didn’t know,”

Reichelson said about his character study of the man considered to be the patriarch of Muslims, Jews and Christians.

“In fact, his parents believed in many gods and idols, and Abraham was the first to believe in a God and to trust a non-physical abstract God without having seen him or having any kind of physical evidence, such as a burning bush,” Reichelson said.

His Abraham is one of nearly a dozen costumed biblical characters, including Queen Esther, Bathsheba and Noah, who are set to mingle at the Community Jewish Festival on Oct. 25 at Temple Emanuel’s Jefferson Road campus. The event drew more than 4,000 people last year.

This year’s festival also features a raffle for a new Toyota Camry that benefits a program to send Jewish youngsters on visits to Israel, a guided tour of the sanctuary and the religious symbols shared by other faiths, a “Kids’ Zone” of inflatable games and activities where children can write their names in Hebrew and a smorgasbord of authentic Israeli foods.

Most of those who attended the first festival last year were not Jews, said Rabbi Fred Guttman, the congregation’s pastor.

“The main goal of the festival is to reach out to the community and to say that there are many universal themes between Christians and Jews and Muslims (and others), and here’s an opportunity to experience them,” said volunteer Annette Rachlin.

Last year’s “on-the-hour” building tours, to be repeated this year, drew 250 to 400 people each time, Guttman said.

“Our sanctuary is loaded with symbolism, everything from the 'Burning Bush’ to the 'Tree of Life,’” Guttman said. “Believe it or not, a lot of people want to see the inside of the building.”

Many of them also tucked written prayers inside a replica of Israel’s Western Wall.

“Usually there’s someone going to Israel who will take them and put them in the real Western Wall,” Rachlin said. “It’s usually hundreds of them.”

Like Reichelson’s Abraham, the other character actors are also preparing to do more than just smile.

“You never know, someone may ask you, where were you born or who is your wife or how did you part the Red Sea,” said Mitchel Sommers, the synagogue’s cantor who is using his experience with Community Theater of Greensboro to help ready the actors, all members of the congregation.

“Most are volunteers or amateurs, and they have a flair for it.”

Take the food and nutrition professor who plays Queen Esther.

“Once you put a crown on, it just changes you,” joked Anne-Marie Scott, who has had little theatrical experience. “My other option at the festival was to sell cookbooks, which would have been fun, too — just not as much.”

Scott hit the books and Google in anticipation of those spontaneous conversations involving her character, one of two women with a section named after them in the Old Testament.

Esther’s bravery in saving the Jewish people is celebrated during Purim.

Reichelson’s getting into character includes an authentic period costume sewn by his wife, Cynthia, who also plays Abraham’s wife Sarah. For his beard, he’s using liquid latex and a stocking-hose material with fake hairs tediously attached.

“It doesn’t smell good but it stays on,” joked the community theater regular of the professional glue. “I’m not looking forward to that, but it’s for a good cause.”

The festival also features storyteller Mark Binder — “Goldilocks and the Three Bubbes” — Israeli dancing and a Jewish book sale with 400 titles, including “From Generation to Generation,” a book of Temple Emanuel recipes.

The raffle benefits the sanctuary and the Michael Winepol Israel Experience Endowment. Winepol died in an automobile accident in 2004, but had credited a trip to Israel with enriching his life. Tickets are $25 each and the winner, who doesn’t have to be there, can instead opt for an $18,000 cash prize.

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com