". . . I don't play by the rules, so the only rules will be my rules," and most importantly, "I told them that I will not deal with any bureaucrat. I simply won't talk to anyone with a white shirt and a suit." At first, the top Pentagon officials refused, but after a while they realized that he really meant it, and just let him run the show on his terms . . . . when safety officials insisted that he wear a hard-hat, he chose a pink helmet, which he decorated with Mary Kay and Barbie-doll stickers.
Hurt by the status-conscious community his poor refugee family grew up in, he doesn't go to shul, but is proud to be a Jew.
His first wife was Catholic and so is his second wife, but they both have helped him celebrate Jewish holidays and "we never bring treyf [non-kosher food] into the house." And Kilsheimer said he makes sure that people know he's Jewish. "Particularly in the Arab world, I wear this on the outside of my shirt," he said, shaking a golden mezuza that he wears on a thick golden chain around his neck.
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