https://www.aish.com/j/f/Purim-Around-the-World.htmlPurim Around the WorldMar 7, 2020by Marnie Winston-MacauleyHere re o easm n niv et iv ew a y sJ ew sfrom arou nd h t e orwldd oa a w y t w ihHa am n.Smile! It’s Purim, which is the happiest, silliest, and yet serious Jewish celebration. We Jews kicked up a storm led by the courageous Queen Esther when we whooped the evil Haman and turned the day into one of joyful redemption and joyful we get! We Jews are –commanded to be so stuporously silly that we can’t tell the difference between “Blessed is Mordecai” and “Cursed is Haman.” (We also watch over Uncle Shmuel who, after “celebrating” can’t tell a Haman from a Hamentashen.)We Jews read “The Megillah,” shake a “grogger” when (pooh pooh) Haman’s name is mentioned, wear costumes, imbibe on drink, and celebrate with carnivals. Of course it wouldn’t be Purim if We Jews didn’t make a “spiel” which are comic stories, plays, skits, and music acting out the tale or even each other. Ah, but when we punk our nearest and dearest –is it fake or real? Truth or fun? Do we know? Do we want to know? All of which is part of the magic that is Purim.What happens when Jews of all backgrounds are not only allowed, but expected to let loose? Let’s look at some interesting world customs now and then. Most involve “inventive” ways to do away with Haman and triumph over evil.–U.S.A.: From “ A Wild West Purim,” with ropes a spinnin,’ whips a crackin’ and a rousing “Yee --Haw” at the mention of Haman’s name, to Wizard of ODD spiels, to Megillah blastoffs and moon-tashen in “Outer Space” many shuls and organizations plan rip-roaring events in keeping with the Purim spirit of courage and adventure.
Italy: The throwing of the nuts has been a popular custom. The throwees? Two teams of children while their parents holding cypress branches would ride the streets on horseback. As for Haman, his rotten effigy was placed on high, as all would circle it and bleat trumpets in triumph.Persia: A macher in the congregation would provide a massive feast for his community. The merriment would be accompanied by the celebrants yelling “May the memory of Amalek be erased!” to a huge and mocking effigy of Haman prepared by the children then hung on a stick in the courtyard which was set on ablaze. Following the tradition of Talmudic times, once the fire died down youngsters would leap over the coals. All this leaping worked up an appetite, as the congregation would go back to gleefully gorging.Germany: Gunpowder in torches were lit the night before Purim that exploded with such force during the reading of the Megillah, the congregants met up at Miracle Ear. In one German town, two candles “Haman” and “Zeresh” were lit and let burn down, symbolizing the fate of the enemies of Israel. Among the goodies? Cake-shaped “Haman” dolls were gobbled with relish by children.Tunisia: Doomed Hamans were everywhere as children made effigies out of paper, straw, and rags. The people of the village would gather round the school as a large bonfire was lit. The little ones would then toss their models into the fire, beating the effigies with sticks made especially for this Purim tradition. With all Hamans now ash, sulfur and salt were added as the group yelled the traditional “Long Live Mordechai, cursed be Haman, blessed by Esther, cursed be Zeresh.”Egypt: Congregants would hold candles during the Megillah, while beggars would hold their hands out for a little something more. Virtually all pay these gratuities --“Baksheesh”-- (although in English, the “sheesh” part may taint the tzedakah part a little). At one time, young men, in keeping with the verse \"and they brought him on horseback through the streets of the city\" would ride around on camels and asses, dressed in costume often dyed in stripes.In Bukhara (Uzbekistan): What do you do when you live in snow during Purim? You build a “Haman man.” To differentiate between evil and a jolly snowperson, Haman--man had a head like an elephant, fat legs, a beetroot mouth below a cracked pot hat. Around his belly, strung watermelon seeds meant “Bigshot.” After eating, it was bye-bye Haman as the congregants, using lit wood and rags melted him.–Yemen: Creativity was not lost on Yemenites as children from olden times did a “Dracula” on Haman, using sticks, length and cross wise yelling: \"Haman the wicked.\" In some areas, the children pulled a ridiculously decked out Haman scarecrow in a wooden cart admonishing
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.“thus shall be done to the wicked Haman.\" Needless to say Scarecrow Haman met with fiery end.Wherever you find yourself this Purim and whatever you do, just make sure it’s a happy one!
https://www.aish.com/f/p/Raising_Different_Drummers.htmlRaising Different DrummersOct 23, 2011by Marnie Winston-MacauleyY o u c a n 't c h a n ge o ryuc h ild 'sper osn liat Ey .m br ea c ti.Doing nothing is highly underrated, especially when it comes to parenting. “Nothing?” you ask.Yes, nothing.Before you send me careening into the “toxic” swamp where old counselors retire, I’m not talking about doing “nothing” when little David is running into traffic, or using the new baby’s head for target practice.I’m talking about the relatively recent (and peculiar) notion that “good” parents need be constantly vigilant in our never-ending task to “get involved” or mold our progeny into how we think they should “be” – for their own good, of course.Not only is this generally an unsatisfying mission, but the consequences often send our progeny on a mission to take up crocodile farming as a career choice.Our children's personalities hang on with more persistence than a migraine.As we delve more deeply into the biology of the brain, and that elusive concept we call “personality,” we’ve learned that our children come into the world with a distinctive “road map.” Their personalitieshang on with more persistence than a migraine.Only the most extremecircumstances (think Wolf Boy) may fundamentally alter it. Other than that, we can’t “logic” it, or discipline it out of existence.Despite DNA from the same parents, how often have we wondered “now where did thatstreak come from?” (Or blame a wayward gene from our mate’s pool.)
Some come into the world cooing, docile, sweet, pliant, calm, and they’ll remain so until they’re waiting in line at the Social Security office. Others burst forth with a hey and a holler, their little bodies perpetual motion machines. These are the ones who’ll hunt for a new route to the Indies when you take them to the park.Yet, despite both scientific and our own anecdotal evidence, we parents often foolishly still believe we have more power over all this than we do. We don’t.Worse, any attempt to fool around with our child’s “core,” or unique spirit only leads to power struggles that makes foreign policy look like a game of Go Fish.Of course, we can’t simply allow him to tear through the world, never mind Wal-Mart, like a typhoon, establish his own rules of civility, bully or boss, or take our car for a joy ride after his “Now I am a man” Bar Mitzvah speech.The big challenge here is knowing when, how, and how much to futz with Mama Nature. What works, what is expected, and what is effective with Dina may well throw our Marc into a tailspin. Making sure we’re still instilling civilized, ethical behavior while working with, rather than against, our children’s differences presents us with a huge challenge. Even the most loving parents will admit to feeling more “in synch” with one child than another, especially if “the other” is more difficult.Yet, differentiate we must. Accepting each child’s innate personality, abilities, and tolerance is not only advisable, but a survival skill for them and for us. Then, working to hone those –traits, making each child a custom job, bearing in mind that the cliché “less is better” has never been more true than in dealing with children.Those of us who deal with so-called “difficult” or “problem” kids, often miss the fact that “the problem” may have been exacerbated when parents try to do too much “changing,” “interfering,” “molding,” and yes, even “diagnosing.” Yet, how often have we quaked over a potential problem, driven ourselves (our mates, the teachers, relatives, and people at the supermarket) crazy, only to find out that the problem took care of itself? And how often have we interfered, only to find we’ve created new, worse problems? Worse, new theories and meds have driven parents and some practitioners to create a nation of over-diagnosed, over- medicated children who are too quickly labeled with “ADHD” “Learning Disorders,” and high functioning Autism. All this by age five.Related Article: When the Bough Doesn't BreakTips for Dealing with Your “Different Drummer” Effectively
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.1: Decide if there’s a problem with wisdom. There’s a difference between “difference” and “disorder.” If the child is getting along, relatively happy, functional, and developmentally generally on target, “differences” may be a matter of personality.2: Have patience. Young children mature at different rates. A small “problem” at age three, may disappear when our child is eight.3: See personality traits as neutral and accept differences. “Stubborn” can lead to persistence. Solo activities can lead to a high degree of creativity. Even “anger” can lead to discernment and positive advocacy. It’s our job to tweak and guide, not to change them.4: Don’t over-react. The process of becoming over-concerned and over-managed itself can do harm, and make the child unnecessarily anxious, and damage self-image.5: Work with the child’s personality. Instead of fighting it, hone the positives, while re-routing the “negatives.”The parent who does only what is necessary to a) tweak personality to make their children empathetic, civilized, and persistent, and b) offer opportunities for the child to march to his/her own drummer, is truly a master of parenting.
https://www.aish.com/j/fs/48969666.htmlReally Bad Jewish IdeasJun 13, 2009by Marnie Winston-MacauleyWe e Jw saren 't la a w y s th a t sm a r t .E=MC2, the polio vaccine, the pacemaker, Bloomingdale's, Ben & Jerry's, Weight-Watchers, blue jeans, CBS nevermind whole professions. In proportion to our population, Jewish –machers \"out-macher\" their machers by a number only an Einstein could hypothesize. That's us. Ideas, talent, inventions, philosophy, run from us like Six Flags Banzai water slides.But ... as with all natural wonders, once in a while, instead of flowing mightily, our ideas are a little meshugge.Once in a while our ideas are a little meshugge.Here's my personal list of ideas, thoughts, concepts we need like a loch in kop. I give them an F for Farfoilt (really rotten)!1. \"JEW-T's.\" Before you get all twitchy, I adorekitsch. I even look kitsch. (Bette Midler meets the Annies Hall, and Little Orphan.) \"I'm a –Soccer Mom,\" or \"I'm a Harvard Dad\" T-shirts when Jr. just made his first boom-boom is bad enough. Now, Jewpsters (hip Jews) can display our ethnicity boldly in 100% cotton Ts with \"catchy\" kitsch across our reverent chests like: \"Hebrew School Droupout,\" or \"Gelt Digger.\" All of which will not only warm any Jewish mama's heart but signal any potentials, –\"Shmendrick Alert!\" Unless of course, they're wearing, \"You looked better on J-Date.\"2. BAD, BAD BARK-MITZVAH ETIQUETTE. For many it's sacrilegious, but celebrating a pooch's coming of age is, well, \"koolish\" for some \"Newish\" MOTs. After all, they figure, isn't little Shmooie, your spaniel, more loyal and selfless \"family\" than Tanta Shprintzel who appropriated all the leftovers (nevemind centerpieces) at your Bar Mitvah? Doesn't he jump when you say, \"Shpring!\" and lie down at \"Shlof!\" So some figure why not make a simcha when he reaches dog-hood at age two? (If you wait til he's 13- human, you may have to combine the \"simcha\" with the shiva.) Pooch pals are sent blue and white invites to celebrate at the Bark Mitvah's home, pet salons, even some synagogues. Guests feast on pet-friendly Star of David cakes, mark the Bark Mitzvah certificate with their paw print (in non staining
ink), and, woof their tears during prayers. A perfect gift for Shmooie? The \"pen\" is traditional–except for its squeaky chewablity. (Sometimes Shoomie's parent will request donations to animal shelters a good thing.) And of course, there's the doggie bag filled with Star of David –tennis balls, and commemorative Shmooie yarmulkes.3. JEW HOT, JEW COOL, JEW-JUST RIGHT. They're hot. They're hip. They're \"Heeb humor.\" We've all heard them. Worse, we've all \"spammed\" them. But these \"hilarious \" lists just keep forwarding ... forwarding ... and forwarding : \"You Know You're Too Jewish If:\" and \"You Know You're not Jewish Enough If:Listen ...You know you're too Jewish if: 1. You're a master at Jewish Geography; 2. You have a Pavlovian response to \"Sheket b'Vakasha!\" (hey!) 3. Your family owned at least one BMW, or Mercedes, with a \"Support the IDF\" sticker in the rear windshield.You know you're not Jewish enough if: 1. You don't get what Borat is REALLY saying; 2. All of your ancestors died peaceful, non-Holocaust-related deaths; 3. You don't \"get\" the Big Tsimmis over Sarah Silverman or Ben Stiller.\"Too Jewish,\" \"Not Jewish Enough\" ... \"Yes. In the hands of some cool MOTs, Mother Goose became hipsterical fodder. From Golde Lox, a shnorrer with the chutzpah to complain, \"too frum,\" \"not frum enough\" or \"just the right frum\" when she barges into the Bearansky's, we can take a lesson in laughing. (And all these years, I thought she was a blond shiksa parolee, casing caves.) So ... when are we Jews \"Just right?\" Not e-mailing \"too\" vs. \"not enough\" Jewish humor for starters.–4. KABBALAH, L.A. Even if you're not a follower, a 4,000 year old spiritual movement rooted in Jewish mysticism, deserves some serious due. After all, it's said that Abraham, Moses, Shakespeare, and Freud did. Which is not to mean that your regular Ashley, Moishe, Jose, and Fifi can't. But when Kabbalah becomes the A-listers \"zone\" (somewhere before hotel room bashing, and after Botox), we've got a whole Newish \"cult\"- invasion going on. And Esther, nee Madonna, is the K-LA queen, with Demi Moore, and the Beckhams, among others, \"zoning\" in. But why be skeptical? Hey, even the rich, famous, and bored, after acquiring, well, everything, may be seeking clarity, purity, and the \"light.\" Especially among the dim bulbs. So can we really fault member Britney Spears confusing Kabbalah with Hinduism in a Newsweek interview? A natural mistake when the \"light\" is blinding from all those hi-rent candles and –K-Bling.
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.5. THE GOY GAMUR. The terrific news is, the goy gamur Jews who outgoy the goys has ––become way uncool. Some MOTs like, Ethan Zone, Sasha Baron Cohen, Sarah Silverman, Seth Rogen are thankfully wearing their frizz, shnozzes, and names with pride. And they've become major hip. Ah, but some are still pruning and circumcising noses and names. For the goy gamur, I say, enough with the straightening and shortening! Take a lesson from Dirty Dancing's talented Jennifer Grey after she had \"a nose job.\" When she goyishized her nasal cartilage, she lost her unique cache. Let it be, Ralph Lauren Lifshitz! Change your brand from Polo to Mekhaye!6. POLYUNSATURATED. Like most Americans, Jews have replaced the \"wealth\" of our cuisine with \"health.\" Of course, in our case, there's only one food group of merit: Fat. Sugar, not so much. But whether we're talking chopped liver, chicken soup, or for frying, our beloved shmaltz, in particular, has gotten a bad rap and been replaced. Yes. The Newish, hoping to –live longer than Abraham, have turned to soy, \"Who Would Believe it's Not Schmalz?\" (No one who's conscious), \"sour cream\" made entirely from oil of addax, and veggie latkes fried in Pam. So why is it, that some Newish Jews who've turned counting carbs into a career choice, have chest pains and can harvest enough fat to fuel Zimbabwe while their 100-year-old zaydes are doing the hora in the Hebrew Home ? Walk a little around Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and you'll see it. While some youngish Jews are ferdrayt from the no fat, jogging and dripping, some very oldish Jews are sitting and dipping -- schmaltz on a bissel challah, happily downing yolks and telling jokes.Could it be that this animal rendering have sustaining properties yet to be discovered? Could it be that the Jewish constitution, to survive famine and hardship, is a yiddle different? Could it be that we Jews fare better \"chewing the fat?\"7. Bernard Madoff.Enough said.Agree? Disagree? Think my picks are ... \"rotten?\" Post your point of view or your own list!
https://www.aish.com/j/as/Robin-Williams-A-Tribute.htmlRobin Williams: A TributeAug 16, 2014by Marnie Winston-Macauleyh e st r ugglesa n d s uccesseso fRobinWilliams seem t om irr roth oseo fthe e sJw h ipeople.Robin Williams once likened his work to the daily jogs he took across the Golden Gate Bridge. There were times he would look over the edge, one side of him pulling back in fear, the other insisting he could fly.When it was announced that Robin Williams took his own life on Monday, August 11, many stopped breathing just for a moment, hoping they had misheard. Tragically, they hadn’t.Robin Williams had the magic of genius. And he had the chutzpah to use it. Sound familiar?We’ve lost too many people, celebrities and non- celebrities alike, to depression, bi-polar or other disorders, along with the killer habits that “ease the pain” for a moment, then demand payback with avengeance.We mourn, we think “such a shame” or “so young” or “why didn’t they get help” or if they did, “why didn’t it work?”With Robin Williams, many of us are asking the same thing.In 1997 Williams was named funniest man alive by Entertainment Weekly. Perhaps more than any other performer, he resonated with each of us. He projected a humanity of spirit we loved, sought, and yes, personalized. The manic, unbridled little boy who was bullied as a chubby child, the wacky naïf, the hilarious stand-up, the serious actor, the risk taker like –Andy Kaufman without the outward anger whose hero was another original, Jonathan–
Winters, saw doughnut holes instead of the doughnut and climbed through, unabashed. And with an aura of sadness amid the zany. It was fitting that in 1992, Johnny Carson chose Robin Williams and Bette Midler as his final guests.Robin Williams had the magic of genius. And he had the chutzpah to use it. Sound familiar?We Jews and Robin WilliamsWhile he certainly portrayed Gentiles in the seminal Mork & Mindy, and films such as Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets' Society, The Fisher King, Mrs. Doubtfire, and finally took the Oscar in 1998 for Good Will Hunting probably more than any other icon, the Episcopalian from Chicago was often taken for being Jewish. He himself, seemed to delight in describing himself as an “honorary Jew.”Yes, he used Yiddish words, and did Yiddish shtick, including transforming into an elderly Jewish lady or a New York Rabbi. As early as Mork & Mindy, he futzed with Yiddishkeit, saying to Mindy (Pam Dawber), \"He stole your necklace, he stole your ribs; he’s obviously not kosher\"He also played Jewish roles like a virtuoso which included, for example: 1999’s Jakob the Liar, Tommy Wilhelm, in the film adaptation of Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day (1986), the hilariously restrained Armand Goldman in 1996's The Birdcage and an hysterical scene in Mrs. Doubtfire where Harvey Fierstein, trying to turn Robin’s character into an elderly woman made him look more like an old Jewish man mit a cup of tea. The two broke into the chorus of “Matchmaker” from Fiddler on the Roof. Just last February, on the set of his TV show The Crazy Ones, he tweeted a picture of himself wearing a yarmulke and saying \"Too late for a career change?Rabbi Robin?\"While other non-landsmen have played Jewish roles Robin took on Yiddishkeit so seamlessly. He almost melded with Jews. There may have been deeper connections and similarities that bound Williams to us, and we, to him.1. Difference and Passionate individualism, whether in laughter or tears.Robin was the odd man-child out. No one thought, moved, or sounded like this wild, short, barrel-chested electric eccentric, who, like his hero Jonathan Winters may have had a sense of not quite fitting into a world where he thought crossing “I’s” and dotting “t’s” were a far more fascinating twist on life. Gentle, but impish and elfish, he evoked aspects of a humble Bart Simpson. Yes, Robin was a kind Tasmanian devil.We Jews, throughout history have wandered throughout the world, looking, feeling, and being treated differently. Coming from exclusion we derived traditions and humor that is rich, complex, vibrant, quixotic, neurotic, contradictory, open-minded, and hysterical. Like Williams, we often laugh when it hurts, sob when we’re happy, and make jokes … when we’re running,
from others or ourselves. And like Williams, we are antiauthoritarian, and often irreverent, defiant and unpredictable. Whether it involves creative reasoning, a special brand of savvy, sarcasm or endurance we have a unique perspective on just about everything especially –––the joys and the oys which are inexorably tied.In Good Morning, Vietnam, Williams plays an irreverent DJ, Adrian Cronauer who shakes things up on the US Armed Services Radio station in Vietnam. He and the censor have just had it out again. The radio dialogue was improvisational:–Adrian Cronauer: [in control room] Good Morning, Vietnam! In Saigon today, according to official sources, nothing actually happened. One thing that didn't officially happen was a bomb didn't officially explode at 1430 hours, unofficially destroying Jimmy Wah's cafe. Three men were unofficially wounded, the fire department responded, which we believe to be unofficial at this present moment...2. A Love of WordplayWhether Robin was growling from some deep source inside his soul, shouting like a kidnapped man who’d just had the mouth tape removed, fast and manic with the ability to imitate and mimic all manner of men, women, children, animals, real or imagined, he loved words. He loved playing with them: real ones, made-up ones (Na-nu, Na-nu), hyphenated non-words, strings of disjointed words. His verbal acuity and ear was a singular gift. Williams relied on the zany portrayal rather than the punchline.We Jews are nothing if not in deep emotional love with language. In times of sadness, humor, anger or angry humor, we “express!” Our subjects are everything and the world is our anecdote. We can make a routine from the weather, the President, or the nudnik next door.Who knows – perhaps Robin had a Jewish ancestor who futzed with the word “yutz”.3. Torment, Mood, AnxietyRobin was open about his mental and emotional demons. Plagued with depressive disorders and substance abuse, while his genius wasn’t compromised, his life was. He was different. As a youngster he was bullied for being chubby, and would remain lonely, avoiding this tormentors, and trying out different voices to occupy himself. Eventually, he used laughter to gain respect from peers, yet in high school he was voted “least likely to succeed.” Said Williams in 1989: “You look at the world and see how scary it can be sometimes. Comedy can deal with the fear and … you can laugh and expunge the demon. That’s what I do when I do my act. You have an internal drive that says, ‘OK, you can do more.’ Maybe that’s what keeps you going.” Anecdotally, many comics and comedy writers will tell you \"When the gods gift
you with the kind of talent Robin had, there's a price to pay,\" said Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. \"It comes from deep problems inside. A concern, all sorts of fears. I think that comes with the territory.\"We Jews stereotypically are the poster children for anxiety, fear, worry, depression. If something can go wrong anywhere it can happen here, or to us. Certainly in America, our ––grandparents and parents were Professors of Pain. Are Jews and/or are the “creative” more depressed than others? The literature is contradictory with professors babbling among themselves sticking computer info into mechanical devices to uncover what is still largely a mystery at this, still the dawning of civilization. Yet our history, an eye blink in time, filled with inexplicable torture and humanity has provided substantive reasons.Those interested in humor almost without exception feel it’s been our salvation. Our skepticism and kvetching about life and ourselves through jokes can be deprecating, self- deprecating, critical, or self-critical. It’s been suggested that as outsiders, better to give ourselves a zetz (punch) first. By jumping in, not only do we defuse pain, but come out with the edge. Our ability to use our comedic gifts as a testimony to our background, our will, and our strength. And, particularly during the Golden Age of Comedy, Jewish comics and writers set much of the groundwork for humor to come, we, too have had our share of struggling geniuses on a high with the sound of laughter, and in the depths when their fortunes, audiences, or mood changed. Many who have opened up about their struggles include: Woody Allen, Irving Berlin, Lenny Bruce, Rodney Dangerfield, Larry David, Richard Dreyfuss, Sheckey Greene, Golde Hawn, Danny Kaye, Larry King, Oscar Levant, Richard Lewis, Joan Rivers, Roseanne, Neil Simon, Sarah Silverman, Paul Simon, Carly Simon, Amy Winehouse, and Sid Caesar to name a few.Allow me to conclude with a quote from Robin Williams in the film Jack:“Please, don't worry so much. Because in the end, none of us have very long on this Earth. Life is fleeting. And if you're ever distressed, cast your eyes to the summer sky when the stars are strung across the velvety night. And when a shooting star streaks through the blackness, turning night into day, make a wish and think of me. Make your life spectacularPeople of all stripes, professions, and ethnicities struggle with these illnesses and abuse problems. I’ve noted that Robin Williams’ suicide has frightened many people, especially those who are depressed. Please don’t wait or suffer silently: If you are struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, please seek help.You can call: Relief, a mental health referral agency (718) 431-9501. Suicide Hotline (718) 389- 9608
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.Or Ohel Family: 800-603-OHEL
https://www.aish.com/j/f/Sean-Penn--Other-Heroes.htmlSean Penn & Other HeroesMar 1, 2014by Marnie Winston-MacauleySean Penn helped rescue businessman Jacob Ostreicher from Bolivia. Let’sthanks Penn and these other lesser known heroes.It reads like a James Bond film. It was recently released that Shmuley Boteach’s organization, This World: The Values Network, will award Sean Penn a 'global champion of Jewish values' honor for his work in releasing Jacob Ostreicher, 54, a New York Orthodox Jewish entrepreneur in a flooring firm in Brooklyn, from captivity in Bolivia. Several years ago after investing in a rice-farming venture in Bolivia, Ostreicher was arrested for money laundering in December 2011 and held in prison under brutal conditions, accused, but not charged. He alleged that the Colombian woman running the business had been skimming the investors’ cash.It reads like a James Bond film.Ostreicher spent 18 months in Bolivia’s infamous Palmasola squalid prison where he was beaten, humiliated, and had to pay off his jailors. At hisrequest, along with other organizations, Sean Penn stepped in, arranged for house arrest, then under murky conditions, Ostreicher was spirited out of the country back to America. The general assumption has been that Penn was intimately and personally involved.In 2010, Penn managed to speak directly with the President Evo Morales to gain the Orthodox Ostreicher’s house arrest. What followed resembled Mission Impossible. Somehow Ostreicher made it across a hostile border into the United States. According to Peter Hakim, president emeritus of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, \"You'll never find out [the truth].\"
While the Rabbi Boteach admits he has “disagreed vehemently with Penn in the past on a range of issues,” he adds what Penn did “blew my mind, and, in the spirit of gratitude, I must acknowledge it.” Rabbi Boteach adds: “Penn had no obligation to risk his life for Ostreicher.I’d like to think he was moved by the simplest of reasons to save another human being in –need.”Penn will be given the organization’s 2014 ‘Champion of Jewish Justice’ award at a gala on Lag B’Omer, May 18, in New York. Rabbi Boteach told The Algemeiner, “The essence of this award, is that you don’t have to agree with someone’s politics to honor his tremendous humanity.” He then talked of Penn’s unbridled and unparalleled help in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Penn moved to Haiti after the devastation where he created a relief organization that assisted 60,000 displaced persons.Some Unsung HeroesThere are other unsung heroes who don’t necessarily make “copy” and have nothing on their mantel but dust. Here is just a tiny sample during 2013.Israeli Hero Saved Two Bedouin Brothers from Drowning:Last March, three brothers from the Bedouin village Kuseife swept to sea by strong currents during their family’s visit to Ashkelon. After four days of rescue efforts the third brother’s body, Nahed Sariye was discovered. But more, a story of heroism followed. Two other brothers from the Sariye family had been saved by Yaakov Bruchim, a 22-year-old from Ashkelon.Bruchim was walking home after shul when he saw the brothers drowning, jumped into the water and pulled one of the brothers, Salaam, 22, to shore. He then again went back and pulled the other brother, Salman, 19, out as well. Hassan Sariye, the emotional father of the boys, said about Bruchim. “God took away three sons but gave us another.” The modest Bruchim explained that he “didn’t do anything, but if I could have done more, I would have.”Passengers on Bus Near Tel Aviv Flee Just Before a Bomb Explodes:In December a bomb exploded on a bus in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv literally minutes after the passengers were asked to get off. Initial evidence pointed to terrorism. The bus driver, Michael Yoger, said that one of the passengers had alerted him to a bag on a seat. Inside were wires. Yoger ordered the passengers to leave the bus. Ten minutes later there was an explosion. No one was hurt. President Shimon Peres thanked the bus driver, telling him, “The whole nation is saying prayers of thanks today; you saved so many lives with the speed and bravery of your actions.”Unsung Sobibor Death Camp Hero Finally Acknowledged:Last October marked 70 years since the revolt at the infamous Sobibor death camp. After decades of near oblivion, Alexander Pechersky, who played a major role in masterminding the revolt and rousing his fellow prisoners was not only ignored, but persecuted during the Stalin
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.anti-Semitic campaign. In 2013, he was posthumously given a Hero of Russia award, the country's highest honor.More …In a documentary about heroes directed by Yoav Shamir he looks at a New York City “subway hero” who rescued a man who fell onto the subway tracks after having a seizure; a Gentile woman who risked her life by hiding Jews during the Holocaust; his grandmother, widowed twice, who died heroically; a neurological researcher who amassed a fortune and gave away almost all his money, and Yonatan Shapira, an Israeli peace activist; and others.Rich or poor, famous or not, each and every one of us can make the commitment to give and help others, and become a true hero.
https://www.aish.com/j/f/Seven-Things-You-Didnt-Know-about-Matzah.htmlSeven Things You Didn’t Know about MatzahMar 28, 2015by Marnie Winston-MacauleyDid you know, the TSA has special regulations for security checks on passengers carrying handmade matzah?It’s Passover, and that means Matzah … never mind 1000 jokes about what to do with the leftovers. On the topic of matzah, historically we started with dough, until Pharaoh, after much tsouris in the form of plagues, let our people go. Now, We Jewish slaves were way too smart to trust this guy, and thought “Let’s get the heck out of here.” The point being, with the Egyptians after us, who had time to wait for the bread to rise? So instead our “bread” on the run was an unleavened mixture of flour and water that turns hard and flat when baked and is still consumed by Jews across the world thousands of years later.At the White House Seder, the Secret Service hides the afikoman.So, in honor of the great Matzah, here are...Eight Things You Didn’t Know About Matzah:1. Israelis Keep A Sharp Eye: As we know, matzah dough must go from mixing to baking in under 18 minutes or the matzah is deemed not kosher. These laws are taken very seriously around the world, including in Israel. According to the Times of Israel, approximately 950 establishments will be under the Chief Rabbinate’s kosher certification for Passover in the “secular” city of Tel Aviv! Chef Noam Dekkers of Liliyot in Tel Aviv calls the process of changing over for Passover “logistical mayhem” but other chefs, such as Pastry chef Avi
Melamedsonm who makes yogurt mousse, poppy cake and a flourless chocolate fudge on the holiday, calls the restrictions liberating. I guess it depends if you are a person who sees the cup of Elijah half full or half empty.2. Only God and The Secret Service: Since 2008, when during the Obama campaign aides created their own makeshift Seder, the White House has had one. The tradition has continued, albeit with some innovations. For example, The Emancipation Proclamation is read; the Secret Service is in on the hiding of the afikomen, and finally, at Seder’s end, after raising a glass and saying “Next year in Jerusalem,” a new custom emerged, adding “Next year in the White House.” Obviously this Seder went on too long.3. Brother & Bother: When in 1838, a matzah-dough-rolling machine that would make mass production possible was invented by Frenchman, Isaac Singer, this “new change” started an internal holy war! As late as the 1950s, some rabbis were vehemently opposed to machine- made matzah (matzahs were round and traditionally made by hand). Some of the debate focused on economics. While hand-made matzah meant jobs for the poor, machine made matzah was more affordable for the poor. Opinions rolled in, and machine made matzahs gained acceptable but interestingly, recently, handmade matzah has actually experienced an impressive resurgence. Just like the Passover seder itself, the debate continues.4. The Shape Is The Thing? In 1912, Manischewitz, as technology and packaging grew, started making square matzahs where prior, all were round.5. Where in the World? As matzah gained a rep, Edward Carlin of the Department of Industrial Exhibits sent a letter to Fredrick Margareten (Horowitz Brothers & Margareten’s) inviting them to exhibit a model of their bakery at the 1938 World’s Fair. Their response? Not great, and as a result, the World’s Fair went matzah-less.6. The Great Matzah Showdown: In 2013, Seriouseats.com decided to have a matzah showdown among three National brands: Manischewitz (made in New Jersey) vs. Yehuda (from Jerusalem, Israel) vs. Streit's (Manhattan’s Lower East Side). The first criteria? Taste. This begs the question: does matzah actually have a taste or is it just a scooper for charoset? It does. The best had a hint of sweetness from the wheat along with a smokiness and char. The three were judged during a blind taste test using only plain matzah for Pesach. The second criteria was Texture. Judges were looking for crisp and dry, but not too dry. The third aspect, which was not a true criteria, was Price.To their surprise, the judges found marked variations among the three. Likening both flavor and texture to the crust of good bread that was both light and crispy … the least expensive, reported J. Kenji López-Alt, Managing Culinary Director, Yehuda, from Israel, was crowned the
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.winner! However, matzah is a personal experience, and there are definitely fans of both Streit’s, which the judges found paler and blander, and Manischewitz, the most expensive, that many grew up with, which was the thickest and most uniform.7. The Flying Matzah: In 2014, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) told Jewish travelers: they’ll take care of our Passover matzah! The TSA offered ways to safeguard our precious bread that included sensitive pat-downs on inspection. As matzah is of course brittle and easily breakable, instead of putting our boxes in the plastic containers that slide through a scanner, Jews can opt for a more gentle screening of the holiday food. Their website on the matters says the following: ““Passengers traveling with religious items, including handmade matzah, may request a hand inspection by the TSO [transportation security officer] of the items at the security checkpoint. Some travelers will be carrying boxes of matzah, which are consumed as part of the Passover ritual. Matzah can be machine or handmade and are typically very thin and fragile, and break easily.”
https://www.aish.com/j/fs/Shakespearowitz.htmlShakespearowitz?Apr 30, 2016by Marnie Winston-MacauleyShakespeare’s Jewish connection, and a scene from my Jewish rendition of Hamlet, called “Hemlet.”One day before the Stratford Shakespearean festival, Faivish Hershfeld, originally from Pinsk, showed up to audition, telling the director, “I vant to be en hectah. I vant to play Hemlet.”“You want to be a Shakespearean actor?” asked the startled director. “I’m sorry ... perhaps a walk-on part –“No!” interrupted the old man. “Hemlet! Dat’s vat I vant!”“Oh alright,” said the director, chuckling, as the old man stepped onto the stage. All was quiet.Then in deep, resonant tones, speaking in perfect English diction, Faivish recited the immortal: ‘TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QUESTION. WHETHER ’TIS NOBLER ... ‘The director, cast, crew stood spellbound. When he finished, the director exclaimed, “Why ... that’s fantastic!”“No, boychick,” Faivish replied, “dat’s hecting!”“To be, or not to be?” I need to ask such a question?We recently marked the 452nd Birthday of the British Bard, who, while not Jewish bore a resemblance.After all, in 38 plays, 154 sonnets, plus poems and verses, the man made a big tsimmis from tragedies
and asked a lot of questions-eth. Perhaps this is why We Jews loved to futz with his plays in the Yiddish Theater. As far back as 1901, the People’s Theatre on New York’s Lower East Side put on The Merchant of Venice. Now, apart from issues surrounding Shylock, the play, a tragicomedy, is something We Jews know about. Face it, it’s not that it only hurts when we laugh--we only laugh when we hurt. Needless to say, it was such a hit it went to Broadway, and polished Yiddish theater’s, Jacob P. Adler’s Jewish star. Shakespeare in Mamaloshen became a hit among Jews. King Lear was among the most popular. Author Tim Boxer writes about the time Walter Matthau was in a taxi, driven by a man with a heavy Yiddish accent.He said to Matthau: “Aren’t you an actor?” “Yes,” replied Matthau.“What are you doing?”“I’m playing King Lear on Broadway.”To which the driver responded, “Really? Do you think it would go in English?”The Jewish connection gets tighter. Most people know or heard that for years there’s been a megillah over “did he, or didn’t he?” write his own material. For 200 years Francis Bacon was #1 in the great “real” Shakespeare Hunt. Other popular \"real Shakespeare\" candidates include Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford; Christopher Marlowe; and even Queen Elizabeth I.Ah, but one amateur Shakespearologist, John Hudson, is convinced that a lantslady, an Italian Jewess Converso named Amelia Bassano Lanier (1569-1654) was the true bardess, or at least a “consultant.” In fact her name is on the list of “possibles” created in 2006 by the Shakespearean Authorship Trust.The emmes? Well, “he” did answer heavy questions – with questions. “To be or not to be?” (Very Jewish).Then there’s:“Crack of doom” (Macbeth)“Eaten me out of house and home” (Henry IV, part 2) “I have not slept one wink” (Cymbeline)“It smells to heaven” (Hamlet)“My own flesh and blood” (The Merchant of Venice)\"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?\" (The Merchant of Venice)
“Out, damned spot!” (Macbeth)“The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers” (Henry VI, part 2)Personally, the gal has a shot. Between a Brit and a Jew, who would ask so many questions?Tis a mystery to be so challenged. So nu? Another Jewess (me) moved my mouseth to see “Could it be?”In honor of the Bard’s 452nd Birthday, I give you my version of “HEMLET.” (My sincere apologies to Shakespeare whomever he/she may be, Yiddish speakers … and anyone who has ever read or seen a play. Feel free to edit.)–HEMLET ‘To Be Or Not To Be’: Act 3 Scene 1: Spoken by Hemlet“To be, or not to be?” I need to ask such a question? Whether ’tis nobler for a Jewish prince, to merely kvetch overThe slings and arrows of mine neighbors which is some outrageous umglick? Against such a sea of tsourisAnd by opposing, on the one hand, finish them offish? On the other hand do I need start up and perchance forever gey shlufn? Shtarb?And by “shtarbing” would I be saying “enough already” with … the heartache and the cockamayme insults by the “shvein” our Jewish fleishig are heir to, ‘tis maybe a mitzvah?To shtarb? To shluf?To shtarb: And mayhaps to dreameth? Oy, there’s the rub, nu? For in the shluf of shtarb what dark dreameth may cometh When we have shuffled off the stuffeth of this chazzerai?For who could bear all the tsouris that shlepeth on? The gonifs’ wrongs, the machers’ chazzerai?The pangs of “poo pooing” mine enemies?The insolence of the Golem who prey on thy kishkes? Pray, a nudnik? On the one hand … a man could shtarb himself, nu?On the other … as the Good Book says, not only is self shtarbing sin … but alas, might things be -worse? Could I be smoten? Do mine questions leave me alas, fartoost?
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.And make me bear the chalushes Than fly to maybe a worse kapporah?Gottenyu! Does not the guilt makes nayfish of us all?On the other hand … doth methink mine Yiddishe kop gevaltizes? Makes a Gantzeh Megilleh of such gornishkeit?For this loch in kop … A waste?Vey is mir … must I end this meshugas in haste? Forsooth, Gertrude calls … the gribenes awaits!
https://www.aish.com/j/fs/Shirley-Isms-Remembering-my-Mother.htmlShirley-Isms: Remembering my MotherMay 4, 2019by Marnie Winston-MacauleyIn honor of Mother’s Day.“You’re never too dead to be a Jewish Mother” – Mallory LewisMy mother, Shirley, was definitely not your “typical” Jewish mother, nor was she anyone’stypical mother, or for that matter typically anyone.Her sense of humor was an amalgam of Kielce Poland (where she was born in 1924), Ridgewood, Brooklyn (where she was raised), Queens, New York (where we lived) and her unflagging chutzpah which was somewhere between hysterical and a little charmingly yet alarmingly meshugge. In fact, her exploits became the talk of Flushing, Queens and extended all the way to Bayside, Queens. Those who had the nerve, referred to her quirk as Shirleyisms.SHIRLEYISM: True, when we’re hurt, mama’s bereft. But Shirley’s revenge involved sharp objects, like scissors. If boys broke up with me, mom “edited” them out. Permanently. She spent days busily hunting down all my photos with them – and became the first Jewish Mama “guillotiner.” I had 100 photos of me standing next to headless humans in penny loafers. To drive home her insult, she’d toss them outside and stomp on them. Given how many boys broke up with me, our sidewalk was a sea of teenage boys’ heads. During one particularly bad “boy” period, The Department of Sanitation cited her for littering. The fine was $500. I asked if they could cut me in, citing “pain and suffering” – mine after hearing my neighbors yell: “Hey Marnie … I see David broke up with you – again!”
SHIRLEYISM: My mother was the only person who was ever expelled from a workshop at the Learning Annex. The course was called: “Women Risking Change.” I later found out she was expelled for “risking too much change.” According to the women’s libber instructor, while postulating the seven levels of “risk” my mother quipped: “Mamala, why don’t you ‘risk changing’ your attitude so you could get maybe a date and stop teaching this chazzerai?!” Ma didn’t tell us right away that she was expelled. She pretended to go for the rest of the semester. We also noticed our freezer was bursting with “challahs.” What does challah have to do with “Risking Change?” Ma explained she only schlepped to the Learning Annex in Manhattan because “it was next to the greatest challah bakery in the City and ‘Writing for Profit’ was filled up.” It was between “Fun with Einstein’” and “Risking Change.” Her only comment? “I should have gone with the Jew!”SHIRLEYISM: My mother was the “Ask Shirley” of the neighborhood, beauty parlor, appetizing store and places in-between. All would come for her wisdom, her empathy. Machinery, however, was not her strong suit. When Shirley got a flat in the parking lot behind her stores on Springfield Boulevard, she went into Abie’s deli. “Where’s the flat?” he asked? “Left rear” said Shirley. “Is it on the top of the tire or the bottom?” he inquired. “The bottom,” said Shirley. “Too bad,” he answered. “If it was on the top you could have made it home.” Shirley moaned. “Oy, do I have bad luck or what?” She called the garage. Marvin the mechanic asked her where the flat was. “On the bottom,” she said, now a maven, adding, “I know. I know. If it were on the top, I could have made it home.”When my brother was three, he toddled down the block, and seeing kids in a pool at a neighbor’s house behind a wrought iron fence that was once a guard rail in Sing Sing, he stuck his head through slot. Unfortunately, once “in” he couldn’t get his head “out.” The neighbor tried bending, twisting, pulling. Stuck. They ran to get my mom. A crowd was now forming. Thinking fast, Shirley ran to get a tub of Crisco in order to slather him then slide him out. His legs flopped but his head wouldn’t move. Someone called the police. They showed –along with two rescue units, the fire department, an ambulance, the people who run the “jaws of life,” and three newspapers. Fewer government officials tried to get Bin Laden out of his “cell.” By now, my brother in the hot sun was hunched over and baking. The head of the “jaws of life” who couldn’t get hold of my brother’s bottom, but smelled something weird, yelled, “Who the heck put what on this kid?!” His wrecking crew demolished the fence and my brother was freed. A police photographer then asked Shirley if my brother could put his head back in what was left of the fence for pictures. My mother yelled: “May deyn blut vendn tsu alkohol azoy ale di fleas aoyf eyer guf bakumen shiker aun tantsn di mazurka in deyn boykh
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.knepl!!” (Which sort of means “May your blood turn to alcohol so all the fleas on your body get drunk and dance the mazurka in your belly button.”) Not good. My father wound up donating to the Police Benevolent Society that night.SHIRLEYISM: Shirley had many talents. Athletics wasn’t one of them. To her, walking was an Olympic event which is why I found her lying in bed with five ice bags between her knees. It seems my little brother made her a “Class Mother.” The class trip was to the World’s Fair; 40,000 acres of walking. She put on a girdle for the first time in 20 years and got on the school bus. The boy seated behind threw up on her. When they arrived, the ever-efficient teacher gave her eight nine-year-olds and a map. Better you should give an elephant tap shoes. “We’ll meet back here at exactly four. Check your watches!” said the teacher, who briskly disappeared. Two minutes out and Shirley’s thighs stuck together from the girdle. As she went to toss the map, the boys ran. Using her famous Shirley logic, she tied their jackets together so she wouldn’t lose one. She didn’t. She lost eight somewhere between the Unisphere and the World’s Largest Cheese. Screaming and chafing, she picked up the pace to half a mile per hour which made the chafing pick up the pace of the screaming. After six hours, she hobbled her way to a little bus that took her to every single exit. Finally, at the last exit, she saw school buses and staggered out. It was now 5 o’clock. All the boys on the bus, including the Missing Eight, stood up and applauded as they pulled her in.As I light a Memorial candle for this irrepressible, hysterical, often impossible, and uncommonly quirky Mom, I remember the singing. Not in the car in front of my school mates. No. With my father.I was little, lying in the back seat on long trips. The two would sing songs from the 1930s and forties. No words were spoken. My father might start with “It’s Only Make Believe” and my mother would join in. At the end, she would continue with “I’ll Be Seeing You” and he would begin “As Time Goes By.” As they continued, so very happy, for hours, I realized that between her Shirleyisms and Dad’s steady eye, they had found the secret … one that eludes so many today … always picking up from one another, as they did in life.Thanks mom. I remember.
https://www.aish.com/j/fs/104231499.htmlStage MomOct 3, 2010by Marnie Winston-MacauleyM yb o y t g oa ang e n t a nd ddolye onu g hlear end h wat t im ne at t o e baJ ew .Once upon a time, after 36 hours of labor, I gave birth. Now most new moms will think their progeny is beautiful. Not me. It never entered my mind. Smart, he would be. All the genes were there and accounted for. But good-looking? My family was okay but, as my bubbe would say, “Beauties, we all weren’t ... nebuch.” So his comeliness came as a complete surprise.My bubbe would say, “Beauties, we all weren’t ... nebuch.”With both parents in media, it was inevitable that baby “Seth” would cross paths with a show biz manager. A children's manager, “Sue.”True, I wasn’t your typical milk ‘n Oreos mom, butwhen Sue wanted to sign Seth to do diaper and spit up gigs, I huffed (secretly qvelling) and refused. My babe in the “biz?” Forget it! Besides, as a writer, I knew he couldn’t cut it. If any of you, dear readers, are considering show business for your infant, be warned. He (or she) will fail the “Baby” audition. Guaranteed! Especially if he’s Jewish.No, it’s not some secret anti Semitic show biz coven at work. It’s ... wait, I’ll show you.-BABY AUDITION. DESCRIPTION: “The infant, to be named Trevor, must appear to be 6 months of age, (Okay). He must be placid, and willing to leave his mother and go to anyone.”A Jewish child “placid”? Willing to leave his mom? Are they meshugge?Which is why the only “taped shoot” a Jewish babe will attend might be Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Morty’s re-commitment ceremony, with Grandpa Sol doing the “shooting.”At around age five, the show biz kid deal flips. Once the little one has actual lines ... a script ... casting directors start screaming: “Get us a kid who can read! He’s 17?? But can he play five!”Which is “Alevai!” time for us. And why more Jews are/were tweenie actors. (Fred Savage, Zac Efron, Jonah Bobo, for starters.)
Sue, never one to give up (hey, she’s a manager), said it was time I “got serious” about Seth’s “acting career.” At age 9, with silky hair, almond eyes, pale skin, pug nose, and an adorable tooth gap, Seth looked like a miniature, less masculine Lauren Hutton.After talking to Seth, who shrugged his version of excitement, we “signed.”If you’ve never dealt with a children’s manager, the first “rule” ... no, commandment? “Thou shalt never miss an audition, or be smited by the Spirit of Shirley Temple.” You, mom,could be scheduled for an amputation, but if there’s a casting call for a kid to yell “Bonkers!” in a Life cereal commercial, the manager will tell you how a little gangrene never hurt anyone. (Besides, that “Mikey” is probably still living off his residuals.)Suddenly, Seth and I were “on call” 24/7, rain, shine, drought, flood, -sickness, health. With him looking “perky.” After four call backs, Seth was on the short list for the new voice of “Charlie Brown.” He didn’t get it, but he was in the last four. Could my progeny be a prodigy? The next Paul Muni, Mandy Patinkin, or better still, Ben Stein? By night he could act, and by day, he could be a lawyer-economist-presidential speech writer.Little did I know then, heaven help those parents whose child gets the part!Newly bitten and bolstered by the “Charlie Brown” near-hit, we headed out to audition for the revival of The Rothschilds in Circle in the Square, starring Mike Burstyn. The role was Young Nathan.Picture it. A hundred kids. A 100, precocious baton-twirling, hoofing, fire-eating kids , –and their mommies –all squeezed in the small alley next to the Greenwich Village theater. All shtarb-ing (dying) for the role.Now, “show biz” moms are ... truly scary. Smiling and shmoozing, they first ingratiate ... then interrogate ... then annihilate any “enemy.” If Homeland Security hired them, the only “cells” left would be attached to their ears – “Myrna, my Jeremy ... is now replacing that other kid –the one whose mother had that unfortunate ... mood swing.”A lady sidled next to me. Wow, what we had in common! She’d lived in Israel, I have family in Israel. She had a hummus recipe, I love hummus. Her husband was a British Jew, my husband was a British Jew. Her son had been on tour with The King and I – for six years my son –wasn’t Charlie Brown. My son was 10, her son was ..........wait ... 30?!Hmmm. Six years on tour ... playing a 13 year-old? Accordingly to my conservative estimate, her “kid” had to have voted in at least one Presidential primary. But ... he was four foot nine (and no, he wasn’t a little person). I staggered backward from my “new best friend” –
checking for hexes. My hex-search was interrupted by the casting person, who quickly ran off the audition drill with the kids. Somewhere in there I heard “after you sing,” and “your dance number ...”Whoa, sing? Dance?! Seth?? The other kids were warbling, tapping and tippy-toe-ing, like rabid Ann Millers. Of course, I knew The Rothschilds was a musical, but “the musical part” (like having a good-looking babe) never occurred to me. I figured Mike Burstyn did all that.“Seth! Seth Macauley! You’re up!” I quickly checked the subway map for the fastest route back to the Bronx.When Seth re-appeared, stymied, I asked: “What on earth did you sing?” “‘My Yiddishe Mama.’” [Which I dutifully taught him at three.]Two days later, at 10: a.m., we got “the” call. Seth got the part. He would play Young Nathan.At 10:15, I got the other call. From “my-new-best-friend-I-stupidly-gave-my-number-to” – the mama of the “child” on Medicare, from The King and I.Seth got the part. He would play Young Nathan.The Conversation:HER: Soooo, I hear your Seth got the part ...” ME: Uh ... seems so.HER: I just called to tell you WE DIDN’T WANT IT ANYWAY!ME: [SHOCKED] Then this is your lucky day!Next stop would drive us deeper into Loonyville. The Rehearsals!In theater, as in life, there’s a definite pecking order. Young Nathan, was “the star” of the kids, which meant that all the other kids and their mommies loathed us despite the cute –––“WELCOME SETH” banner the children drew. I missed the skull and crossbones, but did hear, the “mommy whispering:”-“Pssst. So, why didn’t they promote from within?” “My son created the role of Young Solomon!” “Well, mine breathed life into Young Amshel,” piped in another “who would be nothing if it weren’t for my son’s Young Solomon!”There it was. Wafting around us. Twelve “evil eyes” –ptui!Seth was given 10 days to learn to sing, dance, and remember the choreography. Watching him rehearse, not only Young Nathan, but an anti-Semitic street urchin (all the children doubled), I started to shvitz. How could he learn all this! In ten days, yet?! By his opening night, I was shvitzing enough to charge elderly Jewish men to stand under me.
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.“OPENING NIGHT! OPENING NIGHT!”We invited a few relatives, friends ... and street vendors. Fifty.My husband couldn’t make rehearsals. So this was to be his first time actually seeing the show – with his son in it. He was fine during Seth’s first few scenes and numbers.Until that scene.As the ugly sounds of a pogrom grow closer, “Papa” orders the family to go to the cellar. All go except Young Nathan, who stays behind with papa, –questioning why. Why don’t we fight back?! Papa explains, “They’re a mob! We are a family! ... “I looked beside me. No husband. I raced outside, and found him, shaken, and sobbing, in a way I’d never seen before, or since.The week passed. And then it happened. The stage manager told me there was “a small problem” with Seth. He was refusing to play the anti-Semitic urchin.“I’ll go,” I offered.“No,” she said, in a rare burst of wisdom. ‘She’s talking to him,” referring to a non-Jewish actress, playing an anti-Semitic role.Of course, the actress comforted and explained he was just acting ... and convincingly, as the Wednesday matinee “blue hair” lady audience sometimes forgot it was a play, and yelled: -“You’re a very bad boy!”Not long after, Seth and I decided we’d had enough.But something had happened to Seth. Something neither of us could have possibly known. Yes, there was the shlepping. Yes, there were the “mommies and madness.” Yes, there were the cattle calls. But oh, what he gained. A child, born in the U.S. who went to Day School, but never paid much attention to “the stories,” “the anecdotes of courage” of We Jews. As with so many of his ilk, they were out of time. Irrelevant. Old.Who would’ve thought it was, in part, through this crazy business, through theater, through acting the role of a 19 century Jewish boy, and a small anti-Semitic urchin that he would th finally come to understand what it feels like what it felt like –--to be a Jew To drink from his . roots. Roots established so long ago.And that through theater.... he was no longer blasé about that feeling.Or, that wherever life has taken him, nor would he ever be “blasé” about being a Jew, again.
https://www.aish.com/j/sod/Stars_of_David_Ben_Hecht.htmlStars of David: Ben HechtNov 13, 2010by Marnie Winston-MacauleyBenH e c ht, co ro ern tvs ia al n d imper efct, d d hiwat he o cu ld t o eh lpres c ue e Jw s and publicize the atrocities in Europe.My groping brain, no less than my little toe, is a mechanism in His evolution-busy hands.... [I’m] God’s incomplete child. – Ben HechtBen Hecht knew that his “world” would judge him as “complete.”There were his early days on a Grant Park bench chronicling Chicago’s mean streets in the 1920s, his initiation into the intelligentsia at New York’s Algonquin Round Table, the “Shakespeare of Hollywood” years, scripting somewhere between 70 and 140 credited and uncredited screenplays in almost as few hours. A few included Scarface, Notorious, Spellbound, Gunga Din, His Girl Friday, Nothing Sacred, Mutiny on the Bounty, Viva Villa, Wuthering Heights, Gone With the Wind (remedial), A Farewell to Arms, and early drafts of Casino Royale. He won the Oscar for Undercover (1927), and Scoundrel (1934).Add some Broadway hits, several high toned literary magazines, a PR firm, pageants, and yes, Hecht knew that his world of Chicago-New York-Hollywood mega moguls and glitterati –would judge him as “complete.”He also knew that they would be wrong. By his own reckoning, he was a great “hack” genius who straddled between selling out, and being a man of bold letters and bolder –consequence.Make no mistake. The consequences were gargantuan. He broke literary taboos, bit the Hollywood hands that fed him the big bucks, and was spared the American (if not the British) Blacklist.Most remarkable, he became the most effective PR voice for Jews in 1930s and 40s America, saving countless European Jews from “The fat necked [German] beasts,” and falling into fervent passion with Zionism the Revisionist Zionism of the Irgun Tzevai Leumi.–
Ben Hecht was the most effective PR voice for Jews in 1930s and 40s America.But then there was the great fall out of passion with the mainstream leaders of the nascent Jewish State. Such is the fate of “God’s incomplete child.”Meet Ben Hecht.Ben Hecht’s Early DaysBorn on New York’s Lower East Side on February 28, 1894, he was a son of Russian immigrants, Joseph and Sara Swernovsky, who within a few years settled in “middle America,” Racine, Wisconsin. Both worked in ladies wear. With dad manufacturing and traveling and mom selling, their precocious son did things his way. He read voraciously, was a violin prodigy by age ten, and two years later joined the circus.Wait. Back up. A Jewish boy flinging and flying? His fellow boarders, circus folk, taught him to fly the trapeze with ease. At 12, Ben hit the road as an acrobat. He did graduate Racine High School, where he was to become its most illustrious alumnus.In 1910, Hecht gave college a brief peek, but as he’d already “read the syllabus,” he headed for Chicago, where started his 10 plus years career as a journalist, first with the Chicago Journal, then the Chicago Daily News. Less than two years after his high school graduation, his muckraking poem about the Titanic disaster appeared on the front page of the Chicago Journal. Encouraged by Chicago’s literati, he started writing avant-garde plays and screenplays. The wild kid was flying at warp speed.In 1919, after returning from Berlin where he spent a year as a foreign correspondent, he “talked” on Chicago’s wild side, in his daily column, “1001 Afternoons in Chicago,” creating a new genre in journalism. “Hechtian” now meant crackling, taboo-breaking storytelling, rife with vivid observations of the urban scene, and the “human condition.” His grand intention was “To remove the mask from the world,” even if many were the product of his fertile imagination.His first and most successful novel, Erik Dorn, the story of a newspaper editor, was Hecht’s entree into the world of the “a serious writer.” His “attack everything” mission pumped his rep as the enfant terrible of American letters and vaulted him into rarefied literary company, holding a treasured seat at New York’s Algonquin Round Table next to Thurber, Parker, and Herman Mankiewicz.With the advent of talk film, Mankiewicz lured the boy wonder to Hollywood with a telegram:\"Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots,\" adding, \"Don't let this get around.\"
With his first success, the silent film Underworld, he soon became the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood. He used his Oscar for Underworld, won at the first Academy Award ceremonies in 1929, as a doorstop. Yet, he also carped over the lack of honors and respect given to writers by an industry run by producers, “90% of whom” he described as “slow” and “ignorant.”Hecht’s Jewish AwakeningIn pre-World War II America, with the Nazi scourge and anti-Semitism rising, Ben Hecht jumped into history. By the early 1930s, he accurately foretold the horrors that would occur in Hitler’s Germany.By the early 1930s, he accurately foretold the horrors that would occur in Hitler’s Germany.Indeed, Hecht had little interest in Jewish affairs until the Nazis seized power. After 1933, Hecht became increasingly invested in anti-Nazi activities. His play To Quito and Back (1937) reflected hisevolving point of view.I had before then been only related to Jews. In that year I became a Jew and looked on the world with Jewish eyes. Ben Hecht, speaking of 1939.–At the height of his fame and influence, Hecht, the “non Jewish” Jew, became conscious of his -Jewishness. Somewhat “perversely,\" he \"turned into a Jew.\" He and wife Rose moved temporarily from their artistic haven in Nyack, New York, to the Lower East Side, where Jews lived without pretension. They “soaked up Yiddishkeit” – but refrained from “hanging out” with their neighbors. At haute gatherings, his sparkling repartee now included Yiddishisms, especially curses. His pals believed he was merely indulging yet another eccentricity.It was far more. For the next ten years, perhaps more than any other luminary, Hecht publicized the atrocities in Europe, joined in the quest to rescue his fellow Jews, and fiercely supported the militant Irgun Tzevai Leumi, whose intent was to force Britain to turn Palestine into a permanent Jewish homeland in the Middle East.As Hecht grew increasingly vociferous over the Nazi scourge, he realized his was a lonely voice. He turned his biting criticism toward his fellow \"un-Judaized” Jews who rejected their identity for fear of being seated at the wrong table, and were ignorant or apathetic toward rising anti-Semitism and the plight of their fellow Jews. Pen poised, he wrote a column about the \"German Jew phobia,\" lambasting Germany (“a nation with a chronic case of halitosis\") and \"American Jews who preened themselves ... striving to become world citizens rather than synagogue recluses.”
He joined \"Fight for Freedom,\" whose mission was to bring the U.S. into the war against the Germans, and wrote columns urging a moral outcry over the fate of European Jewry.It was a September 1941 meeting with Peter H. Bergson and the underground Irgun, the military arm of Revisionist Zionism, that gave shape to Hecht’s mission. Hecht created newspaper ads to incite the public. One read \"For Sale To Humanity 70,000 Jews Guaranteed Human Beings at $50 A Piece\" (New York Times, February 16, 1943). Most notable was his article “Remember Us” which is widely considered the first generally circulated article exposing Nazi atrocities.Of these 6,000,000 Jews [of Europe], almost a third have already been massacred by Germans, Romanians and Hungarians, and the most conservative of scorekeepers estimate that before the war ends at least another third will have been done to death. –Remember UsAlso in 1943, \"out of frustration over American policy and outrage at Hollywood's fear ofoffending its European markets,\" he gathered luminaries Billy Rose, Ernst Lubitch, Kurt Weill, Moss Hart, and wrote a stirring pro-Jewish pageant, “We Will Never Die,” which was performed at Madison Square Garden. The pageant, that toured five cities and included a performance at the Hollywood bowl, became a centerpiece in the campaign to create an American rescue policy after the failure of the Bermuda Conference.In 1944 Hecht published his controversial analysis of anti-Semitism, A Guide for the Bedeviled. He defended his views and gained many enemies.After the war, he continued his propaganda and fund-raising efforts on behalf of the Bergson group, including penning another major pageant in 1946, A Flag is Born, about the establishment of the State of Israel. It raised more than $400,000 for the American League For a Free Palestine (which supported the Irgun) but encountered bitter opposition from Haganah supporters.The British as well, banned his works during the late 1940s and early 50s, in response to Hecht’s criticism of British policies in Palestine and support of the Jewish resistance movement.Hecht persisted, but conflict was brewing. The Irgun was unsanctioned, and opposed by mainstream Zionist leaders who believed policy of the young State must reside under one umbrella.The Death of Hecht’s Zionist Dream
It was the June 1948 voyage of the Altalena, an Aliyah Bet (\"illegal\" immigration ship), that brought down the ship and Hecht’s involvement with Zionism. Hecht helped organize the Altalena’s mission to bring weapons and immigrants to Israel. The immigrants were allowed to disembark, along with most of the arms, but the new Israeli government insisted that the Irgun surrender the remaining weapons to the Israeli army. When they refused, the Israeli government sank the ship.The man who had become arguably the most effective propagandist the Jewish state ever had, withdrew from Zionism after the Altalena affair. Later, in his highly controversial book Perfidy (1961), Hecht acknowledged the death of his of Zionist dream. Perfidy, a gripping polemic, accused left-wing Zionists of collaborating with the British and the Nazis in an effort to prevent Jewish statehood, while betraying European Jews during the Holocaust. The story centers on Zionist leader Dr. Rudolf Kastner’s (among others) failure to rescue Hungarian Jews.In 1953, the issue was dealt with in a long libel trial in Israel, where, two years later, Kastner was disgraced. On appeal, the verdict was reversed by a split decision, but not before Kastner had been assassinated in 1957. Perfidy remains a highly-charged source of contention among Jews and helped fuel anti-Semitic accusations that we were responsible for our own demise.Hecht’s credibility was put on the line. Was he unmasking history or re-writing it? One thing was clear: Hecht not only fell seriously out of passion with Zionism, he would do so raging his contempt.Ben Hecht longed to be uncompromised, yet was tormented by living a life of uneasy compromise. And perhaps, this is why today, his star has sunk below the horizon, his true greatness a bit obscured. The great sadness was his inability to either commit fully or fully accept “greatness incomplete.”Everybody who works sells out, usually more than their minds they sell out their souls, –their character.... Ben Hecht–Ben Hecht: A Star of DavidHecht did more to help Jewish Holocaust refugees and the nascent State of Israel than most American Jews at the time. He galvanized a Hollywood that, much like today, was reluctant to stand up for “messy” causes – especially Jewish ones.For what he did for those he brought to task, for his stand-up action on behalf of Jews and the creation of the state of Israel in a time of apathy, he was a true Star of David. Hecht may have been much like the brilliant, restless child who desperately wishes to see himself above
Hecht did more to help Jewish Holocaust refugees and the nascent State of Israel than most American Jews at the time.the fray but is too blinded by his own illusions, and the lure of circus midway to move beyond it. The tragedy was in his inability to own it all: his true triumphs, and his self-defined “failures.”He loathed the Hollywood “system;” yet despitehis immense power, did little, beyondscathingcriticism and blame, to change it.He wanted to be taken seriously; yet he never did write the Great American novel, and the rest just wasn’t enough for him.He became conscious of his Jewishness; yet his fierce attraction to the militant Irgun, may have also been in part, a metaphor, a way of venting his own rage over “selling out” his talent.And when the “craziness” settled, and the new nation, no longer maverick, knew it needed tomature; to embrace a “system” of diplomacy, he picked up his marbles and left in a huff, enraged, and again, bitterly disappointed.In a memorable interview with Mike Wallace in 1958 (six years before Hecht’s death), the disillusionments of a lifetime are painfully evident. Hecht, the cynic, seemed tired, old.Throughout his self-contradictions, an embittered man emerged, as he bemoaned Uncle Sam, the studio bosses, the Hollywood “trash” he’d written at the mercy of idiots (save for a handful of films such as Wuthering Heights, The Scoundrel, Viva Villa).When Wallace asked what being a Jew meant to Hecht, he replied: “No more than were I a Kentuckian.”Like his old friend, Herman Mankiewicz, Ben Hecht died frustrated, and morose. He would never know that in 1964, at his funeral service at Temple Rodeph Shalom in New York City, among the eulogists was Menachem Begin, an early Irgun compatriot who was to become a future Prime Minister of Israel.In Gunga Din, co-writers Ben Hecht and longtime partner, Charles MacArthur, ingeniously re- worked their play, The Front Page, which saw several incarnations, including a film of the same name, and His Girl Friday, and set the standard for creative \"re-cycling.\"
https://www.aish.com/j/sod/Stars-of-David-David-Mamet.htmlStars of David: David MametJan 19, 2013by Marnie Winston-MacauleyPulitzer Prize winner David Mamet stands up for Israel.The year 2008 was a very strange one for the Liberal literati of New York and Hollywood. It was the year they believed playwright, screenwriter, director, essayist, novelist and poet, David Mamet, “outed” himself as a Conservative. For many of his peers, Mamet, might as well have declared himself a serial killer.The “outing” came in the form of Village Voice op-ed entitled, “Why I am No Longer a Brain- Dead Liberal.” It was followed by his 2011 book, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture, a tale of his bitter disenchantment with liberalism, his blog since 2005 on Huff Post, and his frequent, outspoken interviews.In abanding the State of Israel, the West reverts to pagan sacrifice.After his Conservative “Manifesto,” all hell broke loose among Mamet watchers.Hey, Mamet isn’t some “culture lite” writer or right-- wing aging actor trumpeting for an AK47 in every drawer. This is a Pulitzer Prize-winning guy, whoseworks include Glengarry Glen Ross (1984), Speed-the-Plow (1988), The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997). He has been a force of such magnitude that his dialogue; rapid-fire, edgy, cracking, naturalistic, intruding style bears his name: “Mamet speak.”-Predictably, The Wall Street Journal mostly sent roses, the New York Times and The Economist mostly sent thorns (their reviewer called Mamet's Secret Knowledge “baroque lucubrations,” a “tedious and simplistic rant”), while unpredictably, The American Conservative went nay. The most famous of zig-zaggers, the late Christopher Hitchens, threw those thorns calling it \"one- dimensional,\" “sloppy,” “shallow” “propagandistic,” and “more boring than irritating.” (The book is still a hot seller on Amazon).While he’s been embraced by many on the Right, remember where Mamet lives; in the largely liberal world of the New York/Hollywood “artiste.” Distilling the rhetoric, Mamet has not merely been accused of being a turncoat, but, among other things, nihilist, cultish, self-
serving – and nuts. Here are just a few titles of rebuttal articles: “David Mamet's Fatal Conceit,” “Writer David Mamet: Man overboard,” and “David Mamet Gets Lanced-a-Lot.”The Israel FactorInterestingly, it was Israel and Judaism that ultimately “turned” him with the help of his rabbis, Conservative economists, and commentators. For example, in a January article in Newsweek, “Gun Laws and the Fools of Chelm,” he looks at attempts at gun control through the point of view that “any governmental determination of an individual’s abilities must be based on a bureaucratic assessment of the lowest possible denominator,” then compares the logic to the foolish inhabitants of Chelm. “We modern Solons delight in passing gun laws that, in their entirety, amount to ‘making crime illegal.’ What possible purpose in declaring schools ‘gun- free zones’? Who bringing a gun, with evil intent, into a school would be deterred by the sign?”The roots for his beliefs are deep and follow a trajectory. However, regardless of your politics or his other views, it is specifically his position on Jews and Israel that we focus upon.Mamet was born in 1947 in Chicago to Jewish parents. His father, Bernie Mamet, was an attorney who specialized in labor law. His mother, Lenore June (née Silver), was a teacher. His parents divorced when he was 11, and it was more sour milk than honey for David and his sister, also a playwright, who shuttled from home to home. Yet from this background he honed his Mamet-speak. (We Jews have been known to be passionately “naturalistic” – and interrupt on occasion.)Like many of that generation, he grew up around Yiddish-speaking immigrants whose goal was assimilation. He credits his current wife, actress Rebecca Pidgeon, along with his second trip to Israel in 2002 as a guest of the Jerusalem Film Festival, for \"unearthing” his roots. The city was under siege by suicide-bomber attacks, and Mamet was deeply moved by the thousands who attended the festival despite the Intifada and terrorism.Even before what others called his so-called Conservative “epiphany,” and with characteristic openness, Mamet broadcasted his ardently, unapologetic pro-Israel stance in the Huff Post, and in his 2006 collection of essays, The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews, in which he wrote: \"I believe we have to be frank: The world hates the Jews. The world has always and will continue to do so.”In Huff Post, he wrote: “Israel is a sovereign nation, founded by United Nations Charter in 1948. Since then, she has been both chronically and acutely under attack… Israel wants peace, the Arabs want Israel gone.” He goes on to say the Western media sees Israel as “somehow the aggressor, and the Israelis as somehow inhuman, and delighting in blood.” The Jews, he claims, are not the victims of rotten PR, but rather victims of anti-Semitism.
Any reference to whether we brought this on ourselves is, to Mamet, an outrage, similar to asking a rape victim, \"How short a skirt were you wearing?\" He vehemently adds: “How did ‘The Jews’ cause Hitler to kidnap Europe?”And now? “Israel we are told, has somehow so inflamed the Arabs, that [Israel/the Jews] will bring the world to the brink of destruction… Israel's Jews are no more the cause of Arab Fundamentalist rage than they were the cause of European Fascism. We, as always, are the miner's canary, singled out as, and the first victims of national or global unrest.”In The Wall Street Journal (December 13, 2011), Mamet wrote: “In abandonment of the state of Israel, the West reverts to pagan sacrifice... As Realpolitik, the Liberal West's anti-Semitism can be understood as like Chamberlain's offering of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, a sop thrown to terrorism.”Mamet assigns Western media coverage of the Middle East conflict to mob psychology and \"Love of the Victim.” Hey, as entertainment, it sells. He writes: \"There is something of the sadomasochistic in the Left's love of the Palestinians, whom audiences are conditioned to see in the role of Woman in Jeopardy.\"Israel is paying the price. Despite facts, or sense, the Palestinian road show is skewed drama, allowing the audience to sit back and enjoy. For to exercise reason would require them to actually do something.His is also a vociferous wake-up call to Jews everywhere. In The Wicked Son, Mamet confronts what he sees as a perilous predilection among some Jews, who have internalized this self- loathing, to exclude themselves from the fray, and analyzes the consequence when they abandon their heritage to garner acceptance in Israel-bashing liberal society. \"It is the sin of the spies, a ‘coward generation’ with a ‘lack of belief in God.’ People have a drive to worship something, and will fill the void left by rejecting God by worshipping sports, celebrities, ‘wealth, fame, status, sex, physical fitness, good works, human perfectibility.”Keep it Simple, StupidNot unlike his naturalistic dialogue, Mamet’s message is simple:The Israelis would like to live in peace within their borders; the Arabs would like to kill them all.The Liberal West would like the citizens of Israel to take the only course which would bring about the end of the disturbing 'cycle of violence'... abandoning their homes and their country... Is this desire anti-Semitism? You bet your life it is. (Secret Knowledge)So why clutter simple convictions and bold-face evidence?
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.A May 2006 study of Saudi Arabia's revised schoolbook curriculum discovered the following statements:Eighth grade: “As cited in Ibn Abbas: The apes are Jews.”Textbooks for 9th graders: \"The annihilation of the Jewish people is imperative.\"In May, 2010, The Global Muslim Brotherhood reported with glee, that the Hamas Deputy Minister, Abdullah Jarbu called Jews “foreign bacteria” that should be “annihilated.”Mamet is saying: Is this not anti-Semitism? Is annihilation not the agenda? Does one need to straddle? Analyze? Pontificate? Debate? When the pogrom comes, he predicts, even lapsed Jews will search frantically for doorways with mezuzahs.Far less often is he quoted as also saying: “Some of the allegations against Israel are substantial… Sometimes it's in the right and sometimes it's not. Well, of what country is that not true?”The man who many critics have anointed a worthy successor to Henry Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Eugene O'Neill, has created a fray and enters laughing, much like, well, a wildly talented, 65-year-old Bart Simpson. Hey, he’s been “frayed” before. \"I've been alienating my public since I was 20 years old!” he says.But Mamet, who directs films and wrote the screenplay for the 1987 smash, The Untouchables, knows in some circles he's become “untouchable” in Hollywood. Says Mamet: “All of a sudden, kaboom, half the country won’t speak to me anymore.” He doesn’t give a damn. He’s content to be with family and a few old good pals such as Jonathan Katz and William H. Macy. As for the public? “No one’s gonna catch cooties by seeing a play from an opposing point of view,” he retorts.David Alan Mamet is a Star of David for his courage, his stand-up roar, his artistic and –political risk, and for his bottom lines:\"There has always been a different standard for the Jews… We’re human beings only when it suits the world to treat us as human beings. There’s a pretty good book on the subject – the Torah.”– David Alan MametWatch the trailer for David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross:
https://www.aish.com/j/sod/102051178.htmlStars of David: Dennis MillerSep 4, 2010by Marnie Winston-MacauleyComedian Dennis Miller rants in support of Israel. Sadly, he’s one of the only ones.Put “Dennis Miller, Israel” in any search engine and this is what you’ll find:\"The Palestinians want their own country. There's just one thing about that: There are noPalestinians. It's a made up word. Israel was called Palestine for two thousand years. Like \"Wiccan,\" \"Palestinian\" sounds ancient but is really a modern invention.As soon as the Jews took over and started growing oranges as big as basketballs, what do you know, say hello to the \"Palestinians,\" weeping for their deep bond with their lost \"land\" and \"nation.\"... let's not use the word \"Palestinian\" any more to describe these delightful folks, who dance for joy at our deaths until someone points out they're being taped. Instead, let's call them what they are: \"Other Arabs Accomplish Anything In Life And Would Rather Wrap Themselves In The Seductive Melodrama Of Eternal Struggle And Death.\" I know that's a bit unwieldy ... How about this, then: \"Adjacent Jew-Haters.”And so, we have a dose of pure, unsheathed Miller. Or at least the punditry, the dry, biting wit of the political wiseacre – the “telling it like it is” point of view, we’ve heard since his SNL days.Right?Like \"Wiccan,\" \"Palestinian\" sounds ancient but is really a modern invention.“Dennis” contemporary and a Jew.–Wrong! The above piece ... the piece that’s been hailed, hated, even exalted by the millionswho’ve read it on the Net is by Miller. Just not thatone.It was written by Larry Miller. A comic, actor, a
The mix up, much like crop circles and the Roswell alien, has become such an urban legend it even has a name: With deference to Chaucer, it’s called “The Millers’ Tale.”To borrow Lincoln’s quote (also often confused with Carl Sandburg), “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but ...\" So, why then, in this age of mega-media blasts, gargantuan search engines, and global “reach out and touch,” was it so easy, so natural, to get the authorship so wrong, so ... often?Remember the old “joke:” Q: “What’s The Thinnest Book?” A: “Jews in Sports.”Today, it wouldn’t be unfair if we switched punch lines to: “The Number of Jewish Celebs- Comics standing up for Israel!”The proof is in the goof.Simply, have we Jews and gentiles alike come to ––assume only a Hollywood gentile with a conservative agenda would dare “open a [big] mouth” about Israel?Kudos to Larry Miller. No. I don’t know his politics. Frankly, who wants to look?Yet, we do need to examine the whys of this strange snafu. True, the last names are the same. But this attribution is more than a copy edit mistake. Look:Saudi Arabia, anybody trust these cats? I think the Saud Royal family has turned that place into the hypotenuse of a… triangle with Iraq and Iran. They are a bunch of transparent suck ups.’”Now, that’s Dennis. In all his sometimes torturous, metaphorical glory. The guy who gave “ranting” a new cultural meaning, starting diatribes with \"Now I don't want to get off on a rant here...\" ending with, \"Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.\"
The boomer pundit, who rose to fame as SNL’s \"Weekend Update\" anchor (1985), hosted a string of talk shows on HBO, CNBC, (garnering Emmys but not viewers), tried an ill-fated stint as Monday Night Football commentator, and now, along with regular spots on Fox, hosts a highly successful daily, three-hour, nationally syndicated talk radio program -- is said to have gone through a political “epiphany,” when he switched teams to become an A-list Republican, or more precisely, “a neo-conservative-libertarian” after 9 11.”-Yet, if you examine the man closely, the change seems less an epiphany than a personal “maturation.” Looking at his background, it just may be he was politically “transgendered” –“trapped” in the wrong party, only to be freed by the American tragedy.Except for the bombs they strap to their chest, I have absolutely no idea what makes the Palestinians tick.Except for the bombs they strap to their chest, I have absolutely no idea what makes the Palestinians tick. –Dennis MillerDon’t let the sharp tailoring, smirk, and arcane cultural references from Ayn Rand to HomerSimpson (in one sentence) fool you. According tothose who knew him early, “Little Denny Miller” of Castle Shannon, PA, is just a guy. He and his four sibs were latch-key kids, raised by mom, Norma, a dietician. (Their absent father remains a public mystery.) No highbrow Bev Hills “haute” in this “mixed bag” suburb of Pittsburgh, that was primarily Scotch--Irish Americana, populated by honest stiffs, a short generation away from the coal mines. No highbrow pretensions either. Just blue-collar, hard-working people, bound to basics, spewing the no frills common sense, often attributed to “Middle America”: the belief that big corporations take advantage of the little guy, big government is the bogie man (along with insurance companies), and the really really bad guys deserve the chair.Afghanistan remains the demented mooseskape it’s always been. Topographically speaking it makes your cat’s litter box look like Monet’s garden– Dennis MillerFor sure, Dennis was grounded more by “coal” than silver spoons. After graduating Point Park College in Pittsburgh (1976), he took his journalism degree to careers such as flower truck delivery and ice cream scooper, while honing his craft on local television. Yet, despite ragging on crass materialism, he unabashedly wanted more. And now that he’s got it, he won’t flaunt it, but he’s no doubt thinking, “Hot diggity! If they could see me now!”The irony amuses him. Incongruity fuels his highly crafted metaphors, which require the jaws of life to untangle. The string of words is definitely not Castle Shannon, but strip them away, and it’s pure angry-everyman-speak, a lonely Hollywood “stand up,” standing up –- on “sensitive” issues. Including Israel.
I find Yasser Arafat to be an enigma, ostensibly one of the world’s most dangerous men, yet it would appear that at any given moment Ariel Sharon can give him a time out. “Young man,You go to what’s left of your room right now!” – Dennis Miller“Hey buddy, you should feel guilty!” is Miller’s message, a sane man, driven to “rant” by the madding crowd around him. An intellectualized Howard Beale in Network ranting eloquently, \"We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore.\"It’s no coincidence that Network (1977) was the brainchild of two Jews, Paddy Chayefsky (writer), Sidney Lumet (director). And if Dennis’s story feels a bit familiar that too is no coincidence to Boomer Jews, who came from homes, and values, not unlike Miller’s. Homes that stood up for the little guy. Homes filled with sachel–good common sense. Homes that understood, first-hand, what it meant to be different, to have to scratch if we were to climb out of “Nowhere” – Canarsie, Bensonhurst, Flushing to Somewhere.–But more -- homes in which our parents and grandparents sobbed, when, at midnight, May 14, 1948, the Provisional Government proclaimed the new State of Israel.I’m not even Jewish, but feel I great empathy for the Jewish people.So the uneasy question remains. Where the heck are We Jews? Or, more precisely, the big-gun, A-lister Jews? We Jews who are masters of guilt, debate, and are comedic royalty are either silent or oddly–shvach-y (weak).So, we have our answer to the Millers’ Tale mix-up.Simply, we’ve come to assume only a Hollywood gentile would tell it the way many of us wish we could. And don’t. Because, hey -- Dennis Miller is a WASPY sorta guy, right? No skin off his Scottish nose stomping for “our” home team.No Big Sensitivity Issues about whether we’re “American Jews” or “Jewish Americans.” --No beat-your-breast images wailing at Sacred Walls.No fervent memories of “putting something in the pushke” for Israel.Or, worst of all, no hint of an unassimilated American, “mucking” up our hard-won red, white, and blue values of “fair play” – an American Jewish obsession.The Diaspora has become more disengaged from the Land of Israel. I’m not even Jewish, but I feel great empathy for the Jewish people. I sometimes look at the elections that go on, and think for God sakes, you want to be on the side of the guys who are your [enemies]?! Dennis Miller–
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.Well, politics aside – no. We can’t put politics aside. The issue of “Israel” is all about politics. And ideology. Just ask Dennis Miller, who dares rant pro-Israel. And who dares challenge We Jews, Liberal or Conservative, to take a stand, or risk losing the choice.
https://www.aish.com/j/sod/Stars-of-David-Frank-Sinatra.htmlStars of David: Frank SinatraOct 14, 2012by Marnie Winston-MacauleyFrank Sinatra’s life was full of inconsistencies. But in his support for Israel he was remarkably consistent.He was the poor kid from Hoboken who became what is now, and will always be one of the world’s greatest pop music icons: They Can't Take That Away, I've Got You Under My Skin, Witchcraft Come Fly With Me, The Lady Is A Tramp, It Was A Very Good Year, Strangers In The , Night, My Kind Of Town, New York, New York, Fly Me to the Moon, One For My Baby, One For The Road.His name? Francis Albert Sinatra.He didn’t just sing a song, he owned it.Then there were his films: The Manchurian Candidate From Here to Eternity The Man With the , , Golden Arm Kings Go Forth High Society, Pal Joey, Some Came Running Never So Few A Hole , , , , in the Head On the Town, , and Ocean's 11 with the Rat Pack Step Lively, None But the Brave (directed by Sinatra), The Detective.Frank Sinatra did Israel “our way.”On vinyl, on screen, on stage, he was charismatic, hypnotic, confident. Off stage the notes were –often sour. His desperate desire for the high life, power and acceptance by the King makers often gothim into trouble with others, and within himself.–
Despite all the contradictions, mood swings, and messes, one of his relatively few noble consistencies was Israel. He did Israel “our way” starting at a time when most stars, especially non-Jews, wouldn’t stand up, or gave a Pissaluto (Italian fig).Yet we mustn’t confuse his love of Israel with a love for all “Jews.” While he’d raise a fist at wanton anti-Semitism, and offer to join a Minyan for a friend, he held some Jewish power brokers in contempt, and the ethnic insults flew. Yet, in Israel, he was so awed, he refrained from any such “jokes.” Israelis weren’t the Beverly Hills fat cats who’d treated him badly when Sinatramania waned until his comeback in From Here to Eternity (1953). They were battling pioneers.Francis Albert Sinatra was born December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey, the only child of Italian immigrants Natalie Della (Garaventa) and Antonino Martino Sinatra. If father, “Marty,” a local fire Captain, wanted his son to play it safe, Mama “Dolly” infused her Frankie with her fire, fearlessness, and her “direct,” if sometimes foul mouth.With Mama’s help, Frankie went from singing for tips to making his career with Harry James, then Tommy Dorsey though he never learned to read music, relying only on his gift of style, –phrasing, and taste. By 1942, the kid inspired mass hysteria among the Bobby-Soxers who swooned over songs such as I'll Never Smile Again.Most Sinatra fans know his life was the stuff of soaps that make today’s reality TV seem likeSesame Street.There were his marriages: The long-suffering Big Nancy (to differentiate between daughter Nancy) who always offered comfort. The tempestuous, independent Ava Gardner. Then there were the Mia Farrow days at the behest of Old Guard Hollywood to anoint the 50-year-old Mr. S. with “the pedigree” he coveted (her parents were John Farrow and Maureen O’Sullivan). His last wife was Barbara Marx who he married in 1976 until his death in 1998. Yet getting “Ava” Gardner back was his lifelong obsession although it never ended “his way.”The mob: He loved their personae and courted them. For Mr. S. they were “power” outside the lines; visionaries; the Big Bad Boys who would roll the dice and risk it all to get it all, even while he loathed drugs which were part of their business. The fantasy of the 97 pound weakling, was, in part about business. Sinatra wanted to be an owner, not just a player. The , mob helped him get a piece of his own rock: The new Sands, then the Cal-Neva Lodge at Tahoe. When things got dicey with the government, he changed allegiances and lost his heroes.
Politics: He famously played ball with Joe Kennedy to frolic in JFK’s rose garden. Mr. S. stumped, called in favors, screwed over pals, and spent a fortune … only to be humiliated. Once JFK was in office, the Kennedy’s summarily dismissed him. Once again, he changed allegiances.The Sinatra-Israel ConnectionIt’s been speculated that his love for “Jews” started when an affectionate neighbor gave him a small mezuzah which he proudly wore around his neck for years. He donated a quarter of a million dollars in Israel Bonds to honor her. But his admiration for Israel was far more complex.In Israel, he found a piece of himself; a whole country of gritty, courageous underdogs who had survived as he had. Could there be anything nobler; more personal to Mr. S.?–Sinatra stepped forward in the early 1940s, when names were needed to rouse America into saving Europe’s remaining Jews. He starred in The House I Live In (1945), a ten-minute short film about anti-Semitism, which received an Honorary Academy Award on Israel’s 14th Independence Day in 1962.He donated $100,000 and raised funds for the film, Genocide, about the Holocaust, a project of the Wiesenthal Center, which won a Best Documentary Oscar in 1982. Mr. S. also became a Board member of the Wiesenthal Center.In 1947, he sang at an “Action for Palestine” rally, and contributed substantially to the coffers when Golda Meir returned to North America to raise $50 million in private contributions in preparation for Statehood.His big risk was in 1948. Sinatra was singing at the Copacabana in New York, controlled by the mafia with whom Sinatra had become enmeshed. The Copa was next door to the hotel out of which Haganah members were operating. When a stranger asked him to deliver a package to a cab driver at the pier, he complied without question and with much risk. That stranger was –Teddy Kollek and the package? Major gelt for the purchase of arms for the fledgling Jewish state.Less known is Sinatra in Israel (1962), a short 30-minute featurette. That same year he gave a memorable speech in Jerusalem urging world support of Israel. (As a result, many Arab countries banned his records and films.)Among his many donations was a million dollars for an “International Student Center” at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem Center (which made heartbreaking headlines when terrorists bombed it in 2002, killing nine people) and The Arab-Israel Youth Center in Nazareth which focuses on co-existence programs for children.
Copyright © 1995 - 2020 Aish.com, https://www.aish.com.Aish.com is a non-profit and needs your support. Please donate at: aish.com/donate,or mail a check to: Aish.com c/o The Jerusalem Aish HaTorah Fund PO Box 1259 Lakewood, NJ 08701.1966 was also a very good year for Israel and Mr. S. He played a role in \"Cast a Giant Shadow,\" donating his salary to the Arab-Israel Youth Center.SCENE FROM CAST A GIANT SHADOWFor its part, Israel didn’t just roll out the red carpet for Sinatra; he was treated more like a VP than a “mere” VIP, sitting on reviewing stands with Ben-Gurion, and Moshe Dayan. When Mr.S. was uncharacteristically interested in seeing the country, including the Golan Heights, the Israelis contacted the Syrians to hold fire. If the government knew of his “other side,” well... We Jews are a practical people. How does the singer’s connection with some mobsters in Vegas compare to the vital work of insuring Israel’s survival? In 1978 Israel awarded him the prestigious National Scopus Award in recognition of his contributions.Throughout his illustrious career, despite his mood swings and changes in allegiances, on this issue -- Israel -- Sinatra never wavered.The King with the shaky crown died, ironically on May 14, 1998-- exactly 50 years from the official declaration of Israeli independence. The words on his grave marker are: \"The Best Is Yet to Come.\"Perhaps the greatest sadness is… he was one of the greats, but didn’t believe it. And the greatest joy? Millions of Israelis are better off for his courage and his comfort.RARE FOOTAGE OF FRANK SINATRA IN ISRAEL
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