Inside Jewish Museums Large & Small

By Beth Orenstein

It’s only fitting that with 5,000 years of Jewish culture, there should be museums dedicated to preserving and celebrating our history. What’s amazing is the number and scope of institutions across North America. The Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM) was founded in 1977 under the auspices of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and represents 80 members in over 30 states and provinces in North America, including Jewish art and history museums, historic sites, historical and archival societies, Holocaust centers, synagogue museums, children’s museums and Jewish community center and university galleries.
While they are all worth a visit, many now offer online exhibitions that you can enjoy from your computer. A number of them have online museum stores for shopping and gift giving. And for those who are within traveling distance, know that these are not stagnant displays—in addition to both permanent and special collections, many offer seminars, classes and other enrichment programs.
We’ve highlighted just a few of the museums here, both large and small—in size and in scope, and look forward to including more in the future. For a more complete list of museums, go to www.chutzpahmag.com

The Jewish Museum  
1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street
New York, NY 10128
www.thejewishmuseum.org
212-423-3200
This is the granddaddy—or should we say zayde?—of Jewish museums. What makes it unique, says Anne Scher, director of communications, is that it “offers exhibitions exploring art and Jewish culture from ancient to modern times for people of all backgrounds.”
The Jewish Museum was established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection. Since 1947, the museum has been housed in the Fifth Avenue mansion on New York’s Upper East Side that had been the home of Felix Warburg and Frieda Schiff Warburg. In the early 1990s, a seven-story addition, complete with an auditorium, café, meeting rooms, children’s gallery, education center and permanent exhibition galleries, was built to accommodate its burgeoning collection and growing number of visitors.
Today, the museum maintains a collection of 26,000 objects—paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects and broadcast media. Included are works by Marc Chagall, Edouard Vuillard, Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Elie Nadelman, George Segal, Ben Shahn, Andy Warhol, Joan Snyder, Anselm Kiefer, Eleanor Antin, Elaine Reichek, Robert Wilson and William Kentridge. The museum also organizes a diverse schedule of internationally acclaimed and award-winning temporary exhibitions.
On View Now: The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936-1951, nearly 150 vintage photographs of New York City taken by some of the most noted photographers of the mid-20th century including W. Eugene Smith, Weegee, Lisette Model, Berenice Abbott and Aaron Siskind, through March 25, 2012; The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats, the first major exhibition in the country to pay tribute to award-winning and beloved children’s book author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats (1916–1983), whose The Snowy Day was the first modern full-color picture book to feature an African-American protagonist, through January 29, 2012. Hours: Saturday through Tuesday, 11 am-5:45 pm; Wednesday, closed; Thursday, 11 am-8 pm; and Friday, 11 am-4 pm. Admission: Adults: $12; seniors, $10; students ,7.50; children under 12, free; Saturdays, free; members, free. Eats: Lox at Cafe Weissman (kosher). Shop: onsite and online gift store.

The National Museum of American Jewish History
101 South Independence Mall East
Philadelphia, PA 19106-2517
www.nmajh.org; 215- 923-3811
Located steps from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, the National Museum of American Jewish History recently opened its new $150-million, 100,000-square foot, five-story home. NMAJH began its history in 1976—in time for the city’s Bicentennial celebrations—with a mere 40 objects. Founded by the members of historic Congregation Mikveh Israel, which was established in 1740 and known as the “Synagogue of the American Revolution,” the museum had been housed within the shul.
What makes the museum unique, says Ivy L. Barsky, the museum’s Gwen Goodman Museum Director and COO, is that it is “the only one telling the story of the American Jewish experience from 1654 to the present—the unique and ongoing encounter with the blessings and challenges of freedom.”
The first floor’s Only in America Gallery/Hall of Fame uses video, audio testimonials and personal belongings to examine the contributions of 18 inaugural outstanding Jewish Americans—chosen by public vote and the museum’s historians—including Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Albert Einstein, Sandy Koufax, Estee Lauder, Golda Meir, Barbra Streisand, Jonas Salk and Steven Spielberg.
The upper floors house interactive displays and artifacts that highlight the religious, social, political and economic lives of American Jews. Beginning in 2013, the top floor will be home to special exhibitions and events.
Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10 am-5 pm; Saturday and Sunday, until 5:30 pm; closed Monday and major US and Jewish holidays. Admission: Adult, $12; ages 13-21, $11; child 12 and under, free; seniors 65 and older, $11; members, free. Eats: Pomegranates Café (kosher). Shop: Judaica store onsite and online.

Contemporary Jewish Museum
736 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
www.thecjm.org; 415-655-7800
Many people have said that the CJM, a non-collecting museum, couldn’t exist anywhere else but in San Francisco where it was founded in 1984. Says its director Connie Wolf, “Where else would you find a Jewish museum commissioning the writing of a Torah by a woman and creating an exhibition that allows visitors to watch the process and interact with the soferet?  Where else would you find musicians from Lou Reed to Laurie Anderson to Alvin Curran creating new works responding to different letters of the Hebrew alphabet?”
CJM works with artists to create new work and stage temporary exhibitions that cause their audiences “to think afresh about the changing dynamics of what it means to be Jewish today and the continuing relevance of Jewish ideas in a contemporary world,” Wolf says. The exhibits are meant to celebrate Jewish culture, history, art and ideas within the context of 21st-century perspectives.
The museum is now housed in a unique space that marries the 1907-designed Jessie Street Power Substation in San Francisco’s lively SOMA district with a vibrant blue metallic steel building designed in 2005 by architect Daniel Libeskind, who was inspired by the two Hebrew letters of the word chai, chet and yud.
On View Now: California Dreaming: Jewish Life in the Bay Area from the Gold Rush to the Present, through October 16, 2012; Houdini: Art and Magic, the first art exhibition in an American art museum on this master magician, through January 16, 2012; and Stanley Saitowitz: Judaica, through October 16, 2012. Hours: Daily, 11 am-5 pm; Thursday, 1-8 pm; closed Wednesday. Admission: Adults, $12; seniors, $10; 18 and under, free; Thursday after 5 pm, $5; members, free; first Tuesday of each month, free. Eats: American Box, a modern deli. Shop: onsite, limited online selection.

The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art
2021 East 71st Street
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74136
http://www.jewishmuseum.net
918-492-1818
The Tulsa metropolitan area has a population of 600,000, yet of that number, only about 2,000 are Jews. “Our museum, through our exhibition and publication programs, is striving to have an impact on the entire community, focusing on its roots in Jewish culture, history and art and to further enrich the lives of all the area’s citizens,” says Arthur M. Feldman, executive director. “Our program theme of ‘bonds of commonality’—what Jews and the community have in common—is presented in tandem with information to demystify Jews, Jewish history and  Jewish culture for the greater population.”
In 1965, a local synagogue brought a traveling exhibit, “Traditional Ceremonial Art,” from the Jewish Museum in New York to the Tulsa community. The exhibit generated great interest in Jewish culture and art, and the following year, the Gershon and Rebecca Fenster Gallery of Jewish Art opened to the public. Sherwin Miller, the first curator of the gallery, began collecting Jewish art and artifacts in earnest.
In 2000, the museum was renamed the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art to recognize the achievements and contributions of its first curator. Three years later, the Museum moved to its current location on the Zarrow Campus which it shares with the Jewish Federation of Tulsa/Charles Schusterman Jewish Community Center, Mizel Jewish Community Day School and the Tulsa Jewish Retirement and Health Care Center.
The upper levels of the museum display its permanent collection of art and artifacts showing the 5,000-year history of the Jewish people from the pre-Canaanite era through the settling of the Jewish community in Tulsa and the American Southwest. Visitors learn about the exiles’ and immigrants’ travels to new home lands, Jewish practices, ceremonies, holidays and overall heritage.
The lower level of the museum features the Herman and Kate Kaiser Holocaust Exhibition, containing hundreds of objects donated by Oklahoma veterans who took part in the liberation of German concentration camps and other artifacts brought to Oklahoma by Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany.
On View Now: Marc Chagall: Drawings for the Bible features a large display of the Russian-born painter’s lithographs from a series he did based on personal memories and impressions of a trip he made to what was then Palestine; through January 31, 2011. Hours: Monday-Friday, 10 am-5 pm; Sundays, 1-5 pm; closed Saturday. Admission: Adults, $6.50; 55 and over, $5.50; students 6-21, $3.50; members, teachers and uniformed service members, free.
Please visit the museums’ websites for US and Jewish holiday closing information.

National Museum of American Jewish Military History
1811 R Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
http://www.nmajmh.org
202-265-6280

Chartered by an act of Congress in 1958, the National Museum of American Jewish Military History near Dupont Circle doesn’t focus on weaponry as its name might suggest. Rather, says Norman Rosenshein, president, “we tell the story of what the Jewish soldier did in the military. It’s our emphasis on the human interest side that makes us unique.”
Housed in the same building as the Jewish War Veterans national headquarters, the museum has two floors of permanent and special exhibitions. One of its permanent exhibits is devoted to Major General Julius Klein, World War II hero and advocate for the establishment of the State of Israel. Another exhibit pays homage to the Jewish-American servicemen who have received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
In the Captain Joshua L. Goldberg Memorial Chapel you can reflect upon its magnificent stained glass panel that depicts the harvesting of fields and the words in Hebrew “from swords to plowshares.” A navy chaplain in WWII, during the Korean War, Goldberg became the first Jewish chaplain to attain the rank of captain.
A continuing exhibit, Women in the Military: A Jewish Perspective, profiles Jewish female veterans of US conflicts from the Civil War to the Gulf War and brings to the forefront the vital role women have played in America’s war efforts throughout our country’s history.  The museum normally presents one new exhibition every other calendar year. It also offers a regular program of classes on diverse topics.
Hours:  Monday to Friday, 9 am-5 pm; Sunday by appointment for groups of six or more; closed Saturdays. Admission: Free. Shop: onsite and online.

Oregon Jewish Museum
1953 NW Kearney, Portland, OR 97209
http://www.ojm.org
503-226-3600
The Oregon Jewish Museum was founded in 1989 by a volunteer group to provide the state with a museum dedicated to Jewish art and history. In 1996, OJM merged with the Jewish Historical Society of Oregon. That same year, after being a “museum without walls,” the museum opened in a donated office suite in northwest Portland. In 2001, it moved to a storefront in Portland’s old town and presented its first exhibit, Faces and Places of Old South Portland.
In 2010, the museum tripled its space, moving to a former commercial film building. Today, says museum director Judith Margles, “the museum creates innovative exhibits and Jewish programming while, at the same time, building a dynamic institution embracing Jewish identity and community.”
By using the lens of Jewish culture through which to view and shape a dialogue about historical and contemporary issues, Margles says, “our goals are based on an underlying belief in the power of our Jewish heritage to build and engage the Jewish community, affiliated and unaffiliated alike, as well as the community at large.”
The museum has featured exhibits on the game of Mah Jongg (through December 31, 2011) and compelling black-and-white photographs and musical memorabilia of Ernest Bloch, the Jewish composer and late-in-life Oregonian best known for his mournful “Kol Nidre” melody.
On View Now: The Dawn of Tomorrow: Oregon Jews and Woman’s Suffrage, through May 27; upcoming: Transport, works by Henk Pander and Esther Podemski, January 18-May 27 and Oregon Jewish All Stars, June 7-September 30. Hours: Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30 am-4 pm; Friday, 10:30 am-3 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 12-4 pm. Admission: Adults, $6; seniors and students, $4; members and children under 12: free.

The Jewish Museum of Maryland
15 Lloyd Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
www.jewishmuseummd.org
410-732-6400
Located in the heart of one of Baltimore’s oldest and most fondly remembered Jewish neighborhoods, “there are many things that make our museum unique,” says Deborah Cardin, assistant director. The Jonestown campus includes two historic sites: the Lloyd Street Synagogue, built in 1845 as Maryland’s oldest synagogue, and B’nai Israel that dates from 1876 and still houses an active congregation. In addition, the museum has three exhibition galleries where it explores topics of historical to contemporary interest. “By visiting and touring our historic sites and galleries, visitors come away with a sense of the breadth and variety of Jewish life past and present,” Cardin says.
The museum’s collections, which include works of art, historical photographs, clothing, ceremonial items, rare books, everyday objects, documents, oral histories and memorabilia, tell the story of Jewish life in Maryland from immigration and family history to congregational life and contemporary culture.
On View Now: Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture and American Jewish Identity examines the diversity of Jewish foods—it’s not just matzo balls—and looks at what the foods Jews eat say about them. The Synagogue Speaks, is a multi-media exhibition that tells the story of the landmark, newly restored Lloyd Street Synagogue and the three immigrant congregations—two Jewish and one Roman Catholic—that occupied it. Voices of Lombard Street: A Century of Change in East Baltimore chronicles the area surrounding the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the center of immigrant Jewish life in Baltimore in the early 1900s where people of different backgrounds lived, worked, created community—and came together in the renowned Jewish market known as Lombard Street. Hours: Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 12-4 pm. Admission: General, $8; students, $4; children under 12, $3; members, free. Shop: online and onsite.
The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum
The Selig Center
1440 Spring St. NW, Atlanta, GA 30309
http://www.thebreman.org
678-222-3700
Opened in midtown Atlanta in 1996, the Breman Museum is the largest repository of materials related to Jewish life in the South. The museum is named for William Breman, owner of the Breman Steel Company, who was a philanthropist and active in the Jewish community in Atlanta.
What makes the museum unique, according to Jane Leavey, executive director, is that its signature and special exhibitions are designed for diverse audiences and to educate visitors about Jewish values, customs and traditions. Its exhibitions explore universal themes, such as personal responsibility, community building and cross-cultural understanding.
Its signature exhibition, Creating Community: The Jews of Atlanta From 1845 to the Present, explores the growth of Atlanta’s Jewish community beginning with two peddlers who came to the city open a dry goods store and now boasts of more 100,000 Jews. Another signature exhibit, Absence of Humanity: The Holocaust Years, 1933-1945 focuses on historical photographs and documents, personal memorabilia and family photographs, and the voices of those who survived and made new homes in Atlanta.
On View Now: Torn from Home: My Life as a Refugee, through a hands-on journey, children ages 8-12 can explore what it means to be a refugee through the eyes of children who are forced to leave their homes and seek safety in a new land, through January 8, 2012; upcoming: The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Interment Camps, 1942-46, featuring more than 120 objects—tools, teapots, furniture, toys, games, musical instruments, pins, pendants and purses—that the Japanese Americans who were interred at camps during World War II made while there to beautify their surroundings, January 29-May 31, 2012. Hours: Monday-Thursday, 10 am-5 pm; Friday, 10 am-3 pm; Sunday, 1-5 pm. Admission: Adults, $12; seniors 62 and over, $8; students, $6; children ages 3-6, $4; children under 3, free; members, free.
Beth W. Orenstein is a Northampton, PA-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Chutzpah magazine.

Jewish Museum of Florida
301 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139
http://www.jewishmuseum.com
305-672-5044
Opened in 1995, The Jewish Museum of Florida in South Beach is the nation’s first museum to focus on an ethnic group within a state. “We are the only museum to depict the experience of Jews in Florida, which began in 1763 when Jews were first permitted to settle when Florida was traded to Great Britain. For 250 years (1513-1762), only Catholics could live in Florida,” says Jo Ann Arnowitz, executive director.
The museum is housed in two adjacent restored historic buildings that were once synagogues for Miami Beach’s first Jewish congregation. The museum has amassed a vast collection of more than 100,000 objects including rare photographs, artifacts and oral histories culled from more than two centuries of Florida Jewish families.
The focal point of the museum is its exhibit MOSAIC: Jewish Life in Florida – 1763 to the Present, which includes more than 500 photos and artifacts. The museum also stages history and art exhibits that change periodically.
On View Now: Wooden Synagogues of Poland and the Florida Connection, through March 18; Rabbi Irving Lehrman: His Life & Art, a look at the spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-El on Miami Beach for more than 50 years and the artwork he created, through January 15, 2012. Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 10 am-5 pm; closed Monday. Admission: adults, $6; seniors, $5; families, $12; members and children under 6, free; Saturday, free. Eats: Bessie’s Bistro, named for its donor, Bess Myerson, still the only Jewish woman to have been crowned Miss America. Shop: onsite and online.

Inside Jewish Museums Large & Small By Beth Orenstein It’s only fitting that with 5,000 years of Jewish culture, there should be museums dedicated to preserving and celebrating our history. What’s amazing is the number and scope of institutions across North America. The Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM) was founded in 1977 under the auspices [...]

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Inside Jewish Museums Large & Small By Beth Orenstein It’s only fitting that with 5,000 years of Jewish culture, there should be museums dedicated to preserving and celebrating our history. What’s amazing is the number and scope of institutions across North America. The Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM) was founded in 1977 under the auspices [...]

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The wizard of cosmic storytelling is still with pen in hand.
By Laura Goldman

You could have heard a pin drop in the packed auditorium of the Free Library of Philadelphia in November when Israeli writer Amos Oz read from his latest novel, Scenes from a Village. Oz, as revered for his fiction writing as he is for his outspoken, eloquent defense of the Israeli left, became the face—the ruggedly handsome face with piercing blue eyes—of Israeli literature after the runaway success of his first novel, My Michael. Despite the book becoming a worldwide phenomenon, the 72-year-old writer admits that he would not write that novel—told entirely from the viewpoint of a woman—today.
“At 24, I thought that I knew everything there was to know about women,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “Now I wouldn’t dare write the book because I know now that I know nothing about women.”
His latest book takes place in the fictional ancient village of Tel Ilan. “It is the kind of place that is rapidly fading from Israel and everywhere else,” says Oz, who now lives in the desert town of Arad. “It was a farming community, but is now filled with weekenders.” He calls the book a “novel in short stories because the community members of Tel Ilan make appearances in each other stories.”
The premise for the work came to him in a dream. Oz, who says he learned about human nature from living in close quarters with 300 people on Kibbutz Hulda, characterizes the short stories as “perceptive tales of people in a transitional state.” Each of the characters has lost something or hid something from themselves, he explains. “Their search is in tatters. They have reached the basement in their own souls.”
Oz refutes the idea that tales of loss and searching are depressing. “Where there is searching, there is hope. Sadness and gloom is not despair,” he asserts. Of course, he operates from his own lexicon. A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of his life before his mother committed suicide at the age of 39, yet Oz does not call it a memoir.  “There is no Hebrew word for memoir. That is only a Library of Congress designation,” he says.
As a youth, he rebelled against his father, including dropping his family name for the Hebrew word for strength. He recalls, “He was right wing, I am left wing. He wanted to be tall, I am defiantly short. He wanted to be an intellectual, I wanted to drive a tractor. The irony is that I ended up in a roomful of books.” Despite their differences, the greatest influence on his life seems to have been his father.  He still argues with him every day though it’s now been 41 years since his death. “It is good to talk to the dead,” he declares.
Oz considers himself a cosmic storyteller, not just a writer from Israel.  “The more provincial and parochial a story is, the more universal the story,” argues Oz. “The tale is the oldest literary form, stemming from the days of the Neanderthal.”
While his tales of retired members of parliament that smell of ripe cheese may have global appeal, his political writing only heads in one direction—left.  He is not ready to give up on Israel or the peace process. “We have faced greater obstacles—the Holocaust—than the current ones,” he says. Oz doesn’t use a computer to write and is just as creative with his choice of pen color: “I use one color for my stories and another to tell the government to go to hell.”
As a co-founder of the Peace Now movement, he still believes peace is achievable.  Oz argues, “It is a necessity, a historic compromise is unavoidable between Palestinians and Israelis. The majority of both would now not be unhappy with a two-state solution. Bold, courageous leaders are needed on both sides. The present leaders lack the courage to do what they know in their heart of hearts that they have to do. Using a metaphor, the peace process is like a patient that is unhappily ready for surgery, but the doctors are too much of a coward to perform the surgery.” According to Oz, Obama may have “invoked a message of high expectations that is too difficult to live up to.”
Oz fears that the release of Gilad Shalit might have complicated the peace process. “I rejoiced on the day he was set free. Gilad had become the child of every Israeli family. The morning after, I was nervous. We had set free dangerous terrorists. We weakened the hand of Palestinian President Abu Mazen and played into Hamas,” says Oz.
His front page essay in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in August on the recent social protests in Israel, which mirror our Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, prompted an article in the New York Times. While boasting that half a million marched without a single violent episode and no police brutality, he demurred from predicting whether the demonstrations all over Israel would effect change. “It’s too early to tell, says Oz. “It is difficult to be a prophet from the land of prophets.”
The last answer was typical Ozian. In his writing, he “likes to erase the line between tragedy and comedy. When you have cried all your tears, it is time to start laughing.” He fantasizes about creating a capsule filled with a sense of humor. “A sense of humor is the only cure for fanatics. It is the antidote for fanaticism,” says Oz. “Then I will win the Nobel Prize in medicine.”
Oz has only two aspirations for his readers. He hopes that someday they will read The Same Sea, which he considers his literary masterpiece although it did not sell well. Despite having “the best Hebrew to English translator in the world,” he wishes that his readers could read his books in the original Hebrew. Oz, whose work has been translated into 41 languages, compares reading the translation of his work to “playing a violin concerto on the piano.” Fans will be delighted to know that he is hard at work on a new book, but don’t expect him to divulge any details—as he puts it, “That would be as dangerous as a pregnant woman undergoing an X-ray.”

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The wizard of cosmic storytelling is still with pen in hand.
By Laura Goldman

You could have heard a pin drop in the packed auditorium of the Free Library of Philadelphia in November when Israeli writer Amos Oz read from his latest novel, Scenes from a Village. Oz, as revered for his fiction writing as he is for his outspoken, eloquent defense of the Israeli left, became the face—the ruggedly handsome face with piercing blue eyes—of Israeli literature after the runaway success of his first novel, My Michael. Despite the book becoming a worldwide phenomenon, the 72-year-old writer admits that he would not write that novel—told entirely from the viewpoint of a woman—today.
“At 24, I thought that I knew everything there was to know about women,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “Now I wouldn’t dare write the book because I know now that I know nothing about women.”
His latest book takes place in the fictional ancient village of Tel Ilan. “It is the kind of place that is rapidly fading from Israel and everywhere else,” says Oz, who now lives in the desert town of Arad. “It was a farming community, but is now filled with weekenders.” He calls the book a “novel in short stories because the community members of Tel Ilan make appearances in each other stories.”
The premise for the work came to him in a dream. Oz, who says he learned about human nature from living in close quarters with 300 people on Kibbutz Hulda, characterizes the short stories as “perceptive tales of people in a transitional state.” Each of the characters has lost something or hid something from themselves, he explains. “Their search is in tatters. They have reached the basement in their own souls.”
Oz refutes the idea that tales of loss and searching are depressing. “Where there is searching, there is hope. Sadness and gloom is not despair,” he asserts. Of course, he operates from his own lexicon. A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of his life before his mother committed suicide at the age of 39, yet Oz does not call it a memoir.  “There is no Hebrew word for memoir. That is only a Library of Congress designation,” he says.
As a youth, he rebelled against his father, including dropping his family name for the Hebrew word for strength. He recalls, “He was right wing, I am left wing. He wanted to be tall, I am defiantly short. He wanted to be an intellectual, I wanted to drive a tractor. The irony is that I ended up in a roomful of books.” Despite their differences, the greatest influence on his life seems to have been his father.  He still argues with him every day though it’s now been 41 years since his death. “It is good to talk to the dead,” he declares.
Oz considers himself a cosmic storyteller, not just a writer from Israel.  “The more provincial and parochial a story is, the more universal the story,” argues Oz. “The tale is the oldest literary form, stemming from the days of the Neanderthal.”
While his tales of retired members of parliament that smell of ripe cheese may have global appeal, his political writing only heads in one direction—left.  He is not ready to give up on Israel or the peace process. “We have faced greater obstacles—the Holocaust—than the current ones,” he says. Oz doesn’t use a computer to write and is just as creative with his choice of pen color: “I use one color for my stories and another to tell the government to go to hell.”
As a co-founder of the Peace Now movement, he still believes peace is achievable.  Oz argues, “It is a necessity, a historic compromise is unavoidable between Palestinians and Israelis. The majority of both would now not be unhappy with a two-state solution. Bold, courageous leaders are needed on both sides. The present leaders lack the courage to do what they know in their heart of hearts that they have to do. Using a metaphor, the peace process is like a patient that is unhappily ready for surgery, but the doctors are too much of a coward to perform the surgery.” According to Oz, Obama may have “invoked a message of high expectations that is too difficult to live up to.”
Oz fears that the release of Gilad Shalit might have complicated the peace process. “I rejoiced on the day he was set free. Gilad had become the child of every Israeli family. The morning after, I was nervous. We had set free dangerous terrorists. We weakened the hand of Palestinian President Abu Mazen and played into Hamas,” says Oz.
His front page essay in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in August on the recent social protests in Israel, which mirror our Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, prompted an article in the New York Times. While boasting that half a million marched without a single violent episode and no police brutality, he demurred from predicting whether the demonstrations all over Israel would effect change. “It’s too early to tell, says Oz. “It is difficult to be a prophet from the land of prophets.”
The last answer was typical Ozian. In his writing, he “likes to erase the line between tragedy and comedy. When you have cried all your tears, it is time to start laughing.” He fantasizes about creating a capsule filled with a sense of humor. “A sense of humor is the only cure for fanatics. It is the antidote for fanaticism,” says Oz. “Then I will win the Nobel Prize in medicine.”
Oz has only two aspirations for his readers. He hopes that someday they will read The Same Sea, which he considers his literary masterpiece although it did not sell well. Despite having “the best Hebrew to English translator in the world,” he wishes that his readers could read his books in the original Hebrew. Oz, whose work has been translated into 41 languages, compares reading the translation of his work to “playing a violin concerto on the piano.” Fans will be delighted to know that he is hard at work on a new book, but don’t expect him to divulge any details—as he puts it, “That would be as dangerous as a pregnant woman undergoing an X-ray.”

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The wizard of cosmic storytelling is still with pen in hand. By Laura Goldman You could have heard a pin drop in the packed auditorium of the Free Library of Philadelphia in November when Israeli writer Amos Oz read from his latest novel, Scenes from a Village. Oz, as revered for his fiction writing as [...]

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The wizard of cosmic storytelling is still with pen in hand. By Laura Goldman You could have heard a pin drop in the packed auditorium of the Free Library of Philadelphia in November when Israeli writer Amos Oz read from his latest novel, Scenes from a Village. Oz, as revered for his fiction writing as [...]

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Being Herself: Sandra Bernhard
By Laura Goldman

Fresh from appearing with Betty White and the gals on TV Land’s hit show Hot in Cleveland, Sandra Bernhard is back on the road. Following New Year’s Eve shows in New York City, she’ll be touring with her latest oeuvre, “I Love Being Me, Don’t You?”—first stop, Philadelphia’s The Painted Bride Arts Center from January 10 to 14. The show is based on her hilarious new live comedy album of the same name. Expect Don Rickles on steroids with a sprinkling of Liza Minelli. The show, which is accompanied by a rock band, includes singing by the sultry Bernhard, who still has the same enviable, lithe body she did when she burst on the scene in ’70s with her no holds barred stand-up. Says Bernhard, “I hope people will walk away from my performances with a new look at themselves and the world.”
During the show, she lets loose (loose being the operative word) about Obama, conspicuous consumption, the superiority of gays over straights and the ads in the New York Times. Theatergoers will hear riffs on Pippa Middleton’s butt (two peaches) and Bristol Palin’s role as an abstinence spokesman (let the laughing start now). Bernard, who was famously Madonna’s gal pal in the ’80s, pokes fun at the crusades of Madonna’s heir apparent, Lady Gaga. Audience members who think that they can just sit back and relax, beware. This twisted sister loves to skewer the crowd.
Her relationship with Madonna seemed a good place to start the interview, but she would not confirm or deny. “We were good friends and had a wonderful time when things were less focused on the superficial,” says Bernhard, who maybe because of the similarity of their pouty lips is often described as a Jewish, neurotic Mick Jagger.
Bernhard, who relishes being a provocateur, has made a career of pushing boundaries. As Roseanne’s lesbian sister Nancy Bartlett on Roseanne, she was one of the first to play an openly gay character on television. She remembers that period in her life fondly.
“Working on Roseanne was one of the best experiences in my life,” she says. “I remain a good friend of Roseanne’s today along with other cast members.” She scoffs at media characterizations that being attached to such a notorious show was partially a curse. “The press often misquotes performers and then you spend the next ten years undoing it,” says Bernhard.
Comedy’s bad girl actually started out life as the daughter of a Jewish proctologist, born in Flint, Michigan—the family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona when she was 10. Bernhard considers herself as coming from a stereotypically Jewish family if that means “liberal, well-read, artistic, musical and loves laughter.”
“My family was traditional, but very open too,” she adds. “I love my Jewish ties and they play into my life every day.”
After high school graduation, she spent time on a kibbutz in Israel. “Since this was back in the ’70s, there was still that sense of real communal living,” recalls Bernhard. “The volunteers, who came from all over the world, worked very hard and we shared great adventures. I really developed a sense of who I was and a wonderful work ethic from the experience.”
She is concerned about the future of Israel. “As the original settlers are starting to die off, it has left the country without the spiritual and emotional core that made it so inspiring,” says Bernhard.
In an era where anything goes now, one might think that Bernhard’s style might have lost its edge. In fact, her comedy star has risen because she sticks to her guns and always takes the higher road—yes, high camp and all.

The Line-Up
Catch Sandra at Joe’s Pub in New York, December 28-December 31; then “I Love Being Me, Don’t You?” goes to The Painted Bride Arts Center in Philadelphia, January 10-14, The Triple Door in Seattle, WA, on February 23 and 24 and La Jolla Playhouse from March 14 to March 17. For more information and to buy tickets, go to www.sandrabernhard.com

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Being Herself: Sandra Bernhard
By Laura Goldman

Fresh from appearing with Betty White and the gals on TV Land’s hit show Hot in Cleveland, Sandra Bernhard is back on the road. Following New Year’s Eve shows in New York City, she’ll be touring with her latest oeuvre, “I Love Being Me, Don’t You?”—first stop, Philadelphia’s The Painted Bride Arts Center from January 10 to 14. The show is based on her hilarious new live comedy album of the same name. Expect Don Rickles on steroids with a sprinkling of Liza Minelli. The show, which is accompanied by a rock band, includes singing by the sultry Bernhard, who still has the same enviable, lithe body she did when she burst on the scene in ’70s with her no holds barred stand-up. Says Bernhard, “I hope people will walk away from my performances with a new look at themselves and the world.”
During the show, she lets loose (loose being the operative word) about Obama, conspicuous consumption, the superiority of gays over straights and the ads in the New York Times. Theatergoers will hear riffs on Pippa Middleton’s butt (two peaches) and Bristol Palin’s role as an abstinence spokesman (let the laughing start now). Bernard, who was famously Madonna’s gal pal in the ’80s, pokes fun at the crusades of Madonna’s heir apparent, Lady Gaga. Audience members who think that they can just sit back and relax, beware. This twisted sister loves to skewer the crowd.
Her relationship with Madonna seemed a good place to start the interview, but she would not confirm or deny. “We were good friends and had a wonderful time when things were less focused on the superficial,” says Bernhard, who maybe because of the similarity of their pouty lips is often described as a Jewish, neurotic Mick Jagger.
Bernhard, who relishes being a provocateur, has made a career of pushing boundaries. As Roseanne’s lesbian sister Nancy Bartlett on Roseanne, she was one of the first to play an openly gay character on television. She remembers that period in her life fondly.
“Working on Roseanne was one of the best experiences in my life,” she says. “I remain a good friend of Roseanne’s today along with other cast members.” She scoffs at media characterizations that being attached to such a notorious show was partially a curse. “The press often misquotes performers and then you spend the next ten years undoing it,” says Bernhard.
Comedy’s bad girl actually started out life as the daughter of a Jewish proctologist, born in Flint, Michigan—the family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona when she was 10. Bernhard considers herself as coming from a stereotypically Jewish family if that means “liberal, well-read, artistic, musical and loves laughter.”
“My family was traditional, but very open too,” she adds. “I love my Jewish ties and they play into my life every day.”
After high school graduation, she spent time on a kibbutz in Israel. “Since this was back in the ’70s, there was still that sense of real communal living,” recalls Bernhard. “The volunteers, who came from all over the world, worked very hard and we shared great adventures. I really developed a sense of who I was and a wonderful work ethic from the experience.”
She is concerned about the future of Israel. “As the original settlers are starting to die off, it has left the country without the spiritual and emotional core that made it so inspiring,” says Bernhard.
In an era where anything goes now, one might think that Bernhard’s style might have lost its edge. In fact, her comedy star has risen because she sticks to her guns and always takes the higher road—yes, high camp and all.

The Line-Up
Catch Sandra at Joe’s Pub in New York, December 28-December 31; then “I Love Being Me, Don’t You?” goes to The Painted Bride Arts Center in Philadelphia, January 10-14, The Triple Door in Seattle, WA, on February 23 and 24 and La Jolla Playhouse from March 14 to March 17. For more information and to buy tickets, go to www.sandrabernhard.com

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Being Herself: Sandra Bernhard By Laura Goldman Fresh from appearing with Betty White and the gals on TV Land’s hit show Hot in Cleveland, Sandra Bernhard is back on the road. Following New Year’s Eve shows in New York City, she’ll be touring with her latest oeuvre, “I Love Being Me, Don’t You?”—first stop, Philadelphia’s [...]

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Being Herself: Sandra Bernhard By Laura Goldman Fresh from appearing with Betty White and the gals on TV Land’s hit show Hot in Cleveland, Sandra Bernhard is back on the road. Following New Year’s Eve shows in New York City, she’ll be touring with her latest oeuvre, “I Love Being Me, Don’t You?”—first stop, Philadelphia’s [...]

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In the business world, Larry Phillips is synonymous with the fashion conglomerate Phillips-Van Heusen where he was chair and chief executive until he retired in 1995. While the company, originally started by his grandfather, still thrives today, his greatest legacy is arguably the American Jewish World Service, the global organization he co-founded in 1985.
Now based in New York and run by its president Ruth Messinger, the esteemed former New York congresswoman, AJWS was first established in Boston when Phillips and Larry Simon, together with a group of rabbis, Jewish communal leaders, activists, businesspeople, scholars and others came together to create the first American Jewish organization dedicated to alleviating poverty, hunger and disease among people across the globe. “Part of the Hebrew tradition is that you’re supposed to spend a part of your life trying to repair the world,” Phillips explains. That was what he set out to do…literally.
Through grants to grassroots organizations, volunteer service, advocacy and education, AJWS fosters civil society, sustainable development and human rights for all people, while promoting the values and responsibilities of global citizenship within the Jewish community. In its 26 years, AJWS has been on the ground wherever help was needed, from its first emergency response to the 1986 volcano disaster in Armaro, Colombia to last year’s relief efforts after the earthquake in Haiti. It co-founded the Save Darfur Coalition and helped to organize the 2006 national anti-genocide rally in Washington, DC and a series of other rallies throughout the country. Among many firsts, AJWS was the first national Jewish organization to promote targeted divestment by launching a divestment initiative against the government of Sudan in 2007.
Many efforts have been directed toward agricultural goals, giving some of the world’s hungry the tools to become self-sustaining. For instance, early in its history, AJWS and the Tibetan community-in-exile in India initiated an agricultural improvement project that developed into a long-term relationship. In 1988, the UN World Food Program began using technology and methods for safe grain storage developed by AJWS and Israeli scientists at the Volcani Center. In all, over 1,000 grassroots projects have been funded in more than 70 countries, such as peer exchange programs in Southern Africa bringing together community-based organizations from the region to exchange best practices in responding to the HIV epidemic.
Internal initiatives to involve younger members of the Jewish community have been a mainstay at AJWS. In 1994 the Jewish Volunteer Corps began with the deployment of three volunteers, two to Honduras and one to Mexico. The following year ten young Jewish men and women spent the summer helping villagers in Honduras build a potable water system. As a result of the success of that program, the International Jewish College Corps, now Volunteer Summer, was established. In 2000, AJWS started the Alternative Breaks program for college students. More recently, it launched Global Circle, a new community for professionals ages 25 to 40.
Phillips’s own outreach has gone beyond AJWS, where he serves on the board of trustees. He has served on the board of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County and many other local Florida organizations and had been active in Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Fund for Peace and the Center for Defense Information. To learn more or to get involved, go to www.ajws.org and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dMfYlabFtg

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In the business world, Larry Phillips is synonymous with the fashion conglomerate Phillips-Van Heusen where he was chair and chief executive until he retired in 1995. While the company, originally started by his grandfather, still thrives today, his greatest legacy is arguably the American Jewish World Service, the global organization he co-founded in 1985.
Now based in New York and run by its president Ruth Messinger, the esteemed former New York congresswoman, AJWS was first established in Boston when Phillips and Larry Simon, together with a group of rabbis, Jewish communal leaders, activists, businesspeople, scholars and others came together to create the first American Jewish organization dedicated to alleviating poverty, hunger and disease among people across the globe. “Part of the Hebrew tradition is that you’re supposed to spend a part of your life trying to repair the world,” Phillips explains. That was what he set out to do…literally.
Through grants to grassroots organizations, volunteer service, advocacy and education, AJWS fosters civil society, sustainable development and human rights for all people, while promoting the values and responsibilities of global citizenship within the Jewish community. In its 26 years, AJWS has been on the ground wherever help was needed, from its first emergency response to the 1986 volcano disaster in Armaro, Colombia to last year’s relief efforts after the earthquake in Haiti. It co-founded the Save Darfur Coalition and helped to organize the 2006 national anti-genocide rally in Washington, DC and a series of other rallies throughout the country. Among many firsts, AJWS was the first national Jewish organization to promote targeted divestment by launching a divestment initiative against the government of Sudan in 2007.
Many efforts have been directed toward agricultural goals, giving some of the world’s hungry the tools to become self-sustaining. For instance, early in its history, AJWS and the Tibetan community-in-exile in India initiated an agricultural improvement project that developed into a long-term relationship. In 1988, the UN World Food Program began using technology and methods for safe grain storage developed by AJWS and Israeli scientists at the Volcani Center. In all, over 1,000 grassroots projects have been funded in more than 70 countries, such as peer exchange programs in Southern Africa bringing together community-based organizations from the region to exchange best practices in responding to the HIV epidemic.
Internal initiatives to involve younger members of the Jewish community have been a mainstay at AJWS. In 1994 the Jewish Volunteer Corps began with the deployment of three volunteers, two to Honduras and one to Mexico. The following year ten young Jewish men and women spent the summer helping villagers in Honduras build a potable water system. As a result of the success of that program, the International Jewish College Corps, now Volunteer Summer, was established. In 2000, AJWS started the Alternative Breaks program for college students. More recently, it launched Global Circle, a new community for professionals ages 25 to 40.
Phillips’s own outreach has gone beyond AJWS, where he serves on the board of trustees. He has served on the board of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County and many other local Florida organizations and had been active in Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Fund for Peace and the Center for Defense Information. To learn more or to get involved, go to www.ajws.org and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dMfYlabFtg

Start uga_filter:

In the business world, Larry Phillips is synonymous with the fashion conglomerate Phillips-Van Heusen where he was chair and chief executive until he retired in 1995. While the company, originally started by his grandfather, still thrives today, his greatest legacy is arguably the American Jewish World Service, the global organization he co-founded in 1985. Now [...]

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In the business world, Larry Phillips is synonymous with the fashion conglomerate Phillips-Van Heusen where he was chair and chief executive until he retired in 1995. While the company, originally started by his grandfather, still thrives today, his greatest legacy is arguably the American Jewish World Service, the global organization he co-founded in 1985. Now [...]

Start uga_filter:

Accomplishing the NBCUniversal merger was nice. But it’s Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ goal of spreading the message of tolerance that makes him mensch-worthy.

You’ve received many distinguished honors from humanitarian groups, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the UJA Federation of New York, yet you are rarely quoted in the general media about these efforts. Can you tell us some of the most meaningful work you’ve done and why Jewish and pro-diversity causes are important to you?

“One of the earliest lessons I learned from my father Ralph is that you can be good and successful in business, and at the same time you can do good for the world. This project is perhaps one of the most meaningful that I have been involved in because we have been able to use our digital technology to tell the stories of the survivors to hundreds of thousands of people. Television and the internet are incredible platforms to be able to use to spread the message of tolerance.”

It is frightening when googling your name (as well as other prominent Jewish Americans) to see the number of neo-Nazi organization websites that pop up, denigrating Jews for the successes we take great pride in, including a leadership role in the media, among other businesses. How do you come to terms with the existence of these threats with our country’s tenet of freedom of speech?

“There is no question that bigotry, hatred and intolerance still exist in our world today.  That is why the work the USC Shoah Foundation Institute is doing is so important.  Their efforts to educate people about the Holocaust and other genocides through the use of their visual history testimonies are invaluable.”

In honoring you at this year’s USC Shoah Foundation Institute Gala, Steven Spielberg talked about your “vision and commitment to enhancing digital literacy in schools and communities across America.” Can you give us some specific ways you are accomplishing this?

“One of the core focus areas for the Comcast Foundation is expanding digital literacy.  A program I am particularly excited about is Comcast Digital Connectors, which we launched with One Economy in 2009. Comcast Digital Connectors is a national program dedicated to teaching digital literacy skills to young people from diverse, low-income backgrounds.”

What prompted you to first begin initiatives between Comcast and the Shoah Foundation Institute?

“When Steven Spielberg first approached me about being the honoree for the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Ambassadors for Humanity Gala, he invited me to visit USC on a trip to the West Coast.  What I saw there was absolutely amazing and I knew right away that I wanted to support the USC Shoah Foundation Institute in its mission to share the incredible testimonies they have collected with as many people as possible.”

Your involvement in the Maccabiah games, including as a member of Team USA Masters Squash, is also not as well known, despite your impressive record of three decades of involvement. Why are the games important to you and what would you say to encourage kids and adults to get involved?

“The Maccabiah Games have been an important part of my life for decades. I was just 21 years old when I first had the honor to represent the United States as a member of our squash team at the Maccabiah Games in Israel. I will never forget the surge of patriotism I felt when I marched into the stadium for the opening ceremony. Four years later, I was back in Israel playing once again for the US Squash Team. It was on that trip I asked my wife Aileen to marry me. I didn’t win the gold, but I won something better—she accepted.”

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Accomplishing the NBCUniversal merger was nice. But it’s Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ goal of spreading the message of tolerance that makes him mensch-worthy.

You’ve received many distinguished honors from humanitarian groups, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the UJA Federation of New York, yet you are rarely quoted in the general media about these efforts. Can you tell us some of the most meaningful work you’ve done and why Jewish and pro-diversity causes are important to you?

“One of the earliest lessons I learned from my father Ralph is that you can be good and successful in business, and at the same time you can do good for the world. This project is perhaps one of the most meaningful that I have been involved in because we have been able to use our digital technology to tell the stories of the survivors to hundreds of thousands of people. Television and the internet are incredible platforms to be able to use to spread the message of tolerance.”

It is frightening when googling your name (as well as other prominent Jewish Americans) to see the number of neo-Nazi organization websites that pop up, denigrating Jews for the successes we take great pride in, including a leadership role in the media, among other businesses. How do you come to terms with the existence of these threats with our country’s tenet of freedom of speech?

“There is no question that bigotry, hatred and intolerance still exist in our world today.  That is why the work the USC Shoah Foundation Institute is doing is so important.  Their efforts to educate people about the Holocaust and other genocides through the use of their visual history testimonies are invaluable.”

In honoring you at this year’s USC Shoah Foundation Institute Gala, Steven Spielberg talked about your “vision and commitment to enhancing digital literacy in schools and communities across America.” Can you give us some specific ways you are accomplishing this?

“One of the core focus areas for the Comcast Foundation is expanding digital literacy.  A program I am particularly excited about is Comcast Digital Connectors, which we launched with One Economy in 2009. Comcast Digital Connectors is a national program dedicated to teaching digital literacy skills to young people from diverse, low-income backgrounds.”

What prompted you to first begin initiatives between Comcast and the Shoah Foundation Institute?

“When Steven Spielberg first approached me about being the honoree for the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Ambassadors for Humanity Gala, he invited me to visit USC on a trip to the West Coast.  What I saw there was absolutely amazing and I knew right away that I wanted to support the USC Shoah Foundation Institute in its mission to share the incredible testimonies they have collected with as many people as possible.”

Your involvement in the Maccabiah games, including as a member of Team USA Masters Squash, is also not as well known, despite your impressive record of three decades of involvement. Why are the games important to you and what would you say to encourage kids and adults to get involved?

“The Maccabiah Games have been an important part of my life for decades. I was just 21 years old when I first had the honor to represent the United States as a member of our squash team at the Maccabiah Games in Israel. I will never forget the surge of patriotism I felt when I marched into the stadium for the opening ceremony. Four years later, I was back in Israel playing once again for the US Squash Team. It was on that trip I asked my wife Aileen to marry me. I didn’t win the gold, but I won something better—she accepted.”

Start uga_filter:

Accomplishing the NBCUniversal merger was nice. But it’s Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ goal of spreading the message of tolerance that makes him mensch-worthy. You’ve received many distinguished honors from humanitarian groups, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the UJA Federation of New York, yet you are rarely quoted in the general media about these efforts. [...]

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Accomplishing the NBCUniversal merger was nice. But it’s Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ goal of spreading the message of tolerance that makes him mensch-worthy. You’ve received many distinguished honors from humanitarian groups, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the UJA Federation of New York, yet you are rarely quoted in the general media about these efforts. [...]

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Leeshai Lemish’s penchant for Asian studies landed the London School of Economics grad in the spotlight with Shen Yun Performing Arts.

By Laura Goldman

Like us, the Chinese have a deep and varied culture that dates back 5,000 years. In 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts was created by expatriate Chinese for the purpose of reviving and celebrating traditional Chinese art forms—and sharing them with the world. To keep them alive, the group has even established a high school in upstate New York where many cast members, who are ethnic Chinese, can study the ancient Chinese arts. Since its inception, Shen Yun, which is Chinese for “the beauty of divine beings dancing,” has been performing continuously to audiences across the country and internationally to great acclaim.
The shows are a source of pride for local Chinese communities. Says Cindy Wang, “I have found myself connected with my cultural roots during my involvement bringing Shen Yun to Philadelphia each year. I am very proud of the rich culture of China that one can see through the presentation of Shen Yun.”
Shen Yun has an all-Chinese cast with one notable exception—Leeshai Lemish, a US-Israeli who grew up on the Main Line in Philadelphia where he attended Lower Merion High School. Lemish, who also speaks Hebrew, fell in love with Chinese when he began studying it to fulfill a mandatory language requirement at Pomona College in California—he has a degree in Asian Studies from Pomona and a master’s degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics.
Lemish, now 33, has been with Shen Yun from the beginning as an emcee, appearing throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. He and his female partner introduce each performance in Mandarin Chinese and English and guide audiences through the show, providing all the background needed to enjoy it.
While both Jewish and Chinese cultures are 5,000 years old, ancient Chinese dances aren’t anything like our Hava Nagila. They are performed with swords, spears, parasols, fans, silk ribbons, Taoist whisks and various types of drums. The dancers wear elaborate, handmade ethnic costumes. Lemish stresses that “Shen Yun is not like a performance of the Lion King.  “Each year, the performance changes,” he points out.
While many would describe the dances as being similar to acrobatic or gymnastic routines, Lemish corrects this notion. “Flipping, tumbling, jumping, spinning and other aerial techniques have been part of Chinese dance for over 5,000 years. Gymnastics and acrobatics borrowed from them,” he explains.
The Shen Yun shows are accompanied by a western-style symphony and also features ancient Chinese instruments such as the erhu (Chinese violin), bamboo flute, and the pipa (Chinese lute), which Lemish describes as having a “more expressive and wide ranging tone.”
Chinese dances re-create Chinese legends. This year, one of the dances tells the story of Mulan, which was made famous by the hit Disney movie of the same name. “Mulan was a young lady caught between two values—loyalty to her country and taking care of the old. When her father was conscripted into the army, Mulan, disguised as a man, went in his place and became a leading general. Her female identity was only discovered when someone from the government came to give her an award,” says Lemish, who believes that the Disney movie did not do justice to the ancient legend.
Another dance will interpret the Chinese classic Journey to the West that recounts an elderly monk’s pilgrimage from China to India accompanied by a pig (a heavenly general sent down to earth) and a monkey king.  “The monkey king, which is a type of monkey endowed with magical powers, uses his powers, wit and wisdom to get himself and the monk out of sticky situations,” explains Lemish.
Some of the magical powers of the monkey king must have rubbed off on Lemish for him to be the only non-Chinese in the show or maybe it was Jewish chutzpah!
About Shen Yun. Upcoming US dates include the Palace in Waterbury CT, December 26-30; the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, January 2-5; the Merriam in Philadelphia, January 6-8 and the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York, January 11-15. For a complete list of tour dates, go to www.shenyunperformingarts.org

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Leeshai Lemish’s penchant for Asian studies landed the London School of Economics grad in the spotlight with Shen Yun Performing Arts.

By Laura Goldman

Like us, the Chinese have a deep and varied culture that dates back 5,000 years. In 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts was created by expatriate Chinese for the purpose of reviving and celebrating traditional Chinese art forms—and sharing them with the world. To keep them alive, the group has even established a high school in upstate New York where many cast members, who are ethnic Chinese, can study the ancient Chinese arts. Since its inception, Shen Yun, which is Chinese for “the beauty of divine beings dancing,” has been performing continuously to audiences across the country and internationally to great acclaim.
The shows are a source of pride for local Chinese communities. Says Cindy Wang, “I have found myself connected with my cultural roots during my involvement bringing Shen Yun to Philadelphia each year. I am very proud of the rich culture of China that one can see through the presentation of Shen Yun.”
Shen Yun has an all-Chinese cast with one notable exception—Leeshai Lemish, a US-Israeli who grew up on the Main Line in Philadelphia where he attended Lower Merion High School. Lemish, who also speaks Hebrew, fell in love with Chinese when he began studying it to fulfill a mandatory language requirement at Pomona College in California—he has a degree in Asian Studies from Pomona and a master’s degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics.
Lemish, now 33, has been with Shen Yun from the beginning as an emcee, appearing throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. He and his female partner introduce each performance in Mandarin Chinese and English and guide audiences through the show, providing all the background needed to enjoy it.
While both Jewish and Chinese cultures are 5,000 years old, ancient Chinese dances aren’t anything like our Hava Nagila. They are performed with swords, spears, parasols, fans, silk ribbons, Taoist whisks and various types of drums. The dancers wear elaborate, handmade ethnic costumes. Lemish stresses that “Shen Yun is not like a performance of the Lion King.  “Each year, the performance changes,” he points out.
While many would describe the dances as being similar to acrobatic or gymnastic routines, Lemish corrects this notion. “Flipping, tumbling, jumping, spinning and other aerial techniques have been part of Chinese dance for over 5,000 years. Gymnastics and acrobatics borrowed from them,” he explains.
The Shen Yun shows are accompanied by a western-style symphony and also features ancient Chinese instruments such as the erhu (Chinese violin), bamboo flute, and the pipa (Chinese lute), which Lemish describes as having a “more expressive and wide ranging tone.”
Chinese dances re-create Chinese legends. This year, one of the dances tells the story of Mulan, which was made famous by the hit Disney movie of the same name. “Mulan was a young lady caught between two values—loyalty to her country and taking care of the old. When her father was conscripted into the army, Mulan, disguised as a man, went in his place and became a leading general. Her female identity was only discovered when someone from the government came to give her an award,” says Lemish, who believes that the Disney movie did not do justice to the ancient legend.
Another dance will interpret the Chinese classic Journey to the West that recounts an elderly monk’s pilgrimage from China to India accompanied by a pig (a heavenly general sent down to earth) and a monkey king.  “The monkey king, which is a type of monkey endowed with magical powers, uses his powers, wit and wisdom to get himself and the monk out of sticky situations,” explains Lemish.
Some of the magical powers of the monkey king must have rubbed off on Lemish for him to be the only non-Chinese in the show or maybe it was Jewish chutzpah!
About Shen Yun. Upcoming US dates include the Palace in Waterbury CT, December 26-30; the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, January 2-5; the Merriam in Philadelphia, January 6-8 and the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York, January 11-15. For a complete list of tour dates, go to www.shenyunperformingarts.org

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Leeshai Lemish’s penchant for Asian studies landed the London School of Economics grad in the spotlight with Shen Yun Performing Arts. By Laura Goldman Like us, the Chinese have a deep and varied culture that dates back 5,000 years. In 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts was created by expatriate Chinese for the purpose of reviving [...]

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Leeshai Lemish’s penchant for Asian studies landed the London School of Economics grad in the spotlight with Shen Yun Performing Arts. By Laura Goldman Like us, the Chinese have a deep and varied culture that dates back 5,000 years. In 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts was created by expatriate Chinese for the purpose of reviving [...]

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By Naomi Resnick

Israel, the land “flowing with milk and honey,” is also overflowing with a treasure trove of art.  In fact, there are more art museums and galleries in Israel per capita than in any other country in the entire world.  That’s quite amazing considering that the country is only sixty-three years young.
In the beginning, the art was of a Jewish religious nature, which over time evolved into Israeli Hebrew art—art that depicts everyday life, landscapes and modern art. Though many of the museums display a wide variety of art, some are very culturally specific, like the Japanese Museum of Art in Haifa and the Muslim Art Museum in Jerusalem. Many kibbutzim and moshavim are artists’ colonies, and the ancient mountain city of Safed is a center for synagogues and art galleries.
Every immigrant culture arriving in Israel brought their own sense of beauty and style—the Russians introduced watercolor to the Israeli art scene, Yemenite jewelry is easily recognizable by its delicate silver designs and use of semi-precious stones and the Ethiopians brought with them their colorful and intricate embroidery.
A NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
To get a sense of the vastness and variety of the Israeli art scene, start by browsing through some of the following websites and read about the artists:

Israel Art Guide
www.israelartguide.co.il
This site is still being built, adding artists and their works on a daily basis. You can use it to home in on hundreds of artists, read their biographies and view their work. Judaica art, ceramics, photography and jewelry design are also listed. (One warning: you can click on “Current Art Activities” and choose a location to find lists of galleries and museums; unfortunately, these listings are hardly current and are in dire need of updating in order to prove useful.)
Art City
www.artcity.co.il
Art City bills itself as a “contemporary art site” and a portal for artists to showcase their work.  The site includes paintings, photographs, sculptures and jewelry designs all from Israel, and original works and prints are available for sale through this site. Their email address is artcity@artcity.co.il

The Art Fair
www.theartfair.com
This site is a meeting place for artists—as sellers of their work—to negotiate with art buyers. The creators of The Art Fair believe that negotiation in the world of art is completely appropriate and acceptable. You can search for items by artist name, piece name or subject matter. The sales department of Art Fair is headquartered in the USA. Their email address is sales@TheArtFair.com

Midnight East
www.midnighteast.com
For an up-to-date overview of what’s happening in the Israeli art world, including music, dance, cinema and the fine arts, here is a blog that “..aims to show what Israel looks like from the inside—we want to keep outsiders informed.”
3 ARTISTS UP CLOSE
These three individual artists are highlighted because of their diversity—diversity of style, of national and of ethnic origin, as well as overall impact on the viewer’s visual field. There was also the practical consideration that I wanted to write about those artists whose body of works I have seen personally in studios, galleries or on exhibition.

Sigal Melinger is a native-born Israeli, a sabra. She established her own gallery, Sigal Melinger Gallery, in June 2009 in Kfar Saba, a small city located 20 kilometers northeast of Tel Aviv. She has on display a varied and impressive collection of original mixed media paintings. Sigal has developed a unique technique that combines both freehand sketching and acrylic together with digital processing and printing. This technique allows maximum flexibility as she is able to resize the paintings and adjust the coloration to suit the target space of presentation. Sigal’s work is characterized by clear and delicate lines, bold coloring and pleasant flow. She is a warm and open woman, and her art reflects her essence.
www.sigalmelinger.com

Ziona (Zinky) Agulnik is a South-African Israeli artist, whose many exhibits and gallery shows are written up on her website and on Facebook.  She is an emotive artist, expressing feelings and mood, rather than totally realistic forms.  “I do try to visualize my emotions,” says Ziona. “All my works are in one way or another autobiographical. In my work I use my feelings and visual experiences as inspiration. None of my subjects are original, only the interpretation is. The colors and rhythm of my work are strongly influenced by growing up in Africa.” www.zinkyz.com

Annemeet van der Leij is a Dutch-Israeli artist who was born and raised in Friesland in Northern Holland. The Dutch are well known for their art, and Annemeet was influenced by that heritage from both sides of her family. She is fluent in five languages and lived in the United States for three years. She made aliyah in 1988. After a hiatus spent raising three children, she resumed her art career in 2006. She characterizes her work as “realistic fine art…I have always been fascinated with people’s faces, and I have learned that if you manage to bring to life the eyes, the whole face is alive.”
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/annemeet-van-der-leij.html
www.etsy.com/people/naturalpainting

SERIOUS MONEY
Finally, for the really serious (and wealthy) art collector, the Israel Museum is selling thirty-nine pieces from its permanent collection to fund new installations. Sotheby’s is overseeing the sale, which includes works by Pissarro, Picasso, Renoir, Chagall and others. This ‘de-accession’ (selling process) is a planned part of the museum’s renewal project.
Hopefully these websites will spur your interest in Israeli art as you travel virtually through their galleries. However, to fully appreciate the beauty and vitality of the art scene, come and visit Israel in person, in reality.

Naomi Resnick is a retired teacher who made aliyah with her husband ten years ago and is currently a freelance writer living in Kfar Saba, Israel.

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By Naomi Resnick

Israel, the land “flowing with milk and honey,” is also overflowing with a treasure trove of art.  In fact, there are more art museums and galleries in Israel per capita than in any other country in the entire world.  That’s quite amazing considering that the country is only sixty-three years young.
In the beginning, the art was of a Jewish religious nature, which over time evolved into Israeli Hebrew art—art that depicts everyday life, landscapes and modern art. Though many of the museums display a wide variety of art, some are very culturally specific, like the Japanese Museum of Art in Haifa and the Muslim Art Museum in Jerusalem. Many kibbutzim and moshavim are artists’ colonies, and the ancient mountain city of Safed is a center for synagogues and art galleries.
Every immigrant culture arriving in Israel brought their own sense of beauty and style—the Russians introduced watercolor to the Israeli art scene, Yemenite jewelry is easily recognizable by its delicate silver designs and use of semi-precious stones and the Ethiopians brought with them their colorful and intricate embroidery.
A NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
To get a sense of the vastness and variety of the Israeli art scene, start by browsing through some of the following websites and read about the artists:

Israel Art Guide
www.israelartguide.co.il
This site is still being built, adding artists and their works on a daily basis. You can use it to home in on hundreds of artists, read their biographies and view their work. Judaica art, ceramics, photography and jewelry design are also listed. (One warning: you can click on “Current Art Activities” and choose a location to find lists of galleries and museums; unfortunately, these listings are hardly current and are in dire need of updating in order to prove useful.)
Art City
www.artcity.co.il
Art City bills itself as a “contemporary art site” and a portal for artists to showcase their work.  The site includes paintings, photographs, sculptures and jewelry designs all from Israel, and original works and prints are available for sale through this site. Their email address is artcity@artcity.co.il

The Art Fair
www.theartfair.com
This site is a meeting place for artists—as sellers of their work—to negotiate with art buyers. The creators of The Art Fair believe that negotiation in the world of art is completely appropriate and acceptable. You can search for items by artist name, piece name or subject matter. The sales department of Art Fair is headquartered in the USA. Their email address is sales@TheArtFair.com

Midnight East
www.midnighteast.com
For an up-to-date overview of what’s happening in the Israeli art world, including music, dance, cinema and the fine arts, here is a blog that “..aims to show what Israel looks like from the inside—we want to keep outsiders informed.”
3 ARTISTS UP CLOSE
These three individual artists are highlighted because of their diversity—diversity of style, of national and of ethnic origin, as well as overall impact on the viewer’s visual field. There was also the practical consideration that I wanted to write about those artists whose body of works I have seen personally in studios, galleries or on exhibition.

Sigal Melinger is a native-born Israeli, a sabra. She established her own gallery, Sigal Melinger Gallery, in June 2009 in Kfar Saba, a small city located 20 kilometers northeast of Tel Aviv. She has on display a varied and impressive collection of original mixed media paintings. Sigal has developed a unique technique that combines both freehand sketching and acrylic together with digital processing and printing. This technique allows maximum flexibility as she is able to resize the paintings and adjust the coloration to suit the target space of presentation. Sigal’s work is characterized by clear and delicate lines, bold coloring and pleasant flow. She is a warm and open woman, and her art reflects her essence.
www.sigalmelinger.com

Ziona (Zinky) Agulnik is a South-African Israeli artist, whose many exhibits and gallery shows are written up on her website and on Facebook.  She is an emotive artist, expressing feelings and mood, rather than totally realistic forms.  “I do try to visualize my emotions,” says Ziona. “All my works are in one way or another autobiographical. In my work I use my feelings and visual experiences as inspiration. None of my subjects are original, only the interpretation is. The colors and rhythm of my work are strongly influenced by growing up in Africa.” www.zinkyz.com

Annemeet van der Leij is a Dutch-Israeli artist who was born and raised in Friesland in Northern Holland. The Dutch are well known for their art, and Annemeet was influenced by that heritage from both sides of her family. She is fluent in five languages and lived in the United States for three years. She made aliyah in 1988. After a hiatus spent raising three children, she resumed her art career in 2006. She characterizes her work as “realistic fine art…I have always been fascinated with people’s faces, and I have learned that if you manage to bring to life the eyes, the whole face is alive.”
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/annemeet-van-der-leij.html
www.etsy.com/people/naturalpainting

SERIOUS MONEY
Finally, for the really serious (and wealthy) art collector, the Israel Museum is selling thirty-nine pieces from its permanent collection to fund new installations. Sotheby’s is overseeing the sale, which includes works by Pissarro, Picasso, Renoir, Chagall and others. This ‘de-accession’ (selling process) is a planned part of the museum’s renewal project.
Hopefully these websites will spur your interest in Israeli art as you travel virtually through their galleries. However, to fully appreciate the beauty and vitality of the art scene, come and visit Israel in person, in reality.

Naomi Resnick is a retired teacher who made aliyah with her husband ten years ago and is currently a freelance writer living in Kfar Saba, Israel.

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By Naomi Resnick Israel, the land “flowing with milk and honey,” is also overflowing with a treasure trove of art.  In fact, there are more art museums and galleries in Israel per capita than in any other country in the entire world.  That’s quite amazing considering that the country is only sixty-three years young. In [...]

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By Naomi Resnick Israel, the land “flowing with milk and honey,” is also overflowing with a treasure trove of art.  In fact, there are more art museums and galleries in Israel per capita than in any other country in the entire world.  That’s quite amazing considering that the country is only sixty-three years young. In [...]

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From this you can make a living?
Part I – In The Beginning
By Len Canter

Music always seemed to be playing somewhere in our house. We all had our little niches carved out—my mom had an unbelievable collection of Broadway show tune LPs (for you younger readers, those were the vinyl discs that came in cardboard sleeves and were played on a “record player”). Part of her legacy is my near encyclopedic knowledge of songs from musicals from Kiss Me Kate to Guys and Dolls. On weekends, you could find my dad sitting in his Eames chair, pipe in mouth, listening to some of his favorite records, which included a dreadfully mournful Jan Peerce album of Yiddish songs, a more lively Theodore Bikel collection of Jewish folk songs and, his favorite, a well-worn copy of The Norman Luboff Choir Sings Songs of the West. Both of them revered anything conducted by Leonard Bernstein, of course.
Me, I liked to hang with our housekeeper as she ironed with a tinny desktop radio usually tuned to WINS or a distant gospel station with the wail of Mahalia Jackson as background music. When the DJs offered up some Sam Cooke or Bo Diddley, she would throw down that iron, snap her fingers and shake that booty. For me, like many of my generation, that sound, simply put, swept me away and defined my musical tastes for a lifetime.
The transistor radio I got for my 9th birthday was my private gateway to a new world. Every night as I pantomimed sleep (as my dad peeked into my room), that radio was under my pillow tuned to the emerging rock and roll stations in New York. I couldn’t get enough, I even spent my allowance on 45s and dutifully checked out American Bandstand on TV after school. As I went through the motions of playing the clarinet throughout grammar school, my father always held out hope that I would become the next Benny Goodman (a good Jewish boy who, by the way, was one of the first white musicians to integrate his band). I, on the other hand, lamented that I had been pushed to the wrong instrument and longed to be King Curtis instead.
I’ll never forget the day I asked my piano teacher if she could teach me to play a boogie roll like Jerry Lee Lewis. Of course she’d never heard of him, but quickly grasped my drift and she launched into a rant about “trashy” rock and roll and how classical music had lasted “forever,” yada yada yada, and then nearly started crying. I sat on the bench stewing, while the little devil on my shoulder sang the Danny & the Juniors refrain, “I don’t care what people say—rock and roll is here to stay!”
Stereotypically I assumed that rock and roll with its inherent raunchiness and smoldering sexuality was possibly the one endeavor that Jews had no stake in. Was I wrong! As has often been the case in emerging businesses, especially entertainment, Jewish entrepreneurs easily filled a void and became integral players in both the financial and creative side of the industry rather than among the performers—at least at first. Why did this happen and how did a bunch of white Jewish twenty-somethings organize a business with black music as its product? Often excluded from mainstream occupations, Jews have always been on the lookout for opportunities in other areas. Those with enough chutzpah have been able to envision and market new concepts. The early movie moguls and the Jewish founders of the comic book industry are perfect examples. Equally important is the fact that Jewish entrepreneurs have also been willing to take on risk and, in this case, were not afraid to cross racial boundaries in search of financial opportunities.
Rock and roll’s early blues roots (read: black roots) were a real marketing headache for established white record companies, afraid to promote what was then known as “race music.” They preferred to have white artists like Pat Boone or Ricky Nelson cover songs originally released by black artists of the day, like Fats Domino. There were no such restraints for the emerging Jewish record companies like Chess and Atlantic. By the early ’60s, rock and roll had even found room and acceptance for yids as performers; they eventually filled in the gaps from pop to rock to punk. (For a look at the Chutzpah List of notable Jews in contemporary hip hop and reggae, go to www.chutzpah.mag and click on the Fall 2010 issue.)
This first installment of Chutzpah’s look at Jewish rock and roll recalls the Jewish pioneers in the industry (an auspicious sign of the times is the pseudonyms used by some)—the disc jockeys, songwriters, impresarios and producers who essentially created and then popularized the billion-dollar music business that exists today.

The Brill Building Sound

Located at 1619 Broadway in Manhattan (just uptown from its counterpart from an earlier age, Tin Pan Alley), the Brill Building and some of the nearby buildings as well, including 1650 Broadway, became synonymous with the hit songs of the ’50s and ’60s and was without a doubt the most prestigious address for music industry professionals. Inside, duos of songwriting teams, almost exclusively Jews and predominantly from Brooklyn, were busy knocking out the soundtrack of a new generation. By 1962, the Brill alone had over 160 music related clients and had created a unique self-contained assembly line where one could write a song, go upstairs and get it arranged and printed, go to the basement studio (Allegro) to cut a demo and then go back upstairs to cut a deal with a promoter. And while many of the songwriters are no longer household names, their songs you will surely remember.

Doc Pomus (Jerome Solon Felder, 1925-1991) & Mort Shuman (1938-1991)
Pomus (lyrics) and Shuman (melodies) are regarded as founding fathers of the genre. Churning out hit after hit from their cubicle—a good week for them resulted in about 12 finished songs, Pomus wrote nearly 500 songs, 60 of them charted. The pair wrote for a widely diverse group of artists including Fabian, B.B. King and Ray Charles. Although they never actually met Elvis, the pair penned 25 hit songs for Presley. Elected to three Halls of Fame (Rock and Roll, Songwriters and Blues), Pomus was the first white artist to receive The Rhythm & Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Award. Shuman went into the Songwriters Hall as well.

Pomus-Shuman Essentials:
Little Sister, Elvis
A Teenager In Love, Dion and the Belmonts
Save The Last Dance For Me, The Drifters
Hushabye, The Mystics
This Magic Moment, The Drifters

Jerry Leiber (1933-2011) & Mike Stoller (1933- )
Arguably the kings of the Brill Building, Leiber (lyricist) and Stoller (composer) wrote and produced an overwhelming number of the classics of this time. Their work became groundbreaking when they introduced the use of strings and Latin rhythms into their lavish productions. Their alterations to the standard R&B format became the precursors of “crossover” and the soul music sound that exploded in the ensuing decades. They were largely responsible for the groups that personified the era, including The Coasters, The Drifters and The Clovers. Inducted into both Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, their partnership spanned 60 years until Leiber’s death a few months ago. Over 1,000 artists have recorded their songs, from Elvis (including Hound Dog) to The Beatles and The Stones to James Brown and Jimi Hendrix. New generations of fans were introduced to their sound through their record-breaking 1995 Broadway revue, Smokey Joe’s Café: The Songs of Leiber & Stoller. (For more on Leiber, see “Saying Kaddish” in the Fall 2011 issue at www.Chutzpahmag.com.)

Leiber-Stoller Essentials:
Jailhouse Rock, Elvis
Love Potion #9, The Clovers
There Goes My Baby, The Drifters
Young Blood, The Coasters

Jeff Barry (Joel Adelberg, 1938- ) & Ellie Greenwich (1940-2009)
Greenwich, a session singer once known as “NY’s Demo Queen,” and her future husband Barry, a musician, originally worked for Leiber and Stoller, who had first refusal rights for their songs. But they earned their iconic legacy when they formed a trio with Phil Spector at Brill and created most of the greatest “girl group” hits of the ’60s. In 1964 alone they had an astonishing 17 singles on the Billboard Hot 100.

Barry-Greenwich Essentials:
Then He Kissed Me, The Ronettes
Leader of the Pack, The Shangri-Las
Iko, Iko, The Dixie Cups
Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Manfred Mann

Barry Mann (Imberman, 1939- ) & Cynthia Weil (1940- )
Mann hit the charts as a performer with his doo-wop spoof, Who Put The Bomp (co-written with Goffin), before meeting his future songwriting partner (and wife) while both were staff writers at publishing whiz Don  Kirshner’s Aldon Music. Mann (music) and Weil (lyrics) created a catalog of 600+ that spanned four decades, and they were considered to boldly be the first socially-conscious writing team with songs like Uptown by The Crystals. In 1999, when BMI released their list of the most played songs of the 20th century, the Mann-Weil hit You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling by the Righteous Brothers was #1, having just edged out The Beatles’ Yesterday. Winners of countless awards, the pair recently received the Johnny Mercer Award, the highest honor from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Mann-Weil Essentials:
He’s Sure The Boy I Love, The Crystals
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, The Animals
Blame It On The Bossa Nova, Eydie Gorme
Soul & Inspiration, The Righteous Brothers

Carole King (Carol Klein, 1942- ) & Gerry Goffin (1939- )
The Brooklyn-raised duo formed one of the era’s great collaborations before and after they married, writing or co-writing over 100 songs that made the Billboard Hot 100. King, who went on to an acclaimed performing career (her album Tapestry, #1 in 1971, was produced by legendary Jewish producer Lou Adler) composed and arranged on piano and Goffin added lyrics. King’s former boyfriend Neil Sedaka (who teamed at Brill with Howard Greenfield in yet another prolific Jewish duo and whose song Oh! Carol was named for her) had arranged an audition with Don Kirshner. They were so successful that Kirshner offered them their own label, Dimension, where they were free to produce their own work. (For more about Kirshner, see “Saying Kaddish” in the Spring 2011 issue of Chutzpah at www.chutzpahmag.com.) The Beatles always acknowledged the King-Goffin influence on their music, and the pair was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
King-Goffin Essentials:
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – The Shirelles
The Locomotion – Little Eva
One Fine Day – The Chiffons
Up On The Roof – The Drifters
A Natural Woman – Aretha Franklin

Studio Magicians

Writing a great song doesn’t automatically make it a hit. While talent and marketing certainly play their parts, equally important were the men in the studios who understood the best way to present a song to the public, thus insuring its financial success. In the early days of rock and roll, the best of these wizards tended to be jacks-of-all-trades and, incidentally, Jewish.

Leonard & Phil Chess (Lejzor, 1917-1969 & Fiszel Czyz, 1921- )
These brothers were Polish immigrants who hit the ground running as owners of Chicago’s Macomba Lounge nightclub, which featured blues acts from the Mississippi Delta. By 1950 they had founded Chess Records (the “Home of the Electric Blues”) in the hope of properly recording those acts. Chess’s impact proved to be greater than any other label in establishing rock and roll. Producing Muddy Waters, the brothers saw the potential of marketing race music to white audiences and, by the next decade, had introduced a who’s who list of bluesmen to the public. Chess released what many consider to be the first rock and roll song, Ike Turner’s Rocket 88. The brothers also are credited with the concept of packaging hit singles in their catalog into compilation “best of” LPs.

Chess All-Stars:
Muddy Waters
Bo Diddley
Chuck Berry
John Lee Hooker
Willie Dixon
Howlin’ Wolf
Buddy Guy
Sonny Boy Williamson

Jerry (Gerald, 1917-2008) Wexler

One of the first of the legendary “hands on” producers, Wexler is credited with introducing classic R&B and soul music to white audiences. In fact, as a young journalist for Billboard, Wexler coined the term “rhythm and blues” to replace race music. In 1953, Wexler and partner Ahmet Ertegun began to build Atlantic Records into a major force with Wexler becoming the quintessential A&R (artist and repertoire) man overseeing the artistic development of various young artists. A seminal moment in R&B history occurred when Wexler convinced a young Aretha Franklin to forgo her cabaret-style act and focus on her natural gospel-trained voice backed by Memphis and Muscle Shoals style bands. Wexler was one of the first non-performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Wexler’s R&B Royalty:
Ray Charles
Wilson Pickett
Otis Redding
Solomon Burke
Sam and Dave
Booker T. & the MG’s
Eddie Floyd

Phil (Harvey Phillip, 1939- ) Spector
Performer (his first band, The Teddy Bears, had the #1 hit, To Know Him Is To Love Him) and songwriter, the eccentric Spector forever influenced the course of rock and roll as a producer when he developed the layered and lushly orchestrated “wall of sound” recording technique for the girl groups of the ’60s. King of the singles (he once described the LP as “two hits and 10 pieces of junk”), Spector is credited with elevating the lowly 45 to an artform. With Lester Sill, he co-founded Philles Records and later produced for The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Spector unfortunately found his wall of sound transformed into the walls of prison when he was convicted of murder in 2009.

The Wall of Sound Essentials:
Da Doo Ron Ron, The Crystals
You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’, The Righteous Brothers
He’s A Rebel, The Crystals
Be My Baby, The Ronettes
River Deep, Mountain High, Ike and Tina Turner
Pretty Little Angel Eyes, Curtis Lee

Deejays and Countdowns
In the early days of rock and roll, frenetic, high energy deejays who became influential celebrities in their own right were almost as important as the artists themselves in determining the success of any given song—they were free to plug and promote any record that came into the studio, especially if it was accompanied by a little cash. East coast listeners were blessed with some of the most iconic disc jockeys to ever spin a disc, and many of them just happened to be Jewish.

Alan (Albert James, 1921-1965) Freed
Credited as the first disc jockey, the self-proclaimed “King of the Moondoggies” first rose to fame at WJW in Cleveland where his show presented R&B originals by black artists instead of white covers. In fact, without Freed there may have never been “rock and roll” as he is credited with coining the term. In the ’50s, Freed promoted a five-act show of top black artists in Cleveland; it is regarded as the first rock and roll concert ever held. By 1954 Freed had been catapulted to New York where he became the #1 DJ at WINS; he also staged and emceed legendary stage shows at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theatre and other venues. The “Architects of Rock and Roll” exhibit on the second level of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum in Cleveland features Freed with numerous historical artifacts. The Rock Hall also named its radio studio on the Museum’s fifth floor the Alan Freed Radio Studio where Sirius XM broadcasts live around the country.

Murray the K (Murray Kaufman, 1922-1982)

Murray the K inherited Freed’s prime time slot on WINS in 1958 when Freed was implicated in payola and tax evasion scandals. His innovative four hour show, The Swingin’ Soiree, was sprinkled with schtick, wacky sound effects and “blasts from the past.” He ruled the New York airwaves for a decade…and earned the title of “the original hysterical disc jockey” from critics. Like Freed, Murray brought together blacks and whites, on the stage and in the audience, at frenzied live shows, his at the Brooklyn Fox. He was dubbed with the moniker “the fifth Beatle” after broadcasts from New York’s Plaza Hotel and other locales during the Fab Four’s first trip to the States.

Bruce “Cousin Brucie” Morrow (Meyerowitz, 1937- )
Cousin Brucie followed Murray the K to WINS in 1959, but earned his reputation as the “King of Top 40” at WABC where a generation of teens religiously tuned in to his 7 to 9 pm slot to hear the “countdown” each week. Of course, Morrow soon had his own rock shows to promote, held at the popular New Jersey amusement venue, Palisades Park. Morrow is the only one of these legendary DJs still going strong. His “Cousin Brucie’s Saturday Rock and Roll Party” featuring the greatest hits of the ’60s and “a sprinkle of the ’70s” can be heard on SiriusXM Satellite Radio on Saturday nights, from 8pm to midnight, ET.

Hyman “Hy” Aaron Lit (1934-2007)

The legendary “Jet Jockey on Flight 99” was a pioneer of rock and roll radio in Philadelphia where he ruled the roost for five decades at a multitude of stations, including many years as one of the WIBG “good guys” (Hy was the last DJ on WIBG the day it went off the air forever) and ultimately at WOGL, a CBS station, until he went off the air in 2005. His Hall of Fame show dominated Philly airwaves—in 1957 he had an unheard of 71 market share in the city. Philly teens of the ’50s remember his frenzied openings like “It’s Hyski O Roone McVoutie, uptown, downtown, crosstown, here, there, everywhere—your man with the plan, on the scene with the record machine!” For a detailed look at the life and influence of Hy, go to www.Chutzpahmag.com for a special retrospective.

The Jewish Groups Emerge
By the end of the ’50s, rock and roll began to experience a blossoming of Jewish performers. The era started off on a very unusual note (no pun intended) in 1952 when four black messianic Jews from Chicago—cousins Jake and Zeke Carey, Paul Wilson and Johnnie Carter (Nate Nelson would join later)—formed the group known as the Flamingos. The original foursome met while attending the Jewish Church of God, a denomination whose services included a choir rather than a cantor, but whose congregation adhered to the holy days and rites of orthodox Judaism. As choir members they sang Jewish hymns from which they developed their unique sound. “Our harmonies were different because we dealt with a lot of minor chords, which is how Jewish music is written,” said Nelson.
By 1955 they had signed with Chess subsidiary Checker Records and released an R&B hit, I’ll Be Home. But owing to the politics of the day, it stayed only a regional success because Pat Boone had simultaneously released a white cover version (marred by incorrect lyrics) that got all the airplay instead. The Flamingos (who were one of the first bands to play their own instruments at stage shows) and their elegant doo-wop harmonies peaked with their 1959 hit I Only Have Eyes For You, regarded by some as the greatest doo-wop song ever. Alan Freed was so struck with the group that he included them in a few of the rock and roll movies he appeared in, including Rock Rock Rock where their performances still live.

NEXT UP in the Spring 2012 Chutzpah: Part 2 —
The Jewish Rockers of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

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From this you can make a living?
Part I – In The Beginning
By Len Canter

Music always seemed to be playing somewhere in our house. We all had our little niches carved out—my mom had an unbelievable collection of Broadway show tune LPs (for you younger readers, those were the vinyl discs that came in cardboard sleeves and were played on a “record player”). Part of her legacy is my near encyclopedic knowledge of songs from musicals from Kiss Me Kate to Guys and Dolls. On weekends, you could find my dad sitting in his Eames chair, pipe in mouth, listening to some of his favorite records, which included a dreadfully mournful Jan Peerce album of Yiddish songs, a more lively Theodore Bikel collection of Jewish folk songs and, his favorite, a well-worn copy of The Norman Luboff Choir Sings Songs of the West. Both of them revered anything conducted by Leonard Bernstein, of course.
Me, I liked to hang with our housekeeper as she ironed with a tinny desktop radio usually tuned to WINS or a distant gospel station with the wail of Mahalia Jackson as background music. When the DJs offered up some Sam Cooke or Bo Diddley, she would throw down that iron, snap her fingers and shake that booty. For me, like many of my generation, that sound, simply put, swept me away and defined my musical tastes for a lifetime.
The transistor radio I got for my 9th birthday was my private gateway to a new world. Every night as I pantomimed sleep (as my dad peeked into my room), that radio was under my pillow tuned to the emerging rock and roll stations in New York. I couldn’t get enough, I even spent my allowance on 45s and dutifully checked out American Bandstand on TV after school. As I went through the motions of playing the clarinet throughout grammar school, my father always held out hope that I would become the next Benny Goodman (a good Jewish boy who, by the way, was one of the first white musicians to integrate his band). I, on the other hand, lamented that I had been pushed to the wrong instrument and longed to be King Curtis instead.
I’ll never forget the day I asked my piano teacher if she could teach me to play a boogie roll like Jerry Lee Lewis. Of course she’d never heard of him, but quickly grasped my drift and she launched into a rant about “trashy” rock and roll and how classical music had lasted “forever,” yada yada yada, and then nearly started crying. I sat on the bench stewing, while the little devil on my shoulder sang the Danny & the Juniors refrain, “I don’t care what people say—rock and roll is here to stay!”
Stereotypically I assumed that rock and roll with its inherent raunchiness and smoldering sexuality was possibly the one endeavor that Jews had no stake in. Was I wrong! As has often been the case in emerging businesses, especially entertainment, Jewish entrepreneurs easily filled a void and became integral players in both the financial and creative side of the industry rather than among the performers—at least at first. Why did this happen and how did a bunch of white Jewish twenty-somethings organize a business with black music as its product? Often excluded from mainstream occupations, Jews have always been on the lookout for opportunities in other areas. Those with enough chutzpah have been able to envision and market new concepts. The early movie moguls and the Jewish founders of the comic book industry are perfect examples. Equally important is the fact that Jewish entrepreneurs have also been willing to take on risk and, in this case, were not afraid to cross racial boundaries in search of financial opportunities.
Rock and roll’s early blues roots (read: black roots) were a real marketing headache for established white record companies, afraid to promote what was then known as “race music.” They preferred to have white artists like Pat Boone or Ricky Nelson cover songs originally released by black artists of the day, like Fats Domino. There were no such restraints for the emerging Jewish record companies like Chess and Atlantic. By the early ’60s, rock and roll had even found room and acceptance for yids as performers; they eventually filled in the gaps from pop to rock to punk. (For a look at the Chutzpah List of notable Jews in contemporary hip hop and reggae, go to www.chutzpah.mag and click on the Fall 2010 issue.)
This first installment of Chutzpah’s look at Jewish rock and roll recalls the Jewish pioneers in the industry (an auspicious sign of the times is the pseudonyms used by some)—the disc jockeys, songwriters, impresarios and producers who essentially created and then popularized the billion-dollar music business that exists today.

The Brill Building Sound

Located at 1619 Broadway in Manhattan (just uptown from its counterpart from an earlier age, Tin Pan Alley), the Brill Building and some of the nearby buildings as well, including 1650 Broadway, became synonymous with the hit songs of the ’50s and ’60s and was without a doubt the most prestigious address for music industry professionals. Inside, duos of songwriting teams, almost exclusively Jews and predominantly from Brooklyn, were busy knocking out the soundtrack of a new generation. By 1962, the Brill alone had over 160 music related clients and had created a unique self-contained assembly line where one could write a song, go upstairs and get it arranged and printed, go to the basement studio (Allegro) to cut a demo and then go back upstairs to cut a deal with a promoter. And while many of the songwriters are no longer household names, their songs you will surely remember.

Doc Pomus (Jerome Solon Felder, 1925-1991) & Mort Shuman (1938-1991)
Pomus (lyrics) and Shuman (melodies) are regarded as founding fathers of the genre. Churning out hit after hit from their cubicle—a good week for them resulted in about 12 finished songs, Pomus wrote nearly 500 songs, 60 of them charted. The pair wrote for a widely diverse group of artists including Fabian, B.B. King and Ray Charles. Although they never actually met Elvis, the pair penned 25 hit songs for Presley. Elected to three Halls of Fame (Rock and Roll, Songwriters and Blues), Pomus was the first white artist to receive The Rhythm & Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Award. Shuman went into the Songwriters Hall as well.

Pomus-Shuman Essentials:
Little Sister, Elvis
A Teenager In Love, Dion and the Belmonts
Save The Last Dance For Me, The Drifters
Hushabye, The Mystics
This Magic Moment, The Drifters

Jerry Leiber (1933-2011) & Mike Stoller (1933- )
Arguably the kings of the Brill Building, Leiber (lyricist) and Stoller (composer) wrote and produced an overwhelming number of the classics of this time. Their work became groundbreaking when they introduced the use of strings and Latin rhythms into their lavish productions. Their alterations to the standard R&B format became the precursors of “crossover” and the soul music sound that exploded in the ensuing decades. They were largely responsible for the groups that personified the era, including The Coasters, The Drifters and The Clovers. Inducted into both Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, their partnership spanned 60 years until Leiber’s death a few months ago. Over 1,000 artists have recorded their songs, from Elvis (including Hound Dog) to The Beatles and The Stones to James Brown and Jimi Hendrix. New generations of fans were introduced to their sound through their record-breaking 1995 Broadway revue, Smokey Joe’s Café: The Songs of Leiber & Stoller. (For more on Leiber, see “Saying Kaddish” in the Fall 2011 issue at www.Chutzpahmag.com.)

Leiber-Stoller Essentials:
Jailhouse Rock, Elvis
Love Potion #9, The Clovers
There Goes My Baby, The Drifters
Young Blood, The Coasters

Jeff Barry (Joel Adelberg, 1938- ) & Ellie Greenwich (1940-2009)
Greenwich, a session singer once known as “NY’s Demo Queen,” and her future husband Barry, a musician, originally worked for Leiber and Stoller, who had first refusal rights for their songs. But they earned their iconic legacy when they formed a trio with Phil Spector at Brill and created most of the greatest “girl group” hits of the ’60s. In 1964 alone they had an astonishing 17 singles on the Billboard Hot 100.

Barry-Greenwich Essentials:
Then He Kissed Me, The Ronettes
Leader of the Pack, The Shangri-Las
Iko, Iko, The Dixie Cups
Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Manfred Mann

Barry Mann (Imberman, 1939- ) & Cynthia Weil (1940- )
Mann hit the charts as a performer with his doo-wop spoof, Who Put The Bomp (co-written with Goffin), before meeting his future songwriting partner (and wife) while both were staff writers at publishing whiz Don  Kirshner’s Aldon Music. Mann (music) and Weil (lyrics) created a catalog of 600+ that spanned four decades, and they were considered to boldly be the first socially-conscious writing team with songs like Uptown by The Crystals. In 1999, when BMI released their list of the most played songs of the 20th century, the Mann-Weil hit You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling by the Righteous Brothers was #1, having just edged out The Beatles’ Yesterday. Winners of countless awards, the pair recently received the Johnny Mercer Award, the highest honor from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Mann-Weil Essentials:
He’s Sure The Boy I Love, The Crystals
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, The Animals
Blame It On The Bossa Nova, Eydie Gorme
Soul & Inspiration, The Righteous Brothers

Carole King (Carol Klein, 1942- ) & Gerry Goffin (1939- )
The Brooklyn-raised duo formed one of the era’s great collaborations before and after they married, writing or co-writing over 100 songs that made the Billboard Hot 100. King, who went on to an acclaimed performing career (her album Tapestry, #1 in 1971, was produced by legendary Jewish producer Lou Adler) composed and arranged on piano and Goffin added lyrics. King’s former boyfriend Neil Sedaka (who teamed at Brill with Howard Greenfield in yet another prolific Jewish duo and whose song Oh! Carol was named for her) had arranged an audition with Don Kirshner. They were so successful that Kirshner offered them their own label, Dimension, where they were free to produce their own work. (For more about Kirshner, see “Saying Kaddish” in the Spring 2011 issue of Chutzpah at www.chutzpahmag.com.) The Beatles always acknowledged the King-Goffin influence on their music, and the pair was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
King-Goffin Essentials:
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – The Shirelles
The Locomotion – Little Eva
One Fine Day – The Chiffons
Up On The Roof – The Drifters
A Natural Woman – Aretha Franklin

Studio Magicians

Writing a great song doesn’t automatically make it a hit. While talent and marketing certainly play their parts, equally important were the men in the studios who understood the best way to present a song to the public, thus insuring its financial success. In the early days of rock and roll, the best of these wizards tended to be jacks-of-all-trades and, incidentally, Jewish.

Leonard & Phil Chess (Lejzor, 1917-1969 & Fiszel Czyz, 1921- )
These brothers were Polish immigrants who hit the ground running as owners of Chicago’s Macomba Lounge nightclub, which featured blues acts from the Mississippi Delta. By 1950 they had founded Chess Records (the “Home of the Electric Blues”) in the hope of properly recording those acts. Chess’s impact proved to be greater than any other label in establishing rock and roll. Producing Muddy Waters, the brothers saw the potential of marketing race music to white audiences and, by the next decade, had introduced a who’s who list of bluesmen to the public. Chess released what many consider to be the first rock and roll song, Ike Turner’s Rocket 88. The brothers also are credited with the concept of packaging hit singles in their catalog into compilation “best of” LPs.

Chess All-Stars:
Muddy Waters
Bo Diddley
Chuck Berry
John Lee Hooker
Willie Dixon
Howlin’ Wolf
Buddy Guy
Sonny Boy Williamson

Jerry (Gerald, 1917-2008) Wexler

One of the first of the legendary “hands on” producers, Wexler is credited with introducing classic R&B and soul music to white audiences. In fact, as a young journalist for Billboard, Wexler coined the term “rhythm and blues” to replace race music. In 1953, Wexler and partner Ahmet Ertegun began to build Atlantic Records into a major force with Wexler becoming the quintessential A&R (artist and repertoire) man overseeing the artistic development of various young artists. A seminal moment in R&B history occurred when Wexler convinced a young Aretha Franklin to forgo her cabaret-style act and focus on her natural gospel-trained voice backed by Memphis and Muscle Shoals style bands. Wexler was one of the first non-performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Wexler’s R&B Royalty:
Ray Charles
Wilson Pickett
Otis Redding
Solomon Burke
Sam and Dave
Booker T. & the MG’s
Eddie Floyd

Phil (Harvey Phillip, 1939- ) Spector
Performer (his first band, The Teddy Bears, had the #1 hit, To Know Him Is To Love Him) and songwriter, the eccentric Spector forever influenced the course of rock and roll as a producer when he developed the layered and lushly orchestrated “wall of sound” recording technique for the girl groups of the ’60s. King of the singles (he once described the LP as “two hits and 10 pieces of junk”), Spector is credited with elevating the lowly 45 to an artform. With Lester Sill, he co-founded Philles Records and later produced for The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Spector unfortunately found his wall of sound transformed into the walls of prison when he was convicted of murder in 2009.

The Wall of Sound Essentials:
Da Doo Ron Ron, The Crystals
You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’, The Righteous Brothers
He’s A Rebel, The Crystals
Be My Baby, The Ronettes
River Deep, Mountain High, Ike and Tina Turner
Pretty Little Angel Eyes, Curtis Lee

Deejays and Countdowns
In the early days of rock and roll, frenetic, high energy deejays who became influential celebrities in their own right were almost as important as the artists themselves in determining the success of any given song—they were free to plug and promote any record that came into the studio, especially if it was accompanied by a little cash. East coast listeners were blessed with some of the most iconic disc jockeys to ever spin a disc, and many of them just happened to be Jewish.

Alan (Albert James, 1921-1965) Freed
Credited as the first disc jockey, the self-proclaimed “King of the Moondoggies” first rose to fame at WJW in Cleveland where his show presented R&B originals by black artists instead of white covers. In fact, without Freed there may have never been “rock and roll” as he is credited with coining the term. In the ’50s, Freed promoted a five-act show of top black artists in Cleveland; it is regarded as the first rock and roll concert ever held. By 1954 Freed had been catapulted to New York where he became the #1 DJ at WINS; he also staged and emceed legendary stage shows at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theatre and other venues. The “Architects of Rock and Roll” exhibit on the second level of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum in Cleveland features Freed with numerous historical artifacts. The Rock Hall also named its radio studio on the Museum’s fifth floor the Alan Freed Radio Studio where Sirius XM broadcasts live around the country.

Murray the K (Murray Kaufman, 1922-1982)

Murray the K inherited Freed’s prime time slot on WINS in 1958 when Freed was implicated in payola and tax evasion scandals. His innovative four hour show, The Swingin’ Soiree, was sprinkled with schtick, wacky sound effects and “blasts from the past.” He ruled the New York airwaves for a decade…and earned the title of “the original hysterical disc jockey” from critics. Like Freed, Murray brought together blacks and whites, on the stage and in the audience, at frenzied live shows, his at the Brooklyn Fox. He was dubbed with the moniker “the fifth Beatle” after broadcasts from New York’s Plaza Hotel and other locales during the Fab Four’s first trip to the States.

Bruce “Cousin Brucie” Morrow (Meyerowitz, 1937- )
Cousin Brucie followed Murray the K to WINS in 1959, but earned his reputation as the “King of Top 40” at WABC where a generation of teens religiously tuned in to his 7 to 9 pm slot to hear the “countdown” each week. Of course, Morrow soon had his own rock shows to promote, held at the popular New Jersey amusement venue, Palisades Park. Morrow is the only one of these legendary DJs still going strong. His “Cousin Brucie’s Saturday Rock and Roll Party” featuring the greatest hits of the ’60s and “a sprinkle of the ’70s” can be heard on SiriusXM Satellite Radio on Saturday nights, from 8pm to midnight, ET.

Hyman “Hy” Aaron Lit (1934-2007)

The legendary “Jet Jockey on Flight 99” was a pioneer of rock and roll radio in Philadelphia where he ruled the roost for five decades at a multitude of stations, including many years as one of the WIBG “good guys” (Hy was the last DJ on WIBG the day it went off the air forever) and ultimately at WOGL, a CBS station, until he went off the air in 2005. His Hall of Fame show dominated Philly airwaves—in 1957 he had an unheard of 71 market share in the city. Philly teens of the ’50s remember his frenzied openings like “It’s Hyski O Roone McVoutie, uptown, downtown, crosstown, here, there, everywhere—your man with the plan, on the scene with the record machine!” For a detailed look at the life and influence of Hy, go to www.Chutzpahmag.com for a special retrospective.

The Jewish Groups Emerge
By the end of the ’50s, rock and roll began to experience a blossoming of Jewish performers. The era started off on a very unusual note (no pun intended) in 1952 when four black messianic Jews from Chicago—cousins Jake and Zeke Carey, Paul Wilson and Johnnie Carter (Nate Nelson would join later)—formed the group known as the Flamingos. The original foursome met while attending the Jewish Church of God, a denomination whose services included a choir rather than a cantor, but whose congregation adhered to the holy days and rites of orthodox Judaism. As choir members they sang Jewish hymns from which they developed their unique sound. “Our harmonies were different because we dealt with a lot of minor chords, which is how Jewish music is written,” said Nelson.
By 1955 they had signed with Chess subsidiary Checker Records and released an R&B hit, I’ll Be Home. But owing to the politics of the day, it stayed only a regional success because Pat Boone had simultaneously released a white cover version (marred by incorrect lyrics) that got all the airplay instead. The Flamingos (who were one of the first bands to play their own instruments at stage shows) and their elegant doo-wop harmonies peaked with their 1959 hit I Only Have Eyes For You, regarded by some as the greatest doo-wop song ever. Alan Freed was so struck with the group that he included them in a few of the rock and roll movies he appeared in, including Rock Rock Rock where their performances still live.

NEXT UP in the Spring 2012 Chutzpah: Part 2 —
The Jewish Rockers of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

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From this you can make a living? Part I – In The Beginning By Len Canter Music always seemed to be playing somewhere in our house. We all had our little niches carved out—my mom had an unbelievable collection of Broadway show tune LPs (for you younger readers, those were the vinyl discs that came [...]

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From this you can make a living? Part I – In The Beginning By Len Canter Music always seemed to be playing somewhere in our house. We all had our little niches carved out—my mom had an unbelievable collection of Broadway show tune LPs (for you younger readers, those were the vinyl discs that came [...]

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Our top 20 favorite Jewish films
By Len Canter

Reading “Saying Kaddish” in last issue of Chutzpah and the remembrance of Elizabeth Taylor by Monk Friedman, who happens to be a neighbor of mine, got me thinking back to her film career. Being a self-proclaimed movie trivia buff, having earned my stripes as a contestant years ago in the annual University of Colorado Trivia Bowl, I realized that Monk had forgotten any mention of Taylor’s only real “Jewish” role, which occurred in the 1952 swashbuckler Ivanhoe.

Taylor, at the height of her allure, had been cast as the Jewess Rebecca, daughter of tribe patriarch Isaac who had been saved from an anti-Semitic mob by Ivanhoe. Isaac promised in return to raise money for the ransom of kidnapped King Richard, hoping for better treatment for the Jews in the kingdom upon Richard’s return. Rebecca’s unrequited love for Ivanhoe (played by another great Taylor, Robert) and her trial as a Jewish witch were central elements of the plot. And I remembered how, when I first saw this film many years ago, it had struck me as one of the few Hollywood movies that actually portrayed the persecution of the Jews in a sympathetic light—or any light at all for that matter.

Taylor’s role as the Jewish beauty, although not Oscar-worthy by any means, was a notable and more than prescient choice for her: She was only five years away from her marriage to the very Jewish Mike Todd, for whom she is said to have started converting to Judaism, and seven years from her even more headline-making marriage as a young widow, to Eddie Fisher and her official conversion.

Monk admitted in all honesty that he had never seen the film and so I guess he gets a pass on that one. But it started us off on a discussion of mainstream Jewish films in general, and we both offered up our favorites for a Chutzpah List. It was not as easy as you’d think. First off, we needed to establish the criteria we would use to define a Jewish movie. Chiefly, the movie had to have a plot that included at least one recognizable major Jewish character or the inclusion of a Jewish theme.

Of course, as Monk deftly pointed out, nearly all Hollywood movies in the first 50 years of filmmaking were “Jewish movies” as the pioneers of the industry and the vast majority of major Hollywood studios were founded by Jewish immigrants—the likes of Louis B. Mayer, Sam Goldwyn, Harry Cohn and the Warner brothers, among many, many others. But oddly, although the majority of men producing the movies were Jewish, our list showed a distinct scarcity of identifiably Jewish characters and stories until the 1950s. Certainly these bottom-line motivated studio moguls had decided that profitable movies would be better off being “Christian.”

Over the course of our discussions, we created a lot of list and endless revisions (“I’m taking off Marathon Man and adding Gentlemen’s Agreement instead!” “Well, forget Crimes and Misdemeanors—it’s Annie Hall or it’s nothing!”). Like all of Chutzpah’s lists, this one is arguably subjective, but like the great studio heads themselves, we offer up something for everyone—comedies and dramas, epics of biblical proportion and small art house films—served up in chronological order. Catch them if you can, and let us know what we missed from your own personal play list.

THE GOLEM (1920)
What’s The Story? A German expressionist horror masterpiece (and forerunner of Frankenstein) about a 16th century rabbi who, using ancient rites of sorcery, conjures up a mythical being created from clay who roams the countryside, protecting the Jews of Prague from exile (and worse) as ordered by the evil king. A little creaky because of its age (did I mention it’s silent?), yet genuinely creepy, it’s a must see. When the Golem efficiently dispatches the anti-Semites, you’ll want to offer high fives all around.

The Jew Crew
Karl Freund, cinematographer: the German-born master’s credits include The Mummy, his Oscar-winning The Good Earth, Metropolis, Key Largo and, later in life, episodes of I Love Lucy where he developed the innovative three-camera filming technique for TV. Freund moved to the states in the late 20s, but returned Germany in 1937 to get his daughter out of the country.

THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)
What’s The Story? An iconic film credited as the first “talkie,” this is the tale of a cantor’s son, Jakie Rabinowitz (played by the Al Jolson), who defies his father to embark on a career as entertainer Jack Robin. The film introduced indelible songs of the era including My Mammy, Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye and Blue Skies, sung after Jolson uttered the immortal line that ushered in a new era in film: “Wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet!”

The Jew Crew
Al Jolson, Jakie: the legendary performer was a Russian-born Jew.

Did You Know? The Jazz Singer has had a number of remakes including those starring Danny Thomas (1953), Jerry Lewis (1959) and Neil Diamond (1980), but none come close to the evocative Lower East Side sets and feel of the original, our favorite version by far.

GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT (1947)
What’s The Story? A sober look at subtle forms of prejudice, as a reporter pretending to be Jewish finds rampant anti-Semitism affecting his life in formerly inconceivable ways. Once very controversial (The House Un-American Activities Committee required a visit from some of the actors to explain the political ramifications of the film), it seems a little tamer now, but still hits home for Jewish audiences.

Did You Know? According to Hollywood lore, Darryl Zanuck, one of the very few non-Jewish movie moguls, decided to film the Laura Hobson novel after being refused membership in an L.A. country club because they thought he was a member of the tribe.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956)
What’s The Story? “A cast of thousands” in the biblical epic about the story of Moses and his people, with still impressive scenes like the parting of the Red Sea, is a Hollywood-ized version (some writers have made a career out of citing the inaccuracies), but if you need to explain Passover again to the kids…After you do, have them check out this great, but very ong, film.

The Jew Crew
Edward G. Robinson, Dathan: the legendary Jewish actor famously played thugs in a variety of time periods.

Gotta Make You Laugh: Robinson, as the overseer and informant for Ramses, taunts the crowd in the same voice he used as Rico in Little Caesar, “Mmya, where’s your Moses now…huh?”

BEN-HUR (1959)
What’s The Story? This one’s “pure Hollywood entertainment”—11 Oscars went to this monumental biblical epic about redemption and revenge. Proud and rebellious Jew, Judah Ben-Hur is pitted against his once boyhood friend Messala, now a military tribune for imperial Rome. And remember to take a breath during the chariot race: this scene still gets my vote for the most spectacular action sequence ever filmed and best performance ever by a Jewish athlete!

Also Worth A Look: DVD sets now come with the 1925 silent version of this film, which still holds up very well and stars two icons of early Hollywood, Francis X. Bushman and Ramon Navarro.

EXODUS (1960)
What’s The Story? The so-called “Zionist epic” based on the Leon Uris bestseller with its numerous parallel plots (both historical and fictional) influenced many American non-Jews to support the Israeli cause and the creation of the Jewish state. The action scenes are quite riveting, especially the liberation of Jewish prisoners from the Acre fortress. Every time I see this movie, I end up hating the British for at least a week.

The Jew Crew
Otto Preminger, director: the Russian born celebrated filmmaker cast a bevy of stars from the ’60s including Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford and Lee J. Cobb, and let’s not forget Sal Mineo’s Oscar-nominated performance as a Polish terrorist. But how did Preminger miss putting at least one tribe member in a lead?
Ernest Gold, songwriter/composer: his Oscar- (and Grammy-) winning score is still instantly recognizable.

THE PAWNBROKER (1964)
What’s The Story? A breakout role for Rod Steiger (often erroneously assumed to be Jewish), he plays Sol Nazerman, a haunted, cynical concentration camp survivor now eeking out a drab existence as a pawnbroker in Harlem. Probably the first film to deal with the dark realities of the holocaust, its parallel of the bleak existence of ghetto life and that of the camps is very affecting.

The Jew Crew
Sidney Lumet, director: the renowned moviemaker went on to make more classics including Serpico, Network and Dog Day Afternoon (for more, see Saying Kaddish in our Summer 2011 issue).

Lines We Can’t Forget:
Jesus Ortiz, Nazerman’s shop assistant points to the tattooed numbers on Nazerman’s arm: You want to tell me something Mr. Nazerman? What is that? Is that a secret society or something?
Nazerman (after hesitating): Yeah
Ortiz: Well…what do I do to join?
Nazerman: What do you do?…You learn to walk on water.

GOODBYE, COLUMBUS (1969)
What’s The Story? Based on the often hilarious (and sometimes less than flattering) tale of Jewish identity written by Philip Roth, the film portrays a suburban-New Jersey, nouveau riche Jewish family, the Patimkins, as they experience a cultural clash when their daughter’s new working class Jewish boyfriend visits their home.

The Jew Crew
Larry Peerce, director: his father, legendary Jewish opera singer Jan, appears in a cameo role.
Richard Benjamin, Neil Klugman: following this breakout role, he starred in another film based on a Roth novel, Portnoy’s Complaint.
Jack Klugman, Ben Patimkin: the actor became the TV pioneer known to all for the Odd Couple and Quincy.
Arnold Schulman: received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay

THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS (1971)
What’s The Story? There’s an unsettling feeling of impending doom when watching this atmospheric film about an aristocratic Italian family partying in the sanctuary of their villa, somehow blind to the reality that Mussolini has begun imprisoning Jews as anti-Semitism spreads outside their insular world.

Did You Know? The film made by neo-realist director Vittorio De Sica won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1971)
What’s The Story? Just when you’ve had enough angst laden Jewish films, slip in a DVD of Fiddler and smile at this movie adaptation of the stage musical based on the Sholom Aleichem stories. As Tevye copes with the routines of shtetl life while trying to marry off three daughters, you may even find yourself singing along with some of the great enduring tunes that include If I Were A Rich Man, To Life and Tradition.

The Jew Crew
Chaim Topol, Tevye: Oscar nominated as Best Actor while on active duty in the Israeli army
Norma Crane, Golde: debuted on Broadway in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and appeared in 63 TV roles
Leonard Frey, Motel the tailor: Oscar nominated as Best Supporting Actor, starred in the stage and screen versions of Boys in the Band
Molly Picon, Yente: an iconic Yiddish theater and film star, she had a recurring role as Mrs. Bronson on Car 54, Where Are You?
Sheldon Harnick, lyrics, and Jerry Bock, score: won Tony Awards for Fiddler and Fiorello

ANNIE HALL (1977)
What’s The Story? Nearly every one of Allen’s films contains a vivid slice of Jewish life; we picked this Best Picture Oscar winner because its lead character, Alvy Singer, the kvetching Jewish comedy writer who “grew up in a home under the roller coaster on Coney Island,” is filmdom’s greatest portrayal of the stereotypical, obsessive New York Jew. Besides, this is one of the greatest films ever made, period!

The Jew Crew
Woody Allen, Alvy: directed, co-wrote and starred in what’s widely assumed to be a semiautobiographical story
Carol Kane, Allison: having worked on stage, screen and TV, she may be best known for her Emmyw-inning performance as Simka on Taxi.
Tony Roberts, Rob: often appeared in Allen’s movies including Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days and Stardust Memories
Paul Simon, Tony: Among other forays for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, he wrote and starred in the film One Trick Pony and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman, which bombed.

MADAME ROSA (1977)
What’s The Story? A very underrated and exceptional French film about an aging Jewish prostitute and camp survivor played by Simone Signoret who makes ends meet by babysitting her co-workers’ children. Her flagging spirit is revived by an abandoned Muslim boy she raises.

Did You Know? The film was directed by Egyptian-born Israeli director Moshe Mizrahi and won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Mizrahi also directed another relatively unknown Jewish gem, The House on Chelouche Street, which also received an Oscar nomination and is very worthy of a look.

THE CHOSEN (1981)
What’s The Story? Everyone seems to just love this reflective flick co-starring Robbie Benson as one of two Jewish teens from different worlds, taking markedly different paths to tzadikum in 1940s Brooklyn. Benson’s Danny is the son of a strict Hasidic rebbe (another Jewish role played by Rod Steiger), while Reuven, the son of a professor, is a more modern Jew.

Wait, There’s More! Chaim Potok, the author of the bestselling novel on which the film is based, has a cameo role as a professor. Potok’s sequel to The Chosen, The Promise, was also acclaimed.

YENTL (1983)
What’s The Story? Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story turned Hollywood musical is the saga of the boyish daughter of a Polish rebbe who disguises herself as a young man, circumventing tradition in order to study the Talmud at a Yeshiva, where he/she falls in love with a fellow student. A dozen songs for Streisand, including the Oscar nominated The Way He Makes Me Feel, will keep her fans humming throughout.

The Jew Crew
Barbara Streisand, Yentl: starred, directed, co-wrote and co-produced…whew!
Mandy Patinkin, Avigdor: went on to win a Tony award for his role as Che in the original musical Evita
Steven Hill, Rebbe Anshel: best know for his role as D.A. Adam Schiff on TV’s Law and Order
Alan and Marilyn Bergman: wrote the lyrics for Michel Legrand’s score as well as What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life, the Oscar-winning tune for Streisand in The Way We Were
Amy Irving, Hadass: became the only actress to be nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie for the same performance! Go figure.

Wait, There’s More! Barbra just produced What Matters Most, Barbra Streisand Sings The Lyrics Of Alan And Marilyn Bergman, which she describes as the fulfillment of a long held desire to release an album with lyrics only by her longtime collaborators and dear friends.

AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS  (1987)
What’s The Story? Louis Malle directed, produced and wrote this story based on real events from his childhood, about a priest at a Catholic boarding school who provides secret asylum to a Jewish child, protecting him from the Nazis.

Lines We Won’t Forget:
The children: “Au revoir, mon pere.”
Father Jean: “Au revoir les enfants. A bientot!”

THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY (1989)
What’s The Story? Check out this comedy sleeper about Harry Plotnick, a once notorious Jewish gangster, now a schlemiel recently released from prison who encounters a number of hilarious disasters when he tries to return to his former domain in the Bronx and become a caterer.

Rip Van Winkle Award: Director Michael Roemer’s indie was a contemporary piece made in 1969, but didn’t get released for twenty years and became more of a period piece by the time it was seen to critical acclaim.

AVALON (1990)
What’s The Story? One of the best of the “assimilation” movies, it’s an episodic look at the fortunes and misfortunes of a Jewish immigrant family settling in early 20th century Baltimore. It’s an evocative and melancholy reminder of Jewish family life that the seniors among us realize has probably disappeared forever.

The Jew Crew
Barry Levinson, director: loves to film in Baltimore where he also made Diner and Tin Man
Randy Newman, composer: received an Oscar nomination for best score
Leo Fuchs, Hymie Krichinsky: was once known as the “Yiddish Fred Astaire”
Lou Jacobi, Gabriel Krichinsky: once recorded a spoof called Al Tijuana and His Jewish Brass
Kevin Pollak, Izzy Kirk: stand-up comedian recently seen as host on TV’s Million Dollar Money Drop
EUROPA EUROPA (1990)
What’s The Story? An engrossing German language film of the true story of Solomon Perel, a Jewish teen who, through an extraordinary series of events, survived the holocaust by posing undetected as a devout Nazi.

It’s Not Surprising: That this multiple award winning film, shown in Europe as Hitlerjunge Soloman (translated as Hitler Youth Solomon) received a lukewarm reception in Germany (translation: it must be right on). The real Solomon Perel appears in a cameo role.

SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)
What’s The Story? Spielberg’s intense portrait (and true story) of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), an indifferent Catholic businessman who transforms into a humanitarian, saving the lives of over 1,000 Polish Jews destined for the camps. You will never forget the little irl in the red coat!
Is This Why Mel Is Down On Jews? Warren Beatty, Kevin Costner and Gibson (of all people) read for, but didn’t get parts in the movie, which earned 7 Oscars including Best Picture.

THE PIANIST (2002)
What’s The Story? Adrien Brody won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Polish Jew Wladyslaw Szpilman who spent five years struggling to survive the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. This movie is not for the faint-hearted, as it contains arguably the most harrowing look at day-to-day life for Jews caught in the hell of war ever filmed, and for that reason won our vote as the best of the holocaust genre films.

The Film Is So Real Because: Oscar-winning director and Polish Jew Roman Polanski was himself a holocaust survivor, having escaped from the Krakow ghetto as a child after the death of his mother and surviving the war by hiding in a farmer’s barn.

BEST DOCUMENTARY: SHOAH (HOLOCAUST)
Seemingly impossible to make and almost impossible to watch (both for the horror and the length at 9½ hours), this 1985 landmark documentary made by Frenchman Claude Lanzmann is not entertainment, yet it is acknowledged by many as one of the most important films ever made. Lanzmann used no archival footage. Instead he chronicled the minute details of the holocaust via chilling interviews. The subjects are divided into three groups, survivors, witnesses and oppressors (who for the most part were secretly filmed). You will hear from the likes of Franz Suchomel, an SS officer describing his work at Treblinka, Filip Muller who worked in an incinerator at Auschwitz and Abraham Bomba, a barber at Auschwitz who describes how a fellow barber was forced to shave the head of his wife and his best friend moments before they went to the gas chamber. The interviews are conducted in English, German, Hebrew and Polish with subtitles. The film was re-released last year on its 25th anniversary and is available in a 4-DVD boxed set.

 HONORABLE MENTIONS  GO TO:
The Stranger (1946)
The Search (1948)
The Diary Of Anne Frank (1959)
Funny Girl (1968)
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974)

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Our top 20 favorite Jewish films
By Len Canter

Reading “Saying Kaddish” in last issue of Chutzpah and the remembrance of Elizabeth Taylor by Monk Friedman, who happens to be a neighbor of mine, got me thinking back to her film career. Being a self-proclaimed movie trivia buff, having earned my stripes as a contestant years ago in the annual University of Colorado Trivia Bowl, I realized that Monk had forgotten any mention of Taylor’s only real “Jewish” role, which occurred in the 1952 swashbuckler Ivanhoe.

Taylor, at the height of her allure, had been cast as the Jewess Rebecca, daughter of tribe patriarch Isaac who had been saved from an anti-Semitic mob by Ivanhoe. Isaac promised in return to raise money for the ransom of kidnapped King Richard, hoping for better treatment for the Jews in the kingdom upon Richard’s return. Rebecca’s unrequited love for Ivanhoe (played by another great Taylor, Robert) and her trial as a Jewish witch were central elements of the plot. And I remembered how, when I first saw this film many years ago, it had struck me as one of the few Hollywood movies that actually portrayed the persecution of the Jews in a sympathetic light—or any light at all for that matter.

Taylor’s role as the Jewish beauty, although not Oscar-worthy by any means, was a notable and more than prescient choice for her: She was only five years away from her marriage to the very Jewish Mike Todd, for whom she is said to have started converting to Judaism, and seven years from her even more headline-making marriage as a young widow, to Eddie Fisher and her official conversion.

Monk admitted in all honesty that he had never seen the film and so I guess he gets a pass on that one. But it started us off on a discussion of mainstream Jewish films in general, and we both offered up our favorites for a Chutzpah List. It was not as easy as you’d think. First off, we needed to establish the criteria we would use to define a Jewish movie. Chiefly, the movie had to have a plot that included at least one recognizable major Jewish character or the inclusion of a Jewish theme.

Of course, as Monk deftly pointed out, nearly all Hollywood movies in the first 50 years of filmmaking were “Jewish movies” as the pioneers of the industry and the vast majority of major Hollywood studios were founded by Jewish immigrants—the likes of Louis B. Mayer, Sam Goldwyn, Harry Cohn and the Warner brothers, among many, many others. But oddly, although the majority of men producing the movies were Jewish, our list showed a distinct scarcity of identifiably Jewish characters and stories until the 1950s. Certainly these bottom-line motivated studio moguls had decided that profitable movies would be better off being “Christian.”

Over the course of our discussions, we created a lot of list and endless revisions (“I’m taking off Marathon Man and adding Gentlemen’s Agreement instead!” “Well, forget Crimes and Misdemeanors—it’s Annie Hall or it’s nothing!”). Like all of Chutzpah’s lists, this one is arguably subjective, but like the great studio heads themselves, we offer up something for everyone—comedies and dramas, epics of biblical proportion and small art house films—served up in chronological order. Catch them if you can, and let us know what we missed from your own personal play list.

THE GOLEM (1920)
What’s The Story? A German expressionist horror masterpiece (and forerunner of Frankenstein) about a 16th century rabbi who, using ancient rites of sorcery, conjures up a mythical being created from clay who roams the countryside, protecting the Jews of Prague from exile (and worse) as ordered by the evil king. A little creaky because of its age (did I mention it’s silent?), yet genuinely creepy, it’s a must see. When the Golem efficiently dispatches the anti-Semites, you’ll want to offer high fives all around.

The Jew Crew
Karl Freund, cinematographer: the German-born master’s credits include The Mummy, his Oscar-winning The Good Earth, Metropolis, Key Largo and, later in life, episodes of I Love Lucy where he developed the innovative three-camera filming technique for TV. Freund moved to the states in the late 20s, but returned Germany in 1937 to get his daughter out of the country.

THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)
What’s The Story? An iconic film credited as the first “talkie,” this is the tale of a cantor’s son, Jakie Rabinowitz (played by the Al Jolson), who defies his father to embark on a career as entertainer Jack Robin. The film introduced indelible songs of the era including My Mammy, Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye and Blue Skies, sung after Jolson uttered the immortal line that ushered in a new era in film: “Wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet!”

The Jew Crew
Al Jolson, Jakie: the legendary performer was a Russian-born Jew.

Did You Know? The Jazz Singer has had a number of remakes including those starring Danny Thomas (1953), Jerry Lewis (1959) and Neil Diamond (1980), but none come close to the evocative Lower East Side sets and feel of the original, our favorite version by far.

GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT (1947)
What’s The Story? A sober look at subtle forms of prejudice, as a reporter pretending to be Jewish finds rampant anti-Semitism affecting his life in formerly inconceivable ways. Once very controversial (The House Un-American Activities Committee required a visit from some of the actors to explain the political ramifications of the film), it seems a little tamer now, but still hits home for Jewish audiences.

Did You Know? According to Hollywood lore, Darryl Zanuck, one of the very few non-Jewish movie moguls, decided to film the Laura Hobson novel after being refused membership in an L.A. country club because they thought he was a member of the tribe.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956)
What’s The Story? “A cast of thousands” in the biblical epic about the story of Moses and his people, with still impressive scenes like the parting of the Red Sea, is a Hollywood-ized version (some writers have made a career out of citing the inaccuracies), but if you need to explain Passover again to the kids…After you do, have them check out this great, but very ong, film.

The Jew Crew
Edward G. Robinson, Dathan: the legendary Jewish actor famously played thugs in a variety of time periods.

Gotta Make You Laugh: Robinson, as the overseer and informant for Ramses, taunts the crowd in the same voice he used as Rico in Little Caesar, “Mmya, where’s your Moses now…huh?”

BEN-HUR (1959)
What’s The Story? This one’s “pure Hollywood entertainment”—11 Oscars went to this monumental biblical epic about redemption and revenge. Proud and rebellious Jew, Judah Ben-Hur is pitted against his once boyhood friend Messala, now a military tribune for imperial Rome. And remember to take a breath during the chariot race: this scene still gets my vote for the most spectacular action sequence ever filmed and best performance ever by a Jewish athlete!

Also Worth A Look: DVD sets now come with the 1925 silent version of this film, which still holds up very well and stars two icons of early Hollywood, Francis X. Bushman and Ramon Navarro.

EXODUS (1960)
What’s The Story? The so-called “Zionist epic” based on the Leon Uris bestseller with its numerous parallel plots (both historical and fictional) influenced many American non-Jews to support the Israeli cause and the creation of the Jewish state. The action scenes are quite riveting, especially the liberation of Jewish prisoners from the Acre fortress. Every time I see this movie, I end up hating the British for at least a week.

The Jew Crew
Otto Preminger, director: the Russian born celebrated filmmaker cast a bevy of stars from the ’60s including Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford and Lee J. Cobb, and let’s not forget Sal Mineo’s Oscar-nominated performance as a Polish terrorist. But how did Preminger miss putting at least one tribe member in a lead?
Ernest Gold, songwriter/composer: his Oscar- (and Grammy-) winning score is still instantly recognizable.

THE PAWNBROKER (1964)
What’s The Story? A breakout role for Rod Steiger (often erroneously assumed to be Jewish), he plays Sol Nazerman, a haunted, cynical concentration camp survivor now eeking out a drab existence as a pawnbroker in Harlem. Probably the first film to deal with the dark realities of the holocaust, its parallel of the bleak existence of ghetto life and that of the camps is very affecting.

The Jew Crew
Sidney Lumet, director: the renowned moviemaker went on to make more classics including Serpico, Network and Dog Day Afternoon (for more, see Saying Kaddish in our Summer 2011 issue).

Lines We Can’t Forget:
Jesus Ortiz, Nazerman’s shop assistant points to the tattooed numbers on Nazerman’s arm: You want to tell me something Mr. Nazerman? What is that? Is that a secret society or something?
Nazerman (after hesitating): Yeah
Ortiz: Well…what do I do to join?
Nazerman: What do you do?…You learn to walk on water.

GOODBYE, COLUMBUS (1969)
What’s The Story? Based on the often hilarious (and sometimes less than flattering) tale of Jewish identity written by Philip Roth, the film portrays a suburban-New Jersey, nouveau riche Jewish family, the Patimkins, as they experience a cultural clash when their daughter’s new working class Jewish boyfriend visits their home.

The Jew Crew
Larry Peerce, director: his father, legendary Jewish opera singer Jan, appears in a cameo role.
Richard Benjamin, Neil Klugman: following this breakout role, he starred in another film based on a Roth novel, Portnoy’s Complaint.
Jack Klugman, Ben Patimkin: the actor became the TV pioneer known to all for the Odd Couple and Quincy.
Arnold Schulman: received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay

THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS (1971)
What’s The Story? There’s an unsettling feeling of impending doom when watching this atmospheric film about an aristocratic Italian family partying in the sanctuary of their villa, somehow blind to the reality that Mussolini has begun imprisoning Jews as anti-Semitism spreads outside their insular world.

Did You Know? The film made by neo-realist director Vittorio De Sica won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1971)
What’s The Story? Just when you’ve had enough angst laden Jewish films, slip in a DVD of Fiddler and smile at this movie adaptation of the stage musical based on the Sholom Aleichem stories. As Tevye copes with the routines of shtetl life while trying to marry off three daughters, you may even find yourself singing along with some of the great enduring tunes that include If I Were A Rich Man, To Life and Tradition.

The Jew Crew
Chaim Topol, Tevye: Oscar nominated as Best Actor while on active duty in the Israeli army
Norma Crane, Golde: debuted on Broadway in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and appeared in 63 TV roles
Leonard Frey, Motel the tailor: Oscar nominated as Best Supporting Actor, starred in the stage and screen versions of Boys in the Band
Molly Picon, Yente: an iconic Yiddish theater and film star, she had a recurring role as Mrs. Bronson on Car 54, Where Are You?
Sheldon Harnick, lyrics, and Jerry Bock, score: won Tony Awards for Fiddler and Fiorello

ANNIE HALL (1977)
What’s The Story? Nearly every one of Allen’s films contains a vivid slice of Jewish life; we picked this Best Picture Oscar winner because its lead character, Alvy Singer, the kvetching Jewish comedy writer who “grew up in a home under the roller coaster on Coney Island,” is filmdom’s greatest portrayal of the stereotypical, obsessive New York Jew. Besides, this is one of the greatest films ever made, period!

The Jew Crew
Woody Allen, Alvy: directed, co-wrote and starred in what’s widely assumed to be a semiautobiographical story
Carol Kane, Allison: having worked on stage, screen and TV, she may be best known for her Emmyw-inning performance as Simka on Taxi.
Tony Roberts, Rob: often appeared in Allen’s movies including Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days and Stardust Memories
Paul Simon, Tony: Among other forays for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, he wrote and starred in the film One Trick Pony and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman, which bombed.

MADAME ROSA (1977)
What’s The Story? A very underrated and exceptional French film about an aging Jewish prostitute and camp survivor played by Simone Signoret who makes ends meet by babysitting her co-workers’ children. Her flagging spirit is revived by an abandoned Muslim boy she raises.

Did You Know? The film was directed by Egyptian-born Israeli director Moshe Mizrahi and won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Mizrahi also directed another relatively unknown Jewish gem, The House on Chelouche Street, which also received an Oscar nomination and is very worthy of a look.

THE CHOSEN (1981)
What’s The Story? Everyone seems to just love this reflective flick co-starring Robbie Benson as one of two Jewish teens from different worlds, taking markedly different paths to tzadikum in 1940s Brooklyn. Benson’s Danny is the son of a strict Hasidic rebbe (another Jewish role played by Rod Steiger), while Reuven, the son of a professor, is a more modern Jew.

Wait, There’s More! Chaim Potok, the author of the bestselling novel on which the film is based, has a cameo role as a professor. Potok’s sequel to The Chosen, The Promise, was also acclaimed.

YENTL (1983)
What’s The Story? Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story turned Hollywood musical is the saga of the boyish daughter of a Polish rebbe who disguises herself as a young man, circumventing tradition in order to study the Talmud at a Yeshiva, where he/she falls in love with a fellow student. A dozen songs for Streisand, including the Oscar nominated The Way He Makes Me Feel, will keep her fans humming throughout.

The Jew Crew
Barbara Streisand, Yentl: starred, directed, co-wrote and co-produced…whew!
Mandy Patinkin, Avigdor: went on to win a Tony award for his role as Che in the original musical Evita
Steven Hill, Rebbe Anshel: best know for his role as D.A. Adam Schiff on TV’s Law and Order
Alan and Marilyn Bergman: wrote the lyrics for Michel Legrand’s score as well as What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life, the Oscar-winning tune for Streisand in The Way We Were
Amy Irving, Hadass: became the only actress to be nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie for the same performance! Go figure.

Wait, There’s More! Barbra just produced What Matters Most, Barbra Streisand Sings The Lyrics Of Alan And Marilyn Bergman, which she describes as the fulfillment of a long held desire to release an album with lyrics only by her longtime collaborators and dear friends.

AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS  (1987)
What’s The Story? Louis Malle directed, produced and wrote this story based on real events from his childhood, about a priest at a Catholic boarding school who provides secret asylum to a Jewish child, protecting him from the Nazis.

Lines We Won’t Forget:
The children: “Au revoir, mon pere.”
Father Jean: “Au revoir les enfants. A bientot!”

THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY (1989)
What’s The Story? Check out this comedy sleeper about Harry Plotnick, a once notorious Jewish gangster, now a schlemiel recently released from prison who encounters a number of hilarious disasters when he tries to return to his former domain in the Bronx and become a caterer.

Rip Van Winkle Award: Director Michael Roemer’s indie was a contemporary piece made in 1969, but didn’t get released for twenty years and became more of a period piece by the time it was seen to critical acclaim.

AVALON (1990)
What’s The Story? One of the best of the “assimilation” movies, it’s an episodic look at the fortunes and misfortunes of a Jewish immigrant family settling in early 20th century Baltimore. It’s an evocative and melancholy reminder of Jewish family life that the seniors among us realize has probably disappeared forever.

The Jew Crew
Barry Levinson, director: loves to film in Baltimore where he also made Diner and Tin Man
Randy Newman, composer: received an Oscar nomination for best score
Leo Fuchs, Hymie Krichinsky: was once known as the “Yiddish Fred Astaire”
Lou Jacobi, Gabriel Krichinsky: once recorded a spoof called Al Tijuana and His Jewish Brass
Kevin Pollak, Izzy Kirk: stand-up comedian recently seen as host on TV’s Million Dollar Money Drop
EUROPA EUROPA (1990)
What’s The Story? An engrossing German language film of the true story of Solomon Perel, a Jewish teen who, through an extraordinary series of events, survived the holocaust by posing undetected as a devout Nazi.

It’s Not Surprising: That this multiple award winning film, shown in Europe as Hitlerjunge Soloman (translated as Hitler Youth Solomon) received a lukewarm reception in Germany (translation: it must be right on). The real Solomon Perel appears in a cameo role.

SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)
What’s The Story? Spielberg’s intense portrait (and true story) of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), an indifferent Catholic businessman who transforms into a humanitarian, saving the lives of over 1,000 Polish Jews destined for the camps. You will never forget the little irl in the red coat!
Is This Why Mel Is Down On Jews? Warren Beatty, Kevin Costner and Gibson (of all people) read for, but didn’t get parts in the movie, which earned 7 Oscars including Best Picture.

THE PIANIST (2002)
What’s The Story? Adrien Brody won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Polish Jew Wladyslaw Szpilman who spent five years struggling to survive the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. This movie is not for the faint-hearted, as it contains arguably the most harrowing look at day-to-day life for Jews caught in the hell of war ever filmed, and for that reason won our vote as the best of the holocaust genre films.

The Film Is So Real Because: Oscar-winning director and Polish Jew Roman Polanski was himself a holocaust survivor, having escaped from the Krakow ghetto as a child after the death of his mother and surviving the war by hiding in a farmer’s barn.

BEST DOCUMENTARY: SHOAH (HOLOCAUST)
Seemingly impossible to make and almost impossible to watch (both for the horror and the length at 9½ hours), this 1985 landmark documentary made by Frenchman Claude Lanzmann is not entertainment, yet it is acknowledged by many as one of the most important films ever made. Lanzmann used no archival footage. Instead he chronicled the minute details of the holocaust via chilling interviews. The subjects are divided into three groups, survivors, witnesses and oppressors (who for the most part were secretly filmed). You will hear from the likes of Franz Suchomel, an SS officer describing his work at Treblinka, Filip Muller who worked in an incinerator at Auschwitz and Abraham Bomba, a barber at Auschwitz who describes how a fellow barber was forced to shave the head of his wife and his best friend moments before they went to the gas chamber. The interviews are conducted in English, German, Hebrew and Polish with subtitles. The film was re-released last year on its 25th anniversary and is available in a 4-DVD boxed set.

 HONORABLE MENTIONS  GO TO:
The Stranger (1946)
The Search (1948)
The Diary Of Anne Frank (1959)
Funny Girl (1968)
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974)

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Our top 20 favorite Jewish films By Len Canter Reading “Saying Kaddish” in last issue of Chutzpah and the remembrance of Elizabeth Taylor by Monk Friedman, who happens to be a neighbor of mine, got me thinking back to her film career. Being a self-proclaimed movie trivia buff, having earned my stripes as a contestant [...]

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Our top 20 favorite Jewish films By Len Canter Reading “Saying Kaddish” in last issue of Chutzpah and the remembrance of Elizabeth Taylor by Monk Friedman, who happens to be a neighbor of mine, got me thinking back to her film career. Being a self-proclaimed movie trivia buff, having earned my stripes as a contestant [...]

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By Julie Canter
I’ve been wild about the French masters ever since I went to grade school with the son of the owners of Dumas Patisserie in New York (while other kids brought brownies to parties, Charles would walk in with a stack of bakery boxes—can you say dacquoise?). Ever since then I’ve been on a quest for the richest and the best, from truffles to petits fours to macarons. The famed Chocolate Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York, held every November, is the perfect way to find out what’s new in the world of chocolate. What we also uncovered is the new trend of making offerings kosher so that delicacies can be enjoyed by all chocolate lovers. Here are this year’s top finds, many of whom are actually home-grown and putting Parisian chocolatiers on notice.

Les Cinq Amandes
Lina Ariss-Abdo’s daughter Lara was graduating from high school in Greenwich, CT and she wanted to find just the right treats to give out to guests. “We looked everywhere and could not find elegant and quality favors combining special designs with exquisite delicacies. This was our need at that time and it became our mission as we decided to launch Les Cinq Amandes,” says Lina. “We specialize in artisanal dragées and confections from around the world. Using only the finest ingredients, we create exceptional gifts and favors. Having kosher products is important as we aim to satisfy our customer’s needs.” The confections are as beautiful as they are tasty. The kosher choices include Cocoa Gems of chocolate dragées and mini hearts, Almond Dragées, Tiramissu Seduction, Cocoa Almondine, Pistachio Dragées and Hazelnut Pearls. You can create your own assortments, favors and gifts online at www.fivealmonds.com or call 877-favor-57; outside of the US, call 203-276-9271.

Michel Cluizel
Since French-based Michel Cluizel’s inception in 1948, the company has become synonymous with the luxury chocolate market around the world. In 2009, its only US retail store opened at 584 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Expanding their reach to the observant community, they’ve just launched a first-of-its-kind line of OU certified kosher truffles, pastries and macarons. The products also mark the first time the company is producing chocolates in the US, with a brand new facility built especially for this kosher line in West Berlin, NJ. The kosher truffles come in five lip-licking varieties: Caprice, caramel ganache with gianduja coated in dark chocolate; Peaceful, tea ganache coated in dark chocolate; Folly, crunchy almond and hazelnut praliné coated in dark chocolate; Surprise, almond and hazelnut praliné with cocoa nibs coated in dark chocolate; and Joy, almond and hazelnut praliné coated in dark chocolate. You can hand select choices at the store or pick up a pre-packaged and sealed box of 14, 16 or 25 pieces. The store also offers both chocolate and vanilla OU certified kosher macarons and a variety of kosher pastries including the crunchy praliné napoleon, vanilla and chocolate éclairs and classic Opera cake—and with 24 hours notice, you can get a pre-packaged and sealed box of pastries, like the “Shabbat Box” of four gourmet kosher choices. “We understand the needs of our customers and our goal is to always adapt to accommodate them,” explains the charming Jacques Dahan, head of Michel Cluizel’s US operations. “If you call us on Wednesday to place an order, we can have a box ready for you to pick up on Friday afternoon before Shabbat.” Call 646-415-9126. Non-kosher chocolates and other treats can be bought online and shipped; go to http://www.chocolatmichelcluizel.com/NY/index.php or email newyork@chocolatmichelcluizel.com

Jer’s Chocolates
When you want to take the whole Reese’s experience to a new level, go directly to Jer’s of southern California. Jer’s ingredients are kosher certified and carry the OU designation. Among the goodies are Jer’s four flavors of peanut butter bars, Original IncrediBar, all natural peanut butter with crunchy rice crisps in creamy milk chocolate; Cara Mella with dark chocolate, peanut butter and caramel; Pretzo Change-O, a sweet and salty, crushed pretzel mix with peanut butter and milk chocolate; and Toffee Break, peanut butter with buttery rich handmade toffee covered in dark chocolate. But why pick one when you can get Jer’s Assorted Collection with two bars of each flavor? For petite eaters, there are now Jer’s Squares, bite-size versions in 4-ounce bags. There is also a line of truffles and other chocolate gifts online at www.jers.com or call 800-540-7265.

Salt of The Earth Bakery
“Salt of the Earth Bakery is a family affair and a labor of love, and has given each of us an opportunity to channel our diverse talents into the fulfillment of our collective passion—providing people with the very best baked goods,” says Jonathan Weiner, managing partner and head of sales. “All of our goodies are the result of countless rounds of tests and tastes, and nothing goes into production unless it is simply the best we have ever tasted. From our signature cookie to our brownies, each treat is paired with a specially selected artisanal sea salt that brings out the pop in the flavor and makes the snacking experience all the better.”
The chef behind Salt is Alexandra Joseph Rabbani. A self-educated baker (she honed her skills by baking her way through Pastry Arts textbooks), Alexandra provided a steady stream of desserts to her family table for years, and Salt of the Earth Bakery was her pie in the sky dream. Raised on the New York’s Upper East Side, she’s married to Jonathan’s cousin, Haskel Rabbani, who heads up Salt’s operations—they first met as students at the Ramaz School. Interestingly, all three pursued quite different careers at first. Alexandra studied sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and worked in business development at AOL for several years. Haskel, who grew up on Union Square (just upstairs from Jonathan), studied philosophy at Boston University and went on to receive his law degree from Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Jonathan attended Horace Mann before studying film at The George Washington University. While in college, Jonathan worked in sales for Vitamin Water and subsequently did work in both the real estate and film industries. Ultimately the lure of a bakery business led them to pool their talents and shared love of great food (and sweets).
“After years of perfecting the recipe, we brought a batch of the cookie to our local Whole Foods in September of 2010,” Jonathan continues the story. “We were simply there to gauge their interest—imagine our delight when they called the very next day to place an order.” But they also realized that they couldn’t fulfill that order without a commercial baking facility, packaging and a general corporate infrastructure. They immediately began laying the groundwork and had a soft-launch in the Hamptons on Memorial Day 2011. “After Labor Day weekend, we started sales in Manhattan and have been expanding to new locations every week.”
The “cookie,” a huge, gooey, chewy chocolate chip delight, and all their products are all natural and certified OK kosher dairy. Salt of the Earth Bakery products are available at retail locations across Manhattan, including Zabar’s, Grace’s Marketplace and Garden of Eden and they’re adding new locations every week. The full list is available at www.saltoftheearthbakery.com/retail or call 646-330-5089.

Rogue Confections
Founder Sherri Adler has always had a passion for color and pattern—and chocolate. Rogue Confections began as a labor of love in her New York City kitchen in the summer of 2009. Adler had been the set designer for NBC’s Late Night With Conan O’Brien, but when the show moved from its Rockefeller Center home to Los Angeles, she chose to remain in New York and decided the time was right for a change. Drawing inspiration from the vast collection of vintage ephemera she had amassed as a designer for television, theater, film and private clients, she decided to embellish handmade Belgian chocolate disks with colorful images based on vintage textiles, wallpapers, greeting cards and even menorahs (the disks can also be customized with any logo, photo or image). There are also chocolate postcards, lollipops and minipops. The decorations are an edible sugar paper called Only Sweet Papers, and the papers, too, are available for sale so that you can decorate your own cupcakes, cakes, chocolates or cookies at home. The chocolates are available in 56% dark, 31% milk and 25% white and are Star K kosher dairy. Rogue also does custom orders for Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, weddings and other events. Everything is made to order; allow 1-2 weeks before orders are ready to be shipped. To order, go to www.rogueconfections.com or call 212-541-7286.

Gnossis Chocolates
Vanesa Barg takes her chocolate seriously. They’re not just certified kosher by Rabbi Zev Schwarcz of the International Kosher Council, they’re also certified organic, vegan and raw. Back in 2007, when Barg started making chocolates, she didn’t know she would be starting a chocolate company. She was just beginning her practice as a certified holistic health counselor and made the treats for her clients to replace their unhealthy sweets. Without marketing or assistants, stores in New York started requesting her bars. She designed a label, added PayPal to her health counseling website and was in business. Today she offers a mind-boggling selection of bars, including collections enhanced with nuts and seeds, fruits and berries, aromatics and more. There are treats like her pumpkin spice truffles and all manner of chocolate gifts to choose from. Barg’s website alone is fascinating with a detailed description of every ingredient plus facts about her commitment to pure foods and sustainability; www.gnosischocolate.com or call 877-4-GNOSIS.

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uga_get_option: track_extensions uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_extensions (gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc) Checking file extension gif Checking file extension jpg Checking file extension jpeg Checking file extension bmp Checking file extension png Checking file extension pdf Checking file extension mp3 Checking file extension wav Checking file extension phps Checking file extension zip Checking file extension gz Checking file extension tar Checking file extension rar Checking file extension jar Checking file extension exe Checking file extension pps Checking file extension ppt Checking file extension xls Checking file extension doc Ending uga_track_internal_url: Ending uga_track_full_url: Ending uga_preg_callback: Start uga_preg_callback: Array Get tracker for full url Start uga_track_full_url: www.chocolatmichelcluizel.com/NY/index.php Start uga_is_url_internal: www.chocolatmichelcluizel.com/NY/index.php Start uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' 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file extension jpeg Checking file extension bmp Checking file extension png Checking file extension pdf Checking file extension mp3 Checking file extension wav Checking file extension phps Checking file extension zip Checking file extension gz Checking file extension tar Checking file extension rar Checking file extension jar Checking file extension exe Checking file extension pps Checking file extension ppt Checking file extension xls Checking file extension doc Ending uga_track_internal_url: Ending uga_track_full_url: Ending uga_preg_callback: Start uga_preg_callback: Array Get tracker for full url Start uga_track_full_url: www.jers.com Start uga_is_url_internal: www.jers.com Start uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: internal_domains (www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com) Checking hostname www.chutzpahmag.com Checking hostname chutzpahmag.com Ending uga_is_url_internal: Get tracker for external URL Start uga_track_external_url: www.jers.com Start uga_get_option: track_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_ext_links (1) Tracking external links enabled Start uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links (/outgoing/) Ending uga_track_external_url: www.jers.com Ending uga_track_full_url: /outgoing/www.jers.com Adding onclick attribute for /outgoing/www.jers.com Ending uga_preg_callback: www.jers.com Start uga_preg_callback: Array Get tracker for full url Start uga_track_full_url: www.saltoftheearthbakery.com/retail Start uga_is_url_internal: www.saltoftheearthbakery.com/retail Start uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: internal_domains (www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com) Checking hostname www.chutzpahmag.com Checking hostname chutzpahmag.com Ending uga_is_url_internal: Get tracker for external URL Start uga_track_external_url: www.saltoftheearthbakery.com/retail Start uga_get_option: track_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_ext_links (1) Tracking external links enabled Start uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links (/outgoing/) Ending uga_track_external_url: www.saltoftheearthbakery.com/retail Ending uga_track_full_url: /outgoing/www.saltoftheearthbakery.com/retail Adding onclick attribute for /outgoing/www.saltoftheearthbakery.com/retail Ending uga_preg_callback: www.saltoftheearthbakery.com/retail Start uga_preg_callback: Array Get tracker for full url Start uga_track_full_url: www.chutzpahmag.com/archives/1981/rogue-confections-chanukah-six-pack Start uga_is_url_internal: www.chutzpahmag.com/archives/1981/rogue-confections-chanukah-six-pack Start uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: internal_domains (www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com) Checking hostname www.chutzpahmag.com Match found, url is internal Checking hostname chutzpahmag.com Ending uga_is_url_internal: 1 Get tracker for internal URL Start uga_track_internal_url: www.chutzpahmag.com/archives/1981/rogue-confections-chanukah-six-pack, Start uga_get_option: track_files uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_files (1) Tracking files enabled Start uga_get_option: track_extensions uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_extensions (gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc) Checking file extension gif Checking file extension jpg Checking file extension jpeg Checking file extension bmp Checking file extension png Checking file extension pdf Checking file extension mp3 Checking file extension wav Checking file extension phps Checking file extension zip Checking file extension gz Checking file extension tar Checking file extension rar Checking file extension jar Checking file extension exe Checking file extension pps Checking file extension ppt Checking file extension xls Checking file extension doc Ending uga_track_internal_url: Ending uga_track_full_url: Ending uga_preg_callback: Start uga_preg_callback: Array Get tracker for full url Start uga_track_full_url: www.rogueconfections.com Start uga_is_url_internal: www.rogueconfections.com Start uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: internal_domains (www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com) Checking hostname www.chutzpahmag.com Checking hostname chutzpahmag.com Ending uga_is_url_internal: Get tracker for external URL Start uga_track_external_url: www.rogueconfections.com Start uga_get_option: track_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_ext_links (1) Tracking external links enabled Start uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links (/outgoing/) Ending uga_track_external_url: www.rogueconfections.com Ending uga_track_full_url: /outgoing/www.rogueconfections.com Adding onclick attribute for /outgoing/www.rogueconfections.com Ending uga_preg_callback: www.rogueconfections.com Start uga_preg_callback: Array Get tracker for full url Start uga_track_full_url: www.chutzpahmag.com/archives/1981/gnosis-assortment Start uga_is_url_internal: www.chutzpahmag.com/archives/1981/gnosis-assortment Start uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: internal_domains (www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com) Checking hostname www.chutzpahmag.com Match found, url is internal Checking hostname chutzpahmag.com Ending uga_is_url_internal: 1 Get tracker for internal URL Start uga_track_internal_url: www.chutzpahmag.com/archives/1981/gnosis-assortment, Start uga_get_option: track_files uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_files (1) Tracking files enabled Start uga_get_option: track_extensions uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_extensions (gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc) Checking file extension gif Checking file extension jpg Checking file extension jpeg Checking file extension bmp Checking file extension png Checking file extension pdf Checking file extension mp3 Checking file extension wav Checking file extension phps Checking file extension zip Checking file extension gz Checking file extension tar Checking file extension rar Checking file extension jar Checking file extension exe Checking file extension pps Checking file extension ppt Checking file extension xls Checking file extension doc Ending uga_track_internal_url: Ending uga_track_full_url: Ending uga_preg_callback: Start uga_preg_callback: Array Get tracker for full url Start uga_track_full_url: www.gnosischocolate.com Start uga_is_url_internal: www.gnosischocolate.com Start uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: internal_domains (www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com) Checking hostname www.chutzpahmag.com Checking hostname chutzpahmag.com Ending uga_is_url_internal: Get tracker for external URL Start uga_track_external_url: www.gnosischocolate.com Start uga_get_option: track_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_ext_links (1) Tracking external links enabled Start uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.chutzpahmag.com,chutzpahmag.com', 'account_id' => 'UA-15887648-1', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => true, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/andrew@chutzpahmag.com', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links (/outgoing/) Ending uga_track_external_url: www.gnosischocolate.com Ending uga_track_full_url: /outgoing/www.gnosischocolate.com Adding onclick attribute for /outgoing/www.gnosischocolate.com Ending uga_preg_callback: www.gnosischocolate.com Ending uga_filter:

By Julie Canter
I’ve been wild about the French masters ever since I went to grade school with the son of the owners of Dumas Patisserie in New York (while other kids brought brownies to parties, Charles would walk in with a stack of bakery boxes—can you say dacquoise?). Ever since then I’ve been on a quest for the richest and the best, from truffles to petits fours to macarons. The famed Chocolate Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York, held every November, is the perfect way to find out what’s new in the world of chocolate. What we also uncovered is the new trend of making offerings kosher so that delicacies can be enjoyed by all chocolate lovers. Here are this year’s top finds, many of whom are actually home-grown and putting Parisian chocolatiers on notice.

Les Cinq Amandes
Lina Ariss-Abdo’s daughter Lara was graduating from high school in Greenwich, CT and she wanted to find just the right treats to give out to guests. “We looked everywhere and could not find elegant and quality favors combi