fbpx

Jerry Lewis ousted as MDA telethon host

For the first time in 45 years, Jerry Lewis will not be pleading for donations in front of a camera Labor Day weekend after he was abruptly dismissed as the host of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.\'s telethon...
[additional-authors]
August 5, 2011

Viewers of the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s telethon will see a new host for the first time in more than four decades as Jerry Lewis is dismissed, Los Angeles Times reports.

For the first time in 45 years, Jerry Lewis will not be pleading for donations in front of a camera Labor Day weekend after he was abruptly dismissed as the host of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.‘s telethon, an event that drew attention to the childhood disease and in its heyday was an annual television highlight.

The group said the 85-year-old legendary comedian would not appear on this year’s telethon, and would no longer serve as its national chairman, a position he held for nearly 60 years. The telethons have raised nearly $2.5 billion, the MDA said.

The announcement and the mysterious circumstances surrounding Lewis’ departure provoked an outcry from comedians and other performers, who still widely revere him for his groundbreaking routines and public service.

Read more at LATimes.com.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

The Beat Goes On

While so much of the world seems obsessed with and consumed by its hatred of Israel and Jews, Israelis continue to build, create, work, celebrate, argue, raise families, and plan for the future.

Viral AI Video Targets Jewish Comedian

“The biggest concern is that people now have a pathway to shut down Jewish voices through complete falsities that people will believe. … For the future of Jewish entertainment, it’s very scary.”

Yiddish Historians: Writing in Their Own Language for Their Own People

Mark Smith has compiled an important anthology of Jewish history using 49 works by Yiddish historians to recreate or at least open the door to a world of Jewish thought that was once almost mainstream, but which no longer exists, except in the minds of too few specialists.

The Everlasting Melody

Most Jews who have sung “Eitz Chaim” over the past half-century probably never knew Portnoy. They did not know when he wrote the melody or how young he was when he composed it. They simply knew the song.

Who’s Really the Victim?

Those who would revel in Israel’s demise are claiming victimhood on every front and denying attacks on us in the same breath.

Biblical Deterrence

After Oct. 7, the sentiment in Israel toward the Iranian leadership was unequivocal: You went medieval — so we will go biblical.

How Sukkot Makes Us Whole

This year, I bless us that we open our eyes to truly see the beauty and the holiness of the world, and of the person before us at each and every moment, and to see the godliness of their aspirations and their fears.

The New Ushpizot

Ushpizin invite us to “welcome in our ancestral constellation and dwell amongst them.” This year, it’s Ushpizot, for the women. It’s the year of the Feminist Visitation.

Macklemore, Or Less

In between his songs, he proclaimed, “Free Palestine,” which is fine, asserted that opposing Israeli military actions is not antisemitic, which is accurate, and accused Israel of apartheid and genocide, which is offensive, untrue and hateful.

The Rokeach’s Remarkable Sukkah

To Rabbi Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (1176-1238), the medieval German pietist known as the Rokeach, the sukkah symbolized Jewish military might.

The Sukkah and the Power of Endurance

They can destroy our Temples, demonize us in social media, shower us with hate, but they can’t destroy a spirit that never stops building. That enduring spirit is the power of the sukkah.

NY Mag’s Habibi City

A satirical response to Zaina Arafat’s erasure of Jews in her New York Magazine article “Habibi City,” written as Zaina Arafat.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.