fbpx

GET HOME DELIVERY! CLICK HERE »

ADVERTISE
pick up locations
HOME DELIVERY
donate

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

January 14, 1999

An Award of His Own

Leave a Comment / Community, Entertainment, Film, Old Stories, Rob Eshman /

It is strange to be alone with Billy Crystal. He’s still funny, insightful, charming — but the venue is all wrong. The Castle Rock headquarters where he works in Beverly Hills has all the ambience of a mortgage brokerage. Crystal’s own office is more homey: Craftsman furniture, a “City Slickers” riding saddle in one corner, foreign language film posters (as in, “Mr. Sabado Sera”) on the walls.

Nice decor — kind of Mission-Goes-to-the-Movies — but what’s wrong is the audience. There is none. If you’re used to watching Crystal entertain hundreds via the big screen, or hundreds of millions at the Oscars, then getting Billy Crystal all by himself in a quiet room seems unnatural. The conversation will go three, four minutes without a punch line.

Anyway, what’s so funny? On Jan. 28, at a dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Crystal will receive the National Scopus Award of the American Friends of Hebrew University. If you go to the Jerusalem campus, you can read the names of a handful of past honorees inscribed on a stone wall — Frank Sinatra, Elie Wiesel, Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg and others. But as the comic explains, just getting his name carved next to theirs wasn’t enough. “I wanted to do something,” he said, “not just have an award and a dinner.”

In past years, individual dinners have raised more than $1 million. A portion of the proceeds from this year’s banquet will create the Billy Crystal Endowment for Peace Through Performing Arts. Programs funded through the endowment will use theater, dance and music to bring together Palestinian and Israeli children.

Said Crystal: “Every day you turn on the news, and every day you see this hatred and this misunderstanding, and it’s just frustrating. No one can solve this like that, but you can take little steps. If Palestinian and Israeli children side by side, starting as little kids, can just dance, or sing, they can learn that we’re really not that different. Then they can occupy not just a stage together but a place, a living place, together.”

The idea is hardly naïve. Israelis and Arabs themselves have started at least three similar programs already in Israel, funded in part by the New Israel Fund. What Crystal can bring is the spotlight of star power. He intends to travel to Israel once projects are up and running. His last visit was 20 years ago, on a Hebrew University mission with Dinah Shore.

“Starting with kids, that’s your best chance,” he said. “If they’re going to throw rocks, it might as well be at critics.”

That joke recalled another. At the Oscars last year, Crystal jabbed at Orthodox rabbis in Israel who had declared Reform and Conservative Jews not Jewish. “I just found out I’m a Gentile,” he deadpanned.

Like the majority of American Jews, Crystal doesn’t much care for Israel’s religious and political extremes. Contrary to a report published last year in The Jewish Journal, Crystal said that, had he been in town, he would have wanted to participate in festivities marking the country’s 50th anniversary. But keeping quiet about his concerns over Israel never occurred to him.

“We should mind our own business?” he said. “If you go to Hebrew University, look at the names you’re going to see. People who have donated their time, and millions of dollars, non-Jews and Jews. It’s everybody’s business. When that happened last year [with the rabbinate], it was insulting to say we’re not Jews. It was insulting to deny our heritage, our parents, and how we were taught. Plus” — his delivery picks up here — “I was worldwide, so it was a chance to slip one in.”

People who know Billy-the-Jew say the strong and certain sense of identity stretches backward and forward in the Crystal family. “He is a very committed and passionate Jew,” said Chayim Frenkel, cantor at Kehillat Israel, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Pacific Palisades where Crystal has belonged for 14 years. “He’s the biggest mensch you’ll ever meet.”

Last year, at High Holiday Selichot services, Frenkel introduced Crystal to a boy whose father had recently been killed. Crystal spoke with the boy — a fellow baseball fan — and later arranged for him to visit the Dodgers dugout and meet his favorite players.

Janice, Crystal’s wife of 28 years, helped organize the temple’s Tikkun L.A. task force following the 1992 riots. Their daughters were bat mitzvahed at Kehillat Israel. Jenny, 25, is an actress, and Lindsay, 21, is a directing major at New York University.

“I’m not a very religious person, [but] it’s in your gut, it’s your heritage,” he said. “You wear it. I love when my daughters call up and they go, ‘I’ve made a noodle pudding.’ They call my mother for the recipe.”

Crystal’s identity, as both Jew and comic, was forged growing up in a close-knit Long Island family. Raucous family gatherings always included a performance by Crystal and his brothers.

“My house was a nightclub with gas. A lot of laughing, a lot of joy,” he said.

The Crystals were Reform Jews and orthodox Yankees fans. Crystal’s father was a jazz promoter who co-founded the seminal Commodore label. He died of a heart attack when Billy was 15. The father’s passions for jazz, baseball and Jewish life have described the son’s life, as has a search for the man himself.

Last year, Crystal and his wife began uncovering their family roots through the Sepia Guild, a New York-based genealogical search service.

“I lost my father when I was young,” he said, “so my research is to find out who he was. I want to know who he was at 15, who he was at 30. Who was this kid who became this man? What did he feel like, what did he do? I never got to ask him when he was alive.”

Part of the Crystal Endowment at Hebrew University will fund a scholarship for jazz study as well as a collection of Commodore records at the university library to honor Crystal’s father.

The search for his past comes at a challenging time in Crystal’s career. He turned 50 last year. He’s no longer the hot new standup from “Saturday Night Live,” but he’s still two decades shy of not needing makeup to play the Buddy Young Jr. character in “Mr. Saturday Night”

An Award of His Own Read More »

Community Briefs

Leave a Comment / Film, Old Stories /

Even for an international film producer and inveterate traveler, Arthur Cohn has covered a lot of territory recently.

During the last week in October, the winner of a record five Oscars and producer of “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” and “Central Station” was feted in Shanghai at his very own “Arthur Cohn Day” by the Chinese government and film industry.

He used the occasion of a retrospective of his works at the Shanghai International Film Festival to premiere his latest documentary, “Children of the Night.”

Conceived as a cinematic memorial to the 1.3 million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust — and their rescue from the anonymity of statistics — the film resurrects the faces of its subjects, sometimes at play, more often ragged and starving.

Although the film is only 18-minutes long, Cohn spent three years scouring archives across the world for material, of which only six yielded scraps of usable footage.

For the feature film to follow the documentary at the Shanghai festival, Cohn had originally selected his 1995 movie “Two Bits” with Al Pacino. However, government officials in Beijing insisted on “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis,” the 1971 classic about an aristocratic Italian-Jewish family that is ultimately destroyed by the fascists.

Cohn says that he took the Beijing fiat as a signal that “the theme of the Holocaust has been openly recognized by the Chinese government for the first time.”

His reception in Shanghai was remarkable, as press and public mobbed him like some rock star. More than 130 journalists covered his press conference, during which a giant banner above his head proclaimed “World Famous Producer Arthur Cohn” in Chinese and English.

For the screening itself, Chinese fans fought for tickets to the 2,000-seat theater. When the two films ended, the audience sat, as if stunned, for three-minutes, before quietly leaving.

For most Chinese, it was their initial introduction to a Holocaust theme. Said a young hotel manager, “Six million dead … that’s as if they murdered every bicyclist in this city.”

A reporter for the Shanghai Star perceived that “Cohn seems to cherish a special feeling for the Jews.” Indeed, the producer’s next release will be “One Day in September,” referring to the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

The production will be a “thriller with documentary footage,” says Cohn, with Michael Douglas in the central role of the commentator.

“One Day in September” will have its world premiere on Jan. 18 in Los Angeles, under the auspices of the American Film Institute.

A couple of days later Cohn arrived in Hollywood to report on his Shanghai triumph and participate in the first annual International Jewish Film Festival here.

He officiated at the American premiere of “Children of the Night” and presented an award to veteran actor Gregory Peck.

Cohn, who stands a rangy six-foot, three inches, is a third generation Swiss citizen and resident of Basel.

His father, Marcus, was a respected lawyer and a leader of the Swiss religious Zionist movement. He settled in Israel in 1949, helped to write many of the basic laws of the new state, and served as Israel’s assistant attorney general until his death in 1953.

The family’s Zionist roots go even deeper. The producer’s grandfather and namesake, Rabbi Arthur Cohn, was the chief rabbi of Basel. He was a friend of Theodor Herzl and one of the few leaders in the Orthodox rabbinate to support the founder of modern Zionism.

It was because of this support, says Cohn, that Herzl chose Basel, rather than one of Europe’s more glittering capitals, as the site of the first Zionist Congress in 1897.

Of the filmmaker’s three children, two sons have served in the Israeli army and studied at Israeli universities.

Community Briefs Read More »

Our Birthright

Leave a Comment / Israel, Old Stories /

If you are between the ages of 15 and 26, you should pay attention to this particular column. Actually, if you are the parent of anyone 15 to 26, you should read what follows, on the theory that you are likely to be the person paying the bills.

“The bills” in this instance concern a trip to Israel, and they will be covered by a new program called Birthright Israel, which has been launched by two North American Jewish leaders, philanthropists Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt. They are planning to offer every Jewish North American youth 15 to 26 years of age a first time free trip to Israel.

In essence, they are raising funds for a grant program that will cover a young person’s travel and about 10 days in one of several existing accredited programs in Israel ( hiking, touring, studying, etc.). It is to begin in the year 2000 and the ideal, on the part of the originators, is to send every Jewish American to Israel for a “first time,” the notion being that a second and third will likely follow.

The aim is to further a sense of Jewish identity, to make a connection with one’s Jewish self and community back home, and it is viewed by Bronfman and Steinhardt as a “birthright” for every Jewish American. To this end, they have embarked on a plan to create a $300 million fund, with contributions from the Israel government, from North American Federations and from individual philanthropists and philanthropic organizations. Bronfman (who is chairman of the Seagram Company Ltd.) and Steinhardt (a Wall Street financier) will each contribute $1 million a year for five years. “Every Jewish youth will be eligible to participate in a trip that will change their lives,” said Mr. Bronfman at a press conference in Jerusalem last November. “This is a gift from our generation to our children and grandchildren.”

Who could quarrel with such a bold and imaginative and wonderful idea? Not I. It seems a grand idea to me, but — how can I say this without poisoning the well? — also a dream that is somewhat innocent “around the edges.”

Birthright Israel is clearly a response to some of the very real dilemmas that confront North American Jewry today. These include concerns about the high rate of intermarriage and/or assimilation; the limited sense of Jewish identity; and the paltry knowledge of Jewish history and culture by American Jews. In short, there is a fear that we might shrink as a people (in North America at least) if not outright disappear.

The theory underlying Birthright Israel then is that a connection to Israel may serve as an effective way to lead young people back to their Jewish roots. In a reflexive sort of way it is an idea most of us would readily support.

Local Jewish educators and leaders will tell you that young people who return from a program in Israel come back all fired up. Their synagogue attendance increases, they link up with Jewish programs, they feel a strong attachment to Israel.

To be sure there probably is a strong self-selective link present. Many of the youngsters who visit Israel — for a school term, a summer program, a visit with friends or family — already have ties to Jewish life and a Jewish identity. But the problem is their numbers are dismally small: Only 3 percent, according to a report in Denver’s Intermountain Jewish News. Colorado’s Israel programs, according to the paper, “are one of the most numerical successful in the nation, but still only send 11 percent of the area Jewish teens to the Holy Land.”

The premise of Bronfman and Steinhardt is that money serves as the largest obstacle to an Israel trip. Too expensive; enter Birthright Israel. Money will no longer function as an excuse. Now young Jewish Americans will be provided a way to connect with Jewish culture and tradition — as well as with the people of Israel. But as some critics have pointed out it is not clear that financial need is the key factor. Among the broad range of Jewish adults, Europe is the preferred destination, not Israel. Why should it be any different for their children? When you actually look at those teen-agers who opt for Israel, it often seems as though they are drawn there because of family interest or because of peers. They are already predisposed towards Israel and, presumably, Jewish identity.

All of which suggests to me that the Bronfman-Steinhardt program will enable those youngsters who truly lack funds to experience Israel (a first-rate idea), but will have only a modest impact on most other families.

There is, of course, a larger question that needs to be answered: Does a trip to Israel lead everyone towards a deeper connection with either Israel or Jewishness?

Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel of America, an organization of Orthodox Jews, believes the program’s Jewish content is scant and fears that there is “much in Israel that could conceivably have a less than salubrious effect on organized Jewish souls.” For him, Israel alone does not necessarily equate with Judaism or a substantive Jewish identity. Ironically, my own non-Orthodox orientation bears some of this out.

When one of my sons graduated college, I took him with me on a trip to Ariel, a city just over the Green Line and with (then) a population of about 10,000. We traveled with Ron Nachman, the Likud mayor of Ariel as he campaigned for a seat in the Knesset. I was the journalist, my son was the photographer. We followed Ron as he attended wedding receptions and bar mitzvah parties; meetings with Ariel Sharon and with then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir; and even an all-night off-the-record session with settlers who showed up for a meeting with pistols tucked in their belts, looking like characters out of an American western.

It was a splendid trip. We each learned much about Israel. But the experience made us feel very much like someone from a different culture; not more or less Jewish, but very much like an American. I have visited Israel about 15 times since then; I have many friends there now; and I still look forward with pleasure to each trip. But I also return always feeling much more American than Jewish. It is the Israeli identity that seems so marked — in part I suppose because most of the (secular) people I meet take their Jewishness for granted, while proclaiming their national identity.

Oddly enough, it is in Europe, not Israel, that I feel most connected to my identity as a Jewish American. I suspect that’s related to the war and the fate of Jews in Europe; to the way Europeans still think of us first as Jews, and only second as Americans; and to the sense of separateness and (Jewish) pride that curiously is engendered in me whenever I travel in England or on the Continent. On these occasions I find myself seeking out Jewish history and culture and personalities, as though my Jewish roots and connections were scattered across Europe.

I have lived in France, England and Belgium. It was always made clear to me by non-Americans in those countries, or so I thought, that I was first and last, a Jew; that I was only partially an American. I took this to mean (and here my paranoia asserted itself) that should the 1930s and ’40s resurface in Europe, I had better be quick and resourceful. Being an American might not suffice.

I loved living and working overseas; and still leap at the chance to visit Europe. But I always return feeling freshly American, and very much bound by my Jewish identity.

In light of this I wonder if it would be possible to suggest that Bronfman and Steinhardt expand their Birthright program to — no, I can see already, it won’t fly. –Gene Lichtenstein

Our Birthright Read More »

Israel Beyond 1999

Leave a Comment / Community, Old Stories /

Now that a year of reviewing and celebrating Israel’s first half century has passed, it’s time to ponder the next 50 years. That’s the premise behind a daylong conference taking place on Jan. 24 in West Los Angeles.

Sponsored by the Jewish Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Committee and 30 other Jewish organizations, “Israel: 1999 and Beyond” will bring together an impressive array of journalists, academics, religious leaders, politicians and community leaders to participate in a variety of panels. Between 400 and 500 people are expected at the event, which is aimed at attracting young adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

“This conference is really for the generation that has grown up since the days of Israel’s wars,” said JCRC Executive Director Michael Hirschfeld. “This is where young people can determine what their relationship with Israel is going to be in the future.”

The list of topics includes: “The Threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East”; “Prospects for Peace in the Middle East”; “Orthodox View of Israel”; “Tensions in Israeli Society: Class, Gender, Ethnicity”; “Terrorism and the Challenge to Israeli Intelligence”; “American Jewry’s Changing Relationship with Israel”; “Search for Spirituality in Israeli Life”; “High-Tech Israel”; “New Israeli Culture”; and “Interpreting the Zionist Dream in the Next Millennium.”

A keynote panel of well-known journalists will address “Israel and the Future,” and Avraham Infeld, founder and president of Melitz Centers for Jewish-Zionist Education in Israel, will deliver the closing address.

“We put together an extremely broad base of speakers that spans the gamut of political viewpoints,” said Marc Benezra, who is co-chairing the event with Monique Maas Gibbons. “We are looking to really explore the issues with evenhandedness. We have no motivation or directive to try to influence anybody’s position, whether on the right or the left.”

Benezra, an attorney, described himself as “extremely passionate” about the state of Israel. “I think it’s important to explore that passion with others who are equally passionate, or to light the passion of those who aren’t,” he said.

A partial list of panel participants includes CBS correspondent Dan Raviv; David Makovsky, correspondent for Ha’aretz and U.S. News and World Report; New York Times reporter Judith Miller; Stuart Schoffman, associate editor and cultural columnist for The Jerusalem Report; U.S. Rep. Howard Berman; Rabbi David Eliezrie, director, North County Chabad Center; Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, director, UCLA Hillel; Yoram Ben Ze’ev, consul general of Israel, Southwestern States; Yoram Ben-Horin, founder and senior fellow, Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies; David Myers, director, Center for Jewish Studies, UCLA; Brian Jenkins, former director of research on political violence, the Rand Corp.; Jordan Frankl, senior lobbyist for AIPAC; and Galia Golan, Peace Now professor at Hebrew University.

Funded through the Jewish Community Foundation, the event is being coordinated by Rachel Andres. A continental breakfast, lunch and a cocktail party, all strictly kosher, are included in the $55 price tag. The $4 parking fee is extra. The cost is $40 for full-time students with ID. The event will take place at The Olympic Collection, 11301 Olympic Blvd. For more information, call (323) 761-8160.

Israel Beyond 1999 Read More »

The Scent of Controversy

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

Ronald Lauder, the billionaire cosmetics heir, philanthropist and conservative political activist, has been unanimously selected by a nominating committee to become the next chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The decision has ignited a furor among heads of liberal and labor-linked groups that make up nearly half the conference’s 55 members. Critics include most leaders of the two largest factions in Jewish life, the Reform and Conservative movements. Prominent activists call the choice “an outrage,” “a disaster,” “ludicrous” and other terms unfit for print.

Critics say Lauder’s right-wing views make him an inappropriate spokesman for American Jewry and would put him needlessly at odds with the Clinton administration — and perhaps with the next Israeli government. They say his close ties to the Netanyahu government will make it hard for him to play the crucial role of conciliator and consensus-builder in the sharply divided Presidents Conference. And they say that his reputedly weak communication skills won’t help.

“The key to being an effective conference chairman,” said Reform movement leader Rabbi Eric Yoffie, “is to be somebody who will listen carefully, and will be astute enough and talented enough to build a consensus in a very divided conference. And to remain silent when no consensus exists. Obviously, I hope he’ll be an effective chairman. But we’ll be watching.”

And, yet, true to the byzantine ways of Jewish organizational culture, most critics say that they will vote for Lauder when his name comes before the full body in February. Even in the nominating committee, Reform and Conservative representatives who had opposed Lauder agreed to vote for him once his nomination became inevitable. The goal, they say, is preserving unity in the Jewish community and its chief representative body. “To weaken the conference doesn’t help the Jewish community,” said committee member Stephen Wolnek, president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Lauder’s defenders call the opposition sour grapes. “Everyone would like their own representative to be chosen,” said Orthodox Union president Mandell Ganchrow, who was himself a candidate but calls Lauder a good choice. “I think he’ll do credit to the organization.”

Though scarcely known to the public, the Presidents Conference is generally recognized in government and diplomatic circles as the senior voice of American Jewry on international affairs. Operating with a tiny staff and a yearly budget of less than $1 million, it has succeeded for four decades, largely because community leaders and successive U.S. administrations have wanted it to.

In the last decade, though, the conference has lost clout, paralyzed by left-right divisions. Compounding the tension is liberal mistrust of the staff director, Malcolm Hoenlein. A staunch conservative, he is sometimes accused of shortcutting decision-making processes and taking hawkish positions without full conference approval.

The current chairman, New York attorney Melvin Salberg, has won high marks for his dogged efforts to follow procedure and build consensus. But the tedious discussions have left all sides exasperated.

Lauder, 54, is generally seen as Hoenlein’s personal candidate. But some observers say that he could surprise everyone.

The younger son of cosmetics magnate Estee Lauder, he left the family business in 1983 and joined the Reagan administration as an assistant secretary of defense. He later served briefly as U.S. ambassador in Austria.

In 1989, he mounted an expensive, spectacularly unsuccessful campaign for mayor of New York City. He ran under the banner of the small, right-wing Conservative Party, charging that Republican Rudolph Giuliani was too liberal. The race won Lauder little beyond ridicule for his wooden speaking style.

Since then, Lauder has devoted most of his energy to his Ronald Lauder Foundation, an acclaimed, multimillion-dollar program that runs Jewish summer camps and day schools in formerly communist Eastern Europe. He also serves as treasurer of the World Jewish Congress and chair of its commission on stolen art.

The presidency of the Jewish National Fund was offered to Lauder in 1997, in a move widely seen as positioning him for the conference chairmanship. Under Lauder, the fund, which was wracked by financial scandals, has dramatically recovered. He brought in new personnel and renewed morale. He also fulfilled a pledge to the right by ending the fund’s 30-year ban on spending American donations in the administered territories.

Israeli press reports regularly name Lauder as a major financial backer of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Some reports say that Lauder donated the services of conservative American media guru Arthur Finkelstein to the Netanyahu campaign.

In his interview with the Presidents Conference nominating committee on Jan. 7, Lauder denied any financial role in Israeli politics. Still, the issue was touchy enough to hold up his nomination for two days, while staffers looked for proof of his donations. None was found.

In the end, Lauder emerged from a field of six candidates as one of two finalists, along with former American Jewish Committee President Robert Rifkind. Committee members said that Lauder impressed them with a strong command of issues and a sincere commitment to pursue consensus. Most of all, though, members said that it was Lauder’s resumé — his JNF leadership, his foundation work, plus his wealth and prominence — that made his candidacy irresistible. “Name recognition does count,” said committee member Marlene Post, president of Hadassah.

As for Lauder’s political views, several committee members recalled the role of Rabbi Alexander Schindler, the Reform movement leader, who chaired the conference in 1977, when Menachem Begin became prime minister. Schindler’s embrace of the Likud leader helped pave the way for American acceptance of Begin. Lauder, they say, could similarly be a bridge-builder.

The comparison only angered liberals. “Schindler was a liberal speaking for a liberal Jewish community,” said one veteran conference member. “Lauder would be a conservative speaking for a liberal community to a liberal administration. What sense does that make?” In fact, he noted, no liberal has headed the Presidents Conference since 1982.

Indeed, some said that Lauder’s nomination seemed to mimic the current crises in Washington and Jerusalem, where right-wing minorities are successfully imposing their agendas on liberal majorities that are not effectively organized.

Lauder has worked hard to soothe his critics in recent days, promising in meetings to listen and govern from the center. Most significant, he has reportedly agreed to consider creating an executive committee. That would give the conference, for the first time, a decision-making tool that is nimble yet disciplined.

If he keeps his pledges, liberals say, he could breathe new life into the organization. If not, they warn, the body will simply continue its drift to irrelevance.

J.J. Goldberg writes a weekly column for The Jewish Journal.

The Scent of Controversy Read More »