Hollywood A Listers, We Need You Now

It is 1943. A sizable percentage of Europe's Jews have already perished. In response to the world's (and America's) silence in the face of unremitting evil, as well as their growing frustration with American policy and their contempt for Hollywood's “fear of offending its European markets,” Billy Rose and Ernst Lubitsch produced a dramatic pageant at Madison Square Garden. Its purpose: to raise public awareness about the plight of European Jewry.

The pageant was written by Ben Hecht. The music was composed by Kurt Weill, and it was staged by Moss Hart. Its stars included Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni, John Garfield, Ralph Bellamy, Frank Sinatra and Burgess Meredith. Two hundred rabbis and two hundred cantors raised their voices in prayer on stage. The pageant was called “We Will Never Die,” and when it was performed on March 9, 1943, 40,000 people filled the seats — thanks to newspaper advertisements provided gratis by the Hearst Corporation.

“We Will Never Die” went on the road, with performances in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, The Los Angeles performance at the Hollywood Bowl was broadcast across the Nation on NBC radio. The Washington audience contained senators, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Notice a few elements of this story from the annals of American popular culture. First, the venues, which were huge. Second, the artistic prestige of the pageant's creators and participants. These were first-tier cultural personalities. Third: while there were certainly Jews involved in the presentation, consider the gentile performers who were also involved — Bellamy, Sinatra, and Meredith.

Cut, now, to 2014.

It would be overly dramatic and unnecessarily alarmist to proclaim that our current situation is, in any way, close to what our forebears were experiencing in 1943. True — European Jewry's situation is bad and getting worse. Also true — there has been a highly disturbing increase in anti-Semitic incidents — physical attacks — in the United States as well.

But one thing is equally true: we cannot afford complacency. It is no longer “business as usual” in the Jewish world. More than this: the crisis that world Jewry is facing (and, no, the new-old crisis of anti-Semitism has nothing to do with Gaza, though that certainly has served as an elegant and fraudulent excuse) belongs not only to the Jews. It belongs to the world as well.

My proposal: it is time for another, radically updated production — or an imitation — of “We Will Never Die.” We have been encouraged by the A list of two hundred Hollywood celebrities who have recently stood up for Israel against Hamas  — a list that includes Bill Maher, Sylvester Stallone, Kelsey Grammer, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, and Roseanne Barr.