The Joy+ Issue
A New Scroll of LA Jewish News
Make your own Purim mask! Copy and paste image into new document and print. Glue to cardboard. Cut-out hamantaschen and the centers for eye-holes. Punch two holes for elastic. Will you be prune? Or mohn?
Folks,
Purim begins Saturday night, and if you didn’t already realize it, we have entered into a time when, like the Megillat Esther, things are v’nahafoch hu, turned upside down. American Jews are suddenly (again) the bad guys, at least as bad as Haman. Some people want to drown us out and herd us into the sea. .How did we become the villain in our own story? A protracted war in Gaza against a people sympathetic to many has not helped. Some American Jews who can provide cover for real anti-semites by supporting Hamas has further turned things on their heads. Strident Israel flag wavers have left little room for opinions and policies to be turned around. Most of us are caught in the middle, and it's a perilous place to be. The political fallout from the war has caused some American Jews, like college students, to look anew at their faith, others find their faith upended. Many of us have had an Esther moment with this war; when we have had to step forward and openly identify with what we truly believe. But now we need to be like Mordechai. As the war winds down, we need to find a way to turn things right side up; look for ways to bring peace and safety to our community. Though the megillah is all about life being turned upside down, in the end, a day of joy is celebrated.
MegilLA needs to be kept right side up too. As an independent Jewish journalist, I am adding a creative and concerned voice to the conversation about events and their impact on our Jewish community.
If you have a Free Subscription, I need your help to keep publishing. Please subscribe to MegilLA today and receive a 20% discount.
Shabbat Shalom and
Happy Purim!
Edmon J. Rodman
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The true story of
'Steamboat Willie'
is quite a shpiel
A still from the opening scene of "Steamboat Willie," Walt Disney Studio, 1928. Was the hat hiding a kippah?
Edmon J. Rodman
When the copyright for “Steamboat Willie” expired this year, it freed up much more than just the 1928 Disney cartoon that introduced Mickey Mouse to the American movie-going audience.
What also passed into public domain, apparently, was the tale of a Russian Jewish immigrant named Mikhail Muskowitz, upon whose early life, his descendants claim, the animated film was based.
"It's been like unraveling some antique scroll," said Mikhail's great-grandson, Mickey Muskowitz, "but now the time has come to reveal that Steamboat Willie was in real life a Jew."
“We think my great-grandfather sold them his life story sometime in the Roaring 20s,” said Mickey. “Part of the deal was that the Jewish roots of “Steamboat Willie,” remain a secret for the length of the copyright, said Muskowitz. They wanted to keep the tale under wraps.”
Mikhail went along with it “because after escaping the Russian Revolution, he thought it best to live life in the U.S. on the down low,” explained his great-grandson.
According to Mickey, Mikhail had been a steamboat captain in Russia, and when he came to the U.S. around 1918, found work on the Mississippi, captaining a small ship that hauled dry goods and timber.
“It was while picking up freight in New Orleans that he met my great-grandmother Minna Mausky,” said Mickey. Family lore has it that on their first date, the two shared some wine and cheese,” he added.
“I inherited a cabinet card photo of them. They look very short and very much in love. When they had troubles, they knew to lend an ear."
After the debut of the cartoon, Mikhail, dropped his brief writing career and returned to working on the river. “A regular river rat,” said his great grandson, but he kept his Judaism."
But in "the 30s, with antisemitism on the rise, especially in the South, he Americanized his name, and went by Mike Musk.”
He really tried to fit in, and started reading American classics to improve his diction. Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” was his favorite book.
However, while working for the Shoeshon Steamboat line, Mike’s captain job was put at risk when a new stevedore remembered him from the old country, and told the company’s vice president H. Ayman that the company had hired a Jew as captain.
Upon hearing the news Ayman became quite animated, and decreed that he would fire Musk.
As luck would have it, Minna also worked for the company. She had won a local typing competition, and was hired as a girl Friday for the company’s president A. H. Veras, shipping king of the Mississippi with over 127 steamships and barges.
As Mickey recalled, Minna picked a quiet moment to go into the president’s office. “She didn’t want to rock the boat,” said Mickey. “But she did have something she needed to get out. It was intense.”
Minna asked “’Who is our best river boat captain?’” said Mickey.
“’Why, Mike Musk, your husband, I suppose,’” Veras replied.
“’Would he still be the best captain, even if he were Jewish?’” she asked.
“’As long as he sticks to schedule and doesn’t sink anything, still the best,’” Veras answered. “’Why do you ask?’”
“Mike is Jewish, and Ayman wants to fire him for it, and anyone else who is Jewish as well,’” she answered.
“Like you?” said Veras.
“’Like me,’” said Minna.
“’Then I would lose two good employees? That will never float,’” said the boss.
“So, Ayman was fired, and Mike hired in this place. Minna was given a raise,” said Mickey.
“When Disney got hold of the Muskowitz story they made a lot of changes,” said Mickey (Watch it HERE). They played it as an animal allegory,” he surmised. “Mikhail became a happy-go-lucky mouse named Mickey, and Minna became another mouse, Minnie.
The antagonist, instead of Ayman, became a big nasty cat who demotes Mickey and makes him peel potatoes. There’s a fattened cow, who I think was supposed to be A. H. Veras.”
The cartoon also featured “an obnoxious parrot who was meant to be the snitching stevedore. The bird just keeps popping up. If you ask me, the whole film was just a bit too parrot-y,” he said.
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Live from the Archive*
It's just nuts
With the celebration of Purim, Jews go a little nutty, both in their joy and in their giving of shalach manot (gift baskets) to friends and family. So, what better than to pull from the archive a burlap nut bag that once held five pounds of walnuts from the Morris Rosenberg company of Los Angeles. Morris, born in Russia in 1893, immigrated to the U.S. in 1897, and was naturalized in 1903. By 1907, he had started a nut business in LA. Successful at selling shelled nuts, then nut butters, both retail and wholesale, he launched the Rose brand of peanut butter named after his wife. A former resident of Beverly Hills, in retirement he moved to Phoenix where he passed away in 1965. The squirrely slogan “Nuts to You,” was first used by the company around 1940, stuck like peanut butter until the 1970s.
*The Rodman Archive of Los Angeles Jewish History is a collection of approximately 1000 objects, photos, clothing, art, books, recordings, and ephemera relating to the lives and endeavors of Jewish Angelenos between 1850 and 1980.
Seen on the Way: Country Club Park
Presented by Jewbelong, the billboard reaches out to those the organization calls “DJs,” disengaged Jews. At first shock, it seems a bit of a joy killer for Purim. Yet, at its heart, the story of Esther and the Jews of Persia, as well as the story of Jews in the U.S. today, is one of Jewish identity and survival for every Jew, be they religious, cultural, or disinterested bystander. On its website Jewbelong explains the motivation behind their billboard campaign: “This loud and proud message is starting important conversations,” they say. “These days, antisemitism is growing, and well, it can be hard to be a Joyous Jew when there’s a target on your back.” Apparently, disengaged Jews were not well enough aware they had a target on their backs, and the billboard’s gas chamber reference is supposed to wake them from their ignorance. Happy Purim!
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