Women First
A New Scroll of LA Jewish News
Folks,
Energizing this National Women’s Month issue is Lillian Burkhart Goldsmith. Born in 1871 in Pennsylvania to a Jewish family, in her theater career in the early 20th century she was known as "the foremost comedienne in vaudeville." Lillian was much, much more. Her presence and readings at local Jewish and city gatherings created a kind of energy which comes down to us today. She organized several city-wide pageants, and was president of the LA chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women where she helped to create a Jewish adult education program. She was also a local organizer for Girl Scouts, and an officer in the Ebell Club. After her husband passed away, she supported herself by buying houses, fixing them up and flipping them. A great builder of Los Angeles, we remember her intelligence, wit, charm, and compassion.
Speaking of compassion, MegilLA needs yours. Many of you have subscribed for free, and I need your help to keep sending this publication to you. I need your support. 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. Please subscribe today, espeically if you want to receive the Passover issue and issues beyond. Don’t you think it’s time? It’s 20% off!!!!
Shabbat Shalom.
Edmon J. Rodman
////\/\\\\
////\/\\\\
GUIDE FOR THE JEWPLEXED
To be the luckiest,
does "Funny Girl"
need a Jew?
Melissa Manchester as Mrs. Brice and Katerina McCrimmon as Fanny Brice in the National Tour of "Funny Girl." Photo Matthew Murphy
Edmon J. Rodman
Does “Funny Girl” without a Jewish actor in the lead rain on our parade?
A revival of the Broadway musical about the life of Fanny Brice that has been touring the U.S. opens at the Ahmanson April 2 with Katerina McCrimmon playing the Jewish actress, comedian, and singer. (See a clip HERE.) Though she has received great reviews, why does not having a Jewish actress in the role sting more than sing?
In a time when cultural authenticity is a desirable element, why don’t the rules that rule the day apply here? Even the Hallmark Channel now hires Jewish actors for its Hannukah movies.
Though we live in a time when a black actor can play Alexander Hamilton, why wouldn’t a white actor cast as Celie in an adaptation of Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” be acceptable?
Like a non-Jewish Fanny Brice, the answer is all about cultural identity, authenticity, and a feeling your ethnic story is being obliterated.
Brice, born Fania Borach in 1891, came up through vaudeville and the Ziegfeld Follies. But Fanny, who spoke no Yiddish, really came to the attention of Broadway and the American public through humor delivered with a Yiddish accent.
With a musical score by Jules Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, book by Isobel Lennart, and with a revision by Harvey Fierstein, all Jews, you would think that there is more than enough experience with Jewish life in America cooked into the production to ensure the telling of a Jewish story.
Yet the casting of the revival is lacking that Jewish tam, that special flavor.
When the original “Funny Girl” opened on Broadway in 1964, it played to a Jewish audience who had grown up hearing Brice’s voice on the radio. They knew what was authentic, and it was important to them who played her on the stage. Their “suspension of disbelief,” their ability to get into the story, was influenced by who was doing the suspending.
The news around the original version, overlaid the story of a young rising Barbra Streisand playing the part of a young Jewish woman trying to make it on Broadway. The interplay created a special connection for the Jewish audience.
This was a Lower East Side story about the struggle for acceptance, that in so many ways they had experienced themselves. When Streisand as Brice sang “People who need people” it was a song of longing they all knew.”
Sixty years later, performing before an audience that does not have the same intimate familiarity with Brice, but is still struggling for acceptance, authenticity matters even more.
For a Jewish audience, there is something transformative about a Jewish performer telling a story that comes from Jewish experience. The telling can act as a touchstone to Jewish memory, and Jewish identity.
Looking at the Jewish press for the original version, it is easy to read, a sense of pride in Streisand’s performance. Jewish organizations picked up on this, and used the musical to draw an audience. In Chicago, O.R.T. used a benefit performance of “Funny Girl” as a fundraiser. When the film version of the musical opened in Los Angeles, The University of Judaism library also used a performance to raise money.
In comparison, reviewing the recent press “Funny Girl” has received on its national road trip, the fact that Fanny Brice was Jewish is nearly lost. Many of the pieces do not even mention that Brice was Jewish. Here in L.A., the text on the Center Theatre Group’s site just says that Brice was “a girl from the Lower East Side who dreamed of a life on the stage.”
She was a Jewish girl.
Yet, when it comes to ticket sales, the Ahmanson does play up the musical’s Jewish heritage. Opening night is promoted as “Jewish Community Night.”
Not every story about a Jewish person requires a Jewish actor to bring it to life. Danny Thomas managed to pull-off the Al Jolson role in a re-make of the “Jazz Singer,” even singing “Kol Nidre.” (Hear Danny HERE.) Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein, outfitted with a now-famous prosthetic nose, breathed life into his character.
Nor can any Jewish actor survive on just Jewish roles.
But some Jews who played an important role in our culture, or world Jewish culture like Golda Meir need to be authentic. To give the Jewish audience someone to dream on and identify with, these figures need to be represented by a Jewish voice.
The non-Jewish audience needs to hear that voice too.
With the addition of many new songs, staging and dialogue, the producers have readied the show for a new audience that doesn’t know about Fanny Brice or her Jewishness.
During a time when the opinion divide about American Jews has grown dramatically, it is important to narrow the gap by telling positive stories about Jews and their contributions that in every way, including casting, are about Jews.
After a performance of “Funny Girl,” and a return to the uneasy current realities of Jewish life in America we need to ask: How comfortable are we experiencing the story of a Jewish person of relatable experience, even fame, whose essence is being blended into the great American melting pot?
////\/\\\\
The work of Trudie Strobel
comes to Long Beach
Tapestry by Trudie Strobel
The Holocaust-influenced tapestries of Trudie Strobel are coming to the Gatov Gallery at the Alpert JCC in Long Beach from April 1-May 24.
Through her meticulously sewn and thought-through creations, she stitches together the pain, shock, and sometimes, the hopes of those Jews, like herself who survived the Holocaust.
During the exhibit, on May 5, she will speak about her experience at the Long beach center’s Yom HaShoah Community Observance. Go to alpertjcc.org for more info.
////\/\\\\
Live from the Archive*
How Judith Love Cohen
Saved Apollo 13
In 1970, the work of Judith Love Cohen, a Jewish American engineer, helped save Apollo 13 and its crew. Born in Brooklyn in 1933, and with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from USC, she worked for Space Technology Laboratories which eventually became TRW. Her work on the Apollo Abort-Guidance System saved the day when the astronauts of crippled Apollo 13 used it to help them return home. Cohen had three children with first husband Neil Siegel, and one with second husband Thomas Black: actor and musician Jack Black. When Cohen retired, she and husband David Katz created a line of children’s books that encouraged girls to get interested in engineering, botany, cardiology, architecture, and several other science and engineering-related careers.
Seen on the Way: Condesa
neighborhood Mexico City
Photo Michael Levin
A Jewish deli in Mexico City? ¡Qué sorpresa! In the leafy Condesa neighborhood of Mexico’s capitol, Mendl, under the guidance of chef Montserrat Garza Gardeño (who is Sephardic), provides the flavor of Eastern European deli cuisine. Her menu includes all that’s required to satisfy an Ashkenazi palate away from home: eggs and lox, chopped liver, pastrami, brisket, borscht and "chile spiced lox." Vaya con dios.
////\/\\\\