tagged: celebrities

Jews in the News: Yom Kippur Celeb Stories

Posted by Nate Bloom in Arts & Culture

Nate Bloom blogs on this week’s Jews in the News

Yom Kippur Celeb Stories

Stories about celebrities observing the High Holidays (this year) usually appear in the media (including Twitter) the day before, or a day or two after the holiday(s)—so I cannot get them in my column, which is written a bit in advance. I gathered the following “evergreen” anecdotes over a period of years and they’ve been previously published in Jewish papers that have long taken my column. But I believe most of them will be unfamiliar to the greater Tampa Bay area readers of this column. So, enjoy.

Famous actor KIRK DOUGLAS, 95, who became very religious in the early 1990s, recalls that for most of his life he was not observant, but he always went to synagogue on Yom Kippur. He credits this practice with keeping a spark of faith alive that was kindled in his later years.

In a lighter vein, comedian ROBERT KLEIN, 70, says that against his better judgment he once accepted a lucrative club date on Yom Kippur. He got an infected wart. Since then, Klein has not played on Yom Kippur, and he says that one club owner calls him the “SANDY KOUFAX of comedy.”

The owner, of course, was referring to the decision of the baseball great not to pitch in a 1965 World Series game which fell on the holiday. Other Jewish players who have sat out the day include Hall-of-Famer HANK GREENBERG, retired slugger SHAWN GREEN, 39, and KEN HOLTZMAN, 66, an excellent pitcher who played for several teams in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Holtzman, then playing for Oakland Athletics, declined to pitch in a 1973 play-off game against the Baltimore Orioles that fell on Yom Kippur. His team had no problem with his decision and the A’s management said it would find a local Baltimore synagogue where Holtzman could attend services. He was, however, surprised when a limousine appeared in front of his Baltimore hotel on Yom Kippur morning. The driver told Holtzman that he was told to take the pitcher to synagogue.

As reported by the Forward newspaper, “[Holtzman] was escorted to front row center of the synagogue, where he was offered a handshake by a distinguished-looking man standing near his family. ‘Ken, let me introduce myself,’ the man said. ‘I’m JERRY HOFFBERGER, owner of the Orioles.’ For Holtzman, the moral of the story was simple: ‘Jews stick together.’”

Another story concerns musical great SAMMY DAVIS, JR., who converted to Judaism in the mid-1950s. In 1959, Davis refused to work on Yom Kippur during the film production of “Porgy and Bess.” Director OTTO PREMINGER, who was Jewish, but famous for his insensitivity to other people’s feelings, got angry at Davis and called the film’s producer, the legendary SAMUEL GOLDWYN.

Goldwyn immediately called Davis and wanted to know if it was true about his refusing to work. Sammy said that as a Jew he could not work on the Day of Atonement. There was silence for a moment, with Goldwyn no doubt noting that stopping production to accommodate Davis would cost $30,000 (which equals $235,000 in 2012 dollars). Finally, Goldwyn, who was a non-practicing Jew, said, “Bless you.” Production on the film was stopped for Yom Kippur.

The final anecdote concerns the famous composer/conductor LEONARD BERNSTEIN. Bernstein came from a family of Talmudic scholars, but was only moderately observant in his adult years. However, Bernstein would hire a taxicab for Yom Kippur and go around Manhattan “shul-hopping.” He did this because he loved to hear many different cantors’ interpretations of the traditional prayers.

Bernstein knew, of course, that riding was forbidden on the holiday, so he would have the cab driver drop him off a block away from each synagogue so that synagogue-goers would not see the famous conductor riding on the holiday.

His son, ALEXANDER BERNSTEIN, now 57, commented that his father would immediately intensely concentrate on the service and the cantor upon entering a synagogue. He was carried-away, his son said, in a world of his own.

New Flicks Opening Friday, Sept. 14

Handsome Israeli actor ODED FEHR, 41, who is best known for playing the character “Ardeth Bay” in “The Mummy Films,” has a large supporting role in “Resident Evil: Retribution,” the fifth flick in the “Resident Evil” series. His character (Carlos Olivera) was killed in the third “Evil” movie, but Carlos comes back as a clone of himself. Fehr is also seen in flashback as the “real Carlos.” By the way, for a long time, there were website notes that said that Fehr’s father was a non-Jewish German. This is not right: his Jewish parents immigrated to Israel from Germany and the Netherlands, respectively. Fehr, by the way, served in the Israeli Navy.

Disney has brought back the 2003 animated film classic, “Finding Nemo,” in 3-D. ALBERT BROOKS, 65, voices Marlin, a clownfish who is the overprotective father of Nemo (voiced by ALEXANDER GOULD, now 18. He’s been co-starring as Shane Botwin on the Showtime series, “Weeds,” since 2005).

Nate Bloom writes a weekly column on Jewish celebrities, broadly defined, that appears in the Atlanta Jewish Times, the Cleveland Jewish News, the American Israelite of Cincinnati, the Detroit Jewish News, and the New Jersey Jewish Standard. It also appears bi-weekly in j., the Jewish news weekly of northern California. Most of the items in Bloom’s weekly newspaper column differ from the items in his bi-weekly column on interfaith celebrities for InterfaithFamily.com. If you wish to contact Nate Bloom, e-mail him at middleoftheroad1@aol.com .  The author welcomes questions and celebrity “tips,” especially about people you personally know.