An empire of their own: how the jews invented Hollywood by Neal Gabler

If one had to use one word to describe the relationship between the Jewish community and the United States of America, it would be ‘assimilation’.  The Jewish immigrant in this country profited well in certain unchartered industries of this great country but at the expense of his Jewish identity.  The Jewish garment industry gave rise to the secular labor unions; publishing Hebrew literature grew into publishing generic adult education, and the Jewish owned retail dry goods- department  stores developed into the general trend in fashion, are just a few industries where Jewish people distinguished themselves.  The entertainment industry as it manifests itself in motion pictures is an outstanding example of Jewish success in a field that the Jewish immigrant entered on the ground floor and created an industry and quintessential image of America.  It is a clear example of the trend toward assimilation – that great pressure to “become American” and shed that perceived as obscure baggage of unique Jewish Identity.

The great production companies, MGM, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures, and RKO were all Jewish companies responsible for creating the typical American movie experience.  They created a “recession proof” industry because they understood that a picture was an idyllic escape from the drudgery and harsh realities from which the movie goer lived.

This fascinating study describes the big personalities of Louis B. Mayer, Carl Laemmle, Adolph Zucker, Jack and Harry Warner, Samuel Goldwyn (Goldfish) and how they created feel good pictures.  It is the story of the short life (37years) of Irving Thalberg, the genius in producing over 400 films of quality.  One gets a glimpse of their rabbis, Edgar Magnin, and Max Nussbaum, two Reform rabbis who did not demand any Jewish observance.  The only difference between the two rabbis, was perhaps one was more Zionistic (Nussbaum fled Germany to escape the Nazi clutches.)

Because the nature of the control of production of a picture was absolute, one understands the natural reaction against management and the rise of labor and the leftist influences in Hollywood according to Mr. Gabler.  One sees the confusion and lack of clarity in speaking out against Hitler by the movie moguls because of his position against Stalin and the Communists!  Very few films were made with a message against Hitler’s fascism and those that were made did not mention the Jewish plight explicitly.  Somehow the moguls did not want the world to think WWII had a Jewish problem.

The ease of turning in those who dabbled with the Communist Party USA and creating a black list uncovers the naked insecurity of the Jewish immigrant movie moguls and uncovers the lack of confidence in Constitutional Rights and guarantees of free speech and political opinions.

The most poignant comment, however, came from producer, Jack Warner on his deathbed, after a life of complete “Americanism” confusing his daughter, telling her surprisingly “Marry a Jew!”  When asked why,  Warner explained, ‘Because they – goyim (gentiles) hate us! – they'll end up shouting ‘you're a dirty Kike!’

Neal Gabler’s worthwhile study documents as Mr. Warner asserted that assimilation does not work!

Run Silent, Run Deep by Commander Edward L. Beach

Growing up, my father would recommend  great war motion pictures. One of the great ones, he recommended and was viewed often in our home was the 1950’s hit Run Silent Run Deep with heavy weights Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster (it was a film in which comedian Don Rickles had his movie debut), a submarine drama during WWII.

My father trying to motivate me to read, suggesting perhaps that such a drama in print would keep my attention, placed the Reader’s Digest condensed version upon which the film is loosely based in front of me.  At the time, however, I enjoyed watching movies or playing ball and lacked the motivation to pick up the book.  Reading was very difficult for me in those days.

I finally took out the complete version from the library. Although the book is nothing like the film, my father was correct in his original suggestion:  it kept my attention!

I learned an important feature about being in the Navy and Submarine duty specifically: the tasks on ship require technical training.  Navy life is not simple soldiering.  Each task on a Submarine for example, requires a serious education.  The Navy is always on the cutting edge of technology.  For example, shooting a torpedo at a zig zagging Destroyer requires geometric calculation which requires skill and training.

The climax of the book is completely different than the film.  The book ends with a shocking assault against Japanese survivors of their sinking ship.  Commander Richardson deliberately plows his submarine into the remaining life rafts and life boats precluding any possibility of rescue.  Richardson is racked with guilt for committing murder – however, war becomes a justification and vengeance for Japanese atrocities seem to assuage the protagonist’s guilt.  I believe had this been a true event today, such a commander would have been court-martialed  instead of receiving the Medal of Honor as the protagonist does in the book!

The book is an engaging fast read about a "cat and mouse" game in the Pacific theater after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the battle at Mid Way Island.

The Fiery Trial by Eric Foner

Eric Foner’s study of the downfall of slavery in America, The Fiery Trial, is an outstanding contribution to the evolution of Abraham Lincoln’s thinking toward the black man in America.  Mr. Foner shows the early simple racism of Lincoln, one not conceiving of an American future for Black Americans yet all the time believing slavery to be an absolute wrong.  Lincoln grows as his experience brings him in contact with very impressive people like Frederick Douglass and learns ultimately that colonization is not an option and black suffrage the serious possibility.

Abraham Lincoln is lionized in American history as the great emancipator.  What is little known is that he is also a product of his environment which meant prejudice against non-white people.  He is known to tell “darky” jokes even in the midst of wanting to see the destruction of slavery.  Lincoln is on record saying that he does not believe that the races are equal and sees Whites superior.  Lincoln is an avid supporter of colonizing blacks voluntarily to Africa as a follow up to the destruction of the institution of slavery even after the famed proclamation is published because he does not see a positive future for Black Americans.  The idea of integration seems an anathema to him.

The constant sharp criticism of the great abolitionists (people Lincoln never identified with) and the obvious facts on the ground of massive slaves escaping and fleeing to Union forces who claimed America legitimately their homeland, not Africa changed Lincoln’s thinking about his own racism. He is the first to call them citizens and advocates suffrage to “at least the most intelligent”.

What was clear from this study is that a 19^th century understanding of being against slavery dis not necessarily imply racial equality! The social fabric of 19^th century America was very much racist across the North and the South and that the real problem was not the destruction of Slavery but rather what to do with an unwanted free work force.  Had Lincoln continued to deal with reconstruction, Mr. Foner leaves the possibility open that we would have had a different outcome, one much more positive than what transpired.  Unfortunately, Lincoln’s successor, Johnson was an avid racist and put forth reconstruction policies that negated the existence of Black Americans.

Most movies, even Steven Spielberg’s impressive production about Lincoln portray him simplistically liberal.  However, Professor Foner delivers a much more accurate, complex picture of a man in slow social transition.  Not only does he evolve socially but also Mr. Foner shows how Mr. Lincoln evolves religiously from at first being a self-professing skeptic into a believer thinking that God is behind the profound human events surrounding the Civil War.

In learning about Mr. Lincoln, choose this book over any movie!

Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel by John Guy

For one investigating the early signs in favor of the concept of separation of Church and State, John Guy's excellent critical study of the the life and death of England's Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket is a fruitful beginning.  The story of Becket has fascinated people for centuries because it is the story of meritocracy, the rise of a middle class Londoner to the post of Chancellor, very close to the King of England and then to the highest post in Catholic England, Archbishop at Canterbury.  His story is infamous because his murder takes place in the Cathedral.

The politics of Henry II are intricate, however, he himself is bald in his grab for land and power.  As a king of divine right, he tests the limits of his control of the Church by expropriating lands, monies and appointments.  Christendom at his time is split in controversy with a competing anti-pope so that the papacy of Rome must deal delicately with Henry constantly courting his fealty and support.

Becket is complex, initially seen as a loyal subject of the king but clearly transforms himself into a penitent loyal to the Church.  He surprises Henry with his lectures of Church autonomy and the limits to what a king can and cannot do.

One sees the waffling of a papacy instead of steadfast support of Becket's position because the Pope does not want to alienate the powerful King of England.

I enjoyed Mr. Guy's critical eye in his evaluation of the hagiography, able to see hyperbole and sift through the sources to find the truth about the main characters of this episode in England's history.

How To Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

This old book allows one to digest the meaning of reading.  Although written with a condescending tone and sets of "rules", the book is helpful in sorting out the different ways one navigates through various types of reading.  Highly opinionated, Adler and Van Doren attempt to explain reading that is rarely done at school.

Elementary reading that is negotiating the words of a sentence to come up with some intelligible idea, action or thought was the only discussion I can remember being taught in my formal education.  For me, the negotiation came so difficult that as a result I did not put in much time to master it.  I would be rather playing ball than figuring out a story line.  When my father would coach me and say "you don't have to read every word. Just read for the ideas", I could never understand conceptually what my father was talking about!  My own advancement in reading came years later after I was married coming out a theater complaining "how come at the movies I have instant understanding yet with a book I don't?"

Through self discovery, I have come to realize that reading is an active search and not a passive repose.  One must actively search for purpose and meaning on the page because each author is communicating an action, thought or idea.  Good writing which is organized with topics and theses makes reading easier than one might think because the author is painting a scene.  If one is actively seeking that scene, one will be successful.

How to Read a Book is a good reminder of how to read analytically; it reminds one to read with the unity of the book in mind and reminds one to ask questions of the author that need to be answered.

I wonder why reading in school rarely is discussed beyond the elementary stages.  When one gets to high school teachers make demands on students that require skill in reading that have not been taught.  I am not sure in my own case that had my teachers taught reading analytically that I would have been successful.  Help for me came from a book on mechanics of reading: Faster Reading Self Taught by Harry Shefter.  Such a book mapped out a page conceptually and I was able to improve by searching for topic sentences and thinking that I was watching a picture.

The Oppermanns by Lion Feuchtwanger

This novel published in 1934, profoundly and accurately describes the brutal control of Germany by the National Socialists (Nazis).  It predicts the program of destroying the Jewish people that eventually becomes known as the Holocaust. What is chilling about this novel are the feelings of dread that a typical Jewish family experience during the gradual Nazi takeover of the country.

The story revolves around a family who have been sustained by a successful discount furniture concern. One brother runs the business, one is a scientist and one is a scholar dilettante.  Each person becomes entangled with the dreadful web of Nazi persecution.  The store must "Germanize" because Jewish owned businesses were outlawed (Note that in real life the famed Warburg bank had to change its name to continue doing business)  The scientist must close down his laboratory and the scholar must flee.

The social pressure to conform and contort the truth toward Nazi doctrines is chilling. The power grab and its assertion over the people is crushing.  When a son of one of the Oppermanns delivers a lecture that ultimately argues in Germany's favor but puts forth initial arguments that fault Germany, he is immediately silenced, rebuked and demanded to be punished; his freedom of speech squelched.  His teacher's outburst is totally irrational jumping to the conclusion that the lecture rejected Germany's glorious past when in fact it did not.  The boy becomes more and more socially isolated as his classmates become indoctrinated and cling to Nazi propaganda and outlook.

What comes out of this novel is the frightening realization of those whose family settled in Germany for generations are homeless.  What is one to do when one is unjustly accused of betrayal of his home?  The physical abuse of the Jewish people is maddening because those drunk with power negate truth and justice.  Terror and brute force become the vehicles for power. The brothers struggle for survival with little prospects.  Zionism and the quest for Palestine become an acute solution for some but most can't come to terms that Germany is not a welcome place anymore.

I personally can not imagine my rights of citizenship arbitrarily stripped.  Prescient in 1934, this book inadvertently underscores the role of the State of Israel as a refuge for those homeless. It is an outstanding accurate description and expression of the despair of Germany's Jewish community.

Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes by John Rosengren

This new volume comes to me as gift from my 10th grade Bible class (knowing my proclivity towards baseball) and brings to light some aspects of Hank Greenberg that actually show a tragic disconnect.  The book is divided into basically his youth, his playing years, his baseball management years and his family life after baseball.

Hank was a superstar.  He was a ball player that loved knocking in runs; he valued the RBI statistic over home runs.  He was a crowd 'pleaser'; often hitting in clutch situations and winning ball games.  Hank appreciated his Jewish status as inspiring Jewish kids and he took to heart the antisemitism of the thirties and the rise of Hitler.  He absorbed much verbal abuse for being Jewish. He would say that every homer was a hit against Hitler.  He respected his parents wish not to play on the High Holy days.  On the morning of Rosh HaShanah, he went to synagogue but played in the afternoon,  On Yom Kippur, however, he sat out games in observance of the holiest day of the year.  He was very conscious of being a prominent Jew in the Major Leagues.

When Greenberg was general manager of the Cleveland Indians he alienated some great players by demanding pay cuts.  Al Rosen, for example, decided to quit baseball instead of taking a cut in salary,  feeling that Greenberg was unnecessarily harsh with him.  (Rosen, so ensconced in the Jewish community at the time, did not need baseball to succeed and was offered some great opportunities.)  Pitching great Bob Feller was also asked to take a cut.  One sees that Greenberg was insensitive to the players and eventually was let go as a result of his not getting along with the players.

The greatest disconnect, however, was his relationship to his Judaism and how he related that identity to his three children.  After serving in the Pacific theater of WWII, he became disillusioned with organized religion and did not frequent the synagogue.  He did not communicate his religion to his children to the chagrin of his daughter who was embarrassed about not knowing about Judaism.  He replied that he did not believe in organized religion!  His sons, in going to Yale, put down "Congregationalist" for their religion, as that was the religious auspices of the university!  His advocacy for the State of Israel was absolute, however, even alienating his daughter in law who identified with Palestinian causes.  He demanded observance of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement by going to the planetarium!  What a confused soul!

Someone who intuitively understood his responsibility as a Jewish sports hero could not even pass on a Jewish identity to his children!  A sad disconnect.  As Peter Levine so eloquently has stated, Baseball and other sports were merely vehicles for the immigrant generation to assimilate.  Hank Greenberg's assimilation was so complete he passed on to his children an absolute American identity without a Jewish conscience.