Newspaper Page Text
Friday, Dec. 6, 1968
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Page Haven
PANORAMA
by DAVID SCHWARTZ
Edward G. Robinson
Wanted To Be ARabbi
Copyright 1968, JTA
The biggest show of the year
in New Yew is Off-Broadway. It
is the Har.aka Festival at Mad
ison Square Garden. For a long
time, it has been marked by a
very rich and very ecumenical
cast. Cary Grant, Jan Peeroe,
Henry Fonda, Roberta Peters —
almost every important star has
appeared on its stage. Protes
tants, Catholics, Jews. After
all, if the Maccabeans had
not been victorious, there
would have been no Judaism
but also no Christianity. The
little Hanuka candle brightened
the whole dark world No people
as well as no man is an island
unto itself.
There is one Hollywood lum
inary who is never absent
from the Madison Square Garden
event, Edward G. Robinson. In
his oontraot with the movie in
dustry, it is explicitly stipulated
that he is to be allowed time off
for the Hanuka Festival. So this
year, when Mr. Robinson marks
his 75th birthday, the Festival is
going to take time off to cele
brate it. He is a latter-day Mac-
cabean. Appropriately, Mr. Rob
inson was bom during the Han
uka season.
He was bom Edward Golden-
berg but upon becoming an ac
tor, he became Edward Golden-
berg Robinson, assuming the last
name of a character he admired
in one of the plays in which he
appeared. Having a good Jewish
education, he knew he had Bib
lical precedent for the change of
name. Jacob changed his name
to Israel when he realized he had
a public function and, similarly
before that, Abram became
Abaham.
His first ambition had been to
be a rabbi. He won all the dec
lamation prizes in the East Side
settlement. Part of him wanted
to be an actor, another part
craved the rabbinical role. In
older days, he might have been
both. Today, we are more con
stricted. Maimonides was a phy
sician and rabbi. Rashi, the
great Bible commentator, raised
grapes for a living, and a very
noted Russian rabbi of the last
century was a grocer.
It is only in more recent times
that the rabbinate has become a
specialized profession.
Edward G. Robinson never be
came a rabbi. Instead, he be
came an actor. That was one
way of being sure to have a full
house on other days besides Yom
Kippur. Ironically, he became
celebrated for his gangster roles
on the screen. “Some convey
youth or glamour, I convey only
menace,” Mr. Robinson once sad
ly said. A few years ago in the
Midwest, someone wanted to con
tact Mr. Robinson for an appear
ance at an Israel Bond function.
The girl operator was asked to
Abie Nathan Plans
Holiday Cargo
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Abie
Nathan, Israel’s "peace pilot”
who has been active in relief for
the stricken secessionist province
of Biafra in Nigeria, is in Hol
land organizing the shipment
Dec. 20 of a Christmas cargo of
food and drugs that will be sent
by ship to Biafra via the island
of Sao Tome.
contact him in Hollywood.
“Edward G. Robinson, the ac
tor?” she asked. Told that it was,
she said, “But I can’t contact him.
I am afraid.” So sharply had this
gangster image of Robinson come
across.
Yet the rabbi in him is visible.
The actor may be on the side
of the angels, holding up the mir
ror to nature, and Mr. Robinson
believes - that a picture of evil
may somehow be as effective as
a sermon in instilling virtue.
Actually he has played in
many more non-gangster pictures
than gangster. He has performed
in plays by Ibsen, Shaw and Dos
toyevsky.
Mr. Robinson has an excellent
Jewish education, knows some
Hebrew and speaks fluent Yid
dish. He is very versatile gen
erally. He plays the violin—not
as well as Menuhin but better
than Jack Benny—and certainly
as well as Thomas Jefferson, who
was also a very versatile man.
The only thing Mr. Robinson
hasn’t done is run for office like
Jefferson. Now with actors en
tering politics, that might be an
idea for him to entertain.
Life Magazine has said of Mr.
Robinson that he is one of the
most insatiable of art collectors.
He has his own private art gal
lery, which is noteworthy for its
collection of the French Impres
sionists. He has been a collector
from childhood. First, he said, it
was rare cigar bands, then big
league ball players and later it
became photographic reproduc
tions of famous paintings. When
he became a star and began to
receive the big checks, he start
ed buying originals. “It’s like the
drug habit,” Mr. Robinson says.
“Baby may need a pair of stock
ings, but you forget about it and
sink your money in the acquisi
tion of the pictures.”
Mr. Robinson is also a painter
himself. He has a tendency to
deride his handiwork. He once
said apropos of his painting,
“I’ve gotten so that I can count
on almost always hitting the
canvas when I throw some paint
on it.” However, those who have
seen his paintings say they are
well-done and his wife has a
habit of taking his paintings and
hanging them among the master
pieces of his art collection.
One ventures the thought that
of all the roles he plays, he is
happiest in that in which he ap
pears at the Hanuka Festival.
Then he is nearest to the rab-
The Hanuka candles are in
creased by one, every day of the
holiday, said a great rabbi of the
past, Hillel, in order to teach us
that we must look more to the
future than to the past. Mr. Rob
inson believes in that too.
IN TIME FOR HANUKA
al all offices of
The Citizens And Southern
National Bank
announcing
ISRAEL COIN WEEK
DEC. 9-18
In time for holiday gift-giving—limited quantities
ISRAEL’S 21 ST ANNIVERSARY 1969
COIN SPECIMEN SETS
IN SPECIAL PRESENTATION HOLDER
NOW ON SALE $3.50 plus tax
Jl Cordial Welcome Do Dll ursdaij d
ND OPEN I N G
Of
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