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P«f« M THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE July 2«, H7i
Israeli basketball star Perry bolds cup high: “.../ am firm in my convictions that / want to join the fold. ”
A favorite In Israel
Black basketball star
makes move to Judaism
Strike up
Gershwin
by Father Noel Burtemhaw
Gaarpa Bakta
The century had just begun. It
was hot in New York that summer.
School was out and long, lazy days
stretched before non-productive
boys at play.
The Gershwin Brothers, George
and Ira, stood on the street and
watched the bekhy, chugging
truck rattle to a stop outside their
door. Silently, but with curious
summer interest, they observed the
actions of the non-caring delivery
knights.
A large, obstinate piece of
mahogony was yanked from under
the stubborn tarp. The grunts and
groans of the complaining
handlers went unnoticed by the
rising excited chatter of the ecstatic
pair. Look at it. Just look at it. It
glistened in the streaking reflective
sunlight right therein the middle of
the street. With reverence they
reached out and solemnly touched
its glazed surface. It was their very
own. Their first living room
upright piano.
Mrs. Gershwin had worried
about her George. His missing
hours of study were being spent at
the corner music hall. Within that
smokey dungeon he could be ,
found wistfully dreaming beside a
piano, making music in his drifting
mind.
The budget was at ebb tide for
this immigrant Jewish family, but
her decision was firm. George
would have a piano. She and the
world of imaginative musical
potential would never regret the
decision. History was being made
on that turn of the century, hot
humid afternoon.
George Gershwin was an Alley
man. He graduated from his living
the band,
lives on!
room ivories to that glorious
White Way called Tin Pan Alley.
There he crafted his genius. The
Alley was alive with song-
newborn ditties constantly in
demand for the nearby stages of
packed burlesque houses. George
joined the busy swarm of creators,
flooding the nation with the new
found sound called The American
Musical.
Gershwin carefully nurtured
that sound. At 19 his name was
already in lights. An old minstrel
man called Jolson wooed the
world with the lilting “Swanee.”
But one night, one song success
was a limit the young Gershwin
could not tolerate. Classic shows
brimming over with rapturous
melodious fresh sounds
productively raged from his
flowing pen.
From Broadway to the new
appetites of Hollywood his genius
was in demand. With brother Ira
racing in his steps as wordsmith,
his memorable shows took root in
musical winds everywhere.
“Strike Up the Band” was one of
the first. Its created beauty was
quickly overshadowed. “Lady be
Good,” “Embraceable You,"
“Bidin’ My Time," “Love is Here
to Stay." On and on Gershwinia
raged. And his mastery reached
further. The only American Folk
Opera, “Porgy and Bess" was his,
along with the curiously beautiful
“Rhapsody in Blue.” His spell was
supreme.
George Gershwin died in July,
1937. He was 38. A brain tumor
took him but not before he wrote
“true music must repeat the
thoughts and inspirations of the
people and the time. My people are
Americans. My time is today.”
He was wrong, of course. His
time is forever.
by Haskell Cohen
NEW YORK, (JTA)—Aulcie
Perry, the Black star of the
Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team,
who led that team to the European
Cup Championship in the early
spring of 1977, advised the writer
by telephone that he is converting
to Judaism. Perry led the Maccabi
Club to the European title the
same night former Premier
Yitzhak Rabin announced his
resignation from office.
The airwaves were so cluttered
with news of the basketball victory
that Rabin was forced to delay his
resignation until he could secure
time for radio and television
coverage. The populace was so
jubilant over the great victory
spearheaded by Perry that it
chanted “Perry for Prfme
Minister,” all night long.
Perry, a studious 6’II", soft
spoken individual, has been
mulling over the idea of conversion
for the last year, he advised me. He
said, “I intend to reside in Israel
permanently and feel very strongly
about the people there and have
already purchased a six and one
half room apartment which is
nearing completion in North Tel
Aviv.
“I have been studying the Bible
and will shortly commence a
comprehensive review of Jewish
laws and customs under the
guidance of a rabbi in Queens,
New York. 1 visit him two or three
times a week." I then asked Perry if
he realized the Israeli rabbinate
was very strict in the matter
pertaining to conversion.
“I know all about that, as a
matter of fact my rabbi-teacher has
tried several times to dissuade me
from making this change," Perry
replied. “Iam aware of the fact that
it is mandatory for the rabbi to try
to convince a proselyte not to
convert and he has to admonish
that individual several times.
Every time 1 have visited my
teacher, he has tried to persuade
me against this move, but, I am
firm in my convictions that 1 want
to join the fold. I am circumcised
already and know that eventually I
shall go through a religious
procedure at the mikvah.”
In the event that Perry goes
through with the conversion, he
will become the second Maccabi
team member to go this route.
Previously, Jim Boatwright
converted after playing for the club
for a period of some three years.
It is Perry’s intention to move
back to Israel early in September,
at which time he will start learning
Hebrew at an ulpan. He hopes to
meet with an Orthodox rabbi in
Tel Aviv, who will help carry out
the conversion procedure.
-^BecjsK'Thlng
is
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