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P»*< 8 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April 27, 1979
DIANNE GREEN
939-7936
NEILA RESNICK
455-8458
“PcUlttf 'PtclHHCT.4
for Prrrrfect Parlies
Specializing in
Unique table decorations & centerpieces
Molly Picon
Yiddish theater brings tears, laughter
OVER 70 SPORTS AND ACTIVITIES
Imaginal Tennis on 13 lighted professional courts, staffed by a ‘well
known' Tennis ‘Pro’ and 10 Instructors! Golf, on your own private
nine hole course! Riding on seven miles of trails spread over 525
acres of breathtakingly beautiful scenery! A childrens paradise...25
sailboats, 3 motorboats, 4 Indoor Brunswick bowling lanes, canoe
trips, baseball, basketball, waterskiing, drama and dance, karate,
fencing, ocketry. ham radio, archery, photography, gymnastics,
and Go-Carts are just some of the many fasclnati g activities
available! Ages 5-16. Fee Includes air fare allowance.
Our 43rd Year! under vVe"'6erg family direction
Dietary Laws Observed Nationwide Enrollment
CALL OR WRITE FOR A BEAUTIFUL COLOR BROCHURE
by David Schwartz
Molly Picon’s autobiography is
soon to come out. The title will be
“Sounds of Laughter."
Molly is the last of the Mohicans
of the Jewish stage. Thinking of
her reminds us of the story of a
diminutive Southern Confederate
general, Joe Wheeler. It was said
that no Yankee would ever capture
him. He was so small you could
never locate him.
Molly has a bit of this
advantage She is less than five feet
tall, but her talent is big. Maybe
being small has many advantages.
You feel you have never grown up,
so you never get old Anyway,
Miss Picon, who is 8!, says age has
never been a problem to her.
That, we think, is the right
attitude to take. Molly Picon is as
good an actress today as she ever
was. There is entire'" too much
Separate camps of distinction for Bovs and Girls on beautiful Reflection
Lake in the picturesque Pocono Mountains of N.E. Pennsylvania
Stosss!© SOjaaiaMiD (g&ssaips
WINTER OFFICE: 6528 Ctstor Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1914L
Phone: (215) 533-1557
wood goodies
mobiles
mirrors
necklaces
keychains
wall name plaujues
...and other bright ideasi
mitzi rothman 49I-069A
inman pork aprd 28-1
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Celebrate IsraeVs 31st Anniversary
with the entire community
at the
Third Annual JJic
Passport To Israel
SUNDAY, MAY 6, 1979
11 a.m.—5 p.m.
Atlanta Jewish Community Center, 1745 Peachtree Road
• Free Admission
• Over 30 artists with wares to show and sell
• Mideastern delicacies to tantalize vour tastebuds
• Israeli style supermarket with packaged goods imported especially for
the festival (to be sold at wholesale prices)
• Singing, dancing, games for children, films and educational booths
If you are interested in the finer things in life
—art, food, music, or just having a good time—
you should plan to
attend
the 3rd annual Israeli Festival
made of age. If one wishes to grow
old, of course, there is no reason
why they shouldn’t. But one also
should have the right of growing
younger or not growing at all.
After all, this is a free country.
Anyway, the smallest has lasted
the longest. Today, as Miss Picon
says, she and Isaac Bashevis Singer
are the only two professionals still
using the Yiddish language.
The Yiddish theater meant a
great deal to the Jew.I think the
theater in general means just a wee
bit more to us. Every minority is
necessarily more of an actor. It
knows that the majority, the
audience, is watching In the
Passover Seder we are told that the
people are not to think that Moses
simply delivered our ancestors
from Egyptian bondage, but
ourselves. So we, like our
ancestors, eat the unleavened
bread or matzos that they ate and
partake of the bitter herbs to
experience their bitterness—in
other words, we act the part of the
Jews of the exodus from Egypt
The greatest exodus of all,
numerically at least, was the
Yiddish speaking exodus, closer to
our own day. Some 600,000 Jews
left Egypt in the days of Moses, but
there were several millions that
made their exodus from Russia
and Eastern Europe in the closing
days of the 19th and beginning of
the 20th centuries.
The Yiddish theater in America
began with this latter exodus It
was not easy for those uprooted
millions. Persecution, pogroms,
had hounded them in Russia, and
America, the new land of promise,
was an unknown land to them.
They could not speak its language.
There was no welfare or Social
Security system to ease their
economic pains. The Yiddish
theater was a great boon to them.
It offered them nothing physical,
but eased their emotional pains. It
made them laugh and yes, it made
them cry also. A good cry can also
help. Remember the Yiddish
mother who was crying. Her
husband asked her why she was
crying. “My dear husband," she
said, “if I want to have a little
pleasure and cry why should you
try to stop me?”
So Second Avenue shone with a
brightness not much less than
Broadway. There, one saw Jacob
Adler, Maurice Schwartz,
Menashe Skolnik. One heard the
songs of Goldfaden, saw Molly
Picon play Yonkele, written by her
husband It must have been good.
She played it 3,000 times
Today, most Jews do not even
known that Second Avenue was
once a Yiddish Broadway It is
difficult to believe that this once so
vital Yiddish world is now a thing
of the past. But the mass
immigration of Jews to America
stopped, the people moved away
from the Lower East Side, English
supplanted Yiddish Is there no
vestige of it left?
I think much was left, but it is
not easily recognizable. I think the
historian of the American theater
of the future will have to recognize
a considerable Yiddish influence.
Such names as Eddie Cantor, A1
Jolson, Jack Benny—so many of
the American comedians—come
from the same Yiddish
background that found its
expression also in the Yiddish
theater. The moving picture
industry in its beginning days was
also heavily Jewish Remember the
Yiddish stories told about Sam
Goldwyn. His English was a kind
of Yiddish
After the war, Molly Picon was
sent to perform in one of the
Displaced Persons camps. One
woman came up to her with her
small child saying how much she
appreciated her performance Her
child, she said, had never heard the
sound of laughter before. So Molly
is calling her autobiography
“Sounds of Laughter."
The Jewish performers, 1
believe, have done a good deal to
bring the sounds of laughter to an
often very troubled world.
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876-8248
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