Thursday, November 23. 1978    THE BULLETIN — 7
CHARLIE CHAPLIN By John McCabe Robson Books. $11.
JACKPENm By Mary Livingstone Benny Robson Books. $11.50
By DAVID NATHAN
CHAkLIE CHAPi;IN once said he was a Jew when hfe wanted to play a Jesus in a film but it wasn't true. His half-brother, Sydney, was half-Jewish and Chaplin himself • told someone: "As a matter of fact, Vm not Jewish. Haven't a drpp of Jewish blood. But Tve never protested when they said I was Jewish because Fd be proud of it if 1 tyere^. - V
He once. said that he never contradicted anyone Who called him. Jewish because to do so would remove his comradeship with the victims of Nazism.^ ■ •
IN CHAPLIN.
graphy of Chaplin. It was probably never particularly relevant and it seems even less so now. Chaplin, like most comedians, identified with the under-dog and during most of his long life the Jew fulfilled this role. It was a short cut to pain, the foundation of a lot of comedy, especially Chaplin's.
JACK BENNY was a Jew, born Benny Kubelsky in Waukegan; Illinois. He neither stressed it nor denied it and created his comedy out of his assumptions of meanness and vanity. He virtually invented the sitcom radio and television half-hour. He deserves a better memorial than this biography, written mainly by his widow, Mary, and brother-law, Hilliaid Marks, which spends most of its time in saying what a nice fellow was.
All this is dealt with at some! by McCabe in his competent bio-
Occasionally, there emerges a hint of the profound egocentnsm essential to anyone who has to stand in front of an audience and. rely on his own personality for laughs. One aspect of this was noticed by the perceptive Zubin Mehta, conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orche-
TENTH ANNIVERSARY
<Qni!ts previa
"Something of a
gj>alfadj$ ha open spirit as well the focn^applng rhyth country'smany songs;''A
New^ ... I found myself
grooving tq the sight and sound of Israel's top entertainers."
ifTUESQAY EVENING, DEGEMBER 5th; 1978
tiekets at all Eaton's Stores and all Vahcouver Ticket Centre locations. Visa and Mastercharge accepted at VwT.C;
■•Locations;^-'':.       ^^--y^ ■ ■■^
Under the patronage of the president of Israel.
stra, who describes Benny in Israel.
It was," he says; a "shock'' for Benny to walk dbwn the street and find that most people didn't know him. "After so'many years of stardom, it was a strange sensation for him and he kept mentioning it. He had never really experienced it to quite the same extent before. Suddenly to be almost anonymous it was incomprehensible."
A few more insights like that and a lot fewep-accoiints of how loveable he was would have produced the kind of book a comedian of such creative talent deserves. JCNS.
Retell
Helocaust story,
Kristallnacht eve told
. A large crowd at a special evening commemorating the ,30tb anniversary of the infamous Kristallnacht was told Nov. 9: that **it is absolutely essential to keep the story of the' Holocaust alive, unpleasant though it may be."
Dr. Arnold Ages, professor of roinance languages and literature at University of Waterloo, told some 200 persons at Beth Israel thaf the::facts-bf the 1938-1945 Nazi Ip^^^Gd': must^i^inupusly
Xristailt^cht, Nov. 9^m, 1938,
■saw Jewisb-shops, homes and instt-:. tutions dtt^cked and burned in Ger-
•many^--i:;"':v^;-^t-st<^'?:&
^ ;:p
was a forerunner of events^tb come. **It marked the end of the^ pogrorii: type^ of persecution and the start of the efficienidestruction of European Jewry," he stated.        ^ ^
•sinjg t^^ pprte^ b^
|the;WQridi^i^^    jPrimejM im ;v:Maeiceiizift_vjK^ 2 ?npt^lhatjthes^
not vigorously protest Nazi actions but absolutely refused to; grant asylum to the victims.
*^And," Dr; Ages said^**the Christian Church was also negative^ Itwas an era of Gr^lessness. From thetime
■ ?pftHe Hploc felt thait
:vthe/prganized^G^ without credibility V- that Christianity can no longer tell Jews what
".^r-;-■X-,-*'^- ^^i^\^iy^'^'-V--'\:'.t'-^' \ •■■ ■■'■^:
The Kristallnacht evening^began .with appropriate readings, including a prayer written by Rabbi Lieo Baeck,^ regarded !as the; dean, of German-Jewish rabbis. Six persons who had}^!^
period lit candies: Fred Got
A. -Jngre, Henry Shindler^ Len^
Daniel, Horst Sachs,     Kloss. >
Hazzan Murray Nixon movingly .offered two sotags,**! Believe,*^ and: "Es Brennt" (It is Burning).
JtabhiJWii^ bi Richard^^ M^
pated in the programs Dr^'Ages^as introduced and thankedby Dr. Harvey Gerber, who, in his remarks, read the front-page of;the Nov. II;
on the infamou^s Kristollnacht.
The evening was sponsored jointly by Beth Israel adult education committee, Hillel Foundation and Cana-idian Jewish Congress. V
HAIFA   —   President Navon> opened Arab Book yi^eek here by:• declaring that failure of part of Israel's population to know Arabic ris eating at our vitals;"^
Noting that this ignorance of the other side's language also existed ^ among the populations of Israel's -neighbors, with resulting distorted notions of Jev/s, Navon said it was important to know with whom one had to deal. ^     ^   ^ ^ ;
This could prevent many tragedies .
in
and he favored compulsory study of Arabic in Israel.
The Book Week, sponsored by the education ministry and the municipality as part of the state's 30th anniversary celebrations, was held at IJaifa's Beit Hagefen Jewish-Arab cultural centre.
- Several hundred thousand books
— most of them imported from Arab countries — were on sale, at a reduction of 25 percent, and there was a section on Middle East studies.
CQNGRE6ATI0N Sp/^RA TZE^
invito the entire community to an
Friday, December 1,1978 Communal Singing
8:00 pm. "Ask the Rabbi"
Schara Tzedeck — Wosk Auditoriunfi     Discussion Period
Bp^ TOMin Bulletin
Temple Sholom Brotherhooi/BFeakfast HoUday Inn, Broadw^y.-^ 9:4S a.m.
Richmond Informal Men's meeting at Beth TIkvah Congregation and Community i  Centre — 8 p.m. November 29
lOir^^Siid&ipresenta^^Mid lunch at B'nal^yith
llMt^^^    uml- 12:30noon/ " ® November 30
Community meeting at Temple Emanuel, ©  Victoria, fiiC. — B p.m. November 30
F^r information, phone 224-2512 or 261-1610 g
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