12 Friday, September 1, 1919
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Israeli Film Star Chaim Topol Branches Into Film Producing
nedy Airport, spends half of
each month abroad organiz-
ing the "Genesis Project."
Topol, a father of three,
sits down to relax in the
soft maroon couch of the
elegant room, a long way
from his humble begin-
nings in the poor section
of Old Jaffa.
The son of Polish immig-
rants, he went to work at 14
as a tractor mechanic, then
worked in a print shop while
studying high school at
night. At 17 he went to
Kibutz lIishmar David
until he entered the army. It
was in the army's
entertainment troop, the
same unit where his daugh-
ter Anat, 20, now serves,
that he first went on the
the Nazis, across mountains stage, and also met his wife
and dangerous seas, only to Galia.
When Topol was released
be turned back at the shores
of Palestine by the British. from the army he returned
to the kibutz, and began a
The real boost came to Is- satirical theater, which he
raeli film makers following soon moved to Tel Aviv. It
the state's independence in was and is still called the
1950 when Geva studios
opened a branch in Tel
Aviv, adding to it a profes-
sional lab for film process-
By RABBI MARC ANGEL
ing. The next year Herzliya
In the days before televi-
Studios and film lab opened sion, people depended upon
their doors, producing films their own wit and imagina-
mostly for the government, tion to entertain their
in documentary format. All families and friends.
the while new immigrants Storytelling was a form of
arrived and helped raise the art.
standard of the Israeli film
Sometimes, folklore de-
industry past the prop- velops around actual
aganda documentary level people. For example, on the
to that of sophisticated art. Island of Marmara, not far
When Otto Preminger, from Istanbul, there once
the Jewish producer di- lived an elderly couple: the
rector, came to Israel in wife's name was Dona and
the late 50's to make the husband's name was
"Exodus," he enabled Levi. In spite of their ad-
local workers to gain vanced years, they would
valuable experience on walk along the shore hold-
his big budget, star- ing hands as if they were
young lovers. This couple
studded film.
Other big films preceeded gained immortality in a
Preminger's "Exodus," such popular proverb, "Dona con
as "The Juggler," a poig- Levi." Whenever the Jews
nant mid-50's Hollywood of Marmara saw any elderly
film, starring Kirk Douglas couple holding hands they
as a half-crazed immigrant, would immediately say:
still confused by the dis- "Ah, Dona con Levi." To this
integration of his European day, the phrase is known
among the Sephardim
culture.
Douglas and Israel hit the whose families originated
silver screen again in a big on the Island of Marmara.
time Hollywood film, "Cast
The most famous figure
a Giant Shadow," where he of the Sephardi folklore
played the heroic U.S. Col- of the Balkan countries
onel David (Mickey) Mar- and the Ottoman Empire
cus, first general in the Is- was a man known as
raeli Army. Supporting ac- Joha. Joha is in a certain
tors included Yul Brenner, way an equivalent of one
Frank Sinatra and John of the wise men of Chelm,
Wayne.
well known through the
The ,government of the writings of Sholem
new state of Israel recog- Aleichem. Joha always
nized the importance of seems to be logical; yet he
film, and in 1954 the Knes- generally turns out to be
set passed the Encourage- a ridiculous character.
For example, Joha's
ment of Israel Film Law,
which gave grants up to 50 mother once sent him to the
percent for an Israeli-made store to buy some oil. She
film, leading to a drastic gave him a container for the
rise in the number and qual- storekeeper to fill. After the
ity of films made in Israel, man had filled the container
to capacity, Joha realized
by Israelis.
lion "Genesis Project,"
which will tell the story of
the Bible on film.
We spoke to Israeli actor
"I'm definitely a Zionist,
Chaim Topol as he padded though I'm not preaching
barefoot around the living that every Jew has to come
room of his spacious new to Israel," he said as his son
duplex apartment in Tel Omer, 17, prepared coffee in
Aviv. Topol, 43, gained the kitchen. "I'm not a
worldwide fame over a de- preacher at all. I'm not tel-
cade ago for his portrayal of ling someone that to be ful-
Tevye, in the movie "Fid- filled he has to come to Is-
dler on the Roof"; since then rael, but if I want to be ful-
the tall, beefy, handsome filled, I feel that my
man with the charming Judaism and Zionism mean
smile and voice like a sweet living here and building my
base drum, has appeared home here in Israel.
frequently on the London
Topol, whose time
stage, been in a total of 22
movies, and is now produc- schedule is as busy as the
ing the ambitious $30 mil- traffic at New York's Ken-
By LARRY PRICE
World Zionist
Press Service
The Birth of Israeli Films
By LARRY PRICE
World Zionist Press Service
Jerusalem has been in the
movies since 1902, when
Edison Productions filmed a
two-minute movie called
"Dance in Jerusalem." And
since then the backdrop of
the Holy City and the Holy
Land have graced the silver
screen of theaters across'the
world. In 1913 the Ameri-
can Sidney Olcott made a si-
lent film called "From the
Manger to the Cross,"
filmed mainly in Israel.
During that early period of
motion pictures, and for
many years to come, it was
only newsreels and Zionist
propaganda which came out
of Palestine.
Not until 1926, when an
immigrant fresh from the
Soviet Union named
Nathan Axelrod came to Is-
rael and set up the very first
Israeli film company, did
the little strip 'of desert
begin to really blossom onto
the screen.
company
Axelrod's
Moledet made mainly
newsreels but he also man-
aged to scrape the money
together to make a full-
length feature film in 1933,
called "Oded Ha Noded."
By the end of the 30's
Axelrod had established
another film company
called Carmel Films;
however at that time
competition began in the
form of Baruch Agadati,
who produced the same
type of newsreels, and
also one full-length fea-
ture film.
In 1946 the very first
full-length Hollywood film
was shot entirely in Israel.
"My Father's House," a film
by Herbert Klein, which
was written by the famous
Jewish novelist Meyer Le-
vin, did very well in
America.
Following it was a
documentary, "The Illeg-
als," written and directed by
Meyer Levin, who joined a
group of Jews sneaking out
of war-torn Europe escaping
,
CHAIM TOPOL
Green Onion, and many Is-
raeli stage people became
famous. there.
Topol was among those
who began the Haifa Munic-
ipal Theater, performing
plays like Brecht's "Cauca-
sian Chalk Circle." Some
years later, when Topol was
invited to England's
prestigious Chichester Fes-
tival, he did the "Chalk Cir-
cle" again, this time in
English. He has since been
in Chichester two other
times.
From those early days,
though, Topol, who once
studied with the Royal
Shakespeare Company
in England, moved into
films and by 1965 he had
won the Golden Globe
Award for his acting in
Israeli humorist Ephraim
Kishon's film "Salah
Shabati" where he
played an elderly Yeme-
nite. Harold Prince, the
Hollywood director, saw
the film and when casting
for the part of Tevye, was
reminded by his secre-
tary about the "Old Man"
who played "Salah." The
"Old Man" was then 29
years old, and went on to
be Tevye for 20 million
movie-goers, and 60 mil-
lion TV viewers in more
than 20 countries.
Topol also starred in the
play of "Fiddler" in Israel in
.
1965, and in 1967 at Her
Majesty's Theater in Lon-
don. He has appeared in
"Othello," where he got
mixed reviews, starred in
Peter Ustinov's first musi-
cal "R and J," and produced
Hanoch Levine's play
"Dominoes" at London's
Shaw Theater.
Among his other activi-
ties, Topol has also shown
his charitable bent by start-
ing the Israeli branch of the
Variety Club of America,
whose van, brightly painted
with red letters, has been
rolling through Jeri'-
transporting handic
children since 1$7.
Currently, most of Topol's
time is in educational proj-
ects, not just the "Genesis
Project." He is working with
Tel Aviv University on two
ambitious film-video proj-
ects — an academic course
on Mideastern studies, and
a history of Israel. Both are
to be done in many lan-
guages."
Storytelling Plays Prominent Role in Sephardic Folklore
that the bottom of the con-
tainer was concave so that
oil could also be poured into
the shallow cup-like part at
the bottom.
He therefore turned the
container upside-down and
asked the storekeeper to fill
up the bottom as well. He
walked' home, carefully
avoiding the spilling of any
of the oil from the bottom of
the container. He did not
notice that the oil in the
container itself had spilled
out. When he finally arrived
home, his mother shouted at
him for having spilled the
oil.
Joha promptly turned the
container right-side up to
check his mother's story and
at the same time spilled out
the oil which had been col-
lected on the bottom of the
container. Looking at the
empty container, Joha
claimed that this must have
been the work of demons
since he himself had seen
the storekeeper fill it up
with oil.
Because of Joha's uni-
versal reputation as
being somewhat of a
simpleton, his name was
often used to describe
children who ask silly
questions or adults who
act in a foolish way. To be
called a Joha was a mild
form of rebuke.
But there are also some
stories about him which
indicate that he was capable
of being clever. One time,
Joha was asked to judge be-
tween two farmers. A calf
had been born. The owner of
the bull claimed that the
calf belonged to him since
his bull was the father. The
other farmer claimed that
the calf belonged to him
since he owned the mother.
While the two farmers
argued and shouted at each
other,. Joha said: "I would
like to be the judge of this
case but I do not have time.
My father just had a baby
and I must rush home to
help him."
The owner of the bull
scorned Joha. He said:
"You, Joha, are a simpleton.
How can it be that your
father had a baby? Haven't
you learned that it is im-
possible for a father to have
a baby?" Joha turned to the
man. "Ah, you thief, return
the calf to its rightful
owner. Have you ever heard
that a bull should give birth
to a calf? Return the calf to
the owner of the cow."
Tel Yogne'am Forts Unearthed
JERUSALEM — Two
parallel city walls, each two
meters thick, apparently
surrounded the Israelite
settlement at Yogne'am in
the Western Jezreel Valley
2,800 years ago.
A 40-meter length of this
double fortification was one
of the most impressive finds
uncovered in the recently
concluded second season of
excavations conducted by
the Hebrew University In-
stitute of Archeology in
cooperation with the Israel
Exploration Society. Prof.
Amnon Ben-Tor of the Uni-
versity heads the project,
scheduled to run on a
regional basis for five years.
The main effort concen-
trated on the site's north-
western section, where four
main levels were exposed:
the Crusader period (11-
12th Century CE), in which
the main find was a 1'/2-
meter thick wall, and parts
of related buildings; the
early Islamic or Abbasid-
Fatimid period (8-10th Cen-
tury CE) from which some
dwellings and artifacts for
daily use were found, but no
sign of fortification; the
Persian period (5-4th Cen-
tury BCE) in which the area
excavated seems to have
had a public character, as
evidenced by the presence of
dozens of large storage ves-
sels. The site was unfor-
tified; and the Israelite
period (Iron Age: 9-8th Cen-
tury BCE) where the double
fortifications are the most
important discovery.
A passage leading into
the space between the walls
was revealed, as well as sec-
tions of a plastered street
along the inner wall, and
foundations of a large tower
along the outer wall. It is
already clear that an earlier
Wall antedated this line of
fortification. Remnants of it
which were exposed at a few
points suggest it existed in
the 10th Century BCE.
The uncovering of the
Crusader church, begun in
the 1977 season, continued
this year. Its western sec-
tion was apparently de-
stroyed leaving barely a
trace during int,:msive con-.
struction in the Mameluke
period (14-15th Century
CE).
Wqr”Ti.,