THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Return to Yiddish in Delightful Molly Picon
Presentation at Adat Shalom Synagogue
By HEIDI PRESS
Gevalt! We should have
at 83 years old the same
amount of koyach that
Molly Picon displayed
Wednesday night at Adat
Shalom Synagogue. Aievai.
Appearing under the au-
spices of the synagogue's
- adult education commis-
sion, sponsored by the Jack
Rosenbloom Memorial
Fund and the Morris E.
Blumberg Judaica Fund,
Miss Picon presented a pro-
gram replete with Yiddish
'humor, song and a little bit
lance, which showed that
famous Yiddish theater
star is a very lively 83.
The 1,500-seat sanctuary
was filled to capacity as
Miss Picon delighted her
audience with jokes and
"down home" Yiddish
humor. "I've always been a
ham," she said, covering her
mouth in embarrassment,
"God forgave me for saying
that here."
finished the pieces and
evoked the same emotion
from many in the audience.
She returned to comedy
when to the audience's sur-
prise, she kicked up her
heels during "Hymn to
Hymie" from the play,
"Milk and Honey" and
quipped, "I bet you didn't
think I could do it."
The program bent toward
the hilarious, when she
sang in Yiddish "A Yid a
Shiker," a song in which she
portrayed a drunk and pro-
ceeded to mix up the lyrics
of the song to the delight of
the audience.
Her repertoire for the
evening also included "The
Woiking Goil," "The Im-
migrant Boy," "Dayenu"
and "We Shall Live to See
the Day."
Her piano accompanist
r
.
There is, apparently a
world, entoisht, however,
she told a tale about her
"Bubbe" not being familiar
with the word. As the tale
went, she called her Bubbe
and asked if she had pre-
pared all of her Shabbes
goodies. When the grand-
mother replied that she had,
Miss Picon said "And what
would you say if I couldn't
come to Shabbes dinner?"
The Bubbe replied, in es-
sense, "Oy, bin ich disap-
pointed!"
In - another joke, Miss
Picon said there are no
words in Yiddish for
north, south, east and
west. She said the He-
brew was used. She pro-
ved it by relating another
Bubbe story. When she
asked her grandmother
the words for the direc-
tions, the Bubbe replied
in Yiddish with "here,
there, up and down."
(
As a final example, she
--cold how the English lan-
guage used superlatives.
For example, we say rich,
richer, richest. In Yiddish,
Miss Picon said, we say
rach, ungeshtupt, auf
meir gezukt!
Serious moments came in
her rendition of "The, Story
of Grandma's Shawl" and
when she recited a poem,
"Crabby Old Wom'an." She
seemed to cry as she
The rich man's wealth is
his strong city; the ruin of
the poor is their poverty.
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She opened with a
monologue on "How and
Why I Became an Ac-
tress" and her "Lesson in
Yiddish" brought shouts
of laughter. In her Yid-
dish lesson, she com-
pared the English word
for "pain" to the Yiddish,
which, according to the
actress, has a different
name for wherever in or
on the body a pain is felt.
Laughter and applause
greeted her with the old
Yiddish joke about there not
being a word in Yiddish for
"disappointed."
Eliot Finkel, whom she ac-
knowledged at the conclu-
sion as "the best accom-
panist I ever had" opened
the program with an over-
ture based on Jewish
themes. Rabbi Efry Spectre
was the evening's master of
ceremonies.
A standing ovation from
the appreciative audience
was deserved payment for
an entertaining evening.
Friday, May 22, 1981
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