CONTENTS
The Moral Lessons
Of 'Driving Miss Daisy'
F
or those of us Jews who
have lived our lives in
the South, the much
applauded movie Driving
Miss Daisy has resurrected a
once familiar, now bygone
world. As a child growing up
in a small southern country-
town, my world was lily
white, though not one
without its occasional
reminder of vulnerabilities
Jews sometimes faced. Still,
compared to black people we
were well insulated.
But I wince now to think
how great the distance was
between myself and the local
black community. There were
black domestics in our home,
Miss Daisy not
only commands
our respect but is
beyond reproach.
and we had an "almost fami-
ly" relationship with them,
but in retrospect the rigidities
of the master-servant rela-
tionship were scrupulously
respected on both sides,
perpetuating a plantation
mentality that hinted subtly
that "Massa" was never going
to be "in de col' col' groun.' "
Deeply moved by the
poignance, tenderness and
wisdom of Driving Miss Daisy,
the superb acting of Morgan
Freeman as Hoke Colburn,
Jessica Tandy as Miss Daisy
and Dan Ackroyd as her son
Boolie, I found myself ponder-
ing the intriguing but painful
truths the movie reveals in a
variety of contexts:
Boolie's reluctance as a
southern Jewish business-
man to support the civil
rights movement, coupled
with Martin Luther King Jr.'s
ringing declaration that what
was most damaging to the
movement was not the
"vitriolic words" of the bad
people but the "appalling
silence" of the good ones; the
empty-headed assimilative
ostentation of Boolie's wife at
Christmas; the dignity of
Daisy and Hoke and their
growing dependence on one
another as they declined into
old age, unafraid to
acknowledge the need to
relate to one another as
human beings.
Relating as human beings,
they remind us of another re-
Joseph Cohen is a professor
of Jewish studies at Tulane
University, New Orleans.
That there are captivating
stories to tell, however, is
amply proven by Driving Miss
Daisy.
Overcoming ethnic dif-
ferences symbolically or
realistically is what
American pluralism is all
about.
❑
28
Battle Cry
LEON URIS
Is Jewish life doomed
in the Soviet Union?
MITZVAH HEROS
67
Hawking MDA
ALAN HITSKY
An Oak Park teen raises
thousands for research.
No Refusals
67
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
This woman never refuses
the Soviet Jewry issue.
Dr. Helpfulness
RICHARD PEARL
Nothing's too difficult
for this energetic senior.
ENTERTAINMENT
75
Observations
And Ovations
WENDY ROLLIN
Oboist Theodore Baskin
remembers his hometown.
AROUND TOWN
91
The Friendly
Loan Office
SUSAN SALTER
Old residents and new
immigrants find a help.
LIFESTYLES
102
Helping Hand
CARLA JEAN SCHWARTZ
Will Roberts' hobby
is working with others.
DEPARTMENTS
15
21
35
42
64
86
Detroit
Inside Washington
Insight
Synagogues
For Women
Fine Arts
94
104
109
110
112
138
Sports
Engagements
Single Life
Births
Classified ads
Obituaries
CANDLELIGHTING
102
ONTENT
JOSEPH COHEN
cent transcendant drama of a
Jew and a black intertwined,
I'm Not Rappaport. In both
instances the relationships
flourish between the elderly,
giving rise to the disturbing
possibility that only when pe-
ple are gerontologically
beyond some potentially
threatening arenas of human
interaction, the fatal attrac-
tions of power acquisition and
sex, can such friendly in-
terdependencies thrive.
Such relationships thrive in
childhood, too. One would like
to think they could thrive un-
threatened just as happily in
between.
One reason, I think, that
the movie succeeds so well in
handling its super-sensitive
subject of Jewish-black rela-
tions in a hostile southern
setting is the characterization
of Miss Daisy. She is unlike
any other Jewish female pro-
tagonist in contemporary
Jewish literature. Usually
Jewish women are character-
ized as casual and informal,
be they young princesses (no
dreaded J-acronym here!), or
yiddishe mommas.
With her aristocratic mien
and her insistence on princi-
ple and decorum, Miss Daisy
gives us a persona who not
only commands our respect
but one who is beyond
reproach.
We can learn a lot from this
ex-school marm. If she tells us
it is all right for Jewish and
African American adults to
befriend and trust one
another, then it is a lesson
well taught.
It is a lesson few of us, Jew
and black, Jew and non-Jew,
have learned well enough. In
the South, but elsewhere, too,
the subject has been too hot to
handle. Southern Jews them-
selves have hardly explored
ethnic relationships in fiction
or drama; indeed, they have
no recognizable body of
literature at all, presumably
because they have long been
reluctant to call attention to
themselves, constituting as
they have been and still
are, a tiny minority living
in the midst of a poten-
tially explosive, overwhelm-
ingly white Christian
populist society.
CLOSE-UP
r
OPINION
Friday, March 23, 1990
6:30 p.m.
Sabbath ends March 24 7:32 p.m.
TNF 1IPTP(1171 IFWIQW NIPIAM
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