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WITH PURCHASE OF SECOND WHITEFISH AT $5.50 INCLUDES: Soup or Sald (tossed or Greek), Potato or Spaghetti, Bread Basket, Dessert (strawberry cheesecake, rice pudding, jello or ice cream) and Hot Coffee or Hot Tea. DINE-IN R A LTO ON FAMILY RESTAURANT OPEN 7 DAYS 22740 WOODWARD AVE. Just South of 9 Mile • Ferndale THE GREATEST VALUES IN TOWN ARE UNDER THE BIG RED AWNING I 544-7933 Sammy Davis Jr. Recalled As A Very Committed Jew Special to The Jewish News ammy Davis Jr., who died last week in Los Angeles at age 64, had his first contact with Jews during his boyhood in New York, when he fell in love with the Yiddish theater of the 1930s. "They didn't bother me down there," the legendary black entertainer re- membered later. "Although I couldn't understand a word, I would just laugh and cry along with the rest of the audience." He returned more seri- ously to Judaism in the late 1950s, when he studied with Rabbi Max Nussbaum at Temple Israel of Hollywood, and then underwent a con- version ceremony in Las Vegas. It was no snap deci- sion. As he explained in an interview 20 years later, after much reading and soul- searching following an auto crash that cost him an eye, "I concluded that Judaism was essential to my sur- vival." In Jewish literature, he said, "I found strength and dignity. I wanted to know how a people could survive for so many years, being constantly persecuted. I wanted to know what gave them that inner strength, and when I found out, I found peace in it." The conversion of the short, one-eyed black enter- tainer led to a string of jokes and anecdotes, which redoubled when Davis mar- ried the Swedish film beauty May Britt. Rabbi William Kramer, who officiated at the ceremony at Davis' home, has retained a photo of the wedding party, which in- cluded Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford. There were some cruel remarks about the Jewish "nigger," but most of the jokes were more affec- tionate, such as the one at- tributed to Britt. When it became public that she would marry the enter- tainer, she was asked if her parents back home had ex- pressed any objection to the match. "Why should they?" she responded. "There is no anti-Semitism in Sweden." Tom Tugend is a free-lance writer from Los Angeles. 78 FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1990 that he would spend the en- tire time in a synagogue. "All right," Goldwyn Finally agreed. "But I'll check up on you. I hope I'll be able to recognize you in shul." TOM TUGEND ❑ Readers Theater Staged At JCC The late Sammy Davis Jr. Britt was converted at Temple Israel and, if anything, took her new faith even more seriously than did her husband. Ruth Nussbaum, widow of Rabbi Nussbaum, re- members going shopping with Britt to prepare for a full-fledged seder at the Davis home. Even after her divorce from Davis, Britt used to drive 80 miles three times a week to Temple Israel to make sure the couple's adopted son, Mark, received his bar mitzvah lessons, Mrs. Nussbaum said. In later years, Davis visited Dachau and admitted that he became as prejudiced against Germans as some whites are against blacks. In a visit to Israel, he expressed his delight at encountering so many dark-skinned Jews. When Fiddler on the Roof became a musical hit, there was talk of mounting an all- black version and Davis was asked whether he would ac- cept the role of Tevye. He declined, saying, "There has to be respect for certain things, and a black Tevye would be stretching it too far." After a while, the jokes about Davis' Jewishness stopped as his friends real- ized how committed the entertainer was to his faith. An example is seen in Davis' face-off with the imperious movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn. When Goldwyn insisted on filming through the High Holy Days, Davis asked for 24 hours off. Goldwyn scoffed at the request but relented when Davis assured him The final performance of the Spring Series of Readers Theater will take place 4 p.m. June 3 in the Aaron DeRoy Theater of the Jewish Corn- munity Center's Maple- Drake building. The show will be preceded by a com- plimentary wine bar at 3:15 p.m. This performance will in- chide works by Wendy Wasserstein and Nora Ephron. The program will be highlighted by a presentation of Ruth Whitman's The Testing of Hanna Senesh. The ensemble for this pro- duction includes Joyce Feur- ring, Henrietta Hermelin, Evelyn Orbach, Stacie Passon and Ceci Orman-Stone. Ar- tistic Director, Yolanda Fleicher, will serve as host of the program. At Readers Theater, local actors bring to life treasures of Jewish literature without the use of props or scenery. Readers Theater is under the sponsorship of the In- stitute for Retired Profes- sionals at the Jewish Com- munity Center and supported by an endowment from the Sadie and Irwin Cohn Fund for Visiting Scholars and Artists-in-Residence. There is a charge. A limited number of tickets are available at both J.C.C. buildings. For information, call Readers Theater, 967-4030. JNF Will Air On Cable TV The Jewish National Fund will air a weekly half-hour cable television program, "The JNF Jewish Entertain- ment Show," 1 p.m. each Sun- day on National Jewish Television and will be seen in 155 cities nationwide. Local listings should be checked for the channel. Stuart Paskow, JNF direc- tor of communications, ex- plained that the program will include extensive interviews with JNF and Israeli govern- ment officials, a weekly message from Dr. Samuel I. Cohen, and films.