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Q: Tell Me Why has been my fa- garded their teachings as
vorite column since its inception. the ultimate truth. Thus
Now I hope you can help me win a arose the expression "gospel
truth."
bet.
My boyfriend insists that actor
Q: Why is a children's nursery or
Richard Gere is of Arab descent.
kindergarten in Israel called a gan
But I know that he's not an Arab.
("garden")?
We have researched this to no
A: Gan is derived from
avail. I know he's not Jewish, but kindergarten ("garden of chil-
dren"), the name given by the
could he really be Arab?
From reader K.I.K. in Oak Park German educational reform-
A: The perennially reclusive er Freidrich Froebel (1782-
Mr. Gere did not return queries 1852) to the institution he
from Tell Me Why (of course, founded.
he's famous for hating
the press), but
another reliable
source has provided
the answer to your
question.
In a recent profile
in Esquire, author
Michael Gross writes
that Mr. Gere, a na-
tive of Syracuse, N.Y.,
is of Anglo-Irish her-
itage. Mr. Gross fur-
ther responded to a
letter from Tell Me
Why that Mr. Gere
has neither any Jew-
ish or Arab connec-
tions of which he
knows.
Today, the actor is
a practicing Buddhist
and active in a num-
ber of Buddhist caus-
es.
Of course, Mr. Gere
did star as King
David, but most like-
ly he, and anyone Outside at a "garden of children" In Israel.
who ever saw the
Froebel (no Jewish connec-
film, would much rather forget
tion) believed that well-direct-
about that.
ed play, accompanied by songs
and music, was essential to
(Ws there anything wrong with stimulate learning in children
Jews using the expression "the 4-6 years old. Since the late
19th century, Froebel's ideas
gospel truth"?
A: "Gospel" is usually defined have been adopted in much of
as the teachings of Jesus and the Western world.
Early Israeli educators, for
his apostles. The word "gospel"
itself is derived from the Old the most part, trained in Eu-
English godspell, or "good rope and accepted Froebel's the-
news," a translation of the ories of early learning. Thus,
Latin evangelium and the the term gan.
Greek euagelion.
The early Christians pro-
Q: I understand that Lucky Lu-
moted the idea that their reli-
ciano
was so close with two Jew-
gion brought "glad tidings" of
salvation and everlasting life in ish gangsters that he described
contrast to Judaism, which their parhiership (along with fellow
they regraded as obsolete mobster Frank Costello) as "the
and incapable of doing any
four horseman of Notre Dame." Is
good.
Imitative of Judaism's as- that so?
A: Indeed it is.
sertion that the Torah is the lit-
Charles "Lucky" Luciano was
eral, direct, incontrovertible
word of God, the Christians re- childhood buddies with Meyer

("I'm not a gangster, I'm just a
businessman") Lansky and
Benjamin ("Don't call me
Bugsy' ") Siegel. Their friend-
ship, which continued for many
years, formed the base of a ma-
jor crime syndicate unlike any-
thing ever seen in the United
States.
At one point Luciano said of
the four, "We was like da four
horseman of Notre Dame," a
reference to 1920s football
greats James Crowley, Elmer
Layden, Donald Miller and
Harry Stuhldreher. "But what

would two Jewish guys be do-
ing at Notre Dame?"

Q: I know that former New York
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia
had a Jewish mother and an
Italian father. My question is
where was the guy buried —
in a Jewish or a Catholic
cemetery?
A: Neither. The much-beloved
mayor (who served three con-
secutive terms) died in 1947
and was buried in Woodlawn,
a nonsectarian cemetery in
Brooklyn. Woodlawn also is the
final resting place of actor Fat-
ty Arbuckle, Duke Ellington,
Herman Melville and Mark
Twain.

Send questions to "Tell Me Why"
c/o The Jewish News, 27676
Franklin Rd., Southfield, MI
48034 or send fax to 354-6069.