BUY A CASE OF FOOD TO
HELP FEED THE JEWISH
HUNGRY.
Awo
r
Not A Beautiful Dahl
I II
. •••
An author with a less-than-charming story.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
YAD EZRA
feeding the lewigh Horgry
Use this coupon to help feed the Jewish hungry.
YAD EZRA Will use your donations to purchase cases
of food and distribute them to our neighbors in need.
1 case chicken (54 lbs.)
1/2 case chicken (27 lbs)
$80.00
$40.00
1 case 27 oz. canned gefilte fish (12 per case)
1 case 18 oz. Quaker oatmeal (24 per case)
1 case 6.5 oz. tuna in water (48 per case)
1 case 15 oz. tomato sauce (48 per case)
❑ 1 case 18 oz. creamy peanut butter (12 per case)
❑ 1 case 16 oz. thin spaghetti (20 per case)
❑ 1 case 16 oz. rice (24 per case)
$39.00
$37.00
$30.00
$25.50
$21.00
$18.00
$13.33
❑ 1 nutritious food package for family of four
$50.00
❑
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YOUR CONTRIBUTION IS ELIGIBLE FOR A 50% MICHIGAN TAX CREDIT.
(subject to certain limitations)
Enclosed is my check in the amount of $
for
cases of food as a tax deductible contribution
to YAD EZRA to help feed the Jewish hungry.
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Editor's Note: Reader A.G. in West Bloom-
field recently wrote to let us know that Tony
Martin, who has three stars on the Holly-
wood Walk of Fame, is in fact Jewish. Tell
Me Why stands corrected. Mr. Martin, a
singer and actor, was born Alvin Morris
in 1913 in San Francisco.
Q: My grandson is simply en-
amored with the James and the Gi-
ant Peach movie, based on a work
by Roald Dahl. But I'm beginning
to have misgivings about having
just bought him the video because
I heard that the late Mr. Dahl was
anti-Semitic. Is that true?
Q: Boy, every time I turn on my
TV I see Madonna, Madonna,
Madonna. So she had a baby — so
what? Doesn't this happen to
women all around the world every
single day? And don't think I didn't
notice how they changed the score
of Evita (taking out a lot of the de-
manding notes) to accommodate
her mediocre voice.
I tell you who else makes me
want to vomit: Cher. Her tattoos.
Her nose job. Her hellish life with
Sonny. Her romance with Rob
Camiletti, the former bagel boy.
A: He denied it, but there's no Her
infomercials for hair products.
question Roald Dahl did not like
And
while I'm at it, can some-
Jews. In fact, he was hardly a
body
out
there please tell me why
pleasant figure in most respects.
He hated blacks and he walked "The artist formerly known as
out on his longtime wife, actress Prince" can't come up with a name
Patricia Neal, after she suffered for himself? And how many times
a stroke.
is Roseanne going to change her
According to his biographer, name? First she's Roseanne Barr,
Jeremy Treglown, Dahl "despite then Roseanne Arnold, now just
his friendships with individual Roseanne.
Jews ... was, like many English-
I don't know; maybe it's the
men of his age and background,
stigma
of having simply one name
fairly consistently and by no
that makes all these people such
means secretly anti-Semitic."
oddballs. So can you tell me, Tell
Among Dahl's remarks:
* In 1979, while drunk, he Me Why, if there have been any
made a scene at the Curzon Jewish performers (outside of
House Club in London, loudly Roseanne, that is) who had such
complaining about the number prominence that they went by just
of Jews there. He was thrown one name?
out and subsequently deprived
of membership.
* In 1983, Dahl told a jour-
nalist, "There is a trait in the
Jewish character that does pro-
voke animosity ... I mean, there's
always a reason why anti-any-
thing crops up anywhere; even
a stinker like Hitler didn't just
pick on them for no reason."
(He also stated that Jews were
cowards who passively submit-
ted to genocide, and that almost
no Jews served in the Allied
forces in World War II.)
* Dahl reserved some of his
most vociferous comments for
the State of Israel. He was anti-
Israel before statehood and a
generous benefactor of Arab
causes. In 1982, during Israel's
invasion of Lebanon, Dahl com-
pared then-Israeli Prime Minis-
ter Menachem Begin to Adolf
Hitler, and then-Defense Minis-
ter Ariel Sharon to Hermann Go-
ering.
In addition to James and the
Giant Peach, Dahl was the au-
thor of Charlie and the Choco-
late Factory (made into the film
Willie Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory, starring Gene Wilder)
and The Witches — oddly popu-
lar children's stories consider-
ing the hard edge of cruelty in
them all.
A: Surely you've heard of
Solomon?
Solomon Cutner was born in
London, England, in 1902. A
child prodigy pianist, he made
his concert debut at age 8, play-
ing Tchaikovsky's first piano
concerto. From that day forward
he never used his surname pro-
fessionally and was known only
as Solomon.
He appeared throughout Eu-
rope and became known for his
white sailor suit as well as his
amazing musical ability. By the
time he was 16, he tired of con-
certizing and took up music
study in London and Paris.
In 1921, Solomon, his talent
in no way diminished, made a
successful return to the stage as
an adult virtuoso. He toured the
world, including a 1939 concert
at the New York World's Fair.
During World War II he played
for Allied troops.
In 1956 Solomon suffered a
stroke that left him a paraplegic,
and he withdrew from public
life.
During his career Solomon
was acclaimed one of the most
impeccable pianists of the cen-
tury and was admired for his
sensitive and precise rende-
ings.
Q: I recently attended a sym-
phony concert that included
Smetana's tone poem Moldau.
couldn't help but notice how simi-
lar the main theme is to the Israeli
national anthem, "Hatikvah."
Which came first?
A: You are not the first to note
the startling similarity between
the Czech and Jewish composi-
tions. Some actually believe that
"Hatikvah" was derived from
Smetana's work, but the truth
is more complex.
In 1882, Shmuel Cohen, a pi-
oneer farmer of Rishon Le-
Tzion, Palestine, set Tikvatenu,
a 1878 poem by Naphtali Herz
Imber, to the melody of a Mol-
davian folk song "Carul cu Boi,"
or "Cart and Oxen." (The words
and music of the Zionist anthem
became known as "Hatikvah" in
1905.)
It turns out that the folk song
is not a native melody, but a mu-
sical motif common throughout
Europe. It was a variation of this
folk melody that Smetana must
have heard from east Moravian
peasants. The same pattern is
found among the Poles (as the
song "Pod Krakowem"), the
Basques, the Dutch and others.
For decades, musicologists
have been fascinated with the
origin of the melody and set out
to trace its origin. In a 1949 book
on Jewish music, Imber's friend
Peter Gradenwitz said that the
poet had written the tune, which
he borrowed from a famous can-
tor, Nissan Belzer.
In the late 1800s, Felip Pe-
drell, Spanish composer and
musicologist, included the tune
in his study of folk music, as an
ancient Spanish song, "Virgen
de la Cueva," "Virgin of the
Cave."
One theory holds that the
melody, which follows a Middle
Eastern pattern, originated in
early Spain among the Jews or
Arabs. After Spanish Jewry be-
gan to disperse in the 1300s,
they took the melodic form with
them. Like a folk tale, the tune
spread among neighboring peo-
ples until every culture had its
own version and the true origin
was lost in time. ❑
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