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 ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ 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. Name: Address . City/State/Zip• Area Code & Phone . Make checks payable and mail to: YAD EZRA 26641 Harding, Oak Park, MI 48237 Tributes and Memorials Available • For more information, call: YAD EZRA • (810) 548-FOOD (548-3663) Bedrooms Complete Selection of Bedrooms and Bedding LLJ LLJ H- LU CC 0 FURNITURE Always The DIRECT R ight Price! L.L.1 MON.-FRI.: 10-9 • SAT.: 10-6 • SUN.: 12-5 30 Hasler Cs. /PT 1 , WATERFORD/WEST BLOOMFIELD • 7570 COOLEY LAKE RD. • 810-363-2800 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. ❑ Send questions to Tell Me Why, The Jewish News, 27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034, or fax to (810) 354-6069. All letters must he signed and in- clude the writer's address. Ques- tions answered in the column will feature only the writer's initials and city of residence.