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Miming To Torah

Movie legend Kirk Douglas' spiritual journey
takes him back to his Orthodox roots.

RONA S. HIRSCH
Special to The Jewish News

he pair of silver candlesticks,
delicately carved with tradi-
tional Judaic images, seemed
put of place in this elegant
Fifth Avenue hotel suite. But it's been
two years since Issur Danielovich —
better known as Kirk Douglas — first
resolved to light Shabbat candles, a rit-
ual he observes even when traveling
3,000 miles from his Beverly Hills
home.
"It's a simple ceremony with simple
,,
prayers, said the 80-year-old actor,
who tenderly placed his candlesticks
onto a glass table. "It's very important
to me. It reminds me of my mother."
Kirk Douglas? The same Hollywood
legend who appeared in 82 films, was
nominated three times for an Academy

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1997

102

Award, and was honored by the
Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in
1995 for his contributions to cultural
life? The man who was the recipient of
two Lifetime Achievement Awards —
from the American Film Institute in
1991 and the Academy of Motion
Pictures last year — marking his 50
years in Hollywood?
Rather than merely contemplate his
success beside a back-yard swimming
pool, the star of Spartacus and Lust for
Life has embarked on a spiritual jour-
ney of intense Torah study and reli-
gious commitment — despite a speech-
impairing stroke 18 months ago.
"You realize that whether you're a
Jew, Muslim or Christian, we all wor-
ship the same God — the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," said
Douglas, dressed casually in gray slacks
and a pale green shirt. He sat for an

interview with our sister paper the
Baltimore Jewish Times during a press
tour stop in Manhattan.
"Belief in God makes you a better
person," said Douglas. "Most of us are
too wrapped up with ourselves. I was
making three movies a year. I didn't
think enough about other people. My
goal now is just to function in a better
way"
Douglas chronicles his quest in his
sixth book, CliMbing The Mountain:
My Search For Meaning, a blend of
anecdotes, biblical stories and Torah-
inspired insights. His The Broken
Mirror, a children's story about a young
Holocaust survivor who denies his
Judaism, also was recently published.
"While I was writing these books, it
seemed to me that everyone is climbing
a mountain," Douglas said. "We may
take different roads, but the important

thing is the climb because you never
reach the top. And its important how
you make the climb, how you act
toward your fellow man. That
impressed me very much from the
Torah."
Hopefully, Douglas said, his books
will inspire other Jews to research their
heritage. "I'm not interested in trying
to make Jews Orthodox," he said. "Just
that they be Jewish — to say, 'I am a
Jew.
Douglas' hair is now white, and his
handsome, well-chiseled looks have
faded. But age has not robbed him of
his trademark cleft chin, intense blue
eyes, impish smile and that unmistak-
able grit in his voice that was one the
staple of every impressionist's routine.
His spiritual climb began six years
ago after surviving a helicopter crash
that killed two men. During his hospi-
tal recovery from severe back injuries,
Douglas contemplated his miraculous
survival.
"I had many guilts," he said. "I
thought, 'My God, why am I alive?
Two young people were killed.' I real-
ized there is a reason for everybody
being alive. We have to find our own
destiny."
Born Issur Danielovich in
Amsterdam, N.Y., Douglas was the
only son among six daughters of
impoverished Orthodox Russian immi-
grants. He attended cheder, conducted
Shabbat evening services .and celebrated
his bar mitzvah with a speech in
Yiddish.
"He had a poor man's bar mitzvah
— herring, kichel, schnapps," said
Fritzi Becker, Douglas' younger sister
who lives in Albany, N.Y.
The family Americanized their
name, and Issur became Isadore
Demsky. He studied acting at St.
Lawrence University on a wrestling
scholarship, then trained as a stage
actor at the American Academy of
Dramatic Arts in New York. While per-
forming summer stock, he changed his
name to Kirk Douglas. After serving as
a submarine communications officer
during World War II, he went off to
Hollywood.
Douglas has been married twice,
both times to non-Jews, and has four
sons — actor Michael and Joel with his
first wife, and Peter and Eric, who also
work in the film industry, with his sec-
ond wife, Anne, to whom he has been
married for 43 years.
But throughout his life, Douglas has
maintained his Jewish identity. He
attended synagogue during the High
Holidays and always fasted on Yom