sionally play Jewish characters.
Can anyone deny the Seinfeld-
Jewish connection?
The award for the proudest Jew in
Hollywood would have to go to Alicia
Silverstone (she says her cantor once
told her, "You're the one Jewish girl
who definitely, with all the success you
have, is not a little princess").
Sharing the "proudest" award might
be English heartthrob Ewan
McGregor. He volunteered, "My
wife's Jewish, and being Jewish is an
identity thing for her, so being
Scottish is an identity thing for me."
Another honorary Jew is Mike
Myers, who not only loves his Jewish
wife but her mother as well.
Daniel Day-Lewis comes from a
distinguished Anglo-Jewish family, but
prefers to be labeled Irish, even though
he is married to Arthur Miller's daugh-
ter, Rebecca. Both of Rachel Weisz's
parents were Holocaust refugees.
Mike Leigh, the director of Secrets
and Lies, is proudly Jewish, while another
English director, Stephen Frears, only
found out he was Jewish at the age of 32.
"I don't know why my mother kept
it from us," he told me, "except that
we lived in this small town in England,
which I suppose was anti-Semitic. The
whole notion of Jewishness is very
prevalent here. In England there's a
sort of silence about it. They just elim-
inate what they don't like.
"While making Hero, Dustin
Hoffman, who starred in the film,
would talk a lot about being Jewish, so
in a sense it's the first time I've ever
felt that it made sense to me, and I
could perceive, 'Oh, I see, there are
these people called Jews.'
"Clearly-, Hollywood isn't an anti-
Semitic place. Clearly, it's run largely
by Jewish people. So in a way, per-
haps, I felt rather at home."

So how did he find out about his
religions from Judaism to Christianity,
Jewish roots?
none of the organized religions."
"After my mother died, we had a
Among the old-timers, Piper
meal for her and my brother said how
Laurie (who grew up in Detroit)
pleased my grandmother was because I
always acknowledged her real name,
had married a Jewish girl."
Rosetta Jacobs, and Lauren Bacall was
And what was his response?
always defiantly Jewish.
It was riveting, just extraordinary.
We all know Walter Matthau
But I remember Betsy Blair, she was
comes from the Yiddish theater, but
once married to Gene Kelly and then
only his father was Jewish. On the
other hand, Jack Lemmon — Irish-
married Karel Reisz. She was a very
distinguished actress [who starred in
Catholic and married to a Jew — con-
the Oscar winner Marty].
tributes more to Jewish charities than
"When I worked as an assistant to
just about anyone else in Hollywood.
Karel Reisz, she used to tease me and
Speaking of righteous Christians, can
you top Alan Alda?
say, 'Of course, you're Jewish.' She
Recently starring
would talk
on Broadway in the
about when
Tony Award-win-
she first went
ning play, Art, he
to New York
once told me, "I'm
and ... how
Irish and Italian
she became
and was brought up
obsessed with
Catholic, but my
these Jewish
wife is Jewish and
intellectuals,
my daughters are
Jewish genius-
Jewish, so the dom-
es like
inant religion in
Gershwin and
Rob Reiner: Only off-camera.
our home is
Bernstein. So
Judaism."
she used to
Was that a compromise?
tease me that I was Jewish, and then it
"Not really. Although I was
turned out to be right.
brought up Catholic, I'm not a
"But I think it's quite a common
Catholic. My father, who was Italian,
story. I can tell you about American
spoke a little Yiddish because he start-
actors and other people who've had the
ed in the Catskills. Most of our family
same experience, the [British] journalist
friends were Jewish. I've always felt
Christopher Hitchins, for example."
close to that culture.
Goldie Hawn has always acknowl-
"Also my grandfather told me —
edged being Jewish, but surprisingly
and I was glad to hear this — that our
only her mother is.
family came to Italy from Spain, about
Woody Allen, of course, is another
500 years ago. It would have meant
story. Although he's universally consid-
they left around 1492, when the Jews
ered the quintessential New York Jew,
all left because of the Inquisition.
this is not how he sees himself.
"In Italy they used the name
He recently told me, "I'm Jewish, but
Debrudso, which was the name of the
I'm not religious in any significant way;
region. If you're named after a region or
I don't have respect for any of the major

a town, it usually means you're Jewish,
because [Jews] often would take on the
name of where they lived. So chances
are 500 years ago my family was Jewish.
"But it has nothing to do with who
I am; it's just a sentimental thing. I
feel close to that culture."
Does Alda consider himself a Jew?
"I couldn't say that; that would be
arrogant because I don't have papers. I
can't lay claim to that, but I'm very
sympathetic to it. I resonate to that
culture, that's all. It's important to me
that my daughters identify as Jewish,
),
even though they're not religious.
Meryl Streep told a similar story
about her family's possible link to
Sephardic Jews.
"My dad worked for a pharmaceu-
tical company," she said. "He used to
travel for Merck & Co. in their inter-
national division; he would go to
Holland on business.
"There was a large Jewish popula-
tion named Streep there, and there
were also Catholics similarly named.
He was intrigued by how two people
with two different religions could
share the same name.
"He met some people in Holland
and they told him the name Streep
was a made-up name — it just meant
`line' — and that they were descended
from Spanish Jews who came after the
Inquisition, and that's all he knew.
Some had assimilated, converted to
Catholicism."
Streep said that while she was filming
The French Lieutenant's Woman, a man
named Robert Streep, who was president
of the Diamond Exchange in London,
sent her a family genealogy and a history
("but no free samples, I'm afraid to say").
It outlined the family's history, which
showed that the Streeps "had come from
a family in Spain called Moskowitz, who
were originally from Germany." 7

Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler:
Two Jews and a woman who dated Woody Allen.

0

Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker: Jews in the Lotus.

Wino,ia Ryder: Make up your
mind.

1/1

1999

Detroit Jewish News

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