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Actor Yaphet Kotto, who portrays Lt. Giardello, the black-Italian cop on
Homicide: Life on the Street, grew up in the Bronx, the son of Orthodox
Jewish parents.
In addition to his Jewish roots, the actor can trace branches of his family
tree to the crown prince of the Cameroons in West Africa and to Queen
Victoria. He has written a soon-to-be-published autobiography, The Royalty:
A Spiritual Awakening.
Despite his Orthodox background, Kotto wavered in his Jewish belief. "It
wasn't fun growing up a Jew in the Bronx," Kotto said from his home in
Baltimore, where the police drama Homicide is set and filmed. "I was chased
by black kids; I was chased by Irish kids." Often he was caught and beaten.
He also was physically disciplined at the Catholic parochial school he attend-
ed. His parents were unable to find a suit-
able yeshiva alternative in the Bronx and
felt that a Catholic-school education was
better than what the public school offered,
says the actor. "Every day I was in trouble."
At school, teachers spoke of the Ten
Commandments, and Kotto argued that
there are 613. He protested when teach-
ers taught that the Jews killed Jesus.
"I kept telling them what my father
told me, that it vias the Romans who
killed Jesus," says Kotto.
As he has grown older, the actor has
become more observant: He keeps Passover,
lights a yahrtzeit candle for his father and
'maintains other Jewish traditions.
However, Kotto says he rarely goes to
synagogue because when he walks into one,
) too many people question him. He walks
in to pray; instead people ask him why he's there, how he got to be Jewish.
"It's horrible," he said. "I've been a Jew; I've always been a Jew. They ask
me how I am a Jew and I ask, 'How are you Caucasian?' I worship at
home.
But Kotto has spoken out about both his Jewish and African roots.
;) At an event earlier this year in New Jersey, co-sponsored by the Anti-
Defamation League in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., Kotto voiced a 4::
strong message: He would like Jews and blacks in the United States to heal
their rift.
He recalled attending as a young man the civil rights march in
Washington. He also visited Alabama with Dr. King and others shortly after
a church bombing there.
In back [of the group] was an armada of police officers," Kotto says.
"What impressed me about [King] as we stood in a circle talking was his
>calm in the face of potential violence around us."
At the time, especially as a black Jew, it was difficult to believe in the
dream of brotherhood King talked about, Kotto says. But years later, as the
actor visited Washington, D.C., with his attorney daughter and police offi-
cer son, he had an eye-opening experience.
Standing at the site of the march, he told his children about it and his
ensuing frustration at the lack of progress. As he spoke, several busloads of
Japanese students drove up and parked. The students ran toward him and
took pictures. The only words they spoke that he could understand were:
`',Yaphet Kotto.
"I realized for me the dream had come true," says Kotto. "The tears
came. I was so emotional I couldn't talk. It blew me away. ,,
Now, Kotto's two sons and daughter, who were not raised Jewish because
he didn't want them to suffer as he , did, are interested in their heritage.
They've all expressed interest in becoming Jewish, he says. fl
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— Enid Weiss
The Jewish State (NJ)
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Detroit Jewish News
4/30
1999
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