Everyone's Kvelling for 'Kissing Jessica Stein"

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My religion definitely had a lot to
died there from 1939 through 1945.
do with my singing, and it still does,"
After the war, Oskar's mother
she says.
learned that more than 140 aunts,
The singer-producer spent much of her uncles and cousins had been killed in
life coming to grips with being the child
Lithuania. Only she, along with her
of survivors, and dealing with the family
sister and brother, survived.
dynamic that the Holocaust created.
Lee's father, Joseph Levetin, was a
"My parents were very damagsd. I
hat maker who served in the Danish
could never ask anything becau they
underground. He participated in the
would fall apart. It was a terrible way
legendary operation that saved the
to be brought up. I always say if it was- country's Jews from the Nazis by ferry-
n't for my singing, I probably would
ing more than 7,000 of them to neu-
have been nuts," Ravan explains.
tral Sweden in October 1943.
Suspicious and paranoid after sur-
Lee's parents encouraged him to be a
viving the war, her parents became
doctor or engineer, but he had other
excruciatingly overprotective. Genya
ideas. He arrived in New York in 1966
felt smothered by tight curfews and
looking to break into the music business.
constant questioning. She rebelled
Having discovered the harmonica at age
against her family and Judaism, too.
6, and Ray Charles and Elvis Presley via
She played hooky from Hebrew
Danish radio by 11, Oskar harbored
school, purposely brought bacon into the dreams of becoming a musician.
kosher house and ate it, only dated non-
For a career in music, he believed
Jewish boys, and began experimenting
the United States was the Promised
with alcohol and drugs.
Land. He left home for another reason
"My parents had a whole perse-
cution thing happening, and put
such a horror into me that the last
thing I wanted to do was be
Jewish. I have only just begun to
love my Judaism," Ravan says.
In 1991, Ravan was diagnosed
with lung cancer. The parallel
between her parents' surviving the
Holocaust and her own survival
Left: Lee Oskar: One eye on the back door.
from cancer has not escaped her.
Bob Glaub: Fighting to overcome the negativity.
Survival also triggered a Jewish ren-
aissance within Ravan. She put a
mezuzah on her doorpost, joined a
as well; he needed some emotional
synagogue and began re-learning the
breathing room from his parents' over-
rituals she rebelled against as a youth.
bearing supervision.
"I'm starting to understand my reli-
To this day, Oskar is uncomfortable
gion," Ravan says. "I happen to love being traveling in Germany, and won't even
Jewish now I get a nice, warm feeling
discuss his Judaism unless he knows
from it now I'm very tight with God."
he's speaking with a landsman (fellow
Jew). (He stopped using.the family
name, Levetin, when WAR began get-
Sense Of Paranoia
ting media attention in 1970, fearing
Lee Oskar, a founding member of the
questions about being Jewish.)
band WAR, which put a dozen songs
Wherever he goes, he says, "I know
in the Top 40 throughout the '70s,
where the back door is."
including "Spill the Wine" "The
World is a Ghetto" and "Why Can't
Studio Musician
We Be Friends?" was born Lee Oskar
Levetin in Copenhagen, Denmark, in
Bass player Bob Glaub may not be a
1948. He also felt buried under his
household name, but check the credits
parents' ever-watching eyes.
on Rod Stewart's Atlantic Crossing, John
Even in tolerant Copenhagen, there
Lennon's Rock 6. Roll and just about
was a sense of paranoia in his home.
everything by Jackson Browne and
"My parents felt very vulnerable. My
Linda Ronstadt. You'll see his name.
mother was very nervous and intense,"
He's also accompanied Browne,
says Oskar.
Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty,
His Lithuanian-born mother, Rachel
Dave Mason — and most recently
Becker, was a survivor of the Kovno
Dwight Yoakam — on concert tours.
Ghetto and Stutthof death camp in
He's the bass player on Adam Sandler's
Poland, where her mother was mur-
"Chanukah Song."
dered in a gas chamber. Nearly 50,000
He's also performed or recorded
Jews, mostly women, were murdered or
with Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil