Obituaries are updated regularly and archived on JNOnline.com Jewish Values LEONARD POGER Copy Editor Ann Arbor laywright Arthur Miller used themes of impor- tant Jewish values in many of his works, said Enoch Brater, a University of Michigan profes- sor who has specialized on Miller's career for the past decade. In one Holocaust-Chemed production, Incident at Vichy Mr. Miller stressed the importance of personal responsibility in place of a simple apology of guilt. Mr. Miller is most known for one of his early Broadway dramas, Death of a Salesman. Ironically, he died Feb. 10, 2005, of heart failure on the 56th anniversary of the opening of that play. Mr. Miller, 89, died in his Roxbury, Conn., home. - The West Bloomfield-based Jewish Ensemble Theatre (JET) previously scheduled one of Mr. Miller's short plays, The Last Yankee, to be staged March 16-April 17. The play concerns the public's prejudices toward women with mental or emotional illnesses. On Mr. Miller's incorporation of Jewish themes and values into several plays, JET'S artistic director Evelyn Orbach said, "Mr. Miller was always a social activist but didn't want to be known as a 'Jewish' writer. He wanted to be known as a major international writer." Orbach also said that Mr. Miller's later plays used the Holocaust and Jewish themes, and he became more open in identifying with the Jewish community "He was always a social activist who wrote about the problems of the world," she said. While the characters weren't clearly identified as Jews, they had Jewish backgrounds, such as the furniture appraiser in The Price, Orbach added. p . Professor Brater, a U-M English and theater profes- sor, commented that Mr. Miller's views were shaped by growing up before the Great Depression in New York City. He was raised by Yiddish-speaking parents and had a bar mitzvah. "He grew up in a upper-middle-class background in a Jewish neighborhood," Brater said. "He was in a very Jewish world" with his family made up of cultural Jews. And his Jewish background had a "profound impact" on his plays. A major theme of many of his plays was the impor- tance of ethics and responsibility. Brater said that several of Mr. Miller's plays stressed a Jewish value that "responsibility is action-based. He had his characters ask `What can.you do?'" The professor, who is teaching an Arthur Miller semi- nar class this semester, said that the playwright assimi- lated Jewish values at their best into his works. Mr Miller was thankful; Brater added, - forrhe °ppm- tuni: tiOs, - that America gave Jews: The nation 1.1owed - Jews io "take part in its society and to be whatever they-I.::. wantecrto be. America -valtied'meritocrky." "Arthur Miller was a public intellectual who used his position to speak out against injustices," Brater said. By coincidence, Brater edited a book, Arthur Miller's America, that came out just a week before the play- wright's death. Brater also has written his own book, The Stages ofArthur Miller, to be published in October. In an interview six years ago, Mr. Miller told the JN that he doesn't have "any connection with any organ- ized religion. I never had, and I don't now But I do identify myself as a Jew, just not as a religious Jew." In the interview, Mt Miller acknowledged that Willy Loman, the main character in Death of a Salesman, was Jewish and that the character was based on one of his own uncles, a salesman who committed suicide. While Mr. Miller was widely regarded as one of America's most important playwrights, he had a special affinity for his alma mater, the University of Michigan. The university honored him many times, including a * expires Feb. 25, 2005 code 0225 weeklong symposium held five years ago. More recent- ly, the school recognized his contributions by the nam- ing of a new theater in his honor in the planned Walgreen Drama Center on the north campus. Mr. Miller was attracted to U-M during the Great Depression because it had a highly regarded theater pro- gram and offered an annual $250 Hopwood Award prize for the best student Arthur Miller writings — or about four times the school's then-annual tuition. He won it twice. University President Mary Sue Coleman said in a statement, "we mourn the death of Arthur Miller, one of the nation's most celebrated playwrights and a loyal alumnus whose affection for the university endured for his lifetime." He "expressed his genius in an exquisite ability to communicate the beauty and sadness of ordinary peo- ple and everyday life. We are proud that Michigan played a part in his life and grateful for the many ways this extraordinary man shared himself with us." In 1998, the school's literary publication, Michigan Quarterly, had its entire edition devoted to . Miller and his contributions to the theater. Mr. Miller's last appearance on the campus was this past spring when he met with part of the uni- versity community and had the theater department produce a montage of memorable scenes from about a half-dozen of his most best-known plays. Mr. Miller's reputation and the use of his plays by generations of high school and college drama stu- dents is reflected in the more than 1.5 million entries in the Google search engine. YESHIVA BETH YEHUDAH School for Bays • a4th Jacob School for Girls • Early Childhood Development Center :15751 W.:Lincoln Drive.* Southfield, MI 48076 • (248) 557 6750 - "The entire world is sustained by the Torah study of young chifdree': During the coming week, the students of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah will study in memory of the following departed friends. In addition, Kaddish will be said during the daily minyan. Adar 11 / February 20 Rose Aronoff Esther Janet Bragman Max E. 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