arts & life

A

Jew Grows
in Brooklyn

Jake Ehrenreich

brings his

one-man show

to the Berman.

Jake Ehrenreich performs

A Jew Grows in Brooklyn

7 p.m. Thursday, May 28,
at the Berman Center
for Performing Arts in
West Bloomfield for the
Holocaust Survivors
Annual Benefit, a program
of Jewish Senior Life's
Program for Holocaust
Survivors and Families.
Event co-chairs include
Gina and Arthur Horwitz,
Brenda Wayne and Gary
Karp, Barbara and Irvin
Kappy, Renee and Jay
Kozlowski and Sandra
Silver. (248) 592-5028;
jslmi.org .

Celebrity Jews

I

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish
News

AT THE MOVIES

Opening this week:
Tomorrowland is a sci fi
fantasy starring George
Clooney as Frank, a former
boy genius who bonds with a
bright, science-minded teen
(Britt Robertson). Together

-

124

May 21 • 2015

I

Lynne Golodner

Special to the Jewish News

ake Ehrenreich spent
his childhood summers
with his family at the
Bungalow Colony in the Catskill
Mountains of New York, among
families of Yiddish-speaking
Holocaust survivors. The come-
dians tailored their jokes to
this unique audience, bringing
laughter to people who greatly
needed it.
"I would listen to my father
cry through the bathroom door
in Brooklyn and in the summer,
I would watch him laugh," says
Ehrenreich, 59. "That's how
important it was. People heal
themselves with laughter"
There's nothing funny
about the Holocaust, assures
Ehrenreich. And yet, he says
audiences laugh, cry and gain
inspiration by A Jew Grows in
Brooklyn, the long-running
one-man musical-comedy
Ehrenreich wrote and performs
in. Described by the New York
Times as "beautiful, touching
and funny — a lot like Billy
Crystal's 700 Sundays," the show
ran for four years on Broadway,
then London and Toronto. Now
a touring show, it's making a
stop at the West Bloomfield
JCC's Berman Center to honor

they embark on a danger-
ous and life-altering mission
to a mysterious place called
Tomorrowland. The screen-
play is by Damon Lindelof,
42, who also produced. He's
best known as the creator of
the TV series Lost and The

Leftovers.

Fantasy of a more horrific
sort is found in Poltergist. A
remake of the classic 1982
Steven Spielberg film about
evil spirits invading a sub-

the 2Gs, as the generation of
children of Holocaust survivors
is known.
A Jew Grows in Brooklyn
resonates not just among Jews,
Ehrenreich says, but with people
everywhere who can relate to the
very human struggle of enduring
beyond horrific challenge.
"The Jewish journey is tra-
ditionally laughter through the
tears," he says. "Our religious
traditions echo the same pat-
tern; even when you mourn
the death of a loved one, there
is a pattern through which you
mourn and then it's over and if
you mourn too long, [it's consid-
ered] a sin."
A musician who has acted
and performed with some
of the great entertainers of
the last half-century, from
Greg Allman to the Smothers
Brothers, Ehrenreich was the
only American-born child of
parents raised in Poland who
endured a Siberian labor camp
until they were liberated after
World War II.
His father was raised a Gerer
Chassid but became secular
by the time he emigrated to
America with his wife and two
daughters, Ehrenreich's sisters
(one was born in Siberia; the
other in a displaced persons
camp). All are deceased:

urban home and capturing a
young child,
the new ver-
sion has been
brought into
the present
day and co-
stars Sam
Rockwell and
Rosemarie
Raimi
DeWitt. It was
produced by
Royal Oak-native Sam Raimi,
55, a master of horror, and

"I could have

written the

saddest show in

the world," says

Ehrenreich. "But I

have a wonderful

life. It's all part of

the story."

Jake Ehrenreich

directed by Gil Kenan, 38.
Kenan, who was born in Israel
and raised in California, has
directed two big studio mov-
ies: Monster House (2006), a
charming animated film that
was a hit and Oscar nominee,
and City of Ember (2008), a
fantasy that didn't fare well
with critics or audiences.

SMALL SCREEN
Red Nose Day is the title of

a special airing live on NBC

at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 21,
with the goal of raising funds
for underprivileged children
in the United States and
around the world. The gim-
mick is that the celebs wear
a clown-like red nose – this
charming fashion statement
has already been a huge hit
in the U.K., where millions
of dollars have been raised
via celebrity-studded Red
Nose Day TV specials. Jewish
celebs appearing on the NBC