36 June 13 • 2019 jn MICHAEL FOX SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS A Major League baseball player during the 1920s and ’ 30s, Moe Berg had a 15-year sports career that was unremarkable. It was what he did off the field that made him a true hero. Berg, a brilliant professional athlete who spoke seven languages, led a secret second life as a spy for the U.S. government. Former Detroiter Aviva Kempner, who hit a home run with her 1998 documentary about another Jewish ballplayer in The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, was the natural filmmaker to take on the mysteries at the heart of Berg’ s minor celebrity. The Spy Behind Home Plate is a testament to Kempner’ s determination and persistence. Chock full of dozens of contemporary and archival interviews and packed with rare photos and even rarer film foot- age, The Spy Behind Home Plate is a definitive record of Berg’ s achievements. Although it’ s an effective way to impart information, the talking heads, vintage visu- als and period music can’ t fully evoke the shadowy stealth and deadly risks of Berg’ s wartime activities. The documentary runs June 21-28 at the Maple Theater in Bloomfield Township with a special pre- view screening at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 20, at the theater that features an introduction by local baseball historian Dr. Robert “Bob” Matthews (see sidebar) and a Q&A session with Kempner (see sidebar). The preview is hosted by Detroit’ s Jewish Community Center and Jewish Federation. Seating is limited; tickets can be purchased online or at the Maple Theater box office. Kempner’ s award-winning career is defined by portraits of forgotten or overlooked Jewish heroes. Greenberg and Berg are part of a gallery that includes Kempner’ s 1986 debut, Partisans of Vilna, Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (about the pioneering televi- sion writer, actress and producer Gertrude Berg) and Rosenwald, which recounts Sears exec and philan- thropist Julius Rosenwald’ s contributions to African American education. BERG’ S MYSTERIOUS LIFE Morris Berg, international man of mystery, was born in New York in 1902. His father had fled a Ukrainian shtetl for the Lower East Side, where he started a laundry before buying a pharmacy and drugstore in Newark. The family moved to New Jersey when Moe was a boy, and he grew into an excellent student and a terrific baseball player. After a year at NYU, he trans- ferred to Princeton, where he was a star shortstop (back when the Ivy League was the top, if not only, sports conference) and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. fi lm arts&life The Spy Behind Home Plate Former Detroit fi lmmaker Aviva Kempner tells the real story of Moe Berg, a Major-Leaguer turned spy. TOP: Moe Berg’ s passport. ABOVE: Moe Berg in a military jeep in California with his brother Sam during the war, July 1942. COURTESY OF IRWIN BERG PUBLIC DOMAIN A lthough born in Berlin, director-writ- er-producer Aviva Kempner has strong ties to Detroit. Her parents, Harold Kempner and Helen Ciesla, met and fell in love in Berlin. Her mother was a Holocaust survivor from Poland, with blond hair, green eyes and false papers, who passed as a Polish Catholic in Germany. Her father was a U.S. Army officer who wrote a story about Helen and her brother surviving the war. In 1950, they moved to Detroit where an uncle lived. Her parents divorced when she was 13, and her mother married Wayne State University histo- ry professor Milton Covensky. “My father gave me a strong sense of Jewish identity and love of baseball, especial- ly for Hank Greenberg,” she said. “My brother Jonathan and I heard about him every Yom Kippur, so we always thought Hank was part of Kol Nidre services.” Kempner grew up in Detroit, attending Cass Tech High School in the mid-’ 60s. She received an undergraduate degree in psychology and a master’ s in urban planning from the University of Michigan. “While receiving my masters, I sold movie the- ater tickets at the Michigan Theater, so maybe that was my first experience in the business,” she jokes. “My years on the Michigan Daily devel- oped my passion for the news and telling a good story.” She also earned a law degree at Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., where she now lives. Aviva Kempner Can’ t take Detroit out of this girl. KERI GUTEN COHEN STORY DEVELOPMENT EDITOR continued on page 38 continued on page 38