arts&life

While his older brother Sam ful-
filled Dad’
s wishes and went to med-
ical school, Moe signed a contract 
to play pro ball. He acceded to his 
father’
s demands up to a point by 
attending Columbia Law School in 
the off seasons, earning his degree 
and passing the New York bar in 
1929.
It was a false bargain: Moe despised 
the idea of being a lawyer while 
Bernard Berg never accepted a base-
ball career as a legitimate pursuit. In 
fact, the old man refused to go the 
park and see his son play.
From an athletics standpoint, 
Bernard wasn’
t missing much. A 
knee injury early in Moe’
s career, 
compounded by primitive diagnosis 
and treatment, severely slowed him. 
Over 15 years as a backup catcher, 
Berg notched exactly 441 hits in 663 
games. 
What set Moe apart were his charm, 
charisma and erudition. He studied 
Sanskrit at the Sorbonne one off sea-
son and read multiple newspapers 
every day. When he went to Japan on 
a barnstorming tour with Babe Ruth 
and other Major League stars, he 
made a point of learning Japanese. 
Berg carried a movie camera every-
where on that trip and, wearing a 
kimono and on the pretense of visit-
ing a patient, he made his way to the 
roof of a tall Tokyo hospital to shoot 
a 360-degree panorama of the city. It’
s 
not clear if he was already working 
officially (albeit surreptitiously) for 
the U.S. government, but his film of 
Tokyo’
s layout was of significant help 
when the U.S. went to war with Japan 
after Pearl Harbor.
In fact, in early 1942, Berg recorded 
a radio segment in Japanese that was 
broadcast in Japan and drew on the 

good will he’
d accumulated over two 
pre-war visits and a mutual love of 
baseball. 
Berg had been sent on research mis-
sions to South America, but that was too 
far from the real action. It appears he 
found a home in 1943 in the newly cre-
ated Office of Strategic Services (OSS), 
the intelligence branch that evolved into 
the CIA after the war.
His primary and crucial assignment 
was to ascertain how close the Germans 
were to having a nuclear weapon and 
to sway Italian scientists from the Axis 
to the Allies. To successfully carry off 
his cover story, Berg was briefed on the 
science and strategy of the Manhattan 
Project.
One biographer recounts, “The OSS 
had given the Manhattan Project its 
own spy, in effect, its own field agent to 
pursue questions of interest wherever 
he could in Europe. And that was Moe 
Berg.
”
Kempner accords a great deal of 
screen time to this episode in Berg’
s clan-
destine career as a professional spook. 
It’
s a great story, in which the solidly 
built ex-catcher is assigned to attend a 
conference in Switzerland and determine 
— from the keynote speech by visiting 
German scientist Werner Heisenberg — 
if the Nazis are within reach of perfect-
ing the bomb.
Berg carries a pistol to the symposium, 
with orders to use it on Heisenberg if he 
deems it necessary. He did not.
Kempner leaves us wanting to know 
more about Berg’
s later years. By the 
weirdest of coincidences, Sam Berg 
headed a group of doctors sent to 
Nagasaki to study the effects of radiation 
poisoning. Incredibly, the brothers never 
knew about each other’
s exploits.
That lone fact reveals there’
s still more 
to know about Moe Berg’
s story. ■

“My mother, who was a great 
abstract expressionist painter [who 
had a one-woman show at the Detroit 
Institute of Arts], was an influence in 
pursuing an artistic career after I left 
a legal career,” she said. “
And my step-
father gave me a great appreciation of 
history.”
In Detroit, Kempner says the family 
did not formally belong to a shul, but 
that she attended High Holiday ser-
vices with her father at the Isaac Agree 
Downtown Synagogue. 
“I fondly remember seeing Fiddler 
on the Roof with Pops every year 
in Detroit,” she said. “We went to 
many activities at the Detroit Jewish 
Community Center, which was the cen-
terpiece of my Jewish identity growing 
up. I continued that delightful child-
hood JCC experience by being very 
active with the re-establishment of the 
Washington, D.C., JCC and by starting 
the Jewish film festival in D.C. as an 
adult.” 
Still, Detroit’
s influence is inescapable. 
 
“I always say you can take the girl 
out of Detroit but not Detroit out of 
the girl. I have kept in touch with many 
of my high school and college friends 
as well being close to my brother 
and Detroit cousins, who also live 
in Washington, D.C., area. We have 
had seders together for over 65 years. 
“I still call soda ‘
pop’
 and drink Diet 
Vernors. I love meeting new people 
who are from Detroit and instant-
ly compare notes about growing up 
here. And my favorite music remains 
Motown tunes.”
So, how do her two films about 
Jewish baseball heroes fit into her career 
goals? 
“Life-size wall hangings of my three 
favorite Jewish baseball players — Sandy 
Koufax pitching to Hank Greenberg 
and Moe Berg as catcher — adorn the 
curved wall of my home’
s staircase,” she 

said. “I was so proud of making The Life 
and Times of Hank Greenberg because 
he was a Jewish hero during times of 
teeming anti-Semitism in America and 
while the Nazis were raging in Europe.
“I jumped at businessman William 
Levine’
s generous offer to support a 
Moe Berg bio film. The Spy Behind 
Home Plate fits perfectly into my goal 
to make historical documentaries about 
under-known Jewish heroes and my 
career focus on exploring courageous 
tales about those who fought the Nazis.”
Her nonprofit, the Ciesla Foundation, 
is based on those goals: to produce 
documentaries that investigate non-ste-
reotypical images of Jews in history and 
to celebrate the untold stories of Jewish 
heroes. 
“For decades, different writers and 
directors have tried to tell the story 
of the thrilling life of Moe Berg. I am 
proud to have made the first fact-based, 
feature-length documentary that does 
his life justice.” ■

For Aviva Kempner’
s “love letter” to Detroit in 

the Forward, go to bit.ly/2QTC7tV.

for our country — all of things we might not have today. 
The man had the right values.” 
His first Moe Berg collection piece was a canceled 
check for $100 signed by Berg in 1951. After years of 
gathering Berg memorabilia, Matthews now has hun-
dreds of collectibles, both at the JCC exhibit and at his 
Farmington Hills home. 
Matthews hopes this exhibit, the most complete exhib-
it in the country accessible to the public, can provide 
educational insight for two different generations — the 
first being his generation, the ones who are nostalgic and 
can reflect on the impact of these stellar athletes from 

their childhood. Yet, the most important generation to 
Matthews is the younger generation. He wants them to 
be informed and learn more about the substantial contri-
butions from Jewish ball players.
He has a hard time picking a favorite of his collect-
ibles. “Asking me to pick a favorite is like asking a par-
ent to pick their favorite child,” he says. 
However, his first pick is Winston Churchill’
s book 
on World War II, The Hinge of Fate, from Berg’
s private 
library. Secondly, he loves looking at Berg’
s personal 
income tax return from 1934. 
The rarest piece of memorabilia is the only article Berg 

published, “Pitchers and Catchers,” which was printed 
in the Atlantic Monthly. This article detailed how pitchers 
and catchers would work together to deceive the batters 
of the opposing team.
Matthews says he is looking forward to the sneak 
peek of The Spy Behind Home Plate at 7 p.m. Thursday, 
June 20, at the Maple Theater in Bloomfield Township. At 
the event, he will introduce filmmaker Kempner. 
“Of all of the days they could have picked, coinciden-
tally, it’
s my birthday,” he says. “This is one of the best 
birthday presents I could have asked for.” ■

38 June 13 • 2019
jn

Aviva Kempner continued from page 36
The Spy Behind Home Plate continued from page 36

Bob Matthews continued from page 37

Aviva Kempner with Brad Ausmus