6 | MARCH 16 • 2023 

1942 - 2023

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

To make a donation to the 
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 
FOUNDATION
go to the website
www.djnfoundation.org

The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) 

is published every Thursday at 

32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, 

Farmington Hills, Michigan. Periodical 

postage paid at Southfield, Michigan, and 

additional mailing offices. 

Postmaster: send changes to: 

Detroit Jewish News, 

32255 Northwestern Highway, #205, 

Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334

MISSION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will be of service to the Jewish community. The Detroit Jewish 
News will inform and educate the Jewish and general community to preserve, protect and sustain the Jewish 
people of greater Detroit and beyond, and the State of Israel.

VISION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will operate to appeal to the broadest segments of the greater 
Detroit Jewish community, reflecting the diverse views and interests of the Jewish community while advancing the 
morale and spirit of the community and advocating Jewish unity, identity and continuity.

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
32255 Northwestern Hwy. Suite 205,
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
248-354-6060
thejewishnews.com

 
 
Publisher
The Detroit Jewish 
News Foundation

| Board of Directors:
 Chair: Gary Torgow
 Vice President: David Kramer 
 Secretary: Robin Axelrod
 Treasurer: Max Berlin
 Board members: Larry Jackier, 
 Jeffrey Schlussel, Mark Zausmer
 
 
 Executive Director:
 Marni Raitt 
 Senior Advisor to the Board: 
 Mark Davidoff
 Alene and Graham Landau Archivist Chair: 
 Mike Smith
 Founding President & Publisher Emeritus: 
 Arthur Horwitz
 Founding Publisher 
 Philip Slomovitz, of blessed memory

 

 Editorial 
 Director of Editorial: 
 Jackie Headapohl
jheadapohl@thejewishnews.com
Contributing Editors: 
David Sachs, Keri Guten Cohen
Staff Reporter: 
Danny Schwartz 
dschwartz@thejewishnews.com
Editorial Assistant: 
Sy Manello
smanello@thejewishnews.com 
Digital Manager:
Elizabeth King 
eking@thejewishnews.com 

Contributing Writers:
Nate Bloom, Rochel Burstyn, Suzanne 
Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Shari S. 
Cohen, Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Louis 
Finkelman, Stacy Gittleman, Esther 
Allweiss Ingber, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer 
Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, 
Robin Schwartz, Mike Smith, Steve Stein, 
Julie Smith Yolles, Ashley Zlatopolsky 
 

 Advertising Sales 
Director of Advertising: Keith Farber
kfarber@thejewishnews.com
Senior Account Executive: 
Kathy Harvey-Mitton
kmitton@thejewishnews.com 

| Business Office
 Director of Operations: Amy Gill
 agill@thejewishnews.com
 Operations Manager: Andrea Gusho 
 agusho@thejewishnews.com
 Operations Assistant: Ashlee Szabo 
 Circulation: Danielle Smith
 Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner

| Production By 
 Farago & Associates
 Manager: Scott Drzewiecki 
 Designers: Kaitlyn Iezzi, Kelly Kosek, 
 Deborah Schultz, Michelle Sheridan 

PURELY COMMENTARY

interview
A History of Mel Brooks as a 
‘Disobedient Jew’
J

eremy Dauber subtitles 
his new biography of 
Mel Brooks Disobedient 
Jew. It’s a phrase that captures 
two indivisible aspects of the 
96-year-old 
director, actor, 
producer and 
songwriter.
The “Jew” is 
obvious. Born 
Melvin Kaminsky 
in Brooklyn in 
1926, Brooks 
channeled the Yiddish accents 
and Jewish sensibilities of his 
old neighborhoods into charac-
ters like the 2000 Year Old Man 
— a comedy routine he worked 
up with his friend, the writer 
and director Carl Reiner. He 
worked Jewish obsessions into 
films like 1967’s The Producers, 

which features two scheming 
Jewish characters who stage a 
sympathetic Broadway musical 
about Hitler in order to bilk 
their investors. 
Brooks’ signature move is to 
inject Jews into every aspect 
of human history and culture, 

which can be seen in the forth-
coming Hulu series History of 
the World, Part II. A sequel to 
his 1981 film, History of the 
World, Part I, it parodies histor-
ical episodes in a style he honed 
as a writer on 1950s television 
programs such as Your Show of 

Shows, whose writers’ rooms 
were stocked with a galaxy of 
striving Jewish comedy writers 
just like him. 
The “Disobedient” part 
describes Brooks’ relationship 
to a movie industry that he 
conquered starting in the early 
1970s. In a series of parodies 
of classic movie genres — the 
Western in Blazing Saddles, 
the horror movie in Young 
Frankenstein, Alfred Hitchcock 
in High Anxiety — he would 
gently, sometimes crudely and 
always lovingly, bite the hand 
that was feeding him quite 
nicely: In 1976, he was fifth 
on the list of top 10 box office 
attractions, just behind Clint 
Eastwood. 
Dauber describes the parody 
Brooks mastered as “nothing 

Andrew 
Silow-Carroll 
JTA

MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

Mel Brooks sings 
the title tune in 
his movie High 
Anxiety, which 
was released in 
1977.

