Scene Around

Some sad news ...

Comedian Jackie Mason died. He was in his early 90s.

Jackie Mason was born Yacov Moshe Hakohen Maza on June 9, 1928, (according to 1940 NYC census), in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the fourth and last son (and first son born in the United States) in a family of six children of strict Orthodox Jews. Mason came from a long line of rabbis, which included his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and his great-great-grandfather.

His father Eli Maza and his mother, Belle (Gitlin), were born in Minsk, and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s with the rest of Mason's family; his father died in 1959. A Jewish refugee organization helped his father find a position in Sheboygan, as it needed a rabbi. When Mason was five years old his family moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, largely so that he and his siblings could pursue a yeshiva education, where he grew up on Henry Street, Rutgers Street, and Norfolk Street. (I lived at 770 Henry St.)

There, his parents and their friends all spoke Yiddish.

As a teenager, Mason worked as a busboy at resorts in the Borscht Belt in New York's Catskill Mountains. He recalled: "Twenty minutes, at the Pearl Lake Hotel. I broke all the dishes. They made me a lifeguard. 'But I can't swim,' I told the owner. 'Don't tell the guests,' he says."

In 1953 Mason graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in his double major of English and Sociology from the City College of New York. At age 18 he became a cantor, and at age 25 he received semikhah from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and was ordained a rabbi (as his three brothers, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had been). He led congregations in Weldon, North Carolina, and at Beth Israel Congregation in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He said that in synagogue, "I started telling more and more jokes, and after a while, a lot of gentiles would come to the congregation just to hear the sermons. Three years later, after his father died, he resigned from his job as a rabbi in a synagogue to become a comedian because, he says, "Somebody in the family had to make a living."

(I never met you, Jackie, but I loved you! Rest in Peace.)

On to Tokyo ...

The Olympics started the day before I wrote this column so I don't know the results of any of the competitions as I write. But I did want to mention one of our tribe ... APRIL ROSS.

April is an American professional beach volleyball player who has won a silver medal at the 2012 summer Olympics in London, and a bronze medal at the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

(Both cities that I visited and love.)

Germany's definition about discrimination ...

I read this in the World Jewish Congress digest and pass it along:

"The WJC welcomed the recent endorsement by the German government of the working definition of antigypsism/anti-Roma discrimination adopted last year by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

The IHRA working definition defines antigypsism/anti-Roma discrimination as 'a manifestation of individual expressions and acts as well as institutional politics and practices of marginalization, exclusion, physical violence, devaluation of Roma cultures and lifestyles, and hate speech directed at Roma as well as other individuals and groups perceived, stigmatized, or persecuted during the Nazi era, and still today as Gypsies. This leads to the treatment of Roma as an alleged alien group and associates them with a series of pejorative stereotypes and distorted images that represent a specific form of racism.

Maram Stern, WJC executive vice president, noted: 'The Roma and Sinti were persecuted and murdered by Nazi Germany and its multi-national accomplices alongside European and North African Jewry during the years of the Holocaust, and they continue to face discrimination and violence in parts of Europe to this day.

We commend the German government for adopting the IHRA working definition of anti-Roma discrimination and hope that other governments will follow suit.

The international community must not countenance discrimination of any kind, whether directed against Jews, Roma, Muslims, Asians, the LGBTQ community, or any other minority or vulnerable community."

Once more ... (I promise!) ...

The Winter Park Playhouse presents "Crazy For Gershwin" thru Aug. 22.

Many of their fabulous songs will be played. (Who could ask for anything more?)

For information on cost or show times, phone the theater at 407-645-0145. It is located at 711 N. Orange Ave, Winter Park, Fla. 322789.

Shout-Out ...

This is for our own fabulously talented pianist/singer, CAROL STEIN. She recently announced on Facebook that the Disney Cruise Lines will resume sailing from Port Canaveral on Augu. 9. GREAT NEWS! (I've enjoyed my sailing experiences in the past and plan to again!)

And there is more ... I want to give a shout-out to one of the very best servers I've ever had. Her name is CANDACE DILLON. She is a waitress at Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Altamonte Springs. Not only did she do her job perfectly and quickly ... she also looked after me when she thought I wasn't feeling well and she made me feel so safe. I love her!

One for the road ...

The veteran Jewish comics are sitting at their usual Stage Deli table, telling each other jokes. Since they know all of the jokes anyway, they've developed a shorthand and given each joke a number.

"Number 37," says Bernie, and the group breaks up in laughter. Mannie counters with "53!" and again the table rocks with guffaws. Solly, the newcomer to the group, shouts "44!"

Dead silence.

Solly turns to Manny and asks, "What's the matter? Isn't "44" a good joke?

"Sure it's a good joke," Manny says, "But not the way you tell it ..."