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March 31, 2000
24 Adar II 5760
Of Faith and Flicks
Benyamin Cohen Staff Writer
The “God Squad’s” Gellman and Hartman talk about
themselves, the movies and American morals. Rabbi Marc Gellman is perched on a
wooden pew in the balcony of a picturesque Atlanta church, singing the theme to “Star
Wars.” Sitting next to him is his best friend, Monsignor Tom Hartman. They’re in
a heated discussion — not about religious doctrine, but about musical scores in
films. Gellman, a clean-shaven man with a knit yarmulke covering a portion of his
white disheveled hair, is trying to hum the tune to the scene where Darth Vader is
attempting to kidnap Princess Leia. Despite the dramatic overture, Leia escapes harm.
“Just once,” deadpans the rabbi, “I’d like to see a guy get up after a
miracle and just say ‘Thanks.’ ” There is a pause. Hartman, the
Abbott to Gellman’s Costello, bursts into laughter and the director yells
“Cut!” “Does anyone have any Prozac?” asks the priest,
steely-eyed with a swath of well-coifed silver hair, to no one in particular. Modest
as it may appear, this wry little exchange between these two men of faith — making
observations about the meaning of life, weaving them into a kind of Siskel & Ebert for
the holy roller crowd — symbolizes somewhat of a landmark moment in pop
history. The clerical dream team is in town shooting scenes for Turner Classic
Movie’s ‘Holy’wood: Religion in the Movies, a 27-film festival that
reflects the cinema’s long fascination with matters of faith. Part
philosophers, part Jackie Masons, Gellman and Hartman have spent the better part of the
day cooped up in the ominous cathedral-like environs of The Abbey in Midtown Atlanta,
discussing religion in the movies. Their banter and analysis will be used to introduce the
movies during the festival. The rumination has now shifted from musical treatments
in religious-themed films to stereotypes in these movies. “If you look at the
‘Jazz Singer,’ ” says Gellman, “you have a stereotype of the Jewish
mamma’s boy who basically is completed tied to his mother and has a shiksa
fantasy.” A lighting technician leans over to a nearby reporter taking
notes. “This is so much goddamn fun.”
A televised Inquisition
You’ve seen them on “Good Morning America.” You’ve seen them granting
interviews after horrific national disasters like the Columbine shooting. In a society
that wreaks havoc faster than it can heal itself, these two men have become a moral
barometer of modern America. The authors of six collaborative books, Gellman and
Hartman — appropriately dubbed “The God Squad” — give more than 100
lectures a year. In addition to their frequent appearances on “GMA,” they host
their own syndicated show on religion. To top it off, they are practicing
clergy, ministering two of the largest congregations in the state of New York. “I
know I’m doing good work because I feel tired,” laughs the rabbi, sporting a
retro-hip bowtie, suspenders, and a few lines beneath his droopy lower eyelids. Both
grew to religious consciousness at a time when a Baptist minister named Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. was asking America to change its sinful laws of discrimination.
“Martin Luther King,” remarks Gellman, “created bonds between whites and
blacks. His speech, ‘I have a dream,’ is about all of our dream. Not all of our
dreams, but all of our dream.” They became best friends after appearing together on a
television show 15 years ago and discovering the shared interest in interfaith
relations. From early on they have been like a jazz riff, complementing each other;
when one goes high, the other goes low. “We live in a time,” confides
Hartman, “when society knows too much about how we’re different and not enough
about how we’re the same. “The real message we have is just by walking
into a room together. When we speak, we always speak off of one microphone.”
Listening and learning
“I love Marc,” says Hartman, “And I have grown to literally love Judaism
because of him.” Both Gellman and Hartman have spent time attending services at each
other’s congregations. “Instead of being in competition,” says
Hartman, “all we want to do is just listen to each other, learn from each other, and
help each other get to the World to Come.” Hartman and Gellman are trying to
bring that philosophy to the masses. “Religion helps people with the most fundamental
questions of life,” says Hartman, slowly energizing. “We feel that religion
should be a part of life, not apart from life.”
Proof, as they say, is in the Pentateuch. More people go to religious services on a
weekend than to all the sporting events in the country combined. The clergymen pause
from having the makeup artists re-apply cheek color cream to their already caked faces to
confess they don’t take the credit for this religious renaissance.
“It’s not so much people saying, ‘Isn’t the God Squad great?’
” reveals Hartman. “It’s people saying, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that
these two fellows have learned something. They’re not afraid to meet somebody
who’s different than themselves. “Maybe their friendship will give me the
courage to walk across the street and to meet somebody of another color, or another
culture, or another religion.’ That’s the challenge.”
The next temptation
Gellman doesn’t let celebrity get to his head. “I’ve been at my synagogue
for 20 years,” he says. “I bury people. I bar mitzvah kids, I name babies, I
give sermons. And that work in the practical rabbinate keeps me from becoming a media
whore.” At this point in the conversation, the affable rabbi pulls a
cigar from his jacket pocket, slowly unwrapping it from its plastic encasing, then
continues. My work, he says, “keeps me from becoming seduced by this whole media
thing.” Gellman admits that he is concerned about rabbis like Shmuley Boteach,
author of “Kosher Sex,” who may let their celebrity status get the better of
them. “I worry about Shmuley because I know the media and I know how celebrity can
turn your head.” As for keeping his own head uninflated, Gellman is pretty sure
of the secret to success. “I know that if I stay in my synagogue for 30 years,
I will speak to 1/100th of the people that I speak to one day on ‘Good Morning
America.’ It’s hard to give up the big stage for the small stage until you
realize what the Talmud in Sanhedrin states — that when you save a single life, you
save the whole world. Then you realize that there’s no such thing as a small
stage.”
Judaism, Take 2000
Judaism has always played a supporting role in the movies.
Benyamin Cohen Staff Writer
God is everywhere — especially in the movies. His most recent incarnation comes later
this month with the film “Keeping the Faith,” telling the tale of a rabbi and a
priest who duke it out for the love of the same woman. The romantic comedy, starring Ben
Stiller and Edward Norton, follows in the holy footsteps of many movies that have tried to
tackle Jewish issues. Since the inception of celluloid, Judaism has played a role in
the movies. Not too surprising, considering that the founding fathers of American cinema
were almost all Jewish. Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Fox Film Corporation,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Brothers were all founded by a group of Jewish immigrants,
fresh off the boat from Eastern Europe. Scholars who follow the way Jews are
portrayed in film explain that there are basically three phases of Jewish portrayal in
cinema. Until World War II, Jews who were involved with mainstream culture put their
Jewishness aside, sometimes even running away from it. After all, Irving Berlin, who
penned the lyrics to “White Christmas,” was the son of a cantor. Most of
the early movies dealing with Judaism “could appeal to any immigrant group,”
explains Sharon P. Rivo, executive director of the National Center for Jewish Film.
“You didn’t have to be Jewish to appeal to the immigrant person to make it in
America.” At the early part of the 20th century, many Jews were trying to shed
their Jewish roots and retrofit themselves to the American dream. A classic cinematic
example is the first full-length talking film, “The Jazz Singer.” The
movie tells the story of a young man who became a popular singer rather than the cantor
his father wanted him to be. Based on Al Jolson’s life, the film, in a deeper sense,
was the story of children breaking with their past for fame and fortune. It was the story
of almost all of Hollywood’s patriarchs.
Coming out in ‘Exodus’
In the second, post-World War II wave, Jewish artists began to address their own concerns.
“In 1960,” explains Rivo, “with ‘Exodus’ you’ve got a real,
wonderful coming out of Jews proud of the new Israeli.” Rivo, who teaches a
college course called “The Images of Jews on Screen,” goes on to explain that in
the mid-1970’s the federal government began to allow ethnic agencies to apply for
artistic grants, opening up the floodgates for diverse cinema, marking a harbinger of
things to come. “You didn’t just have to be an American,” offers Rivo.
“You could be something else in America.”
Also, during this period, one of Rivo’s favorite Jewish films came to the silver
screen – “The Frisco Kid” (1979) about a Polish rabbinical school dropout
finding his way in the Wild West. “I think it’s a wonderful portrait. I adore
it.”
The Final Frontier
Now, according to Rivo, Jewish representations in film have entered a third phase —
they’re coming out of the proverbial closet. “When Streisand — with
her clout, her money, her muscle, and her talent decides to make ‘Yentl’ —
that’s an incredible breakthrough of Jews full-blown on the screen being very proud
of who they are.”
Riding the coattails of this third wave are the directorial likes of Woody Allen, Steven
Spielberg, and Barry Levinson. Recent films such as Spielberg’s
“Schindler’s List” and Levinson’s “Liberty Heights” have
even made Rivo’s list of all-time favorites.
The new wave is more cultural than spiritual. Woody Allen plays the neb, Billy Crystal
plays the Jewish professional — synagogues and rituals remain as foreign a concept as
eating pork. Nevertheless, Rivo sees a positive portrayal of Judaism in
current cinema, even noticing a difference between Levinson’s “Liberty
Heights” and his earlier work. It comes across in the movie — through character
depictions, Jewish rituals, and the concept of religion in general — that Levinson is
proud to be Jewish. “If you look at the contrast,” she explains, “between
the Jewish characters in ‘Diner’ and what Levinson now feels comfortable enough
doing in Hollywood today, it’s extraordinary.” n
“One Day” Takes Oscar
One Day in September,” a film exploring the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972
Munich Olympic Games won the Oscar for best documentary at Sunday’s Academy Awards.
The 90-minute film, narrated by actor Michael Douglas and directed by Scottish
director Kevin MacDonald, retells the harrowing events through the eyes of German, Israeli
and Arab principals involved. Arthur Cohn, who previously won an Oscar in 1971 for
“The Garden of the Finzi-Continis,” about the lives of Italian Jews on the eve
of the Holocaust, produced the film, which was more than two years in the making.
Two other films with Jewish themes that were nominated for Oscars — “Solomon and
Gaenor,” a Jewish “Romeo and Juliet” set in Wales that was nominated for
best foreign film, and “Eyewitness,” which featured eyewitness paintings of life
in Auschwitz and was nominated for best documentary short subject — did not
win. –Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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