Pope Francis has received some negative publicity of late, first for using a gay slur in comments at a meeting with bishops, and then for saying to a group of priests that “gossip is a women’s thing.” What did Pope Francis do that led Rabbi Noam Marans, Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations at the American Jewish Committee, to comment that the Pope “gets it in his kishkes”?

Pope Francis Korea Haemi Castle 19 by Korea.net /Korean Culture and Information Service (Jeon Han) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 DEED via Wikimedia Commons

A. In 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Argentina (who became Pope Francis that year) co-wrote the book On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century with his friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka. Rabbi Marans was referencing that book, where the two clergy focused on the building of bridges between Catholics and Jews worldwide.

B. In November 2019, a Roman Holocaust survivor had been the victim of death threats. As the Pope was offering remarks to a public audience, he veered from his prepared remarks and stated, “The Jewish people have suffered so much in history. But today the habit of persecuting the Jews, brothers and sisters, is here reborn. This is neither human nor Christian.” Rabbi Marans was in that audience and later praised the Pope for his compassion.

C. When Israeli President Reuven Rivlin visited the Pope in 2015, Rivlin’s bureau chief, Rivka Ravitz, was not comfortable bowing to the Pope, as is protocol. The Pope therefore covered his cross necklace with his hand and bowed down to Ms. Ravitz. Rabbi Marans made his comment following that interaction.

D. Pope Francis visited Israel in 2014. While there, he became the first Pope to visit the grave of Theodor Herzl, and he visited Yad Vashem, where he kissed the hands of Holocaust survivors. Rabbi Marans was referring to this trip by the Pope when he made his remarks.

E. Rabbi Marans had invited the Pope to his Passover seder. At one point, the Pope excused himself from the table and “disappeared” for a half hour, shortly after eating the Hillel sandwich of bitter herbs on matzah. After Rabbi Marans went to check on the Pope, he reported to the other guests that the Pope was okay, but “you know, some people can’t really handle the bitter herbs, like the Pope, who ‘gets it in his kishkes.’ ”

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Ivan Boesky died last week at the age of 87. Boesky, son of Russian Jewish immigrants, obtained his law degree but then worked in finance at a number of companies including L.F. Rothschild. He then started his own brokerage firm, Ivan F. Boesky & Company. He eventually amassed a huge fortune, in particular by betting on corporate takeovers. He also was successful in many financial dealings as a result of huge sums in cash which he paid others for inside information which he used to guide his investing. In 1986 he pleaded guilty to one count of insider trading, for which he served two years in prison and was permanently barred from working in the securities industry. The character Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street was in part based on Boesky, in particular the “greed is good” speech which Gekko delivers, similar to Boesky’s 1986 commencement speech at the Haas School of Business of the University of California, Berkeley where he stated, “Greed is all right, by the way. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.” What else is true about Ivan Boesky?

US Penitentiary, Lompoc [where Ivan Boesky served his prison term] by Federal Bureau of Prisons is in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

A. Boesky once attended a bar mitzvah party on the Queen Elizabeth 2 yacht; he arrived too late for the boat’s departure, so instead he descended onto the boat at sea in a helicopter.

B. The investigation of Boesky’s insider trading was spearheaded by U. S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani. Boesky ultimately cooperated with Giuliani, providing information that led to the indictment of Michael Milken. Boesky went on to support Giuliani in his 2008 campaign for president, with rumors that Giuliani intended to appoint Boesky as chair of the Federal Reserve.

C. After his release from prison, Boesky’s personal connection to Judaism grew. He donated a significant amount of money to establish a support program for Jews incarcerated in the federal prison system. The program, called Boesky’s Atonement, provided prayer books, kosher food, and holiday items for those in need.

D. When Boesky divorced his first wife, Seema Silberstein, she agreed to pay him a $20 million settlement, plus $180,000/year for life.

E. After Boesky finished his prison term, he enrolled in the Jewish Theological Seminary. However, not convinced that he had truly atoned, the faculty declined to give him smicha, his rabbinical ordination. As a result, he incorporated his own seminary and awarded himself smicha, thereafter referring to himself as the Boesker Rebbe.

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The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in Los Angeles in 2021, dedicated to the film industry. The museum holds more than 13 million objects, including Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, tablets from The Ten Commandments, and a shark mold from Jaws. Shortly after opening, the museum received much criticism that it failed to reflect the major role that Jews played in the Hollywood film industry. As a result, the museum announced plans to add a permanent exhibit dedicated to Jewish industry pioneers, and this exhibit, titled “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital,” just opened. Among those featured in the exhibit are Louis B. Mayer (Lazar Meir), the Warner brothers (the Wonsal brothers), and Samuel Goldwyn (Schmuel Gelbfisz). They and so many other founders of the movie industry were born to Jewish families who emigrated to the United States at the turn of the 20th century.

Samuel Goldwyn, born in Warsaw, eventually made his way to Hollywood where he partnered with his brother-in-law Jesse L. Lasky in hiring the unknown playwright Cecil B. DeMille to direct a silent film titled The Squaw Man. Goldwyn’s success continued as he hired writers including Ben Hecht, Dorothy Parker, and Lillian Hellman, and worked with actors including Eddie Cantor, David Niven, Gary Cooper, and Danny Kaye.

While Goldwyn did not embrace Judaism, he did ultimately become president of the United Jewish Welfare Fund and was a strong supporter of Israel. Among the honors he received were the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

What else is true of Samuel Goldwyn?

Samuel Goldwyn - Jul 1919 EH by Underwood & Underwood is in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

A. His second marriage, to a Catholic woman, produced a Catholic son, pleasing Goldwyn who felt this helped him “bleach out his Jewishness.”

B. He was the only major Hollywood producer who refused to blacklist writers targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

C. Upon being told that a book he had purchased for filming, The Well of Loneliness, couldn’t be filmed because it was about lesbians, he reportedly replied: “That’s all right, we’ll make them Hungarians.”

D. He was unsuccessful at convincing Sigmund Freud to write a romantic screenplay (which he assumed would have great sex scenes).

E. Playwright Lillian Hellman stated that “Within limits, I liked him.”

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37 countries participated in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden, with Switzerland winning the competition with the song The Code by Nemo. The contest has been taking place since 1956, with Israel first participating in 1973. Israel has won the contest four times–in 1978 with Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta performing the song A-Ba-Ni-Bi, in 1979 for the song Hallelujah by Milk and Honey, in 1998 with Dana International singing Diva, and in 2018 when Netta won with the song Toy. This year’s Israel entrant was the song Hurricane, performed by Eden Golan, which came in fifth. Controversy surrounded her song and performance as there were protests over the war in Gaza. The song Hurricane was originally titled October Rain, with some allusions to the Hamas terror attack of October 7. Songs in the Eurovision contest are not allowed to be political, and ultimately the lyrics were revised and the song was renamed Hurricane. There were additional protests among some other Eurovision participants and others over Israel’s presence in the contest, but contest organizers rejected requests to disqualify Israel.

There has been a parallel song contest in Europe for more than 20 years where young Jewish students compete, singing pop songs adapted to Jewish content, or in some cases original Jewish songs. The competition was first created by Rotem Abecassis, an Israeli shaliach in Sweden, to bring together chapters of World Bnei Akiva (a religious Zionist youth movement). This year’s contest took place in Hanover, Germany in March, and was won by Halev Stuttgart Youth Center. What is the name of this annual Jewish song competition?

The International Eurovision contest for 1979 was held in Jerusalem (FL45813625) (contest winners Milk and Honey) by Danny Gotfried is licensed under CC BY 4.0 DEED via Wikimedia Commons

A. Shir Ha-Shirim.

B. Euro-Jewish Idol.

C. Let My People Sing.

D. Shir Shalom.

E. Jewrovision.

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