The real story behind Sammy Davis Jr.’s conversion to Judaism
Jewish comedians made racist jokes about him. Some Black audiences booed him. But his faith was genuine
Eddie Cantor
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The Schmooze Alma Gluck: A Jew in Blackface
Paradoxically, the first recording by a classical artist to sell over one million copies was “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” the minstrel version of a folksong cut in 1916 by a Romanian Jewish soprano who knew bupkis about Old Virginny. As we learn from a cogent chapter in “The Arts of the Prima Donna…
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Opinion Is Danny Sanderson of ‘Poogy’ Fame Channeling Eddie Cantor? You Decide
This is a clip from an early concert of Lahakat Kaveret, often known as the Poogy Band. There are four songs here: “Hamakolet”, “Magafayim shel Baruch”, “Goliath” and “Natati Lah Hayai”. It’s fabulous viewing if a) this was ever your thing and/or b) your Hebrew is good. But wait: There’s an eerie aspect, as I’ll…
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Books Too Gross for the 21st Century? Jewish American Cartoonist Milt Gross
On February 7, at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, a new publication from New York University Press, “Is Diss A System? A Milt Gross Comic Reader” edited by Ari Y. Kelman, will be presented. Gross (born in 1895) of Russian Jewish ancestry, drew comic strips of wild slapstick energy, following in the violence-for-laughs tradition…
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