The logo for Brooklyn Jewish Heritage Initiative whose mission is to Organize Public Events, Create Oral & Video Histories, Provide Resources to the Brooklyn Jewish Community

Brooklyn Jewish
Historical Initiative

bc Home » People » Page 7

People

Brooklyn Dodgers 1957

REVIEW: BROOKLYN DODGERS, THE GHOSTS OF FLATBUSH

  • by

By Joe Dorinson

Brooklyn Dodgers 1957
Brooklyn Dodgers 1957

When Walter O’Malley—author Pete Hamill’s choice for the third most evil man in history—pulled the Dodgers out of Brooklyn with the bibulous Horace Stoneham in tow, this baseball tycoon drove a dagger deep into our city’s heart. Our borough minus the Dodgers is like Romeo bereft of Juliet, corned beef on white bread, Abbott less Costello, and Steve Lawrence sans Edye Gorme. As the poet wrote: “After such knowledge, what forgiveness?” Who, besides a brainless Supreme Court, argued that baseball was a sport, not a business?

Since 1957, despite the resurgence of Yankee power and the birth of the Mets, there has been a void in New York, New York. That vacuum, which Mother Nature abhors, will be filled when HBO Productions in conjunction with major league baseball airs a documentary film, Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush. This wonderful voyage back in time to our “Glory Days” (the title and the subject of an excellent exhibit that once “played” at the Museum of the City of New York as well) under the aegis of executive producers, Ross Greenburg and Rich Bernstein with able assistance from Brian Hyland, Amani Martin, Ezra Edelman, and Caroline Waterlow evokes another time and a revered place in New York City, no, American history.

Narrated by Liev Schreiber, currently starring in Donovan, this engrossing film opens with a splendid view of Brooklyn’s Great Bridge, which couples art and technology in high fidelity. The camera eye fixes on Manhattan; then retreats into Brooklyn, where the film’s principal narrative charts the heroic odyssey of Jack Roosevelt Robinson and his pilgrim’s progress into mainstream America by way of Brooklyn. Fortified with “talking head” testimony from Dodger teammates Duke Snider, Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Clem Labine, and Ralph Branca and enriched by the recollections of Rachel Robinson, his beautiful, articulate, and courageous wife, the film features amazing footage of this “American Samurai,” re: David Halberstam, in action. Before Jackie’s advent into major league baseball, black athletes projected either brute force: Jack Johnson and Joe Louis or gifted clowns like the Harlem Globetrotters. Black stereotypes pervaded film, radio, and graphic arts.

Read More »REVIEW: BROOKLYN DODGERS, THE GHOSTS OF FLATBUSH

Avi Hoffman and Suzanne Toren on ‘Death of a Salesman’ and Yiddish

  • by

By LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES NOV. 10, 2015 Before he was a salesman, Willy Loman was a peddler on the Lower East Side. You won’t find any proof of that in the script of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” but it makes intuitive sense to Avi Hoffman, the actor playing Willy in New Yiddish Rep’s Yiddish-language production. In the back story Mr. Hoffman has settled on, Willy is a Jewish immigrant who… Read More »Avi Hoffman and Suzanne Toren on ‘Death of a Salesman’ and Yiddish

Sandy Koufax

Meeting Sandy Koufax

  • by

By Uriel Gottesman I lived in Borough Park (55th St.) from the middle 1940s until 1955 but in addition, lived in other sections of Brooklyn until 1966. One of my favorite memories was the opportunity my father, brother and I had to Visit with Sandy Koufax in his home on 48th Street within a couple of days of his signing his contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. This was made possible… Read More »Meeting Sandy Koufax

Frank Sinatra’s Pride, Passion and Politics

  • by

By Joe Dorinson

Our house, the Bible teaches, is one of many mansions. Frank Sinatra whose 100th birthday we celebrate this Saturday, December 12, 2015 began his great ascent to the room at the top in 1935 when he broke into show business on Major Bowes’s Amateur Hour. His rise, over Judy Garland’s rainbow, personifies the American Dream. His achievements have earned this self-styled saloon singer a permanent perch among the icons in our pantheon. Most studies of Sinatra, however, pay little attention to his politics; hence this effort to shed some light on a neglected but important subject.

Sinatra’s political education started at home in Hoboken, New Jersey where his mother, Dolly Graventi Sinatra functioned as a ward-heeler. In return for favors extended to recent immigrants who flocked to Hudson County, she garnered votes for the Democratic machine. Realizing that politics is the art of accommodation, Dolly filled a vacuum that our Founding Fathers and their progressive children in rigid deference to their waspish values had created. Thus, when semi-literate indigent newcomers needed coal to heat their cold-water flats, turkeys to feed their hungry children at Thanksgiving or jobs for family survival they turned to the urban bosses. High-minded sentiment and lofty sermons on rugged individualism, moral responsibility and civic duty did not suffice. Following in the wake of Irish politicians, Dolly Sinatra was always there: to help as well as to reap rewards. She got her husband Marty a job in the local fire department and opened a saloon during the era of prohibition. And in 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, she bought a four-story house.

Read More »Frank Sinatra’s Pride, Passion and Politics

DEBORAH KASS UNVEILS OY/YO SCULPTURE IN BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK

  • by

NOVEMBER 10, 2015 – Paul Kasmin Gallery is pleased to announce the unveiling of Deborah Kass’ first large-scale public sculpture OY/YO, now on view in Brooklyn Bridge Park through August 16, 2016. Commissioned by Two Trees Management Company and presented in partnership with Brooklyn Bridge Park, the sculptural installation will coincide with No Kidding, an exhibition of new paintings by the artist opening at 515 W. 27th Street, December 9, 2015 – January 23, 2016. OY/YO has been a significant and… Read More »DEBORAH KASS UNVEILS OY/YO SCULPTURE IN BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK

Memorial Day 2016

  • by

  7 Syrian Community Soldiers Killed in World War II and A Prayer for the United States Armed Forces   On Memorial Day, as we think about our Nation’s fallen soldiers, those brave individuals who died protecting us from threats foreign and domestic, and protecting and liberating others from the threats that faced them, let us not forget those members of our Syrian community who died during their service. They… Read More »Memorial Day 2016

Muhammad Ali

  • by

by Joe Dorinson In song, Bob Dylan declared: “The times–they are [were] a-changing.” Joe Louis fell out of favor in the 1960s, a turbulent period of jangling discord and generational conflict. Images collided in this decade: love beads, miniskirts, Beatlemania, bombing in Birmingham, marching to Selma, setting sun in Alabama; rising sun in Japan. Out of these cultural collisions came a hero who was both black and beautiful: Cassius Clay.… Read More »Muhammad Ali

Fyvush Finkel – Will Always Be Remembered

  • by

BJHI celebrates the life of Fyvush Finkel. We are honored we could induct him into the Class of 2015 Brooklyn Jewish Hall of Fame. A real Brooklynite, who was wise, entertaining and downright funny. We will always love him.

Samuel Leibowitz: A Mentsch for All Seasons

  • by

By Joe Dorinson The recent death of civil rights lawyer Jack Greenberg as reported in the New York Times (Obit, Oct. 13, 2016) recalls the once close, though later frayed link between American Jews and African-Americans in the common quest for social justice. After our successful second induction ceremony into the BJHI Hall of Fame, attention must be paid to this one-time Brooklyn resident for posthumous induction for his exemplary… Read More »Samuel Leibowitz: A Mentsch for All Seasons

An Interview With The First Hasidic Woman Elected To Public Office In The U.S.

  • by

In September, attorney and Hasidic community activist Rachel Freier won a contested primary for a civil court judgeship in Brooklyn’s 5th Judicial District. Freier easily carried the November general election, and this week she took her seat on the bench as a civil court judge. Freier, who attended Touro College and Brooklyn Law School, is the first Hasidic Jewish woman to hold elected office in the United States. Prior to… Read More »An Interview With The First Hasidic Woman Elected To Public Office In The U.S.