Did Jew Know? Ida Rosenthal, a Soviet-born dressmaker, is credited as the inventor of the bust-enhancing brassiere, the Maidenform Bra. Maidenform was also the first company to sell maternity bras as well the first to invent and use cup sizes: A, B and Dead Sea!
Just in time for Chanukah, we sat down with Emily Stone, author of Did Jew Know? A Handy Primer on the Customs, Culture and Practice of the Chosen People, to ask her a few questions about the book, Jews in opera, porn, yoga and other matters Jewish.
What about Jews and opera? You mention musicals in your book, but where do the Jews fit in the opera world?
While it’s possible Jews invented the American musical, with of course some help from their friends the African Americans (see Bob Cole)– there are quite a few Jews Who Rock the Met (and New York City Opera) such as Robert Merrill, Leonard Warren, Roberta Peters, Jan Peerce, Richard Tucker, Beverly Sills, Oren Gradus, James Levine to name several. Jacques Offenbach was also Jewish, as was Felix Mendelssohn, not really an opera composer, though he did dabble in the genre. He was also the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn, the father of Judaism’s Reform movement in Germany. On a more repulsive note, Wagner’s granddaughter and Hitler allegedly held hands during various Wagner operas they attended which is something that has always creeped me out.
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| Emily Stone |
Why should someone buy your book?
It’s a great way to learn about Jews and Judaism while being thoroughly entertained. It’s the perfect book to give to a non-Jew dating a Jew or a Jew who grew up mostly secular and wants to know why you can’t eat meat with milk or why Hasidim wear black hats or who Meyer Lansky was. There’s even an exegesis on my people’s contribution to the porn industry (they invented it).
The book is, of course, highly entertaining and yet richly informative. What would you say is something you discovered writing this book?
In many ways, Jews invented the modern world, and yet because of anti-Semitism, that influence has been downplayed and erased. Jewish culture deserves its place at the table, and getting the facts out in a fun, funky, funny format makes that case persuasively. Judaism is still a mysterious and foreign faith to many, many people, including Jews! Given the amount of airplay given to the Bible, this struck me as bizarre and upsetting. The impact and import of Jewish culture cannot be overstated…and yet widespread ignorance of the most basic details persists in places you’d never imagine. Most North American Reform Jews know about as much about the Hasidim as the Hasidim know about Hee-Haw…and that most gentiles, including smarty-pants blue-staters, know even less. Weirdly, I thought I knew more than I actually did. I think every culture wants to claim that they invented civilization. But no one else can claim that they invented TV, Hollywood, benzodiazepines, the Pill and the shopping mall. Every great Christmas Carol is written by a Jew. I mean….
That’s a HUGE question and something I have often struggled with. For one because in Judaism the top three transgressions are murder, adultery and idolatry and there’s a fair amount of idolatry in a yoga practice that centers around the practice of bhakti, which is Sanskrit for devotion. Interestingly, most of the big yoga teachers and Buddhist teachers and kirtan singers in the States are Jews. I think that’s because we’re spiritual people who moved away from spirit into a very secular life in this country, into this vast nothingness of agnostic whatever and the Jew feels lost without the word and without HaShem (God) and so turns to these eastern practices which serve up a heapin’ helpin’ of both just with different names and tunes.
Your bio mentions that you’re a yoga teacher, how do you reconcile Judaism in your yoga practice? Or is that even possible?
That’s a HUGE question and something I have often struggled with. For one because in Judaism the top three transgressions are murder, adultery and idolatry and there’s a fair amount of idolatry in a yoga practice that centers around the practice of bhakti, which is Sanskrit for devotion. Interestingly, most of the big yoga teachers and Buddhist teachers and kirtan singers in the States are Jews. I think that’s because we’re spiritual people who moved away from spirit into a very secular life in this country, into this vast nothingness of agnostic whatever and the Jew feels lost without the word and without HaShem (God) and so turns to these eastern practices which serve up a heapin’ helpin’ of both just with different names and tunes.
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| Jim J Bullock |
What is your exact definition of Schleppy?
Schleppy is having to exert oneself beyond the pale or expend an iota of extra energy. I think it’s important to point out that I was part of the inspiration for the title of this blog. Shawn and I were pondering going to a production of Nabucco in Hackensack in the rain and I told him it was too schleppy and we should blow it off and he agreed and said let’s not go to schleppy Nabucco. Thus the name of this holy blog. So yet again, Jews have a hand in everything.
Is Jim J Bullock Jewish?
He wishes.
Did Jew Know? Over the course of his decades-schlong career, Milton Berle became as well known for the size of his salami as he was for his im-pecker-ble comedic timing. Once, while funnymen Berle and his ol’ pal Phil Silvers found themselves taking a leak together, Silvers took one look at Berle’s prodigious package and reportedly said, “You’d better feed that thing, or it’s liable to turn on you!” What’s more, even after Uncle Miltie’s passing in 2002, his member continued to be firmly planted in both the minds and hearts of Hollywood. Seems that during his memorial service, a comedian friend of Berle’s announced, “On May first and May second, his penis will be buried.”
To purchase this wonderful book please click below:
Did Jew Know?
– Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes
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