Jewhooing the Sixties

Jewhooing the Sixties Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 1 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 2 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM brandeis series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life Jonathan D. Sarna, Editor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate Editor For a complete list of books that are available in the series, visit www.upne.com David E. Kaufman Jewhooing the Sixties: American Celebrity and Jewish Identity— Sandy Koufax, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand Jack Wertheimer, editor The New Jewish Leaders: Reshaping the American Jewish Landscape Eitan P. Fishbane and Jonathan D. Sarna, editors Jewish Renaissance and Revival in America Jonathan B. Krasner The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education Derek Rubin, editor Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction on Longing and Belonging Susan G. Solomon Louis I. Kahn’s Jewish Architecture: Mikveh Israel and the Midcentury American Synagogue Amy Neustein, editor Tempest in the Temple: Jewish Communities and Child Sex Scandals Jack Wertheimer, editor Learning and Community: Jewish Supplementary Schools in the Twenty-first Century Carole S. Kessner Marie Syrkin: Values Beyond the Self Leonard Saxe and Barry Chazan Ten Days of Birthright Israel: A Journey in Young Adult Identity Jack Wertheimer, editor Imagining the American Jewish Community Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 3 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 4 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM SANDY KOUFAX, LENNY BRUCE, BOB DYLAN, AND BARBRA STREISAND 60s E. KAUFMAN E. D S SSACHUSETT MA THAM, L WA IS RANDE B ERS UNIV ESS PR ITY American Celebrity & Jewish Identity & American Celebrity DAVI the Sixties the Jewhooing Jewhooing Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 5 brandeis university press An imprint of University Press of New England www.upne.com © 2012 Brandeis University All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Designed by Eric M. Brooks Typeset in Sabon and Futura by Passumpsic Publishing University Press of New England is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper. For permission to reproduce any of the material in this book, contact Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court Street, Suite 250, Lebanon NH 03766; or visit www.upne.com The publication of this book was generously supported by the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kaufman, David, 1959– Jewhooing the sixties: American celebrity and Jewish identity; Sandy Koufax, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand / David E. Kaufman. p. cm. — (Brandeis series in American Jewish history, culture, and life) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-61168-313-4 (cloth : alk. paper)— isbn 978-1-61168-314-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)— isbn 978-1-61168-315-8 (ebook) 1. Jews in the performing arts—United States. 2. Jewish athletes—United States. 3. Jewish entertainers—United States. 4. Jews in popular culture—United States. 5. Popular culture—United States—History—20th century. 6. Nineteen sixties. I. Title. pn1590.j48k38 2012 791'.089'792073—dc23 2012014014 5 4 3 2 1 Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 6 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM The book is dedicated to SANDY (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1935) LENNY (b. Mineola, New York; 1925–1966) BOB (b. Duluth, Minnesota, 1941) BARBRA (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1942) and Barbra’s fellow Erasmus High alum, ARNIE (b. Brooklyn, New York; 1932–2007), my father Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 7 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 8 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM C ONTENTS Preface xi INTRODUCTION 1 Jews, Celebrity, and the Early 1960s 1 SANDY KOUFAX 2 Super Jew 49 LENNY BRUCE 3 Dirty Jew 99 BOB DYLAN 4 Wandering Jew 155 BARBRA STREISAND 5 Hollywood Jew 213 EPILOGUE 6 Jewhooing into the Twenty-first Century 265 Notes 297 Index 333 Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 9 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 10 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM Preface Some of my colleagues in the field of American Jewish history will no doubt be surprised by the subject of this, my second book. My first (Shul with a Pool: The “Synagogue-Center” in American Jewish History, 1999) was a history of American synagogues, Jewish schools, and community centers—a study of the internal dynamics of institutional Juda- ism and Jewish communal life in America. How, one might wonder, did I move from that to this inquiry into Jewish celebrity, from the subject of American Judaism to Jews in American popular culture? But as will become clear, this book is likewise a work in American Jewish history, resting on the assumption that certain key tensions characterize Ameri- can Jewish life, and hence the dynamics of that history are to be found in the various moves toward resolution. The earlier work engaged with the tension between religious Judaism, as embodied institutionally by the synagogue, and social (or ethnic) Jewishness, represented by the communal center. The resolution: the synagogue-center. In this study, the key tension is between American success, as embodied by the famous Jew, and Jewish survival, a chief concern of the Jewish community at large. The resolution here, I shall argue, is a commonplace feature of American Jewish culture: colloquially called Jewhooing, it is, simply, Jewish celebrity consciousness. How did I come to this subject in the first place? Sometime in the early 1990s, when I was a graduate student living in Cambridge, Massachu- setts, I stumbled upon a dog-eared paperback in a local used bookstore. It was the 1965 autobiography of Allan Sherman, A Gift of Laughter, in which he describes his own amazement at his recent catapulting to major American celebrity. I was a fan of Sherman’s parody songs, and their bla- tant Jewishness (my favorite: “Seltzer Boy,” a takeoff of “Water Boy”), but was unaware of how quickly and dramatically he had appeared on the scene. The book alerted me to the significance of the early 1960s as xi Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 11 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM xii a time when American Jews were just starting to assert their Jewishness in more public fashion—no longer just within the safe confines of Jew- ish culture and community, but “out” in the popular culture shared by all Americans. Sherman was an important figure in this development, I surmised, but at the same time, I suspected there were other, more critical historical figures and circumstances. While on the faculty of the Hebrew Union College–Los Angeles from 2000 to 2009, I had the additional pleasure of teaching undergraduate courses at the University of Southern California across the street; and one of the most popular (and enjoyable for me) was a course on Jewish com- edy in America. This led, of course, to an appreciation of Lenny Bruce as a key catalyst, even more than Sherman, of that historical moment. Like Sherman, Bruce had became famous rather suddenly, and explicitly as a Jew—thus pointing to the importance of the celebrity-making process per se. Looking for other exemplars of early 1960s Jewish celebrity, I settled on Bruce, Sandy Koufax, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand as the four celebrity figures most worthy of study. All four have had volumes and volumes written on their lives, careers, and accomplishments; but none of the four had yet been treated from the perspective of American Jewish history. This is that book. A note on research method. As I embarked on this study, I was often asked if I intended to interview the celebrities who were my subjects (at least the three still living). I would invariably answer that I surely would if offered the opportunity (hear that, Sandy, Bob, and Barb?). But truth be told, the figures themselves would have little to say to inform my inquiry into the culture of celebrity surrounding them. Instead, I have relied primarily on the extensive literature—journalistic, biographical, and academic—covering their lives and work; on sites of celebrity wor- ship, such as fan magazines and Internet websites; on interviews with individuals representing or otherwise reflecting the public adulation of the figures; and on graphic images and other visual representations of the figures, a rich source of both positive and negative commentary on their celebrity. Finally, the most important part of a preface: acknowledgment of those who helped along the way. Due to the vagaries of life, it has taken me several years to complete this project, and my first debt of gratitude is to my cherished colleagues on the faculties of Hebrew Union College– Los Angeles and now Hofstra University, whose forbearance made it possible for me to carve out the time necessary to finish a book. During preface Kaufman - Jewhooing.indb 12 8/20/2012 5:04:37 PM that time, many friends and colleagues helpfully read parts of the manu- preface script at various stages of the writing. Needless to say, responsibility for the final product lies entirely with me, but I still owe heartfelt gratitude to them all and will offer appropriate thanks to them individually. Also, special thank-yous to interview respondents Kitty Bruce, Joel Gilbert, Milton Glaser, Deborah Kass, Jeff Klepper, Paul Krassner, Elliot Landy, and Seth Rogovoy. The reviewers of the manuscript—upne editor Phyl- lis Deutsch, Jonathan Sarna, Donald Weber, and Stephen Whitfield— were the first to read it in its entirety, and I thank them for their incisive critiques. The book is much improved as the result. As academic mentor, Jonathan Sarna has steadfastly supported my work and my career, and I am forever grateful. I am also mindful of my debt to my family, who have always been there with their love and support.

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