Remembering the Glorious Jewish Humor of Anne Meara
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THE JEWISH LEADER, JUNE 5, 2015 5 Remembering the glorious Jewish humor of Anne Meara By Benjamin Ivry, Jewish Daily Forward Israel and Judaism, “Shalom Sesame” was reprised in 2010 with - a different cast. As recently as 2011, she was a plausible retired erablyAnne more Meara, than who one-half died onof Yiddish theatre star, acting alongside Stiller in Susan Sandler’s May 23 at age 85, was consid shortfrom appearancesplay “The Burial at charitable Society.” events Not the to recordingleast expression a promo of- and Meara. Born into a Roman Meara’stional video Yiddishkeit not long was ago her for indefatigablethe American devotion Friends ofto thetzedakah, Rabin the beloved comedy act Stiller Medical Center. Irreverent about her early Catholic school edu- Catholic family, she converted to Reform Judaism in 1961, cation, she obviously relished making jocular commercials with asmy shechildren told “Peopleto know Magazine” who they Stiller for Blue Nun wine and acting in “Nasty Habits” (1977), in 1977, because she “wanted Muriel Spark’s satire of a Watergate-type scandal re-enacted by nuns in a convent. A gloriously funny and humane person, Anne were.” Those children, actors- Meara was also an actress and writer – she completed two full- Ben and Amy Stiller, as well as lengthBenjamin plays –Ivry of greatis a frequent gifts. contributor to the Forward. her husband Jerry Stiller, ben efitedas in everythingfrom her intense else that vivacity she 8,000 smokers die in andembraced. enthusiasm In their about early Judaism, years Anne Meara, son Ben Stiller, and husband Jerry Stiller. Israel each year - By Avi Lewis, Times of Israel as comedians, Stiller and Meara concocted the characters of a loving couple, University Graduate School of Journalism, lis Hershey Horowitz and Mary Elizabeth Doyle tening to Stiller explain that they always live in Newly released government figures on tobacco use and , whose differences did not impede affection.- the present, not the past, Meara broke in to say, smoking trends in Israel showed Sunday that smoking is on the Their exchanges moved the heart of TV host Ed “You’re my rabbi, baby.” Clearly she admired- decline overall. Still, 8,000 people died in 2014 from smoking- Sullivan, an Irish-American himself long mar her partner’s life philosophy, as expressed in related illnesses — 700 of them from secondhand smoke. riedwas toa agently Jewish misleading woman. Sullivan dialectic invited insofar them as on it hisof the “Married couple’s to interviews Laughter: isA howLove intently Story Featur Meara Some 19.8% of Israelis aged 21 and over classified themselves hispurported show dozens to follow of times. the venerableYet Stiller andcomic Meara’s tem- ing Anne Meara” (2001). One touching aspect as smokers in 2014, compared to 23.1% in 2013, according to a plate of Abie’s Irish Rose (anticipating the cur- - report by Health Ministry. The report was released as the World watches Stiller and weighs his comments, not Health Organization marked No Tobacco Day Sunday. justwhen to asked be prepared what she with thinks a characteristic of Mark Zucker snap- More men (27.3%) smoke than women (12.6%), the report rent Broadway comedy “It Shoulda Been You”). py retort. At the same Columbia interview,- said.17.7% The for rates women. are slightly lower than figures for the European In reality,Enchanted Meara as wasa girl as involvedby the children’swith Judaism, ra- Union, where the smoking rate averaged 28.5% for men and- if not more so, than Stiller. berg, Meara instantly transformed into a Jew ish mother with a pained fixed grin, carping: cigarettesOver half per of day. male smokers reported consuming 10-20 ciga dio show “Let’s Pretend” starring Miriam- “He never writes, he never calls.” Comedy was rettes a day, while 40% of women said they smoked less than 10 Wolfe (born Miriam Wolff in Brooklyn), Meara apparently in her genes; her father, after years on the purchase of tobacco-related products and cigarettes in dreamedas she stated early in on a prefaceof a showbiz to memoirs career. byA “super Arthur as a lawyer, retired to the Chalfonte Hotel on Israeli households spent over NIS 8.2 billion ($2.12 billion) fan” of the radio show which adapted fairy tales, Westcareer 70th as a Street,comedy not writer far from for the the couple. Stiller home staples and necessities. trained diligently and built impeccable cre- on InRiverside an endless Drive, list ofwhere sitcoms he andlaunched screen a comnew- 2014, far more than comparative amounts spent for basic food Anderson,dentials as anothera serious actor actress. from Working that series, with shethe edies where Meara may not have expressed her Consumer spending on all milk products in 2014 stood at NIS by 1949 Meara was performing small roles in - 7.5 billion ($1.94 billion). NIS 1 billion ($259 million) was spent noted pedagogues Alfred Linder and Uta Hagen, full dramatic potential, she always cultivated on yellow cheese, baby diapers sales stood at NIS 600 million her interest in Judaism. She appeared in “Lov ($155 million) and breakfast cereal sales amounted to NIS 619 high-profile plays, such as Sean O’Casey’s anti- erscomic and variation Other Strangers,” on the travails (1970) of written a Jewish- by million ($160 million). war drama “The Silver Tassie,” performed at- Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna, yet another whileSmoking-related indirect costs injuriesto the economy also put suchan annual as loss NIS in productiv1.7 billion- Carnegie Hall. - - ($440 million) strain on the medical system, experts said — In 1956, Meara opened on Broadway in Turge Catholic couple, as well as Ira Levin’s thriller nev’s “A Month in the Country” directed by Mi “The Boys from Brazil” (1978), about a post ity and work disability were estimated at some NIS 1.9 billion chael Redgrave, acting alongside Luther Adler, war Nazi plot to clone Hitler. As Mrs. Curry, the- ($491 million). Uta Hagen, and Sorrell Booke. In 1957 she was adoptive mother of one of the cloned boys, she Broken down by nationality, the smoking rate among Arabs is in Brecht’s “The Good Woman of Setzuan” with begspublic. Laurence This scene Olivier, with as the the legendarySimon Wiesen stage 26.3%,across a while range in of the nationalities Jewish sector and it ethnicities. stands at 18.4%. Zero Mostel, Uta Hagen, Nancy Marchand, and- thal-like Ezra Lieberman, not to make the truth The report interviewed 2,774 people, both men and women, Gene Saks. She also played The Second Witch in Joseph Papp’s Shakespeare in the Park produc hero Olivier, albeit by then ill and giving one tion of “Macbeth,” with other roles in Brecht’s ofthe his theater weaker was performances, a lifelong constant. must have In Oliver been “Puntila,”she played Shakespeare’s a prostitute in “Asthe landmarkYou Like producIt,” and- deeply important to Meara, whose devotion to “Two Gentlemen of Verona.” The following year Sacks’emerging “Awakenings,” from a decades-long (1990), her coma.comic timingAsked Since 1919 Southeastern Connecticut’s Oldest and Most Respected Jewelers tionits protagonist of “Ulysses would in Nighttown” captivate starring almost Mostelall the came to the fore as Miriam, a Jewish patient Diamonds Watches Crystal as Joyce’s Leopold Bloom. Joyce’s “Ulysses” and- Fine Contemporary & Antique Jewelry ter would also broadcast excerpts from the by a nurse to take her blood pressure, Miriam Custom Jewelry Design Expert Jewelry & Watch Repair Stillerbook. Yetmishpocheh, raising a familyas her andhusband keeping and food daugh on snaps: “I’ve been sitting still for 25 years. You Estate Jewelry Bought & Sold the table made a regular paycheck from touring missed your chance.” When informed that her husband had divorced her years before, Miriam 44726 exclaims with relief, “Oh, thank God!” in comedy routines irresistible. Her partnership Four years previously, Meara had popped up 262 Boston Post Road • Utopia Centre with Stiller, not without its storm and stress, as in as a different Miriam, the sister of Moses and- Waterford, CT • (860) 442-4391 expected in the extremely difficult profession Aaron, making matzoh during the Exodus from Monday - Thursday 10:00-6:00 Friday 10:00-7:00 Saturday 10:00-4:00 which both had adopted, bolstered her career Egypt, on “Shalom Sesame,” a spinoff from Ses changes. Interviewed in 2011 at the Columbia ame Street. Intended to teach children about .