Friday, September 22, 2006

Moni Ovadia: Bulgarian-born Secular Jew Creates Yiddish Theater in Italy

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Meet Moni Ovadia, "L'Ebreo Che Ride" (The Laughing Jew). He is a theater star who has been drawing tens of thousands to his "Yiddishkeit" show in Italy in which he tells Jewish jokes, sings in Yiddish and bops to a Klezmer beat.

 

Moni didn't know Yiddish. He's from a Sephardic background. But one day about 30 years ago, this agnostic who didn't care for Jews and Judaism, decided to go to the central synagogue in Milan on Yom Kippur, to meet some friends. There I ran into this one nudnik, his name was Lutvak, who insisted that I join him for the prayer service in a nearby synagogue. And since he was a real nudnik, a few minutes later I found myself in this small prayer room on the second floor of a nondescript building where, to my astonishment, I discovered a whole new world. A whole lively and pulsating shtiebel, with an amazing cantor and an incredible rabbi, whom I'm still friends with to this day, even if we don't always see eye to eye, especially when it comes to Israel.

"As soon as I entered I was gripped with a powerful excitement, maybe the same excitement that Kafka felt when the Yiddish Theater came to Prague. And when I crossed that threshold, my futu! re life began; this small synagogue gave me everything, and all the theater that I do today is 'stolen' from there. I 'stole' from it everything I could, including the Yiddish." 

Ovadia has been called one of the most original and talented artists in Italy today. He credits the success of 'Yiddishkeit' here, even among teenagers, to a culture that contains lofty values, universal values, a culture that praises the weak, the human spirit, and which scorns the injustice in the world, and does so by means of humor. All of this speaks to a wide, universal audience, and to young people especially.

Ovadia's conquest of the Italian audience came with shows like "Oylem Goylem," a cabaret-style production that paved the way for "Yiddishkeit." In these shows he grabs the bull by the horns and introduces himself to the audience as "the little Jew you always despised," proceeding to deal with anti-Semitic stereotypes from a satirical angle! , touching on Jewish identity, Jewish humor and, of course, the character of the Yiddishe Mama, which he compares to the Italian "Mamma."

 

 

 

LAUGHING MATTERS

 

Haaretz

Tel Aviv,Israel

By Saviona Mane

Friday., September 22, 2006;  Elul 29, 5766

 

BOLOGNA - Older folks flock to his shows and young people are big fans. He gets rave reviews, and in the markets you can hear people humming the Hasidic tunes he sings on stages throughout Italy. Meet Moni Ovadia, "L'Ebreo Che Ride" (The Laughing Jew). He is a theater star who has been drawing tens of thousands to his "Yiddishkeit" show in which he tells Jewish jokes, sings in Yiddish and bops to a Klezmer beat. But some in the Jewish community are quite upset with his very public criticism of Israeli government policy.

The community's anger at this political artist intensified during the local elections in Milan, held at the end of May, after he accused one of the candidates, also a Jew, of "collaboration with the neo-Fascists" and called for a split in the community. His detractors hit back, calling Ovadia "the friend of the friend of Nasrallah." Ovadia, who also ran in the elections as part of the leftist bloc, was elected but! has since given up his seat in the city council.

"I'm a political animal, but I can't be a member of the political establishment," he explained. The encyclopedia Garzantina that describes Ovadia as an "Italian actor, director and musician from a Jewish family of Bulgarian extraction" won't have to add the title of politician to Ovadia's entry, for now, at least.

On the patio of the Metropolitan Hotel in Bologna, Ovadia takes a time-out from his political-artistic activity and from the writing of his regular column for the leftist paper L'Unita to be interviewed for Haaretz and to talk about Judaism, Israel, the Jewish community's anger at him and his great fondness for Yiddish and for the ethos of exile. And when he speaks, every word that comes out of his mouth is uttered with passion and excitement.

He comes to the meeting with the long, quick strides of someone who is always pressed for time. He is a tall, burly man of 60, with a white beard, a deep, gruff voice and twinkling blue eyes. And though he is not religiously observant, he wears a large, colorful skullcap, which has become his trademark. "My Jewish identity is very important to me," he says.

What makes a Bulgarian-born secular Jew create Yiddish theater in Italy?

Ovadia: "I've always been interested i! n two fields aside from art: Judaism and revolution - socialism, Marxism. I eventually came to recognize that the first revolution that came from below was done by Jews - the Exodus from Egypt - and for what? To achieve freedom for all of humanity. I also started to wonder why the Jews were always persecuted, why they always held such a distinguished place in all the revolutionary movements, and I realized that Judaism is essentially one big revolutionary idea, in the lofty sense of the word.

The patriarch Abraham is probably the first great revolutionary in history, because he liberated man from his enslavement to the material, he smashed the idols. This is the reason the Jews were always hated, and above all were hated by tyrants. In a democratic society, anti-Semitism is weakened. It grows stronger when tyrants rise to power, whether their name is Pharoah, Adolf Hitler or Stalin. The Jews are the bearers of the democratic idea. But unfortunately, I've seen that various conservative reactionaries also infiltrated Judaism and sought to destroy its beauty and return it to the days before Abraham. Only at a later stage did I discover Yiddish culture, Yiddishkeit, which interpreted Judaism in such a unique way."

How did you get into it in the first place? Did you know Yiddish?

"No, I didn't know it. I'm from a Sephardic background. But one day about 30 years ago, this Sephardi sitting before you, this ag! nostic who didn't care for Jews and Judaism, decided to go to the central synagogue in Milan on Yom Kippur, to meet some friends. There I ran into this one nudnik, his name was Lutvak, who insisted that I join him for the prayer service in a nearby synagogue. And since he was a real nudnik, a few minutes later I found myself in this small prayer room on the second floor of a nondescript building where, to my astonishment, I discovered a whole new world. A whole lively and pulsating shtiebel, with an amazing cantor and an incredible rabbi, whom I'm still friends with to this day, even if we don't always see eye to eye, especially when it comes to Israel.

"As soon as I entered I was gripped with a powerful excitement, maybe the same excitement that Kafka felt when the Yiddish Theater came to Prague. And when I crossed that threshold, my future life began; this small synagogue gave me everything, and all the theater that I do today is 'stolen' from there. I 'stole' from i! t everything I could, including the Yiddish."

You've been called one of the most original and talented artists in Italy today. How do you explain the great success of 'Yiddishkeit' here, even among teenagers?

"It's a culture that contains lofty values, universal values, a culture that praises the weak, the human spirit, and which scorns the injustice in the world, and does so by means of humor. All of this speaks to a wide, universal audience, and to young people especially."

A political animal

Moni (Shlomo) Ovadia was born in Bulgaria on April 16, 1946 and at age 4 came with his family to Milan, where he attended the Jewish school. Some recall him as a diligent student, quiet and introverted, who used to make stinging comments from time to time. His artistic career began in 1972 with the founding of the Folk Internazionale troupe, which specialized in the study of traditional music from different countries, the Balkans in particular. A fe! w years later, he began to work in musical theater, and performed in "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Golem," among other works. The latter was a huge success on stages in Milan, Rome, Berlin, Paris and New York. But Ovadia's conquest of the Italian audience came with shows like "Oylem Goylem," a cabaret-style production that paved the way for "Yiddishkeit." In these shows he grabs the bull by the horns and introduces himself to the audience as "the little Jew you always despised," proceeding to deal with anti-Semitic stereotypes from a satirical angle, touching on Jewish identity, Jewish humor and, of course, the character of the Yiddishe Mama, which he compares to the Italian "Mamma."

Aside from theater, Ovadia also works in cinema (He has been in films by Nanni Moretti and Mario Monicelli, among others) and devotes a good part of his time to writing. He has published seven books, including the bestseller "Perche No?" ("Why Not?") "L'Ebreo Che Ride" ("The Laughing Jew"! ) on Jewish humor and "Vai a Te Stesso" ("Go to Your Self") in which he lays out his intellectual doctrine.

No one disputes Ovadia's success as a director, actor, singer, musician and writer. "Moni Ovadia is one of the most important and famous actors in Italy today. He is much loved by the Italians. He captivates them with his humor and his special 'look' and the media is enchanted with him as well," says Lucio Izzo, the cultural attache at the Italian Embassy in Israel.

Ovadia's popularity as an artist and his political activism have made him a precious political asset for the leftist camp with which he is identified. Hence, as the last general elections approached, when Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government was still in power, he was urged to run for a seat in the Milan city council. Ovadia consented, was elected and subsequently withdrew from the position.

"I'm a political animal, I do politics through my work, through my writing, through my s! upport for struggles for rights, peace and social justice," he explained afterward. "I took part at the time in order to do my part to topple the Berlusconi government, which in my view was the worst government in Italy since Fascism. But I'm not capable of being a member of the political establishment."

During his brief election campaign, Ovadia managed to stir up a storm within the Jewish community, when he attacked one of its senior members, Andrea Jarach, who was running in the same elections as a candidate of the center-right bloc. Ovadia fumed over the fact that Jarach, a publisher who specializes in writings on the Holocaust, was running on a list allied with the neo-Fascist Fiamma Tricolore party - "a party with Nazi symbols" - Ovadia claimed. Jarach did express his dismay over this alliance and stressed the commitment of the leadership of his list to anti-Fascist values, but also maintained that Ovadia was using this as a manipulation.

Ovadia was not s! wayed, and called for an immediate split of the Jewish community. "I don't see my place in it. I want to establish a democratic community of Italian Jews on the basis of the Republic's constitution, our anti-Fascist constitution."

Like in Afghanistan, where there were only two Jews left and they didn't speak to one another?

"So what? Hasn't it always been that way in Judaism from time immemorial? We can work together on whatever concerns Jewish issues, and apart on whatever is connected to policy toward Israel. In their view, being a Jew today means agreeing with everything the Israeli government does. Sorry, but to me, that's idol worship."

'They want to shut me up'

Many in Italy's Jewish community, which numbers about 25,000, are angry at Ovadia, claiming he harms Israel by encouraging anti-Israeli sentiment among the public. "A famous person like Moni Ovadia only reinforces the anti-Israeli views that many people have," says a prominent! member of the community who prefers to remain anonymous.
You're spreading Jewish culture in Italy, but upsetting many in the Jewish community. Why are people angry at you?

Ovadia: "They're angry at me because they don't read what I say. They read what they feel like reading - for example, when I once supported the right of anti-Zionist Haredim [ultra-Orthodox] to hold the views that they do. I didn't say I agree with them, I only argued that they have the right to say what they say. So my opponents here claim Moni Ovadia doesn't want there to be a state [i.e., Israel]. They're angry at me because I express criticism of the government in Israel, harsh criticism. Yes, I am opposed to the occupation, to the settlements. But my criticism isn't moral. It's solely political. And I have never questioned Israel's right to exist. That's an important value to me."

When reminded that he described Israel as a chauvinist and militarist state even before 1967, he furiou! sly denies it. "That is completely untrue. My criticism of Israel began only with the occupation and settlement after 1967. I'm opposed to certain things the government does and I'm a believer in the Geneva Accord, two states for two peoples with Jerusalem as a shared capital. Yes, I said Sharon is a militarist, that he's a conservative reactionary, that his policy is mistaken, but I never said he's a criminal, because I'm not a judge in the Nuremberg courthouse."

Is that where you think he belonged?

"I was just using the most famous example. The court in Nuremberg was the first to say there are crimes against humanity and war crimes, and there are some who feel that Sabra and Chatila is still an open question. But I never draw parallels. I've written again and again that comparing Nazism to the mistakes of the Israeli government is idiotic, and not only is it unjustified, it also damages the Palestinian interest. I also never said Sharon is like a Nazi or anyt! hing like that. I don't think that, nor do I think there is racist hatred of Israelis toward Palestinians. But I do believe there are small fringes that are really Nazi, like those who uproot olive trees. It's a terrible thing. And Yeshayahu Leibowitz was right when he used this harsh term. I never use words that haven't been used first in Israel, on principle."

But some say that to a public that isn't as familiar with all this, such words are interpreted differently, that they contribute to fueling anti-Semitism.

His voice rises, he roars: "Moni Ovadia contributes to the fueling of anti-Semitism? Every one acknowledges that Moni Ovadia made it possible to create sympathy toward the Jews. You can't take responsibility for the ignorance of others, because then you'll never speak at all. You think that what's written in Haaretz doesn't reach Milan? That when Yonatan Shapira, one of the refusenik pilots, says they sent him to commit war crimes and comes to Italy t! o give a talk that the public here doesn't know about it? Or when he says it in Israel that it doesn't reach Italy?

"I've always denounced every form of racism toward Israel. I've spoken out against those who burned its flags - in the newspaper L'Unita, in my books. I've always argued that one has to distinguish between the government of Israel and Israelis, the Jewish People, the Jews. But that's not what the ultra-Zionists do, those who cry 'anti-Semitism' whenever one expresses criticism of Israel. They are the ones who identify the government with Israel, they are the ones with the ein folk, ein reich, ein land mentality."

He lowers his voice, and pauses. "Sure, I can be mistaken. I'm only human. But you can always say to me, 'Listen, Moni, you're wrong.' My door is always open to discussion. But when they write about me, 'Moni Ovadia is an enemy of the Jewish people,' or 'He's like Eichmann' or 'He's a kapo' or 'Moni Ovadia is learning Yiddish in order to ! kill more Jews' - What kind of people are these? What am I, a second-class citizen? I'm not allowed to speak? The truth is that they want to shut me up.

"There are people who've become so Jewish, so Jewish, that they've forgotten they're human beings. But you can't be a Jew if you aren't first of all a human being. And being a human being means seeing the suffering of others. Anyway, to me, the Jews today are no longer 'The Jews.' They're not the ones standing in lines, they're not the ones being expelled. But it's the Arabs, the Kurds, the Africans, the Gypsies. Thank God, the situation of 90 percent of the Jews is secure today. Yes, there is still anti-Semitism, but it's under control; we're not living in 1935 Berlin. I'm worried about something else: There are 5 million starving children in the world today. This is the issue at the top of my agenda now, not the Jews."

Lonely people

This past spring, Ovadia took part in the Communist Party forum! in Rome, where he expressed his sympathy for the Palestinian cause, as well as support for the existence of the State of Israel. "It's legitimate to criticize Israel, but it becomes racism when you criticize Israelis," he said. "The Palestinians are the loneliest people in the world. They've been abandoned sometimes even by their supposed friends, the Arabs. I stand by an oppressed people. This is the duty of any human being, not just one who is a leftist."

How do you define yourself? Are you a communist?

"I'm not willing to be exploited, and it revolts me to exploit others, so that makes me a 'natural' communist. But the word communist is too identified with police states that had nothing to do with genuine communism, with socialism. I use the word communism in a provocative way, and in a regime like Stalin's I surely would have been executed long ago. I define myself as a leftist, and in Israel I'd probably vote Meretz."

Ovadia visited Israel for the! first time before the Six-Day War, in 1966, when he was 20, but it took 33 years for him to return, in 1999. Since then, he has been to Israel several times. In 2003, he participated in a special show at the Israel Festival and he appeared in the festival last year as well. "The piano was in bad shape, the PA system didn't work. They're still in the minds of 'medina hadasha' [a new country]," he says with a smile. He is working to improve his Hebrew before his next visit "so I can have a conversation in Hebrew instead of in English," and adds in the same breath: "You know what I suggest to Italians who want to understand Israel, to really understand it? That they read 'A Tale of Love and Darkness' by Amos Oz. Because there you see Israeli humanity and its complexities, you see the essence of this peculiar country."

Ovadia recently began performing a new show, not Yiddish this time, called Le Storie del Signor Keuner, ("Stories of Mr. Keuner") by Berthold Brecht, in co! llaboration with the Sicilian director Roberto Ando. "It's a very special show," he says. "It combines video excerpts with the reading of texts by Italian and European intellectuals, like the great essayist Claudio Magris and the writer Umberto Eco, and includes actors, singers and musicians. A unique show; it's hard to explain."

Do you have a plan? A dream that you long to realize?

"I have many dreams, but most of all I long to ensure the future of Yiddish culture, to bequeath it to the coming generations. Yiddish is a language of exile and exile is the opposite of nationalism, which, in my mind, is a terrible ill. I dream of establishing a theater that will extol this marvelous state of being in which a person is liberated from all bureaucratic dependence and affiliation. An ode to man in all his weaknesses, which may be the most poetic thing there is. I dream of establishing a 'Sabbath Theater.'"

What do you mean?

"The Sabbath isn't something! you receive only in a particular plot of land. You receive it wherever you are. It has a universal dimension, beyond the boundaries of territory and time. I receive the Sabbath when the sun sets here, not in Jerusalem - freedom in space, freedom in time. Perhaps this is why Einstein was the one who came up with the Theory of Relativity - only a Jew could formulate it, because the Sabbath is the space within the person. The Sabbath Theater is the Theater of Exile."

And when will the Exile come to its end?

"The Exile will end when we are all in exile, when exile is universal and there are no more borders for people. The Jews managed to create a masterpiece, they managed to become a people in every sense: emotionally, culturally, traditionally, religiously - without borders, without an army, without a bureaucracy, without knives in the pockets, without patriotic rhetoric, without flags."

Is there anything else you'd like to say to readers in Israel?
"I'd like them to know there is this one peculiar fellow in Italy who has devoted a significant portion of his energies to the perpetuation of one of the most important cultural streams in Judaism, a fellow who disseminated Yiddish culture in a land where it didn't exist, and where millions of people are now aware of it. And that maybe the time has come for Israel to start nurturing its rich cultural variety, including this wonderful legacy."

 

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