{"id":76704,"date":"2023-08-21T16:14:48","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T21:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=76704"},"modified":"2023-09-22T16:18:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T21:18:40","slug":"leonard-bernstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/leonard-bernstein\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonard Bernstein"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"shape9 v2 ps4 s19 c32\">\n<p class=\"p3 f3\"><strong>The trailer was released for the upcoming biopic&nbsp;<span class=\"f15\">Maestro<\/span>&nbsp;about composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. Controversy has arisen as a result of the choice of the non-Jewish actor Bradley Cooper to play the part of Bernstein, as well as his use of a prosthetic nose, which according to some critics injects the antisemitic trope of Jews having large noses. Others contend that actors should not be restricted to playing parts only of their own ethnicity, religion, or nationality. Bernstein\u2019s children defended the choice of Cooper and his use of the prosthetic, noting that they were \u201ctouched to the core to witness the depth of (Cooper\u2019s) commitment, his loving embrace of our father\u2019s music and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration\u201d and that \u201cIt happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we\u2019re perfectly fine with that. We\u2019re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well.\u201d Bernstein was the son of Jewish-Russian immigrants who raised him in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His early exposure to music included Friday night services at Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Bernstein\u2019s first symphonic composition was&nbsp;<span class=\"f15\">Jeremiah<\/span>, with movements based on three aspects of the prophet\u2019s life: Prophecy, Profanation, and Lamentation. The Broadway show&nbsp;<span class=\"f15\">West Side Story<\/span>&nbsp;which he and choreographer Jerome Robbins created was originally planned to be about Jews and Catholics fighting in&nbsp;<span class=\"f15\">East Side Story<\/span>. And he composed&nbsp;<span class=\"f15\">Chichester Psalms<\/span>, the lyrics of which were in Hebrew, which was performed at the Vatican for Pope Paul VI\u2019s 10th-anniversary of papacy. What is another example of Judaism infusing Bernstein\u2019s professional life?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_76705\" style=\"width: 243px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/leonard_bernstein-350.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-76705\" class=\"wp-image-76705 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/leonard_bernstein-350-233x300.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/leonard_bernstein-350-233x300.webp 233w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/leonard_bernstein-350.webp 350w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 233px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 233\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-76705\" class=\"wp-image-76705 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/leonard_bernstein-350-233x300.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/leonard_bernstein-350-233x300.webp 233w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/leonard_bernstein-350.webp 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-76705\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leonard Bernstein by Jack Mitchell is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A.<span class=\"f7\">&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f7\">In 1945 Park Avenue Synagogue commissioned Bernstein to compose liturgy for their cantor to sing in the Shabbat morning service.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"v2 ps5 s17 c35\">\n<p class=\"p3 f8\">B.<span class=\"f7\">&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f7\">In 1963 Bernstein composed the symphony&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f16\">Kaddish<\/span><span class=\"f7\">, which he dedicated to victims of the Holocaust, inspired by the trial and hanging of Adolf Eichmann in 1962.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3 f9\">C.<span class=\"f7\">&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f7\">In 1974 Bernstein composed a ballet suite titled&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f16\">The Golem<\/span><span class=\"f7\">&nbsp;based on Saul Ansky\u2019s Yiddish play of the same name. In Jewish lore, a golem is a clay creature that has been magically brought to life through Hebrew ritual incantations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3 f10\">D.<span class=\"f11\">&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f7\">Composer Serge Koussevitzky told Bernstein he should change his name to Leonard S. Burns to avoid antisemitism but Bernstein decided not to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3 f12\">E.<span class=\"f7\">&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f7\">Bernstein was hired to compose the music for the musical stage adaptation of Dickens\u2019s&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f16\">Oliver Twist<\/span><span class=\"f7\">&nbsp;that became&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f16\">Oliver!<\/span><span class=\"f7\">. But he withdrew, telling the producers that he found the large nose on the Jewish character Fagin to be offensive. However, Bernstein returned to the project after Fagin\u2019s children issued a statement saying, \u201cIt happens to be true that Fagin had a nice, big nose.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"f13\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rrrjewishtrivia.com\/answers-2023\/leonard-bernstein-answer.html\">Click here for the answer.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Leonard%20Bernstein\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5841],"tags":[8792,8790,8795,1635,8788,13334],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76706,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76704\/revisions\/76706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}