Category: Music

A Saturday Night Live Bar Mitzvah with Cee Lo Green

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date January 16, 2011

Jewish humor has always been one of my favorite topics to teach. I’ve taught classes about Jewish humor and Jewish comedians to teens and adults at many different settings including synagogues, Jewish camps, and on college campuses. As an aspiring stand-up comic, I have always been interested in the history of Jewish humor, what makes a Jewish joke funny, and why there have been so many successful Jewish comedians throughout the generations.

A sketch on last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live (SNL) provides much food for thought about Jewish humor. The SNL sketch parodies a lavish bar mitzvah for the nephew of a Hollywood exec that has performances by Taylor Swift (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, Katy Perry, and Cee Lo Green. Jacob, the uncomfortable bar mitzvah boy, repeatedly claims that he told his father that he would have been content with just a “modest luncheon.”

The sketch is funny, but it also relies on some age old Jewish stereotypes that many will claim have run their course and aren’t funny anymore. When it comes to comedy, is everything fair game? I’ve always taught that ethnic humor has to have at least a hint of accuracy for it to be funny. There will surely be those who are offended by the many JAP (Jewish American Princess) references in Gwyneth Paltrow’s Taylor Swift impersonation in the bar mitzvah sketch. Parodying Taylor Swift’s song “You Belong With Me,” Paltrow sang: “She’s in synagogue with her new clear braces on / I’m sittin’ shiva with no mirrors to put makeup on / She doesn’t get your Mel Brooks humor like I do / She wears Macy’s, I wear Loehmann’s. She wears Filene’s and I wear Filene’s Basement / Can’t you see? She’s just a JAP. Not like Japanese.”

Up next performing at Jacob’s bar mitzvah was SNL comic Jay Pharoah (a last name that could be offensive to Jews, but isn’t) appearing as Jay-Z and singing his bar mitzvah version of “New York State of Mind” with Alicia Keys (Nasim Pedrad). He opens with the words, “While we read the Torah / Just to learn the word of God / Straight from Deuteronomy… Rabbi Josh Levi / I’m straight up withcha.” He then utters what I would imagine is the first reference to the Mishnah on late night network TV. Pharaoh (as Jay-Z) then gives a deep reference to both biblical kosher law and the theological perplexity of God’s ego: “Everything ain’t right cuz it’s dirty as shellfish / Don’t defy Yahweh cuz he’s mad selfish.”

As if this SNL sketch couldn’t get any more Jewish (or as Jon Stewart often says: “Jewy”), Jewish SNL cast member Abby Elliott sends up Katy Perry doing her Jewish version of “California Girls.” She enters with “Hi everybody, happy Jewish!” and then busts into the lyrics “Jacob just read from the Haftorah / Let’s all dance the Hora… Ashkenazi Jews they’re so incredible / And Sefardic Jews are cool too / West Bank represent despite your violence… Shalom you guys.”

Next, Cee Lo Green enters the bar mitzvah party in a giant fur coat singing his “F.U.” song, but with lyrics about the Hebrew language and how it sounds like gargling. He’s introduced by Jacob’s father who believes Cee Lo Green’s a “member of the tribe” based on his last name, but then says, “Or maybe not.” Referencing the ongoing joke about the older kids at the bar mitzvah party bending the metal forks, Cee Lo Green says, “What’s with this bending forks thing? I mean, that’s straight up meshuganeh man!” Something tells me that Lorne Michaels and Andy Sandberg had a bet to see if they could get Cee Lo Green to say something Yiddish.

The full video of the SNL bar mitzvah sketch is below. I will use it next Monday afternoon when I present a lunchtime discussion about Jewish humor at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Aside from the question of appropriateness of some of the JAP jokes at the beginning of this SNL sketch, what is so interesting is that Jews only account for about 2% of the U.S. population and yet SNL devotes so much of its show to esoteric Jewish references. And this isn’t an isolated example either. On Thursday night, Conan O’Brien joked that the new Disney theme park in Israel wouldn’t use the nickname “The Happiest Place on Earth,” but rather “It Could Be Worse.” Conan then spent a couple minutes showing off his impression of a Jewish person. On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart also makes not-so-subtle references to Jewish themes on his show. Last week on one of his shows, he compared the members of Congress coming up to the microphone on the first day of the congressional session to read a line from the Constitution with “the dramatic chops of family members who demand to be called to the bimah for your bar mitzvah.”

I’m not sure if the Jewish writers on SNL thought Purim was much closer than it actually is, but I will say that they did a great Purim shpiel last night.

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Remembering Debbie Friedman

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date January 9, 2011

In Memory of Debbie Friedman (1952-2011)

Debbie Friedman’s music is so fully integrated into synagogue liturgy,
that in many congregations it is considered “traditional.”

I don’t remember the Jewish Theological Seminary in the late 90’s as a very spiritual place. I began rabbinical school in 1998 and there was a general consensus that the Seminary was lacking ruach (spiritual energy).

I do, however, remember a day when, for a few hours, the Women’s League Seminary Synagogue was transcended into the most ruach-filled place I ever experienced. Before classes officially commenced again following winter recess, the rabbinical school had a mandatory “mini-mester.” One year, the theme was on spirituality in prayer.

To conclude the mini-mester, the popular Jewish singer and songwriter Debbie Friedman came to the Seminary to lead a healing service. Her energy electrified the Seminary’s synagogue where students, faculty and guests were singing and dancing. I remember thinking that if I could bottle up her ruach and sell it to congregations around the globe, I’d be a billionaire. Her music adds so much life and feeling to our liturgy.

Debbie Friedman’s version of the Mi Sheberach (prayer for healing) has inspired Jews all over the world to make a communal prayer for healing a staple of every Shabbat service. Her “Alef-Bet” song is how my three children learned the Hebrew Alphabet. So many brides have walked down the aisle or circled their grooms to Debbie Friedman’s “Lechi Lach.” “Miriam’s Song” has become the theme song at every gathering of Jewish women, especially at the yearly Passover seders for women that Debbie Friedman led in New York. And hundreds of thousands of current and former Jewish campers only know Debbie Friedman’s version of havdallah, the prayers ending the Jewish sabbath.

Debbie Friedman died today in an Orange County, California hospital after being hospitalized for pneumonia. She spent Shabbat in a medically induced coma. She had battled health problems in the past, which likely led to her dedicating much of her career to healing services and soulful prayers for the ill.

Ann Coppel’s award winning documentary about Debbie Friedman, “A Journey of Spirit,” gave her fans an inside perspective of her life and health battles. According to the “A Journey of Spirit” website, “For children and adults alike, Debbie Friedman’s music is living Judaism. With her honest, pure voice as their guide, a whole generation of Jews has come to embrace the liturgy through her melodies. Here they find relevance and meaning in the words of the prophets, the messages of ancient rabbis, and the sacred texts of the Jewish religion. In her 30+ year career, Debbie Friedman has recorded 19 albums. She was influenced by American popular music of the 1960’s and 70’s… Now she is influencing younger singers and songwriters with her own dynamic style.”

May the memory of Debbie Friedman be for spiritual blessings always.

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How Do You Spell Hanukkah?

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date December 6, 2010

The #1 question during Hanukkah is: What is the correct way to spell the name of this holiday? Since it’s a Hebrew word that is transliterated into English, there are several acceptable spellings. But people still want to know if there is a consensus.

A non-profit theater company in California, the North Coast Repertory Theatre, even performed a show this past weekend entitled “How Do You Spell Chanukah??- The Stage Show.” Their website described the performance as “What is Hanukkah… or Chanukah? How do you really spell it, anyway? What’s it ever done for me and why should I care? Hash it out (a nice lean kosher hash) with our hosts Marc Silver and Doug Dickerman for a unique evening of fun and music and story telling. We’ll share, we’ll kibitz, we’ll have a little something to eat! What can I tell you, even if we don’t solve any baffling Jewish mysteries…we’ll have a lot of fun not getting anywhere together. Oy! Did we mention that we’ll have a little nosh?”

Melissa Bell, writing on the Washington Post’s blog, recalls that NPR’s “All Things Considered” addressed this very question back in 2005. They quoted Rabbi Daniel Zemel of the Temple Micah in Washington who said, “There’s no uniformity in transliteration.” Rabbi Zemel ordered a steering committee at his synagogue to come up with a uniform spelling. They decided on: Chanukkah. But then Bell noticed that this year, Zemel’s synagogue website was using “Hanukkah.” When she asked him what ever happened to his resolute steering committee’s decision, he explained that he was overruled and “an editor in the congregation made the convincing push to adopt the spelling used by the Reform Jewish movement in North America. Transliteration is an art, not a science.”

I’ve been using the “Hanukkah” spelling and I believe that this has become the most accepted option based on Twitter. While some might do a Google search to determine which spelling of Hanukkah appears the most, I just looked at Twitter where #Hanukkah was one of the trending terms this past week.

I was thinking about this Hanukkah spelling debate today while listening to the Sirius-XM Satellite Radio Hanukkah station. I had to laugh at this song by The Leevees which makes the confusion surrounding the ambiguous spelling of Hanukkah very funny. Check out “How Do You Spell Channukkahh?”:

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Yes, Jews Rock Too

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date November 16, 2010

Here’s my latest post for the Community Next blog “Rabbi J in the D”:

We all know that Jews can rock. After all, you only need to listen to Bob Dylan or Gene Simmons of Kiss to know that. But there are also some Jewish singers who are rocking Jewish music… and I don’t mean Jon Fishman leading Phish in “Avinu Malkeinu.”

I remember in 1999 when the Jewish rock star Rick Recht came to the Jewish summer camp where I was working (Camp Ramah in Nyack, NY). He had all the little kids dancing and screaming like they were at an arena concert with 20,000 fans. Then he worked his way into a cover of a Dave Matthews song and had the teen and 20-something staff members hooked.

Recognizing that there was a need for an Internet radio website dedicated to Jewish rock music, Recht has created Jewish Rock Radio. “Jewish Rock Radio was launched to provide a mass communication channel utilizing the power of music to attract, inspire, entertain, and educate Jewish youth while providing information about a variety of meaningful engagement opportunities for Jewish youth.”

The channel will expose new and established Jewish artists, as well as provide education for artists to professionalize their music and marketing. Recht didn’t want to simply create another Internet music channel. He wanted to give back to the Jewish youth who have been his biggest fans through Jewish youth groups and Jewish summer camps. As the site explains, Jewish Rock Radio is also “for Jewish youth to share their experiences with each other about a variety of national Jewish programs in which they have participated; and, to inspire and create a ‘path’ for Jewish youth to participate in Jewish life as Jewish composers, performers, songleaders, and teachers.”

Jewish Rock Radio (JRR) is the flagship program of Judaism Alive, a nonprofit 501(c)3 formed in 2009 to strengthen Jewish identity and connection for youth through their love of music, musical instruments, and online interaction. While Jewish teens will continue to fill their iPods with Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, now they just might add some Jewish rockers to their playlist like Naomi Less, Blue Fringe, Josh Nelson and Socalled.

Cross-posted to the Jewish Techs blog

Celebrities Holidays Jewish Music Yom Kippur

Dave Matthews to Play Kol Nidrei

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date August 27, 2010

In his song “Leave Me Praying,” Dave Matthews sings, “And then I will tell my son and my daughters to hold it so dear.” But I don’t think the singer-songwriter is talking about Yom Kippur that the next generation should hold dear. And in Chicago this Yom Kippur, many young Jews will not be singing “Leave Me Praying,” but rather they’ll be telling their parents to “Leave Me Alone” when they choose to go to Wrigley Field instead of Kol Nidrei services for a Dave Matthews Band concert.

Every so often, a conflict occurs for young people on Yom Kippur that tests their religious convictions and commitment to their heritage. One year when I was working at the University of Michigan Hillel Foundation in Ann Arbor, Yom Kippur fell on a Saturday in which a home football game was scheduled. The attendance in the service I was leading dropped by about 80% an hour before kickoff. College Football 1, Day of Atonement, 0.

Rabbi Taron Tachman probably has his own stories about seeing Jewish college students struggle with Yom Kippur conflicts from when he served as the director of Eastern Michigan Hillel before he began rabbinical school. A Dave Matthews fan, Taron seems pretty upset about DMB’s concert date in Chicago.

On the OY! CHICAGO blog (for Jews in the Loop) Taron posted a column entitled “Dave Matthews vs. Yom Kippur: What Would You Say,” in which he uses Dave Matthews’ song lyrics to express his dismay at the concert date which conflicts with his Yom Kippur obligations. He writes, “Not since Sandy Koufax agonized over whether or not to pitch the World Series, has a choice this big been put before the Jewish people. Yom Kippur 5771: Should a Jew go to synagogue or to the Dave Matthews Band concert at Wrigley Field?”

While I’m a realist and recognize that the stands in Wrigley Field will include many Jewish young people who will skip out on Kol Nidrei services, I’m hopeful that they’ll drag themselves into synagogue the next morning.

I have to also give Rabbi Tachman credit for doing a good job of trying to convince them to choose Yom Kippur over the Dave Matthews concert. He concludes his post as follows:

And yet, after all this, if you are still debating over going to DMB on Kol Nidre or skipping Yom Kippur altogether, consider these important words: I call Heaven and earth to witness you this day that I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse; choose life, therefore that you and your descendant may live! (Ha, ha—how’s that for a guilt trip! Sweet you rock and sweet you roll!)

And finally…as everybody tells you, you pay for what you get and though High Holy Days tickets can sometimes be a bit more expensive than a single Dave Matthews Band concert (but not by much), what you will hopefully get by going to synagogue is a chance to seek up, with a renewed sense of purpose, meaning, inspiration and direction. You will be partaking in a tradition thousands of years old, joining friends, family and community, and at the same time supporting institutions that transform so many lives for the better.

Truly this decision is so right, and the best of what’s around. I mean really, what would you say?

All I can hope for is that young people realize they can go to the next town and catch another Dave Matthews concert, but Yom Kippur only comes once a year. And maybe Dave will play a few chords of Kol Nidrei… you never know!

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Dancing at Auschwitz

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date July 15, 2010

The Holocaust Memorial Center in Detroit, Michigan is the nation’s first Holocaust memorial. It was originally located in a building connected to the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. It was this Holocaust museum that I toured with my grandfather when I was twelve-years-old and listened to him explain that many of his family members — my relatives — perished in the Shoah.

Several years ago that Holocaust museum moved to a new location a few miles away in Farmington Hills. The space that was originally occupied by the Holocaust Center is now a teen center where Jewish youth come to watch movies, play video games, eat pizza, and compete in pool and ping-pong tournaments. It is also where hundreds of Jewish teenagers come to dance to loud music.

The symbolism is not lost on me. This space was originally dedicated as a museum to pay tribute to the victims of the Shoah and to memorialize the six million souls who perished. It was a solemn space to educate about the Holocaust so that history wouldn’t be repeated. But today, it is a space where Jewish young people (many the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Holocaust survivors) can celebrate that “Am Yisrael Chai” — the Jewish people have endured. Hitler and the Nazis were not successful because the Jewish people are alive today and our children sing and dance at the Jewish Community Center and in the location originally consecrated as a museum of memory.

It is in this spirit that I embraced the YouTube video of a Holocaust survivor dancing with his grandchildren to the tune of Gloria Gaynor’s song “I Will Survive” in front of Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp. The original video, which was viewed over 500,000 times in one day, has since been removed from YouTube for a copyright violation. However, it was likely removed due to the controversy it created. The reposted video is below.

Australian Jewish artist Jane Korman filmed her three children and her father, 89-year-old Holocaust survivor Adolk, in the video clip “I Will Survive: Dancing Auschwitz.” The clip depicted the Korman family dancing in front of Holocaust landmarks in Poland, including the infamous entrance sign to Auschwitz death camp reading “Arbeit Macht Frei,” a Polish synagogue, Dachau, Theresienstadt, and a memorial in Lodz.

Her father at one point in the clip even wore a shirt on which the word “Survivor” was written. During a recent family visit to Israel Korman said that she thought of the idea after she encountered hatred toward Israel and Jews in Australia and added that she wanted to give her concerns presence during the heritage tour of Poland she recently took with her family, and take a different approach to the matter.

Haaretz newspaper reported that “Many Jewish survivors have reacted gravely to the video, accusing her of disrespect. Yet Korman told Australian daily The Jewish News that ‘it might be disrespectful, but he [her father] is saying ‘we’re dancing, we should be dancing, we’re celebrating our survival and the generations after me,’ – the generation he’s created. We are affirming our existence.'”

This is clearly a work of art, but it is also a powerful message that no matter how horrific and catastrophic were the acts committed by the Nazis in the last century, the Jewish people are still having children and grandchildren, and we are dancing together in joy all over the earth. Even on the land that buried millions of members of the Jewish faith, the Jewish people are still rejoicing with our future generations.

What do you think about Holocaust survivors dancing with their grandchildren at Auschwitz?

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Dave Matthews Yom Kippur Concert

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date March 4, 2010

No, Dave Matthews isn’t really going to play a Yom Kippur gig in Chicago, but two Dave Matthews Band concerts at Wrigley Field during Shabbat and Yom Kippur this Fall have been approved. According to the JTA, the music from the concert won’t be heard in the three nearby synagogues (Reform, Conservative, and Modern Orthodox), but there will be parking problems.

The Chicago Sun Times reports that it hasn’t been confirmed that the concert is The Dave Matthews Band, and that it could also be either Phish or Paul McCartney. The Cubs are considering providing a parking lot and shuttle buses for worshipers to get to the synagogues.

Because the September 17 concert coincides with Kol Nidre, the start of Yom Kippur, the Cubs have reached out to all three synagogues in the area: Anshe Emet (Conservative), Anshe Sholom (Modern Orthodox), and Temple Sholom (Reform).

The Sun Times quoted Mike Lufrano, Cubs senior vice-president of community affairs, who by the way is Jewish and plans to miss his first Wrigley concert to be in shul. He said, “It’s really parking that they’re most concerned about. You won’t hear it because they’re far enough away. But, it’s fans coming to hear the concert at the same time people are going to worship.” Rabbi Michael Siegel of the Conservative synagogue Anshe Emet reportedly sent a letter to the City Council’s License Committee endorsing the concerts.

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Max Weinberg’s Mormon Tribute

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date December 15, 2009

Last week, I wrote about the Hanukkah song that Senator Orrin Hatch wrote for the Jewish people. Well, apparently, Max Weinberg (of the E Street Band and the Tonight Show) was so taken by Orrin Hatch’s generosity that he wanted to reciprocate the favor.

On last night’s Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, the show’s only Jew, Max Weinberg, sang his Mormon tribute to the senior senator from Utah (with help from Conan and Andy Richter). The song is sung to the tune of “Dreydel Dreydel.” Here’s the video clip:

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An Orrin Hatch Hanukkah

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date December 9, 2009

At the end of the video, writer Jeffrey Goldberg nonchalantly says: “So it’s just… all it is is a Hip Hop Hanukkah song written by the senior senator from Utah. That’s all it is.”

Well, even more than that, it’s a funky Hanukkah song written by a 75-year-old Mormon senator who wrote the song as a gift to the Jews.

So, how did Orrin Hatch come to write a Hanukkah song anyway? The story goes that Jeffrey Goldberg (national correspondent for The Atlantic) “felt that the song canon for Hanukkah is sparse and uninspiring, in part because Jewish songwriters spend so much time writing Christmas music.” He explains how Senator Orrin Hatch came to write a Hanukkah song for Tablet Magazine:

Ten years ago, I visited Orrin Hatch, the senior senator from Utah and a prominent member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on Capitol Hill. I was writing for The New York Times Magazine and Hatch was thinking of running for president. We talked about politics for a few minutes, and then he said, “Have you heard my love songs?”

No senator had asked me that question before. It turned out that Hatch was a prolific songwriter, not only of love songs, but of Christian spirituals as well. We spent an hour in his office listening to some of his music, a regular Mormon platter party. After five or six Christmas songs, I asked, him, “What about Hanukkah songs? You have any of those?”

The article in Tablet got picked up this morning by the New York Times, which recognized just how many borders were being transcended with this story. “Adding to the project’s only-in-America mishmash is that the song is performed by Rasheeda Azar, a Syrian-American vocalist from Indiana. But Mr. Hatch is the song’s unquestioned prime mover, or macher. He is featured in the video, sitting stoic in the studio, head bobbing slightly, donning earphones and contributing backup vocals.”

At the end of the video, the senator unbuttons his dress shirt to expose the golden mezuzah necklace dangling from his neck. The Times article also notes that “Mezuzahs also adorn the doorways of his homes in Washington and Utah” and that he keeps a Torah in his Senate office.

“Not a real Torah, but sort of a mock Torah,” Senator Hatch said. “I feel sorry I’m not Jewish sometimes.”

Here’s the video of Senator Orrin Hatch’s Hanukkah song being performed:

The man who normally writes Christian music was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “This song means more to me than most of the songs I have ever written. People need to know the story of Hanukkah. It was a miracle.”

Senator Hatch said his ultimate goal would be for Barbra Streisand to perform one of his songs. Well, I’m sure seventy years ago many Christians weren’t really sure what to feel when the Jewish songwriter Irving Berlin released “White Christmas.” That’s sort of how I feel now. But, a nice Hanukkah song is still a nice Hanukkah song. So, on behalf of Jewish people all over the world: “Thanks for the song Senator Hatch!”

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Norman Lear and Starbucks

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date December 6, 2007

With the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike meaning no Daily Show with Jon Stewart or Colbert Report (although the writers are putting funny stuff on YouTube), I’ve been forced to find other TV shows to watch.

One of my favorites has been the Iconoclasts series on the Sundance Channel. I first saw one of these programs several months ago when they featured Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and surfing icon Laird Hamilton. The other day I watched the Iconoclasts episode matching Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz (with me at right) and Norman Lear. The two men are very fond of each other, have much more in common than anyone would imagine, and have teamed up in some very lucrative ways. The combination made this a very Jewish episode.

I actually knew a great deal about Howard Schultz before I saw this program. I heard him speak about his upbringing, influences, and vision at a Jewish Federation event in Ann Arbor a few years ago. Earlier in the day of the event, I happened to be at a local Ann Arbor Starbucks having a meeting with a Hillel donor and Howard Schultz walked in. I observed him doing exactly what he says he does and what is portrayed in the Iconoclasts episode about him. He walked up to each worker (“partner”) in the Starbucks store, shook their hand, patted them on the back, and told them that he genuinely was proud of their hard work. He then made his way over to our table, sat down, and shmoozed for a few minutes as if he wasn’t the busy executive running a billion-dollar corporation that opens eight new stores per day. At the Jewish Federation event later that evening he remembered our conversation without any prompting.

Schultz speaks openly that his Judaism influences his code of business principles and I have used him as an example many times when teaching about Jewish business ethics. Our nanny, who has become a part of our family, moonlights as a part-time Starbucks manager and has confirmed to me that it really is a great place to work (full health care benefits for all part-time staff).

How much I knew about Howard Schultz is how little I knew about Norman Lear, the Jewish creator of all those 70’s TV shows (All in the Family, Good Times, the Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, etc.). As Norman Lear describes in an online interview with Aish.com, Judaism has infused his life’s work. In the interview, as in the Iconoclasts presentation, Lear explains the Talmudic story that he loves and and lives by:

There’s a Talmudic story that I love, that seems to cover everything to me. A man should have a jacket with two pockets. In the first pocket there should be a piece of paper on which is written, “I am but dust and ashes.” In the second, a piece of paper on which it is written “For me the world was created.” That’s mama loshon to me, real common sense. The person who can live between that ying and yang has it made.

The two men appear like a loving father and son that had been separated for years. They share similar ethics and have each revolutionized their own trade (Schultz by selling coffee in new ways and treating his workers in better ways, and Lear with racy TV characters like Archie Bunker to get Americans to think about racial and religious tolerance in new ways). Together, they have teamed up on entrepreneurial initiatives like selling music at Starbucks (the award-winning Ray Charles CD — the last of his life — being their first attempt) and on social and political issues (getting young people to vote).

The highlights of the presentation are in Lear’s home, where he shows his original copy of the Declaration of Independence to Howard Schultz, and in their tour of the Seattle warehouse where Starbucks coffee is produced. Each man shows remarkable pride in the other and the Jewish people should take great pride in these men. It is their Judaism that has made them who they are.