Living in Beverly Hills among many celebs brings about much discussion and gossip.
Sinatra starred in the pro-Israel movie "Cast A Giant Shadow"
But one man who lived here really stands tall.
IF YOU LIKED FRANK SINATRA BEFORE, NOW YOU'RE GONNA LOVE HIM NOW!
Francis Albert Sinatra (1915-1998) may have been one of A me rica 's most
famous Italian Catholics, but he kept the Jewish people and the State of
Israel close to his heart, manifesting life-long commitments to fighting anti-Semitism and to activism on behalf of Israel.
Sinatra stepped forward in the early 1940s, when big names were needed to rouse America into saving Europe's remaining Jews, and he sang at an "Action for Palestine " rally (1947). He sat on the board of trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and he donated over $1 million to Jerusalem's Hebrew University , which honored him by dedicating the Frank Sinatra International Student Center.
(The Center made heartbreaking headlines when terrorists bombed it in 2002,
killing nine people.) As the result of his support for the Jewish State, his
movies and records were banned in many Arab countries
Sinatra helped Teddy Kollek, later the long-serving mayor of Jerusalem but
then a member of the Hagannah, by serving as a $1 million money-runner that
helped Israel win the war.
The Copacabana Club, which was very much run and controlled by the same
Luciano-related New York mafia crowd with whom Sinatra had become
enmeshed, happened to be next door to the hotel out of which Hagannah members were operating. In his autobiography, Kollek relates how, trying in March 1948 to circumvent an arms boycott imposed by President Harry Truman on the Jewish fighters in Eretz Yisroel, he needed to smuggle about $1 million in
cash to an Irish ship captain docked in the Port of New York .
The young Kollek spotted Sinatra at the bar and, afraid of being intercepted by
federal agents, asked for help. In the early hours of the morning, the
singer went out the back door with the money in a paper bag and successfully
delivered it to the pier.
The origins of Sinatra's love affair with the Jewish people are not clear
but, for years, the Hollywood icon wore a small mezuzah around his neck, a
gift from Mrs. Golden, an elderly Jewish neighbor who cared for him during
his boyhood in Hoboken, N.J. (years later, he honored her by purchasing a
quarter million dollars' worth of Israel bonds). He protected his Jewish
friends, once responding to an anti-Semitic remark at a party by simply
punching the offender.
federal agents, asked for help. In the early hours of the morning, the
singer went out the back door with the money in a paper bag and successfully
delivered it to the pier.
The origins of Sinatra's love affair with the Jewish people are not clear
but, for years, the Hollywood icon wore a small mezuzah around his neck, a
gift from Mrs. Golden, an elderly Jewish neighbor who cared for him during
his boyhood in Hoboken, N.J. (years later, he honored her by purchasing a
quarter million dollars' worth of Israel bonds). He protected his Jewish
friends, once responding to an anti-Semitic remark at a party by simply
punching the offender.
Time Magazine reported that Sinatra walked out on
the christening of his own son when the priest refused to allow a Jewish
friend to be the godfather. As late as 1979, he raged over the fact that a
Palm Springs cemetery official in California declared that he could not
arrange the burial of a deceased Jewish friend over the Thanksgiving
holiday; Sinatra threatened to punch him in the nose.
Sinatra famously played the role of a Jewish pilot in Cast a Giant Shadow,
the 1966 film filmed in Israel and starring friend Kirk Douglas as Mickey
Marcus, the Jewish-American colonel who fought and died in Israel's war
for independence (Sinatra dive-bombs Egyptian tanks with seltzer bottles!)
He donated his salary for the part to the Arab-Israeli Youth Center in
Nazareth , and he also made a significant contribution to the making of
Genocide, a film about the Holocaust, and helped raise funds for the film.
the christening of his own son when the priest refused to allow a Jewish
friend to be the godfather. As late as 1979, he raged over the fact that a
Palm Springs cemetery official in California declared that he could not
arrange the burial of a deceased Jewish friend over the Thanksgiving
holiday; Sinatra threatened to punch him in the nose.
Sinatra famously played the role of a Jewish pilot in Cast a Giant Shadow,
the 1966 film filmed in Israel and starring friend Kirk Douglas as Mickey
Marcus, the Jewish-American colonel who fought and died in Israel's war
for independence (Sinatra dive-bombs Egyptian tanks with seltzer bottles!)
He donated his salary for the part to the Arab-Israeli Youth Center in
Nazareth , and he also made a significant contribution to the making of
Genocide, a film about the Holocaust, and helped raise funds for the film.
Less known is Sinatra in Israel (1962), a short 45-minute featurette he made
in which he sang In the Still of the Night and Without a Song.
in which he sang In the Still of the Night and Without a Song.
He also starred in The House I Live In (1945), a ten-minute short film made to
oppose anti-Semitism at the end of World War II, which received an Honorary
Academy Award and a special Golden Globe award in 1946.
oppose anti-Semitism at the end of World War II, which received an Honorary
Academy Award and a special Golden Globe award in 1946.
