We gathered to see a production of the one-man show “A Jew Grows in Brooklyn,” on Sunday, March 13, at 2 p.m., at the Bickford Theatre in the Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road, in Morristown.
The event, which was a fund-raiser for our Section, also featured an after-theater party at a private home. Coordinating the event was done Lisa Barta.
Growing up as a post-World War II generation Jewish American offered writer-actor-singer-musician Jake Ehrenreich material for plenty of nostalgic satire in “A Jew Grows in Brooklyn.” Essentially a solo performance with live musical accompaniment, Ehrenreich’s autobiographical compilation of stories and song commingles humor and sorrow, characteristic of traditional Jewish folktales.
The son of Polish immigrants who escaped the Holocaust, Ehrenreich spent his youth yearning to be the “all-American kid”–baseball and rock ’n’ roll were his cultural anchors. Ehrenreich’s exploration of his Jewish identity is built on emotional pivot points like this, poking at the sore spots of his family life with the fierce affection that Jews have for one another, then linking each comic anecdote to a more serious theme.
Tickets for this outstanding show were $40 apiece (basic) and $45 (patron). The deadline to order tickets was February 15. For further information, contact Lisa Barta (lisakb53@yahoo.com).