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JOSEPH
PAPP CHILDREN’S FUND
Celebs Raise Funds to Send
Food to Children of Ukraine
Story and Photos by Tim Boxer
 ON
VOIGHT, tears clouding his eyes, told how proud he was to help
Tzivos Hashem, the Lubavitch youth organization directed by Rabbi Yerachmiel
Benjaminson, in reaching across the world to send food, clothing
and medicine to the street children in Ukraine.
Gabriel Byrne presented Voight with an
award of excellence at organization’s third annual Joseph Papp
Children’s Humanitarian Fund dinner at the New York Hilton.
“What Tzivos Hashem does is a beautiful
process, a Jewish process,” Voight said, his voice breaking.
“It’s what Judaism means to me – this kind of compassion.
It’s the whole meaning of life.”
Byrne said when he was a student in his native
Dublin he saw Voight in Midnight Cowboy and was “blown
away.” At age 28 he came to America to pursue his dream to become
an actor too.
Bruce Adler and Dick Capri |
This spring he was in Australia for a film. His
driver told him, “If you’re anything like that last guy I drove,
you’ll be all right.” And who was that? Jon Voight!
Voight, raised Catholic, recalled the promise
of Isaiah that God would gather his people and return them to their
land.
“This great people have done their work,”
Voight said. “The Jewish people have carried this great message of
service to humanity, justice, law and truth down through the
ages.”
The evening sparkled with Dr. Ruth
Westheimer, Bruce Adler, Harvey Keitel, Tovah Feldshuh, Valerie
Harper, and Hallie Kate Eisenberg.
Hallie’s mother Amy told me how proud
she is of her 9-year-old daughter. A public school student in New
Jersey, Hallie has already racked up 11 Pepsi commercials. The
Broadway play she was in this season, The Women, aired on PBS
in June.
The program, produced by Jerry and Jeff
Cutler, continued with a couple of Catskill veterans. Van
Harris pointed out that his roots are in Russia. “We were
poor, penniless. Even the tsar was Nicholas.”
Dick Capri revealed he’s the only
Italian who can’t sing. “I once sang and the price of the Mona
Lisa plummeted.”
Jeff and Jerry Cutler |
Martin Charnin, the legendary
director/lyricist of Annie, recalled that what Papp loved
most – aside from fighting with the Shuberts – was Shakespeare
and Yiddish theater.
So Charnin wrote an amusing 10-minute playlet, From
Bard to Worse, focusing on Yiddish actors grappling with
Shakespeare. The cast included Bob Dishy and Fyvush Finkel.
Hasidic singing star Avram Fried came up
with a story about a king who promised his daughter to the most
talented swordsman in his realm.
A Japanese warrior stepped forward, opened a
box, out came a fly, and with a swish-swish of his formidable sword,
he brought the fly down, neatly sliced in half.
Dr Ruth with Jon Voight |
A Chinese soldier opened a box, out came a fly,
and with a swish-swish brought the fly down to the ground,
skillfully quartered.
A tall bearded Hasid boldly stepped up, opened
a box, out flew a fly, and with a swish-swish the fly landed on the
ground.
“But the fly is not dead!” the king
exclaimed.
“Dead shmed,” the Jew replied.
“Circumcision – that’s talent!”
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