Chanukah

December 11, 2009

Spielberg feted by ADL, gives midrash

By Tom Tugend

Tweet

Share

Steven Spielberg, a man of many talents, revealed a new one when he delivered his own commentary on the meaning of Chanukah Wednesday night.

After accepting the Anti-Defamation League’s highest award, the director of “Schindler’s List” startled the 1,100 dinner guests by going well beyond the customary thank-yous in his thoughtful midrash (commentary or interpretation) on the holiday.

Noting that Chanukah lacked the lengthy storylines of a Purim megillah and Passover haggadah, or the dramatic impact of a Red Sea parting, Spielberg asserted that fabled movie director Cecil B. DeMille never considered making a film titled “The Greatest Chanukah Story Ever Told.”

But, Spielberg added, it was through the very smallness of the Chanukah miracle—a small cruise of oil lasting for eight days—“that God manifested His power and His love.”

In our time, filled with electronic gadgetry and constant distractions, it is easy to overlook small miracles or to acknowledge “how much of our world is still mired in the past,” he said. Indeed, the old evils of bigotry, prejudice and anti-Semitism have found new homes in cyberspace.

The response to the evils is education. “Intolerance is not encoded in our DNA,” he said. “What is encoded is our curiosity and the ability to learn quickly.

“We Jews have always had a passion for great stories and I myself have been galvanized by Jewish history, especially when speaking out against intolerance.”

In conferring America’s Democratic Legacy Award, previously received by five U.S. presidents, ADL national director Abraham Foxman lauded the honoree both for his films and for establishing the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which has videotaped the testimony of 52, 000 survivors.

“Steven has put up the mirror of conscience to the world…he has given us the gift of memory,” Foxman said.

The evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel raised more than $2 million to support ADL’s fight against bigotry, prejudice and anti-Semitism, and was well attended by Hollywood power players and celebrities, who contributed some lighter moments.

Veteran producer Sid Sheinberg, who gave Spielberg his start, recalled that he and everyone else had advised Spielberg against making the movie “Munich,” which dramatized the Mossad pursuit of the terrorists who had murdered Israel’s athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

“I told Steve,” Sheinberg said, “Why do you want to walk around as a rich Jew with a target on your back?”

Actor Kirk Douglas, whom the audience serenaded on his 93rd birthday the same day, first pronounced the blessings, in Hebrew, over the wine and bread.

He then “revealed” that Spielberg got the money for his expensive productions through his mother’s kosher “Milky Way” restaurant.

Singer Adam Lambert of “American Idol” fame, opened the evening with an emotional rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” followed by Israel’s Noa Dori with “Hatikvah.” Actress Drew Barrymore gave the opening and closing remarks.

A version of this article appeared in print.

---

Post your comment below!

Click here to return to the homepage.

COMMENTS

We welcome your feedback. Comments may not exceed 700 characters.

Privacy Policy

Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.

Terms of Service

JewishJournal.com has rules for its commenting community.Get all the details.

Sounds awesome. I love Steven and glad he received this honor.

Comment by Proman on 12/11/09 at 4:32 pm

Not to be too picky, but it was the Reed Sea (Yam Suf). Now we make a big fuss over that cruze of oil lasting 8 days while they rededicated the Temple, but the real miracle, and it was a huge one, was that a small group of young Jews under the leadership of Judah HaMaccabee defeated the much larger and more powerful Syrian army and saved the Jewish State from extinction. That’s the miracle you should be celebrating when you light those Hannukah candles!

Comment by Jason Fenton on 12/11/09 at 8:04 pm

It’s ironic that Adam Lambert got a standing ovation at a dinner to raise $ to fight discrimination has recently been the target of discrimination himself. Please televise it, so the public can see the work that the ADL does and the bigots who staged a witch hunt against Adam Lambert can see how he can give a respectful live performance without the need of a censor. I can’t think of a better definition of a “nice, Jewish boy” than Adam Lambert, and like Steven Speilberg, he’s a mensch too.

Comment by Pam on 12/12/09 at 11:56 am

I wonder if Steven Spielberg got any family lost during 1940-1945. All the family on my mothers’side had dissappeared. I’d like to correspond with mister Spielberg. Please ask him if I can.

Comment by Hartogh Benjamin Luyckx on 12/13/09 at 7:24 am

Abe Foxman is a joke. The ADL is a joke. And, now, you’ve joined their company by accepting this award sanctioned by a bully.

I don’t know what’s sadder, that Steve accepted this award or that Armenian American activists didn’t give Abe and the ADL a free speech lesson in Beverly Hills.

They should heckle Steve instead. He’s the ADL’s new posterboy on tolerance. Or, is that terrorism.

Comment by spamonigiri on 12/15/09 at 3:02 am

Post a Comment

Name:
Email:

Type the word you see below:

Comment:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?