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Interviews
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On Jewishness, Shylock and Tevya Rivka Jacobson talks to Henry Goodman The Savoy Hotel's opulence and comfort is a stark contrast to the life staged next door at the Savoy Theatre. Here, surrounded by 1930s décor, I met Henry Goodman, the main protagonist of the Fiddler on the Roof. He walked towards me, a stranger, greeting me with a smile and warmth of an old friend. He successfully reinvents himself in the different roles he performs on screen and stage. The list of his roles is rather impressive. Fittingly, he shares his birthday with the grand old master, Shakespeare, 23rd April. At 57 years, he is still youthful, with a ravenous appetite for challenges and aspirations for screen parts. The East End and the Jewish community's aspirationsHenry Goodman was born in the East End of London. "No, it was not a ghetto," explains Goodman when I just hinted that East End of his childhood may have had the feel of a ghetto. "It is very important that I clarify this," he says resolutely. "No, it was not a ghetto because the word 'ghetto' is very emotive. There is no way round it. In a ghetto there is a self sustaining group of people resisting the outside world. It is true to say there were some elements of that in the East End, but they were small synagogue pockets." Goodman brings to life the co-existence of the mixed Jewish communities juxtaposing the presence of old Chasidic community worshipping in one synagogue and some 100 yards down the road one could find the Liberal-Progressive. "It was not a shtetl (a Yiddish word for a small town or village with a large Jewish population). There were some elements of old onion eating Russian-Polish Jews in long black gabardines; there were people like that, just like the Chassidic Jews you meet in Stamford Hill. They were looked upon as old fashioned and medieval," he explains. The emphasis is that the majority of the Jewish community, unlike many other small communities at that time, made every effort to be invisible. "Whether you think it is good or bad, this is all for another discussion," he says. It is clear the British actor has his roots in East End. He grew up to understand both worlds, the traditional Jewish world, where parents started giving their offspring very solid English names such as Henry, Stephen and Gerald, instead of the conspicuously Jewish names, Shmuel or Moshe. Goodman himself is Henry, who grew up in a home where parents could speak very good Yiddish, yet they spoke to their children only in English to ensure that they grew up to be part of the society they elected to be part of. No Religious commitment yet fond of traditionHe did not grow up in a religious household, yet some traditions were followed. His mother lit the Sabbath candles on Friday night; he had his Bar-Mitzvah and attended a Liberal-Progressive synagogue over the Jewish festivals. He explains some of his ulterior motives for certain orthodox acts. Goodman confesses that after his Bar Mitzvah he agreed to attend the synagogue for the payment of a few shillings to make up the needed quorum for morning prayers. That meant getting up as early as 6:00 a.m. before going to school. (The quorum, known as a minyan in Hebrew, requires a minimum ten post-Bar Mitzvah males). "I did it to earn a few shillings, there was no religious commitment," he declares. Goodman recalls with fondness the joys of the Jewish festivals. "There was great enjoyment of celebration of life and of the festivals but that was really made attractive in the Liberal-Progressive synagogue where there would be flags, toffee apples. People were poor so there would be Purim-bags with food that were handed out. The festivals became a place where you could get the things you did not have." Post-World War II traumaHenry comes from a family of six. "We were not poverty stricken, but it was not easy. People were working hard," he reflects. The sense of a deep hidden trauma, post-World War II, and its psychological effects affected most people but the Jews in particular. Goodman explains, "There is a deep sense - and this is something I understood better as I grew older - that people were very traumatised by the war, but the Jews in particular. There is a strong sense of fearfulness that is still present in Jews wherever you go. The more brash and confident they are the more you know it is still there. To me it is still there in Israel more than anywhere else." My puzzled expression may have triggered an explanation of this point. "Israelis have the brash confident attitude of 'I am Israeli, I know everything and I can do anything'. None of that was going on in the East End of London. People were trying to enjoy life and there was a lot of good will, but deep down and hidden were things you sensed but you didn't talk about." Goodman explains that you don't have to be traumatised to sense the trauma of his people. "There was the historical imperative and there were sensibilities that were clearly shaped by centuries and also by recent war." In other words, the Jewish history of persecution and survival together with more immediate events, such as a death of an uncle in the war and many other subjects were hidden so not to traumatise the children. The parents' aspiration was to make the children happy. Yet, you could never hide it; so when he came to play Jews in The Merchant of Venice and in Fiddler on the Roof, he understood the different Jewish baggage each has. Goodman emphasises that he did not grow up in a traumatised, but I could sense it.
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