Robin Williams was so achingly funny, so capable of mining the essential human spirit out of a moment, that you would have to be reminded he was not Jewish.
Quick. Make a list of memorable comics/comedians during your lifetime. Here’s my top of the mind list:
Milton Berle, Red Skelton, Jack Benny, George Burns, Mel Brooks, Steve Martin, Phil Silvers, Alan King, Jackie Mason, Louis CK, Sarah Silverman, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Martin Short, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Flip Wilson, Godfrey Cambridge, Totie Fields, Joan Rivers, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Joey Bishop, Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, Jonathan Winters, Steve Allen, George Carlin, Ernie Kovacs, Sid Caesar, Henny Youngman, Jack Carter, Buddy Hackett, Jimmy Kimmel, Tina Fey, Carl Reiner, Myron Cohen, Shelly Berman, Jim Carrey, Freddie Prinze, Andy Kaufman, Red Foxx, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles, Bill Maher, Robert Klein Woody Allen, David Steinberg, Jerry Lewis, Billy Crystal, David Brenner, Ellen deGeneres, Pat Cooper.
Fifty-four names. With rare exception, if they weren’t/aren’t Jewish (32) they were/are black (6), similarly from heritages of suffering and exclusion. Doesn’t it reveal something that of those who are not Jewish some of the more prominent and successful, including Martin Short, Steve Martin and Bill Maher, are often thought to be tribe members.
Among the many tributes his fellow comedians extended Monday was this one from Steve Martin, himself a brilliant observer and commentator of the human condition. “I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul.”
How revealing, how nuanced, that Martin would include mensch in his recollection of Williams.
I wrote this blog (until this paragraph) the night Robin Williams’ death was announced but have been reluctant to post it, thinking I might be a little too jingoistic in my Jewishness (would you have known what I meant if I had just written “Jewgoistic?).
I’m not the only one to have noted the crossover ties between Williams and his Jewish audiences (here’s a columnist for The Jewish Week: http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national/robin-williams-honorary-jew).
Perhaps it stemmed from the dramatic roles he undertook in film. Though not necessarily Jewish characters, several represented professions that embodied nurturing and healing—doctors in Good Will Hunting, Patch Adams, What Dreams May Come and Awakening; teachers in Dead Poets Society and Flubber. He portrayed outcasts of society in Jack, The Fisher King, Bicentennial Man, Good Morning, Vietnam and The Birdcage. He exemplified the Russian Refusnik who emigrated to America (and Israel) in Moscow on the Hudson. In Jakob the Liar Williams made the Holocaust bearable, for a time. He played everyone’s favorite nanny in Mrs. Doubtfire.
Like most people I marveled at his comic genius, his creativity, his ability to spout on-the-spot humor. But, from what I’ve read, before Williams hit pay dirt with comedy, he wanted to be a dramatic actor. Few would deny he became one of the best of his generation.
