Movies with a Jewish Theme Trivia Quiz

Answer: Danny Kaye

Al Jolson starred in the original black and white musical about the son of a Jewish Cantor who defies his father to become a jazz singer. He played Jakie Rabinowitz and did his singing in 'blackface' which, in those days, was common practice. Danny Thomas portrayed Jerry Golding in 1952 with Eduard Franz as the Cantor (prayer-leader), and Neil Diamond was the jazz singer in the 1980 version.

It seems ethnic sensitivities have changed quite a bit since 1927; political correctness has come on the scene, but the idea of a son not wanting to follow in his father's footsteps is both universal and timeless. Danny Kaye (1911-1987) was a singer, actor, comedian and humanitarian.

Answer: Gregory Peck

Peck plays Phil Green, a widowed journalist who has just moved to New York City. He gets an assignment from a high-profile magazine to do an article on antisemitism. In order to better understand and write about the topic, he pretends to be Jewish. All of a sudden he begins to encounter bigotry, both firsthand and from his friend Dave Goldman (John Garfield).

He meets and falls in love with Kathy Lacey (Dorothy McGuire) from Darien, Connecticut, but the article and its subject matter begins to affect those around him, including his relationship with his fiancee.

The film is based on the book by Laura Z. Hobson. Elia Kazan won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film.

Answer: Leon Uris

Uris' novel was published in 1958 and tells the story of the voyages of the 1947 ship Exodus, filled with Jewish immigrants. Thousands of immigrants who survived the Holocaust were kept in Cyprus by the British who would not allow them to go to Palestine. Ari Ben Canaan, played by Paul Newman, manages to obtain a cargo ship and smuggles Jewish inmates out of the internment camp but, when the British find out, they set up a blockade.

After a hunger strike and Ari's threat to blow up the ship, the British finally allow safe passage to the Exodus. With the idea of an independent Israel looming, the Arab neighbors fight to stop it. Uris also wrote "Mila 18" and "Battle Cry".

Answer: Anatevka

The 1971 musical, "Fiddler on the Roof", takes place in a small village in 1905 before the Russian revolution. A father must attempt to marry off his three older daughters who wish to marry for love rather than tradition; at the same time antisemitism threatens his village of Anatevka.

The movie was directed by Norman Jewison, and Harnick and Bock supplied the lyrics and music. The plot is based on a story by Sholem Aleichem called "Tevye and his Daughters". Each daughter is getting further away from the culture by which Tevye has lived his life.

Then there is the Tsar who issues an edict which will force the Jews to leave their village.

Answer: Dirty Dancing

It seems the Catskill Mountains has offered hotels which cater mainly to a Jewish crowd, since the beginning of time. It is this background against which the story of Johnny Castle and Frances 'Baby' Houseman is told. It is the 1960s and Baby is one summer away from joining the Peace Corps.

Instead of the last summer of childhood fun she was hoping for, she winds up at a small hotel in Upstate New York with her parents and her sister. Her whole life has been planned out for her, i.e., after the Peace Corps she will settle down with a nice Jewish doctor like her father.

But Johnny Castle dances in and, despite their differences, everything changes for Johnny and Baby!

Answer: Rod Steiger

Former professor Sol Nazerman is a Jew who had been the victim of Nazi persecution during World War II. He is a concentration camp survivor who emigrates to the United States and opens a pawn shop in East Harlem. During the war he lost his family and closest friends.

The experience has left him bitter and lonely, destroying both his faith in God and his love of mankind. Rod Steiger plays the misanthropic pawnbroker whose only 'reason for being' is money. He is haunted by his memories and tries to find solace in helping a Latino with a new business.

But between the business associates and his flashbacks, he has a nervous breakdown. Steiger was nominated for an Oscar.

Answer: An American Tail

I wanted to 'lighten up' after the previous question, so I picked an animated tale from 1986. "An American Tail" is the story of the Mousekowitz family from Russia who head to the United States for a better life (and, they think, no cats). But Fievel gets separated from his parents and winds up in the 'New World' to fend for himself.

He makes new friends, successfully dodges the cats he thought he was rid of, and continues to search for his family. At one point he looks out from his water tower and sings "Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight/Someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight". Anyone need a tissue?

Answer: Brighton Beach Memoirs

Woody Allen has written and acted in over 50 movies. Many of his films deal with his childhood and/or his adult neuroses. In 1987 he played Joe, a middle aged man who reminisces about his childhood during the golden age of radio. "Hannah and her Sisters" takes place during two Thanksgivings where love and relationships go awry. "Zelig" again was written and stars Woody Allen. "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1986) was penned by Neil Simon, and tells the story of a teenage Jewish boy, Eugene Morris Jerome, who recounts past events and his relationships with his parents, his brother, his aunt and two cousins, as he goes through puberty in a crowded house.

Answer: Natalie Wood

"Marjorie Morningstar" is based on a 1955 novel by Herman Wouk. Marjorie Morganstern, played by Natalie Wood, is a Jewish college student in the 1930s, whose parents have moved from the Bronx to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where it is hoped Marjorie will find a suitable husband. Marjorie dreams of becoming an actress with the stage name Marjorie Morningstar.

In the book, she winds up marrying Milton Schwartz and moving to Westchester; that's what nice Jewish girls did in the 1930s. However, the movie is more hopeful.

At the end of the film, there is a possibility of a relationship between Marjorie and playwright Wally Wronkin (Martin Milner), and who knows?

Answer: Crossing Delancey

Amy Irving plays Isabelle "Izzy" Grossman in "Crossing Delancey", the 1988 movie directed by Joan Micklin Silver. Isabelle works in a bookstore in New York and has many friends but she is still single and in her thirties which, according to her Jewish grandmother, is a 'shonda' (a shame in Yiddish).

Her grandmother decides to speed things along (marriage-wise) and hires a Jewish matchmaker (no, this is not "Fiddler on the Roof"!). Isabelle gets 'fixed-up' with Sam, the pickle-maker, played by Peter Riegert.

While she is being courted by a worldly, married author named Anton, little by little, she begins to find the pickle-vendor more and more appealing or should I say appetizing?