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'Jewish Americans' spurs discussion on LI

BY VERNE GAY | verne.gay@newsday.com

January 9, 2008

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'The Jewish Americans" is a big broadcast and, befitting bigness, there will be a constellation of other events surrounding it. Specifically, discussion groups are expected to be held at local synagogues, while WLIW/21's own companion broadcast, "The Jews of New York" will air next week as well.

"The Jews of New York" is a page from the book - so to speak - that Chs. 13 and 21 began writing in the fall when a pair of New York-themed programs (and very good ones at that) aired as accompaniments to "Ken Burns' The War."

"The Jews of New York" (Jan. 20 at 8 p.m. on Ch. 21; Jan. 24 at 9 p.m. on Ch. 13) is billed as a "sprawling portrait of large and complicated community." Broken down into personality-driven chunks, the film looks at major industries - retail, science, politics, Broadway, real estate and finance - and some of the singular stars within them. Some of those profiled: The family behind the venerable East Houston Street specialty foods establishment, Russ & Daughters; Dr. Arthur Aufses, surgeon at The Mount Sinai Hospital; "Fiddler on the Roof" writer Joseph Stein and lyricist Sheldon Harnick; and former New York Mayor Ed Koch.

Meanwhile, synagogues across Long Island are expected to hold "Jewish Americans" discussion groups during the next few weeks.

Here, for example, is what to expect at Lynbrook's Temple Emanu-El, which will hold discussions on next Wednesday, Jan. 23 and 30, starting at 7 p.m.

"People like to find themselves in these stories," says Rabbi Scott Corngold, explaining just one of many reasons why his synagogue's congregants have expressed interest in discussion groups. He adds that "I'm also hoping" viewers will learn "how wide-spanning the Jewish stories of America are. We still kind of crowd out these other stories with the [Eastern] narrative that so many of us in our own families have. It's always eye-opening that so many Jewish-Americans have experienced differently."

He adds that "what would be provocative" in "Jewish Americans" would be to see the challenges of his forbearers "and see how those measure up against the challenges, struggles and opportunities that we face in our own life today."

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