On a Thursday evening in May our branch of ESRA North Coast - Nahariya held a memorable event. Laurence Jacobs presented us with a walk down musical memory lane along with the detailed historiography of the Jewish roots of most Broadway hits. Yes, did you know that “without Jews there would be no Broadway”?
Originally hailing from Wales, Laurence has a musical background as well as a career spanning decades in the entertainment industry. What made this event so entertaining, besides the fact that the topic was entertainment, was the audience's enjoyment of the music that surfaced as a sing-along.
At the same time, this proved to be highly educational evening. Most of us had no idea of how deeply the Jewish roots of musical entertainment prevailed almost everywhere in the entertainment arena. Indeed the title of the program, “You won’t succeed on Broadway if you don’t have any Jews” was aptly proven.
We had a great turn out and, like most of our events, the socialization and the conversations were jolly and pleasant.
Submitted by Dr. Gabriel Mayer
