We listen to his music & smoke ci**rs in his honor, to raise money for Israeli non-profit organizations. We thought we knew everything about Frank Sinatra. Sinatra the heart throb. Sinatra, "The Voice". Sinatra the womanizer. Sinatra "Ol' Blue Eyes". Sinatra "The Chairman of the Board". Sinatra, the leader of the famed Rat Pack, and his alleged connections to the Mob. But the Jews should remember
Sinatra most for his strong, unwavering, lifelong support for the Jewish state and Jewish causes. From his beginnings as a poor kid from Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra had close Jewish friends. Throughout every stage of his remarkable career, Sinatra continued his personal and professional relationship with Jews, including close associations with Jewish causes and as an activist for Israel. Was Sinatra Jewish? Well probably not. But...
HBO released a fantastic documentary about the life of Sinatra "All Or Nothing At All" (www.hbo.com/documentaries/sinatra-all-or-nothing-at-all) that throws a small MAYBE towards the question of Frank's membership in the tribe. Ten minutes into HBO's documentary they play an interview of Sinatra speaking about his early childhood. In the recording you can hear Sinatra reminiscing fondly about his mother, Natalie Della Garaventa, known as "Dolly", who immigrated from Genoa Italy to the US through Ellis Island. "I think the first thing I was ever conscious of was her drive, constantly seeking to do better...my father had to be intimidated by my mother's innate knowledge, cause she was innately bright, my mother was....the Genoese were the original bankers, they were lawyers. And she used to say to me 'I think that I'm half Italian and half Jew.' I said 'maybe you are ma'. She said 'Well I'm smart, that's where they came from, where I came from'. And consequently she succeeded, she made her way in life, she did very well." OK, clearly both Frank and his mother were raised Catholic, but could Dolly have had Jewish roots? If her mother's mother's family was Jewish would that make Frank a Jew? Certainly. Were there well educated Jewish bankers and lawyers in Genoa? Was there any Jewish assimilation over the generations? Well some. Is any of this conclusive? Of course not. But we do have Frank publicly acknowledging the possibility of his Jewish roots in his own words. Regardless of whether Frank should have been accepted into a kosher minyan or not, the Jewish People have every reason to love an accept him as part of the family. The origins of Sinatra’s love affair with the Jewish people are often speculated upon, but one reason given was that, as a child of a working mother, he was cared for by a Jewish neighbor, Mrs. Golden, who showed him a great deal of affection and gave him a small mezuzah which he proudly wore around his neck for many years. Later in life he even made a substantial donation of a quarter of a million dollars in Israel Bonds to honor her. Sinatra publicly stepped forward for the Jews in the early 1940s, when names were needed to rouse America into saving Europe’s remaining Jews. In 1945 he starred in The House I Live In, a ten-minute short film about anti-Semitism, which belatedly received an Honorary Academy Award on Israel’s 14th Independence Day in 1962. In 1947, he sang at an “Action for Palestine” rally, and contributed substantially to the coffers when Golda Meir returned to North America to raise $50 million in private contributions in preparation for Statehood. His serious connection to Israel began in 1948 when Sinatra was singing at the Copacabana Night Club in New York. He helped Teddy Kollek, later the long-serving mayor of Jerusalem but then a member of the Haganah, by serving as a $1 million money-runner that helped Israel win the war. The Copacabana NYC nightclub, which was very much run and controlled by the same Luciano-related New York mafia crowd with whom Sinatra had become enmeshed, happened to be next door to the hotel out of which Haganah members were operating. In his autobiography, Kollek relates how, trying in March 1948 to circumvent an arms boycott imposed by President Harry Truman on the Jewish fighters in Eretz Yisrael, he needed to smuggle about $1 million in cash to an Irish ship captain docked in the Port of New York . The young Kollek spotted Sinatra at the bar and, afraid of being intercepted by federal agents, asked for help. In the early hours of the morning, Sinatra complying without question, went out the back door with the money in a paper bag and successfully delivered it to the pier for the purchase of arms for the fledgling Jewish state. From that moment on, and throughout his illustrious career, Sinatra gave of his talent, time and money in aid of Israel, with generous donations, appearances at countless benefits and several visits to Israel to confirm his support. On Israel’s 14th Independence Day in 1962, Sinatra appeared on stage in Jerusalem and delivered a memorable speech where he lauded the IDF and urged people all over the world to support Israel. The enthusiastic radio audience heard his recorded speech with the stirring background sounds of the parade being held there. Later on in the tour he also performed at Kibbutz Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea. A short 22-minute documentary was made about his trip in support of the Histadrut, "Frank Sinatra in Israel" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh3MFTvWzik). He had 100 medallions created featuring the Star of David on one side and St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, on the reverse: he gave 99 of them to his closest friends and colleagues and kept one for himself. As a result of his public support for the State of Israel, many Arab countries banned his records and films. Most notably, on September 26th, 1962, the Arab League banned all of Sinatra’s records & films in Arabic countries because they believed he was involved in Israeli propaganda. Among his many donations to Israel was one of a million dollars for the construction of the “Frank Sinatra International Student Center” at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and "The Arab-Israeli Youth Center for Palestinians in Nazareth".
1966 was also a very good year for Israel as Sinatra played a small role as a pilot in "Cast a Giant Shadow," with Kirk Douglas, which was filmed in Israel, about Mickey Marcus, the American Army colonel who assisted Israel during the 1948 War of Independence, and who became Israel's first modern general. In the film, Sinatra dive-bombs Egyptian tanks with seltzer bottles. He donated his entire salary from that film to his Arab-Israeli Youth Center. On November 1st, 1972, Sinatra received the “Medallion of Valor of the State of Israel” for “unprecedented humanitarian efforts on behalf of his fellow man”. The medallion ceremony was held in LA and it was presented to Sinatra by Baron Edmond de Rothschild. Sinatra made a significant contribution of $100,000 and helped to raise funds for the film, Genocide, about the Holocaust, a project of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which was narrated by Elizabeth Taylor and Orson Welles and won an Oscar as the best documentary of 1982. Sinatra also became a member of the Board and an enthusiastic supporter of the Wiesenthal Center. In 1978 he was given the prestigious National Scopus Award in recognition of his contributions to Israel and the Jewish people, and he came to Israel for the dedication of the "Frank Sinatra International Student Center". This Center was tragically targeted in 2002 by terrorists and eight students were killed and numerous students injured. Till the end of his life Sinatra performed at benefits for Israel, for the Hebrew University, for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and for Temple Israel in Palm Springs, Florida. He died, ironically on May 14, 1998, exactly 50 years from the official declaration of Israeli independence. The words on his grave marker are: "The Best Is Yet to Come." We should all remember Frank Sinatra who was more than just a thrilling voice and charismatic personality, but truly a mensch, especially in humanitarian matters concerning the Jewish People and Israel. Millions of Israelis are better off for his great courage and incredible heart. We invite you to smoke ci**rs, drink whiskey, and listen to his music all to raise money and awareness for worthy non-profit causes in Israel.
