New York – Dressed As Chasidic Jew Famous Holywood Actor Goes Unoticed in Borough Park Shul

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    FILE of Al PacinoNew York – Al Pacino, preparing for the role of Shylock in the Public Theater’s upcoming production of “The Merchant of Venice,” took his research into Brooklyn this week, visiting a Hasidic synagogue in Borough Park.

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    The actor made the trip with Barry Edelstein, director of the Public’s Shakespeare Initiative, to observe religious Jews in prayer and learn about the community.

    Mr. Pacino, dressed in a dark suit and hat, stood at the back of the synagogue and went unrecognized as he observed the morning prayer, said Mr. Edelstein, who wouldn’t name the synagogue at the request of the friend who took them there.

    As worshipers swayed in prayer, known as shuckling, Mr. Edelstein said he saw Mr. Pacino slowly rock back and forth with them, observing their movements.

    “It was done with complete respect and a true sense of empathy,” said Mr. Edelstein.

    Later, Mr. Pacino joined Mr. Edelstein and a man from Borough Park’s Hasidic community for coffee and cheesecake. Diners recognized the actor and asked for photographs, but no one asked the actor what he was doing in their small neighborhood in southwestern Brooklyn, Mr. Edelstein said. No one they encountered appeared to be offended that Mr. Pacino would be portraying the controversial Shylock, a character who has divided audiences over the play’s perceived anti-Semitism, Mr. Edelstein added, saying the man who showed them around the community was planning to see the production.

    The play starts performances in Central Park at the Delacorte Theater on June 12; it is being performed in repertory with “The Winter’s Tale.” Mr. Pacino has played Shylock before, in a 2004 film version of the play.


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    68 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    This story is bull. Unlless he grew a beard and payos, it’s not posibule or they looket at him as as a misplaced Baal teshuvah, soon we will be told he stayed up all night learning, do me a fovor not every semi conservetive Shul is chasidic, and the proov is that the diners reconigsed him, which chusid would admit in a public place that he knew who he was ?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Which shul did he go to practice I hope not to my Rebbes brother because I won’t support him anymore

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    so what? if he acted normal, why would anyone really look at him. and the fact that boro park people didn’t recognize a famous actor, GOOD FOR THEM.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Why would he need to go to a shul to portray Shylock ? That is a very bad characterization of a JEw typically shown with Peyos and a long nose.

    bigwheeel
    bigwheeel
    13 years ago

    Has anyone read the “Script” for The Merchant of Venice?! It portrays the “Jew” as being so brutal. So much like a “serpent”. (snake). a “devil”. Where the Jew wants nothing less than a pound of flesh from the “poor” merchant. He had it written in the contract at the time he (the Jew) made the loan to the poor merchant. That if he did not have the money when it was due –even if he paid him at a later date– the Jew had the right to take a pound of flesh from him. The “Judge” had a dilemma. That if this “contract” was not enforced, no contract will ever be valid. Enough of these “Shtusim”. The point is, that this “play” has been shown to large audiences over the years. It created deep hatred for Jews. Even though most of them didn’t even know what a Jew looks like.

    Toiveler
    Toiveler
    13 years ago

    you should have seen him in the Mikve

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    No one in Boro Park was offended because no one in Boro Park has a clue about Shylock, The Merchant of Venice or Shakespeare, but they would and should have been offended if they had known.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Maybe he was collecting money for Mr. Rubashkin .

    just out of curiosity
    just out of curiosity
    13 years ago

    does anyone know which shul or resturant?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Isn’t shylock an anti semitic figure to show that jews are greedy?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    did he bid for an aliyah too?

    ban
    ban
    13 years ago

    The merchant of venice should be banned!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    he was in minkatch

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    i heard he grew payos for the role – is that true?

    HaNavon
    HaNavon
    13 years ago

    For anyone who has seen Al Pacino in Michael Radford’s 2004 rendition of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, it is clear that both he and the director of that great film tried very hard to show Jews in a positive light!
    This is one of the greatest pieces of literature of all time, and the 2004 film is certainly one of the best films of the past 20 years.
    To answer the question of several of the posters who haven’t seen it, Shylock is NOT a portrayal of the proverbial greedy Jew at all! Shylock is a Jew who has been attacked and degraded for so long that he cannot stand to allow the main character to just walk all over him. Pacino was absolutely excellent in this role, and I recommend everyone who has the spark of creativity and love of art to go see it.

    Anon
    Anon
    13 years ago

    Shylock was the only person prepared to make a loan without collateral to the goy. Non of the goys friends or associates were prepared to do so. Seen in this light Shylock was really a good man. Read between the lines or dont read at all!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    What’s going on raboisay? Right after kabolas hatorah were already busy with such shtusim, oi lonu meelbono shel torah………

    Michael Corleone
    Michael Corleone
    13 years ago

    “Everytime I try to get out, they pull me back in.” Godfather IV: “The Five Families of Boro Park.”

    frum but normal
    frum but normal
    13 years ago

    he should have felt very at home in the SHULL,because unfortunately the rest of the MISPALELIM there, were nothing but actors too.
    when we go to SHUL to pray,do we realy pray, or we make believe we pray?
    i would hazard to guess that 95% [including myself] are nothing but actors

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    What a Kidush Hashem.
    1) They didn’t reckognize an actor
    2) They invited a stranger for the seudah

    literature teacher
    literature teacher
    13 years ago

    Unfortunately, though Shakespeare was a truly great author, it is impossible to characterize this play as not anti-Semitic. There had been no Jews in England for hundreds of years when it was composed and there is no evidence Shakespeare ever left England. For him the Jew was a symbol not a human being. And he does not accord any favorable treatment to Shylock, though some have focused in recent decades on one particular speech Shylock makes as proof of sympathy for him by the author.

    Aharon BenTzvi
    Aharon BenTzvi
    13 years ago

    William Shakespeare, like most authors during the Medieval and Renaissance periods, portrayed Jewish people in a negative, greatly anti-semitic way . Jewish People were portrayed as evil., mostly for not accepting the Christian religion and also for economic jealousies. In much of Christian Europe, Jews were not allowed to own land, or be part of the feudal arrangement. So trade, light industry and money lending were the only economic venues open.
    Shakespeare reflected this antisemitism in this play. This character Shylock is an evil caricature of a Jew.. This play has been guilty of spreading antisemitic falsehoods for hundreds of years. In my opinion it should be boycotted and protested against. The evil nazis took used much of this literature, including the Shylock figure, in their propaganda.and utilized it during their reign of terror.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    i think i just found my first good reason to go to shul in boro park!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    My only exposure to The Merchant of Venice was through references in Marcus Lehman’s books (I forgot which one). And he certainly considered it anti-Semitic. I trust his educated opinion, not influenced by today’s revisionists who are trying to portray Shakespeare as a saint.

    However, it’s possible that they “Koshered” the play to make it more acceptable, but I personally would still have issues with that.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    he looks litvish

    Ivan
    Ivan
    13 years ago

    What an evil thing to do! Why not have positive portrayal of Jews in the theatre. Someone should give him a good beating for this disrespect along with his friend.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    The Lubavitcher referred to Shakespeare a s “a shikkereh Goy”. I would hope that most orthodox Jews would find someone a little more apropos to look up to than either Shakespeare or Pacino. Among Shakespeares other great lines are “Liver of blaspheming Jew” in the witches recipe in Hamlet. It can not be said that Shakespeare was a Jew lover. And BTW due to his wonderful writing “Shylocking” has become a verb in common English law and is the term for the most unreasonable (and illegal) interest rates.
    Portraying Shylock in a sympathetic fashion is a recent occurence.
    Jacob Adler and others report that the tradition of playing Shylock sympathetically began in the first half of the 19th century with Edmund Kean, and that previously the role had been played “by a comedian as a repulsive clown or, alternatively, as a monster of unrelieved evil.”
    -Wikipedia

    harry
    harry
    13 years ago

    The Merchant of Venice is a play about Christian hypocrisy not a greedy Jew. People believe Shylock was all about money, but count how many times the Christians in the play talk about money. Shylock tried to get back at Antonio, but count how many reasons Shakespeare gave Shylock for wanting to get back at him. The judge Portia is allegedly the hero of the play, but examine her character closely and see what a paskunyak she is. Look at the dry facts of The Merchant of Venice taking off the label of Jew/Christian and see how correct Shylock is and how wrong the Christians are. Shylock loves his family. Shylock works hard for a living. Shylock shows as much “baytzim” as almost any character in Shakespeare. Shylock talks Torah. Shylock talks against slavery 350 years before the slaves are freed in America. It’s only after a Christian take his daughter that Shylock snaps and decides to enforce the bond. Even though Antonio would spit in his beard and said he would continue to spit in his beard Shylock gave him an interest-free loan trying to make peace. Shakespeare was and in many cases still is ahead of his time. He was not an anti-Semite. He made the royal family of a country that had expelled its Jews in the 13th century listen to the speech “Hath a Jew not eyes …”

    Harry
    Harry
    13 years ago

    The anti-Semites win … but Shakespeare made a Jew human to those who understood … and the adademics write that what Shylock’s daughter Jessica and her Christian husband are talking about are doomed relationships when we see them after they’ve been together a while … He moved the conversation incrementally toward humanizing Jews … it’s also good to study the other play about Venice (Othello) for how it echos back on Shylock … the very first speech of Othello a Ventian Christian is talking about … money. if Shakespeare was an anti-Semite, with a few lines he could have made Iago a Jew and that would have been as damaging to Yidden as blood libles and passion plays. But he clearly makes Iago a Chrisitan by giving him two lines in his open speeches “S’blood” and “bless the mark (cross)” which makes him Christian. As with his 2004 film Al Pacino is bringing humanity to Shylock by making him “real” (not a clown, not a villain) and for that his performace should be cheered but even more so his performance should be watched.