Frank Sinatra and Israel Yom Ha’atzmaut 77
- liobjca
- 13 minutes ago
- 6 min read
By Zanna Linskaia
Frank Sinatra, an outstanding singer and actor, is well known all over the world for his performances, movies, personal love life, and connections to the Kennedy clan. But his dedication to the Jewish state is rarely mentioned. He grew up to become synonymous with the so-called Great American Songbook that was written in large numbers by Jewish-Americans, including immigrants and children of immigrants. Jewish people recognize and appreciate this great man not only for his talent but for his lifelong strong support for Jewish causes in the USA and Israel.
His personal relations with Jews began in his childhood. His neighbor, Mrs. Golden, often babysat him and spoke to him in Yiddish. Soon Frank knew Yiddish better than Italian, his mother tongue. For many years, Sinatra kept a mezuzah, a gift that Mrs. Golden had given him. He loved his nanny so much that after he became famous, he presented her with Israeli bonds in the amount of $250,000.
Throughout his life, Sinatra despised racial prejudice and was very quick to stop it. Once, he heard a reporter call someone a "Jew bastard" at a party and punched the speaker. When Sinatra heard that a golf club restricted Jews from being members, he canceled his own membership.
In 1942, when the first reports of Nazi brutality against Jews reached the United States, Sinatra ordered hundreds of medallions struck with an image of the Star of David on one side and Saint Christopher on the other side and had them delivered to U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe, as well as friends, business associates, and policemen who had provided security at his concerts.
In 1943, he joined the national tour of "We Will Never Die", a four-month, six-city dramatic pageant to focus public attention on the Holocaust. In 1945, Sinatra starred in The House I Live In, a ten-minute short film about anti-Semitism and religious freedom that won an Honorary Academy Award and was added to the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress in 2007.
Like many of his friends, Sinatra supported the establishment of the State of Israel. In September 1947, when the UN was weighing ratification of its plan, which would create a Jewish state, Sinatra performed at the Hollywood Bowl in an event that drew 20,000 supporters.
Frank Sinatra watching an IDF parade during a visit to Israel in 1962 (credit: MEITAR COLLECTION/PRITZKER FAMILY NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION/NLI. COLORIZATION: MYHERITAGE)
Sinatra was personally involved in a dangerous operation in New York in March 1948 on behalf of the Haganah, Israel's pre-state paramilitary organization. The Haganah had established a base in New York to smuggle arms to Palestine over a U.S. embargo. The Haganah was headquartered in the Hotel 14, located on the same premises as the Copacabana nightclub, and was under permanent surveillance by Federal agents. Haganah representative Teddy Kollek saw Sinatra at the Copacabana bar and enlisted his help for an undercover operation. Later, Kollek, who became mayor of Jerusalem, wrote in The Jerusalem Post:
"I had an Irish ship captain sitting in the port of New York with a ship full of munitions destined for Israel. He had phony bills of lading and was to take the shipment outside the three-mile limit and transfer it onto another ship. But a large sum of money had to be handed over, and I didn't know how to get it to him. If I walked out the door carrying the cash, the Feds would see me and confiscate the munitions."
"I went downstairs to the bar and Sinatra came over, and we were talking. I don't know what came over me, but I told him what I was doing in the United States and what my dilemma was. And in the early hours of the following morning, I walked out the front door of the building with a satchel, and the Feds followed me. Out the back door went Frank Sinatra, carrying a paper bag filled with cash (estimated at $1 million). He went down to the pier, handed it over, and watched the ship sail."
Sinatra told his daughter Nancy: "It was the beginning of a young nation. I wanted to help; I was afraid they might fall down." According to his biographer, Sinatra "believed Zionism was a righteous cause."
In 1962, Sinatra visited Israel for the first time as part of his multinational World Tour for
Children. The tour, which raised over $1 million for children's charities around the globe, had stops in Japan, Hong Kong, England, France, Italy, Greece, and Israel. In Israel, Sinatra gave seven concerts in six cities, and the entire profit from these concerts went toward building a youth center there.
His visit coincided with the country's annual Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations. Sinatra sang at the official Independence Day event in Tel Aviv and was seated beside Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and General Moshe Dayan on the reviewing stand during the Israel Defense Forces parade. He also performed for troops at the Tel Nof Airbase and delivered a speech in Jerusalem "urging people all over the world to support Israel." A 30-minute short film, Sinatra in Israel, was later released with highlights of the visit.
In 1975, Sinatra performed at the Jerusalem Convention Center; later, this concert was released in his album The Jerusalem Concert.
In 1995, Sinatra marked his 80th birthday with various celebrations, including a trip to Israel
on his private plane with close friends. During his 1962 concert tour in Nazareth, Sinatra purchased a lot near Mary's Well for the establishment of an intercultural youth center for Arab and Israeli children. He donated the $50,000 profit from his Israeli concerts to the project. He returned to Israel in 1964 to attend the dedication of the Frank Sinatra Brotherhood and Friendship Center for Arab and Israeli Children.
Returning to Israel in 1965 to film a cameo role in Cast a Giant Shadow, he gave his entire $50,000 salary from the film to the center. In 1967, he made another $100,000 contribution to the Center. In 1976, a Hollywood banquet honoring Sinatra, hosted by the American Friends of Hebrew University, raised $1 million toward the construction of a student center on the university's Mount Scopus campus. In 1978, the university named the Frank Sinatra International Student Center in his honor. On July 31, 2002, the center's cafeteria was the site of a terrorist bombing by Hamas. Nine were killed, and nearly 100 were injured.
In the wake of the Six-Day War in June 1967, he and other Hollywood entertainers fundraised a total of $2.5 million for Israel at a cocktail party hosted by Jack L. Warner. In 1972, Sinatra raised $6.5 million in bond pledges for Israel, and in 1975, announced he was personally giving $250,000 to Israel Bonds. He raised significant money for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that netted $1 million for a new student center.
Sinatra admired Simon Wiesenthal, telling the Nazi hunter that "he had been his hero for many years.” When he found out that the Simon Wiesenthal Center was trying to produce the documentary Genocide, Sinatra told them, "Although I'm not Jewish, the Holocaust is important to me," and offered $100,000 to the project. He also became a member of the Center's Board of Trustees. In ensuing months, Sinatra made four appearances on behalf of the Center, bringing in $400,000 in funding for the film, which won the 1981 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
In 1986, Sinatra and his wife Barbara opened the second center for helping abused children, and in 2018, at a Sotheby's auction in NY, his personal items were sold for $9.2 million dollars. All the money from this sale, according to Sinatra’s will, was sent to children's centers in Israel.
Citing the singer's support of Israel, the Arab League's Israeli Boycott Bureau in Cairo issued a ban on Sinatra's recordings and films with the note that they were banned for "Zionist tendencies." But despite the ban, the records and films of Frank Sinatra had the opposite effect and were popular in Middle Eastern countries, often obtained illegally.
On May 14, 1998, the legendary singer, actor, and show-business icon Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack in Los Angeles at the age of 82. He became the first superstar with an entertainment career spanning more than five decades. However, Israel and Jews all over the world have never forgotten not only his talent but the generosity and sincere love that Frank Sinatra had for the Jewish State.
Sinatra received many awards from Jewish groups and organizations. In the coming days of Israeli Yom Ha’atzmaut - 77, marking 27 years since his passing, we honor and remember this great man - Frank Sinatra.
Comments