MOTHERS DAY – YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE JEWISH, BUT IT WOULDN’T HURT!

To prepare for Mothers Day, I cranked up the old Victrola and listened to “My Yiddishe Momma.”  Well, actually it was a Neil Sedaka CD, but it could have been any version of this oft recorded sentimental ode to Jewish Motherhood. Recordings run the gamut from the Yiddish version by Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, to Sophie Tucker, Connie Francis and Tom Jones in English. From Charles Aznavour, in French to Ray Charles on “The Nanny.”  Here is one verse, from the English version: 

How few were her pleasures
She never cared for fashion styles
Her jewels and her treasures
She found them in her baby's smiles
Oh I know that I owe what I am today
To that dear little lady who's gone away
To that wonderful Yiddishe momme
momme, momme of mine

Trust me, this is tame compared to the Yiddish version that talks about her going through “fire and water” for her children.

Jewish mothers have gotten a bum wrap thanks to Jewish-American books, plays and movies written by, you guessed it, Jews with mothers. It is a uniquely American sentiment… it didn’t exist in “the old country” where survival often depended on that strong woman’s intellect and tenacity. 

It is my sincere hope that the era of Jewish Mother bashing is coming to a close and that the Jewish Mother stereotype, along with that of the Jewish Princess and Domineering Jewish Wife can finally be put to rest.  It is interesting to note that the word “stereotype” had its beginning in the world of printing.  It was a process developed in France that enabled printers to create a plate that could be used to get the exact same image over and over again. It is also where we get the word cliché, which was the sound the machine made as the paper went through. Our modern stereotypes are just as inflexible

In 2013, six out of twelve Nobel laureates were Jewish. Since the prize was first awarded in 1901 approximately 193 of 855 honors (22%) have been Jewish.  Note: Jews currently make up less than 0.2% of the global population.  What did they all have in common? A high I.Q. no doubt, and Jewish mothers!

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a Jewish mother.  Her mom scrimped and saved and searched for bargains to put money away for Ruth’s education. Her mom died during Ruth’s senior year of high school, but not before her mom had inculcated her with an amazing value system.

Pianist and conductor Leonard Bernstein had a Jewish mother.  She put her foot down and told little Lenny that he couldn’t play baseball with the other kids because he might hurt his hands.  Good call Mrs. Bernstein.

Violinist Yitzhak Perlman’s mother might be called a ‘helicopter mom’ today.  She “hovered over” her son while he recovered from childhood polio, and insisted in raising him so that he did not feel “handicapped” even though he could only walk with crutches. When he won a chance to play on the Ed Sullivan show at age 13, she came with him from their home in Israel. They were poor and his mother couldn’t speak English.  They lived on sardines in New York… but Itzhak got a scholarship to Julliard, and things worked out nicely.

I might go on and on about Jewish Mothers in anticipation of Mothers Day, but for an amazing sound bite this week.  You might have heard part of it on the radio, or on TV, or have seen it on the Internet.  It is a moving tribute to one man’s love and respect for his mother, and speaks to the universal theme of maternal self-sacrifice. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house, or in the newsroom or on the Internet when NBA player Kevin Durant, the 25-year-old Oklahoma City Thunder power forward, received his first Most Valuable Player Award.  After thanking each and every person who had made his success possible, he turned to thank his mother with these words:

 “You kept us off the street; put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You're the real MVP."

He sobbed as he spoke.  Kevin makes over $30 million a year, and the MVP award might have gone to his head.  But instead, this very fine young man had prefaced his words by saying to those around him,

 "When something good happens to you, I don't know about you guys, but I tend to look back to what brought me here. (to his mom) You woke me up in the middle of the night in the summer times, making me run up a hill, making me do push-ups, screaming at me from the sidelines at my games at 8 or 9 years old. “

Kevin’s heartfelt tribute to his mother, Wanda Pratt, went way past the biblical commandment to honor and respect one’s mother. As for Wanda Pratt, she certainly sounds like a self-sacrificing mother who would have done anything to build her child’s self esteem and help her child succeed. Oy, such a Jewish Mother! 

This Mothers Day, we acknowledge all our moms, and those “mom figures” in our lives that have taken over the role at various moments. Motherhood. It’s a difficult job, but someone’s gotta do it!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Rose