Jewish Post,Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 August 1989 — Page 20

LaRouche and the New American Racism

Reviewed by JACK FISCHEL Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism, Dennis King. Doubleday, 1989,415 pp., $19.95. Those concerned with the persistence of antiSemitism in America will find Dennis King's Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Racism a troublesome if not important book. Lyndon LaRouche and his National Caucus of Labor Committees propagate the libel that Jews are the great enemy of mankind and are behind the world-wide drug traffic along with the British royal family. LaRouche also states that Jews are preventing a cure for the AIDS epidemic in order to demoralize mankind and return civilization to a new dark age. As for the presence of a number of Jews in his organization LaRouche has been successful in convincing them that they are the real Jews, the modem day successors of those who followed Philo of Alexandria, the first century Jewish neo-Platonist. In contrast, there are "the Jews who are not Jews," a sub-species of humanity who have formed their own oligarchies or who have used surrogates, such as Great Britain, in order to attain their objective of world domination. For those Jews who follow LaRouche's fantasies, to be a real Jew requires one to repudiate the state of Israel and to do battle with the Oligarchies representatives. The LaRouche enemies list include the B'nai B'rith, the Lubavitch movement, the major Jewish organizations, Henry Kissin-

ger, and Judaism in general. In preaching his paranoid view of history, LaRouche has recruited an army of very bright, college educated, true believers who are committed to use any means to attain their leader's ends. LaRouche has predicted that ultimately, as the ancient enemy of the human race, the Jews will be crushed in a cataclysmic final struggle. Hehasalso predicted that he will one day take power in the United States and would then proceed to purge all Zionists in America and submit to brainwashing style pressure those who refuse to see or internalize the threat of Jews to humanity. In many ways, LaRouche's anti-Semitism parallels the pseudo-theology of the Identity-Christianity Movement and the Militant anti-Semites among the survivalist right. In fact, LaRouche's "final solution" for Jews mirrors the ultimate treatment of Jews as described in The Turner Diaries, the militants rights blueprint for race war in America. King shows that LaRouche's National Caucus of Labor Committees does have ties with Willis Carto, founder of the Liberty League, Robert Miles, a leader in the Identity Christian Church Movement and the Ku Klux Klan. Roy Frankhouser, an ex-Klan dragon, was a NCLC recruit before his recent conviction on fraud charges. However, unlike hate groups such as The Order and the Posse Comitatus, the LaRouche organiza-

tion has attempted to hide its anti-Semitic agenda and sought political respectability byattachingitself to the Reagan administration in defending its Star Wars program. By virtue of its extensive intelligence resources, the NCLC was able to provide important scientific data on beam defense to Reagan advisors as well as providing the CIA with information regarding political events in Europe and Latin Amer-

King is convincing when he argues that LaRouche has been underestimated by politicians and Jewish groups because the "LaRouchies" are perceived as "kooks." Nevertheless, no hate group in America is as well financed or as ideologically committed or has the international connections as do the LaRouchites. Despite LaRouche's conviction and sentence of five to 15 yeas for fraud and tax evasion, the organization remains committed to its leader and although LaRouche will not be eligible for parole until he is 71, his potential for mischief is far from over. In a period of our history where a David Duke can be elected to political office. King's book is a welcome reminder that hate groups continue to flourish. LaRouche may never attain his objective of becoming President, but his message of hate continues to be preached. One should read King's book in order to understand the potential danger of this would-be American dictator.

Jackie 01 Jackie Mason from Birth to Rebirth

Reviewed by RABBI SAMUEL SILVER Jackie O! Jackie Mason from Birth to Rebirth, Jackie Mason with Ken Gross. Utile, Brown and Company, New York, 290 pp., $16.95. In his yeshiva studies and in his three years as a reluctant rabbi, Jacob Maza learned about a Jewish notion called, in Ashkenazic Hebrew, techias hamaysim, i.e. the revival of the dead. This book might be titled 'Techias ha-Mason," for it recounts the several reincarnations of the comedian who worked his way up the greasepole to become a smash hit on Broadway. Poor Jimmy Carter was bom again only once. To Mason it happened at least t wice. First from rabbi to entertainer; second from being a second-rater to becoming the darling of the White Way, extolled by the royalty of Broadway and even by British royalty. Fittingly entitled From Birth to Rebirth, the gripping book is written in ingenious fashion. Sections in the third person by the biographer, Ken Gross, alternate with those in the first person by Mason. The book would make an absorbing movie. Indeed, each chapter could be cinematized, like the old cliff hangers, as we watch the frantic vicissitudes of a comic stigmatized as "too Jewish and too dirty" and who emerged as one of the "hottest tickets" in show business. Vividly narrated are life with a father who wanted Yanki to become a rabbi as he and his brothers were, as well as his ancestors for 11 generations. Then there are scenes of his gravitation to the Borscht Belt and his stint on the pulpit, terminated when a beautiful girl walked into the shul while he was preaching, which led to a remark which broke up the congregation and his rabbinical career. In sequence we get our hero's rise as a stand-up comic; the brusque plunge into disgrace after the famous finger episode on the Ed Sullivan Show; his 20 August 16,1989 Page National 16

years' gyrations from Hollywood to Miami to Las Vegas to Atlantic Qty in his comeback effort; his involvement with his brothers and relatives, beneficiaries of his largesse and fumbling collaborators in his endeavors; his frantic efforts to produce movies as stepping stones to his revival, movies that turned out to be flops that had to be aborted; and his link with a gal Friday named Jyll Levenson, who dreamed up the title of his monologue, "The World According to Me," which skyrocketed him to the top of his business. The book contains Jackie's words and warts. Recorded are some of the witty comments that have made him an ethnographic artist. His kiss-off of Reagan, for example, is a classic: "Other presidents were always going crazy because they couldn't figure out the solution. This man doesn't know there's a problem. Problems are not his field. Ha! Ha! Ha! This is the happiest president we ever had!" His jab is one of the most effective critiques ever leveled at the jellybean president. Mason's words are indeed here, the way he dialogued with show business people as he went from rogues to rishus in his desperate effort to prove he was really a star. And lus warts are also on display. In a later

edition of the book he'd be well advised to omit the story of the pummelling his father inflicted on him when he was an 11-year-old rebel against studying for the rabbinate. Also disclosed is his lechery; he's

as satyric as he is satirical.

In his spectacular rise to the top, two discoveries took place. The world learned that a comedian can emphasize his Jewishness and still be popular. Thousands of people enjoy his laugh-filled offerings, and his routines have been VCR'd and taped a myriad of times. And Jackie Mason made a discovery, too. He learned you don't have to be smutty to get laughs. His current shtick is quite sanitized. Biographer Gross deftly describes the comic's transformation: "Something wonderful happened. Jackie was no longer telling jokes and getting laughs — he could always do that. The character began to appear. A shape began to emerge. He stopped being Jacob Maza, half rabbi, half clown, and became

Jackie Mason, that sallow, sing-song, irreverent soul who eavesdropped on all of our conceits, then performed comic arias on ou*- vanity." Mazal to v, Jackie. Even as you mimic Ed Sullivan and poke fun at our foibles, you may be working your way to another metamorphosis: from rabbi to

comedian... to mensch.

Black-Woman-Jew Reviewed by PROFESSOR ZEV GARBER Black - Woman - Jew: Three Wars for Human Liberation, A. Roy Eckardt. Indiana University Press,

Indiana, 1989,229 pp., $35, cloth.

A. Roy Eckardt. professor emeritus of religious studies at Lehigh University and author of many books, including Jews and Christians and For Righteousness Sake, has written an important study on

liberation movements and theology, with special emphasis on three types of oppressedness—racism (Blacks), sexism (women), and anti-Semitism (Jews). Helpful summarizing highlights interspersed in each chapter allow the reader to locate

astounding facts.

In the case of the Blacks, for example: Joblessness

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