A loving tribute
to his heritage

By Rita Charleston
For the Times

Who would have thought that a story about Jake Ehrenreich growing up as a Jew in Brooklyn would interest anyone?
Obviously, everyone who has seen his one-man show, A Jew Grows in Brooklyn, first in New York and now as it’s being staged in Philadelphia at the Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St., through Dec. 2.
Ehrenreich is no newcomer to theater, having performed on Broadway in productions like Dancin’, Barnum and They’re Playing Our Song. He also is noted for creating the role of Jonah in Jonah for Joseph Papp, and has performed in Off-Broadway productions like Songs of Paradise and The Golden Land.
"It’s funny," said the 51-year-old Ehrenreich. "I’ve done a lot of different things in my life but I consider myself mostly a musician. I’ve done a lot of shows, and a lot of tours, but none of it was part of my plan. When I was a kid, I did work in the Catskills and watched lots of the old comedians, but I was just a kid playing the drums. So all that’s happened to me just sort of happened."
When Ehrenreich was growing up in Brooklyn, he wanted nothing more than to be a "real" American. But his Yiddish-speaking parents — who survived the Holocaust in work camps in Soviet Siberia before coming to America — failed to understand the game of baseball or make sense of rock music. This made it difficult for a young boy to feel part of the mainstream culture.
But eventually, Ehrenreich learned to revere his parents, and even learned to speak Yiddish, something that came in handy when he played the Catskills and certainly today, as he wrote and now performs in his one-man show.
He remembered that "twenty years or so ago I did a show for the National Yiddish Theater. At the time, I realized it was my parents’ story I was telling, a traditional story of immigration to America. That, and the fact that I do speak Yiddish because of them, put in my brain that one day I would like to continue that story because my parents and all the others who came to this country eventually had children."
"People like me were born here. What happened to them?" he asked. "I am not alone, and the life I’ve lived not only happened to me, the son of survivors. I thought it would be an interesting story to tell at the time, but it took until now for me to get around to doing it."
A Jew Grows In Brooklyn is largely autobiographical. The incidents that are portrayed are sometimes painful, sometimes hysterical. Ehrenreich tells us about his family and narrates stories about what they all went through — their fortunes and misfortunes. This is a show that pays homage to his childhood and his Jewish heritage. And even if you’re not Jewish, he insisted, you will feel the meaning and enjoy the show.
"I have learned that the world is the same for most of us. I tell a lot of jokes, kid around, play music, but for the most part my story is a straightforward story that I think all people, from the age of forty up, will get. But I’ve also seen groups of teens come to the show. In fact, one teen boy came up to be after one show and told me he thought it was just great!" Ehrenreich said.
He also interacts with his audience, sharing photos of his growing-up years, exuding nostalgia at every turn. "For me," he said, "the best part of doing this show is seeing the smiles on people’s faces. And mostly I love doing it because I can see how deeply the audience is affected by my show." ••
For ticket information, call 215-279-8460.