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Jewish World Review March 3, 199 / 15 Adar, 5759
I REALLY WISH I HAD DONE what my guts told me to do.
What I wanted to do, but didn’t.
What I didn’t do for all kinds of reasons. Reasons that seem so lame, so stupid now.
It was a couple of months ago and I was attending a screening of "The Prince of Egypt," the animated film that tells the story of Moses and the Exodus.
The screening was at a big beautiful downtown theater, which was empty except for the 30 or so journalists who had been invited to watch the movie so they could go back to their respective publications and write about the movie.
And so there I sat, waiting for the movie to begin. Just before it did, in walked someone whose face I knew well.
Gene Siskel.
For whatever reason, he sat in the row directly in back of me. Sat in the seat one to the right of me.
I must admit I was both thrilled and intimidated. Thrilled to see someone famous, for famous people fascinate me for all kinds of reasons. Being famous, dealing with fame, being recognized by everyone you pass is a unique challenge and way to live and I am particularly curious as to how those who have fame, who live with fame, handle it.
Over the years, I’ve interviewed many famous people. And have come to the conclusion that those who handle fame well, who are gracious about it and manage to be human beings with it, are truly special people. Too many allow it to make them obnoxious, rude, act as if they are entitled to be whatever just because they happen to do one thing better than the rest of us.
And so I was thrilled to be in the presence of a famous person because it would give me the opportunity to observe.
I was thrilled, too, because, hey, let’s face it, every once in awhile I wonder where I’d be in the media world if I hadn’t decided to spend my life in Jewish journalism. Sometimes, I wonder if I’ve done the right thing, if it’s all worth it and so sometimes I need the little pick-me-up to see that I’ve been invited to the same thing as Gene Siskel.
I was intimidated because I had been invited to the same thing as Gene Siskel. And not just the same thing. To a movie.
Little old me pretending I was a movie critic while Gene Siskel was sitting there, a real movie critic.
And a Jewish one. And we were there for a Jewish movie. Which made the intimidation factor even greater.
Several years ago, I was at another screening of another Jewish movie, "A Stranger Among Us." And just before it began, in walked none other than Roger Ebert. While I was fascinated by that, too, I wasn’t as intimidated in the same way, because since it was a Jewish movie, I figured maybe my Jewish knowledge and sensitivities might give me at least some advantage while up against Ebert’s superior movie criticism skills.
But with Siskel, I knew I knew nothing more than he did. Obviously, his knowledge of movies and how to assess them was far, far beyond me. And his Jewishness meant he’d bring whatever I’d bring to a review of "The Prince of Egypt."
And so there I sat, watching the movie, but in truth also very tuned in to what Siskel was doing. I listened for any comment he made to the person sitting with him, watched if he took notes, and when, noticed at what points he had some popcorn.
After the movie was over and the lights went on, he turned to the person with him and joked that the credits should have included the line, "no prophets were harmed in the making of this picture."
And then he sort of sat. And it was then that I wanted to do what I didn’t do.
I wanted to say hi, introduce myself, make a connection. I know he had noticed me because I was not only in the row in front of him and I not only am not a small person, but I had a yarmulke on my head.
I think he would have been receptive. I thought that then because he was so beautifully out there about his Jewishness, so comfortable with his Jewishness, so proud of his Jewishness. I think that even more now because, in the wake of his death, I’ve learned what a wonderful person he was by listening to those who knew him best.
But a combination of things stopped me. I didn’t want to bother him, knowing that so many bother those who are famous. He also frankly didn’t look real strong, he seemed to be moving very slowly and I didn’t want to tax him. Also, journalists like to be cool and I wanted to be cool, not appear to be star struck.
That was very foolish. For I was star struck about Gene Siskel because of what he had accomplished as a journalist. But far more because of what kind of a Jew he was.
He was, to my mind, a wonderful Jew, a special Jew because he was someone with tremendous fame and yet someone who publicly and proudly proclaimed his roots.
I still remember being amazed a few months back when on his TV show, in the course of reviewing a movie with a Jewish theme, he referred to himself on national television as "an Orthodox Jew."
I was stunned, not only because I didn’t know he thought of himself that way but more because he told the world he thought of himself in that way.
That takes guts. He didn’t have to do it, would, no doubt, turn some off for doing it. But he did it. He was Jewish and was glad for the world to know it.
Indeed, when he made his first trip to Israel, it was as part of a group from a Chicago Jewish school. He didn’t hide behind the pretext of a journalist’s junket or some movie fact-finding visit.
He went as a Jewish parent associated with a Jewish school to visit the Jewish state. That tells you a lot about Gene Siskel.
As does what happened when our Israel correspondent, Golda Shira, approached him. She just happened to be in the lobby of the hotel Siskel’s group was staying at. She, of course, immediately recognized Siskel. And unlike me and my mistake of not saying hi, she went up to him and introduced herself as being from the Chicago Jewish News.
She said a smile crossed his face and he said he was familiar with the paper. They then schmoozed a few minutes and she said she’d like to interview him about his impressions of Israel after his visit was over. He said he would love to and told her how best to get in touch with him.
That, too, tells you a lot about Gene Siskel, the man, the mentsh, the Jew.
He could not have been nicer, Golda Shira says, was warm, friendly, readily agreed to do the interview. Anyone who knows famous people, who knows famous journalists, knows how rare and inspiring Siskel’s behavior was.
Golda Shira never did that interview because she figured she had time to get around to it.
But that was not to be. As was Siskel posing for the cover of our annual Guide. He had graciously agreed to do so last year. But the morning we were scheduled to take his photo, turned out to be the morning he was rushed to the hospital for a brain operation.
The loss of Gene Siskel is one that should be felt not only by movie lovers but especially by Jews because he truly was a special Jew, one who not only participated in many ways in the Jewish community, but was glad to do so, wanted to do so.
He was someone famous and rich and powerful but someone, most of all, dedicated to Judaism. He married a Jewish woman, sent his kids to a Jewish school, took part in Jewish events and activities. He was someone very much in the public eye who didn’t hide his Jewishness, didn’t make fun of his Jewishness, didn’t run from his Jewishness but was so proud of being Jewish and said so and showed so publicly.
That is a rare and wonderful thing, an example to all Jews that you can be all you can be, be fully part of society and yet be very much part of the Jewish community, be very Jewish.
Gene Siskel always had his priorities straight, always was someone who, even with all he achieved, made Judaism an important part of his life, including his public life.
I blew my chance to say hello to him a few months ago. And so I at least wanted to say good-bye.
And thank
03/03/99: One thumb --- way up
One thumb --- way up
By Joseph Aaron
Though the whole theater basically was open to me, I took a seat where I always take a seat whenever I go to the movies. Almost at the back, a little to the left of center.
Siskel 
To review a movie, while sitting just one row in front of one of America’s most powerful, most listened to, most respected movie critics.
JWR contributor Joseph Aaron is Editor of
The Chicago Jewish News.
1/12/99: Thank G-d!
12/31/98: Judaism, Inc.
11/19/98: My kind of folks
