Jake Ehrenreich is an accomplished musician, actor, writer, singer, and comedian. His performance in the Off-Broadway show “A Jew Grows in Brooklyn,” is based on his bestselling book of the same title. If Growing up Jewish in Brooklyn, the child of Holocaust survivors was not hard enough, Ehrenreich’s personal story includes; how his survivor parents suffered in a Siberian work camp and how he lost his mother and two sisters to Alzheimer’s. “I told this story to cope with my problems. I had to find a way of laughing or I would have gone out of my mind,” states Ehrenreich.” “It is comforting and reassuring to meet others who shared some of the same pain and make them see the humor.” Ehrenreich now 58, is sharing not only his pain but his love of a time gone by and the people who gave him life. Stories of the Borscht Belt era (“ The Catskills were how survivors learned to laugh again.”), his life as a performer, a rock n roll musician who lived life to excess, are highlighted with photographs of Jake’s bar mitzvah and dealing with disease. When Ehrenreich turned 19, his father shared his personal story on being a Holocaust survivor. Ehrenreich originally decided to share his father’s story and that evolved into creating “A Jew Grows In Brooklyn.” With the death of his sisters and his mother from Alzheimer’s, Jake knew that by writing and performing this story their lives would live on. “This is a gift of love to my family, to my son and to those who have lived with loved ones with early on-set Alzheimer’s. It is a heartbreaking disease to watch your loved ones fade from you, knowing you are ok.”
As a boy, Jake wanted nothing more than to fit in. The reality of being an American-born child of Holocaust survivors with thick European accents made him cringe, and he did everything he could to be a “Real American.” His expertise playing baseball, his good looks and musical talent gained him popularity, but not an identity that freed him from his family’s haunting past. Through life-changing experiences of sinking into drug abuse and conquering it, womanizing, watching his mother and two sisters’ decend into early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, to finding love, but it was having a child who will carry on his family name that Jake gain his sense of self. When he gains Jake gains his sense of self he then has to witness his beloved dad’s dealing with his courageous and losing battle with Parkinson’s disease. It was then that Jake began to appreciate and honor his family’s heritage as well as himself.
This book is a must read for anyone dealing with a loved one’s illness and needs to laugh, or go down memory lane. You don’t have to be Jewish or from Brooklyn to love this book or this show. Ehrenreich is funny, warm and he opens up his heart while sharing his life story, which brings joy out of the ashes of sorrow.
“A Jew Grows in Brooklyn”: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Theater: 120 West 46th Street (between 6th and 7th Ave) and on-line at Amazon or a book stores near you.
Posted by Suzanna Bowling
on July 14, 2012. Filed under Book Reviews,ENTERTAIMENT,FAMILY,Family,Theatre.
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