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The actress Cicely Tyson, who died on Jan. 28 at age 96, was justly celebrated for her roles honoring African-American experiences in “Sounder” (1972), “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974), and “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” (1994), among others. But less has been said about her early work with stellar Jewish performers, and how that may have impacted her fight for civil rights. Tyson was born in Harlem to parents originally from Nevis in the West Indies, where traces of a venerable community of Sephardic Jewish origin are still visible. The film was directed by Daniel Mann (born Daniel Chugerman), with a screenplay adapted from a novel by Gerald Green (born Greenberg). Green would later write the teleplay for “Holocaust,” the 1978 TV miniseries. ....
Frank Sinatra was arguably the most famous Italian-American Catholic of the 20th century. The skinny kid from Hoboken, N.J. who was born 105 years ago, Dec. 12, 1915 grew up to become synonymous with the so-called Great American Songbook. That songbook, however, was largely written by Jewish-Americans, including immigrants and children of immigrants. And while the songwriters for the most part expressly tried to leave behind the accents and inflections of the Yiddish-speaking world from whence they came, the songs nonetheless often betrayed the influence of Jewish Eastern Europe in outlook and emotional temperament. Sinatra, as it turned out, just happened to become the greatest interpreter of that body of work. ....