One Passover in Vancouver
by Eliezer Segal
Like so many historical milestones, differences have arisen regarding the precise details of this encounter. Everyone remembers that it occurred on Passover, but they disagree about the date. She places it in 1922, when Passover began on Wednesday evening, and the meal in question occurred on Friday evening. He, on the other hand, recalled it as happening in 1921 when the first day of Passover fell on Shabbat.
Both versions concur that Esther and David Marks (originally: Marcowitz) of Vancouver were observing their normal custom of inviting visiting entertainers for a splendid Friday night meal.
The Markses were a wealthy and socially prominent couple, active in the general and Jewish communities. They had a special affection for theatrical performers. Those were the days of vaudeville, entertainers who would travel through circuits of theatres throughout North America. In Vancouver the most active venue for these shows was the old Orpheum, and many rising stars passed through it during that period.
That year one of the acts that was appearing at the Orpheum was the Marx Brothers. The Markses (not related to the Marxes) extended an invitation to the comedians, but in the end the only brother to show up for that Passover meal was not one of the notorious zany characters, but their straight man, Herbert Manfred Marx, known in their stage act as “Zeppo.”
Zeppo arrived at the Marks house in the company of another performer, a frequent roomie of his, a comedian named Benjamin Kubelsky from Waukegan, Illinois. Zeppo persuaded the shy Benjamin to attend, assuring him that “he knew some fascinating Vancouver girls and it would be wild, with Canadian ale, Canadian rye, Canadian women and Canadian whoopee.” Benjamin protested that the prospect held no attraction for him, but he consented to be dragged along nonetheless—only to discover that this was no rowdy fling, but a wholesome Jewish Shabbat meal (or seder, depending on which version we accept).
The nearest thing they encountered there to the wild Canadian women promised by Zeppo were the Markses’ two teenage daughters, Ethel (“Babe”) and Sadie, about nineteen and seventeen respectively. (The precise ages vary in the telling). Sadie tried to impress the guests by dressing above her age and playing violin, but her efforts were not well received.
Kubelski was clearly bored, and he whispered audibly to Zeppo, “What did you bring me to meet these kids for? Let’s get out of here!” This did not help ingratiate him in Sadie’s estimation. Afterwards, she and some classmates attended some of Benjamin’s performances in order to heckle.
A few years later the Marks family had moved to Los Angeles where Sadie was employed at the May Company department store. Kubelsky, now known by his stage name of Jack Benny, was performing in that city and befriended Sadie’s older sister. Their acquaintance was renewed and went through many ups and downs, until they were married in a small Jewish wedding ceremony in Waukegan, attended only by immediate family, on Friday afternoon, January 14, 1927. He was unaware that this was the same silly teenage girl whom he had ignored at that Passover meal in Vancouver.
Neither Jack nor Sadie—who adopted the professional name Mary Livingstone—was particularly outspoken about their Judaism. Both of them identified their parents as “strictly Orthodox,” whereas their adopted daughter Joan recalled that her grandparents “weren’t particularly religious,” though they lit Shabbat candles and were at home in Yiddish culture. I suspect that the discrepancy reflects differing expectations and stereotypes of what Orthodox Jews should be like.
Although it has been suggested that Jack Benny was uncomfortable with his Jewish identity, the reasons underlying this perception are not quite convincing.
His proverbial miserliness has been criticized as the exploitation of an antisemitic trope, but it blends with a bundle of other personality flaws, especially his vanity, that somehow make him come across as endearing.
The fact that he and Mary relinquished their original Jewish names apparently stemmed (at least initially) from other motives. While still rising in the showbiz ranks Jack was pressured by performers with similar names (Jan Kubelik and Ben Bernie) to maintain a clear differentiation from them. Sadie took the name of “Mary Livingstone” when she was hired to replace an actress who was already playing a character of that name. In any case, there was no shame in having a Jewish name in a profession that was dominated by borscht-belt stars like Jolsen, Jessel and Cantor. Even gentiles like Bing Crosby were constantly throwing in Yiddish expressions. In a scratchy recording of a rehearsal of his radio show it is possible to hear Jack sharing crude Yiddish insults with his producer Hilliard Marks (Mary’s brother) about one of the crew members.
Jack’s ensemble often included a parody of a thickly accented Yiddish immigrant, a carryover from an old vaudeville convention now known as “Jewface,” which had undeniable antisemitic overtones. And yet Benny’s exemplifications of this stereotype—the pushy Shlepperman and the whimsical Mr. Kitzel—were both depicted affectionately.
I don’t think any Jewish religious traditions were ever mentioned on the show except in the occasional Mr. Kitzel sketch. Jack did devote shows every year to Christmas and Easter, but without any religious content. The Christmas shows were about shopping for gifts, with Jack driving the store clerk crazy with his indecisiveness; and Easter was limited to the parade or egg-hunt.
His well-known generosity (the real Jack Benny was the opposite of his tightfisted stage persona) extended to Jewish and Zionist causes.
If the crucial Passover meal in Vancouver was actually a seder, then it presumably included the recitation of “Next year in Jerusalem!” Jack would fulfil that prayer, including a visit to the Western Wall, in September 1943 as part of an entertainment tour for the United States armed forces. He again performed in the Jewish state in 1972, two years before his death.
First publication:
- The Alberta Jewish News, March 28 2025, p, 35.
For further reading:
- Benny, Jack, and Joan Benny. Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story. New York: Warner Books, 1990.
- Fein, Irving. Jack Benny: An Intimate Biography. New York: Putnam, 1976.
- Fuller-Seeley, Kathryn. Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017.
- Josefsberg, Milt. The Jack Benny Show. New Rochelle, N.Y: Arlington House, 1977.
- Mintz, Lawrence E. “Humor and Ethnic Stereotypes in Vaudeville and Burlesque.” MELUS 21, no. 4 (Winter 1996): 19.
- Pearse, Holly A. “As Goyish as Lime Jell-O? Jack Benny and the American Construction of Jewishness.” In Jewishness: Expression, Identity and Representation, edited by Simon J. Bronner, 272–90. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2008.
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