Carl then recounts, "When I was 13 years old I had some close friends in a Zionist youth group called Betar. They wore uniforms and kept talking about a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan. I didn't care about that. I just wanted to be with Shloime and Moishe."
Source
P.S. Okay, who was his madrich?
UPDATE
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Both Marty Marden and Seymore Rosenberg, z'l, knew Carl Reiner when he was in Betar in the Bronx ken. They often talked about him. I think he must have been older than 13, which would have been 1933 if he is now 86. I would guess that it was later in the 1930's.
Ray Kaplan
Glad to hear that at least Mr. Reiner remembered what he learned in Betar, despite claiming total disinterest.
ReplyDeleteHe has died, June 30, 2020
ReplyDeletehttps://www.jta.org/2020/06/30/obituaries/carl-reiner-comedy-legend-and-consummate-old-jew-telling-jokes-dies-at-98?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-20856-25774
Now that you've all jarred my memory, I also heard this in Betar of the 1950s.
ReplyDeleteHowever much he subsequently might have been estranged from Betar ideologically, he turned out to be a Proud Jew
Last Post is from Sgan Natziv Aaron Bashani Braunstein, 1953-58.
ReplyDeleteThere are other really world-famous former Betarim besides the obvious like Misha Arens, etc. I'm sure one of them is Abe Foxmzan.
Did Kissinger ever attend one Moadon meeting? Now that really would be a Betar urban legend.