A lifetime ago when I was in middle school (back then known quaintly as “junior high”), I had a classmate I used to schmooze with when we were getting antsy and bored. My classmate lived in Reisterstown and wasn’t Jewish, but for some reason he asked me a lot of questions about Judaism.
One day while chatting — probably much to the annoyance of our teacher — my pal mentioned that he worked on weekends as a gravedigger at a local Jewish cemetery. Almost proudly, he informed me he was the individual who dug the final resting place for Cass Elliot, of The Mamas & The Papas fame.
I knew from showbiz-minded family members that “Mama Cass” — whose real name was Ellen Naomi Cohen — was Jewish and from Baltimore, but I had no idea she was buried in this area.
For years, when indulging in the pastime of irrelevant trivia, I told folks that in my youth I knew someone who interred the songstress, who died in 1974 at age 32.
Decades later, however, I met a fellow music nerd who told me he was quite certain Elliot was actually buried in Los Angeles.
I conducted a little amateur sleuthing and found out he was right. Obviously, I was the victim of good, old-fashioned adolescent mischief.
I can’t fathom why this kid fibbed about this matter — perhaps he was simply mistaken? — but the episode reminded me you always double- and triple-check sources.
Nowadays, we’re living in a time when anyone can say or post any wild rumor or harebrained innuendo, and it takes on a life of its own. As I write this column only hours after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, all kinds of crazy ideas and speculation are flying around, from both the left and right. Naturally, some of it suggests that Jews or Israel were somehow behind the senseless murder of this man who was for the most part considered a good friend of the Jewish people.
This kind of thing has been going on now for decades, and I still remember when a close friend told me shortly after 9/11 that the American president orchestrated that tragedy. I didn’t believe it then or now, no more than I believe people who tell me that Benjamin Netayahu was behind the Oct. 7th attacks.
Of course, the advent of social media has hyper-accelerated this penchant for embracing conspiracy theories and rumors without any serious investigation into the veracity of such claims. But with in-depth journalism and scholarship on life-support today in our 24/7 news cycle, we’re increasingly seeing a culture amenable to accepting outlandish narrishkeit as gospel, whether you’re “blue,” “red” or whatever.
It’s leading us down a very dangerous road, one with plenty of ominous historical precedents. It’s simply too easy to blame one side or the other, or to look for skeletons in closets and sinister “puppet-masters.”
We all know it benefits our leadership, of all stripes, to conduct whispering campaigns and divide us. Obviously, we have our differences but that shouldn’t lead to demonization, hatred or violence. We must be better than that.
One last thing about the late, great Cass Elliot. Over the decades, an urban myth endured that she died while choking on a ham sandwich. Whether such a rumor was conceived because of her weight or being Jewish, I’m not certain. In reality, she died in her sleep of a heart attack.
Don’t believe everything you read or hear because, as Gershwin famously wrote, “It ain’t necessarily so.”
Sincerely,
Alan Feiler, Editor-in-Chief
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