L ifestyle /C ulture
Comedian Jackie Hoffman Is Ready for This to End
T H EATER
ANDY GOTLIEB | JE MANAGING EDITOR
JACKIE HOFFMAN’S used
to being onstage or in front of
the camera, so this pandemic
thing isn’t sitting well with her.

“I’m just sitting shiva for
the loss of live theater,” the
Queens-born comedian and
singer said, adding that she’s
passed some of the time with
voice work or on TV shows
that shoot in New York.

She’ll pass a little more
time with the Bucks County
Playhouse on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.,
when she appears in “Word of
Mouth: Fast Forward.” Hosted
by NPR’s Ophira Eisenberg
and the Playhouse’s Michaela
Murphy, the streaming program
will showcase monologues by
Hoffman, model Eric Rutherford
and Eric Woodall, resident
director of the Broadway touring
and Las Vegas productions of
“Mamma Mia!”
Hoffman, 60, will talk about
being nominated for an Emmy
for Outstanding Supporting
Actress in a Limited Series
or Movie for her role as Joan
Crawford’s housekeeper
“Mamacita” in 2017’s “Feud:
Bette and Joan.” The eight-ep-
isode miniseries detailed
the contentious relationship
between Crawford and Bette
Davis and featured Mamacita
often walking on eggshells
around her volatile employer —
but standing up to her, too.

“I didn’t know a lot about the
real-life person,” said Hoffman,
who lost out on the award to
Laura Dern. “It was kind of
frightening because Jessica
[Lange] was so convincing as
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Joan Crawford.”
Hoffman said she doesn’t
have favorites, but her role in
“Feud” ranked right up there, as
she enjoyed working with noted
producer Ryan Murphy and
Hollywood stars Susan Sarandon
(who played Davis), Judy Davis,
Alfred Molina, Stanley Tucci,
Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kathy
Bates. She worked with Murphy
again more recently in “The
Politician.” Hoffman has a dry wit, the
kind that comes out in Facebook
posts like one she wrote early last
year: “If you’re in Ft. Lauderdale
and still mobile, catch this embit-
tered New Yorker’s evening of
music and comedy that’s not
a musical comedy. All inclu-
sive, gays preferred.” It’s typical
of the voice she features in her
one-woman shows, in which
she talks wryly about her Jewish
background and her personal life.

“I was blessed with a hyster-
ectomy,” she said, noting that it
provided plenty of material for
her show at the time, “Jackie
With a Z.” A 2007 New York
Times article noted she was
performing three weeks after
surgery, “with a cot backstage
for whenever she wasn’t singing
or talking.”
Hoffman grew up shomer
Shabbat with a kosher kitchen,
regular shul visits and nine
years in yeshiva. Although
not religious today, Hoffman
did play Yenta in “Fidler Afn
Dakh,” a Yiddish adaptation of
“Fiddler on the Roof” that ran
from 2018 to 2019.

Although she’s comfortable
with all types of performance,
she likes live performance best,
especially her solo shows at
Joe’s Pub in New York.

“That’s the most terrifying
and draining, but it’s the most
rewarding,” she said. “If it fails,
it’s all on you.”
Hoffman’s built a lengthy
resume over the years, with 70
acting credits listed on imdb.

com, including the upcoming
film “Shiva Baby” about a
JEWISH EXPONENT
Jackie Hoffman
college student running into her
sugar daddy while at a Jewish
funeral with her parents.

On TV, she’s had roles on
everything from “Curb Your
Enthusiasm” to “30 Rock” to
“The Good Wife.” Oddly, she’s
never appeared in any of the
New York-shot “Law & Order”
programs, although she did
audition once. She joked that she
was the only New York-based
actor to never appear in the
long-running shows.

Film roles have included
“Legally Blonde 2,” “Kissing
Jessica Stein,” “Birdman” and
“Garden State.”
On Broadway, she performed
in “Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory,” “On the Town,” “The
Addams Family,” “Xanadu,”
“Hair” and “Hairspray.” In
Chicago, she starred in six
revues at The Second City
Theatre, winning the Jeff Award
for Best Actress.

To fill a little more time
while she’s waiting to get back
to the stage, Hoffman will also
Photo by Andrew Warner
appear on XM Radio in March
with host Seth Rudetsky in a
livestreamed discussion and
performance. In the meantime, Hoffman
plans to while away the days
watching “reality dreck” like
“Real Housewives.”
“It’s almost like an altar
I daven at because there’s
nothing else to do,” she said.

“It’s a great escape.”
As for her upcoming Bucks
virtual gig, it may mark her
first area performance, though
she has been to Philadelphia:
She remembers a visit to the
Mütter Museum.

“Any town that has a
conjoined Siamese twin colon
is my kind of town,” she said.

Tickets for “Word of Mouth:
Fast Forward” are $15 and
are available at StellarTickets.

com. For details, visit
BucksCountyPlayhouse.org or
call 215-862-2121. l
agotlieb@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0797
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



T orah P ortion
CAN DL E L IGHTIN G
In Light We Are Seen
BY RABBI ROBERT LEIB
Parshat Tetzaveh
STEP INTO THE Molish
Sanctuary at Old York Road
Temple-Beth Am in Abington
and you’re immediately envel-
oped by a breathtaking room
with a soaring ceiling, contin-
uous red brick walls and warm
gold carpeting reminiscent of
Sinai’s desert sand.

Designed by noted archi-
tect Vincent G. Kling and
completed in 1972, this spiri-
tual oasis includes, ipso facto,
our award-winning aron
kodesh, holy ark, and Ner
Tamid, eternal light, both
designed by the late Hungarian
architect Mark Zubar.

Our Ner Tamid consists of
glass cut into flamelike shapes
that irregularly jut out of its brass
fixture. Above the flames, an
expansive Magen David, Star of
David, is etched in black into the
white-painted concrete ceiling,
creating a powerful image of the
symbols of the Jewish faith.

Exodus 27:20, the opening
verse of this Shabbat’s sedrah,
Tetzaveh, is the well-known
biblical source for the Ner Tamid,
the so-called eternal light, found
in each and every synagogue.

I’m intrigued by the thought
that the commandment of the
Ner Tamid is suspended (liter-
ally and figuratively!) between
the very exhaustive description
of the mishkan, the desert taber-
nacle, found in last Shabbat’s
portion, Terumah, and the
detailed description of the
elegant, ceremonial clothing
worn by Aaron, the High Priest,
and his sons — the tabernacle’s
officiants — which immediately
follows the opening verses in
this Shabbat’s portion.

One can thus infer from
the biblical narrative spanning
chapters 25-28, that the Ner
Tamid bridges the celestial world
of holy space with the temporal
world of consecrated individ-
uals who, in turn, minister to
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM the people. At the very inter-
section of the sacred and the
profane; at today’s nexus of
rabbinic-led ritual obligation
and lay-congregational practice,
it is the Ner Tamid – more than
any other symbol reminiscent
of the ancient tabernacle —
that continues to symbolize the
eternal presence of God in our
midst. Occasionally, I’ve had
congregants walk through
a pitch-black sanctuary —
invariably a sight few, if any,
have ever witnessed — lit only
by the incandescent glow of the
Ner Tamid: Judaism’s answer
to a dependable, comforting,
reassuring night light that
illuminates the meeting place
where heaven and earth reside;
the abode where the spiri-
tual and temporal dwell; the
assembly where pulpit and pew
embrace. Such a nighttime scenario also
elicits the subsequent question
of the sages: “Mei’ei’matai ...?”
when could the ritual sacrifices
resume in the morning? The
Talmud in Berachot 9b offers a
few illustrative suggestions but
the most compelling explana-
tion is more of a sociological one:
“mi’she’yireh et chaveiro rachok
arba amot, va’yakirenu.”
Dawn is defined as when
one can see other people from
a distance and recognize them
as friends! That, essentially, is
when the darkness begins to lift
and when we can acknowledge
the dignity, the humanity of the
“other” in our midst. Such an
interpretation also suggests that,
for us, the once communal act
of in-person worship (may such
a scenario return bimheirah
v’yameinu!) must necessarily be
preceded by the basic, funda-
mental act of human interaction
and mutual recognition. To
greet one another in the flesh,
panim el panim, face-to-face, is
certainly the ideal, of course,
even if that’s had to be severely
if not completely curtailed this
past year.

Feb. 26
March 5
This Shabbat also happens
to mark the annual celebra-
tion of Shushan Purim in both
the Old City and the adjacent
neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

Maseichot, the ubiquitous
wearing of masks, highlights
for us — as it does each and
every year — the stark and
sobering realization that the
real world of true spirituality,
of authentic collaboration, of
unpretentious partnership lies
underneath the surface and the
superficiality of mask wearing.

So, permit me to remove
my own mask of shame and
contend that we Americans
are still suspended between the
darkness of yesterday and the
light of tomorrow. Will we still
be entrapped by the sinister
darkness of systemic racism and
inequality; of white supremacy
and ethnic bigotry; of cultural
prejudice and gender bias; of
wild conspiracy theories and
blatant anti-Semitism?
Or, rather, will we — slowly
but surely — move into the
broad daylight of mutual toler-
ance, respect, acceptance and
compromise? The Talmud actually
compares the long night of
exile to the dawn of Purim.

For when dawn breaks, all that
was previously hidden will
finally be revealed. Whatever
appeared dark is now bathed
in the gleaming light of day
when we can, if we will it, stand
quietly and confidently on the
border of light.

Like our biblical ancestors
of old, we too live in the warm
shadow of the Ner Tamid, which
offers comfort and consolation,
healing and hope, respite and
renewal. The oldest surviving
5:32 p.m.

5:39 p.m.

symbol in all of Judaism
reminds us that a new day has
dawned. Let us attempt, with
all our might, to be chaverim,
friends one to the other, so that
the better angels of our nature
might yet vouchsafe for us all
the blessings of a better and
brighter tomorrow. l
Rabbi Robert Leib is the senior
rabbi of Old York Road Temple-
Beth Am in Abington. The Board of
Rabbis is proud to provide diverse
perspectives on Torah commentary
for the Jewish Exponent. The
opinions expressed in this column
are the author’s own and do not
reflect the view of the Board of
Rabbis. SHARE your engagement, wedding,
birth, Bar/Bat Mitzvah announcement
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