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August 24, 2005
West Wing actor to help launch UJA Federation campaign
by Frances Kraft
Canadian Jewish News
Joshua Malina’s first day of work on the set of the West Wing, where he plays White House speech writer Will Bailey, fell on Rosh Hashanah. Malina chose to observe the holiday instead.
“Being Jewish is really important to me in a daily way,” the 39-year-old actor said last week in a phone interview from his home in Malibu.
Career and religion began to intersect for him four years ago when he became a regular on the Jewish speaking circuit. On Sept. 1, he will talk about “Being Jewish in Hollywood: A Look Behind the Scenes” at UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s 2006 campaign launch at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. Israeli musician David Broza will perform at the same event.
In 2001, Malina took part in a Los Angeles rally supporting Israel. He was very disappointed – “appalled,” he said – at the dearth of Jewish celebrities on the dais, and said so in an interview with the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles that kick-started his Jewish speaking involvement.
The rally, he said, “wasn’t really a political event. Israel has a right to exist. It wasn’t about supporting [Israeli prime minister Ariel] Sharon or [a particular] government policy.”
Malina – who is also passionate about poker and is executive producer of Celebrity Poker Showdown – said he has many friends and colleagues “whose inclination is in support of Israel, but who sometimes feel a little cowed, or daunted, by the type of things they hear that are critical of Israel.”
He feels it’s important to become educated about Israel. “Anyone with any kind of sophistication realizes it’s not black and white. There’s a way to care about Israel and still have opinions about what’s going on… Let’s start from the point that Israel has a right to exist in a peaceful way.”
Malina, who majored in theatre at Yale University, expressed some hesitancy about his role as a spokesperson – he’s an actor, not a Middle East affairs expert, he pointed out. But, he said, “for better or worse,” people will seek out his opinions because of what he does for a living. “I’ve realized that there’s an up-side. I have an opportunity to support Israel in a public way.”
A Jewish day school alumnus who grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y., Malina and his wife, who have two young children, keep a kosher home and put up a sukkah at Sukkot.
Their lifestyle is not incompatible with his career, he said. “We don’t live a very Hollywood lifestyle.” On the few occasions he has had a conflict with a Jewish holiday, his employers have always accommodated him, he said.
In June, Malina visited Israel with his father. He said he felt comfortable immediately. It was his first trip there in 11 years, and he figured it was time to put his money where his mouth is, as he put it. Although others were concerned for his safety, he said that if he made it to the Los Angeles airport, he would have made it through the most dangerous part of the journey.
Posted by Jo at August 24, 2005 06:31 PM