Leonard Bernstein’s Israeli love story
Amid all the fuss about the upcoming biopic, there's the soldier who stole the composer's heart
Brigit Grant is the Jewish News Supplements Editor
The debate about whether actor Bradley Cooper should have worn a prosthetic nose to portray Leonard Bernstein will roll on until the film Maestro premieres in November. In the wake of this discussion details about the composer’s complex personal history as a gay man who was also married with children are being revealed, including the fact that the love of Bernstein’s life was an Israeli soldier. Temporarily distracting the Jewish anti-nose lobby, Azaria Rapoport was assigned as Bernstein’s guide when he visited Israel in November 1948 during the War of Independence.
Both men were the son of immigrants, Bernstein’s parents from Rivne (now in Ukraine), while Rapoport’s hailed from Poland and came to Palestine in 1919, where Azaria was born in Tel Aviv and as a teenager studied at Zvi Friedland ‘s acting studio . Enlisting in the British Army in 1942 on release he studied journalism, eventually writing for Haaretz newspaper. He did not meet Bernstein until 1948, by which point the composer was already deeply affected by the struggle of the Jews in Palestine, having witnessed on an earlier visit in 1947, after which he wrote a letter to the Russian conductor Serge Koussevitzky, saying: “There is a strength and devotion in these people that is formidable. They will never let the land be taken from them; they will all die first. And the country is beautiful beyond description.
Bernstein wrote to Koussevitzky again in October 1948, saying he planned to spend more time in Israel, because : “I am needed,” but he had also met Azaria Rapoport whom he later described as someone who encapsulated “all the things I’ve wanted rolled into one.” “It’s a hell of an experience,” said the composer. “Nerve-racking and guts-tearing and wonderful. It’s changed everything.”
Rapoport who went on to become an actor in Israel, appearing in small films from 1950 until his last, Things (Devarim) in 1990. Travelling with Bernstein over 60 days and doing 40 concerts, the former soldier accompanied the composer to Beersheva in the Negev, which had been captured by the army who remained there, despite the UN ordering a withdrawal.
The arrival at the encampment of Leonard Bernstein with the Israel Philharmonic was unexpected, but essential to the composer who performed Mozart’s K. 450 in B flat, Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on a makeshift stage in front of soldiers, many of them wounded and transported by ambulance.
The size of the assembled crowd – estimated at one to five thousand – was enough for the Egyptians to assume there was to be an attack on the Negev, so they redeployed their planes there, away from Jerusalem. That the concert served to distract the enemy was momentous enough for Chaim Weizmann, who later became President to say:”Who would take time in war to listen to a Mozart concerto?
Bernstein married Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre three years later, though he along with Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim were known as the four gay Jewish men who collaborated to create West Side Story. The composer left his wife in 1976 to live with his lover Tom Cothran, but returned to his wife when she was diagnosed with lung cancer and stayed with her until she died. Azaria Rapaport died in 1997 aged 73 and Bernstein died seven years earlier aged 72. Their story is unlikely to be featured in Maestro, but it is not one either of the men will have forgotten.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
