UPDATE: Thursday, Apr 11, 2024 · 11:16:50 PM +00:00
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Eccaba
After writing this I learned that Marilyn’s mother named her Norma Jean Baker, after Norma Jean Cohen. Norma Jean Cohen was the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family in Kentucky. Gladys, Marilyn’s mother, went to Kentucky to try to get back her other children from her abusive husband who’d fled with them. The matron of the Cohen household saw a woman in need and hired her to take care of her kids- thus enabling Gladys to gain independence from her abuser. In honor of the help, Gladys chose Norma Jean as Marilyn’s birth name. So while raised Christian, Marilyn was named after a Jew. This information was shared in greater detail in a TCM documentary that I am unable to find. H/T mettle fatigue.
Greetings folks! Welcome to A Song of Zion, our weekly check-in and virtual minyan for Jews on Daily Kos. This is an open thread, and we treat it as a safe space for Jewish folks here. Non-Jews are welcome but we ask that they listen more than speak. No squabbling, please: if you want to fight, please step outside. (H/T wasplover)
Did you know Marilyn Monroe was Jewish? I didn’t until this week.
Marilyn was born on June 1st, 1926. Her mother gave her up when she was just a baby. She spent time in the foster care system, while her alcoholic mother drifted in and out of her life. Marilyn’s childhood was filled with instability and abuse. While specific details are scant, Marilyn was brought up by followers of fundamental Baptist Christianity, as well as Christian Science. Eventually, she ended up with a family friend, Grace McKee Goddard, or Aunt Grace. Of Aunt Grace, she later said:
If not for Grace I would have been sent to a state or country institution where there are fewer privileges, such as being allowed to have a Christmas tree or seeing a movie sometimes.
So it seems that Christianity played at least some role in Marilyn’s early life. If folks know more, I’d love to hear them chime in. There may be greater details in biographies of her I do not have access to.
As a young adult, Marilyn decided to head to Hollywood. By 1950, her career started to take off with two small, well received rolls in All About Eve, and Asphalt Jungle. This was also the year she met famous Jewish playwright, Arthur Miller. There was an instant connection, and they became pen palls. Despite the connection, Marilyn married Joe DiMaggio in 1954 and divorced him less than a year later. Afterwards Marilyn and Arthur Miller reconnected, eventually marrying in 1956.
Marilyn was attracted to Jewish life and people. There were many Jews in Hollywood at the time- not because of a cabal of Jews set on controlling the media and world, but because this was the time of “no Jews allowed”, “gentiles only” and quotas on Jews attending higher education, while new industries like film were more open. And while I can’t find any information on Marilyn discussing the Holocaust, we know she was there to take in the horrors as the images poured onto news screens. She once said:
I can identify with the Jews. Everybody’s always out to get them, no matter what they do — like me
Also:
She loved the Jewish food that she would eat while visiting her acting coach Lee Strasburg and wife Paula in Fire Island.
As for Miller, he had distanced himself from his Judaism. He never asked Marilyn to convert. She did it anyway. Always searching for acceptance and stability, she hoped it would help bring her closer to his family. She took it seriously, studying various Jewish texts, and even adding Yiddish phrases into her everyday speech. They had a Jewish wedding. When I hear this story, it makes me think of Ruth. And indeed, for conversion, she recited Ruth’s vow:
Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God
While married to Miller she prepared a speech for the United Jewish Appeal conference about her conversion, and why she did, while calling herself a Zionist and advocating for a Jewish state.1 The speech was cancelled however, due to the communist panic and HUAC’s (House Un-American Activities Committee) investigation of her husband. After divorcing Miller, she maintained her Jewish identity, referring to herself as “a Jewish atheist”. She kept a Mezzuzah on her door, as well as various Judaica around her home.
In her day she was an inspiration to Jews around the world. From Unpacked, on Joanna Robotham:
Monroe’s conversion made Jews feel more secure about their standing in the world, especially after the Holocaust, Robotham said.
“It just showed that Judaism, coming off of the war, wasn’t something people were trying to hide,” she told The New York Times. “They were really celebrating Jewish culture and identity.”
From my view she was a great Jew. In her way she always tried to make the world a better place. Whether it was standing by her Jewish husband during the the investigations of HUAC, advocating for racial justice, or persevering through great adversity, tragedy, and mental health struggles in her personal life.
Despite her history, people call her Judaism into question, either because she’s an atheist, because she did it in relation to marriage, or because they view her as unserious.
Miller said:
I’m not religious, but she wanted to be one of us and that was why she took some instruction. I don’t think you could say she became a Jewess, but still she took it all very seriously. I would say she wanted to join me and become part of my life. But her interest in talking to the rabbi had about it an unreality to me.
I will not question her Jewishnes. She wanted it, she never rejected it. She joined Judaism at personal cost to her with HUAC, and the banning of her films in Egypt.
And in another injustice of a lifetime filled with injustices, Marilyn’s funeral was Lutheran, and she was not buried in a Jewish cemetery.
May her memory be a blessing.
1 I am not endorsing her Zionism here. With the current political climate this is an understandably fraught position. My goal in mentioning this is to not have a fight, just to show that she was willing to engage in what she thought was important Jewish advocacy, whatever one may think of the ethics of those views.
This iconic scene from All About Eve includes her first appearance in the film. Despite the small role, her work was well received. You can see her starting at 1:32. If you’ve yet to see this film, do, it’s one of the best:
