Liz Taylor and Richard Burton fought over everything: Even who was more Jewish!

Having seen all the sultry, sabra-like photos of her as a young actress, I always assumed that Elizabeth Taylor was just another Jewish star who'd changed her name so she could more easily cross over into Middle America, sort of like John Garfield, whose real name was Jacob Garfinkle. But as noted in this fun post from the Jewish Journal's Danielle Berrin, Taylor was raised a Christian Scientist, only converting to Judaism at age 27.

Judging from my own family's firm embrace of all the women who've married into our clan and adopted the religion, Jews sometimes value converts more than the original article, which might explain all the excitement over Chelsea Clinton marrying into the faith, not to mention the undying media fascination over the news that Madonna had been regularly studying with a Kabbalah Centre rabbi. According to "Furious Love," the new book about Taylor and Richard Burton's stormy marriage, the famous couple even quarreled over who was more Jewish, a neat trick since Burton was Welsh, not exactly a place where you can find a temple on every block.

According to a passage that Berrin quotes from from the book: "Burton had referred to the Welsh as 'the Jews of Britain', a comment on their self-identity as the outsiders of the United Kingdom. 'You’re not Jewish at all,' he told Elizabeth in one of their very public fights, 'If there’s any Jew in this family, it’s me!' 'I am Jewish,' she answered, 'and you can [buzz] off!' " 

Showbiz folk have always assumed that Taylor's conversion to Judaism was motivated by her marriage to showman Mike Todd, the grandson of a Polish rabbi who'd also changed his name, from Avrom Goldbogen. But in a book she wrote, Taylor insisted her conversion -- in 1959 -- had nothing to do with either her past marriage to Todd or her upcoming marriage to Eddie Fisher, who was also Jewish. She said: "It was something I had wanted to do for a long time." The conversion was such a big deal that even Time magazine ran a story on the event, with detailed play-by-play of the conversion ritual at Temple Israel in Hollywood.Time reported that Taylor prepared for the conversion by faithfully reading a curriculum of Jewish texts, including such weighty fare as "A History of the Jews" by Abram Leon Sachar.

I come from a family of Southern Jews, who are Jews in sort of the same way that Richard Burton was -- as cultural outsiders. But Taylor has been so feisty over the years, and generous with her friendships, that I have to put her in the Jewish Hall of Fame, right up there with the deity that all Jewish men worship, whether they are religious or not: Sandy Koufax.

Photo: Elizabeth Taylor watching her fiance, Eddie Fisher, on stage at the Tropicana in Las Vegas in 1959. Credit: John Bryson / Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images

 

Comments

[Jaap den Haan]

I knew a woman from here, Taylor (not family), who told me the story once. Quite funny on the surface, it seems, but also sad in a way in its consequence, and quite common, and tragic. The same happens in all relationships, not only marriage, also just between friends, and even strangers. I used to look at it with the same humor as if it were a movie, but it is extra painful to discover this is hardcore reality. Illusion? Glamour? Those who don't know you, but who just happen to be around, copy a kind of inquiry about intimate matters in order to be intimate, and mess up your life as well. The spoiler. It is also political. Audience? They are clairvoyant. And when you inevitably start to take them serious by their repetitious insistence, a mantra, in my case everybody has quit even talking to me. I was about to write her. But I am busy on something that takes attention. And it's just like children. We had quarrels even if she was a girl or a woman. And she was furious. Beneath the surface of such quarrels often lies a world of prejudice inherited from family, the past, and even, honestly, past lives, I have seen, and perhaps the force of competition in society. The intrusiveness even turns into a kind of compassion, a pity that is picked up from generation to generation, a kind of character assassination. I even inherited a woman from all this, we call Nefertiti, I never see, but who seems to contemplate me night and day criticizing me on minor details. You sense it from a distance, it follows me in my dreams, and others have followed her aura, and her atmospheric predicament, which I can't talk about with anybody even in danger of being persecuted in this day and age, or being totally ignored. The third option is being labeled schizophrenic. These things have honestly happened by every standard of objectivity. I find them very sick in this lonely society they have created, which loneliness complements inherent greed. Experiences I have had, were never seen on screen. I wonder sometimes if they are based in the movies. I can't see them. Quarreling is better.

[William Brighenti]

I wonder if her desire to convert to Judaism stemmed from her role in the movie, "Ivanhoe", as Rebecca, the beautiful Jewess heroine, filmed in 1952. It was a very moving performance by Elizabeth Taylor. I believe it was one of her great performances on film.

[JillS]

I wonder if Taylor's conversion had to do, even if indirectly, with Marilyn Monroe's earlier conversion in connection with marrying Arthur Miller, in 1956. The marriage changed some of the public and industry perception of MM as a joke to more serious person and actress, and helped her land and the also develop meatier projects through her production company. She went from turning down Girl in the Pink tights to doing Bus Stop, that year, her first serious role. Same is true for Taylor, who went from Monty Cliff's object of affection and Spencer Tracy's daughter, or second fiddle, to headlining Cleopatra, in 1960, after she converted, and she became the first actress to win a million dollar payday. Cleopatra, while an expensive disappointment, led to Taylor's turns in Butterfield 8 and Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf -- and Oscar.