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Hollywood in the early 1950s for alleged Communist ties.
Bernardi’s first part on Broadway was in the musical Bajour
in 1965. He then played Tevye in the Broadway production of
Fiddler on the Roof (1966–67), as well as in a revival run at Lincoln
Center in 1981. He also performed in the Broadway productions
Zorba (1968–69) and The Goodbye People (1979).
In addition to his many television guest appearances
and roles in TV movies, Bernardi is well remembered for his
characterizations of Lt. Jacoby on the Peter Gunn detective series
(1958–61) and Arnie Nuvo in the sitcom Arnie (1970–72).
Bernardi also provided voiceovers for hundreds of cartoons
and commercials, most notably the wisecracking Charley the
Tuna and the laughing Jolly Green Giant. At one point in his
career, he had strained his vocal chords so severely that his
doctor ordered him not to speak for a full year or he might
lose his voice permanently.
He appeared in a number of films over the years, among
them Murder by Contract (1958); The Savage Eye (1960); A
Cold Wind in August (1961); Irma La Douce (1963); Love with
the Proper Stranger (1963); and The Front (1976). Bernardi
was one of the main interviewees in the 1984 documentary
Almonds and Raisins, written by Wolf *Mankowitz and narrated
by Orson Welles. The film examines the dozens of Yiddish-language
talking films made in the U.S. and Europe between
the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927 and the outbreak
of World War II.
Bibliography: J. Bernardi, My Father the Actor (1971).
[Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
°BERNARDINO DA FELTRE (1439–1494), *Franciscan
friar, born at Feltre, N. Italy. From 1471 Bernardino began
to attain a great reputation throughout northern Italy as a
preacher, especially of the Lenten sermons urging the people
to repentance. Pursuing the policy of his order, Bernardino
inveighed against the Jews and supported the foundation of
public loan-banks (*Monte di Pietà) in order to displace Jewish
moneylenders. His preaching was mainly responsible for the
blood libel at *Trent in 1475. In the following year, he made a
similar attempt at Reggio, and then in Bassano and Mantua;
in 1485 he instigated the expulsion of the Jews from Perugia,
and in 1486 from Gubbio. In 1488 he was expelled from Florence
to prevent disorders. In 1491 in Ravenna he succeeded
in having the Jews expelled and the synagogue destroyed. In
1492 he secured the expulsion of the Jews from Campo San
Pietro, and from Brescia in 1494. Shortly after his death he
was beatified.
Bibliography: E. Lazzareschi, Il beato Bernardino da Feltre,
gli Ebrei e il Monte di Pietà in Lucca (1941), Roth, Italy, 170–6, passim;
Milano, Italia, index; U. Cassuto, Gli Ebrei a Firenze nell’ età del
Rinascimento (1918), 52–53, 56–60, 62–63.
[Cecil Roth]
°BERNARDINO DA SIENA (1380–1444), Franciscan friar,
celebrated for his powerful oratory. One of the main themes
urged by Bernardino in his sermons was the return of the
bernays
Church to its original purity and the exclusion of any form of
association between Christians and Jews. Hence, Bernardino
ruthlessly upheld the application of anti-Jewish restrictions,
including segregation, exclusion from money-lending, limitation
of economic activities, and wearing of the Jewish badge.
He preached throughout Tuscany, Umbria, and Abruzzi, culminating
in inflammatory sermons delivered at Aquila in 1438,
attended by King René of Anjou. Almost everywhere, Bernardino’s
sermons resulted in a deterioration of the relationships
between Christians and Jews and often provoked disorders.
The circle of disciples which formed around Bernardino
assiduously propagated his anti-Jewish doctrine. Most important
of those whom he influenced were Barnabas of Terni, Giacomo
della Marca, and *Bernardino da Feltre.
Bibliography: V. Facchinetti, Bernardino da Siena (It., 1933);
Roth, Italy, 162ff.; Milano, Italia, 162f., 684.
[Attilio Milano]
°BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX (1090–1153), French Cistercian,
homilist, and theologian. In 1146, when preaching the
Second Crusade, he intervened orally and in writing to protect
the Jews in the Rhineland from persecution incited by a certain
monk Radulph, declaring that an attempt on the life of a
Jew was a sin tantamount to making an attempt on the life of
Jesus. A letter addressed by Bernard to the Germans implicitly
repudiates the policy urged by *Peter the Venerable, abbot of
Cluny, against the Jews (although without expressly naming
the abbot) by emphasizing the difference between Jews and
Muslims; Bernard, while considering it right to take up arms
against Muslims, maintains that it is forbidden to attack Jews.
While Peter wished to expropriate the wealth of the Jews to
finance the Crusade, Bernard limited himself to recommending
the abolition of interest on credit they had advanced to
crusaders. He finally recalled in his epistle the fate of Peter the
Hermit and his followers, who had persecuted the Jews during
the First Crusade and led his supporters into such peril that
practically none had survived. Bernard warned that the present
crusaders might well suffer similar Divine retribution: “It
is to be feared that if you act in like manner, a similar fate will
strike you.” Jewish chroniclers stress Bernard’s disinterestedness
in his defense of the Jews.
Bibliography: A. Neubauer (ed.), Hebraeische Berichte…
(1892), 58ff., 187ff.; Blumenkranz, in: K.H. Rengstorf and S. von Kortzfleisch
(eds.), Kirche und Synagoge (1968), 119ff.
[Bernhard Blumenkranz]
BERNAYS, family originating in Germany with branches
elsewhere in Central Europe and the U.S.
ISAAC BEN JACOB BERNAYS (1792–1849), rabbi of Hamburg,
Germany, was born in Mainz, studied at Wuerzburg
University and at the yeshivah of Abraham Bing and was appointed
rabbi of Hamburg in 1821. While Bernays, who preferred
the Sephardi designation of ḥakham, was committed to
the preservation of inherited customs and ceremonies, he did
modernize the curriculum of the local talmud torah and regu-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 469