Jewish Man Praying

Okay, so a black and white photo of a young Jewish man, siddur (prayer book) in hand, donning a kippah (skullcap) and the traditional talit (prayer shawl). Perhaps it was taken in a synagogue during afternoon or evening services? He looks intent on his prayers, a serene pensive moment. Nothing terribly unusual.

When I saw this photo posted on social media that was my reaction. Then I started reading. And I took a closer look. The face looked familiar.

The photo was posted on social media by Terry Foxman. This 'Portrait of a Jewish Man Praying' (as I began to think of it) was taken by her younger brother Robert. I knew Robert as my older brother Randy's friend when they worked together in the early 80s at the Seville Theatre, a repertory cinema near the Montreal Forum downtown. I worked at the Seville (thanks to my family connection) for a few years too. I remember Robert as a guy with wild ideas and a wicked, iconoclastic sense of humour. He was always coming up with hilarious stunts and pranks. This one shows Robert in his heyday. Randy remembers the day that Robert took the photo. It was for a school project. Robert staked out the Forum and waited for the Montreal Canadiens players to leave after a practice. It was not unusual for fans to ask the players for autographs and photos. This portrait is not in fact of a Jewish man, it's Montreal Canadiens hall-of-fame hockey icon, Guy Lafleur - the 'flower' as he was known for the grace and beauty of his skill on the ice passed away last week, at the age of 70. As the story goes, after the team practice, Robert somehow convinced Guy to go to the nearby Alexis Nihon Plaza and take the photo, but not a selfie with a fan, rather wearing the bar-mitzvah boy costume with all the traditional religious paraphernalia. 

This photo surprises on so many levels. One, imagine a professional athlete doing something like this today. Impossible. And not any athlete, but one of the greatest, an elite athlete who at the time was near the top of his game, a local icon - you have to understand how Montreal Canadien hockey players are worshipped. Second, imagine that the fan who wants to take your picture also wants you to go with him to a nearby mall to do it. Third, imagine that the fan wants you to wear some strange clothes to take this picture. It's simply nothing short of astounding that Lafleur went along with it. What a mensch. It was a different (much more innocent) moment in history for sure. Now think of the chutzpah the photographer must have had to try a stunt like this.

I saw the photo and had to make a double-take. Then I thought about its genius. One small piece of information, the identity of the figure, and the entire meaning of the photo changes. And isn't that always the way it is when you look at any photo or work of art. The more you know about the subject matter of the piece, the deeper the experience of what you're viewing. And in this case, what seems like a typical, even boring, traditional Jewish moment turns into a resonant cultural commentary. It suddenly depicts two disjunctive iconographies, the (gentile) Quebecois hockey player worshipped like a god in his popular culture, and the classic religious accoutrements of the historically marginalized and persecuted Jew. 

I talked about it with my brother this afternoon. He said the day Robert told him about the project, he was horrified. He felt it was below Lafleur's dignity and felt embarrassed for him. A stunt done at Lafleur's expense. Looking at it that way it hearkens to the history of Quebec, when many Quebecois were demeaned by their English overlords. But that might be a bit overly exaggerated. Robert was a prankster and maybe he and his buddies got a good laugh out of it at the time. It may have been just a lark, a school project that if they could pull off was sure to get an 'A'. But in retrospect, it has so much more resonance on multiple levels, that today the photo reaches the level of art.