by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

True story — emes. There’s this guy, see, Reuven Russell, son of a Borscht Belt comic. Your typical class clown who put his talents to work by studying theater. Along the way, on the standard college-age trip to Europe, he visited Dachau, which rekindled interest in his roots. A rabbi he met on his travels directed him to a Rosh Hashana service in Zurich, which had a profound impact on his future. In an interview with Lchaimweekly.org, he explained the circumstances that changed his life.

“Unbeknownst to me, he set me up with Lubavitchers at the Chabad House,” said Russell, who lives in Morristown. “When I walked in and saw the black hats and beards, I thought, uh-oh.” Despite the initial discomfort, Russell realized his new life path and soon included Judaic studies among his classes at the Yale Drama School.

Nowadays, Russell describes himself as “just a nice Jewish boy going into his father’s business,” he told NJJN in an interview.

“I traveled to a lot of gigs with my dad,” Russell recalled of his travels through the Catskills circuit with Joey Russell. Like many comedians back in the ’30s and ’40s, the elder Russell created a show business persona by changing his moniker from the old-country family name of Feitelberg. Russell the younger noted proudly that his father still performs at age 84 and that his mother, Josie, is similarly active, running one of the largest theatrical costume shops in New England.

Russell, who supplemented his thespian training by studying under Stella Adler and Michael Moriarty, has an impressive list of theatrical and television credits, having appeared in programs on Showtime and the USA network and in a guest role on ER (on which he played — “big stretch” — a rabbi), as well as in feature films (Hitler: The Rise of Evil, Chaplin, Inside Monkey Zetterland, and The Proprietor). He also toured nationally in Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys starring Mickey Rooney and Donald O’Connor, and played the role of Hersh in The Quarrel.

Currently, Russell stars in the New York City production of A Match Made in Heaven, a Jewish version of Tony ’n’ Tina’s Wedding, replete with traditional music and kosher food.

The peripatetic comedian allowed that his material is mostly, although not exclusively, for Jewish audiences. He attributes his popularity to being “[f]unny, clean and Jewish, which are three things you can’t find in other comedians. You can usually find two out of three….”

Aside from his appearances in “mainstream” media, he has a special affinity for more ethnic material. His one-man show, Gathering the Sparks, has been performed in more than 100 cities worldwide. “I’ve done a lot of work for Chabad and other Jewish organizations from Hong Kong to Tijuana and about 120 places in between,” he said.

Another source of naches is Agent Emes, a direct-to-video “edutainment” series. These programs follow the adventures of a young yeshiva bocher by day/secret agent by night, fighting the evil Dr. Lo Tov (which means — what else? — “no good”). Russell plays Betzaleh, the director of Tov Maod (“very good”), the good-guy secret agent, whom he likens to Commissioner Gordon from the Batman TV series of the 1960s.

Agent Emes, the brainchild of Leibel Cohen of the Jewish Media Development Center in Philadelphia, was created to educate kids about Jewish practices and values. Russell and Cohen met in the Ivy League Torah study program sponsored by the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education, which he described as “a program of subsidized learning for college kids with no formal training, a kollel for college kids.”

Although most of the characters are Orthodox, Russell said Agent Emes has something to offer all Jewish kids. “It was created to entertain and educate. Not only does it show Jewish customs in a warm and fun way, but it also shows kids how they should behave,” he added, contrasting it to all the negative influences that commonly appear in the media.

Despite his hectic schedule, Russell still finds time to relax at home with his wife, the former Esther Rachel Barer, and children, Yehudah Aryeh Leib, Alexander Yisrael, Shira Bracha, Malka Henna, and Menachem Mendel. He even makes time to play for the Rambammers, a local softball team. (“Please mention that I batted .511,” he sneaks into the conversation.)

According to Russell, the late Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, “always encouraged people to use their God-given talents in a glatt kosher way, not merely in a kosher way,” a directive, he said, that he tries to apply to his work. “It’s all a matter of how to live in the world that we live in.”

For further information on the Agent Emes series, visit www.agent-emes.com.

Ron Kaplan can be reached at RKaplan@njjewishnews.com.