Showbiz, but never on Shabbos

Elli Meyer, king of the Jewish bit part

By Tova Ross

You may not know Elli Meyer, but you’ve probably seen him before.

Meyer, 53, was the rabbi in 2 Fast 2 Furious, that Jewish guy in this year’s remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, and has had numerous cameos in productions that didn’t necessarily have Jewish storylines but needed authentic-looking Jewish actors, nonetheless.

With his unruly gray beard and bearish frame, Meyer looks like a cheerful rabbi — albeit one who makes his living playing Jewish bit parts. Meyer grew up in Los Angeles where his father, an interior decorator, was often called to decorate the lavish homes of movie stars. Elli was allowed to tag along which he says often left him star struck. (Meeting Tina Louise, who played Ginger on Gilligan’s Island, was a notable memory for him.) With his first performance in a local Jewish Community Center production of Milk and Honey, his love of acting was firmly cemented. But despite his passion for the stage, religion came first.

Elli’s parents kept a Conservadox home, but by the time Elli reached his bar mitzvah, the family’s observance had dissipated, leaving little Judaism in Elli’s life. However,  he could not escape his Jewish identity, he said.

“Even though I was doing nothing Jewish, my friends persisted in calling me “SuperJew,” and whenever anyone needed something translated from Hebrew or someone needed a Jewish holiday explained, they would come to me,” he recalled. “I had an awakening of sorts, realizing that if everyone was seeing me as some sort of Jewish paragon, I should probably better explore what that means.”

And so Elli began once again visiting his parent’s former synagogue and keeping kosher. At 15, when a family friend invited him to a Chabad House in Westwood, he decided to go — and was entranced by what he saw there.

“At the Chabad, I saw Jews joyfully praying and reveling in their observance, not because of outside pressure but because they loved doing it; it was something I hadn’t seen before,” said Elli. “It made me decide to explore my own religion deeper, and since then, I’ve considered myself Lubavitch.”

As a junior in high school and frequent performer in school plays, Elli was offered a scholarship for his senior year of high school to the prestigious High School of the Performing Arts in New York, which counts Al Pacino and Liza Minelli among its alumni.  Elli refused the offer since he would have had to commit to rehearsals on Shabbos and Yom Tov.

“I do have to turn down a lot of roles when I find out filming takes place on Saturday or Yom Tov,” Elli reflects. “But I figure, if the producer or director wants me badly enough, he or she will find a way to accommodate me.”

After high school, Elli chose his faith over the limelight. After studying at the Rabbinical College of America, a Lubavitch yeshiva in Morristown, New Jersey, Elli met with the late Lubavitch Rebbe, who sent him to Miami Beach with other students to start a yeshiva there. Elli continued to perform, if only as a ba’al tefillah in shul. While at the Miami Beach yeshiva, he founded The Landau Boy’s Choir. Eventually it was taken over by Yerachmiel Begun and renamed the Miami Boy’s Choir.

Elli soon married and became a teacher.

“Which, in its own way, is really a glorified performer,” he says with a chuckle.

Acting took a backseat to a teaching career and ten children. In 1998, he found himself single and contemplated refocusing on an acting career. With the encouragement of friends, Elli took up performing again, and he soon began flying back and forth from Miami to New York for auditions. The commute soon became too exhausting to maintain, and Elli moved to New York about five years ago, where he quickly earned membership in the Screen Actors Guild, Actors Equity Association, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Actors.

While Jewish roles are his bread and butter, Elli has played everything from a Muslim cleric to a farmer on a recent Nickelodeon show. He can be seen (as a Jew) in th an upcoming episode of the new CBS show The Good Wife, and in the upcoming Natalie Portman film, New York, I Love You.

Elli also recruits other Jewish actors to play th e Jewish parts that many well-known television shows often call for. His group, Shomer Shabbos Actors of America, is comprised of almost 150 performers, both Jewish and non-Jewish, andsupports religious accommodations in the television and film industry. For observant Jews in the group, the organization ensures that they will have kosher food available on the set and that filming wraps in time for Shabbos, ensuring that even actors ain’t gonna work on Saturday.