The Jewish Beatle

“If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian Epstein”-Paul McCartney

At face value, the story of the Beatles seems irrelevant to Jewish history.   However, delving deeper into the Beatles narrative, one discovers that there was one Jewish chap who played an integral, if not central role in their rise to fame.   His name was Brian Epstein.

Brian Epstein’s family was a staple of Liverpool’s Jewish community, owning a prominent furniture shop and a music store called North End Music.   Brian had his Bar Mitzvah at the Green Bank Drive Synagogue in Liverpool and was educated at the Beaconsfield Jewish school in Sussex.    His Uncle Meier noted that “he was obviously well educated in Hebrew and Hebrew liturgy.” (In My Life, page 4).   

Brian Epstein was interested in theatre and first attempted to make a career in dramatic arts.   The career did not pan out and Epstein ended up running the family music store.   As Epstein noted himself on the BBC, “when I left school…I had ambitions to be an actor, but my family wasn’t very keen on this and I allowed myself to be swayed into going into the business.” (Brian Epstein, BBC Home Service, March 7 1964).   While working at the music store, Epstein wrote a weekly article about new record releases for a publication called the Mersey Beat.    On November 9, 1961, Brian Epstein walked into the Cavern Club and watched the Beatles perform for the very first time.   Taken by their performance, Epstein would eventually propose to become the Beatles first manager.

What did Brian Epstein do for the Beatles?   To begin, he helped to create a new image for them.   When Epstein found the Beatles, the boys wore leather and acted like the rebels they saw in the moving pictures.   Epstein had them cut their hair, wear suits and become charming young men.   Epstein introduced the Beatles to the iconic music producer George Martin who helped fashion their music into something that a broad public could enjoy.   Epstein was also central in the Beatles’ ability to hire drummer Ringo Starr, in their first tour of the United States, in quelling the waters after Lennon told the public that his band was more popular than Jesus and in ensuring that each band member was protected.   Although he would later be blamed for some business naiveté, Brian Epstein helped build the Beatles career and became an advocate for each of them.

Epstein’s sexual orientation and religion would prove to be challenges throughout his life.   John Lennon in particular would often use pejorative terms about both of these character traits during casual conversations.     Epstein was also challenged by drug use and eventually succumbed to an overdose on August 27, 1967.    The Beatles were never the same after Brian Epstein’s death.  Some consider the event to have led to their eventual break-up.

Brian Epstein’s Judaism was always an issue during the years in which he managed the Beatles.    In the early sixties, Paul McCartney was warned by his father that being managed by a Jew was dangerous.   John Lennon constantly brought up the Jewish factor in personal conversations.   Brian even himself spoke about the challenges of feeling different in his autobiography A Cellarful of Noise.    To compound his emotional fragility, Epstein’s ongoing interest in John Lennon seemed to always cause him pain.

Brian Epstein must be remembered as one of the great Rock and Roll heroes, who recognized the talent of four boys from Liverpool, cared for each as a parent would do and ensured their success in taking over the music charts.  Brian Epstein, the fifth Jewish Beatle, died at the young age of 32 and is buried in the Liverpool Jewish Cemetery.