The Movie Producer & Chabad

Mydesert.com

Jerry Weintraub doesn’t consider himself religious.

But, after making millions of dollars as a concert promoter for the likes of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan, and as a producer of films, Weintraub began paying attention to what he calls a higher power.

“I’ve had this turmoil about religion my whole life — not just Judaism but Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism,” he says from his walled, two-story estate in Beverly Hills. “It seems like every war is fought over religion. That’s why I like to say I’m spiritual, not religious. I believe in a higher power. I don’t know what that higher power is, but I believe in it.”

Weintraub, who also owns a modern marvel in the Palm Desert foothills, recounts many of his show biz stories in his new book, “When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories From A Persuasive Man.”

But he tells them from the perspective of a man who has gained a new level of wisdom after 72 years on this planet. He tries to pass along lessons he’s learned from his mistakes as well as his successes.

One of his most remarkable mystical experiences prompted him to post a photograph over his bed in Beverly Hills of the kind of religious figure he was always conflicted about.

It isn’t accompanied by pictures of his wife or kids or celebrity friends such as Sinatra, George Clooney or former President George H.W. Bush. There’s just a photo of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994.

Schneerson was the leader of the Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Judaism for 44 years. Weintraub, who grew up in an Orthodox home, was recruited by one of the rebbe’s followers after a neo-Nazi group burned down the Lubavitchers’ Chabad house in Westwood.

“When that happened, a rabbi from here came to see me and wanted help. I wrote him a check and he said, ‘No, no, no. I don’t want that. What I need is your involvement. The rebbe sent me here. The rebbe knows you’re going to get involved with us.’ And certain magical, spiritual things started to happen.”

Weintraub was watching television late one night when the rebbe came on the screen and seemed to be speaking directly to him. Then he was hospitalized for an emergency operation and the rabbi who first approached him showed up unexpectedly.

“Those events were spiritual and mind-boggling,” Weintraub said. “It didn’t make me become Lubavitcher or Orthodox, (but) I started to work with them. And when I was brought to Brooklyn to meet the rebbe, it was eye-opening. It was amazing. I was in this room with many, many rabbis. He was a very small man. But when he walked in, everything stopped. The room parted. He walked through the room and when he got to the front, I was brought up to meet him. I saw his face and I thought, this is the most godly face I’ve ever seen. He was peaceful, serene. I said to myself, ‘This is as close as I’m ever going to get to God.’”

He said he’s never told anyone he almost died last year. But, in a conversation about religion, it felt natural to acknowledge he had an out-of-body experience.

“I had some kind of infection,” Weintraub says with his enthusiastic Bronx delivery. “I was upstairs (in his bedroom) for 16 weeks with an IV in me. I had nurses here 24 hours a day. I had doctors here. I had my family here. They thought I was going to die. I was on Oxycontin and Dilaudid for 16 weeks.

“I’m laying in bed and the doctor said, ‘Your sed rate is off the charts. We have a really bad problem. We think we should get your family here.’

“This was about four in the morning. I said, ‘I want my rabbi.’ So my rabbi came with his son. I thought, ‘This is it.’ I was saying goodbye. I was crying. I looked up at the rabbi and, I’m not frightened. I got less frightened (of death) last year because I lost a number of friends my own age. I went to visit them before they died, and they were comfortable with death. That gave me a different perspective.

“So I was laying there, and the rabbi was praying. The doctor was standing and looking at me. And the next thing I knew, I floated out of the window. I had an out-of-body experience. And when I floated out, I heard the rabbi yelling out out the window, ‘Don’t take him! We need him here! It’s not time!’

“And I saw that light everybody talks about. I can’t tell you the light was there because it’s been suggested to me so many times. Maybe it’s just in my mind. But I saw the light, and it was very calming. I was OK with dying. It was peaceful. No turmoil.

“The next thing I knew, I was back in the room. I woke up, and I was fine.

“You go through stuff like that, you can’t say this is just a coincidence. It was an important moment.”

Weintraub has made a career of working with charismatic actors and musicians. He said one of his secrets is that he, too, is charismatic.

“When I walk into a room, everything stops,” he says. “I’m a great storyteller, and I’m a magnet to people. I always have been. So, I understand that.”

But he says that, of all the charismatic people he’s met, none have had the charisma of Schneerson.

“The other day, (MSNBC morning host) Joe Scarborough asked me, ‘Who’s the most charismatic person you ever met?’ I said, ‘Ronald Reagan.’ And believe me, this man walked into a room and commanded the attention of everybody that was there.

“But, I should have said the rebbe.”