'Harry & Eddie': From LI to Off-Broadway

"Without this odd-couple friendship, would there be a State of Israel?" Hicksville playwright Mark Weston asks. "We'll never know."

Thursday night, Weston's "Harry & Eddie: The Birth of Israel" opens Off-Broadway at St. Luke's Theatre with an all-Long Island cast directed by Bob Spiotto, producer of Hofstra Entertainment and artistic director of Hofstra Cultural Center. It was in his latter role that Spiotto discovered this little-known story about how President Harry S. Truman's relationship with Eddie Jacobson led to Israel's creation in 1948.

"In 2008, we were looking for a theater piece for Hofstra's observance of Israel's 60th birthday," Spiotto recalls. Guild Hall had done a reading in East Hampton with Eli Wallach. "I read the script and said, 'This was meant to be.' "

"If there's one thing I hear from people who see this play," says Weston, "it's 'I never knew.' "

ARMY BUDDIES Jacobson, a Jewish hat salesman, and Truman were put in charge of a foundering Army canteen during World War I. After the war, the two Missourians opened a haberdashery in Kansas City. The Depression put them out of business and they parted ways: Jacobson back to the road as a traveling salesman, Truman to politics.

In 1948, Zionists sought President Truman's support in the United Nations' recognition of Israel. Jacobson lobbied his friend for their cause.

"It was no sure thing," says Weston, whose works include another history play, "The Ninth of April," about Appomattox. "Bess Wallace's family were anti-Semites," says Weston, referring to Truman's wife. He points out that Truman insisted his middle initial didn't stand for anything. "It was just an S, he always said." But Weston says the S may have stood for Solomon, honoring his grandfather Solomon Young.

HOFSTRA CONNECTIONS Spiotto cast Dan Hicks of Greenlawn as Truman. The director says, "Dan prefers new works," most recently the world premiere of "Oswald." The director's fellow Hofstra alums Rick Grossman, who got his start as a Yiddish theater child actor, and Lydia Gladstone, an actress and costume designer, play Eddie and his wife, Bluma.

As in the drama itself, back-channel connections played a role in landing an Off-Broadway venue for "Harry & Eddie." Grossman brought it to the attention of an old friend, St. Luke's producer Ed Gaynes. "St. Luke's is where 'Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding' played for so long," recalls Spiotto. That show was created by Hofstra's Artificial Intelligence comedy troupe.

WHAT "Harry & Eddie: The Birth of Israel"

WHEN | WHERE Thursdays at 8, Sundays and Wednesdays at 2 p.m., St. Luke's Theatre, 308 W. 46th St., Manhattan

INFO $36.50-$59.50; telecharge.com, 212-239-6200