 |
|
February 13, 2012
Binyamin Rose: Back to the Bunker: How a life-risking act by a Christian family during the Holocaust saved a family and built a thriving community a world away
Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
|
| |
Jewish World Review
May 17, 2004
/ 26 Iyar, 5764
Jewz in the Newz
By
Nate Bloom
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
The critically acclaimed HBO "Deadwood" prominently features SOL STAR, a likeable Jewish shopkeeper character. Star, who really lived, was one of the many Jewish pioneers in the frontier town. There's even a large Deadwood "Hebrew cemetery" dating back more than a century.
Sol Star was born in Bavaria, Germany in 1840. He moved to the States in 1850 and quickly settled in Montana, where he went into the hardware business with his friend, Seth Bullock. South Dakota's gold rush drew the pair to Deadwood and they ended up as prosperous hardware merchants.
Star, who died in 1917, was a Republican state legislator as well as being Deadwood's mayor for 14 years. Meanwhile, Bullock, as shown in the series, became the sheriff whom "cleaned Deadwood up."
Recently, Mary Kopco, head of Deadwood's "Adams House" museum, spoke to the Rapid City Journal (SD) about Deadwood's history; her help with the series' historic research; and the huge increase in visits to the museum website since the series began (www.adamsmuseumandhouse.org). She told the Journal that Museum's web page profile of Sol Star is one of the most popular. (There's also a nice photograph of Star on the museum website.)
Deadwood series creator-writer DAVID MILCH, who also co-created "NYPD Blue" and "Hill Street Blues," told the Journal that he has discussed Star's Jewish background with John Hawkes, the non-Jewish actor who plays Star. While Star's actual personality isn't that well know, some educated guesses can be made. Hawkes told the Journal that he agreed with Milch that Sol's Jewish background made it likely that Star would have been an even-tempered guy anxious to fit in. Hawkes said the he and Milch have discussed the idea that Jews "tend be more aware of their surroundings and the importance of fitting in." As Hawkes put it, "His [Star's] survival skills are high...He sees the big picture. He knows it is smarter to live to fight another day."
PASSOVER NIBBLES
In March's Modern Maturity, BILLY CRYSTAL relates that Louis Armstrong came to a seder at Crystal's childhood home. He was a guest of Crystal's uncle, the famous music producer MILT GABLE. Armstrong, of course, was noted for his very raspy voice. Crystal's grandmother came up to Armstrong and said, "Louis, have you ever tried just clearing your throat, just coughing it up?"
Well, I guess New York Mayor MICHAEL BLOOMBERG celebrated Passover with his 95-year-old mother. He is reported to have bought her a seder plate when he was in Jerusalem last year on a morale-boosting visit.
Credit CAMRYN MANHEIM, the star of TV's "The Practice," with the first reported usage of the term "power seder." She told the Boston Globe last year that she invited young director ELI ROTH ("Cabin Fever") to a "power seder" at her house shortly after he moved to L.A. in 1999. Roth met several people at the seder who hardly could be called major players, but they did end up collaborating with him on professional projects.
The recent DVD release of "Schindler's List" made me recall a STEVEN SPIELBERG Passover story. Shortly after the film came out, Spielberg told Inside Film magazine: "Many of [the young German actors playing Nazis] ... would confess to me that their parents were involved in the war, in the military and often they would just say to me, 'Thank you for letting me resolve my secrets by playing in your movie.' The most moving thing that happened for me was on Passover. We had Passover at the hotel and all the young German actors ... came in with yarmulkes and Haggadahs and sat with the Israeli actors and took part in the Passover service. I wept like a baby."
Just before Passover, ROSEANNE BARR and JOAN RIVERS mentioned two very different menus for their upcoming Passover seders. Roseanne does the voice of a cow in the new Disney animated film "Home on the Range." She told Zap2it.com that she often visited dairy farms while growing up in Utah. Roseanne added, with a laugh, "I thought it was very honorable to play a cow, especially one with such good intentions. To play this role, I was fortunately able to connect with, what do you call it, my inner cow." However, playing an animal, she noted, has not turned her into a veggie, "I do the Passover thing, with the lamb and all that stuff."
Meanwhile, Rivers is featured in a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) press release so bizarre that we have to quote it: "Can we talk about what you're having for Passover dinner? Joan Rivers has a suggestion: faux pork! Just in time for the seder supper, Rivers ... has recorded a new message for PETA's toll-free veggie hotline ... extolling the virtues of passing over the pork and going with the faux. Says Rivers, 'This year, you can pig out at Passover — you can put some pork on your fork, and it's kosher! I'm not talking about eating a dead pig — yuck! I'm talking about fakin' bacon, pseudo-sausage, pigless pork chops. ... And besides, eating kosher faux pork lets you pig out without porking up.' "Callers to the hotline are asked to leave their name and address for a free 'Passover the Pork' pack that contains information on where to buy faux pork and other mock meats ..." (It's all on the peta.org Web site.) PETA, you may recall, has also made "tasteful" ads comparing the slaughter of animals to the Holocaust. It is just grotesque to consider even mock pork as appropriate for Passover. PETA and Rivers demonstrate the intelligence/sensitivity of a horse ... radish.
WEINERMANIA
Last fall, this column noted that Jewish author JENNIFER WEINER's best-selling first novel, "Good in Bed," about a young Jewish woman's romantic and career adventures, may be turned into an HBO series. As we previously noted, "Good in Bed," is not nearly as racy as the title might lead you to believe. It refers to an incident early in the novel when the heroine's long-term ex-boyfriend mortifies her by describing her in his newspaper column as heavy, "but good in bed."
Weiner's second novel, "In Her Shoes," is now filming. We caught up with author in early April and she graciously consented to an interview.
"Shoes" is the story of two very different twentysomething Jewish sisters. One is heavy-set (like the heroine of "Good in Bed") and successful. The other is thin and beautiful, but her personal life and career are a mess. Both novels end on a happy note, with the heavy-set character finding the Jewish mensch of her dreams.
Cameron Diaz plays the wild sister in "In Her Shoes." Weiner told me that she pointed out to the studio that Diaz doesn't "look Jewish." The solution was to make the sisters "half Jewish" on their father's side. (Shirley Maclaine is playing their maternal grandmother.)
Australian actress Toni Collette, best known for "Muriel's Wedding," plays "Rose," the heavy-set sister. Collette, like Diaz, isn't Jewish in real life. However, as Ms. Weiner puts it, "she's A., an astonishing actress, and B., one of the few actresses who IS willing to gain weight for a role. She did gain weight to play Rose...and the studio paid for her personal trainer so that she could lose it once filming was over!"
So far, Weiner has met one "Shoes" cast member: Jewish actor MARC FEUERSTEIN, who plays the Jewish mensch boyfriend. By coincidence, both are Princeton graduates. She has visited the set, and says, "They are doing an amazing job."
As one might expect, not everything in the book is in the film. However, Weiner told me, "The bones of the book — its heart and soul, its themes and even some of my dialogue — is very much intact." Weiner added that the Jewish wedding at the end of "Shoes" will be "performed by an actual rabbi."
I asked Weiner about life imitating art, in that the heroine of "Good in Bed," like Weiner, becomes a sucessful writer for Hollywood. She responded: "Sometimes I feel like it's life repeating art, and sometimes, in my
delusions-of-grandeur moments, I imagine that I actually managed to write what my own future would become — the house, the wonderful [Jewish] husband, the baby girl, the Hollywood deals. What's surprising is how little my life has really changed. My bank account has changed, but as far as the day to day-ness of my life — grocery shopping, walking the baby, walking the dog — there's not a lot that's different. My friends are still my friends, my family still makes fun of me, it's all very normal, and very nice."
"Shoes" comes out in 2005. Meanwhile, the HBO project is still alive, but Weiner is not allowed to talk about it.
As an editorial note, we described Weiner's first two novels to a Jewish friend this way: they are not high art nor are they probably for the most traditional sections of the Jewish community. However, they are very good reads with a lot of dialogue that rings very true. They are about families that are quite Jewish in their cultural and religious background and are conscious of their Jewishness. Nonetheless, one certainly doesn't have to be Jewish to relate to these stories of a young adult woman's relationships with her peers, her colleagues, and with her family. They are often very funny, especially when the novels' respective heroines gets off comeback lines we only wish we were clever enough to come up with in real life.
(Best selling novelist Jennifer Weiner maintains a great web site at www.Jenniferweiner.com and you can read the first chapters of her novels on the site.)
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
California-based Nate Bloom writes a column on Jewish celebrity news that appears weekly in the Baltimore Jewish Times and in JWeekly, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California. A monthly version appears in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix. Column items often appear in the Detroit Jewish News. Bloom will appear twice a month in Jewish World Review. While most column items in JWR are recent "best of"s from his newspaper column, Bloom sometimes will include in this column some items not appearing in his column and/or will expand on items that had to be shorter due to the space limitations of a newspaper. If you are interested in having Bloom's column appear in your paper or publication contact him at here.
Bloom is also the editor of www.Jewhoo.com, a web site that covers famous Jews in the arts, sports, and sciences. A long planned overhaul of the site will begin in the not-too-distant future. This may include a name change.
To comment on this column, please click here.
© 2004, Nate Bloom
|
