Nathan Abrams
By Nathan Abrams
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of The Tour De France
To paraphrase comedian Jackie Mason, is there a bigger schmuck in the world than a Jew on a bicycle? He might be right; after all, the link between Jews and cycling is seemingly tenuous. But, as the most prestigious cycling event in the world gets underway, there is an intriguing connection between Jews and the…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of Cricket
With the Cricket World Cup underway, what better time to reflect on the complex relationship between Jews and cricket, that most “English of English games,” which, above all, epitomizes the English gentleman. This is not to say that Jews have not enthusiastically played and followed cricket. The Australian batsman Julien Wiener was the son of…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History Of ‘Alien’
On the surface, there is nothing at all Jewish about Ridley Scott’s “Alien” (1979) which celebrates its fortieth birthday on May 25. But probe a little deeper and the film and its subsequent franchise owes its conception and execution to the work and ideas of many Jews, as well as bearing Jewish symbolism. Generically speaking,…
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Film & TV WATCH: Is Robert DeNiro’s New Ad Complicit In The Assimilation Of Bagels?
What is Jewish about Robert De Niro, Bolton, and Warburtons? On the surface, nothing. One is an actor known for primarily playing Italian-American roles. Another is a town in northwest England that once had a synagogue. And the other is a traditional English bakery firm. But what all these things have in common is the…
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Film & TV Rediscovered Stanley Kubrick Script Sheds Light On His Jewishness
An early screenplay Stanley Kubrick which was believed to have been lost just re-surfaced after sixty years. The screenplay, written in 1956, was titled “Burning Secret” and was an adaptation of Viennese novelist, Stefan Zweig’s 1913 novella of the same name. The novella is told from the perspective of a twelve-year old Jewish boy. He…
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Film & TV The Secret Jewish History Of Watership Down
Richard Adams never intended his 1972 novel, “Watership Down,” to be an allegory. And a book about a group of rabbits certainly doesn’t have a Jewish ring to it. Chocolate versions of them are eaten to celebrate Easter. They aren’t even kosher animals — despite the fact that they chew the cud, they don’t have…
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Culture Why ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ Was Really A Jewish Horror Movie
Fifty years ago, In 1968, Roman Polanski’s film “Rosemary’s Baby” was released. It helped to reinvent the modern horror genre. Other than the ethnicity of its director and the fact that it was set in Manhattan, the movie did not seem to be Jewish on the surface. Set in New York City, it tells the…
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Film & TV The Secret Jewish History Of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece “2001: A Space Odyssey” was released in April, 1968, which makes it fifty years old this year. It reinvented the science fiction genre but significantly was underpinned with Jewishness. “2001” was backed by MGM, a studio otherwise known as “Mayer’s Gantze Mishpochah.” It was perceived as a very Jewish firm abroad in…
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