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The Four Jewish Immigrants Who Created Hollywood as We Know It

Nov. 30 2017

The three eldest Wonsal brothers were born in the Russian empire; a fourth was born during a stopover in Canada during their family’s migration to America. Taking the name Warner, the Wonsals eventually settled in Baltimore where, even as teenagers, the brothers dreamed of making movies. Reviewing a new book by David Thompson about the brothers and Warner Bros. studio, Linda Tucker writes:

[The] book reveals the brothers’ underlying reason for the movies they chose: their desire to leave behind the ways of the old country and become steeped in the American myth, transforming the way they and the rest of the country saw themselves. . . . The brothers’ first significant production was My Four Years in Germany, based on a sensationalist book, in 1918—[a film intended to support the U.S. effort in World War I].

The Jazz Singer, which came out in 1927, was the historic turning point for Warner Bros. It was about one character’s struggle to be both Jewish and American—a cantor’s son and a vaudeville entertainer. Al Jolson, the star, personified Jewish storytelling for a universal audience. Sam Warner was the one who pushed for the movie to have sound, and Jack signed Jolson. . . .

But the Warners were anxious for theirs not to seem like a Jewish business; they wanted to be American. Casablanca, released in 1942, did not emphasize the Jewish experience. It is also the most celebrated movie the Warners ever made—and one of the most cherished in Hollywood. [Thompson writes]: “A big element in the charm of Casablanca is that underlying air of comradeship, and of an international cast coming together at a moment when everyone was appreciating how the war was turning strangers into allies. [Humphrey] Bogart and Dooley Wilson were the only Americans with sizable roles.”

Read more at Moment

More about: American Jews, History & Ideas, Hollywood, Immigration

The Summary: 10/7/20

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.

Read more at Mosaic