Currently Browsing: Nathan Abrams 76 articles
Alan Parker’s Five Most Jewish Films
While he was not Jewish, Alan Parker who passed away on July 31st, created some memorable Jewish moments onscreen. Here are the top five. The Evacuees (1975) The Evacuees was an episode of the BBC’s Play for Today series written by Jack Rosenthal. Loosely based on Rosenthal’s own experiences of World War Two, it focuses on the lives of […]
Why we need more research on how Anglo-Jewry profited from slavery
Jews were not overrpresented in the slave trade but we still have a difficult history to confront. Nathan and Jonathan Abrams call for more research to assess Anglo-Jewry’s legacy of slavery. The database of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership makes interesting reading and some of it is not so comfortable for England’s Jews. It reveals […]
Marmite? Hummus? Am I hearin’ you right?
If, to paraphrase the great Lenny Bruce, hummus is Jewish, then Marmite is definitely goyish. But what do you do when the two are combined into, wait for it, Marmite hummus? It sounds like an abomination, two ingredients that should never meet, like shatnez or mixing milk and meat. Really, we shouldn’t be surprised by this hybrid given that they’ve added Marmite to Mini […]
The Secret Jewish History of Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was released 60 years ago last month, and it has a secret Jewish history. The film was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch who was a Jewish author. Bloch based his story around the real-life serial killer, Ed Gein, who himself was influenced by Nazi atrocities. He had fashioned household items from the remains of his […]
Is Clueless Really Jew-less?
Clueless celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this week but its director, Amy Heckerling, has denied that its iconic lead character was even Jewish. ‘I wasn’t thinking in terms of this being a Jewish story’, she said in an interview with the JTA. ‘I was taking the plot of Jane Austen’s “Emma” and translating it into that world.’ And, […]
A welcome democratisation of British Jewish culture
For me, the pandemic has produced a welcome democratisation of British Jewish culture. No longer is living in a remote fringe of the United Kingdom, a hindrance to full participation in British Jewish cultural life. The current situation has led to a levelling up: Jewish culture, once previously inaccessible either because of location and/or cost, is now free and accessible. I no longer […]