Seraphic Secret | Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Religious Zionist. Republican. Movie fanatic. Gun owner. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

By Robert J. Avrech | January 27, 2012

Friday Fashion: Real Men Wear Pink

The Talmud (Shabbat 113a) tells us that Rabbi Yochanan called his clothing, “The things that honor me.”

Seraphic Secret believes that what we wear tells the world who we are and how we wish to be treated. If you dress like a slob and then get annoyed when people treat you like a slob, well, you only have yourself to blame. To ask people to see beyond clothing to the “real person” is a denial of reality. Clothing, male and female, is a great big sign, a cultural and frequently a religious signifier.

For everyday wear I favor L.L. Bean khakis, crisp button down cotton shirts, and slip-on loafers. It’s a classic Ivy League look that’s both comfortable and appropriate for shlepping around town.

To honor Shabbat, Jews are obligated (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 262:2-3) to wear their finest clothing. Thus, I wear a navy blue or charcoal gray suit, silk tie, pocket square, and a pink Brooks Brothers shirt.

Yup, pink for Shabbat.

Posted in Friday Fashion, Men's Fashion | Tagged Brooks Brothers, L.L. Bean, male fashion, masculinity, Pink, Pink Business Shirt, Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Rabbi Yochanan, Shabbat, shul, synagogue, Talmud | 2 Comments

By Robert J. Avrech | January 26, 2012

The Wisdom of Hollywood Screenwriters

Ben Hecht, screenwriter and novelist, the Shakespeare of Hollywood.

From where do we draw wisdom?

First and foremost, Seraphic Secret relies on the Torah—written and oral—on the lessons of 3,000 years of Jewish history, and on the common sense advice of my wife Karen.

And then there are the movies, a moral landscape of immeasurable power where searing images and razor-sharp dialogue deliver lessons in human character that, for better or for worse, shape modern man’s consciousness.

I know it seems ludicrous, if not downright blasphemous, noting Torah and movies as primary influences, but the mind of yours truly, a screenwriter and movie-lover, is a stage of raging intellectual conflicts.

Here are five slices of dialogue by some of of Hollywood’s finest screenwriters that brilliantly and economically unmask a raw and vulnerable humanity.

Posted in Hollywood, Screenwriting | Tagged Ace in the Hole, Beast of the City, Ben Hecht, Billy Wilder, China Seas, Clark Gable, Dalton Trumbo, Gone With the Wind, Gun Crazy, James Kevin McGuiness, Jan Sterling, Jean Harlow, Jo Swerling, John Lee Mahin, John Van Druten, Jules Furthman, Kirk Douglas, Lesser Samuels, MacKinlay Kantor, Oliver H.P. Garrett, Sidney Howard, Victor Desny, Vivien Leigh, W.R. Burnett, Walter Newman | 6 Comments

By Robert J. Avrech | January 25, 2012

Obama’s Devils

Last night President Obama delivered the first major speech of his reelection campaign. There is no state of the union. As always, there is only the narcissist-in-charge and his free-spending empress—Michelle was wearing a $2,400 Barbara Tfank dress.

Within Obama’s relentless demagoguery about fairness there is an ugly Stalinist theme of class warfare. Stalin played this card in order to liquidate millions of Kulaks, those who opposed collectivization. Obama wishes to liquidate the capital of hard-working Americans in order to establish a utopian reign of equality and fairness.

Of course it’s Obama and his fellow millionaire Socialists who decide what’s fair and what’s equal.

Posted in Obama Watch | Tagged Class Warfare, Eric Hoffer, Michelle Obama, Mitch Daniels, Stalin, State of the Union Speech, The Great Purge | 15 Comments

By Robert J. Avrech | January 24, 2012

Taliban Release Horrific Snuff Video, World Yawns

We have yet to hear Leon Panetta state that he finds the Taliban war crimes “utterly deplorable.”

When a few Marines urinated on the bodies of dead Taliban terrorists in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, the outcry from the the chattering classes was immediate and very loud.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta condemned the battlefield action as “utterly deplorable.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “total dismay.”

That two senior American government officials even commented on such a minor incident is evidence that the Obama administration is in perpetual appeasement and apology mode to the world’s most deplorable players.

General Patton expresses his contempt for the enemy by urinating in the Rhine, March 24, 1945.

Let us recall that Gen. George S. Patton urinated in the Rhine in 1945. Continuing this traditional method of expressing contempt for the enemy, Winston Churchill urinated on the Siegfried Line that same year. The only difference being that Churchill was politically more cautious than Patton—to say the least—and forbade any photos.

Marines should, from now on, take a page from Churchill’s playbook. Keep urinating—when you gotta go on terrorists you gotta go—but for goodness sake, don’t film it.

Meanwhile, as the barbarous Taliban continue their reign of terror with a truly horrifying mass murder filmed for maximum exposure, we have yet to hear cries of outrage from Panetta or Clinton.

Posted in Afghanistan, Islamic Terror, Taliban | Tagged George S. Patton, Urinating on the Enemy, Winston Churchill | 6 Comments

By Robert J. Avrech | January 23, 2012

PA Mufti Calls for the Killing of Jews

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The original mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini, was an admirer and ally of Hitler and Mussolini. He helped recruit Muslims for the Waffen-SS. This practitioner of the religion of peace was a mafia-like thug who slaughtered his numerous Arab enemies even as he inspired and led bloody pogroms while calling for jihad and the genocide of the Jewish people.

The current mufti of Jerusalem is no different from his predecessor. But this mufti sends out his call for genocide over official, U.S. funded—our tax dollars art work—Palestinian TV.

The PA, you will be amused to know, has been labeled moderate by the chattering classes. Which makes about as much sense as a moderate Nazi.

Posted in Islamic Terror, Israel, Jew-haters | Tagged Genocide, Islamic Nazi Collaborators, Mufti of Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority | 4 Comments

By Robert J. Avrech | January 20, 2012

Friday Fashion: Hollywood Males It In

Charlie Chaplin, 1924, the image of effortless style.

The operative word is effortless.

In truth, Chaplin’s style was only achieved through the superlative tailoring of the English Savile Row firm, Anderson & Sheppard.

As the new book, Anderson & Sheppard: A Style is Born, edited by Graydon Carter and Cullen Murphy, makes clear, the venerable British tailors shunned actors and other show-biz types as vulgarians. But soon enough, the vast wealth of Hollywood’s elite broke down the walls of class snobbery and a who’s who of male Hollywood royalty—more apt to pay their bills than the increasingly impoverished British aristocracy—became life-long Anderson & Sheppard clients.

Here are just a few of the Hollywood males who beat a path to No. 30 Savile Row for the painstaking, detailed craftmanship of this exclusive firm.

Posted in Books, Clark Gable, Friday Fashion, Hollywood, Joan Crawford, Men's Fashion, Rudolph Valentino | Tagged Anderson & Sheppard, Anderson & Sheppard: A Style is Born, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Hollywood Glamour, Marlene Dietrich, Savile Row, Victor Fleming, Vivien Leigh | 6 Comments

By Robert J. Avrech | January 19, 2012

Nuns in Hollywood

Still from “Marketa Lazarova,” 1967, a Czechoslovakian film I have screened about half a dozen times and have yet to understand what the heck is going on. But the imagery is haunting and spectacular.

Hollywood has always been fascinated by trashy vamps and holy nuns. Obviously, these polar opposites provoke strong reactions in audiences. Actresses are invariably drawn to playing these roles for both trade in extremes of sexuality: promiscuity and celibacy, great showcases for any thespian.

Over the past few months, just by chance, I’ve screened several movies that tell the story of a nun. Invariably, each film is a love story, supporting Seraphic Secret’s Rule #1 of Hollywood narrative: Every great movie is a love story.

Posted in Audrey Hepburn, Lillian Gish, Nuns in Hollywood | Tagged Audrey Hepburn, Black Narcissus, Carroll Baker, Deborah Kerr, Dolores Hart, Elvis Presley, Flora Robson, King Creole, Lillian Gish, Marketa Lazarova, Roger Moore, Ronald Colman, The Miracle, The Nun's Story, The White Sister, Where the Boys Are | 24 Comments

By Robert J. Avrech | January 18, 2012

“If Iran Goes Nuclear There Won’t Be a Debt To Worry About!”

Reverend Dr. DeeDee M. Coleman is the Pastor of the Russell Street Missionary Baptist Church in Oak Park, Michigan.

This past Shabbat, Rev. Dr. DeeDee M. Coleman and Bishop Kenneth Ulmer were guest speakers at my synagogue, the Young Israel of Century City. Articulate and impressive religious and political thinkers, these Christian leaders are in the forefront of a new movement in some black churches—black churches are the engine of black politics—to forge ties with the American Jewish community. As strong supporters of Israel and active in AIPAC, both Rev. Dee Dee and Bishop Ulmer spoke of their profound concern for Israel’s security and existence.

As Rev. Dee Dee stated: “Of course the national debt is a major concern for American voters, but if Iran goes nuclear there won’t be a debt to worry about!”

At the end of their talk, we gave our Christian friends a standing ovation.

Posted in Iran, Israel | Tagged Black Churches, Dee Dee Coleman, Jews & Blacks, Kenneth Unger, Nuclear Iran | 13 Comments

By Robert J. Avrech | January 17, 2012

The Jews Gave Me Wonderful Medical Care Because They Are Evil

Ilse van Heusden, Jew-hater.

The hydra head of Jew-hatred appears in an article by Ilse van Heusden, a Dutch woman who gave birth to a healthy boy in Israel. She points out that her medical care was excellent. In fact, too excellent, proof positive that Israel is a rascist society.

To be pregnant in Israel is comparable to a military operation. Countless echos and blood tests should produce the perfect baby, nothing can be left to the luck of the draw. The state demands healthy babies and a lot of them too.

Van Heusden’s article, published in the Dutch Christian daily Trouw, portrays Israeli prenatal care as a military operation by a state obsessed with producing perfect babies. Her imagery is meant to conjure images of a cold Spartan state that breeds healthy children for military service. And of course, her carefully chosen language evokes memories of Nazi superbabies bred by pliant frauleins.

As van Heusden writes: “The chosen people have to be perfect.”

Ilse van Heusden’s Israeli doctors discovered that she carried the CMV virus, the reason she had to undergo multiple tests. In her article she admits that CMV can cause severe damage to the fetus. Yet van Heusden chooses to interpret the exquisite care she received—a non-Jew and a non-resident of the Jewish State—in the most negative light possible.

Ilse van Heusden’s article is a study in classic Jew-hatred using the Progressive rhetoric of the left.

Posted in Israel, Jew-haters | Tagged European Jew-Hatred, Ilse van Heusden, Trouw | 16 Comments

By Robert J. Avrech | January 16, 2012

Israel-Iran: The Shadow War

The coffin of nuclear scientist Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan is paraded through the streets of Tehran. Picture: AP Source: AP

As the 2012 presidential election draws near, Barack Obama has abandoned his failed presidency in favor of doing what he does best: running for office.

More than anything, Obama fears an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Such a strike would probably raise the price of oil and initiate all sorts of military and diplomatic crisis for which Obama is most certainly unprepared. Thus, Obama is putting a full court press on Israel not to act against Iran. Joint US/Israeli military exercises have been ominously postponed. The recent sanctions against Iran have been watered down by Obama and the Democrats on the Hill. And besides, economic sanctions have never been an effective method by which to deter dictators.

By now, everyone knows that Netanyahu has contempt for Obama. The Israeli PM considers Obama an ignoramus when it comes to the Mideast and deeply hostile to the Jewish State. Obama feels that Netanyahu is arrogant, an uppity Jew who is not properly deferential to the, ahem, smartest US president ever.

Of course, Israel counts on America’s support and will do everything possible to pacify Obama. But a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, not just to Israel, but to the Sunni Gulf states. Even the militarily toothless Europeans must realize by now that a nuclear armed Iran is an existential threat to their already shaky financial foundations. Iran’s petro-power backed up by nuclear arms will bring Europe to its knees.

Meanwhile, Israel plans her strike—with our without America—and continues a delaying action against the Iranian threat through covert actions in a shadow war.

The following story cannot be verified, and as my friend Carl, at Israel Matzav points out, co-author Uzi Mahnaimi has been accused of sensationalism in past reporting, but this piece of journalism sounds about right. And let’s not forget that thousands of Iranian Jews have fled Iran. As native Farsi speakers with perfect regional accents, well-trained Mossad agents can blend into Iranian society with relative ease.

Posted in Iran, Israel | Tagged American Israeli Tensions, Mossad, Natanyahu, Nuclear Iran, Obama, Shadow War | 7 Comments

About Me
Robert J. Avrech
Los Angeles, California
I'm an Emmy Award winning screenwriter. I'm also an observant Jew, a religious Zionist, a conservative Republican, and a member of the NRA. I've been writing and producing in Hollywood for over twenty-five years. But the focus of my life is my family: my radiant wife, Karen—with whom I have been in love with since I was nine years-old—and my two daughters, who, thankfully, look like Karen. Not too long ago, we had three children. But our son, Ariel, died at the age of twenty-two from cancer. We miss him terribly. We think about him practically every minute of every day. People tell us that time heals, but Karen and I know this is not true. Time grinds away doing its terrible work. Ariel is gone. Yet absence becomes presence.

Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
NOTE: Mac users will need to download a Windows Media Player for the Mac before viewing the videos below.

2011
video wmv [499MB]:

audio-only mp3 [18MB]: Eighth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2010
video wmv [540MB]:

audio-only mp3 [80MB]: Seventh Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2009
video wmv [332MB]:

audio-only mp3 [64MB]: Sixth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2008
video wmv [359MB]:

audio-only mp3 [70MB]: Fifth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

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