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.

How the World Really Views Israel

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 18, 2018

This is an unusually upbeat article about Israel and its place in the postmodern world order. Normally, we tend to think of Israel as a country under endless political and diplomatic siege with the Jew-Haters of the BDSM movement circling like vultures. But a closer inspection reveals a more nuanced reality.

Israel and the Iroquois Nation came together this week — In Israel — at the Lacrosse World Championship. The Iroquois Nation team was subjected to enormous pressure to boycott, but they steadfastly refused to be swayed. The Iroquois, who invented Lacrosse in about 1100 CE, know a thing or two about indigenous peoples reclaiming their land. And they know a thing or two about Israel. Bravo to them.

Posted in Israel | Tagged Iroquois Nation, Israel, Lacrosse | Leave a comment

Public Union: Public Enemy

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 16, 2018

Public-sector unions have been gaming the political system for decades, bankrupting whole cities and plunging states into massive debt. How did this happen and can it be stopped? Akash Chougule, senior policy fellow for Americans for Prosperity, has the answers in this sobering video from Prager University.

Posted in Prager University, Unions | Tagged Akash Chougule, Collective Bargaining, FDR, Firefighters, JFK, Pension Plans, Police, Prager University, Public Unions, Public-Sector Unions, Sanitation Workers, Tax Payers, Teachers, Union Friendly Politicians | 1 Response

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 13, 2018

“A woman’s dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”
—Sophia Loren

Posted in Art, Art Deco, Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor, Fashion, Frank Capra, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Judaica, Judaism, Movie Posters, Movies, Myrna Loy, Painting, Photography, Propaganda War, Quotes, Rick McGinnis, Sophia Loren | Tagged André Kertész, Butterfield 8, Cary Grant, City Lights, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Capra, George Hoyningen-Huene, Greta Garbo, Irving Penn, Lorenzo Lotto, Myrna Loy, Rick McGinnis, Sophia Loren, Virginia Cherrill, Wristwatches | 17 Responses

Walking Away From the Democrats

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 11, 2018

You will be forgiven if you are not aware of the burgeoning #walkawaycampaign. The left wing media—which is to say the Praetorian Guard of the Democrat Party—has done everything in its power to make believe it does not exist.

Brendan Straka’s video (above) which kicked off the movement, is the spark that lit the fire.

I’d also like to add that if you support Israel against the IslamoNazis who call themselves Palestinians, a faux nationality dreamed up by the KGB in the 60s—then you really have to leave the Democrat party, which is increasingly hostile to Israel, and let’s face it, anti-Zionism is just another form of Jew-Hatred.

The main question I have about those who walkaway is: will they now vote Republican?

Over at Townhall, Joy Overbeck analyzes the importance of the #walkaway movement.

Posted in America, Democrat Fascists, Democrats, Walkaway | Tagged Brendan Straka, Joy Overbeck, Townhall, Walkaway | 4 Responses

So, You Think You’re Tolerant?

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 9, 2018

Are you tolerant? You probably think so. But who is tolerant in America today? Is it those on the left, or those on the right? In this video, Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report analyzes this question and shares his experience.

Posted in America, Prager University | Tagged Antifa Thugs, Dave Rubin, Liberal Intolerance, maxine waters, Men, Prager University, Pursuit of Happiness, Tolerance, Women | 3 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 6, 2018

In 1950 when 17 year old Elizabeth Taylor showed up in the Paramount lot to shoot A Place in the Sun, people were so astonished by her beauty that there was a subdued silence wherever she went. But then she entered the Writer’s Building and writer-director Billy Wilder glanced at her and cracked: “How the hell did she ever get into motion pictures?”

Posted in Art, Billy Wilder, Elizabeth Taylor, Ellen Burstyn, Hollywood, Lauren Bacall, Painting, Photography, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Cecil Beaton, Elizabeth Taylor, Ellen Burstyn, George Platt Lynes, George Stevens, Ginger Rogers, James Dean, James Nares, Jozef Israëls, Lauren Bacall, Lielle Meital, Paul Signac, Ursula Andress, Vintage Cars, Within These Walls, Wristwatches | 8 Responses

Independence Day: Once Upon A Time Hollywood Loved America

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 4, 2018

Betty Grable wishes America a happy and meaningful July 4th. G-d Bless America.

A long time ago, in a universe far far away, in a place called Hollywood, the movie studios and the actors who flourished in those dream factories, celebrated their love of America and enthusiastically indulged in overt displays of patriotism.

L.B. Mayer (b. Lazar Meir) the powerful head of MGM, was a pioneer of the motion-picture industry, and the man who invented the star system. Mayer adopted July 4th as his birthday. Scores of Hollywood historians get all snarky about Mayer’s birthday, claiming that he conveniently changed his birthday in order to cash in on a public identification with America.

What these historians fail to recognize is that Mayer probably did not know the date of his birth.

Posted in Ann Blyth, Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, Betty Grable, Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, Helen Twelvetrees, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, July 4th, Lana Turner, Madge Evans, Marilyn Monroe, Movies, Photography, Rita Hayworth | Tagged America, Anita Page, Ann Blythe, Ava Gardner, Betty, Betty Compson, Colleen Moore, Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, Helen Twelvetrees, Hollywood, Independence Day, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, July 4th, L.B. Mayer, Lana Turner, Leila Hyams, Ma'ayan Ariel, Madge Evans, Marian Marsh, Marilyn Monroe, Mary Doran, Patriotism, Rita Hayworth | 4 Responses

American Media, Soviet Tactics

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 2, 2018

The job of a journalist is to report facts, add context where necessary, and leave it to the consumer to decide what he thinks. In this video, James O’Keefe, founder and president of Project Veritas, explains why fewer and fewer people trust modern-day “journalism.”

Posted in Media, New York Times, Prager University, Propaganda War | Tagged Journalism, Leftist Media, Media Bias, New York Times, Prager University | 1 Response

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 29, 2018

“I’ll always regret that I didn’t have a normal childhood. Was a picture career worth the sacrifice? Well, yes…you can’t have everything.”
— Linda Darnell

Posted in Angela Lansbury, Art, Art Deco, Automobiles, Glamour, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Judaica, Judaism, Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Movie Posters, Movies, Painting, Quotes, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Angela Lansbury, Chaplin, Classic Cars, Cyd Charisse, Danielle Darrieux, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Édouard Joseph Dantan, Frank A. Rinehart, Gene Kelly, Gene Tierney, Georges Dambier, Horst, Lauren Bacall, Moshe Zabari, Roger Pérot, Suzy Parker, The Kid, Tobi Kahn | 3 Responses

Live: Jackie Danicki Delivers the Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 25, 2018

Every lecture delivered in memory of our son Ariel Chaim ZT’L is special. But this year’s lecture by our good friend Jackie Danicki is extraordinary.

Fifteen years ago Jackie and I met online after she wrote a beautiful comment on one of my earliest blogposts about our beloved son who had passed away.

Posted in Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Ariel Chaim Avrech, Jackie Danicki, Judaism | Tagged Ahava Ariel, Ariel Avrech, Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Conversion to Judaism, Judaism | 2 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 22, 2018

“A woman’s hands gets me every time. More than her face, figure, clothes, anything. The girl who, when she smokes, makes the cigarette seem a part of her hand. The girl who, when she kisses you, touches your face with her hands. That always gets me down for the count.”
– Cary Grant (Modern Screen, 1941)

Posted in Art, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Design, Dovima, Greer Garson, Hollywood, Ingrid Bergman, Israel, Joanne Woodward, Judaica, Judaism, Katherine Hepburn, Lielle Meital, Painting, Paul Newman, Photography, Quotes, Robert Mitchum | Tagged Alain Delon, Audrey Hepburn, Diane Arbus, Dovima, Elmer Fryer, Exodus, Funny Face, Irene Mayer Selznick, Irving Penn, Israel, Jack Garofalo, Joanne Woodward, Josette De Lima, Katherine Hepburn, Kodak, Minor White, Paul Newman, Paul Signac, Peter Brown, Robert Mitchum, Sari Srulovitch, Vintage Posters, Walter Pidgeon, Weegee | 7 Responses

Which Witch to Watch or 7 Movies About Witches

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 20, 2018

Lisbeth Movin as Anne in Day of Wrath.

Witchcraft and witches have been a favorite subject of films ever since the silent era. Witches secretly mask themselves in normalcy while deviously undermining society, orthodox religion, and free will.

Generally, films about witches fall into two general categories: those that believe in witches, and those that view witchcraft as a symptom of sexual repression.

Here are seven films about witches and witchcraft that should be screened.

Posted in Carl Dreyer, Hollywood, Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, Mia Farrow, Movies, Netflix, Roman Polanski, Val Lewton, Witches in Movies | Tagged Alex Essoe, Amazon Prime, Anna Taylor-Joy, Bell, Book & Candle, Day of Wrath, James Stewart, Jean Brooks, Lisbeth Movin, Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby, Starry Eyes, The Devil's Bride, The Seventh Victim, The VVitch, Tuulia Eloranta, Val Lewton | 3 Responses

What is Intersectionality

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 18, 2018

Intersectionality is the newest fad in political activism. What is it? Who’s involved? And, what does it even mean? Nobody is better prepared to answer these questions than Daily Wire editor-in-chief and podcast sensation, Ben Shapiro. He breaks it all down in this invaluable video.

Posted in America, Intersectionality, Prager University | Tagged Ben Shapiro, Intersectionality, Prager University | 1 Response

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 15, 2018

“I was born at the age of 12 on the MGM lot.”
—Judy Garland

Posted in Art, Carole Landis, Carole Lombard, Fashion, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Judaica, Judaism, Kim Novak, Movie Posters, Movies, Myrna Loy, Painting, Photography, Quotes, Rick McGinnis, True Hollywood Confessions, Veronica Lake, William Powell | Tagged Ambrosius Benson, Boris Grinsson, Carole Landis, Carole Lombard, David Hockney, Emil Heilborn, Eugene Robert Richee, French Movie Posters, Gene Kelly, Jean Loup Sieff, John McLaughlin, Judy garland, Kim Novak, Myrna Loy, Norman Norell, Norman Parkinson, Peter Paul Rubens, Rick McGinnis, Sari Srulovitch, Suri Srulovitch, Suzy Parker, Veronica Lake, Wenda Parkinson, William Powell | 4 Responses

Jackie Danicki’s Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture A Fitting Tribute

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 13, 2018

Jackie Danicki delivers the 15th Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, 6-10-’18
Photo by: Steve Cohn www.stevecohnphotography.com (310) 277-2054 © 2018 Steve Cohn Photography

Every lecture delivered in memory of our son Ariel Chaim ZT’L is special. But this year’s lecture by our good friend Jackie Danicki was extraordinary.

Fifteen years ago Jackie and I met online after she wrote a beautiful comment on one of my earliest blogposts about our beloved son who had passed away.

Posted in Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Ariel Chaim Avrech, Family, Jackie Danicki, Judaism | Tagged Ahava Ariel, Ariel Avrech, Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Conversion to Judaism, Jackie Danicki, Judaism | Leave a comment

Dangerous People Are Teaching Your Kids

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 11, 2018

You are currently funding some dangerous people. These people are indoctrinating young minds throughout the West with their ideology that’s built on resentment. In this video, Jordan Peterson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, explains who they are and how American parents and taxpayers have found themselves funding this dangerous gang of nihilists.

Posted in America, Free Market, Free Speech, Prager University | Tagged Dead White Males, Diversity, Education, Equity, Freedom of Speech, Identity Politics, Inclusion, Jordan Peterson, Karl Marx, Postmodernism, Prager University, Progressive Activism, Radical Left | 1 Response

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 8, 2018

Irving Penn, Sophia Loren, New York City, 1959
“I was born wise. Street-wise, people-wise, self-wise. This wisdom was my birthright. I was also born old. And illegitimate. But the two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty… I was not intrigued with the accouterments of success and fame, the furs, jewels, expensive automobiles and mansions… I can assure you that these things were not on my mind when I sat spellbound in that Pozzuoli movie house. It was what these performers on the screen were doing, not what they received for doing it.“
—Sophia Loren

Posted in Art, Automobiles, Design, Dorothy Gish, Dovima, Fashion, Friday Fotos, Glamour, Great Dialogue, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Israel, Judaica, Judaism, Marilyn Monroe, Painting, Photography, Quotes, Rick McGinnis, Rosalind Russell, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Barbara Mullen, Clyfford Still, Deep End, Dorothy Gish, Dovima, Joan Crawford, Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, Marilyn Monroe, Norman Parkinson, Sophia Loren, Strange Cargo | 2 Responses

Jackie Danicki to Deliver 15th Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 7, 2018

Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT’L

You are all invited to the Fifteenth Annual Ariel Avrech ZT’L Memorial Lecture that will take place this coming Sunday, June 10, 2018, at 10 AM, followed by brunch.

Location: Young Israel of Century City

9317 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90035

For those unable to attend the lecture will be posted here at Seraphic Secret.

Karen and I are delighted to announce that our good friend Jackie Danicki will deliver this year’s lecture:

“Confessions of a Convert: A Humbling, Joyful Journey to Judaism.”

Posted in Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Ariel Chaim Avrech, Jackie Danicki, Judaism | Tagged Ariel Avrech, Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Jackie Danicki, Young Israel of Century City | Leave a comment

The Tragedy of Hollywood Star Lupe Velez

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 5, 2018

Lupe Velez by George Hurrell

The lives of Hollywood stars are too frequently tragic tales of absent fathers, cruelly ambitious mothers, and madly dysfunctional families.

Mexican-American actress, Lupe Velez (July 18, 1908 – December 13, 1944) “The Mexican Spitfire” was a beautiful, passionate, emotionally fragile woman best known for a series of 1930’s B movies in which she plays a delightfully scatter-brained character who speaks broken English punctuated by rapid fire bursts of Spanish.

Posted in Esther Ralston, Hollywood, Lupe Velez, Silent Movies | Tagged Abortion, Douglas Fairbanks, Esther Ralston, Gary Cooper, Hollywood, Johnny Weissmuller, Lupe Velez, Mexican Spitfire, The Gaucho, Victor Fleming | 2 Responses

Adam Carolla: Don’t Make Things Worse

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 4, 2018

Adam Carolla, comedian, social critic and host of the wildly popular Adam Carolla podcast, delivers the 2018 commencement address for Prager U. He offers some sage advice and makes a heart-felt request — as only Adam can.

Posted in America, Free Market, Prager University | Tagged Adam Corolla, Feelings, Freedom, Jobs, Prager University, Voting, Work | Leave a comment

How I Married Karen

The new book
by Robert J. Avrech

Available in All Major Book Stores

Adobe Digital Edition's version is available through the Lulu store!
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.
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Annual Ariel Avrech
Memorial Lectures
Young Israel of Century City
NOTE: Click on video titles inside the thumbnail images, below, to open that video in YouTube

Fifteenth: June 10, 2018
Jackie Danicki: “Confessions of a Convert: A Humbling, Joyful Journey to Judaism.”

Blog Post | Audio: (94 MB)

Fourteenth: June 11, 2017
Daniel Greenfield: “Fighting Anti-Semitism and Defending Israel in the Age of BDS.”

Blog Post | Audio: (100 MB)

Thirteenth: May 22, 2016Ben Shapiro: “How You Can Save Israel”

Blog Post | Audio: (70 MB)

Twelfth: June 7, 2015
Larry Elder: “The New Black Anti-Semitism”

Blog Post | Audio: (100 MB)

Eleventh: June 8, 2014
Michael Medved: “Shifting Alliances: Why Liberals No Longer Reliably Support Israel — And Conservatives Do.”

Blog Post | Audio: (97MB)

Tenth: June 9, 2013
David Horowitz: “The War Against Judaism on the University Campus.”

Blog Post | Audio: (16MB)

Ninth: June 3, 2012
Joel B. Pollak: “The Mainstream Media’s Betrayal of Israel.”

Blog Post | Audio: (15MB)

Eighth: June 5, 2011
Yossi Klein Halevi: “What is Expected of a Survivor People: Lessons My Father Taught Me.”

Blog Post | Audio: (18MB)

Seventh: June 13, 2010
Dennis Prager: “Happiness is a Mitzvah, Not an Emotion.”

Blog Post | Audio: (80MB)

Sixth: June 21, 2009
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky: “Conformity in Jewish Life: Vice, Virtue or Affectation?”

Blog Post | Audio: (64MB)

Fifth: June 15, 2008
Rabbi Dr. Gil S. Perl: “What Was the Rosh Yeshiva Reading: Intellectual Openness in 19th Century Lithuania.”

Blog Post | Audio: (70MB)
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