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July 31, 2008
How Arab Children Spend Their Summer Vacations: Learning to Kill Jews
Arab girls in Gaza summer practice killing Jews with a
model of a Quds missile.
I'm sitting here working on a script. There's a Reluctant Hero overcoming all sorts of impossible obstacles in order to achieve his goal. There's The Love Interest, a wise-cracking babe who's like totally messing with Reluctant Hero's head. She's Gloria Grahame—but even scarier, which is to say your basic irresistible femme fatale. There are my antagonists, really bad guys, from a really sick culture, out to destroy my really Reluctant Hero and subvert his really important mission.
Gloria Grahame, femme fatale, A Woman's Secret (1949)
At one point, I get kind of stuck. I dunno, sometimes my brain just goes thataway.
Quick, dial up my agent using my new Bluetooth device—oh man, I feel just like Buck Rogers—my agent is reassuringly down to earth, a great sounding board and I go:
“I'm stuck here because blah, blah, blah.”
My agent goes: “Set up a battle, and have your hero kill a whole bunch of bad guys, and we think it's all over, but then, somehow, it turns around and your hero is in even deeper do. Then in Act III you get to pull him out and he completely annihilates the bad guys and their entire set-up. A real blood bath. Good triumphs over evil. Any other questions?”
I'm like, okey dokey.
My agent's also an arch Hollywood liberal—big shockeroo—and we have a great time kibitzing each other.
I tell him he's voting for Obama because B'O looks like that tedious and saintly black Pres. from "24."
He tells me I'm a trigger happy war monger.
Innocent delivery: “What's wrong with that?”
Anyhoo.
After getting this great script advice I cleverly ask my agent about the ongoing negotiations between Israel and Mahmoud Abbas, whose authority extends maybe to the bathroom in the Muqata.
“Israel has to make difficult choices, make some difficult concession,” my agent recites. I'm pretty sure he memorizes the Op-Ed pieces by Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times.
I e-mail him the story below with this note:
Hey, don't you think that a culture that marinates its young in hate, violence, death and Jew-hatred deserves to be treated like the bad guys in my script, y'know, total annihilation?
My agent writes back:
Robert, there is a difference between movies and reality.
I shoot back:
That's a vicious rumor!
My agent responds:
Robert, I'm really worried about your mental health.
Okay, maybe I'm not too normal, but I am sane enough to be worried about a political mind-set that is determined to appease a culture of Islamo Nazis. Olmert might be stepping down—someday—but his approach to the Islamic terrorist culture lives on.
Palestinian children on annual vacation can choose between Hamas or Islamic Jihad summer camps, both of which boast militia-style training, Koran classes, lessons on political prisoners.
In the Gaza Strip, as in Israel, children are currently in the midst of summer vacation, and the Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s “summer camps” are in full gear. In the past few weeks, the Palestinian groups have been holding camps throughout the strip, some of them proudly displaying rockets and other weaponry.
Hamas alone is currently conducting no less than 300 summer camps for tens of thousands of children, and the focus is on familiarizing kids with the Palestinian towns and cities destroyed in 1948, as well as instilling religious fervor in them. The camps also feature sports and military-type trainings such as crawling under barbed-wire.
Islamic Jihad has also launched its own summer camps, offering some 10,000 children activities similar to those of Hamas. The kids study passages from the Koran and participate in quizzes on religious matters, with emphasis on the required commitment to political prisoners and Palestinian land. They also learn how to hold a Qassam rocket-launcher.
For the complete story, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:06 AM | Comments (15)
July 30, 2008
The Madge Bellamy Acting Workshop
Madge Bellamy postcard
A few years ago, I was up in Toronto, on location for Within These Walls, a film the Academy Award winning actress Ellen Burstyn, acting as producer and star, asked me to write. Ellen, one of the great actresses in Hollywood, past and present, discovered the true story and immediately realized its potential as a powerful and entertaining film. The challenge of playing a hardened murderess who is redeemed by learning to train and love dogs, greatly appealed to Ms. Burstyn.
During the first week of production, one of the featured actresses—not Ellen—knocked on my hotel door and asked if she could discuss her role with me.
Of course I sat down with the actress—a recognized and respected talent—and we discussed her role, the character's history, motivation, and dramatic arc. The actress relentlessly probed every single line of dialog. She challenged me to defend all the hard decisions I'd made in writing the character.
I kept saying:
“I think you do this because...”
“I think you feel this because...”
“I think the big turning point is when...”
The Actress kept saying:
“I feel that I do this because...”
“I feel that my character experiences this because...”
”I feel that my character...
I short: I was thinking and she was feeling.
The great liberal, conservative divide as applied to a film.
It was a long night, but because film is a collaborative craft, and because I respected the actress and she—I think—respected me, we each made concessions, and ultimately the character that emerges in this fine and touching film is richer, more complex than I originally imagined. The actress turned in a stupendous performance. After a few days of watching rushes, I took the actress aside and said:
“You're making me look good.”
“Honey, I'm just doing my job,” she purred.
Which brings me to Madge Bellamy.
Madge Bellamy, studio publicity photo
A huge Hollywood star in the early 20's, most of Bellamy's early, silent work has been lost. But you can still see her in starring roles in John Ford's Iron Horse (1924) and Maurice Tourneur's Lorna Doon (1922). In the sound era, Madge's most famous role is as Madeleine Parker, in White Zombie, with Bela Lugosi (1932), a cult classic.
Tragically, Madge was one of the most self-destructive Hollywood stars of all time. In a town where players excel at self-annihilating behavior, that's quite an accomplishment. In 1943 Madge shot her lover, Stanwood Murphy. The massive publicity and resulting scandal destroyed her already sputtering career. Regarding the shooting Madge said: “I only winged him, which is what I meant to do. Believe me, I'm a crack shot.”
Madge Bellamy, cover of Photoplay Magazine,
January, 1929
But for now, let's leave scandal behind and focus on how Madge learned to act in motion pictures as revealed in a fascinating interview from Photoplay Magazine, Oct. 1927.
Madge had the unfortunate reputation of being a dumb actress—probably because she made a series of disastrous career choices and insulted so many powerful Hollywood moguls. She walked out of L.B. Mayer's office as he announced that he wanted to cast her in the starring role of his next film. Madge explained that Mayer didn't stand up to greet her like a proper gentleman.
Big mistake.
However, as you can see from this excerpt, Madge Bellamy was unusually bright and articulate. Unfortunately, then and now, beautiful women are often ruthlessly stripped of their brains by bright people who should know better.
“Acting,” for instance. “I always thought that acting was a question of emotions—that you felt a scene and played it as you felt it.”
“Well, I was wrong about that. Acting is a matter of intelligence and observation. You don't have to feel an emotion to portray it. You must observe how other people express their emotions.”
“Mr. Dwan [Alan Dwan, the great, pioneering director] and I had an interesting conversation on the set this morning. I had been playing a sad scene and when I finished, Mr. Dwan asked me what I had been thinking about. And I told him I had been thinking about something sad. 'Well,' said Mr. Dwan, 'you should have been thinking of the muscles of your face.'”
“Now I see what has been wrong with me. I have been trying to feel emotions and express them. I have never thought much about the technique; I simply wanted to be sincere. That was a mistake.”
“So I have been sitting here practicing with the muscles of my face. Look!” And Miss Bellamy drew here eyebrows. Instantly, the tears slowly rose to her eyes.
“See, I am crying and yet, I am not thinking of anything sad. It's just a muscular reaction.”
Adoring crowds line up to see Madge Bellamy in Ankles Preferred (1927)
Madge Bellamy authored a fascinating autobiography, A Darling of the Twenties, published in 1989, a few months after her death. Silent film scholar Kevin Brownlow's introduction is free of star-worship and highly informative. Unfortunately, new copies of the book are impossible to find, but used copies, usually cast-a-ways from public libraries, are readily available on the internet. Madge's autobiography is filled with fascinating details of her years in early Hollywood, and illustrated with dozens of rare photos from Madge's personal collection.
The Madge Bellamy Acting Workshop
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner's Wonderful Time
Joan Crawford Untouched, Retouched
Evelyn Keyes: Scarlett's Younger Sister
Notable Hollywood Eyebrows Part I and Part II
Cyd Charisse: Dancing Dynamite
Lana Turner: Bad and Beautiful
Hollywood Goes to War
Lillian Gish: Dying for Her Audience
Ricardo Cortez: Hollywood's Latin Lover or The Kosher Butcher's Son
Hollywood's First Western Hero: Billy Broncho, A Jewish Kid Who Couldn't Ride a Horse
Sylvia Sidney Replaces Clara Bow
Douglas Sirk Directs Linda Darnell
Less Dialogue is More: Mervyn LeRoy, Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor and Waterloo Bridge.
Alla Nazimova: Desperately Exotic
Charlton Heston: A Moment of Silence
Lilyan Tashman.
Carmel Myers: The Rabbi's Beautiful Daughter
Colleen Moore: The Stars and Stripes
Colleen Moore's Wedding Night
One Hairstyle, Three Memoirs: Alma Rubens, Colleen Moore, Louise Brooks
Theda Bara: The Vamp Adopts the Troops
Movie Magazines: They Don't Print 'em Like They Used To
Alma Rubens: Dope Fiend, But Not a Jewess
Wallace Reid: Hollywood Shooting Star
Olive Thomas: Hollywood's First Suicide
Mary Pickford: The Greatest Movie Star
Seraphic Secret Chats with Actress Coleen Gray about John Wayne, Howard Hawks, and Stanley Kubrick
Susan Peters: The Great Unknown and Tragic Actress
The Blond Machine Gun: Jean Harlow
Peg Entwistle & The Hollywood Sign
Brigitte Bardot & Sean Connery in Shalako—Sorta
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:05 AM | Comments (10)
July 29, 2008
Everyone's Got a Story
About twice a week I get e-mails from aspiring screenwriters that go something like this:
Dear Mr. Avrech:
I have a great idea for a movie, can I tell it to you? I just need someone to write it down for me. Are you available? Maybe we can collaborate and then split the profits.
Here's my response:
Dear Aspiring Writer:
No. No. And no.
Sometimes I just write a single “no.” Less is more, you know what I mean?
Okay, this response might appear a bit blunt, maybe even cruel, but that's how I roll because I'm your basic anti-social writer happiest when chained to my desk and laptop, spinning my Hollywood yarns.
And gee willikers, would an aspiring surgeon write to a physician claiming to have a great idea for surgery and generously offer to split the profits?
I don't think so.
Now, when I get these cyber proposals I have formulated a new response:
Dear Aspiring Writer:
Contact Mrs. Ruchama K. Feuerman.
Everyone's Got a Story is Mrs. Feuerman's collection of 41 short stories from Jewish writers.
Ruchama K. Feuerman, author of that fine novel Seven Blessings, has been conducting writing workshops for fifteen years, and this volume is, in itself, a kind of advanced workshop for writers. At the start of each section Mrs. Feuerman offers tips and exercises on how to unleash the inner writer.
Just one excellent sample:
When creating characters, it's vital to know what your main character wants—really, really wants—and what's his secret flaw.
This is basic stuff, for novelists, short story writers, and screenwriters, but believe me, I have slugged my way through too many books, and too many scripts where this basic dramatic law is ignored.
This volume is a goldmine of tips for writers—all are clearly stated and free of grad school jargon. Not once does Mrs. Feuerman refer to “deconstructing the narrative.”
Thank G-d.
Hey, even I was taking notes.
Interpolation
The other day I was talking to my agent and he was telling me how much he likes my latest script. I go: “You know what, I think I'm finally getting the hang of this screenwriting gig.”
And I wasn't being my usual snarky self, I really meant it.
I confess: yours truly is always learning how to be a better writer.
End Interpolation
Anyhoo.
These short stories are remarkable; the volume is chock full of tales that are, for the most part, ignored by mainstream secular publishers, stories that are intensely Jewish, stories that explore with elegance and depth, hidden corners of the Jewish world.
Here are a few characters we meet:
In The Interview by Pia Wolcowitz, a member of the Bobover Chasidic community, the daughter of survivors learns a valuable lesson as her parents are taped by a coolly efficient Holocaust videographer. A fine and subtle meditation on survival.
A young man's journey to observant Judaism begins with speeding cars in Tara Eliwatt's unexpected Racing for My Father.
Crafted like a mystical mini-thriller, Gila Arnold's The Star and the Crescent details the journey of a seminary girl in Jerusalem whose devotion to prayer eventually brings her face to face with the ultimate challenge—a homicide bomber.
Bitter Harvest reveals the torment and helplessness as a loving father witnesses the unimaginable: his son passes away before is eyes. This story, a wrenching memoir, was authored by Alan D. Busch, long time Seraphic Secret reader and commenter.
There are so many fine stories in this collection that I feel guilty in singling out so few for praise. In truth, every story is a gem and Mrs. Feuerman has done a brilliant job of collecting such high quality work. Everyone's Got A Story offers good reading, and a guide to better writing—all in one handsome volume. Highly recommended.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:23 AM | Comments (38)
July 28, 2008
Moshe Hammer: A Life Interrupted
It's not often you come across genius.
Four years ago, 26 year-old Moshe Hammer, Z'L a Lubavitch Chasid and an intensely private artist, took a break from work on his drawings, and stepped outside for a long walk in Los Angeles—to clear his head. Moshe rambled miles from his apartment in the Fairfax district and at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Western Ave., Moshe was struck by a truck and instantly killed.
Moshe's parents, Joan “Pessie” and Yosef Hammer, had not heard from their son for two days in the summer of 2004, and became frantic, searching the neighborhood, calling friends, trying to locate Moshe.
On July 15, there was a knock at the door, and a local rabbi, rebbetzin and police officer delivered the tragic news.
A few days later, Pessie Hammer went to clear out her son's apartment. In the bottom drawer of his desk she discovered over 300 black and white ink drawings.
She knew that her son was a talented artist. As a child, Moshe drew comic books with superheroes and sold them to his classmates. But Pessie and Yosef had no idea that their son's body of work was so massive and of such quality.
Sorting through Moshe's work, Pessie discovered that Moshe had illustrated a Passover Hagadah, a Book of Esther, The Song of Songs, as well as the entire siddur.
Karen and I met the Hammer's when Pessie wrote me an e-mail after reading an article about Ariel that I wrote for The Jewish Press. We lost Ariel Z'L a year earlier and of course, we understood exactly what the Hammer family was enduring.
Sitting in their comfortable Fairfax home Karen and I offered a measure of comfort to this fine family. The Hammer's generously allowed us to examine Moshe's drawings.
“What do you think?” Yosef asked me.
“Your son was a genius,” I said with no hesitation whatsoever.
Moshe Hammer's art can best be understood as a modern version of medieval illuminated manuscripts crossed with an extremely sophisticated comic book sensibility. Hebrew letters dance like Chasidic Jews, the calligraphy and drawings reveal Moshe's intensive study of the traditional commentaries of the holy texts.
The drawings are filled with mystical allusions, and the eye dwells on each beautifully resolved composition invariably discovering worlds within worlds. There are prophets on flying chariots, sleeping children being guarded by baby-faced archangels, there are Seraphim, and storm tossed ships, weeping Kiddish cups, and everywhere Moshe's gentle humor.
Last night, on Moshe's fourth Yahrtzeit, Karen and I were honored with an invitation to a memorial at the Hammer home. Several Rabbi's delivered lovely and appropriate Divrei Torah.
Moshe Hammer's art, lovingly framed, covered an entire wall.
The work just takes my breath away.
Staring at the work I could only imagine what the young and brilliant Moshe Hammer would have produced had he lived.
As I was lost in my reverie, one of the guests spontaneously started singing a Chasidic niggun of “Ani Ma'amin,” “I Believe... in the Coming of Moshiach.” His powerful voice soared, and soon all the guests joined in.
In an instant, I realized that though Moshe Hammer was taken away from this world his art would live forever and serve as a testament to a life interrupted—but an art of Jewish devotion that will live forever.
Smiling through my tears, I chatted with Pessie Hammer for a few minutes, pulled out my wallet, and displayed Moshe's Wayfarer's Prayer that Pessie reduced and laminated as a gift for me.
“I carry it everywhere,” I said.
Pessie smiled and told me how glad that made her.
Herewith, a few samples of Moshe Hammer's art:
The Sh'ma, Hear O' Israel, The Lord our G-d, The Lord is One
Hodu La'Shem, from Mincha L'erev Shabbat, Afternoon Prayer for Shabbat
Borchu, from Ma'ariv L'Shabbat, Evening Prayer for Shabbat
L'chu N'raninah, Welcoming the Sabbath
Havdalah, the prayer that ends the Sabbath and ushers in the new week
T'filat Ha'derech, the Jewish Wayfarer's prayer, recited at the start of a voyage
May Moshe Yaakov ben Yosef's neshama have an aliyah.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:51 AM | Comments (29)
July 27, 2008
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #175
The new Haveil Havalim has arrived and Zhang Ziyi dances for joy
Haveil Havalim #175 is up and live, hosted this week by Frume Sarah's World.
We'd like to thank Frume Sarah for including Seraphic Secret's post announcing our participation in the upcoming Nefesh B'Nefesh Blogger's Conference.
Warning: The post contains graphic and disturbing video of—hold on to your seats—the Notorious Blogger Groupies.
Oh, and thanks to Jack, here's the first Seraphic Word Cloud. I see a definite language pattern. Gee willikers, talk about superficial.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:05 AM | Comments (5)
July 25, 2008
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner's Wonderful Time
Ava Gardner, publicity photo for The Killers
The love affair between Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra—and I'm using that term loosely—was a legendary tsunami of high drama. Both stars were emotionally immature with little impulse control. Both stars were alcoholics. And both had a history of affairs with equally unstable partners.
And so it should have been no surprise that The Voice and The Shape would meet and fall into a mad, torrid relationship punctuated by unbridled passion and equal doses of violence.
In Autumn of 1949 Gardner and Sinatra, not yet lovers, were both at the Palm Beach home of producer Darryl F. Zanuck. The liquor flowed, and the two stars locked in on each other like lethal missiles.
Ava said, “You're still married.”
Frank responded, “No, doll, it's all over. It is done.”
For hours they drank and flirted. Ava's career was going through the roof. Her smoldering role as the femme fatale in The Killers—one of the best noir movies ever—catapulted her into the Hollywood stratosphere.
For a shoeless farm girl from North Carolina with no father and little education, Hollywood stardom was a dangerous perfume. In a few short years Ava went from being a sensitive, prim and proper virgin to a notoriously loose, hard-drinking, hard-hearted woman.
Sinatra's career was in trouble. His records were not selling as they used to and MGM was anxious to let him go as his box office appeal faltered. Sinatra did not help himself by being obnoxious and hostile to the media.
Sinatra and Gardner exited Zanuck's party with a bottle of booze in hand. They clambered into Sinatra's Cadillac and putting pedal to metal, Sinatra roared into the night.
Driving along they passed the bottle back and forth.
Like two crazy kids, they were going nowhere fast.
Soon, they ended up in the small town of Indio. Sinatra pulled into the main street and parked. There he and Ava kissed and groped under the stars.
Taking a break from their make-out session, Ava tipped back her head for another long gulp of hooch. Sinatra leaned forward, opened the glove compartment and pulled out two .38 Smith & Wesson pistols.
Sinatra took aim at a street light and fired. Glass exploded. He aimed at another street light and hit it on the first shot.
Ava, a country girl who grew up around hunters, cried: “Let me shoot something.”
Sinatra grinned and handed her the second pistol. Whooping like a Confederate soldier Ava Gardner aimed at the twinkling stars and blasted away.
Frank stared at Ava, mesmerized, and knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he had finally found his soul mate. Here was the most beautiful woman in Hollywood, shooting up the inexplicable universe.
Ava downed more liquor, sighted down the barrel of the Smith & Wesson and fired into the window of a hardware store.
Ava shot the chambers empty and continued to shriek the rebel yell.
Sinatra put the huge Caddy into gear and headed back to Palm Springs. They didn't get very far before they heard a police siren.
Two small town cops approached with guns leveled.
Sinatra said to Ava: “Christ, what do these clowns want now?”
A few hours later, as Ava lay unconscious on a wood bench in the police station, a publicist from Los Angeles arrived by chartered plane with a big black bag that he handed over to the cops.
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner were released. There was no paper trail and no publicity.
The two small town cops enjoyed a prosperous retirement.
In the morning, back in Palm Springs, Ava Gardner's sister, Bappie, was up having breakfast when Ava returned all rumpled and haggard and smelling like a speakeasy.
Bappie wanted to know where Ava was all night.
Ava replied: “I went out with Frank Sinatra. We had a wonderful time.”
Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra party hard
My main source for this anecdote is Lee Server's excellent biography Ava Gardner, Love is Nothing.
Legal Disclaimer: Seraphic Secret does not condone or recommend this style of dating. We strongly support coffee and conversation in the lobby of your local mega hotel, respect for private property, and oh yeah, firearm safety.
Karen and I wish all our friends a lovely and inspirational Shabbat.
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner's Wonderful Time
Joan Crawford Untouched, Retouched
Evelyn Keyes: Scarlett's Younger Sister
Notable Hollywood Eyebrows Part I and Part II
Cyd Charisse: Dancing Dynamite
Lana Turner: Bad and Beautiful
Hollywood Goes to War
Lillian Gish: Dying for Her Audience
Ricardo Cortez: Hollywood's Latin Lover or The Kosher Butcher's Son
Hollywood's First Western Hero: Billy Broncho, A Jewish Kid Who Couldn't Ride a Horse
Sylvia Sidney Replaces Clara Bow
Douglas Sirk Directs Linda Darnell
Less Dialogue is More: Mervyn LeRoy, Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor and Waterloo Bridge.
Alla Nazimova: Desperately Exotic
Charlton Heston: A Moment of Silence
Lilyan Tashman.
Carmel Myers: The Rabbi's Beautiful Daughter
Colleen Moore: The Stars and Stripes
Colleen Moore's Wedding Night
One Hairstyle, Three Memoirs: Alma Rubens, Colleen Moore, Louise Brooks
Theda Bara: The Vamp Adopts the Troops
Movie Magazines: They Don't Print 'em Like They Used To
Alma Rubens: Dope Fiend, But Not a Jewess
Wallace Reid: Hollywood Shooting Star
Olive Thomas: Hollywood's First Suicide
Mary Pickford: The Greatest Movie Star
Seraphic Secret Chats with Actress Coleen Gray about John Wayne, Howard Hawks, and Stanley Kubrick
Susan Peters: The Great Unknown and Tragic Actress
The Blond Machine Gun: Jean Harlow
Peg Entwistle & The Hollywood Sign
Brigitte Bardot & Sean Connery in Shalako—Sorta
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:36 AM | Comments (7)
July 24, 2008
Joan Crawford: Untouched/Retouched
Here's what happens: I snap a picture and she—every she I've ever photographed—takes a look at the raw digital image and recoils in horror.
No matter how beautiful the woman or girl she always says:
“Is that what I really look like?”
“I look so old.”
“Delete it.”
On location, I've taken photographs of gorgeous and glamorous movie stars and even they claim to be, yup, ugly.
The greatest Hollywood still photographer ever was George Hurrell. During Hollywood's golden age, in the 1930's and 40's, his studio portraits became the desired image of Hollywood beauty and glamor. For a handful of stars Hurrell portraits defined their G-d like images. For years the biggest stars in Hollywood clamored to sit for Hurrell.
What was Hurrell's secret?
He hated studio make-up.
Normally, Hollywood stars—male and female—slapped on the same heavy make-up that was used in motion pictures, and then posed for the various studio photographers.
The studios valued the stills for publicity purposes. Photos were submitted to the numerous movie magazines. Influential columnists—often accepting pay-offs from studio PR people—published photos that helped stoke public interest in the latest starlet. Before she made a single movie, MGM flooded newspapers and magazines with Ava Gardner's stunning image.
Hurrell was unhappy with the thick, painted-on look. He felt that what worked in movies did not cross-over into still photographs—at least his vision of what a Hollywood portrait should be. And so Hurrell insisted that the stars scrub their faces clean, and then he lit and shot them with his large format camera.
Hurrell and his staff then spent hours in the dark room retouching the photographs.
He made blemished and freckled skin glow with an inner luminescence, eyes were turned into deep clouds, lips were made sensually moist, and hair shined like a planet.
Here's a rare Hurrell portrait of Joan Crawford—unretouched.
And after six hours of darkroom retouching, here's Crawford as the public saw her.
The very best study of Hurrell's work and methodology is Hurrells' Hollywood Portraits by Mark A. Vieira.
Update: The beauty blog Jack and Hill has cross-posted this entry. Take a look as Hillary PhotoShops herself, in an effort to achieve the Hurrell glow.
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner's Wonderful Time
Joan Crawford Untouched, Retouched
Evelyn Keyes: Scarlett's Younger Sister
Notable Hollywood Eyebrows Part I and Part II
Cyd Charisse: Dancing Dynamite
Lana Turner: Bad and Beautiful
Hollywood Goes to War
Lillian Gish: Dying for Her Audience
Ricardo Cortez: The Kosher Butcher's Son
Hollywood's First Western Hero: Billy Broncho, The Jewish Kid Who Couldn't Ride a Horse
Sylvia Sidney Replaces Clara Bow
Douglas Sirk Directs Linda Darnell
Less Dialogue is More: Mervyn LeRoy, Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor and Waterloo Bridge.
Alla Nazimova: Desperately Exotic
Charlton Heston: A Moment of Silence
Lilyan Tashman.
Carmel Myers: The Rabbi's Beautiful Daughter
Colleen Moore: The Stars and Stripes
Colleen Moore's Wedding Night
One Hairstyle, Three Memoirs: Alma Rubens, Colleen Moore, Louise Brooks
Theda Bara: The Vamp Adopts the Troops
Movie Magazines: They Don't Print 'em Like They Used To
Alma Rubens: Dope Fiend, But Not a Jewess
Wallace Reid: Hollywood Shooting Star
Olive Thomas: Hollywood's First Suicide
Mary Pickford: The Greatest Movie Star
Seraphic Secret Chats with Actress Coleen Gray about John Wayne, Howard Hawks, and Stanley Kubrick
Susan Peters: The Great Unknown and Tragic Actress
The Blond Machine Gun: Jean Harlow
Peg Entwistle & The Hollywood Sign
Brigitte Bardot & Sean Connery in Shalako—Sorta
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:12 AM | Comments (18)
July 23, 2008
New York Times Sinking
Graphic courtesy of Wolf Howling
When New York Times editor David Shipley rejected Senator McCain's Op-Ed piece on Iraq, the blogosphere reacted with outrage.
How dare the New York Times publish Barack Obama's essay on Iraq and not give equal time to presidential opponent John McCain?
Duh.
I mean, come on, in what universe is The New York Times considered an objective newspaper?
In what universe is the New York Times not considered a hard left journal?
The New York Times does not hesitate to publish propaganda from Hamas on their Op-Ed page for crying out loud.
Personally, I'm delighted that Shipley, a former speechwriter for President Clinton, and the New York Times so flagrantly tipped their hand.
This outrageously biased and truly foolish action has handed McCain far more attention than any Op-Ed he would have published.
The NYT has disgraced itself, acting with all the dopey immaturity of a high school newspaper.
No wonder management recently laid off two-hundred NYT employees.
No wonder publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. refuses to give interviews to the media, unless questions are vetted in advance.
The dinosaur media is dying, through shrinking advertising revenues and subscriptions ebbing away at an astonishing rate. Editors and writers only compound the problem with coverage so biased, so irresponsible that, excepting true liberal believers, most consumers understand that half of what they read is not true and the other half is lies.
It's a fascinating and entertaining spectacle: deliberate corporate suicide.
And the breathless, uncritical coverage of Barack Obama only punctuates the dinosaur media's herd mentality and hard left bias.
It's funny, Seraphic Secret is a tiny blog in a huge blogosphere, but our readership grows day by day. I believe It's got something to do with honesty. When you drop in on Seraphic Secret you know what you're getting. We are observant Jews, religious Zionists, loyal American citizens who vote Republican, gun-owners, movie-lovers, devoted parents and grandparents, and we proudly proclaim our various biases.
For instance: The Seven Samurai is the greatest movie—evuh!
We do not pretend to be impartial journalists, as if such a thing is even possible. We don't even pretend to be journalists.
In contrast, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, all claim to be staffed by objective journalists who serve and inform the public.
And so, it's not a shock that those papers are dying.
No one trusts a clumsy liar.
New York Times Co. says its second-quarter earnings fell 82 percent from the year-ago quarter boosted by a one-time gain. Meanwhile, print advertising revenue continued to shrink. The New York-based newspaper publisher says its quarterly net income dropped to $21.1 million, or 15 cents per share, which included 11 cents per share in buyout costs.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected income of 22 cents per share in the latest quarter. Analyst estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenue dropped 6 percent to $741.9 million, missing the average Wall Street estimate for $754 million. Ad revenue slipped down 11 percent, hurt mostly by fewer classified ads.
Chief Executive Janet Robinson says business was hurt by the “U.S. economic slowdown and secular forces playing out across the media.”
Original story here.
And for an hilarious comment on the dinosaur media's love affair with Obama let's go to the video.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:59 AM | Comments (13)
July 22, 2008
Copycat Terror Attack in Jerusalem
What a stunner, another bulldozer attack. Who could have foreseen such an unusual turn of events? I mean, the last terrorist who murdered Jews in Jerusalem was, thank G-d, shot down like the dog he was. But his family is now getting generous welfare and death benefits from the Jewish State.
And Israel just swapped another dog of a terrorist for two corpses.
The message to the terrorists is clear: it pays to kill Jews.
Hey, I have an idea, how about dividing Jerusalem and handing sovereignty to the peace loving terrorists?
Also: how about hiring Jews on construction sites?
I know, that's , ahem, discriminatory.
In fact, when you're at war with a terrorist society, so-called Palestinians, it's just common sense.
Eleven people were wounded, one of them moderately, as a bulldozer driver went on a rampage in central Jerusalem Tuesday afternoon in an apparent attempt to recreate the terror attack in the capital a few weeks ago.
The vehicle reportedly left a construction site near Yemin Moshe neighborhood and set off towards Liberty Bell Park (Gan Hapa'amon), near the corner of Keren Hayesod and King David streets. It attempted to overturn a bus and then crashed into several vehicles, flipping one of them over.
The wounded were evacuated to hospitals in the capital.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police sealed off possible escape routes into east Jerusalem and were searching for two suspects who fled the scene.
The attack took place in a busy part of downtown Jerusalem, several hundred meters from the luxury hotel where US presidential candidate Barack Obama is supposed to stay Tuesday night as he kicks off a visit to Israel.
For the complete story, please click here.
Killing the terrorist
The bulldozer used in the Jerusalem terror attack. Notice the bullet holes in the glass.
Fine shooting by an armed Israeli civilian and border guard killed the Arab-Muslim terrorist.
A car in Jerusalem street overturned by terrorist in bulldozer
All photos: Ariel Jerozolimski
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:10 AM | Comments (6)
July 21, 2008
Nefesh B'Nefesh International Blogger Conference
Mary Carlisle spreads the word about the
Nefesh B'Nefesh JBlogger Convention
“You have to come with me,” I tell Karen.
“Why?”
“Gosh, there's no telling what kind of trouble I'll get into without you.”
Karen gives me a long, penetrating stare. When she does this I immediately become ten years old—a helpless dork.
“What kind of trouble?” Karen asks reasonably.
I'm stumped.
Here's the thing: Nefesh B'Nefesh is sponsoring the First International Jewish Bloggers Convention in Jerusalem on August 20th and they have invited yours truly, Seraphic Secret, to attend.
Bloggers from every corner of the known universe will be attending. There will be panel discussions: The Power of the JBlogosphere: Taking JBlogging to the next level, and Building Israel One Post at a Time.
All these superstar bloggers will explain how to build traffic, increase readership, how to be, I presume, a JBlogger superstar.
I'm sooo aboard.
The convention will be up and live on a webcast and you must register to attend. Coolness factor is high as you can attend in person—or via cyberspace.
Need I mention food, lots of food—this is after all a Jewish convention—all strictly mehadrin.
Here's the link to register.
Nefesh B'Nefesh are picking up the tab for my flights. They have asked me to travel to Israel on a NBN flight, hook up with a family making aliyah and report their story on this blog.
How can I say no?
“No,” I told Stephen Leavitt, President of the WebAds, LLC, who is NBN's extremely organized and endlessly patient point man on this venture.
My excuse?
I'm in the middle of writing and producing a TV pilot. Rewrites loom. Deals have to be closed. My people have to talk to their people. Hollywood is all about seizing the moment, gaining traction, making sure momentum is not lost.
I mention the trip to my agent:
“Don't get blown up by some lunatic terrorist. I have too much invested in you.”
I'm deeply touched.
Also:
1. I hate traveling.
2. I miss my bed.
3. My pillows arranged just so.
4. The special coffee Karen brews for me.
5. I'll be away from my desk.
6. Still have no idea how to pack.
7. I'll have to deal with, er, new people.
8. Major mystery: how does the plane stay up in the air?
9. And I have to be away from Karen for more than six hours.
10. Sigh.
Offspring #2 scolds: “How can you not go!?”
So, I contact poor Stephen Leavitt—I've been driving him crazy with my maybe-yes, maybe-no e mails—and finally give a definite yes.
But I cannot do this without Karen. I mean, I'm more than useless without the love of my life.
Which brings us back to:
“What kind of trouble?” Karen says.
“Um, let's see... Oh, I know—the Notorious Blogger Groupies who are bound to converge on the convention and zero-in on Seraphic Secret.”
The attack of the Notorious Blogger Groupies!
Karen looks at me like I'm the biggest moron in the world. She knows darn well that I'm making this up as I go along.
“Please,” I plead, “I really need you.”
Karen says: “I'm flattered you want me to come along.”
Really?
Anyhoo.
Karen and I look forward to this trip, to the NBN J Blogger Convention, and most of all we look forward to meeting cyber friends old and new.
Karen and I are leaving on August 18 and will be staying in Israel through Shabbat.
Thanks so much to Nefesh B'Nefesh and WebAds for making this special experience possible.
Stay tuned for my reports on the NBN flight, the family I profile, the convention—and my endless kvetching about the rigors of travel.
Once again, don't forget to register for the JBlogger International Convention.
Oh, yeah, at this very moment, Karen's sister and husband are on a NBN flight to Israel. Talk about coincidence.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:27 AM | Comments (38)
July 20, 2008
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 174
Screenwriters Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur urge
you to read Haveil Havalim
Today is The Fast of the 17th of Tammuz, in which we remember the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem which led to the the destruction of the First Temple. Appropriately, Esser Agaroth starts out the carnival with a fine D'var Torah and a list of some of the calamities that befell the Jewish people on this terrible date.
We'd like to thank Esser Agaroth for including Seraphic Secret's white-hot-with-anger-and-frustration post: Swap Teaches Us to Kidnap More.
For those of you who are fasting today, we wish you a meaningful experience. As for me, I'm getting ready for a meaningful migraine.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:55 AM | Comments (4)
July 18, 2008
Change in Iraq Obama Style
Watch Obama switch positions on Iraq, endlessly, for about eight minutes. It would be funny but for the fact that he aspires to be Commander-in-Chief.
Wolf Howling, one of the most perceptive bloggers in the known universe, masterfully Critiques Obama's New York Times Manifesto on Iraq. Bu-rutal.
And from my friend Dirty Harry, breaking news on a new film and an interview with Hollywood good guy D.B. Sweeney. What a relief for a Hollywood actor, writer, director to say the following:
There’s nothing on this planet like the feeling of watching 500 combat ready Marines come to attention for the playing of the Star Spangled banner before they screen your movie.
Nothing.
I can only dream of such a feeling and honor.
Karen and I wish all our friends a lovely Shabbos, and a meaningful fast on Sunday the 17th of Tammuz.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:27 PM | Comments (2)
July 17, 2008
Notable Hollywood Eyebrows Part II
Marsha Hunt applies her own make-up
As a model, I had always applied my own make-up. For my screen test at Paramount I was sent to the Make-Up Department, inwardly thrilled to be in the hands of the very experts who prepared so many famous faces for work each day. But when they finished, what I saw in the mirror left me stunned. I had never seen her before and wasn't sure I wanted to see her ever again.
My eyebrows had been plucked away and reshaped into narrow arcs, changing my whole expression; my lashes were overlaid with strips of long, false fake ones, making me feel droopy-lidded; eye shadow applied immediately above the eyes, white liner was drawn between eyes and lower lashes; my nose had a lightening line down its center to make it look chiseled and narrower, and my lipstick rounded the cupid's bow, extending above the natural line.
They simply had given me all the make-up touches that were then in vogue. With no delusions of being a beauty, I just felt altered, rather than enhanced. I comforted myself that surely it would photograph better than that. But when I finally saw my screen test, there was that strange girl again looking very odd, at least to me. I'll never know why they signed me, looking like that. I vowed then, always to do my own make-up thereafter, and with the exception of old-age roles, always did.
Thus writes Marsha Hunt in her invaluable The Way We Wore, Styles of the 1930's and '40's. Hunt, an actress of exceptional range, was signed by Paramount in 1935 when she was just 17-years old. The ex-model was cast in twelve films during her three year contract and then signed by MGM.
Marsha Hunt's book is a fascinating and informative study of Hollywood's Golden Age through the prism of style. A ferociously intelligent beauty, Hunt observes and comments on the harshness of studio make-up, changing hair styles, hats, shoes, fur muffs, cuffs and collars, handbags and pocket books. She even finds time to illustrate the high style of automobiles .
Cecile B. DeMille and Marsha Hunt in the director's magnificent Cord phaeton, parked in front of The DeMille Bungalow on Paramount's lot, 1936
There are hundreds of photos—all of Hunt—modeling various outfits for the studio publicity mill. A touching memoir and an encyclopedia of fashion, Hunt's volume is an invaluable reference to Hollywood's role in defining style and fashion.
Hunt's startled reflection on her heavy make-up and screen test is revealing. The clash between the reality of her true self with the manufactured Hollywood image was deeply alienating for the unusually self-aware young actress. No wonder Lana Turner wryly commented on her seven disastrous marriages: “The problem is that men marry Lana Turner—and wake up next to me.” Turner, unlike Marsh, was incapable of bridging the gap between who she was and her larger-than-life screen image.
Last week, in Notable Hollywood Eyebrows, Part I, I pointed out that the Flappers of the 20's were in the vanguard of pitiless eyebrow plucking. One of Seraphic Secret's readers, a brilliant cultural observer, wrote to me with this fascinating bit of cultural information:
Flappers were the first group of women outside of prostitutes to shave their legs and armpits. They changed the world, depilation-wise.
Okay, let's go to the visuals:
Hedy Lamarr
Gloria Swanson
And here, caught in a rare, candid moment, our two reigning champs of mercilessly plucked eyebrows:
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:08 AM
| Comments (17)
The Second Lebanon war ended in a disgraceful cease-fire. In truth, it was Israel's surrender to Hizbullah. Ehud Olmert declared that Israel went to war to recover kidnapped IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. As we all know this goal was not met. During the war, Hizbullah succeeded in consigning a million Israelis to bomb shelters. The Jewish state was helpless in the face of rocket attacks throughout the war. Hence, Iran through her proxy army Hizbullah projected her power and influence not only across the region, but into the Israeli homeland. Olmert ignored the well-laid plans for a ground invasion and relied on an ill-conceived war from the air. And when the ground invasion finally did take place, it was a disaster, with ill-equipped units wandering around the battlefield with no tactical or strategic plan. At war's end, the Israeli Lebanese border became an international zone with UNIFIL troops dug in and presumably there to make sure that Hizbullah does not rearm. Tzipi Livni declared that with the UNIFIL troops Israel was more secure than ever before. Of course, the UNIFIL troops are useless. Hizbullah have more rockets and more sophisticated weaponry than they had before the Second Lebanon War. The terrorists use the Keystone Cop UNIFIL troops as a security screen. Thus, Hizbullah are more secure and better armed than ever before. This is the legacy of the Olmert-Livni leadership. Livni's rhetoric reminds us of George Orwell's 1984 where Big Brother declared war as peace and peace as war. Hizbullah kidnapped Goldwasser and Regev in order to secure the release of child-murderer Samir Kuntar. And so, today, Hizbullah's victory over Israel is complete. There is joy in the Arab world for Israel has been brought to her knees not by an Arab state, but by Hizbullah, Islamic terrorists financed and supported by Iran. There is joy in the Arab world because Israel—through this swap of a Jew-murderer for the bodies of murdered Jews—has declared that there is no difference between a dead Jew and a breathing Jew. There is joy in the Arab world because they know that when Jews are kidnapped there will be no rescue attempts, just capitulation to terror. There is joy in the Arab world because the strategy of destroying Israel's will to exist is succeeding beyond their wildest expectations. There is joy in the Arab world because Gilad Schalit is still held in cruel captivity in Gaza and the Arabs know that Israel will continue to supply this genocidal state with the fuel, power and money to continue their war against the Jews. The state of Israel has become a Kapo state, giving direct aid to those who murder Jews and would wipe Israel off the face of the earth. If Israel wants Schalit back she should mount a daring rescue operation. If Israel wants Schalit back she must—as Seraphic Secret has been urging for years—cut off all power, fuel and supplies to Gaza. But Israel, under the current traitorous government, will not take this necessary step. Instead, Olmert and his gang will continue to appease the jihadists and declare appeasement a “moral victory.” I have a question: if today's swap was such a victory, why is no one in Israel celebrating? Original story here. And we are honored that veteran journalist David Paulin comments and quotes at length on this post at the fine political journal American Thinker. A fine blog by Dave Bender, Israel at Level Ground, covers the coverage on the Israeli side and on the side of the barbarians. Numerous screen captures. And I Saw Satan Laughing with Delight.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:09 AM
| Comments (31)
As in the old Soviet Union where history was constantly revised to suit the political ends of the Communist rulers, Barak Obama is trying to rewrite history in regard to his dead-wrong predictions about the surge in Iraq. Not surprising when you consider that this is the candidate who spent over 20-years as an active member of a Jew-hating, black separatist church and then has the chutzpah to campaign as a "uniter." Not surprising when you consider that this is a candidate who has learned a great deal from the Communist playbook. Orwellian thought and language have reached new heights with Barack Obama and his politburo. To read the complete story, please click here. And here's John McCain on Iraq and Afghanistan. An excerpt: It's worth noting that John McCain spent more time being tortured in a North Vietnamese POW camp than Obama has spent in the Senate. To say that Obama's resume is thin is something of an understatement. Oh, but I forgot, Obama served in the trenches as a, ahem, community organizer. Tough gig.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:39 PM
| Comments (2)
The Lebanese government is preparing official celebrations in honor of the evil and of brutal terrorist who will be swapped tomorrow for the corpses of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasset and Eldad Regev. The swap is a victory for Hizbullah, and a statement by the present Israeli government that there is no difference between a Jew who is alive and a Jewish corpse. This course of action does not sanctify, but degrades life. By yielding to this exchange, every Jew in Israel and the diaspora is rendered an inviting target. To read the entire story, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:53 AM
| Comments (19)
From Wolf Howling: To read the complete article, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:45 AM
| Comments (12)
Haveil Havalim # 173: The Wait for Avrech to Name it Edition is up and live, and hosted by the ever resourceful Jack. Gee willikers, more work! Well, as Orson Welles used to say at the end of his Mercury Theater broadcasts: “I am your obedient servant.”
Vivien Leigh
Joan Marsh
Claudette Colbert
Eleanor Boardman
Dorothy Lamour
Irene Dunne
Louise Brooks
Jean Harlow and Marlene DietrichJuly 16, 2008
“Swap Teaches Us to Kidnap More”
The murdered Haran family: Danny, Einat and Yael.
May Their Blood be AvengedAs Gaza children throw candy in the street and massive rallies gear up in Lebanon and Israel to celebrate the release of murderer Samir Kuntar and other terrorists, Arab leaders and terrorist groups around the Middle East are expressing their joy over what to them is a resounding victory over Israel and a lesson that kidnapping IDF soldiers works.
Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas praised the family of Kuntar, Hamas terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh encouraged more kidnappings, and another Gaza terrorist openly expressed what many in Israel already fear: Kidnapping IDF soldiers has become the most effective way to release terrorists with blood on their hands.
Abbas congratulated the family of Samir Kuntar on his release Wednesday, and sent his condolences to the Lebanese families receiving their loved ones' bodies as part of the prisoner exchange with Hizbullah. He also sent his regards to the families of the other four terrorists released by Israel.
In Gaza, Hamas terrorist leader and PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh congratulated Samir Kuntar on his impending release from Israeli prison and his triumphant return to Lebanon. Haniyeh praised "the great victory the resistance has had, which proved the righteousness of our ways," and said his own terrorist organization would likewise remain loyal to its operatives jailed in Israel as well, suggesting that Hamas has been encouraged by the release to kidnap more IDF soldiers.
He promised that Hamas would not abandon the Palestinian Authority prisoners jailed in Israel.
Shortly before the conclusion of Wednesday's prisoner exchange,Haniyeh visited Gaza's al-Bureij neighborhood and spoke at a news conference at the home of the Arab family who adopted Kuntar.
"Today we stress again that we won't give up our prisoners," said Haniyeh. "We won't be able to waive these heroes without an honorable deal for our prisoners in Israel. The Israelis must pay a price. They must know that they will pay a price in return for an exchange deal. We cannot accept having these prisoners remain in jail."
Referring to the ongoing talks between Hamas and Israel to release captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, he announced that "there is a captive Israeli solder and thousands of prisoners on our side. We are interested in finalizing this issue as soon as possible, but they must accept the Palestinian demands. They must accept the demands of the Palestinian resistance sentenced to long jail terms, parliament members, sick people, women, etc."
"Second, from [al-Bureij], the camp of strong standing, I once against congratulate Lebanon. We tell them that this operation is the best lesson that can be achieved — a victory over the occupation, liberating lands and liberating prisoners."
The Hamas leader said that the deal with Hizbullah, which included the return of the dead bodies of kidnapped soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, gave him hope. "This is a precedent," he said.
Inspired by the results of the kidnappings and the subsequent prisoner release, Haniyeh decided Wednesday to postpone the talks on the release of Shalit.
Haniyeh is not the only major terrorist leader to express his delight at the proof that kidnapping Israelis is an effective weapon strategic weapon against Israel. Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the umbrella terror group Popular Resistance Committees, told a Ynet reporter on Wednesday that the completion of the deal "even after the images of the Israeli soldiers' coffins, proves that kidnapping soldiers will continue to be the most efficient, favored and ideal way to release Palestinian prisoners, particularly those defined by the enemy as having blood on their hands."
According to Abu Mujehad, the Lebanese and PA terror infrastructure "will continue to work to kidnap soldiers in order to release prisoners "and in order to retrieve our rights, after it has been proved beyond any doubt that no diplomatic negotiations can release prisoners or return rights."
July 15, 2008
Comrade Obama Purges Website
Barack Obama's campaign scrubbed his presidential Web site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop "surge" in Iraq, the Daily News has learned.
The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page, which had described the surge as a "problem" that had barely reduced violence. .
"The surge is not working," Obama's old plan stated, citing a lack of Iraqi political cooperation but crediting Sunni sheiks - not U.S. military muscle - for quelling violence in Anbar Province. .
The News reported Sunday that insurgent attacks have fallen to the fewest since March 2004. .
Over the last year, Senator Obama and I were part of a great debate about the war in Iraq. Both of us agreed the Bush administration had pursued a failed strategy there and that we had to change course. Where Senator Obama and I disagreed, fundamentally, was what course we should take. I called for a comprehensive new strategy -- a surge of troops and counterinsurgency to win the war. Senator Obama disagreed. He opposed the surge, predicted it would increase sectarian violence, and called for our troops to retreat as quickly as possible.
Today we know Senator Obama was wrong. The surge has succeeded. And because of its success, the next President will inherit a situation in Iraq in which America's enemies are on the run, and our soldiers are beginning to come home.
Lebanon Celebrates Evil
Lebanese with posters of their hero,
a child-murdererKuntar, a Lebanese Druse, was 16 when he led "Operation Nasser." On April 22, 1979, he and three other members of Abu Abbas's Palestine Liberation Front sailed on a rubber motor boat under the cover of darkness from Tyre to Nahariya.
Arriving at about midnight on Shabbat, they first encountered policeman Eliyahu Shahar and shot him.
They then entered an apartment building on Rehov Jabotinsky 61, where they took Danny Haran, 28, and his four-year-old daughter, Einat, hostage. Haran's wife, Smadar, hiding in a crawl space above the bedroom, muffled the cries of her two-year-old daughter Yael, accidentally smothering her. As police arrived on the scene, the terrorists pulled Danny and Einat down to the beach, where Kuntar shot him in the back at close range and threw his body into the sea, and crushed her head on the rocks with the butt of his rifle.
July 14, 2008
Obama AWOL
Obama is refusing to appear in a Town Hall debate with McCain before a crowd of military service members and their families. The debate was organized by Disabled American Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Heart and the Military Spouse Corporate Career Network, among others. This man is devoid of substance and character.
July 13, 2008
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #173
“Ladies, this is Jack, the man who hosts Haveil Havalim!”
Evelyn Keyes 1916 - 2008
Actress Evelyn Keyes passed away on July 4th in Montecito California She was 91-years old. Keyes is best known for her role as Suellen O'Hara, Scarlett's younger sister in Gone With the Wind, 1939.
Keyes was beautiful, and talented. But she's best known for her multiple marriages and numerous affairs with the rich and famous. Her first husband was Barton Bainbridge, a wealthy businessman who committed suicide when Keyes left him for director Charles Vidor. Keyes vowed never to leave a man ever again. She made sure the men left her.
The marriage to Vidor lasted one year.
Husband number three was writer, actor, director John Huston. Huston was fond of dogs, he had a pack of hounds that ran wild at his estate in Ireland. Keyes hated the dogs so much she used to flee back to Hollywood and take up residence, for months at a time, with best friend Paulette Goddard, real name: Marion Pauline Levy.
Finally, Keyes gave Huston an ultimatum: “It's me or the dogs.”
Duh.
Keyes and Paulette Goddard cut a wide swath through Hollywood's leading men. Keyes conducted torrid affairs with Anthony Quinn, David Niven and Kirk Douglas.
Soon, Keyes moved on to producer Mike Todd, but Todd left her for Elizabeth Taylor.
Not one to give up, Keyes married band leader Artie Shaw, real name: Arthur Jacob Arshawsky. Not a great move. Shaw had already married and divorced screen legends Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. Both actresses report that Shaw used to beat them up when they refused to iron his shirts and sort his socks.
Needless to say, Keyes didn't do shirts or socks either.
Keyes' last role in a major motion picture was in The Seven Year Itch (1955) with Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. Keyes, in a finely tuned performance, plays Helen Sherman, the wife who leaves town, kicking off the mad flirtation between Ewell and Monroe.
Keyes said of her life in Hollywood: "I always took up with the man of the moment and there were many such moments."
Evelyn Keyes, studio publicity shot
Make-up test as Suellen O'Hara for Gone With the Wind
Keyes authored two autobiographies.
In 1977 Keyes published Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister. You can pick up a used copy on Amazon.com for, get this, one single American penny.
In 1991 Keyes again weighed in with I'll Think About Tomorrow.
Both books concentrate on her passionate romances rather than her career. Great dish.
Evelyn Keyes: Scarlett's Younger Sister
Cyd Charisse: Dancing Dynamite
Lana Turner: Bad and Beautiful
Hollywood Goes to War
Lillian Gish: Dying for Her Audience
Ricardo Cortez: Hollywood's Latin Lover or The Kosher Butcher's Son
Hollywood's First Western Hero: Billy Broncho, A Jewish Kid Who Couldn't Ride a Horse
Sylvia Sidney Replaces Clara Bow
Douglas Sirk Directs Linda Darnell
Less Dialogue is More: Mervyn LeRoy, Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor and Waterloo Bridge.
Alla Nazimova: Desperately Exotic
Charlton Heston: A Moment of Silence
Lilyan Tashman.
Carmel Myers: The Rabbi's Beautiful Daughter
Colleen Moore: The Stars and Stripes
Colleen Moore's Wedding Night
One Hairstyle, Three Memoirs: Alma Rubens, Colleen Moore, Louise Brooks
Theda Bara: The Vamp Adopts the Troops
Movie Magazines: They Don't Print 'em Like They Used To
Alma Rubens: Dope Fiend, But Not a Jewess
Wallace Reid: Hollywood Shooting Star
Olive Thomas: Hollywood's First Suicide
Mary Pickford: The Greatest Movie Star
Seraphic Secret Chats with Actress Coleen Gray about John Wayne, Howard Hawks, and Stanley Kubrick
Susan Peters: The Great Unknown and Tragic Actress
The Blond Machine Gun: Jean Harlow
Peg Entwistle & The Hollywood Sign
Brigitte Bardot & Sean Connery in Shalako—Sorta
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:47 AM | Comments (3)
July 11, 2008
Mina Avrech Z'L
My mother, Mina K. Avrech, at about the time she met my father.
The yahrtzeit of my beloved mother, Mirka bat David A'H, will be observed starting tonight and continue until Shabbos evening.
The date corresponds to the 9th of Tammuz on the Jewish calendar.
But today, July 11 is also the date she passed away in 1989. My mother was just 65-years old; too young, too young.
A few minutes ago, I spoke with my sister Caron and she said to me: “I've been thinking about mommy all day. It's hard.”
Several years ago, I used almost the same words when talking about Ariel ZT'L in conversation with a wise Rebbe.
This Rebbe looked me in the eye and said: “It's supposed to be hard.”
Indeed.
I detest it when well-meaning people speak of “closure” in dealing with grief, as if the death of a beloved family member can be safely tucked away in some warm, fuzzy cabinet.
There is no closure, there is only the realization that life is unfair, that death comes like a monster when you least expect it, and ultimately the only thing that keeps us alive in the dreadful aftermath are memories.
Memories keep love alive, and only love can defeat death.
For as time passes, the lacerating images of illness and death are replaced by other memories—normal, glorious life as it was lived—and gradually the unbearable becomes bearable.
My mother was a unique woman of her time. She was raised in a strictly kosher home—my grandmother Channa Gittel Z'L was ferociously Jewish—but my mother, her five sisters and brothers, were not ritually observant.
And so, when my mother married my father she became a Ba'alat Teshuva, before the concept was widespread, admired and respected.
I'm afraid my mother was never given credit nor proper support for this gutsy decision.
As you can see from the pictures, my mother had that Barbara Stanwyck thing going on, with a healthy dose of Rita Hayworth thrown in, due to her lustrous auburn hair.
My father fell for my mother—hard.
During shiva for my mother, my father told me that after their very first date he called his cousin Sam Weber, who had set them up, and said: “I'm going to marry that girl.”
Thus my model for true love.
Mina and Abraham Avrech, wedding day, 1943
May the neshama of Mirka bat David have an aliyah
Karen and I wish all our friends a serene and meaningful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:29 PM | Comments (11)
Two Hostages
Ingrid Betancourt, center, rescued from a five-year captivity
The mighty Caroline Glick analyzes the daring Columbian hostage rescue, and Columbia's winning strategy against the leftist, narco terrorist group, FARC. Israel, Glick correctly points out, no longer believes in defeating her genocidal enemies, but in coming to some sort of political accommodation. This is, of course, the fast-track to national suicide.
Last week, Karen and I were talking with a lovely woman about our son, Ariel ZT'L. Deeply empathetic, the woman told us that she too had lost a son.
“How did he die?” I asked.
“He was murdered by terrorists in Columbia.”
“FARC?”
“Yes, not many people have heard of them.”
“They are scum.”
“What was your son doing in Columbia?” Karen asked.
“He was working with indigenous people against the oil companies when FARC kidnapped and then murdered him.”
I shook my head, fury rising like sap.
Karen wondered how she reacted to the hostage rescue.
“It's too late for my son, but I'm happy for those who were rescued.”
Well, I thought to myself, Israel doesn't even attempt rescue operations anymore. Which makes every Jew, every Israeli a big fat target.
Maybe we should ask the Columbians to attempt the rescue of Gilad Schalit. This is the moral duty of an ethical state—not capitulating to terrorist demands.
Because the current Israeli leadership—members of the Neville Chamberlain pinochle club—are useless and clueless.
The Israeli media's response to the Colombia rescue mission has been to inflate the "Israeli role" in the mission. Numerous reports have been published in the local press about the fact that the Colombians hired retired IDF generals Yisrael Ziv and Yossi Kupperwasser to help them build up their counterterror capabilities.
Far from obscuring the yawning gap between Colombia and Israel, these reports bring Israel's abandonment of the fight into sharp relief. They show clearly that Israel's decision to capitulate has nothing to do with an inability to fight to victory. It is a failure of will rather than a failure of capacity that has brought Israel to its current cowed and humiliated condition where its media argues over how many terrorists should be exchanged for Schalit and ignores completely the very notion that he can be rescued.
And Israel could attempt to rescue him. While success is never assured, it is a fact that just as Colombia was able to find and rescue Betancourt and her fellow hostages in the jungle, so Israel could, if it dared, conduct a competent operation aimed at rescuing Schalit in Gaza. Like Colombia it could acquire the intelligence necessary to plan and carry out such a raid. Like Colombia, its forces are competent to succeed in such an endeavor.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:29 AM | Comments (6)
July 10, 2008
Will Israel Attack Iran? Duh
The fine military analyst and historian Robert Kaplan, in this month's Atlantic Monthly, does not believe that Israel will attack Iran. His main argument is that the U.S. won't sign off on a great raid.
As much as I respect Kaplan, I disagree.
And so does the invaluable Joshua Pundit who lays out his arguments far better than I ever could:
If history's any indication, the raid on Iran's nuclear facilities would most likely be carried out by small tactical groups of IAF jets just as the raid that took out Syria's clandestine nuclear site was.The Israelis would likely use small groups of planes, flying in tight formation to minimize radar signals and fly along established air corridors, mimicking the call signals and radio traffic common to commercial aircraft.
An airstrike would also likely be proceeded by an Israeli missile strike on the Iranian surface to air missile sites and radar installations shortly before the Israeli planes hit their targets. Some of these strikes could be delivered by air from a distance outside the range of Iranian fighter craft (most of which are outdated and in bad shape), others from the Dolphin submarines Israel possesses.
The Iranian nuke installations are guarded by the same supposedly invincible Russian-built Pantsyr missile defense systems the Israeli successfully blinded when they destroyed the Syrian nuclear site earlier this year. It's likely the Russians and the Iranians made a few tweaks to the system based on that, but it's also highly likely that the IDF also has a few new tricks up its sleeve as well.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Digitally altered photo of Iranian missile launch
And from Little Green Footballs: the photo of the Iranian Missile launch on the front cover of so many newspapers—it's been Photoshopped.
Hard to believe that the Iranian's would actually lie about their military capabilities. Even harder to believe that the mainstream media, giants like the Los Angeles Times, would fall for such trickery. Has it ever occurred to anyone in the MSM newsrooms that they are dupes for a genocidal, Jew-hating state? Or maybe it just doesn't bother them.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:41 AM | Comments (13)
July 09, 2008
Jane Austen on Killing Jihadists
I have a deep and abiding belief that within Jane Austen's work one can excavate finely-tuned wisdom on all the great questions of life.
It's true that Jane's towering literary reputation rests on her perfectly realized evocations of the mating rituals of the rural British gentry, but within that narrow canvas there are worlds within worlds.
I woke up at 5 AM this morning. Couldn't sleep. Found myself pondering Jane's thoughts regarding terrorism and killing the bad guys.
Okay, I freely admit it's not an area she explores in her novels, though Jane lived during the bloody Napoleonic Wars, and two of her brothers, Charles and Frank, served in The Royal Navy, both rising to the rank of admiral. And of course Her Majesty's dashing officers play central roles in several Austen novels.
So: I'm anything if not tenacious and I finally discovered a pointed, sarcastic Austen quote that applies nicely to liquidating terrorists:
“How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!”
—The Letters of Jane Austen
Whatever.
Listen, if you can find a better Austen quote about killing terrorists, puh-leese send it in.
Steady, lads, time to send those jihadists to bloody hell where they belong!
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:31 AM | Comments (10)
July 08, 2008
Notable Hollywood Eyebrows
Screening old Hollywood films I've noticed an interesting trend—in eyebrows.
During the early days of silent films, female stars appeared pretty normal. Which is to say, the eyebrows were lightly plucked, but retained a recognizably human configuration.
But the Flapper Age, a time of huge social upheaval in America, ushered in severely plucked, thinner brows, eventually morphing into Baroque loops and harsh anorexic gashes.
Narrow eyebrows seem to have come into fashion as Hollywood, and society in general, turned away from the 19th century ideal of the full-figured woman to the rail thin female of the modern age.
Plucked eyebrows reached their apotheosis in the 30's when the thin, elegant lines of Art Deco design were all the rage. Eyebrows in Hollywood evolved into extra fine lines in endless variations which seemed drawn by industrial designers.
Studio stylists regularly shaved the eyebrows of the vulnerable young actresses being groomed for stardom, but after a few shavings the eyebrows of the various Pygmalions failed to grow back. Thus, several generations of Hollywood stars lacked eyebrows and their faces became living canvasses for endless variations of eyebrow art.
Jean Harlow had narrow, deep-set eyes, and so the studio inscribed eyebrows, like soaring roman arches, to create the illusion of rounder, wider eyes.
Jean Harlow
Carole Lombard had a lovely forehead and her eyebrows—low, feline slashes—were etched in order to draw attention to that patrician feature.
Carole Lombard
Below, more examples of notable Hollywood eyebrows.
Clara Bow
Marlene Dietrich
Marion Davies
Greta Garbo
Bette Davis
Joan Crawford
Anna May Wong
Dolores Costello
And finally, the best eyebrows evuh:
Julie Newmar as Catwoman, the “purrfect” villainess,
from the Batman TV series
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:26 AM | Comments (23)
July 07, 2008
The Benefits of Terror
This view of Jaffa St. Goes from east to west, following the path of the attacker.
In the foreground are the two cars. In the middleground and background there are
the two buses that were hit as well as more cars that were damaged by the rampage
as well as emergency vehicles. Photo and caption by Noa Landes via The Augean Stables
This from Steven Plaut's fine blog The Zionist Conspiracy. Read and you will understand that Israel cannot defeat her jihadist enemies with policies that reward those who murder Jews.
Batsheva Unterman Z'L had to undergo long periods of fertility treatment before she was able to conceive. But at last she and her husband had a baby. Five months ago, Baby Efrat was born, a healthy little girl. Yesterday, Baby Efrat's Mom took her for a checkup in the clinic for babies in downtown Jerusalem. When they were finished, Mom put Efrat in her stroller and went out into the street. Mom strapped Baby Efrat down in her baby seat in the car and hopped into the driver's side. The injured terrorist inside the bulldozer had stopped the vehicle, but suddenly started on his rampage again.
Batsheva was murdered by the terrorist, as she was crushed by the bulldozer, which struck her car. Baby Efrat was rescued by a passerby. She had never even broken into a cry when the car was struck.
Will the terrorist's family be expelled from Israel? Will their house in East Jerusalem be destroyed or turned over to Jewish "settlers" as a place to live?
No, grasshopper. Haim Ramon, Kadima politician, confirmed on TV yesterday that the terrorist's family will be able to collect survivor benefits for themselves from Israel's social security administration (the National Insurance Institute), like any other Israeli who passes away.
Just like families of terrorists with Israeli citizenship who died while murdering before him.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:59 AM | Comments (12)
July 06, 2008
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 172
Jean Harlow says: “Jack insists that I contribute to
Haveil Havalim, 'cause he admires... my mind.”
It's up and it's a thing of beauty, an inspired and inspiring collection plucked from Jewish cyberspace by one of the essential bloggers:
Daled Amos hosts Haveil Havalim #172: The Old Fogey Edition.
I can relate.
Old Fogey, I mean. We've been blogging since May 2004—but feels like for-evuh.
Anyhoo.
We'd like to thank Daled Amos for including Seraphic Secret's Ariel and Daf Yomi.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:07 AM | Comments (7)
July 04, 2008
Ariel and Daf Yomi
Today, 1 Tammuz, is Ariel Chaim's ZT'L fifth Yahrtzeit.
In honor of our son's memory we're publishing an excerpt from The Book of Ariel that recounts the period when Ariel taught Daf Yomi—the daily page of Talmud.
In the summer of 2001, Rabbi Yosef Furman asked Ariel to substitute for him at the Daf Yomi class the good Rabbi taught at Yeshiva University Los Angeles on Shabbos afternoon.
Initially, Ariel hesitated, modest to the core, he did not believe that he was learned enough to teach Gemarah to a group of highly learned and dedicated adults. But Karen and I gently reminded Ariel that if he was thinking of going into Jewish education this would be a perfect opportunity to hone his skills as a teacher. Besides, we told him, you are an incredible Torah scholar, definitely up to the task.
And so, in addition to his already heavy learning schedule, Ariel prepared for the upcoming Shabbos and his first Daf Yomi class. After he went over the page of Talmud, he studied the commentary of the primary Torah and Talmud medieval exegete Rashi, and the lengthy, complex glosses of the Tosafot.
I reminded Ariel that in Daf Yomi we usually don’t delve into the commentaries, but perfectionist that he was, Ariel said:
“Yes, but I have to understand the Gemarah if I’m to teach it and do a good job.”
Here is the first page of the Babylonian Talmud, as it appears in the standard Vilna edition. The standardized pagination follows that of the third Bomberg edition, Venice, 1548. Pages are numbered by folio. This page is Berakhoth 2a—that is, the first side of folio 2 in the tractate Berakhoth, "Blessings".
Several times that week before the first class, Ariel called Karen's father, Rabbi Pinchas Singer ZT'L , to ask his beloved grandfather to clarify a difficult passage in the Talmud. Sometimes they would spend hours on the phone, Ariel carefully taking copious notes with his favorite fountain pen.
Ariel was more than prepared; he was hyper-prepared.
As we walked to the the class—at the time it was in a back room in the Washington Bank on Pico Boulevard—Ariel fretted that maybe he really wasn’t the right man for the job.
“Who do I talk to?” he asked.
“Try and maintain eye contact with everyone, do a slow scan around the table and then do it again.”
“What happens if I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the class?”
Go right before class begins and then if you have to again, just excuse yourself. They won’t hold it against you.”
“What happens if someone asks me a question and I don’t know the answer?”
“Admit that you don’t know, but that you’ll look it up and have the answer at the next class.”
“What happens if I faint?”
“What do you mean, are you feeling—?”
“Just kidding.” Ariel grinned.
The men who attended the Daf Yomi class were familiar; an assortment of friends and neighbors, all with warm and inviting smiles. Also in the class were several strangers whom Ariel recognized from the Beis Midrash. Ariel whispered to me that they were acknowledged Torah scholars, a good deal more learned than he.
Relax,” I told him, “you’ll do fine.”
My stomach was churning; the massive anxieties of a loving and doting father.
Ariel opened the massive Gemarah, scanned the page, looked up at the dozen expectant men at the table and smiled. He thanked them for giving him the opportunity to learn with them. And then Ariel dived right into the Gemarah.
He chanted the text in a lovely sing-song and translated from the Aramaic to English. His words and explanations flowed like water. I really didn’t hear what he was saying for I was relieved, happy—and so insanely proud that my cognitive abilities just shut down.
Is there a greater happiness for a Jewish father than to witness his son transmitting the Torah, our eternal traditions, with such love and exactitude?
A difficult section absorbed everyone’s attention. But Ariel managed to make sense of it.
Abruptly, a particularly learned man—everyone called him Rabbi—asked a particularly complex question. Clearly, a difficult point needed to be clarified. Ariel frowned, hunched over his Gemarah. He appeared baffled and I waited for Ariel to admit that he did not know. Better to admit ignorance than to try and fake it. The class would see through any pretense. The seconds slipped by and several men shifted uncomfortably in their seats.
And then Ariel nodded his head, just once but with perfect certainty. I recognized that nod and smiled inwardly.
Ariel answered in soft, measured terms, weighing each word. His explanation was crystal clear and the man who asked the question smiled, satisfied, and all around the table the men of the Daf Yomi looked at me and smiled, tacitly letting me know that my son, Ariel, was the real thing, a true scholar and teacher of Torah.
Walking home, Ariel said, “How’d I do, Daddy?”
I did not answer.
“Daddy, are you crying?”
“No, I’ve just got something in my eye.”
We walked home without speaking another word. There are times when silence is far more eloquent than language.
How to Navigate a Page of Talmud
Karen and I wish all our friends a magnificent Fourth of July and a lovely and peaceful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:27 AM | Comments (21)
July 03, 2008
Fortress Gaza
In Sidon, Lebanese citizens prepare banners that celebrate the eventual return of their hero, Samir Kuntar, who crushed a Jewish child's skull with the butt of his rifle.
Yesterday's terrorist attack in Jerusalem was not the random act of a lone terrorist. Let's be clear, when Israel shows signs of weakness and national resolve melts away the jackals move in to create even more havoc.
Olmert-Livni-Barak, and a majority of the disgraceful Israeli Knesset have, through a series of disastrous policy decisions, weakened Israel's national security and resolve.
The expulsion of Jews from Gaza made the creation of Judenrein, Arab-only zones, acceptable.
The Second Lebanon War was, presumably fought, to bring back the IDF soldiers, Regev and Goldwasser, kidnapped by Hamas.
As we know, the war ended in a cease-fire and the soldiers were never returned. Further, Israel's strategic position was deeply compromised when Livni urged UNIFIL troops on the border.
The siege of S'derot proved that the current government is incapable of protecting her citizens, the primary duty of the state.
The current Hudna with Gaza—a one-way arrangement for Hamas continues her terrorist activities—also proves that Hamas and Hizbullah/Iran can bring Israel to its knees.
And now, trading the most vicious terrorists for dead bodies makes it clear to the Islamic terrorists that Israel places no value on Jewish life for if the Jewish state will trade live terrorists for Jewish corpses, well, there's no reason to keep any kidnapped Jews alive. The Muslim jihadists can safely murder Jews and get the same results from the Jewish State in negotiations.
And so, it is no accident that the human filth went on a killing rampage yesterday. Israel has displayed such lack of fortitude that terrorists everywhere perceive an open season on Jews.
If Israel wanted Goldwasser and Regev returned from Gaza, there was a simple method: denying power, fuel and all supplies to Gazastan until the soldiers were returned.
This should be the policy towards any terrorist state.
Tragically, Israel is allowing Gaza to strengthen its strategic and tactical position and we can expect another bloody disaster if the current government is allowed to steer the national course.
The model for Hamas is Hizbullah's preparations for and conduct of the Second Lebanon War in 2006. The evidence suggests that Hamas is using its uncontested control in Gaza to effect a qualitative change in its abilities and ambitions.
Hamas's strategy derives at the highest level from the group's muqawama (resistance) doctrine. According to this view, Israel's Achilles' heel is its inability to absorb large numbers of military and civilian casualties. Hamas believes Israel's will can be broken through attrition and a steady toll of unexpectedly high numbers of both military and civilian casualties.
In the event of a major IDF incursion into Gaza, Hamas would seek to maintain a steady rain of rockets on Israeli communities around the Strip and to break the sense of armored and air invulnerability hitherto enjoyed by Israeli forces engaging with its fighters. Hamas would of course also try to inflict steady losses of 4 to 10 casualties per day on IDF's ground forces during the fighting. Looking to the 2006 model, the movement's planners believe that achieving these goals could be sufficient to break Israel's will.
To read the complete story, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:10 AM | Comments (4)
July 02, 2008
Terror Attack in Jerusalem
People started screaming 'he is running us over, he is running us over,'" recounted traffic policewoman Elinor Nahum, 22, who was the first to react, firing at the bulldozer and apparently hitting the terrorist. Another policeman then climbed onto the vehicle and was lightly wounded in a struggle with the attacker.
Finally, an off-duty soldier took a gun from a security guard at the scene and shot the terrorist, who cried "Allah Akhbar" (God is great) before being killed. The soldier, Moshe Plesser, was assisted in neutralizing the attacker by Eli Mizrahi, a member of police's elite Yasam anti-terror unit.
Plesser, 18, is the brother-in-law of IDF officer David Shapira, who killed the terrorist in the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva attack on March 6.
Evacuating a wounded child from the scene of the Islamic terror attack
To read the complete story, please click here.
Soccer Dad just reported to me that LGF has links to several blogs in