Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Movie fanatic. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Israel

If You Hate Israel, You’re No Friend of the Jews

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It’s one thing to criticize Israel. It’s another thing entirely to be against the very existence of the Jewish state. In this clarifying video, Dennis Prager defines the difference and explains why anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are one and the same.

Thanksgiving 2019: The Children Of The Children Of Israel

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Studio photographers shot millions of still photos of their actors, often with holiday themes. This is the one of the few religiously inclined Thanksgiving stills I have come across. The actress is Barbara Kent, a minor star in the silent ear best known for starring opposite Harold Lloyd in “Welcome Danger” 1929. But her very best role was in a little known but quite wonderful silent film “Lonesome,” 1928.
Studio photographers shot mountains of photographs of contract actors, often with holiday themes. This is a charming Thanksgiving  photo. The actress is Barbara Kent, (b. Barbara Cloutman, 1907- 2011) a popular star in the silent era best known for twice starring opposite Harold Lloyd, “Welcome Danger” (1929), and then “Feet First,” (1930). But her very best role was in a little known but quite wonderful silent film “Lonesome,” (1928). Seraphic Secret wrote a memoriam for this lovely actress when she passed away. You can find it here.

As far as I know, there are only two countries in the world that were founded on the idea of hope.

America and Israel.

And what was the nature of this hope?

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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Myrna Loy & William Powell in The Thin Man, 1934
She grinned at me. “You got types?”
“Only you, darling — lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.”
—Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man (1929)

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9-11 Eighteen Years Later: Never Forget, Never Forgive,

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fallingman

The Torah teaches that we should forever remember what Amalek did to the children of Israel in the desert. Furthermore, the Torah commands us to wipe this evil off the face of the earth.

Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

—Deuteronomy 25

What was Amalek’s great evil?

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“I didn’t want to be just another blond in the movie world, brought out to be slapped into a bathing suit, perched in a cherry tree to be photographed and then sent back to New York.”
— Jan Sterling (1921-2004). Sterling’s best role was as the hard boiled Lorraine in Billy Wildrer’s Ace in the Hole, 1951, in which she delivers one of the greatest lines of dialogue ever written for motion pictures: “I don’t go the church. Kneeling bags my nylons.” In contrast to her movie image as a street-wise femme fatale, Sterling was a refined and educated woman who came from a wealthy Manhattan family. She attended posh private schools, and traveled widely in South America, London and Paris.

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