Peter Birkenhead
By Peter Birkenhead
-
Culture When 250 Orthodox Jewish immigrants worked as extras for Cecil B. DeMille
Editor’s Note: On the occasion of Cecil B. DeMille’s 140th birthday, we’re revisiting this article from 2019. Among the thousands of extras Cecil B. DeMille hired for his original, silent version of “The Ten Commandments” were 250 Orthodox Jewish immigrants, newly arrived in Los Angeles from Eastern Europe The director hoped that they would lend…
-
Opinion The ‘lost cause’ myth is everywhere in our culture. Now is the time to expose it – for a more just America
When the Civil War ended, there were no truth and reconciliation commissions formed to process memories, no Nuremberg Trials to enable reflection, no Great Emancipator to free the future from the past — only ghosts, and the ravenous politics of memory. The need for national reckoning was quickly subordinated to the political imperative of reunification,…
-
Culture When 250 Orthodox Jewish Immigrants Worked As Extras For Cecil B. DeMille
Among the thousands of extras Cecil B. DeMille hired for his original, silent version of “The Ten Commandments” were 250 Orthodox Jewish immigrants, newly arrived in Los Angeles from Eastern Europe The director hoped that they would lend a sense of human verisimilitude to the project: “We believed rightly that, both in appearance and in…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes admits ‘at least 6 million’ Jews were killed in Nazi Germany
- 2
Opinion Americans are waking up to right-wing antisemitism. We’re still ignoring the root problem
- 3
Opinion The part of the Hanukkah story we ignore — and why it matters to converts like me
- 4
Fast Forward Prominent rabbi and fierce Mamdani critic turns his criticism toward Jews and Israel
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward High schoolers’ ‘human swastika’ on football field shakes San Jose Jewish community
-
Fast Forward Nashville Jewish community center sues Goyim Defense League over alleged campaign of intimidation
-
Fast Forward Rabbi Eliezer Diamond, beloved Jewish Theological Seminary professor and author, dies at 73
-
Opinion Trump’s National Security Strategy reveals a painful truth: Israel is newly vulnerable
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
