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…
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion Israel is becoming a pariah state. Here’s what American Jews must do.
- 3
News ‘He was a mensch’: Slain Messianic Jew remembered as bridge-builder
- 4
Opinion We must face reality — the Gaza war is now a war of annihilation
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Why are Christian influencers promoting Jesus mezuzahs?
-
Fast Forward Texas may soon require schools to post the Ten Commandments. Meet the Jewish lawmaker fighting back.
-
Fast Forward French parliamentary committee unanimously votes to posthumously promote Alfred Dreyfus
-
Fast Forward Elise Stefanik says Harvard pro-Palestinian activist should lose federally-funded scholarship
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism