Peter Ephross
By Peter Ephross
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Israel News Nice Jewish Guys Are Pinups in New Calendar
A producer of the hit reality TV show “The Simple Life,” which stars Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, is now trying to boost the image of nice Jewish guys — one month at a time. Adam Cohen’s Nice Jewish Guys Calendar 2010 features 12 California menschen in their 20s, all of whom are gainfully employed…
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Culture Nine Tenths of the Law
Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America By Beryl Satter Metropolitan Books, 512 pages, $30.00. The search for the absent father — whether he’s literally or emotionally absent — is a pervasive theme in theater, books and film. Rarely, however, does an author inject this theme into a work of…
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Culture Dreams of the Displaced
In the aftermath of World War II, roughly 250,000 Jews — most of them Holocaust survivors — lived in displaced persons camps in Europe. Many of these people were attracted to Zionism, and about two-thirds of them eventually would move to British Mandate Palestine or to Israel. In his new book, “Finding Home and Homeland:…
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News The Best in Baseball
The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball’s Chosen Players By Howard Megdal HarperCollins, 320 pages, $22.99. For Jewish fans, searching for Jewish players in Major League Baseball is one of the rites of spring and summer. Discoveries bolster ethnic pride — think of the news that Boston Red Sox infielder Kevin Youkilis, nicknamed…
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News Laugh Out Loud
The recipe for a documentary on the history of 20th-century American humor is simple. Begin with such Jewish pioneers as the Marx Brothers, Gertrude Berg and Lenny Bruce. Mix in the Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis and Jon Stewart. Add a dollop of Billy Crystal as the host. Then sprinkle in a few non-Jewish greats: Charlie…
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News Playing the Field
Passing Game: Benny Friedman and the Transformation of Football By Murray Greenberg PublicAffairs, 352 pages, $26.95. Even though he retired from pro football in 1934, Jewish quarterback Benny Friedman didn’t make the sport’s Hall of Fame until 2005. Now, Friedman has received a biography of his own. “Passing Game: Benny Friedman and the Transformation of…
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Culture Shooting Hoops, a Jewish History
It’s true that Major League Baseball has seen a renaissance of Jewish players during the past few years, but the historic American Jewish sport is surely basketball. It makes sense if you think about it. Easy to play on the concrete surfaces that are ubiquitous in urban areas, basketball was the sport most accessible to…
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Culture Service Without a Smile
Picture the stereotypical Israeli soldier — macho, muscular and, of course, male. But young Israeli women do up to two years of compulsory military service (men do three), some of them spending their time in the simmering West Bank. And as the powerful documentary “To See If I’m Smiling” makes clear, the women who serve…
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