Ed Asner plays a Holocaust survivor in film being released 2 years after his death
Ed Asner died in 2021, but his final film will be released Friday

Margot Josefsohn and Ed Asner in “Tiger Within.” Asner died in 2021 (Courtesy of Menemsha Films)
(JTA) — The prolific Jewish actor Ed Asner died nearly two years ago, but his final film will hit select theaters on Friday.
In “Tiger Within,” he plays a Holocaust survivor who becomes the unlikely friend of a homeless teenager who was raised by a Holocaust denier. The movie was filmed in the summer of 2018, and Asner, the Emmy award-winning actor best known for his roles as Lou Grant on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and Carl in the Pixar animated film “Up,” died in 2021 at the age of 91.
“Tiger Within” follows Casey, played by newcomer Margot Josefsohn, as a troubled 14-year-old living in Los Angeles. After running away from her neglectful mother and failing to find support from her father, Casey takes shelter in a cemetery, where she meets Samuel (Asner), an elderly man visiting his wife’s grave. Samuel, a Holocaust survivor, notices the swastika on Casey’s signature leather jacket and begins a conversation, eventually offering Casey some food and a safe place to sleep. Over the course of their friendship, she learns about the realities of the Holocaust and Samuel fulfills the promise he made to his deceased wife to learn to forgive.

As part of the preparation for the film, director Rafal Zielinski researched forgiveness by interviewing religious leaders and hundreds of young people on the streets of Los Angeles about what forgiveness means to them. The answers were varied, ranging from unconditional forgiveness to measured or transactional.
“It shows how divided we really are,” Zielenski said in a statement. “We all really want to forgive and unburden ourselves, but our human nature and upbringing intercepts us.”
The film does not explain what type of forgiveness, exactly, Samuel is referring to. But the filmmaker felt that the focus on friendship between these two generations was important given that nearly two-thirds of American young adults do not know that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Almost a quarter of respondents to that study, who were between ages 18 to 39, said they believed the Holocaust was a myth. Another 18% said they had definitely not heard, or did not think they had heard, about the Holocaust.
Born and raised in Kansas City to Jewish immigrant parents, Asner told interviewers over the years that his parents practiced a “midwestern” form of Orthodox Judaism, observing many of the religious laws but driving to synagogue. He would play several Jewish characters and work with several Jewish organizations. He was also involved in political activism and joined Jewish Voice for Peace initiatives in speaking out against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
“Bury my ashes in Mount Scopus,” he told the Forward in 2012.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jerusalem Post editor Zvika Klein, arrested in ‘Qatar-gate,’ says he’s being unfairly prosecuted for his reporting
-
Fast Forward Trump fires national security officials, reportedly at urging of Laura Loomer, far-right Jewish ‘Islamophobe’
-
Fast Forward Display honoring Jewish women graduates of naval academy removed ahead of Hegseth visit
-
Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: מיידעלע געפֿינט 3,800־יאָריקע קמיע לעבן בית־שמש, ישׂראלTIDBITS: Little girl finds 3,800-year old amulet near Beit Shemesh, Israel
אַן עקספּערט פֿון פֿאַרצײַטיקע קמיעות האָט באַשטעטיקט אַז די קמיע איז געלעגן אויפֿן אָרט פֿונעם אַמאָליקן לאַנד כּנען.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.