Movie News: Silent Film About Anti-Semitism Reemerges, Harvey Weinstein Gets Dumped

Image by Getty Images
Assuming you’re a reader of the Forward, you’re probably well aware that “Jewberg” is not a real Jewish surname. According to a recent story in the Outline, members of the Russian media are not quite so savvy. In a bizarre twist, it turns out a self-proclaimed US State Department analyst and anti-Putin commentator named David Jewberg, who had been quoted by Russian news sources repeatedly over several years, is not a real guy. Go figure. It’s not movie news, per se, but the David Jewberg conspiracy sounds like a minor subplot in some terrible Adam Sandler movie you can only watch with a cable box.
If you need me, I’ll be frantically searching for a real person with the last name Jewberg; in the meantime, here’s your movie news.
An Austrian film about anti-semitism dominated the box office — in 1924
The Forward’s Talya Zax wrote on “Die Stadt Ohne Juden,” or “The City Without Jews,” a 1924 Austrian silent film that was rediscovered in a Paris flea market in 2015, after all copies were believed to have been destroyed, damaged, or lost (another damaged copy was found in 1991). As Zax writes, The Austrian Film Archive recently restored the film, which tells the story of a city that exiles its Jews in a “wave of anti-Semitism connected to economic grievance,” before its citizens realize the error of their ways and “welcome the Jewish community back.” The organization hopes it will find a new audience amid revived anti-Semitism in Europe.
Scorsese’s filmic history of the United States falls short
Martin Scorsese was recently asked a fundamental question: What movies make essential viewing for someone seeking to understand the United States? His answer: Those that “look squarely at the struggles, violent disagreements and the tragedies in history, not to mention hypocrisies, false promises.”
Yet, according to Zax, a recent curriculum designed by his nonprofit, the Film Foundation, entitled “Portraits of America: Democracy on Film,” fails to present films on these subjects by disenfranchised people. She recommends a few filmmakers he could instead include in the project, such as Maya Deren, Dorothy Arzner, and Alice Guy-Blaché.
Harvey Weinstein got dumped … by his PR company
Things aren’t looking good for Harvey. As Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt writes, “You know you’re in trouble when even your top-of-the-line, tough-as-nails crisis public relations firm drops you.” Sitrick and Company, Weinstein’s former media representation firm, will no longer represent the “disgraced mogul,” the Hollywood Reporter, uh, reports.
Cool, there’s a movie about gefilte fish now
The Forward’s Michael Kaminer met Rachel Fleit, a Brooklyn-based filmmaker who made a documentary called “Gefilte” about a prolific maker of the dish named Doreen Hermelin. Except, she says, “It’s really about love and loss in every bite of that Ashkenazi food. It’s my parents, their parents, and everyone who came before them. And on another level, it’s about a gazillion Jews, for thousands of years, who persisted in keeping tradition alive, and keeping Judaism alive, no matter what kind of oppression faced them.”
Handmaid’s Tale director to direct a film about Anne Frank
Reed Moran, director of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “is in talks with Fox Searchlight to direct ‘Keeper of the Diary,’” according to TheWrap. The drama will follow Otto Frank’s quest to find a publisher for his daughter’s diary.
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.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
- 4
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Hamas and Trump say Edan Alexander to be freed from Gaza after US negotiates release
-
Culture Should Diaspora Jews be buried in Israel? A rabbi responds
-
Fast Forward In first Sunday address, Pope Leo XIV calls for ceasefire in Gaza, release of hostages
-
Fast Forward Huckabee denies rift between Netanyahu and Trump as US actions in Middle East appear to leave out Israel
-
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.