The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in Los Angeles in 2021, dedicated to the film industry. The museum holds more than 13 million objects, including Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, tablets from The Ten Commandments, and a shark mold from Jaws. Shortly after opening, the museum received much criticism that it failed to reflect the major role that Jews played in the Hollywood film industry. As a result, the museum announced plans to add a permanent exhibit dedicated to Jewish industry pioneers, and this exhibit, titled “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital,” just opened. Among those featured in the exhibit are Louis B. Mayer (Lazar Meir), the Warner brothers (the Wonsal brothers), and Samuel Goldwyn (Schmuel Gelbfisz). They and so many other founders of the movie industry were born to Jewish families who emigrated to the United States at the turn of the 20th century.

Samuel Goldwyn, born in Warsaw, eventually made his way to Hollywood where he partnered with his brother-in-law Jesse L. Lasky in hiring the unknown playwright Cecil B. DeMille to direct a silent film titled The Squaw Man. Goldwyn’s success continued as he hired writers including Ben Hecht, Dorothy Parker, and Lillian Hellman, and worked with actors including Eddie Cantor, David Niven, Gary Cooper, and Danny Kaye.

While Goldwyn did not embrace Judaism, he did ultimately become president of the United Jewish Welfare Fund and was a strong supporter of Israel. Among the honors he received were the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

What else is true of Samuel Goldwyn?

Samuel Goldwyn - Jul 1919 EH by Underwood & Underwood is in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

A. His second marriage, to a Catholic woman, produced a Catholic son, pleasing Goldwyn who felt this helped him “bleach out his Jewishness.”

B. He was the only major Hollywood producer who refused to blacklist writers targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

C. Upon being told that a book he had purchased for filming, The Well of Loneliness, couldn’t be filmed because it was about lesbians, he reportedly replied: “That’s all right, we’ll make them Hungarians.”

D. He was unsuccessful at convincing Sigmund Freud to write a romantic screenplay (which he assumed would have great sex scenes).

E. Playwright Lillian Hellman stated that “Within limits, I liked him.”

Click here for the answer.

✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡

37 countries participated in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden, with Switzerland winning the competition with the song The Code by Nemo. The contest has been taking place since 1956, with Israel first participating in 1973. Israel has won the contest four times–in 1978 with Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta performing the song A-Ba-Ni-Bi, in 1979 for the song Hallelujah by Milk and Honey, in 1998 with Dana International singing Diva, and in 2018 when Netta won with the song Toy. This year’s Israel entrant was the song Hurricane, performed by Eden Golan, which came in fifth. Controversy surrounded her song and performance as there were protests over the war in Gaza. The song Hurricane was originally titled October Rain, with some allusions to the Hamas terror attack of October 7. Songs in the Eurovision contest are not allowed to be political, and ultimately the lyrics were revised and the song was renamed Hurricane. There were additional protests among some other Eurovision participants and others over Israel’s presence in the contest, but contest organizers rejected requests to disqualify Israel.

There has been a parallel song contest in Europe for more than 20 years where young Jewish students compete, singing pop songs adapted to Jewish content, or in some cases original Jewish songs. The competition was first created by Rotem Abecassis, an Israeli shaliach in Sweden, to bring together chapters of World Bnei Akiva (a religious Zionist youth movement). This year’s contest took place in Hanover, Germany in March, and was won by Halev Stuttgart Youth Center. What is the name of this annual Jewish song competition?

The International Eurovision contest for 1979 was held in Jerusalem (FL45813625) (contest winners Milk and Honey) by Danny Gotfried is licensed under CC BY 4.0 DEED via Wikimedia Commons

A. Shir Ha-Shirim.

B. Euro-Jewish Idol.

C. Let My People Sing.

D. Shir Shalom.

E. Jewrovision.

Click here for the answer.

✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡

The Tony nominations were announced in advance of the awards ceremony that will take place on June 16. Among the nominated shows is Suffs, which received 6 nominations. These include Best Musical, as well as Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, both to writer/composer/actor Shaina Taub. The Broadway run was produced, among others, by Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai. The show tells the story of the Suffragist movement which led to the adoption of the 19th amendment in 1920, giving women the right to vote. The main characters are all based on real-life Suffragists, including Alice Paul, the leader of the National Woman’s Party; African American investigative journalist Ida B. Wells; and Carrie Chapman Catt, Head of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Though not included in the show, there were numerous Jewish women playing significant roles in the Suffragist movement, most notably Maud Nathan, a cousin of Supreme Court justice Benjamin Cardozo. Nathan was a founding member and the president of the New York Consumers League, an officer in the Equal Suffrage League of New York, the first woman to speak at an American synagogue (Shearith Israel, where she spoke on social justice), and was the chair of the Suffrage Committee of the National Progressive Party (a position she was appointed to by former President Theodore Roosevelt). President Woodrow Wilson, who was in office during the time of the Suffragist movement, was not initially a supporter of the cause. What did President Wilson say after meeting with Maud Nathan about the Suffragist issue?

Maud Nathan  is in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

A. “Though Mrs. Nathan is a passionate advocate for her cause, nothing she said surpassed the wisdom of our Founding Fathers who did not see fit to provide suffrage rights to women.”

B. “The suffrage movement owes a lot to Mrs. Nathan, and I shall consider her wise counsel as I study this issue of such great importance to our nation.”

C. “As much as I respect Mrs. Nathan, I do not see a reason to change my opinion about women’s suffrage, when she can’t even get her own synagogue to let her sit up front.”

D. “When I hear a woman talk so well in the public interest, it actually makes me believe in woman suffrage.”

E. “When I hear a woman talk so well in the public interest, it almost makes me believe in woman suffrage.”

Click here for the answer.

✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡

The Passover Haggadah traces its roots back roughly 2000 years. While the exact date or authorship isn’t known, the most recent person referenced in the Haggadah is Judah bar Ilai, who lived around 170CE; therefore the Haggadah could not have been written before then. It is Rabbi Judah who summarized the ten plagues via an acronym, דצ"ך עד"ש באח"ב, D’tzach, Adash, B’achav. Perhaps the most famous Haggadah is the Maxwell House Haggadah, first printed in 1932 as a promotional item for the coffee company. Upwards of 50 million copies are in print, and this version was used at the White House seders during the presidency of Barack Obama. Every year new versions of the Haggadah are published, some based on religious perspective, some geared towards particular events in the current news, or some aspect of pop culture. For example, this year a Haggadah was published titled This Haggadah is The Way: A Star Wars Unofficial Passover Parody, for those who want to hold a Darth Seder.  A more serious choice is The Heroes Haggadah: Lead the Way to Freedom, which incorporates text about such people as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Rabbi Angela Buchdahl. Which of the following is also a new Haggadah offering for 2024?

Maxwell House 1933 Haggadah cover by General Foods Corporation  is in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

A. The Beyoncé-der Haggadah.

B. The Spoof Seder Haggadah: A Passover Parody of Mel Brooks Parodies!

C. Sarah and Rabbi Susan Silverman’s Seriously Silly Spectacularly Sacrilegious Spiritually Soul-Stirring Haggadah.

D. The Unofficial Taylor Swift Haggadah.

E. Colin Jost and Michael Che’s Most Goyishe Haggadah Ever!

Click here for the answer.

✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡