"Gather Us Together: The Ethiopian Jews Come Home"

The Educational Resource Center
In conjunction with
The Consulate General of Israel
Present:
“Gather Us Together: The Ethiopian Jews Come Home”
An Interactive Program


Interactive program description
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
Gather Us Together: The Ethiopian Jews Come Home is an interactive program that teaches the culture, history and experience of Ethiopian Jews through scripted learning activities, images, music, authentic clothing, artifacts, original DVD, oral histories and more.

How it works:
Gather Us Together is designed to move from station to station. In approximately 90 minutes, groups of 15 participants visit each station encountering a different chapter of the story through a variety of hands-on experiences. Advanced copies of the exhibit script and learning activities enable staff to prepare for the event.

HOW TO BORROW THIS PROGRAM
To reserve this program and for more information contact:
Debbie Seiden at (646) 472-5362 or seidend@bjeny.org
Fee: This program is available free of charge. (Shipping costs apply)

BJE is offering a workshop on using this program. Participants will learn how to implement this program in their educational settings.

WHEN: Tuesday, December 18, 2007
TIME: 9:30-12:00 (9:30 registration and
breakfast)
WHERE: BJENY
520 Eighth Avenue, 15th floor
New York, NY 10018
(b/w 36th and 37th)
FEE FOR WORKSHOP: $25.00
CONTACT:
Debbie Seiden at (646) 472-5362
or seidend@bjeny.org

Is Madonna (sorry I mean Esther) good for the Jews?

Madonna Visits Israel.
Posted September 15, 2007

Clapping and singing, Madonna joined in a Kabbalah conference Friday in Tel Aviv to celebrate the Jewish New Year.
Madonna was singing Jewish songs with the crowd of hundreds at the David Intercontinental Hotel, site of the conference on Jewish mysticism. At one point she pressed another participant _ apparently a friend of hers _ up to the front where he danced excitedly, making the singer and the crowd giggle and clap enthusiastically.
The 49-year-old pop star wore a black jacket with elbow-length sleeves that was held at the waist with a belt with a large buckle. She also donned a baseball-type, red-and-black plaid hat with her hair in a ponytail.
Madonna, who is on a private visit to the Holy Land, arrived Wednesday night. She didn’t speak to the media, and the conference was closed to TV cameras.
Demi Moore and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, were also attending the conference in Tel Aviv, and were seen out on the city streets Thursday night.
Madonna was raised a Roman Catholic but has become a follower of Jewish mysticism in recent years.
She has taken the Hebrew name Esther and has been seen wearing a red thread on her wrist to ward off the evil eye.
Madonna made her first trip to Israel in 2004.

Jew Takes Down American Gangster

“A lot of people are drawn to the idea that a black man was able to rise to that height over a white man — the Mafia — because of his brains,” Mr. Roberts said. “That’s fine. I’m Jewish, and part of me thinks that Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky were pretty cool guys because at a time when everybody thought that Jews were wimps, these guys rose to the heights of the Mafia. Part of me does feel that." Richie Roberts

I just finished watching American Gangster and it wasn't till the last 30 mins that I realized Crowe's character Richie Roberts was supposed to be Jewish when he was called a "Kike". D0esn't Crowe just scream Jew to you? I mean his first major role was as the leader of a bunch of Australian skin head neo Nazis in "Romper Stomper" then he played the anti-Semitic schizophrenic professor in "Beautiful Mind". But what the heck we will take what we can get. Here is a review that backed up that he was a Jewish charactor. Damm I just noticed as well that Crowe was wearing a Star of David in the film. See picture below with the real Richie Roberts (who now on 2nd thought doesn't look that far from an older Crowe and he was a Marine).
'American Gangster' has it
By Kenneth Turan,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 2, 2007
IT takes nerve to call a film "American Gangster": It's more than a movie title, it's the name of a venerable genre that dates to cinema's beginnings. But once you see this finely made and richly satisfying film, you understand it's the only title possible.In part that's because "American Gangster" is conscious of its place in that tough guy continuum. Visual and thematic references to classics such as "The Godfather," "Once Upon a Time in America" and "The Asphalt Jungle" show that director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Steven Zaillian are quite aware of their film's place in history.
More than that, with Oscar-winning costars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe joining forces with Scott and Zaillian, two of the best at what they do, "American Gangster" is mindful of continuing another tradition, that of sweeping, old-school epic filmmaking that artfully heightens reality even if it's based on the gritty facts of the Harlem drug trade of the 1970s.Making this point even stronger is the presence of a pair of documentaries that cover roughly the same territory as "American Gangster." Frank Lucas, the drug lord Denzel Washington plays, is profiled in a BET Networks hour, while Nicky Barnes, Lucas' rival, gets a documentary of his own called "Mr. Untouchable."But it is a tribute to the complexity and drama of Zaillian's character-driven script and to Scott's commanding grasp of large-scale visuals and sweeping storytelling that the truth is puny and uninvolving compared with the bravura moviemaking webs these men can weave. Scott is the third director (after Antoine Fuqua and Terry George) who signed on for this project, and he brings to it cinematic gifts no one else has.It is Zaillian and Scott's notion that the gangster story is another version of the classic American success story, a theme that echoes "Asphalt Jungle's" famous description of crime as "a left-handed form of human endeavor." In the same way, the entrepreneurial Harlem drug dealers who wreak havoc in the streets took as gospel the line that starts "The Godfather:" "I believe in America.""American Gangster's" two adversaries, drug kingpin Lucas (Washington) and Richie Roberts, the cop who becomes his "Les Misérables"-type nemesis (Crowe), can also be seen as two sides of the same scary coin, each of them fearless and driven by interior forces that make them terrors to be around.Yet, unexpectedly, "American Gangster" has not only kept the face-to-face meetings between these two men to a minimum, it has also relegated them to the last hour of this 2-hour-and-40-minute film. In fact, Zaillian told Script magazine that he ended up "writing two separate scripts," one from Lucas' point of view, the other from Roberts', and then combining them to compelling effect.As the title indicates, this is Lucas' story more than anyone else's, and it is no disrespect to the charismatic, magnetic work Crowe does to say that Washington's is the performance to savor here. The actor is always at his best, as he was in his Oscar-winning "Training Day," as the magnetic bad guy, the man with a malleable code who can say things like "If you weren't my brother I'd blow your brains out" and make you believe it.Certainly the first glimpse we have of Lucas, being the good gangland soldier and unemotionally setting someone on fire, leaves us with few illusions about the man who was for 15 years the factotum to Harlem crime czar Bumpy Johnson. Yet Washington's performance makes it possible for us to see nuances in the man's character without shortchanging the malevolence of his actions, makes us see how in his own mind Lucas was a believer in family, integrity and character.Washington is also expert at conveying the watchful waiting in Lucas, the man who took his time after Bumpy Johnson's death in 1968 to understand the power structure in criminal Harlem and figure out how to work the area's heroin traffic to his advantage. Bumpy, he notes, was rich, but "he wasn't white-man wealthy," and this becomes Lucas' goal.To achieve this, as related in the Mark Jacobson article in New York magazine that started the project, Lucas went to Thailand and made his own deals with growers for the purest dope, which he called Blue Magic and had shipped back to the U.S. in the coffins of Americans who died fighting in Vietnam. A left-handed form of human endeavor indeed.Back in America, Lucas cuts deals with the Mafia and bumptious Harlem rival Nicky Barnes (Cuba Gooding Jr.), brings his brothers (including Chiwetel Ejiofor's Huey) up from North Carolina to help him run the business and acquires a stunning Miss Puerto Rico (Lymari Nadal) as a girlfriend. "I sell product better than the competition at prices lower than the competition," Lucas boasts. "I am my own company."Smoothly intercut by editor Pietro Scalia with these events is the story of Crowe's Richie Roberts, a tough Jewish cop at home with both a swagger and a sledgehammer. Possessed of a volcanic temper and a disinclination to wait for warrants if there's crime fighting to be done, the fearless, streetwise Roberts, like Lucas, has his own stern code of behavior.So when he comes across a huge cache of money he could have walked off with, no questions asked, Roberts instead turns it in, and, like Frank Serpico before him, earns the enmity of those of his co-workers who are deeply suspicious of honest cops.Being Richie also means royally irritating his wife, Laurie (Carla Gugino, far from "Spy Kids"), and getting into conflicts with connected crooked cops like Det. Trupo (the protean Josh Brolin). His worth is finally recognized, however, as part of a special antidrug task force, and the stage is set for his epochal face-off with Lucas.Watching "American Gangster" in tandem with those Harlem drug documentaries underlines that this impressive film is less based on actual fact than on movie fiction.Authorities and eyewitnesses may argue about who did what to whom in real life, but where the big screen is concerned, it matters not. What "American Gangster" is doing is re-creating myths, and it's good to see that the movies haven't lost their touch where that kind of work is concerned.

Funny They Don't Look Jewish

12/3/07 Update: Here is the word on the street about their Rabbi: "Their rabbi who was in israel last year is studying in Los angeles at the university of judaism. He leads services once or twice a month at shomrei torah in west hills. It is incredible...he does a friday night service where he plays the drums and guitar with his kids and sings the most beautiful melodies to the same prayers. My parents have had them over for shabbat dinner or lunch many times and they really are fascinating people." Ari in LA
Welcome, The eastern Ugandan town of Mbale is home to a small Jewish community, known as Abayudaya, from the Luganda word for Jews. Shalom - welcome in Hebrew - is painted on the wall of the Hadassah infant and elementary school just outside Mbale. It is the only Jewish primary school in the country and caters to its small community. Hands up! Children wave their hands in the air in response to the question: "Who here is Jewish?" Pupils are taught to chant the Hebrew alphabet and can sing the Israeli national anthem. "We teach them that because all Jewish people are connected to the land of Israel," Headmaster Aerron Kintu Moses explains. Music is important to the Abayudaya, who have produced two CDs of religious songs. Warrior The synagogue, in the grounds of the Semei Kakungulu secondary school, was recently constructed. Kakungulu, a warrior, was used by the British to help conquer Uganda. He fell out with the colonialists, settled in Mbale and in 1919 converted to Judaism, without ever having met a Jew. By the time of his death a decade later, he had 2,000 followers. Dressing up The headmaster at the secondary school prepares to pray. The Abayudaya are a tiny minority and few Ugandans even know that they exist. The group have also been through difficult times, particularly in the 1970s when then-President Idi Amin, a Muslim, forbade Jewish observance. Many Abayudaya converted to Christianity or Islam, and numbers dwindled to around 200. School walk The Abayudaya are currently experiencing a revival, with more than 750 members. After years of being off the tourist map, Uganda has greater contact with international Jewry, particularly from the United States. Well-wishers have donated money, and facilities have expanded. Now, Muslim and Christian students walk through the lush green hills to attend the Jewish schools. Convert The community mikvah - a bath for ritual purification - has been used twice in the past three years by foreign rabbis to officially convert 345 Abayudaya to Judaism, including Jeje pictured here. Judaism is not an evangelical religion; Jews normally inherit the faith from their mother. Until the ceremony the Abayudaya were not even considered Jewish in the eyes of world Jewry. Decorated doorway The door of an Abayudaya home, decorated with religious symbols and a mezuzah - a religious parchment attached to doorposts of Jewish houses. Contact with foreign Jews means that the Abayudaya are more knowledgeable about mainstream Jewish beliefs. And they will be even better served when their rabbi returns from Israel, where - thanks to foreign sponsorship - he is attending religious college.Confident Twenty years ago Jewish children, like these, would have been mocked or marginalised. But as the community grows, so does their confidence. As one young man put it: "Being called Jewish used to be an abuse. We even used to fear to say our religion. "But now if you say you are Jewish, people take it as normal. And some even admire you."

Annapolis B.S.!

ISRAEL’S STATUS AS A ‘JEWISH STATE’ NOT NEGOTIABLE
“Even as Israel is being pressured to again make painful concessions on the road to the establishment of a Palestinian state, there are signs that there are those who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish State," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Center. Hier challenged an assertion by the Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, that there was no state in the world that connects its national identity to a religious one. In fact it was the United Nations 60 years ago this week that voted to recognize both a Jewish State and an Arab State in the Holy Land. If the Arabs deny the legitimacy of that vote, they deny their own legitimacy in the Holy Land. —Rabbi Hier Stand with Israel — support SWC today
President Bush, center, flanked by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, at the opening session of the Mideast conference in Annapolis, Md., Nov. 27, 2007. AP Photo/Susan Walsh
In a November 25, 2007, TIME MAGAZINE interview, when Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal was asked about accepting Israel's legitimacy, he referred to it as only a “Jewish Homeland” — a term used in the 1917 Balfour Declaration, well before Saudi Arabia's establishment in 1932. “The King's choice of terms is confusing because if he takes us back to World War I, then he is taking us back to a time when there was no Saudi Arabia and it is difficult to believe that he would advocate giving all that oil back to Britain,” said Hier. “The bottom line is that all parties committed to peace must also respect Israel's sovereign right to continue to exist as a democratic, Jewish State,” he concluded.

We need your support to continue our work. Please click here to support the work of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Send inquiries to: information@wiesenthal.net Or send mail to:Simon Wiesenthal Center1399 South Roxbury, Los Angeles, California 90035310-553-9036http://www.wiesenthal.com/

Churchill was Jewish? or "The Day the Rabbi Screwed Up"

I just found this from a few years back from the website: www.agudasisraelsynagogue.org Under the Rabbi's Blog. I can not speak to the validity of DeNiro, Grant or Bowie because I was told that none had any Jewish blood by the editor of the now defunct www.jewhoo.com. He could be wrong but he is pretty anal so I am guessing may the Rabbi got it wrong. But either way it is always fun to speculate isn't it? I have added my own comments in green below. If you have some proof either way on any of these listed below please post that in the comment section and I will give you your due praise.

Friday, December 09, 2005
Famous Jews You Didn't Know Are Jewish

1. Lillian Friedman married Cruz Rivera. They named their baby Geraldo
Miguel Rivera.( Funny, it doesn't sound Jewish....) Since, according to
Jewish law, anyone born to a Jewish mother is Jewish, Geraldo Rivera is Jewish. As were, among others: Fiorella Laguardia, Winston Churchill and Cary Grant, as explained below.

2. Fiorella Laguardia's mother's name was Jacobson. His father was not Jewish. Laguardia spoke seven languages - including Hebrew and Yiddish - fluently.

3. Winston Churchill's mother's name was Jenny Jerome. Sorry this looks wrong as well-Racists made up the claim that Leonard Jerome was born Leonad Jacobson and changed his name. Even Wikipedia which is hardly the best source for perfect information notes the following:"Leonard Jerome was the son of Isaac Jerome and Aurora Murray.""Some anti-semitic publications have unscrupulously claimed that Leonard Jerome was born Leonard Jacobson and changed his name to Jerome. In fact the Jerome name dates back to Timothy Jerome a Huguenot." On another side note i am glad he is not Jewish since a friend of mine that has done workings in with in the private sector says he is a little bitch.

4. Cary Grant's mother, Elsie, was Jewish. His father, Elias Leach, was not. Grant's original name was Archibald Alexander Leach. (Robin Leach is his first cousin). This one could go either way..check out this site if you care: http://www.adherents.com/people/pg/Cary_Grant.html

5. Peter Sellers' mother, Margaret Marks, was Jewish. His father, Bill Sellers, was Protestant. Peter's real name is Richard Henry Sellers.

6. David Bowie's mother is Jewish, his father is not. One of Bowie 's album covers discusses his Jewish ancestry. His real name: David Stenton Haywood-Jones. David Bowie has before claimed to being up to half Jewish, and this was usually around the 1976 time frame when he was defending himself against being called a racist after his infamous 'nazi salute'. However, Bowie was not raised Jewish at all. He is, at the most, quarter Jewish and on his mother's side.

7. Robert DeNiro's mother is Jewish; his father is not. The all knowing "Wik" says otherwise: De Niro was born in New York City, the son of Virginia (née Admiral), a painter, and Robert De Niro, Sr., an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor.[1] De Niro's father was a lapsed Catholic of Italian and Irish descent and his mother a Presbyterian-raised atheist of German, Dutch and French descent.

8. Shari Belafonte's mother is Jewish. Her father, Harry, has a Jewish grandfather.

9. Olivia Newton-John's Jewish grandfather was a Nobel Prize winning
physicist.

10. Harrison Ford's mother is Russian-Jewish, his father is Irish-Catholic.

ALWAYS GOOD TO KNOW AND REMEMBER!

Fact: The first theatre to be used solely for the showing of motion pictures was built by a Jew (Adolf Zukor).

Fact: The first full-length sound picture, The Jazz Singer was produced by the Jewish Samuel L. Goldwyn & Louis B. Mayer (MGM).

Fact: A Jew (Dr. Abraham Waksman) coined the term antibiotics.

Fact: A Polish Jew (Casimir Funk) who pioneered a new field of medical research gave us a word now common in our language - vitamins.

Fact: The first successful operation for appendicitis was performed by a Jewish surgeon (Dr. Simon Baruch)

Fact: The doctor (Dr. Abraham Jacobi) hailed as America 's father of
pediatrics was a Jew.

Fact: Until a Jewish doctor (Dr. Siccary) showed differently, Americans believed the tomato was poisonous.

Fact: Jewish Levi "Levi's" Strauss (inventor of jeans) is the largest
clothing retailer in the world.

Fact: In 1909, four Jews were among the 60 multi-cultural signers of the call to the National Action, which resulted in the creation of the NAACP.

Fact: A Jew (Emile Berliner) is the man who developed the modern-day phonograph. While Thomas Edison was working out a type of phonograph that used a cylinder as a record, Berliner invented a machine that would play a disc. The machine he patented was called the gramophone, and the famous RCA trademark is a picture of a dog listening to "his master's voice" on Berliner's device. The gramaphone was superior to Edison 's machine. In short, Emile Berliner made possible the modern record industry. His company was eventually absorbed by the Victor Talking Machine Company, now known as
RCA.

Fact: Jewish Louis B. Mayer (MGM) created the idea for the Oscar.

Fact: European Jews are the founding fathers of all the Hollywood Studios.

Fact: Jews comprise a mere 1/4 of 1% (13 million) of the population (6 billion).

Fact: 99% of the world is non Jewish.

Fact: Three of greatest & most influential thinkers dominating the 20th century were Jewish - Einstein, Freud, Marx.

Fact: The most popular selling Christmas song ("White Christmas") was written by a Jew (Irving Berlin)

Fact: Of the 660 Nobel prizes from 1901-1990, 160 have been won by Jews. In the end, Jews win more Nobel prizes than any other ethnicity. They win 40x more than should be expected of them, based upon their small population numbers.

Fact: A Jew (Dr. Jonas Salk) is the creator of the first Polio Vaccine.

Fact: Jews (Hayam Solomon & Isaac Moses) are responsible for creating the first modern-banking institutions.

Fact: Jews also created the first department stores of the 19th century: The Altmans, Gimbels, Kaufmanns, Lazaruses, Magnins, Mays, Strausses became leaders of major department stores. Julius Rosenwald revolutionized the way Americans purchased goods by improving Sears Roebuck's mail order merchandising. Hart, Schaffner, Marx, Kuppenheimer and Levi Strauss became household names in mens' clothing. (Let's not forget EJ Korvets - Eight Jewish Korean (war) Veterans.)

Fact: Jewish Marc Chagall (born Segal , Russia ) is one of the great 20th century painters.

Fact: English-Jewish financiers such as Isaac Goldsmid, Nathan Rothschild, David Salomons, and Moses Montefiore, whose fortunes helped England become an empire.

Fact: In 1918, Detroit , a Jew (Max Goldberg) opened the "first" commercial parking lot.

Fact: In 1910, a Jew (Louis Blaustein) and his son opened the "first" gas station, eventually founding AMOCO OIL. One of the richest oil families in the world.

Fact: A Jew (Dr. Albert Sabin) developed the first "oral polio vaccine."

Fact: A Jew (Steven Spielberg) is the most successful filmmaker since the advent of film.

Fact: A Jewish poet's (Emma Lazarus) famous poem, "give me your tired ... your poor... your huddled masses," appears as the inscription on the Statue Of Liberty.

Fact: Jewish Harry Houdini (Weiss) is the father of Magic/Illusion.

Fact: Dr. Sigmund Freud (Jew) is the father of psychiatry.

Fact: Jewish Abraham is the father of the world's 3 major religions:
Judaism, Christianity & Islam (ancestors of the Hebrew & Arabic peoples). Jesus (formerly known as "sweet Jewish Jesus") is still worshipped by billions.

Fact: Jews are the oldest of any people on earth still around with their national identity and cultural heritage intact.

Fact: George & Ira Gershwin & Irving Berlin (Jews) are three of the most prolific composers of the 20th century

Fact: Isadore & Nathan Straus (Jews) - "Abraham & Straus," eventually became sole owners of Macy's (world's largest department store) in 1896.

Fact: Dr. Paul "magic bullet" Ehrlich (Jew) - physician, Nobel Prize in 1908 for curing syphilis.

Fact: Armand Hammer (Jew) - "Arm & Hammer," physician & businessman who originated the largest trade between U.S. and Russia.

Fact: Louis Santanel (Jew) was the financier who provided the funds for Columbus ' voyage to America .

Fact: Sherry Lansing (Jew) of Paramount Pictures, became the first woman president of a major Hollywood studio.

Fact: Flo Zigfield (Jew) of "Zigfield Follies," is the creator of American
burlesque.


So, my family and friends, stand tall and be proud. (or at least stand up and be counted!!)

Human Weapon : Krav Maga of the Israeli Commandos Video

Thank Jew Very Much, "didJEWknow" hits 1000 hits!

When I started this blog in September I had a feeling that there were a lot more twisted folks like myself that wanted and needed to get to the bottom of their curiosity on random Jew things and people but I did expect that in less than 3 months that a 1,000 visits to my site would occur. So based on this I will keep on keeping and try to produce the finest product that I can in the limited time that I have. Jew know I love you.

Poor Unfortunate Jews

I have been meaning to post this info for a while but keep getting sidetracked, so here we go. Unfortunate Jews are what I refer to the half Jew who ends up without the good looks and looks more Jewish than most full Jews. If you recall my posting a few months back about the competition for hottest half Jew you would have noticed Jack Gyllenhaal. He is what I would call a "Fortunate Jewish Son". He got the Jew and the looks where other have Jews like Adrian Brody or Adam Goldberg just got the Jew. Other examples would be hot half Jew half black Lenny Kravitz and the flip side would be Slash. I am going to put together a list below of some of the guys that got all the Jew with half the blood, because I am a sensitive guy I am not going to put a list of females half Jews who go hit 100% with the Jew stick.

(These are in no particular order since I am just going off the top of my head..feel free to weight in)







1) Adrian Brody - Actor

2) Adam Goldberg - Actor

3) Slash (half black) - Musician

4)Justin Warfield (half black) - Singer from "She Wants Revenge"

5)Bill Maher - Talk show host

6)Arlo Guthrie - Musician

7)Alexis Arquette - Actor and soon to be an actress

More to come so look for updates..gotta go to sleep now

Who is Jewing who?

I know that these last 2 posts have been of the negative variety but after seeing Alpha Dog a few nights ago and another stand out psycho performance by new favorite upcoming Jew, Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma) I had to put it out there. Besides his performance what makes the film so tough to turn away from and so quick to Google about is that it is based on a true crime story. Foster's looks and performance remind me of "The Believer" and "American History X". Like the believer he is Jewish yet has a double lighting bolt on the back of his neck which was the symbol for the German SS. His confliction shows with Hebrew letters tattooed across the top of his chest. Is he a self-hating, self-loving Jew? Well the picture doesn't really go into it and nothing on the net seems to either. Was he a tough guy as the movie portrait him just like the Ryan Gosling character in Believer or was he just a coward as the real Jewish anti-Semite Daniel Burros(http://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/216047) in Believer? These are the things that I am curious about. At least a Jew plays a Jew with Foster in Alpha Dog. Here is an article that I pulled from the Jewish Journal online about Alpha Dog:
2007-01-19
Release of 'Alpha Dog ' reopens Markowitz family wounds
By Robert David Jaffee, Contributing Writer
"Alpha Dog," based on the 2000 kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old West Hills resident Nick Markowitz, has received mixed reviews but growing notoriety. The fictionalized Universal release has become increasingly tied to the very case it portrays -- the manhunt for Jesse James Hollywood, whom prosecutors allege ordered the hit on Nick Markowitz, whose body was discovered in a shallow grave outside of Santa Barbara. The film and the controversy surrounding it have reopened wounds for the Markowitz family, who have yet to see alleged ringleader Hollywood stand trial. And now one of the real-life figures who served as a consultant on "Alpha Dog" has had his role used against him in a case that horrified the L.A. Jewish community almost seven years ago. According to published reports confirmed by Jeff Markowitz, the victim's father, Santa Barbara County D.A. Ron Zonen, in an attempt to "do whatever he could to circle the globe" to catch Hollywood, provided "Alpha Dog" writer-director Nick Cassavetes and co-writer Michael Mehas with access to his notes and other court material. A state appellate court recently removed Zonen from the case after Jesse James Hollywood's attorney, James Blatt, argued that the district attorney had compromised himself. Markowitz, who runs a family-owned aerospace company in the San Fernando Valley, counters the notion that Zonen did anything wrong. "It is so offensive to take a wonderful human being and turn what he did into a negative.... Ron Zonen is my son Nicholas' champion," he said. Adding to the controversy surrounding the film was the presence on the film set of Jack Hollywood, the convicted drug dealer father of Jesse James Hollywood. Of the senior Hollywood, who allegedly supplied marijuana to his son and helped him escape to Brazil, Jeff Markowitz says, "He was the cancer in our neighborhood.... I don't think he's ever taken responsibility." "Alpha Dog" is an ironic title about Johnny Truelove, based on Jesse James Hollywood, a meekly built young man whose so-called alpha standing is based entirely on nepotism. His "leadership" derives solely from the plentiful drugs and free room and board provided by his father. Assisted by his gang, Truelove ends up kidnapping the younger brother of a man who owes him drug money. The younger brother, Zack, is the character based on Nick Markowitz. The filmmakers changed the names of the participants and the locale. They moved the home base from the San Fernando Valley to the San Gabriel Valley and the destination from Santa Barbara to Palm Springs. The film was first shown in 2006 at the Sundance Film Festival, but its release was delayed a year after legal problems following the capture of Jesse James Hollywood, who was extradited in 2005 from Brazil. Defense attorney Blatt tried to block the film's release last year, claiming it would taint the jury pool of Hollywood's upcoming trial. Jeff Markowitz, who attended the "Alpha Dog" premiere earlier this month, says that the name change was "very frustrating" and that during the movie "all I wanted to do was scream out my son's name." He called the film "poor," "not entertaining" and "depressing," although he thought that the portrayal of his son by Anton Yelchin was fairly accurate. "Nick wasn't as naive or as soft-spoken" as the character in the film, he said, adding that Nick's "mannerism was probably more forceful." But Jeff Markowitz said that Yelchin likely captured Nick's "emotional state." The film itself only touches briefly on Jewish themes. There is home movie footage at the opening, which shows Zack having a bar mitzvah. (Nick Markowitz did, in fact, have a bar mitzvah.) The older half-brother, Jake, based on Ben Markowitz, is shown with Hebrew letters tattooed on his chest. Finally, Truelove uses the term "kike" on more than one occasion. Despite the use of the epithet, Jeff Markowitz does not think that there was any ethnic or religious animus motivating Jesse James Hollywood and his gang against their son. Jeff Markowitz, a one-time practicing Jew, no longer belongs to a synagogue, although he says, "I still believe Judaism is the answer." His daughter Leah, Nick's half-sister, approached Jeff a few years ago, asking if he wanted his grandchildren raised Jewish. Jeff Markowitz says that at the time he didn't "feel strong enough" to support that decision but he is glad that they are being raised Catholic. "The fact is that the kids are in a good organized religion." While Jeff Markowitz does not like the film, he says that his wife, Susan, was deeply moved by Yelchin's depiction of their late son. Susan Markowitz has been suicidal at times over the past six and a half years, but her husband says that she is doing better now. There may never be closure for the Markowitzes even though the defendants have all so far been brought to justice. Jesse James Hollywood, whose trial will reportedly take place later this year, may face the death penalty. The triggerman in the case, Ryan Hoyt, is on death row, and the three other conspirators are all serving either life in prison, although one, a minor at the time of the crime, received a reduced sentence. None of those convictions may fully change how the Markowitzes feel about their loss. As Jeff Markowitz says, "You feel guilty for not having the same depth of pain" as Nick, "you feel guilty for not going to the cemetery." "Alpha Dog" is in theaters now. The Jewish Journal also talked with the Markowitz family in 2003.

For more information with pictures you might want to try this blogsite:

http://babyselling.com/blog/2007/05/23/alpha-dog-the-real-criminals-pictures/ Also: http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/jesse_james_hollywoo/2.html