Nate Bloom blogs on this week's Jews in the News.

Portman is Streaming; Not Luke Skywalkers; Forbidden Love, More

“Lady in the Lake” is a 7-episode limited series that premieres on Apple+ on July 19. The first two episodes stream on the 19th, the remaining five stream weekly.

Here’s the very condensed premise: In the 1960s, Maddie Schwartz, a bored Jewish housewife  (NATALIE PORTMAN, 42), leaves her comfortable suburban home, and her husband (BRETT GELMAN, 47).

She moves to downtown Baltimore. An odd sequence of events leads to her writing for a newspaper and she “morphs” into an investigative reporter trying to unraveling the mystery behind two murders: Cleo, a black bartender, and a young Jewish girl.

MIKEY MADISON, 25, has a big supporting role as Judith Weinstein, a new friend of Maddie who helps her look for the girl.

The series, based on an acclaimed, best-selling novel of the same name, was directed by ALMA HAR’EL, 45, an Israeli-American. Har'el also wrote the series scripts.

JEFF ZIMBALIST, 44, has had a stellar career as a documentary maker, but for some reason I’ve never wrote about him before. I looked him up when I saw his newest film, “Skywalkers: A Love Story”. It begins steaming on Netflix on the 19th . The film, I read, played at the Sundance Film Festival and got great reviews. I learned that these rave reviews are on par with the reviews for just about every film he’s directed (14).

He’s won 5 Emmys and a Peabody award. Just “Google” Zimbalist and you’ll find out his choice of subjects is very eclectic, but always interesting.

I knew that “Zimbalist” is a “Jewish name” and when I saw his middle names (“Leib” and “Nettler”), I figured he had to be Jewish. I found out his mother is artist LOIS KAAN NETTLER, 74, and she appears on a “Geni” family ancestral profile. This profile confirmed that Jeff’s parents are Jewish.

Skywalkers is a term for “daredevils” who illegally perform acrobatic acts on high rise buildings without protective equipment. The film focuses on two Russian skywalkers, Angela Nikolau and Ivan “Beerkus” Kuznetsov. They initially didn’t like each other. But, yes, they fall in love.

The Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine made it almost impossible for the pair to “do their thing” in Europe  (they make money by selling photos they took, and videos they made, while climbing). In 2022, they went to Asia and climbed a 118-story Malaysian building before it opened (no security cameras, yet). I won’t disclose the most dangerous acrobatic act they did on that building—I’ll just say Angela really had to trust Ivan.

The documentary series “Forbidden Love” is about four couples in love who must come to terms with their religious differences. One member of the couple is either converting to their partner’s faith or has decided to relinquish their family-of-origin and culture entirely.  Of course, this is a lot of pressure. Will their love falter?

The backgrounds of the four couples: Jewish man, Catholic woman; Amish man, not Amish woman; a Muslim man and a Catholic woman who have already married. But he wants her to become a Muslim; and a Muslim woman and a Pentecostal man. He wants her convert to his faith and she wants him to convert to her faith.

“People” magazine laid-out the Jewish/Catholic “situation”. ELI, 32, is an Orthodox Jew and Laurie, 36, was raised Catholic. However, she abandoned her religion after the untimely death of her father. “People” says: “When they met, Eli was already devout, so Laurie decided to convert to solidify their future together. But converting is no small feat. She finds herself giving up her clothes, changing her hair, taking classes, studying for tests, and preparing to completely change her lifestyle, all the while questioning if she can do it and if she's giving up too much to be with the love of her life.”

“Forbidden Love” begins on July 21 on the TLC channel (10PM). Maddeningly, the number of episodes is not in any source, but I assume it is four. Also, I know that the episodes will also stream on HBO/Max. My guess is that episodes will stream the day after the TLC premiere.

“The Commandant’s Shadow” begins streaming on HBO/Max on July 18. This documentary follows Jurgen, the 87-year-old son of Rudolf Hoss, the Auschwitz commandant; Jurgen’s son, Kai, a Christian minister; and ANITA LASKER-WALLFISCH, 98, an Auschwitz survivor. Jurgen and Kai discuss Auschwitz and, later, all three persons talk. The JTA had a long, informative review (May 28) when it very briefly appeared in theaters.