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A House in Exile: Fire, Memory and the Enduring Spirit of Villa Aurora

JL;DR SUMMARY Villa Aurora, a Spanish Colonial Revival mansion in Los Angeles' Pacific Palisades, embodies a rich history of German-Jewish exile and creative refuge. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Los AngelesThomas MannWildfireNazi EuropeLion FeuchtwangerCultural MemoryVilla AuroraGerman Jewish ExileWeimar Under The PalmsArtistic Refuge

Places mentioned

Pacific Palisades, California, United States
"On January 7, 2025, a fast-moving wildfire tore through the canyons of Pacific Palisades."
Los Angeles, California, United States
"For nearly a century, Villa Aurora has stood on a windswept hillside in this coastal neighborhood of Los Angeles."
Long Beach, California, United States
"Jeffrey Blutinger, Barbara and Ray Alpert Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies at California State University, Long Beach."

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Cairo Item ID 48389
Cairo Source ID 3
Retrieved 2025-04-05 05:30:45 UTC
Curated 2025-04-05 08:30:59 UTC