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In 'Leopoldstadt,' Tom Stoppard shows that there's a difference between a Jew of culture and a cultural Jew

JL;DR SUMMARY Tom Stoppard's play "Leopoldstadt" explores themes of assimilation, Jewish identity, and cultural alienation through the story of a Jewish family in Vienna from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. 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

Jewish CultureHolocaustHistoryJewish IdentityViennaTom StoppardLeopoldstadtAssimilationTheaterCultural Jew

Places mentioned

Vienna, Austria
"The play opens in 1899 in a wealthy, bourgeois apartment off the Ringstrasse in Vienna."
Czechia
"having fled the Nazi occupation of Czechoslavakia with his family when he was around 18 months old."
United Kingdom
"This most Anglophilic of writers only wound up in England by dint of his Jewishness."
India
"He arrived there from India (by way of Singapore), having fled the Nazi occupation of Czechoslavakia"
Singapore
"He arrived there from India (by way of Singapore), having fled the Nazi occupation of Czechoslavakia"

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Cairo Item ID 69079
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-12-04 05:31:19 UTC
Curated 2025-12-04 08:32:02 UTC