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The Jewish Kirk Douglas film that everyone seems to have forgotten

JL;DR SUMMARY In revisiting the lesser-known 1953 film "The Juggler," Henry Sapoznik highlights its significance as a pioneering work that intertwines Holocaust themes with the early days of the State of Israel. 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

HolocaustExodusBorscht BeltKirk DouglasThe JugglerStanley KramerEdward DmytrykGeorge Antheil

Places mentioned

Israel
"this was not only the first film to conflate Holocaust atrocities and the promise of Jewish healing in the newly formed state of Israel, but thanks to Kramers passion for verisimilitude also the first Hollywood film to shoot there."
Haifa, Haifa District, Israel
"(early in the picture at the Haifa disembarkation, Muller accosts a woman and her children insisting they were his family, despite knowing his family was murdered."
Munich, Bavaria, Germany
"Douglas plays Hans Muller a Jewish Munich native who, before the war had been a celebrated and beloved juggler but whose concentration camp experience had emotionally crippled him"

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Cairo Item ID 81808
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Retrieved 2026-05-08 05:31:13 UTC
Curated 2026-05-08 08:30:58 UTC