Daily Podcasts Video Research

The Riddler

JL;DR SUMMARY "The Riddler," directed by Michael Grynszpan, is a documentary exploring the enigmatic life of Monsieur Shoshani, a post-Holocaust Jewish scholar renowned for his mastery of Jewish tradition, philosophy, and numerous languages. 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'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish TraditionHolocaustTorah StudyDocumentaryJewish MysticismJewish ScholarsElie WieselMonsieur ShoshaniEmmanuel LevinasMichael Grynszpan

Places mentioned

Taverny, Île-de-France, France
"Shortly after the war, Elie Wiesel was on his way to Taverny, France, to teach Bible to young Buchenwald survivors when he met Shoshani on the train."
Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"I finally saw it at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, where the applause lingered long after the end of the movie."
Jerusalem, Central District, Israel
"When Grynzpan visits Rosenberg in his Jerusalem apartment, Grynzpan wants to discuss Shoshanis appearance and his antinomianism, as he does in all of his interviews."
Raanana, Central District, Israel
"In the words of the filmmaker, everyone seemed to have seen it, even secular Israelis, haredim, young children, old people, left, right. I tried to attend a screening in my not terribly intellectual hometown of Raanana, which is also home to a large community of French speakers, only to find all the seats sold out."
Montevideo, Uruguay
"His gravestone in Montevideo, Uruguay, reportedly paid for by Elie Wiesel, reads, His birth and life were sealed in a riddle."
This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 72029
Cairo Source ID 11
Retrieved 2026-01-06 05:32:06 UTC
Curated 2026-01-06 08:31:54 UTC