Who Gets to Play Jewish?

There’s a moment in the new biopic The Survivor when the title character, Auschwitz prisoner Harry Haft, recites the Kaddish. As Haft, star Ben Foster’s recitation of the Hebrew prayer for the dead is spot on, another wrenching detail to a film not short on them. As it turns out, Foster was also raised Jewish. But according to director Barry Levinson, that had little to do with his casting as Haft, a Polish-born boxer who evaded the gas chamber by fighting fellow concentration camp prisoners in last-man-standing matches staged for the guards’ amusement. “Ben happens to have that background, but… Read Full Article