Four new Jewish Representatives entered the House after last week’s election, while four Jewish Senators up for reelection retained their seats for a new term. Combined with the Congressmen and women who weren’t on the ballot this year, there are now 11 Jewish U.S. Senators and 22 U.S. Representatives.
Democrats Bill Schneider, Alan Lowenthal, Lois Frankel, and Alan Grayson were each elected to the House, in Illinois, California, and the last two in Florida, respectively. In the Senate, Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) were each reelected. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), the son of a Holocaust survivor, also re-won his seat.
2. J.J. Abrams Going to a Far, Far Away Galaxy?
Star Wars: Episode VII is in search of a director and entertainment-industry insiders are saying the honor may just go to Jewish film and television producer, writer and director, J.J. Abrams. However, Abrams says that not likely at this time.
“I am looking forward more [than] anyone to the next iterations of Star Wars,” Abrams told Hollywood Life. “But I believe I will be going as a paying moviegoer!”
Other directors rumored to be in the running for the gig include Iron Man director Jon Favreau and a lesser-known director, Safety Not Guaranteed filmmaker Colin Trevorrow.
3. Critics Love Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
The latest in a long parade of on-screen Abe Lincolns (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter as one of the most recent), is Daniel Day-Lewis playing a much more serious version of Honest Abe… and critics are apparently loving it.
New York Times Critic, Charles McGrath, says, “Mr. Day-Lewis, 55, has already won two best actor Oscars, and his performance here, tender and soulful, convincingly weary and stoop-shouldered, will almost certainly earn him a nomination.”
Day-Lewis, whose mother was Jewish, has twice won the Academy Award for Best Actor, first for portraying of Christy Brown in My Left Foot (1989) and then again for his role as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood (2007).