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History X and a nihilistic cult leader
in Fight Club, among other roles.
Along the way, he's earned two
Academy Award nominations.
Blumberg, meanwhile, toiled as an
investment banker and as a writer for
the comedy series MAD-TV — while
deferring his admittance to Columbia
Law School. In the end, it was
Norton who helped dissuade him
from becoming a lawyer. "He said,
`Don't just do it for 'the stability; fol-
low your heart,'” Blumberg recalls.
Not long after, the writer showed
Norton an early draft of Keeping the
Faith. The screenplay was born of
Blumberg's deepening fascination
with religion, which now includes '
attending Temple Shalom for the
Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif, as well
as taking classes at Metivta, a cen t er

CHICKEN

yuppie congregation, is in a way a
model for the fictional Jake.
To prepare for his role, Stiller —
the son of actors Jerry Stiller, who
was born Jewish, and Anne Meara,
an Irish-Catholic who converted to
Judaism early in their marriage —
tagged along with bachelor-rabbi
Hillel Norry on the Upper West
Side.
He asked blunt questions such as
"Can you date non-Jewish women?
Can you date someone in your congre-
gation? Do you have to keep kosher?"
In the film, his character collects
"Heroes of the Torah" cards, which
are like baseball cards except they
depict bearded, peyot-wearing rabbis.
"Jews don't flagellate themselves," he
tells an angry Finn at one point.
"They plant trees."

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Eli Wallach (Rabbi Lewis) is the senior rabbi, Anne Bancroft (Ruth Schram is
the Jewish mother, and Ben Stiller (Rabbi Jake Schram) and Jenna El an
(Anna Reilly) are the interfaith couple in "Keeping the Faith."

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for contemplative Judaism, in Los
Angeles.
Norton decided to co-produce, and,
with some encouragement from
Blumberg, to make the movie his direc-
torial debut.
The draw, apparently, was the chance
to work on a film that was far lighter in
tone than his recent endeavors.
As research, Norton and Blumberg
attended a Catholic mass in Santa
Monica, Calif., where they scribbled
notes on the hymnals. They attended
a Shabbat service at B'nai Jeshurun,
the hip, Upper West Side synagogue
where music is a staple of Friday
night worship. Rabbi Marshall Meyer
of B'nai Jeshurun, who transformed
the then-dying shul into a thriving

Of course, some Jewish viewers
may be offended by the movie, which
could be perceived to portray negative
Jewish stereotypes. But Norton
staunchly denies that there will be any
kind of backlash to the film.
"The Jewish jokes .get the biggest
laughs from Jewish viewers, and the
Catholic jokes get the biggest laughs
from Catholic viewers," he said.
"That's because the context of the
story is a positive discussion of the ten-
sions and challenges of keeping one's
faith in contemporary culture." ❑

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