40 | MAY 13 • 2021 

W

hat would happen 
to the estimat-
ed 450,000 Jews 
living across North Africa, 
from Morocco to Jerusalem, 
if Germans won 
the battle for 
North Africa 
during World 
War II?
This theater 
of war is usually 
depicted as a 
contest between 
Germany’s General Irwin 
Rommel, the “Desert Fox,” 
and British Commonwealth 
forces: Australians, New 
Zealanders, Indians, Scots, 
Welsh and English. What 
is often not discussed are 
German efforts and plans to 
overrun Palestine from the 

west via Egypt, and from the 
north through modern day 
Turkey and Syria. 
But what if Rommel wasn’t 
all that crafty, not really sly 
as a fox? What if much of his 
early success was due to a 
secret source of precise intelli-
gence about British forces? In 
War of Shadows: Codebreakers, 
spies, and the secret struggle 
to drive the Nazis from the 
Middle East, American-Israeli 
author Gershom Gorenberg 
provides the answers. 
Gorenberg has written the 
best book on the subject. 
Based upon superb archival 
research, including evidence 
from recently opened secret 
files, it is a well-written, 
insightful investigation of 
how the Allies won the war 

in the Middle East because of 
better intelligence. Moreover, 
in doing so, they saved thou-
sands of Jewish lives and laid 
groundwork for the future 
Israeli Defense Forces.
Ironically, as critical as the 
War of Shadows was for Jews 
living in Palestine and North 
Africa, they are not promi-
nent actors in the narrative. 
Gorenberg does discuss a 
few important roles for Jews 
that had lasting effects. Some 
Jews fought in British military 
units. Others, such as future 
leaders of Israel Yitzhak Rabin 
and Moshe Dayan, gained 
experience in the British-
supported Palmach, the 
Haganah’s elite fighting force. 
The result of the war was, 
however, crucial for Jews.

SPIES, CODEBREAKERS
Very little of Gorenberg’s 
narrative is about battlefield 
action. Instead, he goes behind 
the scenes, into the shadows, 
where the war was fought 
among code breakers, spies 
and espionage. Gorenberg 
demonstrates that much of 
Rommel’s early success was 
due to outstanding intelligence 
from a “good source.” The 
British finally discovered the 

continued on page 42

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

Review: War of Shadows

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS

2ND-GEN FUNNY WOMEN
Hacks’ is a 10-episode 
dramedy series that pre-
mieres on HBO May 13. 
Jean Smart (Designing 
Women) plays Deborah 
Vance, a legendary Las 
Vegas comedian whose 
career is tanking. She’s 
reduced to promotional 
appearances, like store 
openings.
Vance hires Ava, a 
25-year-old struggling com-
edy writer to freshen up 
her act. In Hacks’ amusing 
trailer, it’s made clear that 
Vance has an imperious 
personality and a fierce 
tongue. So, Ava is in for 
“quite a ride.”
Ava is played by new-
comer Hannah Einbinder, 
26. She has quite a back-
story: her mother is original 
SNL cast member Laraine 
Newman, 69. Her father 

is Chad Einbinder, 57, a lit-
tle-known actor. 
Hannah is a real-life 
stand-up comedian. In 
March 2020, she did a set 
on Stephen Colbert’s show 
just before production 
was shut down (view on 
YouTube). She has an arty 
stand-up style that is funny, 
if not hilarious. In another 
YouTube video, she referred 
to herself as Jewish.
In 2003, Newman was 
profiled by the Jewish 
Journal. She grew up in a 
secular Jewish household 
in Beverly Hills. She told 
the Journal that it wasn’t 
until she enrolled her oldest 
daughter in Temple Isaiah’s 
preschool (Los Angeles) 
that she joined a tem-

ple, learned Hebrew and 
brought ritual home.
Newman has two daugh-
ters. The eldest is Spike 
Einbinder, 30 (born Lena 
Einbinder). Spike, too, is 
an actress. Her current gig 
is her best: she’s a regular 
cast member in the com-
edy series Los Espookys
on HBO. The first season 
streamed in 2019. 
Oxygen, an original Netflix 
film, began streaming May 
12. Melanie Laurent, 38, 
stars as a woman suffering 
from severe memory loss 
as she wakes up inside 
of a cryogenic chamber. 
Trapped inside and rapidly 
losing oxygen, her memory 
is the key to her survival. 
The movie is billed as an 
American-French pro-
duction, but it’s largely a 
French-Jewish production. 
Laurent is a well-known 
French Jewish actress. 
Her father, a voice actor, is 
an Ashkenazi Jew whose 

family originally was from 
Poland (her paternal 
grandfather died in the 
Holocaust). Laurent’s moth-
er, a former ballerina, is of 
Tunisian Sephardi descent. 
Laurent is best known 
for her co-starring role in 
Inglorious Basterds (2010). 
She played Shosanna 
Dreyfus, a Parisian Jew who 
seeks revenge on the Nazis. 
Oxygen, which only 
has three actors, co-stars 
Mathieu Amalric, 55 
(Amalric’s late mother 
was Jewish). He had a 
supporting role in Munich
and co-starred as bad guy 
Dominic Greene in the 
Bond flick Quantum of 
Solace. 
The film was directed 
by Alexandre Aja, the 
son of an Algeria-born 
French Jewish father and a 
non-Jewish mother. Aja, 42, 
is a top horror/thriller film-
maker (High Tension, The 
Hills Have Eyes). 

Hannah Einbinder and 
Jean Smart in Hacks

JAKE GILES NETTER/HBO MAX

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

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