NOVEMBER 3 • 2022 | 53

A NOTE ABOUT NEWMAN, 
TWO DOCUMENTARIES, 
JEWISH SPORTS REVIEW 
From 1986-92, Paul Newman 
(1925-2007) sat for many 
recorded interviews with 
Stewart Stern (1922-2015). 
Stern was a close friend of 
Newman’s and the screen-
writer of many hits, including 
Rebel Without a Cause. 
Newman candidly talked 
about his life and career. Stern 
also interviewed many friends 
and colleagues of Newman. 
Ultimately, Newman decided 
not to go ahead with a mem-
oir and burned the interview 
tapes. However, before the 
burning, Stern had the tapes 
transcribed. The transcripts 
were found a few years ago.
Those transcripts provid-
ed the basis for an HBO 
six-part documentary that 
began streaming last July 
and a Newman autobiogra-
phy that was just published 
(The Extraordinary Life of 
an Ordinary Man). In the 
documentary, I only heard 
two things about Newman’s 
Jewish background. The 
narrator told us Newman’s 
father was Jewish and that 
he (Newman) said that he 
“identified as Jewish because 
it is harder.” I know the quote 
wasn’t on the Stern tape. I 

read the same quote 20 years 
ago. 
A very recent NY Times 
review of Extraordinary Life 
says the memoir provides a 
lot of details about his par-
ents. Details lacking in the 
documentary, I think. The 
review also makes clear 
that “being Jewish was 
harder” was a “real thing” in 
Newman’s life. The following 
was not in the documentary. 
The review says: “[Newman] 
experienced antisemitism at 
school and in the Navy during 
World War II. He recounts 
getting into a fight with a fel-
low sailor who called him a 
slur, using his wrestling skills 
to throw his opponent to the 
ground and injure his arm. 
‘When he got off the floor, he 
could only move one hand,’ 
Newman says. ‘The fight was 
called off and no one both-
ered me again.’”
When I read the memoir, 
I’ll tell you if there is anything 
else “Jew-cy” in there. Like 
stuff about Newman playing 
the ultimate big-screen Jewish 
hero in the “birth of Israel” film 
Exodus (1960).
Spector is a four-part 
Showtime documentary 
about the 2003 murder of 
actress Lana Clarkson by Phil 
Spector, the now-deceased 
music producer and song-
writer (premieres on Nov. 6). 
Spector was a great music 

talent and a really screwed-
up guy. My two cents: I’m not 
sure how many people are 
interested in Spector any-
more. 
Nanette Burstein, 52, an 
Oscar-nominated documen-
tary maker, is the director/
writer of Killer Sally, a three-
part Netflix documentary that 
begins streaming on Nov. 3. 
It’s about the 1995 killing of 
national bodybuilding champ 
Ray McNeil. He was shot by 
his bodybuilder wife, Sally. 
She claimed McNeil was 
abusive and she was being 
choked at the time of the 
shooting. 

END OF AN ERA
To paraphrase the Beatles, I 
have bad news today, oy vey. 
The fall issue of the Jewish 
Sports Review (JSR) was its 
last issue. In a special article 
for the JN last year, I wrote 
about the JSR. It was, I said, a 
“labor of love” by two retired 

public servants, Ephraim 
Moxson, now 78, and Shel 
Wallman, now 84. The clo-
sure causes were health and 
rising costs to print the JSR, a 
print-only publication. 
The JSR guys worked about 
four hours a day researching 
which athletes were Jewish. 
They often “cold called” ath-
letes and asked them if they 
are Jewish and, if so, if they 
were “ok” with being identi-
fied as a Jewish athlete in the 
JSR. 
Any Jewish media journalist 
can re-state the easily found 
info on a college or pro ath-
lete, like their school(s), athlet-
ic stats, etc. The hard part is 
finding out if they are Jewish. 
The JSR was, by far, the first 
“fount” of the news that an 
athlete is Jewish. Usually they 
reported that “news’” long 
before the athlete became a 
professional. The JSR’s info 
made its way into “bigger 
world” — via a rare Jewish 
media article that credited 
the JSR (as I always did); or 
via a Jewish media article 
that knowingly or unknow-
ingly didn’t credit the JSR’s 
research; or by somebody 
posting the JSR’s “finds” on 
a blog or on Wikipedia (the 
latter source, JSR tells me, is 
shot through with errors). 
All it takes today is a sim-
ple Google search to write a 
reasonably accurate article 
on Jews in pro and Olympic 
sports. The future will be 
different because every year 
there is a new crop of rook-
ies. Who will check out these 
rookies? 
Two final thoughts: If JSR 
had got the media credit they 
deserved, their financial strug-
gle would have been eased 
— and in a few years we’ll 
see a return of what existed 
before the JSR: error-ridden 
articles that miss Jewish ath-
letes and describe non-Jews 
as Jewish. Oy vey. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

JTA

BY DERIVATIVE WORK: SEHERR 

Paul Newman in Carnation, 
Washington, June 2007

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Nanette Burstein in 
American Teen, 2008

Bobblehead doll of Shawn 
Green, once of the Los 
Angeles Dodgers, a player 
the Jewish Sports Review 
has covered since his high 
school playing days. 

