52 | JULY 20 • 2023 

ALL OPPENHEIMER — WITH 
ALMOST ALL THE JEWISH 
‘PLAYERS!’
Oppenheimer, which opens 
in theaters on July 21, is a 
$100 million budget, big-cast 
film about physicist J. Robert 
Oppenheimer (1904-67). 
He was the head of the 
Manhattan Project, the code-
name given to the successful 
American program to develop 
an atomic weapon during 
WWII. Oppenheimer was not 
the most brilliant theoretical 
physicist, but he was “very 
good.” He had the scientific 
knowledge and administrative 
skills to make the bomb a 
reality. 
The film was directed and 
written by Christopher Nolan, 
51, who is best known for mak-
ing some of the best Batman 
films. The film’s screenplay 
was based on a Pulitzer 
Prize-winning historical study, 
American Prometheus: The 
Triumph and Tragedy of J. 
Robert Oppenheimer (2005). 
It was written by the late 
Martin J. Sherwin and Kai Bird 
(Years ago, Bird told me he 
isn’t Jewish, but his daughter 
was raised in his wife’s Jewish 
faith.)
Here is the “arc” of 
Oppenheimer’s life in super 
short form: He was born and 
raised in Manhattan. His father 
was a German Jew who came 

to the States and did very well 
in the textile business. His 
parents were non-observant. 
Robert, a “weird smarty,” was 
bullied in school, but did very 
well in his studies. Eventually, 
he realized his forte was 
theoretical physics. He was 
teaching at the University of 
California, Berkeley, when 
WWII broke out. 
In 1939, Albert Einstein 
(played by Tom Conti in the 
film) sent a letter to President 
Roosevelt, telling him that the 
Nazis might be working on an 
atomic weapon. This letter got 
the Manhattan Project rolling. 
Army General Leslie Groves 
was tasked with finding an 
American-born physicist to 
lead the Project. Groves’ sur-
prise pick was Oppenheimer. 
Groves (Matt Damon) saw tal-
ents that many others did not, 
like Oppenheimer’s ability to 
explain difficult subjects and 
get the best out of others.
After the bomb was 
dropped (1945) and the war 
ended, newspapers were full 
of accounts of the making of 
the bomb. Oppenheimer’s role 
was made public, and he was 
lionized in much of the media. 
In 1947, he became the head 
of the Institute for Advanced 
Study at Princeton University. 
Einstein was an Institute pro-
fessor from the time he fled 
Germany to America (1933) 
until he died in 1955. 
The third “act” in 
Oppenheimer’s life reached 
its pinnacle when he was 
informed, in 1953, that the gov-

ernment would move to have 
his security clearance taken 
away. More on that below. 
I reviewed the background 
of the first 20 “real” persons 
in the film’s credits and the 
background of the actors who 
played them. I won’t get into, 
here, the “Jew-Face” issue 
(non-Jews playing Jews). I will 
address that next week.
Twelve of the 20 were 
physicists. With the exception 
of Einstein, all worked on the 
Manhattan Project. Its striking 
that nine out of the 12 “top” 
physicists were Jewish and 
three were refugees. An aster-
isk notes they were Nobel 
Prize winners. Here are the 12: 
Einstein*; Oppenheimer (Cillian 
Murphy); Niels Bohr*, Danish 
refugee. His mother was 
Jewish (Kenneth Branagh); 
Edward Teller, Hungarian 
Jew — not a refugee (Benny 
Safdie); Frank Oppenheimer, 
Robert’s brother (Dylan 
Arnold. His mother is Jewish); 
Hans Bethe*, German Jewish 
refugee (Gustaf Skarsgaard); 
Isidor Issac Rabi* (David 
Krumholtz); Robert Serber 
(Michael Angarano); Richard 
Feynman* (Jack Quaid); 
Kenneth Bainbridge (Josh 
Peck), Ernest Lawrence* (Josh 
Hartnett); and David L. Hall 
(Rami Malek).
Three women are in the 
“20.” Emily Blunt plays “Kitty” 
Oppenheimer, Robert’s 
non-Jewish wife; Florence 
Pugh plays Jean Tatlock, 
Robert’s non-Jewish former 

fiancée; and Olivia Thirlby 
(her mother is Jewish) plays 
Lili Hornig, a top chemist. Her 
parents were Czech Jews who 
settled in Berlin in 1929. They 
moved to America after Hitler’s 
1933 takeover. 
The remainder are people in 
security or administrative posi-
tions, like Groves. Only one 
was Jewish. The one is Lewis 
Strauss (played by Robert 
Downey Jr., who is 3/8 Jewish 
and calls himself Jewish). 
 Strauss studied physics in 
high school, and later, but his 
family couldn’t afford to send 
him to college. An eye injury 
prevented him from serving 
in WWI, so he volunteered to 
help Herbert Hoover’s human-
itarian work. Through Hoover, 
he got a post-war position 
in a banking company, and 
he became rich. Drafted in 
WWII, he did great in admin-
istrative positions and ended 
his service as an admiral. He 
became religious and helped 
Jewish refugees. 
In 1953, he was made 
head of the Atomic Energy 
Commission. He pushed for 
lifting Oppenheimer’s security 
clearance based on several 
things — mainly Communists 
or ex-Communists in 
Oppenheimer’s circle and 
Oppenheimer’s opposition to 
the creation of the hydrogen 
bomb. Also, he was annoyed 
by Robert’s almost indifference 
to his Jewish background. 
The 1954 hearing was a 
farce. Evidence was gath-
ered through illegal wire 
taps on Oppenheimer and 
his attorneys. Ironically, 
Oppenheimer didn’t need a 
security clearance anymore. 
Einstein told him so and when 
Oppenheimer told him he 
would go to the hearing — 
Einstein called him a “nar” 
(“fool” in Yiddish). 
His clearance was pulled 
and Oppenheimer, friends 
said, was never the same per-
son. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

Albert Einstein 

Niels Bohr
J. Robert Oppenheimer 

