FINDING ROOTS 
BACKGROUNDS, THE 
LUCKY ONES

As noted last week, Michael 
Douglas and Lena Dunham 
will be the guests on Finding 
Your Roots on Tuesday, April 
2 (PBS — check local sched-
ule for exact time). 
Last December, when 
this season’s Roots guests 
were announced, I wrote a 
paragraph about Michael 
Douglas. Here’s a refresh-
er: Michael, 79, is a star 
actor and producer, like his 
father, the late Kirk Douglas. 
Michael’s mother wasn’t 
Jewish and Michael was 
long secular. However, about 
10 years ago, he embraced 
Reform Judaism. 
This embrace was influ-
enced by his son, Dylan. 
When he was 11 years old, 
Dylan told his father that he 
wanted to study Judaism and 
have a bar mitzvah. Dylan, 
now 21, had his bar mitzvah 
(2015) in Jerusalem and, in 
2015, Michael received the 
Genesis Prize for “Jewish 
achievement.”
Here’s a heads-up: 
Douglas will play Benjamin 
Franklin in an eight-part 
Apple TV+ series titled 
Franklin (begins April 12). It 
focuses on Franklin’s role 
in getting French aid during 
the Revolution. More about 
Franklin in my next column.
Dunham, 37, is best known 
as the creator, writer and star 
of the hit HBO series Girls 
(2012-2017). She grew up in 
New York City. Her (non-Jew-
ish) father is a respected 
painter. Her Jewish mother is 
a well-known photographer. 
Lena has long identified 
as Jewish, but I didn’t know 
much more until she was 
profiled and interviewed 

in February by El Pais, an 
online magazine.
Dunham co-stars in 
Treasure, a film that recently 
played a Berlin film festival 
and will open in theaters this 
June. She plays the daugh-
ter of a Holocaust survivor. 
Sadly, Berlin festival reviews 
were bad. But Treasure did 
prompt the El Pais piece.
She told El Pais: “[When 
my grandmother] died in 
2016, I started studying 
with a rabbi, reading reli-
gious texts and authors like 
Yehuda Amichai. What I like 
about being Jewish is that 
it’s not mandatory to have 
a relationship with God, but 
rather, with the community 
around you. 
“For me, being Jewish is 
about being someone you 
can trust, being a source of 
support, being able to rec-
ommend a good doctor … or 
being the person who shows 
up with bagels in an emer-
gency situation.”
After Girls ended, Dunham 
had serious, “real” health 
issues that led her to over-
use anxiety and anti-depres-
sion drugs. The El Pais article 
says she’s “OK” now. 
Dunham may have a 
career uptick soon (even if 
Treasure flops). Filming right 
now is Too Much, a Netflix 
rom-com series Dunham 
co-created and co-wrote 

with Luis Felber, 37, her hus-
band. He’s a U.K. native and 
a fairly well-known musician. 
His father is a British Jew. 
His mother is Peruvian, and 
not Jewish. Lena and Luis 
wed in a Jewish ceremony. 
Too Much follows a New 
Y
ork comedian who moves to 
London following a break-up. 
The Jewish cast members 
include Rhea Perlman, 75, 
Michael Zegen, 45 (Mrs. 
Maisel), Emily Ratajkowski, 
32 (her mother is Jewish), 
and Brit Stephen Fry, 66. He 
also co-starred in Treasure. 
We Are the Lucky Ones 
is an eight-part Hulu series 
that premieres on March 28. 
It is based on a bestselling 
2017 novel of the same 
name by Georgia Hunter, 
38ish. The novel and the 
series are “historical fiction” 
— based on real events, but 
with some details and dia-
logue imagined.
Hunter’s maternal grand-
father was Addy Kurc, a 
Polish Jew. He happened 
to be in France when WWII 
broke out. He found refuge 
in Brazil and, later, in the 
United States. 
He never talked about 
his Jewish background or 
the Holocaust, and Hunter 
didn’t even know she was 
“one-quarter” Jewish until 
after his death. 
Around 2000, Hunter 

began researching the 
“story” of her Jewish grand-
father, his three siblings and 
their parents. Remarkably, 
they all managed to survive 
the Holocaust. Even more 
remarkable, some 22 mem-
bers of the extended Kurc 
family survived.
The cast is heavily Jewish: 
Logan Lerman, 32, as Addy 
Kurc; Joey King, 24, as 
Addy’s sister, Halina; Israeli 
actor Amit Rehav, 28, as 
their brother, Jakob; and 
Israeli actress Hadas Yaron, 
33, as Mila, their sister.
Robin Weigert, 55, and 
Israeli actor Lior Ashkenazi, 
55, play the Kurc siblings’ 
parents, and Israeli “super-
star” Michael Aloni, 40 
(Shtisel) has a recurring role 
as Mila’s husband.
Weigert now has a main 
cast role on Tracker, a CBS 
series that premiered in 
February. The title character 
tracks down bad guys for a 
hefty fee. Weigert plays his 
sort-of-agent: finding jobs 
for him. Tracker got good 
reviews, and so many are 
watching that it was renewed 
for a second season.
Good for Weigert: she’s 
been a frequent guest star, 
but she hasn’t had a main 
cast series role since she 
played Calamity Jane in 
Deadwood (HBO; 2004-
2006). 
 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

84 | MARCH 28 • 2024 
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Dylan Douglas

IMDB

Robin Weigert

BY EFFIE27 

Michael Aloni

BY דור מלכה

