![]() ![]() Finkel is clearly enamoured of the idea that the rabbi "has the president’s ear", whilst Bengelsdorf’s considerable ego and gullibility make him an easy mark. ![]() Elizabeth Levin’s sister, Evelyn Finkel (Winona Ryder), becomes romantically involved with the rabbi and occupies a high-ranking position in a programme which sees Jewish children sent to live with ‘real’ American families in rural states. ![]() Initially portraying himself as anti-war rather than anti-Semitic, Lindbergh makes shrewd use of southern rabbi, Lionel Bengelsdorf (brilliantly portrayed by John Turturro), to assure the Jewish community of his "good intentions". Told from the perspective of New Jersey family, Herman and Elizabeth Levin and their two sons, the story progresses slowly but masterfully portraying the insidious creep of suspicion then hatred towards the Jewish community, enabled by a president who makes such feelings appear acceptable to an increasing majority of ‘patriotic’ American citizens. ![]() Bush’s second term in office, Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, posits an alternative 20th Century history in which the 1940 presidential election is won by the aviator, Nazi sympathiser and America First spokesman, Charles Lindbergh, rather than Franklin D Roosevelt. ![]()
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