Hasidic Actor Walks Off Natalie Portman Movie

First he couldn't hold Natalie Portman's hand - and now a Williamsburg Hasidic Jew-turned-actor has to give up his chance to hit it big in a Hollywood movie. Abe Karpen, 25, a married father of three, was cast as Portman's husband in "New York I Love You," a film composed of 12 short stories about love in the five boroughs. "I am backing out of the movie," said Karpen, a kitchen cabinet salesman. "It's not acceptable in my community. It's a lot of pressure I am getting. They [the rabbis] didn't like the idea of a Hasidic guy playing in Hollywood. "I have my kids in religious schools and the rabbi called me over yesterday and said in order for me to keep my kids in the school I have to do what they tell me and back out," Karpen said. While news of Karpen's withdrawal sent waves of disappointment through the movie set, the Hasidic community was up in arms over Karpen's acting gig - forcing him to flee for the weekend, a friend said. Keep reading how "the community wants to kill him" -or- See the photos of Karpen and Portman filming that caused the uproar -or- See photos of Portman made up for an Indian wedding, also from the film

Comments

[primordialsoup]

Religious is one thing. Controlled is another.

[jeffd]

Name one widespread (>100,000 believers) religion in the history of mankind that, once having the power of a state behind it is NOT coercively, abusively controlling to then-current and future generations of believers (and innocent bystanders). I'm fully confident that Hell will freeze solid millennia before you can come up with an accurate answer. Having that religion impose coercive force over those who are NOT its followers is inarguably worse, and unfortunately, hardly unique either.

[poshman]

Religion! Why does anyone believe in this junk? God --- the great guy in the sky... Moses... Jesus... Bush... the Pope? Quite frankly its time all religions are taxed... just for wasting our time reading about a bunch of loonies that are lost in the middle ages. Thank the GodS for young people and South Park. They see religion as total bunk and that's what it is! It has ruined America.

[mattejob]

i dunno, what about those kids in Jesus Camp and the Young Republicans. Not all of the 'young' are excused from religious extremism. It isn't an age thing.

[iluvsam]

I agree. Tax the hell out them. Once they're taxed, they will all fold. Imagine no religion....what a wonderful world it would be.

Religion needs to go bye-bye.

[laurelnyc]

I agree. I get so annoyed that religious organizations are tax-exempt.

[ashleybaines]

I suspect any frank discussion of this subject is verboten - but here goes

Orthodox Jews are as whacky and dangerous as Islamists..... women are beaten if they don't give up their seat to men in Tel Aviv.... the King David hotel was blown up by radical Israelis -- in one of the first acts of suicide terror.... but again

Americans don't get to see those headlines here.....

The real question we should be asking is ..... WHY NOT?

[MagisterLudi]

It is no question that religious fanaticism of "religions of the Book" ( Islam, Christianity, Judaism) is often anti-humanist and dangerous.

But the comment " women are beaten if they don't give up their seat to men in Tel Aviv" made me laugh for its absurdity.

Yes, It's ironic when an Islamic poster takes reality in his/her life and superimposes it onto another culture. Only in modern Islam women can be jailed or beaten for being raped, wearing a bright outfit or lipstick. Thankfully nowhere else.

[zinderel]

Not true, Magister. A quick Google search turned up this article: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=801449

It seems a 50 year old woman on a public bus WAS beaten brutally by a group of ultra-Orthodox men for not moving to - get this - the back of the bus. observers did nothing to stop this travesty and even egged on the attackers.

She was modestly dressed but, being an older woman and not native to the region, she decided to sit in the front of the bus because it was easier and the bus was not labeled.

So this sort of thing DOES happen, and not just in "Islamic" life. All three "desert faiths" have the same underlying disregard for women. Judaism has done an admirable job of altering the negative into a positive, but that doesn't mean that there aren't still lingering misogynistic tendencies that occasionally burst out.

[BOHICA]

Somewhat OT, but still.

The King David Hotel was bombed by the Irgun in 1946, before there Israel even existed, so, not radical Israelis, more like radical Zionists. It was an attack on the British Mandate, which was headquartered there. The British were given plenty of warning to evacuate the hotel, but for whatever reason, did not take the warnings seriously and did not. 91 people were killed that day. Not being alive in 1946, so I can't attest to this myself, but I would think it was in the papers here (and all around the world).

That being said, religious fundamentalists are religious fundamentalists, no matter what version of the Sky Fairy they choose to worship. Timothy McVeigh anyone? Eric Rudolph? There's no shortage of them, of all faiths.

[jeffd]

As Bohica (sir, LOVE the nick, sir!) has pointed out, the King David Hotel wasn't as pointed an example as you probably intended. Alternatively, you might query your officemates or pub buddies as to whether they've ever even HEARD of USS Liberty - does the date June 8, 1967 ring a bell? And while a Google search brings up numerous hits, the MSM has done yeoman service in helping Official Washington bury the story. The question remains: 'yeoman service' to whom? and why?

[Nooneyouknow]

Well, Ashley, Orthodox Jews don't proselytize (look the word up), and they don't believe that non-Jews should be converted or killed, Tel Aviv is actually quite non-religious and things like that very seldom happen there, and the people who blew up the King David hotel weren't orthodox and didn't blow it up for religious reasons, and that wasn't a suicide attack. Also, you misspelled "wacky", and the use of "verboten" probably outs you as one of those Aryan separatists hiding out in a lean-to in Idaho somewhere. But aside from that, great post.

[kevenhussienseven]

There is your extreme religiosity for you.

[Lilybart]

Religious extremism strikes again.

The only good thing about the Hassidic community is that at least they don't try to make all of us live under their rules, like the Christian extremists.

[jeffd]

That's only because, by their definition, they can't; I and 5.999 billion other people are eternally damned simply because we lack a (suitably Orthodox) Jewish mother. So, you can listen to the Christianists, who say "you can be SAAAAAAVED-uh if you do what I say (and not what I do)", or you can listen to the Zionists, who prove themselves again to be practically the only extreme bigots with hermetically-sealed minds whose bigotry is legally protected and sociopolitically unmentionable.

[Rockwell]

When people let their lives be dictated by their Rabbis, Priests, Ministers or Imam, they are fools and they debase the free soul that God has given them. I can think of no greater blasphemy against God the Creator than to volunterily become a slave to another man's dicatates.

[Paw1]

Amen, Rockwell. As I posted previously here (mysteriously disappeared, like several before it), break the chains. Eliminate the middle man, who arrogantly claims to know the mind of God, and worship Him (or Her or It) as you see fit. Be a good person. Don't hurt anyone intentionally with words or actions. Love your children unconditionally. Respect the elderly. Love music and dance and books and sex and anything else that makes you happy and doesn't make others unhappy. That's how you can really get to touch the sky.

[MagisterLudi]

I agree there's no need for a middle man or a middle woman.

However, an non-grasping teacher can really help in mastering fundamentals and avoid the pitfalls on the path to spiritual development. Very few can be dedicated enough and aware enough to succeed on their own.

Surely, you would not advocate that someone learns surgery or violin playing on their own, outside of any scholarship tradition?! But spiritual path requires even more dedication.

Two novices were arguing about a flag flapping in the wind. "It's the wind that is really moving," stated the first one. "No, it is the flag that is moving," said the other.
Zen master interrupted them. "Neither the flag nor the wind is moving," he said, "It is MIND that moves."