David Denby, "Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer" (Henry Holt, 2025)

What made a generation of Jewish artists and intellectuals transform

American culture? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz sits down with

acclaimed cultural critic David Denby to discuss his book Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer (Henry Holt, 2025), a vibrant portrait of four extraordinary Americans whose Jewish identities helped shape the modern United States.

Though

they worked in vastly different fields, Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks,

Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer shared a remarkable historical moment.

Coming of age after World War II, they entered an America where Jewish

opportunity was expanding and antisemitism was beginning to recede.

Their Jewish heritage, energized by the freedoms of American life,

fueled bold, unconventional careers that reshaped music, comedy,

literature, feminism, and public debate.

Denby paints these figures in all their complexity: ambitious,