Saturday, January 29, 2005

To deal with his son’s death, father writes Orthodox westerns

Penny Schwartz writes for JTA:

BOSTON, Jan. 26 (JTA) — Can you image an Orthodox Bar Mitzvah celebrated in the Arizona desert soon after the Civil War, with a guest list that includes Apache warriors, gun-slinging outlaws and a minyan imported from Tombstone?
Robert Avrech did.
Avrech, 57, a Hollywood screenwriter, wrote his latest novel, “The Hebrew Kid and the Apache Maiden,” in memory of his son Ariel, a 22-year-old rabbinical student who died of cancer a few years ago.