Trailers filled with cameras and costumes arrived at the end of the summer before my sophomore year to shoot a movie about a prep school set in the 1950s.
asserted
Trailers → fill → 1950s
Apparently, our gym and pool, unrenovated for decades, were perfect for the vibe.
asserted
gym → unrenovate → vibe
A few of my classmates even got to be extras.
asserted
few → get → classmates
When I saw “School Ties” in theaters the following year, the setting seemed recognizable, but the scenes of rampant antisemitism could not have felt more foreign.
uncertain
scenes → see → antisemitism
Watching the movie again with my daughter a few weeks ago, however, they were sickeningly familiar.
asserted
they → watch → daughter
“School Ties” — which starred Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris O’Donnell — is the story of a Jewish high-school quarterback, David Greene, from a working-class Scranton family.
asserted
which → star → family
He’s recruited to save an elite prep school’s failing football team from defeat at the hands of its rival.
asserted
He → recruit → rival
David, who’s played by Fraser, decides with the implicit encouragement of the coach that he should keep his Jewish identity to himself.
asserted
he → play → himself
Early in the film, he takes off his Star of David necklace and hides it in his top drawer — subtlety is not one of the movie’s strengths.
asserted
subtlety → take → strengths
Within hours of his arrival, David hears one of his classmates use the phrase “Jew him down” to mean getting a better price for something.
asserted
one → hear → something
Some boys wonder how another one could choose Harvard instead of a different Ivy League school given the large number of Jews there.
uncertain
one → wonder → Jews
When there is a football game on Rosh Hashanah, David doesn’t tell anyone despite the fact that his father instructs him over the phone to go to synagogue.
asserted
father → be → synagogue
He dons his tallis and yarmulke and goes to pray by himself in the chapel late that night; the headmaster finds him and lectures him about “you people.”
asserted
headmaster → don → people
Eventually, Charlie Dillon (played by Damon) learns from an older alum about David’s secret.
asserted
Dillon → play → secret
Charlie, who has been supplanted on the team by David, seizes this information.
asserted
who → supplant → information
He starts telling Jewish jokes in the shower and then reveals to everyone David’s true identity.
asserted
He → start → identity
Hearing David called a “k–e” and a “sheeny bastard” in 1992 was quite literally the first time I recall those words spoken aloud.
asserted
I → hear → words
And when David finds a flag with a swastika and the words “Jew Go Home” hung over his bed, I remember thinking these people might as well live on a different planet.
uncertain
people → find → planet
What a difference 35 years make.
asserted
years → make → difference
It is true that I grew up at a time that people now refer to as “the golden age” of Jews in America.
asserted
people → grow → America
I assumed that antisemitism was a problem of the past, not something I, let alone my children, would have to confront.
asserted
I → assume → past
Hate crimes against Jews have skyrocketed.
asserted
crimes → skyrocket → Jews
A flag with the Star of David and two swastikas was raised on a building over NYU in May.
uncertain
flag → raise → May
Perhaps the most shocking part of watching “School Ties” today is realizing that not too long ago, Hollywood’s biggest stars were willing to lecture the American public about the ignorance of antisemitism.
asserted
stars → watch → antisemitism
Don’t tell Maggie Gyllenhaal, who recently explained in a press conference how Israelis waging war in Gaza are perpetrating another Holocaust.
asserted
Israelis → tell → Holocaust
When Charlie is being driven away from school after being expelled for violating the honor code — something he tries to get the other students to believe that David did — he shrugs it off.
asserted
he → drive → it
“In 10 years no one will remember any of this.
asserted
one → remember → this
David replies, “And you’ll still be a prick.”
asserted
you → reply → ?
These days, it is hard to imagine Hollywood giving any Jewish character the moral high ground.
asserted
Hollywood → imagine → ground
The protests alone would make headlines for weeks.
asserted
protests → make → weeks
I was lucky to grow up in a bubble protected from the world’s oldest hatred.
asserted
I → grow → hatred
My children will never know that world.
asserted
children → know → world
The bubble has burst.
asserted
bubble → burst → ?
The Aporia
