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Jewish

Genius Ep. 8 – Doing the Right Thing

June 15, 2017 by J. Alan Sharrer Leave a Comment

(National Geographic/Dusan Martincek)

At the end of the first episode of the National Geographic Channel series Genius, Albert and Elsa Einstein sat across the table from Raymond Geist of the US Embassy in Berlin. A simple visit to get their passports validated became a little more when Geist wanted answers to questions before he would stamp them. The scene sat there, frozen in space as the next six episodes covered Albert’s early years, his romance and failed marriage to Mileva Maric, and his relentless pursuit of the theory of relativity.  In the eighth episode, the viewer returns to the interview table to continue the story.

For the most part, director Ken Biller—the fifth in the series—keeps the action focused at the table as Einstein (Geoffrey Rush) discovers that FBI Director J Edgar Hoover (TR Knight), believes he’s a Communist.  As a result, there will be no entrance to America unless Albert can prove to Geist (Vincent Kartheiser) he’s not. The interview is peppered with various flashbacks, including the notification Einstein won the 1921 Nobel Prize and a talk with Niels Bohr (David Dencik) about Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle (no, not that Heisenberg).  In addition, we get to see a bit of the relationship Albert has with his assistant Betty (Charity Wakefield) and how Elsa (Emily Watson) deals with the situation.  Oddly, she allows him to pursue it as long as when she wants something, he responds to her first. The reason for Mileva’s repeated phone calls in the first episode is also discovered when she shows up to a wedding unannounced and tells Albert that his son Eduard (Eugene Simon) had attempted suicide, but wants a visit.  Albert complies and finally gets his son to smile by playing the violin for him.

(National Geographic/Dusan Martincek)

The discussion at the table then turns to Albert’s Jewish roots, where the viewer discovers that he is becoming more and more concerned for his people—especially as Hitler begins to rise in power.  As a result, he fears something will happen to him; this prompts his attempt to move to the US. When Geist asks for Elsa to leave the room, the subject matter shifts to Albert’s faith and science.  Einstein shares that he believed God made the universe; he’s trying to understand how he did it. From here, Albert turns the conversation to Geist’s background and doing the right thing.

In the end, Geist approves the visa, but Hoover denies it.  Elsa then springs into action, throwing Hoover’s quizzing methods under the bus—on the front page of the New York Times.  Hoover freaks out, then has Geist visit the Einsteins and stamp the visas under one condition—that Albert sign a paper claiming he’s not a Communist.

The intrigue in this episode involves doing the right thing.  Geist understood Einstein’s Zionist focus and his concern about the Jewish people in Germany, but had to follow the orders of his boss and deny the visa.  Yet the Bible says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to act (Proverbs 3:27). As a result, when Albert refuses to sign the paper, he stamps the visas anyway, saying, “There are other ways to be of service.”  Albert then signs to keep Geist from losing his job.  It’s a powerful piece of drama.  Geist (directly or indirectly because of his talk with Albert) helped 50,000 German Jews get out before things got incredibly worse. That’s even more powerful.

The last chapter of Genius will combine the final two episodes and airs Tuesday, June 20 at 9 PM/8 CT. There are bound to be some surprises, so make sure you tune in!

Filed Under: Current Events, Reviews, Television Tagged With: Eduard Einstein, Einstein, Emily Watson, Genius, Geoffrey Rush, Hitler, J Edgar Hoover, Jewish, Ken Biller, Mileva Maric, National Geographic, Niels Bohr, Nobel Prize, Raymond Geist, Zionism

Miracles and Hope – The Story of God (Ep. 6)

May 8, 2016 by J. Alan Sharrer 4 Comments

Past Articles in This Series: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5
CloudsIn the final episode of The Story of God (tonight 9PM/8 Central), narrator and host Morgan Freeman shares a personal story when, as a teenager, he was in a hospital with pneumonia and an abscess on his lung.  When it burst, he almost died.  Yet he survived and eventually became one of the premiere actors in Hollywood.  Was that a miracle?

Alcides Moreno was in New York preparing to wash windows with his brother on the top of a 47-story skyscraper. While on the platform, the cables snapped, sending both of them hurtling to the ground some 500 feet below. Alcides survived, but his brother didn’t (typically, a 10-story fall is instant death).  He’s not sure if that was a miracle, but believes God gave him a “second chance.”

So what exactly is a miracle?  The Random House Dictionary defines a miracle as “an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.” We talk of miracles all the time, ranging from somehow getting an A on a test we didn’t study to sports teams succeeding despite everything being stacked against them (think of Leicester City in the Barclays Premier League winning the title yesterday at 5000:1 odds [worse than Elvis getting out of his grave]).  But do they really exist or is it just a really big game of chance that happens to swing the right way once in a great while?

Jerusalem - The Church of the Holy SepulcherFreeman discovers that Christians and Jews are united about miracles being a key aspect of their faith (after all, most of the key elements of the Bible are pretty miraculous according to the above definition, such as Moses parting the Red Sea and Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead). The Catholic Church verifies miracles (two) in order to confer sainthood upon deceased individuals. In addition, prayer and faith in God makes a big difference. Tom Renfro, a pastor of a church in Virginia, shares his personal story about having cancer and not seeing the doctor, asking for prayers instead.  He eventually heard God tell him it was time to go to the doctor, then went in for one round of chemo and was completely healed.  Renfro attributes the miracle to his faith and the faith of the people around him.

Other beliefs vary as to the importance of miracles. The Egyptians believed everything that happened in a person’s life was the will of the gods.  In the case of the Romans, they believed their panoply of gods determined the outcome of chariot races at the Circus Maximus (think Ben-Hur), yet humans could help speed the process along by cheating and such. In the case of Taoism, everything is connected and the fates of an individual are set at birth. However, Jenny Liu, a fate calculator (that’s a great title to put on a resume), tells Freeman there is still room for a miracle since, in her words, “Birds don’t fly; they’re flown. Fish don’t swim; they’re carried.”  Buddhists go as far to say that humans can perform miracles such as love, peace, reconciliation, and the transformation of the mind.

Simply put: there’s a lot more to life than meets the eye and, if anything, miracles offer hope to a world that increasingly needs to know possibility can become reality.

Filed Under: Reviews, Television Tagged With: Alcides Moreno, Ben-Hur, Buddhist, Catholic Church, Christian, Circus Maximus, hope, Jewish, Lazarus, Miracles, Morgan Freeman, Moses, National Geographic, Saints, Taoism, The Story of God, Tom Renfro

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