Louis D. Brandeis In Popular Culture

28Apr10

Brandeis got quoted again on The Daily Show–this time in a bit on the new Arizona immigration law on their April 26 2010 episode. (Somebody on the staff of that show must be quite a Brandeis fan.)

Also, a couple years ago, the library here at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law purchased a print of the Andy Warhol portrait of Brandeis. The portrait is part of a series of 10 by Warhol that he titled Jews of the 20th Century. All 10 portraits are the stars of a new play that has just run in San Francisco and DC. It’s a one man show by Josh Kornbluth called Andy Warhol: Good For Jews? (See review.) In it, Kornbluth uses the portraits to discuss his own life, particularly about him being a non-believing Jew–a situation shared by Brandeis. It’s hard to tell from the reviews how much Brandeis gets discussed in the play (if any portrait can be said to dominate the play, it is probably Martin Buber’s) but any play that discusses Brandeis at all is worth mentioning. The reviews I’ve read make the play sound like it’s pretty funny. One might be able to gauge the type of humor from a quote Kornbluth gave in an interview. When asked how he was able to remember the names of all 10 of the subjects in the portraits, he said that he paired them off and gave each a mnemonic. Brandeis and Gershwin’s mnemonic? Rhapsody in Lou.

There’s no word if Kornbluth is planning on touring with the play now that the DC run is over, but here’s hoping…

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