Hollywood to Holy Land: Screenwriter-turned-Orthodox Rabbi Shmuel Lynn
5/15/202627 min
A Hollywood writer turned rabbi reveals the unbelievable true stories of Jewish survival history that they never taught in school.
Host Jonah Platt reunites with Rabbi Shmuel Lynn, his former University of Pennsylvania Maimonides Leadership Program teacher, to discuss Lynn’s path from screenwriting (Duke, NYU Film School, LA) to Orthodox Jewish education and leading young adults. Lynn describes growing up amid antisemitism in Palm Beach, discovering observant Jews in Hollywood, and being drawn to meaningful Jewish history through a Holocaust writing job. He explains his focus on college and post-college Jews through Olami in Greenwich Village, emphasizing immersive, curated experiences and storytelling to create individual and generational change.
Topics include:
- Jonah Platt reflects on meeting Rabbi Lynn through the Maimonides Leadership Program while attending the University of Pennsylvania.
- Working in Hollywood with writers from The Cosby Show and Will & Grace sparked Rabbi Lynn’s deeper exploration of Judaism and observant Jewish life.
- Rabbi Lynn discusses writing a Holocaust screenplay centered on Kristallnacht and how that project deepened his connection to Jewish history.
- The episode explores Rabbi Lynn’s Holocaust film about Bardejov and the true story of 999 Slovakian Jewish girls bound for Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.
- Rabbi Lynn recounts how Jews in Slovakia prevented deportations by staging a fake typhus outbreak during the Holocaust.
- Rabbi Lynn explains the mission behind Olami and his Jewish center in Greenwich Village focused on college students and young professionals.
- The conversation highlights immersive Jewish education, including theater productions about the Spanish Inquisition and immigrant journeys through Ellis Island.
- Rabbi Lynn discusses leading student trips through Poland, Krakow, Budapest, and Slovakia to teach Holocaust history and Jewish perseverance.
- The episode explores the upcoming screenplay Rabbi Lynn is developing about the Soviet Jewry movement, including references to the KGB, the Iron Curtain, and Soviet Jewish activism.
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Written and Hosted by Jonah Platt, Executive Producers: Steve Hein, Jonah Platt, Chief Business Officer: Kenyon Laing, Chief Marketing Officer: Katya Nayman, Story Producer: Sasha Nelson, Associate Producer: Emma Webb, Production Manager/Executive Assistant: Josie Rothschild, Research Associate: Samantha Greenwald, Production Associate: Rachel Stern YouTube Consultants: Jason Al-Samarrie & Zac Stein, Post Production by TIMEWEAVER, Creative Director: F. Brian Scofield, ACE, Lead Editor: Noam Klement, Editor: Gray Clevenger, Geoff McGee. Graphic Designer: Noah Bell, Theme Music by Gabriel Mann, Performed by Jonah Platt
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsShmuel Lynn· Guest0:00
I know what it's like to grow up not knowing anything about Judaism. That's how I grew up Have you ever thought about that as being part of your secret sauce? It's hard to call it secret sauce 'cause that means you're selling something.
Jonah Platt· Host0:08
College and post-college kids. Why is that the mission?
Shmuel Lynn· Guest0:11
If you think back to professors that made a big impact on you, it wasn't just information. There was an experience that you had in the process of learning, and learning is a very deep thing. There's so many different parts. You can meet a person at the morgue also and know a lot about them, but it's not the same as having a cup of coffee with them.
Jonah Platt· Host0:25
Welcome back to Being Jewish with Jonah Platt, 30-minute mensches. Same vibe, same tribe, shorter episodes. When I was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, I wasn't super involved in Jewish life. I had plenty of Jewish friends and a lot of East Coast family that I could spend holidays with, but Campus Hillel wasn't really my scene. So still, I, I, I wanted some Jewish connection somehow, so I joined something called the Maimonides Leadership Program, which was a weekly discussion/learning session led by a dynamic, engaging, and approachable rabbi who happened to have been a Hollywood screenwriter in a former life. No surprise then that we connected and remain connected 20 years later. He's changing the Jewish world one student at a time, and he's here with us today. Please welcome Rabbi Shmuel Lynn. Rabbi, it's great to see you.
Shmuel Lynn· Guest1:19
Jonah, it's great to see you. If you come for Shabbat tonight, it'll be a double pleasure.
Jonah Platt· Host1:23
Ah, I wish. So b- because you spent the first chapters of your life outside the