Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, April 24, 2018
“I can’t believe you’re interviewing Aaron Altaras,” a Tel Aviv friend of mine said. “He’s so hot.”
Normally, I’d dismiss this as one of her usual “movie star” crushes (Henry Cavill being No. 1), except two other Israeli friends couldn’t believe it, either. You’d think Atlaras were Brad Pitt (from back in the day), the way they were gushing over the co-star of the Netflix sensation “Unorthodox.” For them, he has special allure: Altaras is Jewish. (Spoiler: But not necessarily more available. The 24-year-old has a girlfriend.)
Meeting him was a walk in the park, literally. No cafes were open, so we opted for the popular Gleisdreieck park in the hip neighborhood of Kreuzberg during the sunny denouement of Berlin’s coronavirus lockdown. His vintage jacket from a thrift shop went well with his heartthrob-y smolder and swagger.
We had been in touch in September 2017, when his proud father, composer Wolfgang Böhmer, suggested I interview Altaras about the film “The Invisibles,” in which Altaras plays a “U-boat,” the term for Jews hiding underground during Nazi Berlin. At the time, Böhmer (who was raised Catholic) was promoting his Holocaust-themed production, the musical “Stella: The Blonde Poison of Kurfurstendamm” about the infamous Jewess, Stella Goldschlag, who under duress collaborated with the Nazis to “catch” the U-boats. Atlaras’ mother, writer-director-actress Adriana Altaras, also deals with Holocaust themes as a second-generation Holocaust survivor.
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