COMPLEX VIVID PORTRAIT
Oppenheimer’ Review: A Man for Our Time: Manohla Dargis, NY Times, July 19, 2023 — “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s staggering film about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man known as “the father of the atomic bomb,” condenses a titanic shift in consciousness into three haunted hours.
SHABBAT READING
The Power of Why: Vaetchanan 5776; 5783: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Rabbi Sacks Legacy — In a much-watched TED Talk, Simon Sinek asked the following question: how do great leaders inspire action? What made people like Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs stand out from their contemporaries who may have been no less gifted, no less qualified? His answer: Most people talk about what. Some people talk about how. Great leaders, though, start with why. This is what makes them transformative.
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The Ambivalent Destroyer: David Mikics, Tablet, July 25, 2023
The Real History behind Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’: Andy Kifer, Smithsonian, July 18, 2023
Here’s How Faithfully Oppenheimer Captures Its Subject’s Real Life: Megan McCluskey, TIME, July 21, 2023
At the Core of ‘Oppenheimer,’ A Debate About How To Be Jewish: PJ Grisar, The Jewish News of North California, July 19, 2023
J. Robert Oppenheimer: Life, Work, and Legacy: IASS –– Much has been written about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer—the substance of his life, his intellect, his patrician manner, his leadership of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, his political affiliations and postwar military/security entanglements, and his early death from cancer, amount to a highly compelling story.
In the Shadow of Oppenheimer: Joshua Wheeler and Reto Starchi, Science History Institute, July 16, 2023 — According to most accounts, the desert was uninhabited. The stories will tell you that when the first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, hardly anyone lived nearby.
The Dark — And Often Misunderstood — Nuclear History Behind Oppenheimer, Explained By An Expert: Jonathan Guyer, VOX, July 24, 2023— The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still have the power to shock: In an instant, the US killed more than a hundred thousand people.
Lewis Strauss and Robert Oppenheimer: Spencer Howard, Hoover Heads, National Archives, July 24, 2023 — In later years, Herbert Hoover was proud that so many of the young men who helped him provide food to starving Europe during World War I went on to successful careers in business, industry, and government service.
The Real Spies at Los Alamos During Oppenheimer’s Atomic Bomb Research: Katie Dowd, SFGATE, July 21, 2023 — For all the security measures put in place, America’s most top-secret location during World War II was a leaking ship. While government counterintelligence officials fretted about Robert Oppenheimer’s ties to communist sympathizers, a handful of actual spies were in their midst at Los Alamos.
