Name Robert Avrech | Role Screenwriter | |
 | ||
Books The Hebrew kid and the Apache maiden Awards Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing In A Children/Youth/Family Special Nominations Nebula Award for Best Script Movies The Devil's Arithmetic, Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian, Dark Tower, The Infiltrator, Running Delilah Similar People Donna Deitch, Jane Yolen, Mimi Rogers, Dustin Hoffman, Murray Schisgal | ||
Robert J. Avrech is an American screenwriter, whose works include the 1984 film Body Double (with Brian De Palma) and A Stranger Among Us (1992). He won an Emmy Award for his screenplay, The Devil's Arithmetic, based on the young adult novel by Jane Yolen.
He is also the author of the Children's novel, "The Hebrew Kid and the Apache Maiden," the memoir "How I Married Karen, and publishes personal and political writings on his blog, http://www.seraphicpress.com/. From 2009 through mid-2012, he was a writer for Breitbart News.
Personal life
Avrech is an Orthodox Jew, and a graduate of the Yeshiva of Flatbush in Brooklyn, NY and Bard College. He was the father of two daughters and a son, but his son Ariel died of complications from severe pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 22. Avrech established Seraphic Press in his son's memory, to publish works "for Jewish teens," however only one such title, "The Hebrew Kid and the Apache Maiden," has been published. Avrech also established the Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture series at Young Israel of Century City in memory of his son. Early titles in this lecture series included "What Was the Rosh Yeshiva Reading: Intellectual Openness in 19th Century Lithuania,” while more recent titles have included, “Shifting Alliances: Why Liberals No Longer Reliably Support Israel — And Conservatives Do.”
Avrech's blog, begun after the death of his son, includes extensive writings on topics such as the history of the American movie industry, particularly its movie stars, the Sabbath, and "Islamonazis."