Commemorative Lectures
Alan Dershowitz and David Mamet
Lawyer Alan Dershowitz speaks with playwright and author David Mamet about Mamet's new novel, The Old Religion (1997). The Old Religion is a fictional story based on the 1914 trial of Leo Frank. Leo Frank was a Jewish man falsely accused and convicted of raping and murdering a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia. When Frank’s sentence was later commuted by a judge, he was lynched by a mob of angry residents. Mamet comments on the implications of the case on the American justice system, which he refers to as “a vast obscenity.” Dershowitz and Mamet also discuss Judaism, assimilation, and antisemitism in general and in the context of the law. The discussion is followed with questions from the audience.
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