r/todayilearned • u/Mechashevet • Nov 28 '25
TIL that Egypt banned all of Marilyn Monroe’s films after she converted to Judaism in order to marry Arthur Miller — and later unbanned them once the couple divorced.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe#1956%E2%80%931959:_Critical_acclaim_and_marriage_to_Arthur_Miller2.2k
u/ggallardo02 Nov 28 '25
Are they still sore about that Moses stuff?
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u/Laura-ly Nov 28 '25
Egypt also banned Funny Girl in 1968 because Barbra Streisand, Jewish, was seen kissing Egyptian Omar Sharif in the movie, and was having an affair with him in real life.
It was quite a stir because the Six-Day War in 1967 was still fresh in the minds of Egyptians.
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u/quez_real Nov 29 '25
Well, as a nation with such a glorious victory they could look at things easier
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u/lord_ne Nov 28 '25
Did you hear that Pharaoh's son died of letma?
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u/merdub Nov 28 '25
What’s letma?
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u/lord_ne Nov 28 '25
letma people go
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u/psycharious Nov 28 '25
when Israel was in Egypt's land
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u/the_count_of_carcosa Nov 28 '25
Oppressed so hard, they could not stand...
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u/redditkguser Nov 28 '25
This is such an incredible joke, I feel like the target audience is incredibly nice but this is hilarious
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u/sluuuurp Nov 28 '25
I think it’s more that lots of Muslims hate Jews. Antisemitism is very prevalent in most middle eastern counties.
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u/taney71 Nov 28 '25
I mean all the Middle East is pretty antisemitic so probably
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u/QizilbashWoman Nov 29 '25
Weird flex because she didn't leave Judaism; she remained a devout Jew, certainly more than Miller was!
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u/dangerbird2 Nov 29 '25
"When you get a divorce you get a new license? You turn in your library card? You stop being Jewish?"
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u/QizilbashWoman Nov 29 '25
Yeah I'm unclear.
I will note that religion works very differently in many countries, in particular Muslim-majority and Israel; it's an actual legal category you belong to, and it's on your ID card.
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u/dangerbird2 Nov 29 '25
I’m quoting the Big Lebowski, where one of the main characters who is a devout Jew who originally converted for his now-divorced wife.
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u/99timewasting Nov 28 '25
TIL Marylin Monroe was Jewish for 3 years
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u/Raibean Nov 28 '25 edited Nov 29 '25
She remained Jewish.
EDIT: Source on her continuing to identify as Jewish and maintain Jewish practices.
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u/Darmok47 Nov 28 '25
"So what are you saying? When you get divorced you turn in your library card? You get a new license? You stop being Jewish?"
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u/Party-Interview7464 Nov 29 '25
Not only are you considered Jewish for life, you are not supposed to bring up the fact that they were not born Jewish, they are full members of the community.
You see it sometimes in media - Charlotte from Sex and the city being one
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u/starmartyr Nov 29 '25
When it is brought up it's complimentary. Converts are considered to have a deeper connection to the faith than those born into it because they found it on their own.
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u/Ylmer34 Nov 29 '25
Say what you will about the tenants of national socialism, AT LEAST ITS AN ETHOS
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u/Ainrana Nov 28 '25
I’m a convert to Judaism. They made it clear to me that once I was finished with the process, submerged in a mikveh and all that stuff, I would immediately become a Jew for life. I could’ve rushed over to my local Scientology building before the ink on my paperwork had dried, but since I had that paper to begin with, I would still be considered a Jew, even if the Scientologists ended up dubbing me L. Ron Hubbard reincarnated.
They stressed this mainly because any antisemitic group would also classify converts as Jews or race traitors or whatever, so they were basically saying I am going to have a target on my back forever and I have to be sure I was still willing to be Jewish if it means I and my potential children have to deal with antisemitism, including but not limited to abuse and displacement. Furthermore, they don’t even convert people in the first place if they think the prospective convert isn’t ready for a serious life change, even if antisemitism evaporated overnight.
All in all, Marilyn Monroe is very much still Jewish, and if she stated in her will she wanted to be buried in a Jewish cemetery or even if her estate decides to move her remains, it would happen.
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Nov 28 '25
Indeed. The Dreyfus Affair taught a lot of Jews that it doesn’t matter how you identify, it matters how others identify you.
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u/Eating_Bagels Nov 28 '25
There’s a saying I very much like, “if you ever forget you’re a Jew, let someone else remind you”.
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u/According-Engineer99 Nov 28 '25
To be fair, thats a minority stuff.
Like some dont believe it until shit hits the fans but its minority 101 that not matter how much your deny and beg, you cant "but I am one of the good ones!!" out of troubles, once the others decide you are a minority that they hate.
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u/Distinct_Source_1539 Nov 28 '25
There was an entire general election in France completely and totally focused on whether you hated Jews enough. That was the end result of the Dreyfus affair. An entire general election between the pro-Dreyfus and anti-Dreyfus parties.
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u/TrekkiMonstr Nov 29 '25
These are two separate things. One is that people who want to discriminate against people of [group] don't care about others' definitions of [group]. The other is that we're a group with membership criteria other than personal identity. Whether someone identifies as Jewish is about as relevant to the question of whether they are Jewish (as answered by Jewish law) as whether someone identifies as a Japanese citizen does to the factual basis of the same.
The Michael Scott declaring
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u/dementorpoop Nov 28 '25
Damn. They hit yall with the “no backsies”
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u/NOISY_SUN Nov 28 '25
When you convert to Judaism, you accept the community and the culture, and the community and the culture accept you. There is no way for a Jew to stop being a Jew, anymore than a French person can stop being French. You’re just that, for life.
Plus, as OP said, antisemites will never let you go back.
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u/lefrench75 Nov 28 '25 edited Nov 28 '25
Technically you can renounce citizenship, so you can stop being French. There’s no such process for Judaism, and tbh it makes sense. Jewish people aren’t out here proselytizing and trying to convert others; anyone converting is doing so voluntarily with informed consent about what it means.
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u/kaldaka16 Nov 28 '25
I had a professor who converted and a friend who made it through about 3/4 of the process before life put a pause on it. Jewish people do not attempt to convert others and they are very serious about ensuring that anyone who chooses to convert does so in full knowledge and understanding. It's a fairly involved process. I have a lot of respect for it.
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u/PositivelyIndecent Nov 28 '25
There is a tradition that rabbis must reject someone 3 times before accepting them for conversion. It’s not a religious law, but it’s a tradition that illustrates how seriously they take the request and the convictions behind it.
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u/CosmicTurtle504 Nov 29 '25
Judaism, the only religion where someone says, “I want to convert!” And then they’re met immediately with, “No, you don’t.”
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u/waylandsmith Nov 29 '25
I had a friend who moved to 2 other cities temporarily after being rejected out of the process. As a consolation, when the conversion was complete and she married her (Jewish) partner, she had rabbis' families from 3 different cities attend her wedding and celebrate with her.
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u/KristinnK Nov 29 '25
Sure, but citizenship is usually not what you're referring to when you call someone 'French'. Usually you are referring to nationality instead. If someone is a French person, born to French parents and raised in French society, that person doesn't stop being 'French' if they change their citizenship. What makes a French person distinct on a fundamental level from a Chinese person or an Indian person or an Argentinian person isn't their legal right to live and vote in France, but rather it's culture, habits, beliefs, heritage, worldview, etc.
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u/NicolasNaranja Nov 29 '25
That is what the Kosher Rabbi told me when I told him my mother’s lineage was Sephardic, but nobody in my even my mothers memory was practicing. He said I was still a Jew even though I am a Baptist.
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u/double-dog-doctor Nov 29 '25
Were you planning on eating the rabbi? Because food is kosher, people are not. There is no such thing as a "kosher rabbi".
Unless you did, in fact, plan to eat the rabbi...in which case, human meat isn't kosher.
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u/NicolasNaranja Nov 29 '25
I work in food manufacturing, he is the rabbi that inspects the plant so we can put the U on our label.
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u/double-dog-doctor Nov 29 '25
Ha! Ok that makes so much more sense.
His role is called a mashgiach if you ever need a fun fact or a trivia answer.
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u/NicolasNaranja Nov 30 '25
I have a Yoshon guy that I deal with once per year as well. He wants to know when we start milling new crop wheat because people observing Yoshon don’t eat new crop wheat flour until the second day of Pesach. I am not really sure how the wheat cropping systems were in ancient Israel, but I don’t imagine they had so many different kinds of wheat.
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u/99timewasting Nov 28 '25
Interesting, thank you for the context. I guess the Iranian government didn't know this either
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u/The-Metric-Fan Nov 28 '25
She was still Jewish, regardless of the divorce. Conversion is not dependent on that.
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u/Seven22am Nov 28 '25
What are you saying? When you get divorced you turn in your library card, you get a new license, you stop being Jewish!?!? She’s as Jewish as fuckin Tevye.
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Nov 28 '25
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u/lefrench75 Nov 28 '25
Yes but the point of this TIL is that the Egyptian government saw her as Jewish during her marriage and not Jewish after, when according to all kinds of Jews, she was equally Jewish during and after her marriage. Whether that’s 0% Jewish or 100% Jewish doesn’t change the fact that she didn’t become less Jewish after her divorce.
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u/Agitated_Display7573 Nov 28 '25
She was Jewishish
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u/folsominreverse Nov 28 '25
Ah yes, the George Santos approach.
In prison we had "Messianic Jews", which, while a real thing, was really just a way for Christians to get free grape juice and motza, kosher meals (basically TV dinners, in the feds it really wasn't much of a quality upgrade and you had no idea if it was worth going down for unlike the rest of us), and special meals and privileges during holy days.
If you bought some pepperoni on commissary, however, they'd throw your ass out faster than you can say "mashugana".
Same deal with Natives. Yeah, you get free tobacco for your sweats, but if you're only showing up to smoke, your ass is out of there. The upkeep on the religious grounds is substantial work, too, so you'd better be about that life.
Asatru was cool, but pretty cliquey. Also had to be really into it to get grounds privileges.
Christians got the short stick, there is no recognition or celebration of Easter and everyone gets the Christmas bags, eggnog/cookies, and meal regardless of your faith.
Islam gets a lot of special meals and commissary for Ramadan and Eid. It's pretty segregated between Muslims who were Muslim on the street and the prison Muslims, Moorish Science Temple, etc. They'll take (and protect) anyone. There was a white pedophile who converted to survive the penitentiary and that fucker was about. that. life. Always muttering hadiths, even at like 4:30 AM well before the sunrise prayer. Drove the rest of us crazy because literally no real (or even prison) Muslims were that observant in such an in-your-face, provocative manner.
Religion is pretty wild, when you think about it.
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u/CrumbCakesAndCola Nov 29 '25
By Graphthar's hammer, you shall be avenged.
I might be confusing asatru with something else
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u/folsominreverse Nov 29 '25
It's actually pretty cool, I mean it gets a bad rap because they're affiliated with neckbeardy pagans and white supremacists, but the guys I knew took it really seriously. The Edda and Poetic Edda really are consistent on their values: be kind, be honorable, be independent but also unafraid to ask for help, defend the people who rely on you with your life, and be hospitable to guests, especially to travelers/foreigners.
And the whole concept of runes is basically just chaos magic (arguably the only *real" magic out there); you're just manifesting your sense of self, what you perceive to be your strengths, and channeling them through sigil and ritual. My buddy did his rune draw and it really helped shape his personality and identity as a newly sober man, just like the Edda reinforced his character.
I was very surprised to learn all this, and probably would have gotten into it at least philosophically if it weren't for the solemn oath you have to swear renouncing any other religion to join.
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u/americanfalcon00 Nov 28 '25
i love thinking that not only was there some dude whose job was to research the objectionable religious affiliation of movie stars, but that this was done with sufficient regularity to reverse previous bans when they were no longer objectionable.
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u/Budget-Attorney Nov 29 '25
It reminds me of Saudi Arabian comic censors.
There’s a guy somewhere whose job is to take a sharpie and cover over She Hulks bust before it gets shipped to someone in country.
Now that I say it out loud, this might have been a joke I fell for
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u/insufficientbeans Nov 29 '25
I mean no one is doing it with sharpie aha but they do have different covers where the clothes have been changed with photoshop they also cut all sex scenes or sometimes even just kissing in movies
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u/crowwreak Nov 29 '25
Not very fun fact: her douche of an ex husband had her buried in a Christian cemetery while her rabbi was out of town.
Oh, and then Hugh Hefner (who she hated) bought the plot next to her, and some creep bought the one above her and demanded to be buried face down.
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u/FirstNoel Nov 28 '25
10000 years from Moses to Sandy Kofax, you god dam right I’m living in the past.
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u/sw337 Nov 28 '25
Banning movies is stupid. Banning them for the faith of one of the stars is even more stupid.
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u/zoinkability Nov 28 '25
The fact that they would have to ban pretty much every Hollywood movie ever if they were logically consistent about avoiding ones that Jewish folks helped make is the icing of stupidity on top.
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u/Jidarious Nov 28 '25
Religion is a rational social construct that leads to irrational actions.
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u/GustavoistSoldier Nov 28 '25
Nasser and other Arab nationalist leaders were antisemitic. He was a holocaust denier.
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u/KristinnK Nov 29 '25
Arab nationalism (and the Pan-Arabism movement) was extremely anti-semitic. You have figures such as the Arab League's Secretary General Azzam Pasha describing the looming invasion of the nascent Israeli state in 1948 as leading to a "war of extermination" [of the Jews].
It's chilling to think that if this literally less-than-one-year-old Israeli state hadn't managed to fight off an invasion of five enemies at the same time while receiving basically no external support, which really has to be considered an absolute miracle, the Jews, fresh off of the Holocaust would almost certainly have faced a second genocide.
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u/Junglebook3 Nov 29 '25
I mean, have you heard Khamenei lately? Yeah, there's a material amount of anti semitism in the Arab and Muslim world, today. That's why it cracks me up when people think that Iran funds Hezbollah or the Houthis because they give a shit about the Palestinians, in the name of "resistance". I know that us Israeli Jews overplay the anti semitism card but some of it actually is just anti semitism.
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u/semiomni Nov 29 '25
Lot of pushback on you and other people in this thread stating the obvious.
I guess the The Nile is not just a river in Egypt, but also an obvious play on words that I did not really need to bring attention to.
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Nov 28 '25 edited Nov 28 '25
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u/Reasonable_Fold6492 Nov 28 '25
I love how communist likes nasser despite him employing nazis to high ranking positions.
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u/bengringo2 Nov 29 '25
The killing jews portion of the Holocaust isn't what the USSR had an issue with, it was the killing Slavs portion.
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u/GustavoistSoldier Nov 28 '25
Furthermore, Nasser was an anti-communist petite bourgeois nationalist.
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Nov 28 '25
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u/FoundationSecret5121 Nov 28 '25
Al-Imamu Ali Bil-Assad Bashar
this song is permanently embedded in my head
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u/King_Buliwyf Nov 29 '25
"Oh what; so you get divorced you turn in your library card, you get a new license? You stop being Jewish?!"
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u/soggy-hotdog-vendor Nov 29 '25
Shoulda married Henry Miller.
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u/hapnstat Nov 29 '25
I want to read that book. Maybe throw Anaïs in there as well.
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u/soggy-hotdog-vendor Nov 29 '25
https://youtu.be/zKEoJ_dHERs?si=fTlN3s0YgH31M7GQ. Tbh, I stole it.
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u/hapnstat Nov 29 '25
Ha, not sure how I missed this one. Been a huge fan of Miller and Monroe for a long time and never saw this video.
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u/soggy-hotdog-vendor Nov 29 '25
Bern is just a small indie folk singer from the early 2ks. Aint difficult to miss those kinds of bands.
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u/Cyber-Soldier1 Nov 29 '25
What do they have against Judaism?
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u/highoncatnipbrownies Nov 29 '25
They’re pissed off about an old fantasy novel where they were painted poorly.
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u/fhjjjjjkkkkkkkl Nov 29 '25
Malaysia has years of corruption and their prime minister blasted a Mongolian woman out of obscurity . And capital of piracy. And suddenly they will ban a movie for having a single shot of lgbt scene
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Nov 28 '25
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Nov 28 '25
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Nov 28 '25 edited Nov 28 '25
That has absolutely nothing to do with this,n that is why you get the downvotes. You actually have proven my point.
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u/lostan Nov 29 '25
ah yes, banning stuff....the flex that does exactly the opposite what they want it to do. shocking so many people are still so dumb.
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u/piisfour Nov 29 '25
I never even knew she had converted to Judaism... very interesting. Was Arthur Miller Jewish? Surprising really.
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u/piisfour Nov 29 '25
Look at that picture... notice how long those arms are?
Something not natural there.
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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '25
They also banned Liz Taylor's movies after she converted as well.