Writer reissues 1931 novel 'Rabbi Burns' in response to Hollywood Jewish exhibit row

To bolster Jewish representation, Sam Wasson publishes satire based on true story of LA’s oldest synagogue after Academy Museum accused of antisemitism

JTA — When the Academy Museum in Los Angeles was accused of antisemitism over its exhibit on Hollywood’s Jewish founders, one Jewish film historian and author in Los Angeles looked to respond using a different medium: the written word.

Sam Wasson, best known for bestselling books on film history and figures such as Francis Ford Coppolla, is selling a reissue of “Rabbi Burns,” a 1931 satire by Aben Kandel. Wasson is publishing the novel through his boutique Felix Farmer Press.

“Rabbi Burns” follows a Los Angeles rabbi who endeavors to build a “million-dollar temple” (equivalent to more than $20 million in 2025) — and who considers entering the movie business. The book is a satire of the real-life story of Edgar Magnin, the longtime senior rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a congregation whose history dates back to the 19th century and which dedicated a new building in 1929.

Magnin led the congregation for more than 60 years, and its walls are adorned with art gifted from many key Hollywood players thanks to Magnin’s close relationships in the film industry, according to the Academy Museum’s website. Today, the synagogue is the oldest in Los Angeles.

“It’s frank and funny and fearless about Jewishness,” said Wasson to The Hollywood Reporter about the book. “Always proud and critical. One of the Jewish muscles is criticism and interpretation. That’s what the moguls had: the ability to interpret their audience.”

The reissue was inspired by outcry from Hollywood’s Jewish community last year, when hundreds of Jewish figures in the film industry said a long-awaited exhibit about Jews in Hollywood at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures was antisemitic.

The exhibit was created after a protest from the Jewish community over two years earlier, when the museum debuted without a permanent exhibit dedicated to Hollywood’s Jewish founders.

“It feels important to share this book with this community right now,” Felix Farmer Press co-founder Brandon Millan told The Hollywood Reporter.