# Hollywood to Holy Land: Screenwriter-turned-Orthodox Rabbi Shmuel Lynn Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/being-jewish-with-jonah-platt-7011021/hollywood-to-holy-land-screenwriter-turned-orthodox-rabbi-shmuel-lynn Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/being-jewish-with-jonah-platt-7011021/hollywood-to-holy-land-screenwriter-turned-orthodox-rabbi-shmuel-lynn.md Podcast: [Being Jewish with Jonah Platt](https://stenobird.com/podcast/being-jewish-with-jonah-platt-7011021) Published: 2026-05-15T07:13:06+00:00 Episode link: https://being-jewish-with-jonah-platt.cohostpodcasting.com/episodes/hollywood-to-holy-land-screenwriter-turned-orthodox-rabbi-shmuel-lynn Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/audio-delivery.cohostpodcasting.com/audio/bca27f23-4549-40db-a506-7962f8289f14/episodes/acae244d-dbce-4855-adb2-792c628226b2/episode.mp3?v=b216e92d1f Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/being-jewish-with-jonah-platt-7011021/episodes/hollywood-to-holy-land-screenwriter-turned-orthodox-rabbi-shmuel-lynn Duration seconds: 1674 ## Resource A Hollywood writer turned rabbi reveals the unbelievable true stories of Jewish survival history that they never taught in school. Host Jonah Platt reunites with Rabbi Shmuel Lynn, his former University of Pennsylvania Maimonides Leadership Program teacher, to discuss Lynn’s path from screenwriting (Duke, NYU Film School, LA) to Orthodox Jewish education and leading young adults. Lynn describes growing up amid antisemitism in Palm Beach, discovering observant Jews in Hollywood, and being drawn to meaningful Jewish history through a Holocaust writing job. He explains his focus on college and post-college Jews through Olami in Greenwich Village, emphasizing immersive, curated experiences and storytelling to create individual and generational change. Topics include: Jonah Platt reflects on meeting Rabbi Lynn through the Maimonides Leadership Program while attending the University of Pennsylvania.  Working in Hollywood with writers from The Cosby Show and Will & Grace sparked Rabbi Lynn’s deeper exploration of Judaism and observant Jewish life.  Rabbi Lynn discusses writing a Holocaust screenplay centered on Kristallnacht and how that project deepened his connection to Jewish history.  The episode explores Rabbi Lynn’s Holocaust film about Bardejov and the true story of 999 Slovakian Jewish girls bound for Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.  Rabbi Lynn recounts how Jews in Slovakia prevented deportations by staging a fake typhus outbreak during the Holocaust.  Rabbi Lynn explains the mission behind Olami and his Jewish center in Greenwich Village focused on college students and young professionals. The conversation highlights immersive Jewish education, including theater productions about the Spanish Inquisition and immigrant journeys throug… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/being-jewish-with-jonah-platt-7011021/episodes/hollywood-to-holy-land-screenwriter-turned-orthodox-rabbi-shmuel-lynn/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/being-jewish-with-jonah-platt-7011021/hollywood-to-holy-land-screenwriter-turned-orthodox-rabbi-shmuel-lynn.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.