Leslie K. Barry's Blog, page 3
November 19, 2020
The Boxers of Newark Minutemen
In Newark Minutemen, a based-on-true 1930s novel, twelve year old Yael comes face to face with champion boxer Benny Leonard. Not the real-life boxer, Benny Leonard. But the 'Muscle Builder' magazine photo that was taped on the wall above his bed. Leonard was a more important Jew than Albert Einstein since most people knew who he was.
Between 1910 and 1940, boxing was the most popular sport in America. Jewish boxers dominated the sport with 20,000 registered fighters and twenty-six world championships. Boxers were the highest paid athletes, so attracted the best.
During the 1930s in Newark, NJ, many of these boxers were recruited by Mob King Longie Zwillman and trained by champion fighter Nat Arno to help the government to stop the Nazi satellite Hitler was building in America. Longie’s prize-fighting boxers became America’s secret weapon against the threat of the German-American Nazi Bund. They were called The Newark Minutemen.
Why did this group lead both in and out of the ring? Two reasons. Grit and spurn.
The secret was the juice running through their veins. Their families’ cut their teeth fighting Russian Cossacks. They watched mothers hacked to death with machetes and baby brothers splatted against the wall. The fierce kids battled back with with guns, knives and bombs.
They were also the battle-hardened survivors of the Great War who reclaimed Palestine from the Turks. In the action drama Newark Minutemen, Mobking Longie Zwillman compares his band of boxers to King David's mighty warriors. Longie ran an army of boxers that he pivoted into a resistance for the American government at a time when democracy was on trial.
These ready made heroes were also scorned. During the Great Depression, college was rare. Jobs narrow. Wages low. Hours long. Money that was made went to helping relatives escape Europe. But winning a fight, running a job or fighting for the Minutemen for the Jewish mob put money in their pocket.
Featured in Newark Minutemen, the Louis- Schmeling fight in Yankee stadium became known as the fight of the century. It pegged America’s darling, “The Brown Bomber” Joe Louis, versus Nazi Germany’s trophy, Max Schmeling. When Louis felled Schmeling in just over two minutes a country celebrated a victory of democracy over fascism.
Between 1910 and 1940, boxing was the most popular sport in America. Jewish boxers dominated the sport with 20,000 registered fighters and twenty-six world championships. Boxers were the highest paid athletes, so attracted the best.
During the 1930s in Newark, NJ, many of these boxers were recruited by Mob King Longie Zwillman and trained by champion fighter Nat Arno to help the government to stop the Nazi satellite Hitler was building in America. Longie’s prize-fighting boxers became America’s secret weapon against the threat of the German-American Nazi Bund. They were called The Newark Minutemen.
Why did this group lead both in and out of the ring? Two reasons. Grit and spurn.
The secret was the juice running through their veins. Their families’ cut their teeth fighting Russian Cossacks. They watched mothers hacked to death with machetes and baby brothers splatted against the wall. The fierce kids battled back with with guns, knives and bombs.
They were also the battle-hardened survivors of the Great War who reclaimed Palestine from the Turks. In the action drama Newark Minutemen, Mobking Longie Zwillman compares his band of boxers to King David's mighty warriors. Longie ran an army of boxers that he pivoted into a resistance for the American government at a time when democracy was on trial.
These ready made heroes were also scorned. During the Great Depression, college was rare. Jobs narrow. Wages low. Hours long. Money that was made went to helping relatives escape Europe. But winning a fight, running a job or fighting for the Minutemen for the Jewish mob put money in their pocket.
Featured in Newark Minutemen, the Louis- Schmeling fight in Yankee stadium became known as the fight of the century. It pegged America’s darling, “The Brown Bomber” Joe Louis, versus Nazi Germany’s trophy, Max Schmeling. When Louis felled Schmeling in just over two minutes a country celebrated a victory of democracy over fascism.
November 14, 2020
Newark Minutemen Review
REVIEW: Newark Minutemen
Why won’t America open her eyes? After 5 years of living with the memory of his father’s twitching legs bounce against the old bootlegging boat as the rope squeezes the skin under his 5 o’clock shadow, the revenge pounds Yael’s head like a hammer. But it’s the charred Swastika on his Pop’s chalky chest that shapes avenge like sculptor’s hands and soothes his pain.
In America, the Great Depression has robbed many of their dignity. And made men go places they had only seen in those new film theaters, now close enough to walk to from any Newark apartment. But as eighteen year old Yael punches his best friend above the Star of David on Harry’s boxing shorts, he knows exactly where he is going. He has joined the resistance of Jewish boxers called Newark Minutemen. They work for MobKing Longie Zwillman down in the third ward fighting against the Nazi soldiers marching down Main Streets with their hands saluted in the air. Hell. If the FBI is willing to pay the Jewish mafia under the table to topple Hitler’s German American satellite called the Bund, it’s almost too late. But between first amendment rights and the divide between those who refuse to go into another war and those who just want food on the table, there’s no choice. Hands are tied.
Yael’s choice to fight is simple. That is until he gets hit with a right hook of emotions for Krista, the daughter of the Nazi party leader. His friends warn him not to cross the line, but when he goes undercover and trains to become the Bund’s secret police, the horrors drive him to rescue Krista from her Nazi youth camp in Long Island. But between her betrothed Nazi officer and a foreign culture, the star crossed affair is doomed for failure.
Newarkminutemen.Com
Why won’t America open her eyes? After 5 years of living with the memory of his father’s twitching legs bounce against the old bootlegging boat as the rope squeezes the skin under his 5 o’clock shadow, the revenge pounds Yael’s head like a hammer. But it’s the charred Swastika on his Pop’s chalky chest that shapes avenge like sculptor’s hands and soothes his pain.
In America, the Great Depression has robbed many of their dignity. And made men go places they had only seen in those new film theaters, now close enough to walk to from any Newark apartment. But as eighteen year old Yael punches his best friend above the Star of David on Harry’s boxing shorts, he knows exactly where he is going. He has joined the resistance of Jewish boxers called Newark Minutemen. They work for MobKing Longie Zwillman down in the third ward fighting against the Nazi soldiers marching down Main Streets with their hands saluted in the air. Hell. If the FBI is willing to pay the Jewish mafia under the table to topple Hitler’s German American satellite called the Bund, it’s almost too late. But between first amendment rights and the divide between those who refuse to go into another war and those who just want food on the table, there’s no choice. Hands are tied.
Yael’s choice to fight is simple. That is until he gets hit with a right hook of emotions for Krista, the daughter of the Nazi party leader. His friends warn him not to cross the line, but when he goes undercover and trains to become the Bund’s secret police, the horrors drive him to rescue Krista from her Nazi youth camp in Long Island. But between her betrothed Nazi officer and a foreign culture, the star crossed affair is doomed for failure.
Newarkminutemen.Com
October 26, 2020
Newark Minutemen: A Voice for the Voiceless
Set between the Great wars in 1930s Newark, New Jersey, Newark Minutemen layers a star crossed love affair doomed for failure over the backdrop of a country ripped apart by economic turmoil of the Great Depression.
Leslie K. Barry’s richly imagined based-on-true novel begins in 1933 America at the triple bewitching hour of Hitlers reign, FDRs presidency and the dusk of prohibition. Through the eyes of the character, the reader looks on as the young protagonist, Yael Newman, witnesses his father branded with a Swastika by German American Nazis at the Newark bootlegging docks.
The perspective then changes to the young German Immigrant Krista Brecht who watches her father burn down a bookstore in Newark as he beats his uniformed chest.
At the time, Americans were divided between a socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. The fascist activities were often dangerous and manipulative but government’s hands were tied by first amendment rights. As a result, most Americans ignored marchers and rallies. What Depression-struck Americans had not realized was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America many years before Germany had fired a bullet to begin WW2.
With a self-proclaimed American HItler at the helm, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in New York, the Reich created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells in every American city and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. Later, the FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis.
Finally the FBI approached the Jewish mafia, one of the few factions during the depression with money and power. The G-men engaged the mafia to join in an unholy alliance to help thwart the rising Nazi party.
The most promising weapon for the mafia was a band of Jewish boxers in Newark, NJ. They were managed by the enchanting Mob King, Longie Zwillman who was often referred to as the Gatsby of gangsters. The Newark Minutemen trained to fight the Nazis taking over America. They were called up at a moments notice to topple rallies and infiltrate the German-American Bund.
In the story, the reader then joins Yael five years after his traumatic experience. In a life driven by avenge, tempered by justice, he joins the Newark Minutemen. During one of the fights he knocks into Krista Brecht, the daughter of a German-American Nazi high command. Their paths cross again and he and his sidekick Harry Levine take Krista and her sister on a night to remember. The tension between their worlds turns from innocent into an explosive rumble and vendetta between the Minutemen and a gang of young American Nazis.
As a romance between Yael and Krista form, the world pulls them apart. At the most basic level, Yael struggles against a life of racism. Further, Krista’s world wants Yael’s people dead. Coming full circle, Yael is recruited to go undercover and bring down the German-American Bund and it’s leader. Then he learns the gut-wrenching truth about who killed his father. In a twist, Krista's identity spirals when she learns her own truths.
In Newark Minutemen, Leslie K. Barry writes with a historical sweep and intimacy that are skillfully combined through four character’s narrations—Yael, Krista, gangster Longie Zwillman and Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn. Through different voices, the reader gains perspective from all sides, creeping empathy into uncomfortable places. As the novel explores the convulsive collision of history and romance, readers take a chilling look at devastating events that were occurring in America, including the greatest enemy of all—complacency.
What have we learned since the tumultuous times? In today's world, what does it take to help our moral compass point to justice? What does it take for someone to stand up for what's right in the face of adversity? How do we give voice to the voiceless?
Leslie K. Barry’s richly imagined based-on-true novel begins in 1933 America at the triple bewitching hour of Hitlers reign, FDRs presidency and the dusk of prohibition. Through the eyes of the character, the reader looks on as the young protagonist, Yael Newman, witnesses his father branded with a Swastika by German American Nazis at the Newark bootlegging docks.
The perspective then changes to the young German Immigrant Krista Brecht who watches her father burn down a bookstore in Newark as he beats his uniformed chest.
At the time, Americans were divided between a socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. The fascist activities were often dangerous and manipulative but government’s hands were tied by first amendment rights. As a result, most Americans ignored marchers and rallies. What Depression-struck Americans had not realized was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America many years before Germany had fired a bullet to begin WW2.
With a self-proclaimed American HItler at the helm, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in New York, the Reich created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells in every American city and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. Later, the FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis.
Finally the FBI approached the Jewish mafia, one of the few factions during the depression with money and power. The G-men engaged the mafia to join in an unholy alliance to help thwart the rising Nazi party.
The most promising weapon for the mafia was a band of Jewish boxers in Newark, NJ. They were managed by the enchanting Mob King, Longie Zwillman who was often referred to as the Gatsby of gangsters. The Newark Minutemen trained to fight the Nazis taking over America. They were called up at a moments notice to topple rallies and infiltrate the German-American Bund.
In the story, the reader then joins Yael five years after his traumatic experience. In a life driven by avenge, tempered by justice, he joins the Newark Minutemen. During one of the fights he knocks into Krista Brecht, the daughter of a German-American Nazi high command. Their paths cross again and he and his sidekick Harry Levine take Krista and her sister on a night to remember. The tension between their worlds turns from innocent into an explosive rumble and vendetta between the Minutemen and a gang of young American Nazis.
As a romance between Yael and Krista form, the world pulls them apart. At the most basic level, Yael struggles against a life of racism. Further, Krista’s world wants Yael’s people dead. Coming full circle, Yael is recruited to go undercover and bring down the German-American Bund and it’s leader. Then he learns the gut-wrenching truth about who killed his father. In a twist, Krista's identity spirals when she learns her own truths.
In Newark Minutemen, Leslie K. Barry writes with a historical sweep and intimacy that are skillfully combined through four character’s narrations—Yael, Krista, gangster Longie Zwillman and Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn. Through different voices, the reader gains perspective from all sides, creeping empathy into uncomfortable places. As the novel explores the convulsive collision of history and romance, readers take a chilling look at devastating events that were occurring in America, including the greatest enemy of all—complacency.
What have we learned since the tumultuous times? In today's world, what does it take to help our moral compass point to justice? What does it take for someone to stand up for what's right in the face of adversity? How do we give voice to the voiceless?
October 16, 2020
The Far Right and Left in times of peril: the rumblings behind the newly released novel, ‘Newark Minutemen’
Mark Twain said that history rhythms. Let’s see. America. 1938 vs 2020. Economic depression. Daily chats from a President and governors. Divided country. Guns slung over shoulders. Swastikas waving. Cries of “America First”. Ya.
Newark Minutemen is a new, based-on-true fiction that dusts off the 1930s history of the shadow Nazi party that almost toppled democracy in America doing the 1930s Great Depression. Written by Amazon new release best selling author Leslie K. Barry, the story follows the forbidden love affair between a Jewish boxer and the daughter of a German American-Nazi party member through these hard-to-relate to times.
At the time, Americans were divided between FDRs socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. As a result, most ignored demonstrators on both sides. What Depression-struck Americans did not understand was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America ten years or more before they had fired a bullet to begin WW2. With a self-proclaimed American HItler, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in Detroit and then New York, at the helm they created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. The FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis.
Newark Minutemen lets the reader experience the government’s frustration that ties their hands. Crying freedom of expression rights, Hitler-uniformed troops march down 5th Ave., New York waiving American and Swastika flags.
Newark Minutemen also presents the unholy relationship that forms between the FBI and mob to topple the threat. After the 1929 stock market crash, it was the mob who had the money and power from prohibition days. In the story, a band of boxers called the Newark Minutemen who were managed by the Jewish mob fight the enemy.
In the story, a young boxer named Yael goes undercover as a German-American Bund stormtrooper and becomes an insider. His internal struggle against his own demons and trying to maintain his humanity gives this book depth.
Jumping between espionage and assassinations, Yael falls in love with the daughter of an American-Nazi officer. Told by four narrators in first person perspective, the book reveals ripping challenges of the clashing different worlds. Because this story is so much about connection, sometimes it’s hard to know who to root for.
The most shocking untold stories rise from the American Nazi youth camps that the Bund had built across the country. The innocence that is robbed from the campers is cringeworthy. As you read the author’s notes, you will discover that these stories were well documented.
The twists and surprises keep a reader turning the pages until the end.
Newark Minutemen is a new, based-on-true fiction that dusts off the 1930s history of the shadow Nazi party that almost toppled democracy in America doing the 1930s Great Depression. Written by Amazon new release best selling author Leslie K. Barry, the story follows the forbidden love affair between a Jewish boxer and the daughter of a German American-Nazi party member through these hard-to-relate to times.
At the time, Americans were divided between FDRs socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. As a result, most ignored demonstrators on both sides. What Depression-struck Americans did not understand was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America ten years or more before they had fired a bullet to begin WW2. With a self-proclaimed American HItler, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in Detroit and then New York, at the helm they created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. The FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis.
Newark Minutemen lets the reader experience the government’s frustration that ties their hands. Crying freedom of expression rights, Hitler-uniformed troops march down 5th Ave., New York waiving American and Swastika flags.
Newark Minutemen also presents the unholy relationship that forms between the FBI and mob to topple the threat. After the 1929 stock market crash, it was the mob who had the money and power from prohibition days. In the story, a band of boxers called the Newark Minutemen who were managed by the Jewish mob fight the enemy.
In the story, a young boxer named Yael goes undercover as a German-American Bund stormtrooper and becomes an insider. His internal struggle against his own demons and trying to maintain his humanity gives this book depth.
Jumping between espionage and assassinations, Yael falls in love with the daughter of an American-Nazi officer. Told by four narrators in first person perspective, the book reveals ripping challenges of the clashing different worlds. Because this story is so much about connection, sometimes it’s hard to know who to root for.
The most shocking untold stories rise from the American Nazi youth camps that the Bund had built across the country. The innocence that is robbed from the campers is cringeworthy. As you read the author’s notes, you will discover that these stories were well documented.
The twists and surprises keep a reader turning the pages until the end.
October 15, 2020
Oct 20 Florida JCCs Jewish Book Festival
Leslie K. Barry will be one of 8 panelists featured in the Florida JCCs Jewish Book Festival on October 20, 2020. While the panel of authors will focus on mostly Holocaust and coming of age stories, Barry’s novel takes an unexplored tour and unlatches the fears happening during the Great Depression on American soil that shaped the response to Nazism and the path to war.
Based on a true family story and extensive new research, Barry layers a Titanic-like star-crossed love affair over the historical setting of the rising German-American Nazi party in America during the Great Depression. During the 1930s in Newark, NJ, Jewish boxer Yael Newman meets Krista Brecht, daughter of the German-American Nazi high command. When his affections turn real, his friends warn him against crossing the line. When Krista leaves for German-American Nazi summer camp in Long Island, New York, he swears to rescue her. Driven by revenge, his mission becomes much more when he is recruited into the Newark Minutemen by the Jewish mob and FBI to go undercover and fight the German-American Nazis who are taking over America.
The conflict between characters rises from factors around xenophobia, racism, and antisemitism—that influenced decisions made by the US government, the news media, Hollywood,and individuals as they responded to Nazism. With insight gained from unsealed FBI documents, archives and personal interviews, Barry crafts a fictionalized story that dispels myths about this history, such as the misperception that Americans lacked access to information about the persecution of Jews. It examines why America closed their eyes to the satellite that Hitler was building in America for his Nazi empire.
The Florida JCC series is presented in collaboration with the Jewish Book Council, Miami Beach JCC, Michael Ann Russell JCC in North Miami, Adolph and Rose Levis JCC in Boca Raton, David Posnack JCC in Ft. Lauderdale and the Roth Family JCC of Greater Orlando. Newarkminutemen.com
https://www.alperjcc.org/artsculture/...
Leslie Kaplan Barry
Based on a true family story and extensive new research, Barry layers a Titanic-like star-crossed love affair over the historical setting of the rising German-American Nazi party in America during the Great Depression. During the 1930s in Newark, NJ, Jewish boxer Yael Newman meets Krista Brecht, daughter of the German-American Nazi high command. When his affections turn real, his friends warn him against crossing the line. When Krista leaves for German-American Nazi summer camp in Long Island, New York, he swears to rescue her. Driven by revenge, his mission becomes much more when he is recruited into the Newark Minutemen by the Jewish mob and FBI to go undercover and fight the German-American Nazis who are taking over America.
The conflict between characters rises from factors around xenophobia, racism, and antisemitism—that influenced decisions made by the US government, the news media, Hollywood,and individuals as they responded to Nazism. With insight gained from unsealed FBI documents, archives and personal interviews, Barry crafts a fictionalized story that dispels myths about this history, such as the misperception that Americans lacked access to information about the persecution of Jews. It examines why America closed their eyes to the satellite that Hitler was building in America for his Nazi empire.
The Florida JCC series is presented in collaboration with the Jewish Book Council, Miami Beach JCC, Michael Ann Russell JCC in North Miami, Adolph and Rose Levis JCC in Boca Raton, David Posnack JCC in Ft. Lauderdale and the Roth Family JCC of Greater Orlando. Newarkminutemen.com
https://www.alperjcc.org/artsculture/...
Leslie Kaplan Barry
October 13, 2020
10 things you didn’t know about Newark Minutemen
Guest Post]: 10 Things You Didn’t Know about “Newark Minutemen by Leslie K. Barry, the author of “Newark Minutemen”
A couple of days ago, I featured this amazing author and her historical fiction “Newark Minutemen” on my blog. Today, Leslie is talking about her new release and ten things readers didn’t know about it.
10 Things You Didn’t Know about “Newark Minutemen”
by Leslie K. Barry
The cadence of Chapter 1 in Newark Minutemen is modelled after the greatest opening of all movies, “Inglorious Bastards.” Young Yael lies hiding in his father’s boat with nail-biting suspense as German American Nazis threaten.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M86ow...
2. The hero Yael Newman is based on newsman John Metcalfe and his FBI brother Jim. The details of the American-German Nazi Bund were adapted from John’s real life diaries. The brothers went undercover in 1937 for the Chicago Daily Times for six months, went through Storm Trooper initiation, brushed shoulders with the inner circle and then published a 14 day series for the paper that cost them machine gun attacks on their lives.
3. Ancestry.com was an invaluable resource for building the timeline and character details of several characters.
4. The boxing fight scene between Joe Lewis vs Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium, NY, was a symbolic fight of the times. While Schmeling was Hitler’s pride, Joe represented the fight against discrimination. Joe’s victory is symbolic for the Newark Minutemen.
5. The use of Yiddish, German and 1930 idioms add authenticity to maximize the connections to characters and transport the reader back in time.
6. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the balance of powers in the country were polarized and opened up many questions about democracy. You were either a Fascist or a Communist. The Newark Minutemen served as resistance group against the extreme right.
WATCH i23news interview: https://youtu.be/eFp9FDxv-yE
7. During the timing of Newark Minutemen, the FBI in the 1930s was just beginning to formalize. J. Edgar Hoover was at the helm and had begun a fingerprinting program. But their power was still being defined. Some government officials tapped the mafia for help in stopping extremist activities. READ NJ.com
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2020...
8. Heroine Krista Brecht is based on real life Nineteen-year old Helen Vooros who testified in front of the House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities that the Bund Youth movement and the Nazi camps in America used intensive efforts to convert young German-Americans and were raping young girls.
9. Crusaders Radio-personality Walter Winchell and newswomen Dorothy Thompson are featured in Newark Minutemen to add media perspective to the story.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/5...
10. The 1939 movie “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” was the first anti-Nazi film. It features the same backdrop and some characters of Newark Minutemen and shows how much America knew about the intentions of Nazi Germany.
https://youtu.be/Y4M0BW1GLnw
https://saltandnovels.wordpress.com/2...
About the Book
Genre: Historical Fiction
Date Published: 6th October 2020
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Based on a true story about fighting fascism in 1930s New Jersey, Newark Minutemen tells an unforgettable tale about forbidden love, intrigue and a courageous man’s search for avenge….
During the Great Depression, Jewish boxer Yael Newman meets Krista Brecht, daughter of the German-American Nazi high command. When his affections turn real, his friends warn him against crossing the line. When Krista leaves for American Nazi summer camp in Long Island, New York, he swears to rescue her. But his mission becomes much more when he’s recruited into the Newark Minutemen by the Jewish mob and FBI to go undercover and fight the American Nazis who are taking over America.
Newark Minutemen Optioned first film
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/ne...
About the Author
Amazon best-selling author, Leslie K. Barry is most recently a screenwriter, author, and executive producer. Her previous professional work includes executive positions with major entertainment companies including Turner Broadcasting, Hasbro/Parker Brothers, Mattel, and Mindscape Video Games. Other areas of business include executive for the first e-shopping platform called eShop and marketing for Lotus Development, the US Post Office, and AOL. She was an Alpha Sigma Tau at JMU (James Madison University) in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley and attended a grad program at Harvard. She has spent the last twenty-five years with her husband, Doug Barry, in Tiburon, CA raising their four kids, Zachary, Brittany, Shaya, and Jackson, and their dog, Kona. On the side, she’s devoted to genealogy where she has uncovered many ideas for developing untold stories that help us appreciate the context of history, preserve lessons of the past, and honor memories through family storybooks. For fun, she likes to travel, ski in Sun Valley, Idaho, play tennis, and visit her family in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, where she most enjoys Maryland hard crabs and hush puppies, Ledo’s pizza, and chocolate horns.
Contact Links
Website: Newarkminutemen.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Newarkminute...
Twitter: @NMinutemen
Blog: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Purchase Links
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/163195...
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/newa...
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/newa...
A couple of days ago, I featured this amazing author and her historical fiction “Newark Minutemen” on my blog. Today, Leslie is talking about her new release and ten things readers didn’t know about it.
10 Things You Didn’t Know about “Newark Minutemen”
by Leslie K. Barry
The cadence of Chapter 1 in Newark Minutemen is modelled after the greatest opening of all movies, “Inglorious Bastards.” Young Yael lies hiding in his father’s boat with nail-biting suspense as German American Nazis threaten.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M86ow...
2. The hero Yael Newman is based on newsman John Metcalfe and his FBI brother Jim. The details of the American-German Nazi Bund were adapted from John’s real life diaries. The brothers went undercover in 1937 for the Chicago Daily Times for six months, went through Storm Trooper initiation, brushed shoulders with the inner circle and then published a 14 day series for the paper that cost them machine gun attacks on their lives.
3. Ancestry.com was an invaluable resource for building the timeline and character details of several characters.
4. The boxing fight scene between Joe Lewis vs Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium, NY, was a symbolic fight of the times. While Schmeling was Hitler’s pride, Joe represented the fight against discrimination. Joe’s victory is symbolic for the Newark Minutemen.
5. The use of Yiddish, German and 1930 idioms add authenticity to maximize the connections to characters and transport the reader back in time.
6. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the balance of powers in the country were polarized and opened up many questions about democracy. You were either a Fascist or a Communist. The Newark Minutemen served as resistance group against the extreme right.
WATCH i23news interview: https://youtu.be/eFp9FDxv-yE
7. During the timing of Newark Minutemen, the FBI in the 1930s was just beginning to formalize. J. Edgar Hoover was at the helm and had begun a fingerprinting program. But their power was still being defined. Some government officials tapped the mafia for help in stopping extremist activities. READ NJ.com
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2020...
8. Heroine Krista Brecht is based on real life Nineteen-year old Helen Vooros who testified in front of the House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities that the Bund Youth movement and the Nazi camps in America used intensive efforts to convert young German-Americans and were raping young girls.
9. Crusaders Radio-personality Walter Winchell and newswomen Dorothy Thompson are featured in Newark Minutemen to add media perspective to the story.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/5...
10. The 1939 movie “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” was the first anti-Nazi film. It features the same backdrop and some characters of Newark Minutemen and shows how much America knew about the intentions of Nazi Germany.
https://youtu.be/Y4M0BW1GLnw
https://saltandnovels.wordpress.com/2...
About the Book
Genre: Historical Fiction
Date Published: 6th October 2020
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Based on a true story about fighting fascism in 1930s New Jersey, Newark Minutemen tells an unforgettable tale about forbidden love, intrigue and a courageous man’s search for avenge….
During the Great Depression, Jewish boxer Yael Newman meets Krista Brecht, daughter of the German-American Nazi high command. When his affections turn real, his friends warn him against crossing the line. When Krista leaves for American Nazi summer camp in Long Island, New York, he swears to rescue her. But his mission becomes much more when he’s recruited into the Newark Minutemen by the Jewish mob and FBI to go undercover and fight the American Nazis who are taking over America.
Newark Minutemen Optioned first film
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/ne...
About the Author
Amazon best-selling author, Leslie K. Barry is most recently a screenwriter, author, and executive producer. Her previous professional work includes executive positions with major entertainment companies including Turner Broadcasting, Hasbro/Parker Brothers, Mattel, and Mindscape Video Games. Other areas of business include executive for the first e-shopping platform called eShop and marketing for Lotus Development, the US Post Office, and AOL. She was an Alpha Sigma Tau at JMU (James Madison University) in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley and attended a grad program at Harvard. She has spent the last twenty-five years with her husband, Doug Barry, in Tiburon, CA raising their four kids, Zachary, Brittany, Shaya, and Jackson, and their dog, Kona. On the side, she’s devoted to genealogy where she has uncovered many ideas for developing untold stories that help us appreciate the context of history, preserve lessons of the past, and honor memories through family storybooks. For fun, she likes to travel, ski in Sun Valley, Idaho, play tennis, and visit her family in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, where she most enjoys Maryland hard crabs and hush puppies, Ledo’s pizza, and chocolate horns.
Contact Links
Website: Newarkminutemen.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Newarkminute...
Twitter: @NMinutemen
Blog: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Purchase Links
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/163195...
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/newa...
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/newa...
October 7, 2020
North Bay writer pens tale of Jewish mobsters fighting Nazis… in New Jersey BY DAN PINE | OCTOBER 7, 2020
Once upon a time in America, it was OK to punch Nazis.
In the years before World War II, many German Americans had sworn allegiance to Hitler. Goose-stepping down Main Street, waving swastika banners, sending their kids to Nazi summer camps in upstate New York, the German American Bund was an insidious domestic force in the 1930s.
As Tiburon novelist Leslie K. Barry learned, not everyone took it lying down.
In New Jersey, for example, the FBI, the Jewish mob and some tough-as-nails Jewish boxers formed the Newark Minutemen. Their mission: Deliver knockout blows to the neighborhood Nazis, with a larger goal of disrupting their effectiveness at gaining sympathizers.
Barry, 58, grew up hearing stories about her late Uncle Harry and his amateur boxing days during the Depression. Only years later did she learn from her mother that Harry Levine was also a member of the Newark Minutemen. That family lore is how her just-published debut novel, “Newark Minutemen,” was born.
“My mom came from a big immigrant Jewish family,” Barry said, “and she told a zillion stories. We were totally aware that [Harry] was a Golden Gloves boxer. But at [mom’s] 90th birthday party, people remembered when Harry used to go out and beat up the Nazis.”
Barry plunged into researching the history of the Bund and the Minutemen.
She discovered there had existed a vast network of coast-to-coast Nazi sympathizers and many members of the Bund. Their leader, German-born U.S. citizen Fritz Kuhn, plotted to turn the United States into a satellite of Hitler’s Nazi empire. A 1939 rally held in Madison Square Garden drew some 22,000 American Nazis and sympathizers. A 2017 documentary film by Marshall Curry stressed that this rally happened not in Berlin, but in New York City.
Barry also learned that Newark mobster Abner “Longie” Zwillman teamed up with the FBI to harass the Nazis by any means necessary. For that, Zwillman recruited local Jewish boxers such as Nat Arno and Barry’s uncle to throw a monkey wrench into Nazi activities. If wrenches weren’t available, maybe they used iron bars.
Barry could have written an authoritative history of the period. Instead, she chose to fictionialize it, creating a main character, Yael, a streetwise boxer whose father had been murdered by Nazi toughs, and his improbable love interest, Krista, the German American daughter of a local Nazi leader who comes to question her father’s fascist ideology.
“I chose fiction because my vision was ‘Titanic,’” she said, referring to the classic hit 1997 film. “I always wanted to make it as true as possible, but I thought it would be more blockbuster if you layered in the love story.”
“Blockbuster” is the right term, as Barry already sold the film rights to her book, and the project reportedly is in development.
Barry said Newark became the locus of Minutemen activity because it was a bubbling American melting pot, with many Jews and German Americans living in close proximity. Philip Roth’s speculative novel “The Plot Against America” also was set in mid-20th-century Newark, and it too explored issues relating to Jews and the growth of pro-Nazi sentiment in the United States.
Barry said government officials approached Jewish mob boss Meyer Lansky during that time. “They said to him, ‘The U.S. government can’t do anything about this Nazi Party rising in America. We need your help.’ Lansky said, ‘You don’t need to pay us; you just need to look the other way.’” Lansky then asked Zwillman to organize what became the Newark Minutemen.
Though Barry’s story is set in the 1930s, she hopes her book’s message rings a few contemporary bells. In a time when torch-bearing neo-Nazis and armed right-wing hooligans cruise U.S. cities spoiling for a fight, the novel’s present-day resonance in terms of social unrest and politics is hard to miss.
“I am very sensitive to what’s going on now, when people lose confidence and question the people in charge and look for answers elsewhere,” she said. “[In the 1930s] we were poor, there was no food on the table, nothing was working. We were looking for answers. That’s the parallel for today, We don’t know what to believe. This problem with divisiveness and not knowing what to believe is frightening.”
A former entertainment and e-business executive, Barry lives in Tiburon with her husband, Doug. They belong to Congregation Rodef Sholom and have four college-age children (all currently back at home to ride out the pandemic).
She said Jewish values are her rock. “It’s an easy and important [foundation] to project onto the way we live. It goes deep in me and was a message I wanted to get across [in the novel]: You don’t just stand by and do nothing.”
Barry will discuss her novel at a virtual event presented by Osher Marin JCC on Thursday, Oct. 22, 7-8 p.m. The event is free.
“Newark Minutemen” by Leslie Barry (Morgan James Fiction, 366 pages) is available locally at Afikomen Judaica. Preorder here.
In the years before World War II, many German Americans had sworn allegiance to Hitler. Goose-stepping down Main Street, waving swastika banners, sending their kids to Nazi summer camps in upstate New York, the German American Bund was an insidious domestic force in the 1930s.
As Tiburon novelist Leslie K. Barry learned, not everyone took it lying down.
In New Jersey, for example, the FBI, the Jewish mob and some tough-as-nails Jewish boxers formed the Newark Minutemen. Their mission: Deliver knockout blows to the neighborhood Nazis, with a larger goal of disrupting their effectiveness at gaining sympathizers.
Barry, 58, grew up hearing stories about her late Uncle Harry and his amateur boxing days during the Depression. Only years later did she learn from her mother that Harry Levine was also a member of the Newark Minutemen. That family lore is how her just-published debut novel, “Newark Minutemen,” was born.
“My mom came from a big immigrant Jewish family,” Barry said, “and she told a zillion stories. We were totally aware that [Harry] was a Golden Gloves boxer. But at [mom’s] 90th birthday party, people remembered when Harry used to go out and beat up the Nazis.”
Barry plunged into researching the history of the Bund and the Minutemen.
She discovered there had existed a vast network of coast-to-coast Nazi sympathizers and many members of the Bund. Their leader, German-born U.S. citizen Fritz Kuhn, plotted to turn the United States into a satellite of Hitler’s Nazi empire. A 1939 rally held in Madison Square Garden drew some 22,000 American Nazis and sympathizers. A 2017 documentary film by Marshall Curry stressed that this rally happened not in Berlin, but in New York City.
Barry also learned that Newark mobster Abner “Longie” Zwillman teamed up with the FBI to harass the Nazis by any means necessary. For that, Zwillman recruited local Jewish boxers such as Nat Arno and Barry’s uncle to throw a monkey wrench into Nazi activities. If wrenches weren’t available, maybe they used iron bars.
Barry could have written an authoritative history of the period. Instead, she chose to fictionialize it, creating a main character, Yael, a streetwise boxer whose father had been murdered by Nazi toughs, and his improbable love interest, Krista, the German American daughter of a local Nazi leader who comes to question her father’s fascist ideology.
“I chose fiction because my vision was ‘Titanic,’” she said, referring to the classic hit 1997 film. “I always wanted to make it as true as possible, but I thought it would be more blockbuster if you layered in the love story.”
“Blockbuster” is the right term, as Barry already sold the film rights to her book, and the project reportedly is in development.
Barry said Newark became the locus of Minutemen activity because it was a bubbling American melting pot, with many Jews and German Americans living in close proximity. Philip Roth’s speculative novel “The Plot Against America” also was set in mid-20th-century Newark, and it too explored issues relating to Jews and the growth of pro-Nazi sentiment in the United States.
Barry said government officials approached Jewish mob boss Meyer Lansky during that time. “They said to him, ‘The U.S. government can’t do anything about this Nazi Party rising in America. We need your help.’ Lansky said, ‘You don’t need to pay us; you just need to look the other way.’” Lansky then asked Zwillman to organize what became the Newark Minutemen.
Though Barry’s story is set in the 1930s, she hopes her book’s message rings a few contemporary bells. In a time when torch-bearing neo-Nazis and armed right-wing hooligans cruise U.S. cities spoiling for a fight, the novel’s present-day resonance in terms of social unrest and politics is hard to miss.
“I am very sensitive to what’s going on now, when people lose confidence and question the people in charge and look for answers elsewhere,” she said. “[In the 1930s] we were poor, there was no food on the table, nothing was working. We were looking for answers. That’s the parallel for today, We don’t know what to believe. This problem with divisiveness and not knowing what to believe is frightening.”
A former entertainment and e-business executive, Barry lives in Tiburon with her husband, Doug. They belong to Congregation Rodef Sholom and have four college-age children (all currently back at home to ride out the pandemic).
She said Jewish values are her rock. “It’s an easy and important [foundation] to project onto the way we live. It goes deep in me and was a message I wanted to get across [in the novel]: You don’t just stand by and do nothing.”
Barry will discuss her novel at a virtual event presented by Osher Marin JCC on Thursday, Oct. 22, 7-8 p.m. The event is free.
“Newark Minutemen” by Leslie Barry (Morgan James Fiction, 366 pages) is available locally at Afikomen Judaica. Preorder here.
September 25, 2020
KGO Talk Show Host John F. Rothmann praises Newark Minutemen
Leslie K. Barry has written a compelling story about a powerful moment in history. She weaves those days of conflict, using the vehicles of fact and fiction, into an insightful slice of real history. Thank heaven that there were those who fought back as soon as they saw the emerging danger. Fritz Kuhn, the German America Bund and the American Nazi movement spring to life in this powerful and compelling novel.
The Newark Minutemen tells a story that must be remembered and should inspire us in the troubled times in which we live.
John F Rothmann
Radio Talk Show Host
KGO 810 AM San Francisco
The Newark Minutemen tells a story that must be remembered and should inspire us in the troubled times in which we live.
John F Rothmann
Radio Talk Show Host
KGO 810 AM San Francisco
September 20, 2020
Jerusalem Post: Story of Jewish boxer recruited by FBI to fight Nazis to become a movie
It may sound like fantasy, but Barry’s new novel tells the true story of American Jewish boxers in the years leading up to World War II, who played an active role in
fighting Nazism in the US.
By TOBIAS SIEGAL SEPTEMBER 20, 2020 12:07
Benny
Leslie K. Barry’s upcoming novel Newark Minutemen, which depicts the unbelievable story of a Jewish boxer who was recruited by the Jewish mob and the FBI to fight Nazis in the US, will be turned into a movie. This was announced just two weeks before the publishing date of the new book.
Barry’s new novel, due out on October 6, may sound like fiction, but it tells the true story of American Jewish boxers in the years leading up to World War II, who played an active role in fighting the rising American Nazi Party. They were known as the Newark Minutemen.
According to the New Jersey local news agency, the story is inspired by Barry’s uncle, Harry, who was a Newark Minutemen boxer himself in the 1930s.
Harry, like others, was recruited by Abner “Longie” Zwillman, who would then send the new recruits to work with the FBI. He was a Jewish mob boss who has been called the Al Capone of New Jersey.
In order to write the story, Barry consulted family members who knew her uncle. But it wasn't until her mother's 90th birthday, when Barry's family started reminiscing, that she began getting to know her uncle's story.
In a virtual chat hosted by the Newark Public Library ahead of Barry's new book, she said that when Harry would come home with bruises, his mother used to ask where he’d been, to which Harry would respond: "I was out beating up Nazis."
Barry also gained access to FBI reports. Together with her family's testimonies, these created a detailed picture that eventually turned into the story of a Jewish boxer as he goes undercover during the Great Depression to thwart a shadow Nazi Party in the US, as Hitler was becoming more powerful in Europe.
And while her book is a fictional take on the true story, it also addresses the very real history of Nazism in the US. Like many other Americans today, Barry didn't know much about Nazi presence in 1930s America and had to do quite a bit of research to get an idea of the American social reality back then.
The German-American Bund was a pro-Nazi organization with a significant presence in New Jersey. It was established in 1936 with the goal of promoting a favorable view of Nazi Germany. Members of the group would parade down streets in Newark and New York to showcase their support.
In 1939, months before the start of World War II, German-born US citizen Fritz Kuhn, who headed the organization at the time, held a rally at Madison Square Garden. During the infamous Nazi rally taking place in the heart of New York, Kuhn spoke of “the Jewish-controlled press” and advocated for a “white gentile-ruled US.”
Today, more than 80 years later, the Madison Square Garden rally is mostly forgotten. So is the fact that many notable Americans preferred staying neutral on Nazi Germany and Hitler in the 30s.
Producers John Niven and Nick Ball are interested in reviving this almost forgotten piece of history and have begun writing a screenplay for a movie based on Barry’s book.
"Newark Minutemen is an epic story of battles, boxers and Mafia, overlaid with an explosive love affair that compares with the classic star-crossed stories from Casablanca to Titanic ,” producer Leo Pearlman told Variety .
“This would be an important story to tell at any time in history – but right now, with the lessons we can learn from the past, it is an essential one that everyone should see.”
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/story-...
fighting Nazism in the US.
By TOBIAS SIEGAL SEPTEMBER 20, 2020 12:07
Benny
Leslie K. Barry’s upcoming novel Newark Minutemen, which depicts the unbelievable story of a Jewish boxer who was recruited by the Jewish mob and the FBI to fight Nazis in the US, will be turned into a movie. This was announced just two weeks before the publishing date of the new book.
Barry’s new novel, due out on October 6, may sound like fiction, but it tells the true story of American Jewish boxers in the years leading up to World War II, who played an active role in fighting the rising American Nazi Party. They were known as the Newark Minutemen.
According to the New Jersey local news agency, the story is inspired by Barry’s uncle, Harry, who was a Newark Minutemen boxer himself in the 1930s.
Harry, like others, was recruited by Abner “Longie” Zwillman, who would then send the new recruits to work with the FBI. He was a Jewish mob boss who has been called the Al Capone of New Jersey.
In order to write the story, Barry consulted family members who knew her uncle. But it wasn't until her mother's 90th birthday, when Barry's family started reminiscing, that she began getting to know her uncle's story.
In a virtual chat hosted by the Newark Public Library ahead of Barry's new book, she said that when Harry would come home with bruises, his mother used to ask where he’d been, to which Harry would respond: "I was out beating up Nazis."
Barry also gained access to FBI reports. Together with her family's testimonies, these created a detailed picture that eventually turned into the story of a Jewish boxer as he goes undercover during the Great Depression to thwart a shadow Nazi Party in the US, as Hitler was becoming more powerful in Europe.
And while her book is a fictional take on the true story, it also addresses the very real history of Nazism in the US. Like many other Americans today, Barry didn't know much about Nazi presence in 1930s America and had to do quite a bit of research to get an idea of the American social reality back then.
The German-American Bund was a pro-Nazi organization with a significant presence in New Jersey. It was established in 1936 with the goal of promoting a favorable view of Nazi Germany. Members of the group would parade down streets in Newark and New York to showcase their support.
In 1939, months before the start of World War II, German-born US citizen Fritz Kuhn, who headed the organization at the time, held a rally at Madison Square Garden. During the infamous Nazi rally taking place in the heart of New York, Kuhn spoke of “the Jewish-controlled press” and advocated for a “white gentile-ruled US.”
Today, more than 80 years later, the Madison Square Garden rally is mostly forgotten. So is the fact that many notable Americans preferred staying neutral on Nazi Germany and Hitler in the 30s.
Producers John Niven and Nick Ball are interested in reviving this almost forgotten piece of history and have begun writing a screenplay for a movie based on Barry’s book.
"Newark Minutemen is an epic story of battles, boxers and Mafia, overlaid with an explosive love affair that compares with the classic star-crossed stories from Casablanca to Titanic ,” producer Leo Pearlman told Variety .
“This would be an important story to tell at any time in history – but right now, with the lessons we can learn from the past, it is an essential one that everyone should see.”
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/story-...
September 17, 2020
NJ.COM/Star Ledger: Newark Minutemen Movie will tell story of Jewish boxers who fought Nazis in America
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2020...
By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Photo Tagline
A group of Jewish boxers from Newark teamed up with the mob and the FBI to go undercover and fight Nazis in America.
Sound like a movie?
It will be. But it’s also history.
The true story of these boxers, known as the Newark Minutemen, is headed to Hollywood.
Leslie K. Barry’s upcoming novel “Newark Minutemen” has been optioned by Fulwell 73, the production company behind “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” Variety reports.
Barry’s book, due out Oct. 6 (Morgan James Publishing), is inspired by her Uncle Harry, who was a Newark Minutemen boxer in the 1930s, before World War II. Jewish mob boss Abner “Longie” Zwillman, who has been called the Al Capone of New Jersey, recruited the boxers to work with the FBI.
The author consulted her family and FBI reports in order to write the story, which follows a Jewish boxer as he goes undercover during the Great Depression to thwart a shadow Nazi Party in the U.S. as Hitler becomes more powerful in Europe.
Barry, who lives near San Francisco, is set to speak about her book Wednesday at a Zoom event for West Orange’s JCC MetroWest.
She didn’t know anything about this part of her uncle’s history until her mother’s 90th birthday, when her family started reminiscing. In a virtual chat hosted by the Newark Public Library, Barry said that when he came home with bruises, his mother used to ask where he’d been.
“I was out beating up the Nazis," he’d say.
At the time, Barry didn’t realize there were any Nazis living in America in the 1930s.
While “Minutemen” is a novelistic take on the true story, it’s also set in the very real history of American Nazism. The German American Bund, an American Nazi organization, had a significant presence in New Jersey, including but not limited to Bund halls and youth camps in Andover in Sussex County, Griggstown in Somerset County and Riverdale in Morris County (see video below). Members paraded down streets in Newark and New York.
In 1939, months before the start of World War II, the Bund, headed by German-born U.S. citizen Fritz Kuhn, held a rally at Madison Square Garden. Barry’s uncle, the inspiration for “Minutemen,” won the Golden Glove Boxing Championship at the Garden during the same era. In the ’30s, some Americans favored staying neutral on Hitler, with figures like aviator Charles Lindbergh taking an isolationist stance on involvement in the war.
At the Bund rally, Kuhn talked about “the Jewish-controlled press” and advocated for a “white gentile-ruled United States.”
Archival footage of the event can be seen in Marshall Curry’s film “A Night at the Garden," which was nominated for best documentary short at the 2019 Academy Awards (Curry grew up in Summit). At the time of the rally, Hitler was finishing construction on his sixth concentration camp. Mass killings of Jews began less than two years later. Curry noted the parallels between the 1939 event and the recent surge in white supremacist rhetoric, as seen at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. White supremacists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue marched with tiki torches saying, “Jews will not replace us.”
John Niven (“How to Build a Girl") and Nick Ball (“Cat Run”) are writing the screenplay for the movie based on Barry’s book about the Minutemen.
" ‘Newark Minutemen’ is an epic story of battles, boxers and Mafia, overlaid with an explosive love affair that compares with the classic star-crossed stories from ‘Casablanca’ to ‘Titanic,’” producer Leo Pearlman told Variety. “This would be an important story to tell at any time in history, but right now, with the lessons we can learn from the past, it is an essential one that everyone should see.”
Other stories about Jews, Jewish Americans and Americans fighting back against Nazis have come to TV and film in 2020 and in recent years. They include works of fiction — alternate histories like Amazon’s “The Man in the High Castle” (based on the 1962 novel by Philip K. Dick) and HBO’s “The Plot Against America,” the Newark-set limited series from David Simon (“The Wire”) based on the 2004 book from Newark’s Philip Roth. “Hunters,” a Nazi revenge drama with a comic book tone, also debuted on Amazon this year (both “The Plot Against America” and “Hunters” filmed in Newark and North Jersey).
“Newark Minutemen” author Leslie K. Barry will speak at a public Zoom event for JCC MetroWest at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16. Viewers can register here.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Send a coronavirus tip here.
By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Photo Tagline
A group of Jewish boxers from Newark teamed up with the mob and the FBI to go undercover and fight Nazis in America.
Sound like a movie?
It will be. But it’s also history.
The true story of these boxers, known as the Newark Minutemen, is headed to Hollywood.
Leslie K. Barry’s upcoming novel “Newark Minutemen” has been optioned by Fulwell 73, the production company behind “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” Variety reports.
Barry’s book, due out Oct. 6 (Morgan James Publishing), is inspired by her Uncle Harry, who was a Newark Minutemen boxer in the 1930s, before World War II. Jewish mob boss Abner “Longie” Zwillman, who has been called the Al Capone of New Jersey, recruited the boxers to work with the FBI.
The author consulted her family and FBI reports in order to write the story, which follows a Jewish boxer as he goes undercover during the Great Depression to thwart a shadow Nazi Party in the U.S. as Hitler becomes more powerful in Europe.
Barry, who lives near San Francisco, is set to speak about her book Wednesday at a Zoom event for West Orange’s JCC MetroWest.
She didn’t know anything about this part of her uncle’s history until her mother’s 90th birthday, when her family started reminiscing. In a virtual chat hosted by the Newark Public Library, Barry said that when he came home with bruises, his mother used to ask where he’d been.
“I was out beating up the Nazis," he’d say.
At the time, Barry didn’t realize there were any Nazis living in America in the 1930s.
While “Minutemen” is a novelistic take on the true story, it’s also set in the very real history of American Nazism. The German American Bund, an American Nazi organization, had a significant presence in New Jersey, including but not limited to Bund halls and youth camps in Andover in Sussex County, Griggstown in Somerset County and Riverdale in Morris County (see video below). Members paraded down streets in Newark and New York.
In 1939, months before the start of World War II, the Bund, headed by German-born U.S. citizen Fritz Kuhn, held a rally at Madison Square Garden. Barry’s uncle, the inspiration for “Minutemen,” won the Golden Glove Boxing Championship at the Garden during the same era. In the ’30s, some Americans favored staying neutral on Hitler, with figures like aviator Charles Lindbergh taking an isolationist stance on involvement in the war.
At the Bund rally, Kuhn talked about “the Jewish-controlled press” and advocated for a “white gentile-ruled United States.”
Archival footage of the event can be seen in Marshall Curry’s film “A Night at the Garden," which was nominated for best documentary short at the 2019 Academy Awards (Curry grew up in Summit). At the time of the rally, Hitler was finishing construction on his sixth concentration camp. Mass killings of Jews began less than two years later. Curry noted the parallels between the 1939 event and the recent surge in white supremacist rhetoric, as seen at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. White supremacists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue marched with tiki torches saying, “Jews will not replace us.”
John Niven (“How to Build a Girl") and Nick Ball (“Cat Run”) are writing the screenplay for the movie based on Barry’s book about the Minutemen.
" ‘Newark Minutemen’ is an epic story of battles, boxers and Mafia, overlaid with an explosive love affair that compares with the classic star-crossed stories from ‘Casablanca’ to ‘Titanic,’” producer Leo Pearlman told Variety. “This would be an important story to tell at any time in history, but right now, with the lessons we can learn from the past, it is an essential one that everyone should see.”
Other stories about Jews, Jewish Americans and Americans fighting back against Nazis have come to TV and film in 2020 and in recent years. They include works of fiction — alternate histories like Amazon’s “The Man in the High Castle” (based on the 1962 novel by Philip K. Dick) and HBO’s “The Plot Against America,” the Newark-set limited series from David Simon (“The Wire”) based on the 2004 book from Newark’s Philip Roth. “Hunters,” a Nazi revenge drama with a comic book tone, also debuted on Amazon this year (both “The Plot Against America” and “Hunters” filmed in Newark and North Jersey).
“Newark Minutemen” author Leslie K. Barry will speak at a public Zoom event for JCC MetroWest at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16. Viewers can register here.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Send a coronavirus tip here.
