Every year around this time, studios are taking out ads, throwing parties, and deploying any number of other favor-currying strategies in an attempt to juice their nominees’ chances of winning Oscar gold. But sometimes certain films and/or individuals get an additional push from a third party operating outside of the studio apparatus. A case in point is what’s lately happened to Inglourious Basterds. As academy voting draws to close (ballots are due today), Tarantino’s revisionist WWII film has gotten repeated endorsements from a group one doesn’t traditionally think of as having scads of Oscar influence: LA-based rabbis.

As Oscar-blogger Scott Feinstein points out, since a November screening of the film was held for the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, a number of them have gone on to write favorable endorsements of Basterds, in most cases connecting with it with the just ended (as of yesterday) holiday of Purim. The trend began in December with a piece by Rabbi Mark S. Diamond which ran in the Jewish Journal web site:

“For me, “Inglourious Basterds” is a modern-day Midrash on the Purim story. With apologies to my traditional friends, I see the Biblical Book of Esther as an ancient Jewish fable of justice and revenge. To wit, what would happen if the tables were turned and we had power over our enemies? With all the merrymaking and child-centered focus of the Purim holiday, we tend to forget that the Jews of Shushan kill 75,000 of their foes toward the end of the narrative (Esther 9:16). Then they go out and have a big party to celebrate their success.”

Since Diamond put forth the idea, several other LA-area rabbis have penned similar articles, many of which go on to assert that Basterds deserves to be honored with a statuette come Sunday. Whether they’ll have any impact remains to be seen, but if Basterds somehow manages to upset what’s been for some time now an all-but-closed race between Avatar and Hurt Locker, I could see the Rabbi-factor suddenly becoming a much bigger story.