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Mad Men (2007)/S1E6 · Babylon/Don's Israel homework: Exodus
Mad Men · Season 1, Episode 6, "Babylon"

Don's Israel homework: Exodus

Don Draper (Jon Hamm)

Don's Israel homework: Exodus. Evidence card from Mad Men: ExodusGet credit for sleuthing this sceneDrop the frame
Mad Men · S1 E6Sleuthed by @shelfsleuth
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What it tells you

Sterling Cooper is pitching Israel's tourism board, so Don takes Leon Uris home and brings his questions to Rachel Menken, the one Jewish person he knows well enough to ask. Bustle has the tourism people handing him the novel as homework. Selling a country as a beach vacation when its founding novel is a war story takes a certain kind of nerve. Don has that kind.

Sources: The "Mad Men" Reading List, New York Public Library · Babylon (Mad Men), Wikipedia · When Mad Men's Don Draper Reads Philip Roth, Tablet · 10 Books 'Mad Men' Characters Have Read on the Show, Bustle
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Cover of Exodus by Leon Uris

Exodus

Leon Uris · 1958 · novel

Leon Uris's 1958 novel about the founding of Israel, a number one bestseller that Otto Preminger filmed in 1960 with Paul Newman. It runs past 600 pages. Don is reading it for a client meeting, which is the most Don Draper way to fall for a book.

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Sleuthed by @shelfsleuth · 2026-10-22

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