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‘Judenrein’ Hollywood? The Troubling Trend in Jewish Representation

Woody Allen. Photo: David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.orgEvery year, as Hollywood shuts down for the winter holidays, an unassuming list makes its way into executive inboxes. “The Black List,” as it has been known for the last two decades, ranks the most popular unproduced screenplays of the year, according to the executives and producers who read them.

Getting a screenplay on this list can be a career-defining moment for a screenwriter. Ranking near the top of the list can fast-track a project to production. Many “Black List” screenplays have been produced, and a notable percentage have gone on to win Oscars. For a screenwriter like me, the list is a valuable source of industry intel. What stories are execs responding to this year? Who are the agents and managers shepherding these scripts?

I always scan the list for the kinds of stories that I like to write—elevated genre fare, mostly, as well as Jewish content. Without being able to read the screenplays themselves, I can only make my assessments of the screenplays based on the short loglines that describe them. The list usually includes some films with overtly Jewish content, typically Holocaust dramas or stories that center on antisemitism. This year, in the long shadow of the terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, I was particularly curious to see how Hollywood’s selective appetite for Jewish fare might have shifted. Here’s what I found.

Almost nothing.

Not even the usual clichés of Holocaust survival or the Jewish high-achiever biopic.

I found only one logline that might have some Jewishness to it. A script called “Bridgehampton” by Jeremy Leder. Here’s the logline: “Recently dumped Ezra Green accidentally brings a terminally ill woman home to Bridgehampton for a long weekend with his eccentric family. Don’t judge—he needs to cope with his estranged father who just got out of white-collar prison.”

The stereotypical Jewish coding here goes far beyond Ezra’s name. He’s “recently dumped” and “accidentally” brings a terminally ill woman home. So, he’s nebbish and inept, particularly when it comes to his relationships with women, see the persona popularized by Woody Allen. He’s from the Hamptons, so obviously he’s wealthy. His family is “eccentric” (read: “Jewish” and “other.”) And his father just got out of white-collar prison (“financial crimes,” Bernie Madoff, anyone?)

I don’t want to cast aspersions on Leder’s screenplay. For all I know, the story draws from his own lived experiences, and it might be a valuable piece of a diverse Jewish tapestry. But that this might be the only Jewish story that Hollywood execs found compelling enough to include on the “Black List” this year speaks volumes about the industry’s skittishness around Jewish content.

This may be the most Judenrein list I’ve seen, but the trend of avoiding Jewish stories is almost as old as Hollywood itself. The industry’s founders famously shied away from approving Jewish films for fear of drawing attention to their own Jewish identities. A generation later, it took decades for a mainstream film to depict the Holocaust (Sidney Lumet’s “The Pawnbroker”), and even then, it was only in brief flashbacks. In our era of diversity initiatives and calls for fair and favorable representation of minorities in media, Jews are portrayed through the narrowest possible lens. A recent groundbreaking study from the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center quantifies this, noting that the vast majority of Jewish characters are portrayed as white, presumably Ashkenazi, in high-powered professions with little or no religious affiliation. Orthodox Jews fare worse, often being portrayed as “other.”

This monochromatic depiction of Jews in popular entertainment is having serious and significant consequences. Perceptions that Jews have wealth and power drive antisemitic conspiracy theories—theories that might be countered by more stories about working-class Jews. The impression that all Jews are white Europeans plays a big role in the anti-Israel “colonialist” narrative—a narrative that might be undermined by more stories about Jews from Arab lands. Dehumanizing depictions of Orthodox or Chassidic Jews as a backward “other” makes it easier for people to brazenly attack those Jews on the streets of New York—attacks that might be mitigated if those Jews were portrayed and, consequently, seen as friends, neighbors, co-workers or fellow citizens.

A dramatic change is required in the way that Jews are portrayed in popular entertainment. But that change will not come from Hollywood. Those very executives who voted on the “Black List” scripts grew up on the same media stereotypes as the rest of the country. Their perceptions of Jews, even if they, themselves, are Jewish, derive at least in part from Hollywood itself. To break Hollywood’s Jewish mold and expand the palette of Jewish representation, we need to demonstrate the potential of those stories outside of the industry’s centers of power. Fortunately, this is already beginning to happen.

Independent filmmakers like Daniel Robbins are finding ways to push their Jewish stories onto the screen. His hysterical “Bad Shabbas” won the audience award at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival. Nonprofits like the Maimonides Fund are also putting resources into the creation of Jewish-forward narrative entertainment and into professional development programs like the Jewish Writers’ Initiative Screenwriters Lab, which provides funding, industry access, and a supportive framework for screenwriters to write new, Jewish screenplays.

It’s a great start, but more needs to be done.

If we want Hollywood to invest in diverse Jewish stories, we must first invest in them ourselves. Jewish federations should create their own Jewish film funds to support local filmmakers. Synagogue groups and denominational organizations should do the same to help lift their own stories onto the screen. Most importantly, we all must do as much as we can to help amplify the Jewish content that does, by some miracle, get produced. It’s up to us to demonstrate to Hollywood that Jewish content, full of real, authentic, diverse Jewish voices, is a worthwhile investment. We must be the champions of our own stories.

The post ‘Judenrein’ Hollywood? The Troubling Trend in Jewish Representation first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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