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‘Judenrein’ Hollywood? The Troubling Trend in Jewish Representation
Woody Allen. Photo: David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons.
JNS.org – Every 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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Anti-Zionist Student Government President Convicted of Misconduct, Removed from Office at U of Michigan
University of Michigan PhD student, center, carries a sign that says ‘Free Speech! Free Palestine!’ at U-M’s Diag in Ann Arbor on April 4, 2024. Photo: Junfu Huan via Reuters Connect
The Central Student Government (CSG) of the University of Michigan has removed from office president Alifa Chowdhury — the controversial leader of the Anti-Zionist “Shut It Down” (SID) party who led a failed and unpopular effort to freeze funding for student clubs until school officials enacted a boycott of Israel — following her conviction on an impeachment charge.
Chowdhury faced three charges in total: incitement to violence, defamation, and dereliction of duty, the last of which she was found guilty on Dec. 23, according to a statement issued by the Central Student Judiciary (CSJ). Her vice president, Elias Atkinson, was convicted of the same offense.
“Today’s decision means that President Chowdhury and Vice President Atkinsonare removed from office with immediate effect, and that they are barred from holding CSG office in the future,” CSJ said, noting that its ruling marked the first ever expulsion of a CSG president. “It is not lost on us that today marks the culmination of the first impeachment proceeding in the Central Student Government’s history. Neither are we blind to the major political clashes — both within the Assembly and between the legislative and executive branches … But our decision today, and this court’s role, is beyond politics.”
It continued, “Impeachment is a constitutional process, an important element of CSG’s system of checks and balances. Although the Assembly’ role in triggering the impeachment process is essentially political, it is this court’s unflagging duty to resolve any impeachment process neutrally and impartially once the starter pistol has gone off. This court must be a steady ship in a sea tossed by raucous political winds.”
As The Algemeiner has previously reported, Chowdhury’s anti-Zionist zealotry led her to allegedly commit several disqualifying acts which blighted her office and shocked her CSG representatives. In the articles of impeachment filed by Rep. Margaret Peterman, the now-former president was described as having “gravely endangered” students — for example, by participating in a protest of CSG which led to threats and an assault by spitting — as well as the “integrity of the democratic system.” She also failed to perform key functions of the presidency, including submitting reports, preparing committee members for their roles, and convening meetings with CSG’s executive council — a pattern of neglect which led to her conviction for dereliction of duty.
The takeover of CSG by Chowdhury’s party, SID, in March led to a historically dysfunctional administration, prompting the involvement of school officials at key moments when its brinksmanship threatened to derail core functions of the university. In August, the administration resolved to fund student clubs over Chowdhury and SID’s objections, effectively stripping the new government of the power of the purse. Explaining the intervention to The Algemeiner at the time, university spokesperson Colleen Mastony said it was prompted by Chowdhury’s “senior” colleagues in the CSG Assembly.
Founded in the months after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, SID allegedly committed multiple election code infractions to amass its unprecedented power. According to The Michigan Daily, students banded together to contest its election victory, citing multiple instances in which its members campaigned in proscribed areas and violated other rules regulating the use of posters and email communications. SID ultimately overcame the challenge following a controversial hearing which the student government, breaking precedent, conducted in secret.
After assuming power, Chowdury defunded the school’s 1,700 student clubs by vetoing the summer term budget, which had been “unanimously” supported by the CSG Assembly, and vowed to block any spending bill that would fund them in the fall term. The measure was, in SID’s view, strategic. It argued during the campaign that crippling university operations would inexorably lead to a boycott of Israel, a notion the university dispelled when it appropriated the funds anyway.
“CSG merely serves as an extension of an institution that has perpetuated systems of oppression by maintaining the current status quo of neocolonial capitalism,” the party said in a manifesto issued in March. “Every dollar coming out of this university is blood money. Student government cannot operate as usual as we witness the systematic murder of Palestinians. Student life cannot continue as normal when our tuition and labor are being used to fund a genocide.”
Those ideals manifested in the misconduct which have now disqualified Chowdhury and her vice president from ever holding a CSG position again.
“Today’s ruling is compelled by the All-Campus Constitution and the evidence,” the Central Student Judiciary said in explaining the convictions. “Our conclusions are a result of dozens of pages of briefing, the various evidentiary exhibits, and all the testimony and argument we heard over the course of a twenty two and a half hour hearing. Whatever political consequences might flow from our decision, we can only do our jobs.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Israeli Flag Burned Outside Stadium in Spain Before Hapoel Tel Aviv Basketball Game
An Israeli flag being burned outside the Gran Canaria Arena located in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain, ahead of a basketball game with Hapoel Tel Aviv. Photo: YouTube screenshot
Anti-Israel demonstrators set fire to an Israeli flag outside a sports arena in Spain’s Canary Islands, leading up to a basketball game featuring the Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv that is set to take place at the arena on Thursday.
Activists from the pro-Palestinian group Canarias Insumisa set the Israeli flag on fire outside the Gran Canaria Arena in Las Palmas, the local news outlet Canraia Ahora reported on Tuesday. The move was in protest of Israel’s military actions during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and also in objection to the EuroCup basketball game taking place on Thursday at the Gran Canaria Arena between Hapoel Tel Aviv and the local team Gran Canaria.
The pro-Palestinian group claimed that the upcoming basketball game whitewashes the “genocide” that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people. The group also falsely accused Israel of murdering “47,000 girls, boys, women and men in one year” during its war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza who orchestrated the deadly terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Canrais Ahora called on local fans not to attend the basketball game on Thursday, claiming that Israeli fans of Hapoel Tel Aviv may try to provoke them. The group described Hapoel Tel Aviv fans as “aggressive Nazi-Zionist hooligan fanatics who will try to provoke, create conflicts and attack the followers of the Canarian team,” according to the news outlet Canraia Ahora. The group also criticized the owner of Gran Canaria, claiming he had the chance to prevent the local Spanish team from competing against Hapoel Tel Aviv, but refused to do so.
The flag burning took place almost two months after fans of the Israeli soccer team Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv were attacked in Amsterdam on Nov. 7 and into the early hours of Nov. 8. Five men behind the premeditated and coordinated attack were sentenced in Dutch court late last month to community service and up to six months in jail.
The post Israeli Flag Burned Outside Stadium in Spain Before Hapoel Tel Aviv Basketball Game first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Ford Motor Says X Account Was ‘Compromised’ by Anti-Israel Hackers Who Posted ‘Free Palestine’
Ford vehicles are displayed at the New York International Auto Show Press Preview, in Manhattan, New York City, US, March 27, 2024. Photo: Reuters/David Dee Delgado/
The Ford Motor Company said on Monday that its official account on X was “briefly compromised” by hackers who posted a series of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian messages, including one that called Israel a “terrorist state.”
“Our X account was briefly compromised and three posts were made that were not authorized or posted by Ford,” the company said in a statement shared on its X account. The American automobile manufacturer added that the posts “do not represent the views of [the] Ford Motor Company” and that together with X, the company is investigating the breach of its social media account.
The posts, which have since been deleted, included messages that said, “Israel is a terrorist state,” “Free Palestine” and “ALL EYES ON GAZA.” Hundreds of users on X reposted the messages and thousands “liked” them before they were removed. Many users on X noticed that Ford’s account had been hacked and took screenshots of the posts before they were deleted, including US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who said Ford’s account “must have been hacked by the Free Palestine movement.”
Ford Motor Company must have been hacked by the Free Palestine movement. pic.twitter.com/4VOk1nPy0n
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) December 30, 2024
Several users on X replied to Ford Motor’s statement by expressing frustration at the company’s lack of apology. Rabbi Samuel Stern, who co-chairs the Kansas State Holocaust Commemoration, asked, “I wonder if the unauthorized posts targeted anyone else if you would have apologized?”
“Companies founded by a notorious Antisemite and headquartered in Dearborn Michigan should really come up with a better apology to the Jewish community than this one,” said Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District in Orange County, New York.
In 2023, Dearborn, Michigan, was the largest city in the US with an Arab-American majority, according to the University of Michigan.
The company’s founder, the late Henry Ford, publicly expressed antisemitic views and promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories. A close friend once recalled Ford attributing “all evil to Jews or to the Jewish capitalists,” and said he told others: “The Jews caused the war, the Jews caused the outbreak of thieving and robbery all over the country, the Jews caused the inefficiency of the navy.”
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