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Poor and working-class Jews are underrepresented in pop culture, new analysis argues

(JTA) – As the WGA, the screenwriters’ union in Hollywood, returns to work following a five-month strike, the authors of a new analysis of Jewish representation have a message for its members: The world needs more Jewish characters who aren’t rich.

Portrayals of wealthy Jewish families spending big on lavish affairs — such as the characters in Adam Sandler’s latest movie, “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” — present a distorted picture of American Jews and their financial need, according to the analysis, released Monday by a partner of the Jewish Funders Network that is focused on poverty.

“People are still very surprised to hear that 20% of the Jewish community is experiencing poverty,” said Rachel Sumekh, the Jewish Funders Network’s project executive for TEN, formerly known as the National Affinity Group on Jewish Poverty. “One of the reasons why our narrative is outdated is Hollywood and the media, and what Jewish stories they tend to tolerate.”

The analysis and its recommendations add to a growing discourse about Jewish representation that so far has focused largely on whether it is appropriate for non-Jewish actors to portray Jewish characters, as well as on the depiction of Orthodox communities. TEN’s report weighs in on those questions but says that another dimension of how Jews are portrayed also deserves attention.

Titled “The Case Of The Missing Narrative: Hollywood, The Media and Jewish Poverty,” the survey finds that poor and working-class Jews are underrepresented in these fields relative to their prevalence in real life. It argues that greater representation of them could lead to more widespread recognition of Jews who are financially struggling.

The analysis compiles 85 films and 104 TV shows about Jewish themes, most from the last 15 years, and categorizes them according to their depiction of the Jewish characters’ wealth. A separate study looked at depictions of Jews in the news media.

The report about Jewish poverty and wealth on screen was written by Mik Moore, a media strategist who was once an executive at the progressive nonprofit Jewish Funds for Justice.

According to the report, while TEN estimates that one in five Jewish American households earn less than $50,000 a year, they are one-tenth as likely as wealthy Jews to appear in movies and TV shows. Moore primarily focused on works made since 2008, concluding that only three of 85 films during that time depicted Jewish poverty at all and that Jewish poverty is typically portrayed in the context of American Dream-style upward mobility. Some portrayals of wealth in Jewish communities conform to antisemitic stereotypes, the study concludes.

The data is not perfect. Moore also included a handful of what the study’s authors deemed to be “the most influential stories” from several decades prior, including “Annie Hall” and “An American Tail.” (They did not include “Fiddler on the Roof,” the 1971 film adaptation of the Broadway musical about poor shtetl Jews who yearn to be rich, because, Sumekh said, “it’s not set in America.”) 

Meanwhile, the analysis had originally included characters not identified as Jewish because they were played by Jewish actors; for their revised version, the team removed any character whose Judaism wasn’t integral to their portrayal, including fictionalized portraits of real-life Jews such as playwright Jonathan Larson in the movie “tick… tick… BOOM”. 

Yet the finished summary still identifies some characters as Jewish when they are not, including citing the Bluth family from “Arrested Development” as an example of a harmful stereotype of “wealthy Jews who have lost everything and work (or scheme) to redeem themselves.” (While the family patriarch, played by Jewish actor Jeffrey Tambor, embraces Judaism in prison before later turning to Christianity, the Bluths’ religious identity is not specified.)

Moore and Sumekh said such errors should not detract from ”trends that are beyond the data set”: namely, that Jews in film and TV tend to be portrayed as wealthier on aggregate than Jews are in real life, and that such a portrayal makes it harder for groups like theirs to convince the public that many Jews in fact need financial assistance.

“It’s not a mathematical sort of situation,” Moore said. “We’re doing our best to look at the dominant pieces of culture and media that speak to this issue.”

Sumekh named two recent Netflix comedies as especially problematic depictions of wealthy Jews: “You People,” Jonah Hill’s movie about an interracial relationship, and “You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah.” The latter’s portrayal of lavish and expensive b’nai mitzvah, she said, “implies that we all live a certain way.”

“That’s harmful because I, as a Jew, grew up low-income and shared my bat mitzvah with my sister. That doesn’t necessarily represent my Jewish experience,” she said. “There are many, many Jews who take out big loans to pay for bar mitzvahs, to pay for weddings, to afford their home and the right zip code, because they don’t feel like they have another option if they want to be in the Jewish community.” 

The analysis highlights some promising spots, too. Seth Rogen, the summary says, is “the contemporary Jewish actor most identified with playing Jewish characters barely getting by financially,” which the report suggests is related to Rogen’s childhood attending a Jewish socialist summer camp. 

But it focuses more on what it suggests have been missed opportunities, for example calling out the non-Jewish working-class character played by Jewish actress Kat Dennings on the CBS sitcom “2 Broke Girls.”

“There’s no reason that her character couldn’t have been written as a Jew,” Moore said.

With screenwriting underway again, Sumekh and Moore aim to inject new ideas into storytelling about Jews — and their analysis argues for more investment in Jewish creatives who want to challenging dominant narratives about their communities.

“My hope is that this report would at least encourage writers and decision-makers to resist the impulse to reinforce people’s preexisting beliefs about who could be a certain character,” Moore said. “And that includes a prevailing belief that Jews are well-off.”


The post Poor and working-class Jews are underrepresented in pop culture, new analysis argues appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire

Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado

The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.

It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.

The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.

“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”

“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.

The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”

Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.

“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”

Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”

The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting

FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.

The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.

“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.

The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’

FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo

Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.

US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.

“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.

“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.

“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.

The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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