Jews Run Hollywood and That's Okay

In his tongue-in-cheek column about Jewish people running Hollywood, Joel Stein discusses the number of Jewish people in top positions in Hollywood, Americans' feelings on this topic, and the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) reactions to these feelings. The percentage of Americans who believe that "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews" decreased almost 30 percent since 1964, and this pleased the ADL, which viewed it as a sign of decreasing anti-Semitism (or at least a minor decrease in the severity of it). Stein jokingly points out that all this proves is how dumb America has become because "Jews totally run Hollywood." According to his research, he could only find five gentiles in high positions at entertainment companies, and he wants America to admit Jewish people are prevalent in the industry because he wants the nation aware of "our accomplishment."

Only 22% of Americans now believe "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," down from nearly 50% in 1964. 

But Foxman said he is proud of the accomplishments of American Jews. "I think Jews are disproportionately represented in the creative industry. They're disproportionate as lawyers and probably medicine here as well," he said. He argues that this does not mean that Jews make pro-Jewish movies any more than they do pro-Jewish surgery. Though other countries, I've noticed, aren't so big on circumcision. 

The ADL poll, he pointed out, showed that 59% of Americans think Hollywood execs "do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans," and 43% think the entertainment industry is waging an organized campaign to "weaken the influence of religious values in this country."

Yes, many top executives may be Jewish, but that doesn't mean that the representation in characters is proper. In fact, I find to be these executives irrelevant for accurate representation of Jewish people because viewers, when watching shows, don't look up who runs the company that runs the network that runs the station that oversees the TV show's director and writers.Therefore, the only image the masses get is the lack of image on their screens. Jewish people may be at top levels in the industry, but they certainly aren't using it to their advantage and there is certainly no "Jewish agenda" being fulfilled. Stein's backwards way of discussing anti-Semitism when it comes to the media (particularly the line "Hollywood: If you enjoy TV and movies, then you probably like Jews after all") may have been fun, but it never addressed this issue.

Source:

Stein, J. (2008, December 19). Who runs Hollywood? C'mon - Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19

Media Portrayals of Judaism Must be Balanced

A lot of the media portrays Jewish people as incredibly "wealthy, cheap, mean, immoral, or unethical." But on the flip-side, positive stereotypes such as high intelligence or proficiency in music are also prevalent and just as harmful. Examples of Jewish people being represented in media includes The Big Bang Theory's unscrupulous Howard Wolowitz, Weeds's deviant Andy Botwin, articles about "Jewish media control," and Glee's musically-inclined Rachel Berry. The problem with these representations is that none of them are balanced or present Jewish characters as the "everyman;" representation of Judaism must be balanced in order to avoid encouraging popular misconceptions.

These kinds of stereotypes, however, are no less damaging because they help to misshape public opinion regarding a social minority

It is important, particularly with a global history of anti-Semitism, that Judaism be portrayed in a balanced manner that does not encourage such popular misconceptions.

Anti-Semitism is a major issue, even in the United States. Many Jewish people will not wear a Star of David in certain areas or avoid certain cities altogether to avoid unwanted attention. While I don't see the above stereotypes as a cause of anti-Semitism (after all, it's been around for thousands of years), such stereotypes and misconceptions are not helping the situation.

Source:
Media portrayals of religion: Judaism | MediaSmarts. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://mediasmarts.ca/diversity-media/religion/media-portrayals-religion-judaism