The New Jew in Film: Exploring Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema

Chapter 6. Religion

Jewishness vs Judaism Given the volume ofresearchdedicated toanalysing the Jewish contribution to film, both in front of and behind the camera, it is surprising to note that to date not much work has been done on Judaism, overshadowed by a tendency to focus either on the image of the Jew/ess or on the Holocaust on film. As a consequence, it is possible to read entire books on these subjects with almost no references to Judaism. This is because, in the past, film studies scholarship largely focused on ethnicity (Jewishness) as an analytic category for the study of Jewish representations and industry participation. As Robyn Wiegman notes, ‘This is the case even though early cinematic representations of Jews were predicated on nineteenth-century racialised notions of Jewish identity’ (1998: 159, my emphasis). Religion is typically ignored because, as Carolina Rocha notes, ‘Jewish traditions and rites are absent in the many Eastern European and American films analysed’ (2010: 47). In contrast, this chapter explores the religious factor (Judaism) in contemporary cinema. It starts from the premise that there is a clear distinction between Jewishness as racial, ethnic, political and cultural identities, and Judaism as a religion and set of beliefs, behaviours and values. Where Gertel (2003) began to map these representations, his desire to criticise what he sees as their distortions of Judaism clouds what is an otherwise useful survey. In this chapter, then, I propose a corrective to CHAPTER 6 Religion 134 135 these studies to explore the specifically religious aspects of Judaism in contemporary cinema in order to show how it has introduced a normalising spectrum moving beyond the binaries of the past. Judaism on film: a brief history Cinema’s engagement with Judaism stretches back to the early twentieth century, including such films as His People, The Jazz Singer and A Passover Miracle (dir. Anon., 1914), all of which depicted a range of Jewish practices, including the Sabbath, the kissing of the mezuzah, synagogue services and the Passover Seder. Yet, the first thing to note is that given the volume of Jews who have appeared on film since its very inception, the absence of explicit depictions of Judaism, as a religion, is conspicuous and notable. This is because, as mentioned above, cinema tended to define Jewishness in secular ethnic rather than religious terms. However, this did not preclude the inclusion of Jewish ritual, practices and beliefs, although these have tended to be used as backdrops to the main action, and are often not the focus or reason of the representation itself. Certainly, during the heyday of the Hollywood studio system from the 1930s until the mid-1950s, Judaism rarely, if ever, appeared onscreen, as the Jewish moguls preferred to hide their ethnic and religious heritage in attempting to widen the appeal of their products. What Popkin referred to as ‘the great retreat’ was prompted by a rise in antisemitism and the moguls’ understandable defensiveness, given the perception of Jewish ‘control’ of the film industry, about foregrounding Jewishness onscreen. Perhaps the most notable exceptions were Tevye (dir. Maurice Schwartz, 1939), the remake of The Jazz Singer (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1952) and The Diary of Anne Frank, in which, intriguingly, the significance of the festival of Chanukah was greatly exaggerated in comparison to the original book. The typical trend was, however, as Popkin points out, ‘the absence of recognisable Jews in films that require their presence’ (1952: 52). Thus, even in a film about the formative moment of Israelite nationalism and the birth of Judaism such as The Ten Commandments, the specifically Jewish elements were removed in order to broaden the story for audiences. Thus, something as Jewish as the giving of the Ten Commandments became de-Semitised, deJudainised and Americanised. Not only did the Gentile Charlton Heston RELIGION THE NEW JEW IN FILM 136 play Moses, but also when he descends Sinai with the two tablets, his very pose resembles that of the Statue of Liberty. Likewise in other biblical epics, ‘Jews generally appear as mere historical necessities and filmmakers Henry King, Cecil B. DeMille, and King Vidor make no attempt to understand the Jews’ religious and cultural heritage’ (Friedman 1982: 146). Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, Jewish-American filmmakers began making movies that explored Jewish self-definition after years of ignoring such issues. Yet, their films did not attempt to explore Judaism in any depth. The trend during this period is summed up in the...