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

Introduction

[T]he stereotype is a complex, ambivalent, contradictory mode of representation, as anxious as it is assertive, and demands not only that we extend our critical and political objectives but that we change the object of analysis itself. Homi Bhabha (1994: 100) Jews have big noses, eat bagels and love money. The Hebrew Hammer (dir. Jonathan Kesselman, 2003) This is a book in search of Jewish stereotypes and self-images in contemporary cinema, that is mainstream fiction film since 1990. It is not about how ‘Jewish’ a film is, if such a definition is even possible. But it does engage in discussions about the nature of the Jewishness and Judaism that such stereotypes and images exhibit. In this way, it seeks to map the metamorphosis of the modern and New Jew/ess in film. A stereotype is a regularly repeated, simplistic, easily understood and inaccurate categorisation of a social group (Abrams et al. 2010: 365). Much has been written about the function of stereotypes in general, and Jewish ones in particular, especially how they perform cultural work in demonising minority groups from the outside, and perpetuating group solidarity and continuity from the inside. As Homi Bhabha suggests, the stereotype offers ‘a secure point of identification’ (1994: 99), that is reassurance. Daniel Boyarin calls this form of reassurance ‘Jewissance’ (1997: xxiii). Itself a play on the French term ‘jouissance’ (literally ‘orgasm’, but also meaning physical or intellectual pleasure, delight or ecstasy), Boyarin defines Jewissance as ‘a pleasure’ that ‘brings to many men and women an extraordinary richness of experience and a powerful sense of Introduction 1 THE NEW JEW IN FILM 2 being rooted somewhere in the world, in a world of memory, intimacy, and connectedness’ (1997: xxiii). On a deeper level, stereotypes contain a ‘surplus value’, which provides ‘enjoyment or jouissance [and] enables us to understand the logic of exclusion’ (Zizek 1989: xi). Bhabha similarly suggests that the stereotype is characterised by a ‘productive ambivalence’ between ‘pleasure and desire’ and ‘power and domination’ (1994: 96). In other words, stereotypes are enjoyed because they allow us to see contested images at work and understand their ideological implications. They entertain us, as well as serve to ridicule the logic of exclusion, a menace that continues today (Neofotistos 2008: 16–17). Stereotypes and self-images do not stay static. They ‘change because the cultural patterns on which they are based are becoming anachronistic’ (Antler 2008: 256). Likewise, cinematic stereotypes of Jews, existing almost as long as the medium itself, have evolved. During the early years of the nascent film industry, when Yiddish was still thriving, images of Jews were fairly common onscreen. However, the earliest representation of Jews which appeared in the first silent shorts of the twentieth century were crude and overtly antisemitic racialised portrayals. The image of ‘the Jew’, which erased all intra-group differences (religious, regional, national, linguistic, class, socioeconomic, political), was a subhuman, avaricious, unrefined, venal, grasping, greedy, shifty and menacing cheat and/or dangerous subversive. The Jew was an ‘outsider’ and ‘invader’ to be feared. Thus the Jew was paradoxically represented as a greedy capitalist and as a violent, anti-capitalist, radical reformer (Rocha 2010: 43–44). Physically, the Jew was identified by his swarthiness, a hunched back, ‘hook nose, bald head, oversize shoes, and round pouch’ (Rivo 1998: 31). A Gesture Fight in Hester Street (dir. Anon, 1900), Levi and Cohen: The Irish Comedians (dir. G.W. Bitzer, 1903) and Cohen’s Advertising Scheme (dir. Anon, 1904) marked the début of the screen Jew, an untrustworthy, money-grubbing, scheming Jewish merchant with gross features and vulgar habits. Subsequent films, such as Cohen’s Fire Sale (dir. Edwin S. Porter, 1907) and Levitsky’s Insurance Policy, or When Thief Meets Thief (dir. Anon, 1908), The Robbers and the Jew (dir. Jack Smith, 1908), A Bad Day for Levinsky (dir. T.J. Gobbett, 1909), The Invaders (dir. Percy Stow, 1909) and The Antique Vase (dir. H.O. Martinek, 1913) varied little in their characterisations on both sides of the Atlantic. From the mid-1910s onwards, as Jewish moguls dominated Hollywood, more sympathetic portrayals resulted. These moguls included Adolf Zukor, Jesse Lasky and B.P. Schulberg at Paramount, Marcus Loew, Joseph Schenck, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer at MGM, Harry and Jack Cohn at Columbia, Jack and Harry Warner at Warner Brothers, Carl Laemmle and IrvingThalbergatUniversal,andWilliamFoxatFox,amongothers.Ashiftin which Jewish representations changed from antisemitic racialised...