Over the Top Judaism: Precedents and Trends in the Depiction of Jewish Beliefs and Observances in Film and Television, and: Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting

Coinciding with the 350^th anniversary of American Jewry, a spate of books about the Jewish contribution to American popular culture has been published.¹ The companion volume to the Jewish Museum's impressive exhibition Entertaining America is the best place to begin an exploration of this topic. Its insightful essays, plentiful photographs and posters, and timelines span the century from the displacement of Yiddish vaudeville theatres by nickelodeons and movie houses to President Clinton's close relationship with Jewish Hollywood stars. The articles go beyond the usual adulation of Jewish celebrities to an analysis of what was distinctly Jewish, if anything, about their performances and productions, and of how American Jews embraced these figures to bolster their own ethnic pride or prove how well integrated Jews had become in American society.

Let me confine this review to just a few of the subjects covered in this diverse collection. Although many scholars of American Jewry have interpreted the anarchic humor of the Marx Brothers as an expression of Jewish resentment against Gentile authority in the Diaspora, the group rarely employed Jewish references in their films. That Jewish and Gentile fans of their comedy assigned a Jewish meaning to it tells us more about how each perceived the status of Jews in America and less about the madcap genius of Groucho and his brothers. Similarly, identifying a style of humor, personality quirks, or a passion for justice with Jewish culture, Jews have claimed that fictional characters like George Constanza of the Seinfeld show and Gentiles like Charlie Chaplin were Jewish.

The evolution of The Goldbergs mirrored the rise and fall of ethnic radio and television programs. The radio series premiered in 1929. Although radio executives worried about alienating listeners with the Yiddish-inflected dialogue and references to Jewish customs, this saga of first generation Americans preserving their traditions while struggling to rise above their origins struck a responsive chord among millions of listeners who empathized with the challenges the Goldbergs confronted regardless of their religious background. Gertrude Berg hailed from an acculturated family and spoke unaccented English, but she emulated the Yiddishkayt of her grandparents and the Lower East Side. During the 1940s The Goldbergs inspired a syndicated comic strip, a Broadway play, and a television series that ran from 1949 to 1956. From 1952 on, the show gradually succumbed to pressure from its corporate sponsor General Foods. It fired Philip Loeb, who played Papa Jake, for his alleged communist sympathies, eschewed political subjects, and minimized its Jewish content. In its last season, the series, now renamed Molly, moved the family from a flat in the Bronx to a house in the suburbs. These developments reflected the shift away from early television's adaptations of radio or movie hits about minorities like Amos and Andy (1949–1951) and Mama (1949–1957) to white middle-class sitcoms like Father Knows Best (1954–1960) and Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963).

Most American Jewish entertainers attempted to broaden their popular appeal by Anglicizing their names or assuming uniquely American roles like the cowboy played by Bronco Billy Anderson who was born Max Aronson, or the jazz singer Al Jolson. As cultural pluralism gradually has replaced the melting pot as the ideal for American society, Jewish performers have displayed their ethnicity more overtly. American Jews have gauged the level of their acceptance in the United States by milestones like the selection of Bess Myerson as the first Jewish Miss America in 1945 or the popularity of personalities whose Jewishness was evident in their appearance and mannerisms like Dustin Hoffman, Woody Allen, and Barbra Streisand. Following in their footsteps, today's Jewish stars like Fran Drescher, Howard Stern, and Adam Sandler flaunt their Jewish traits as integral to their public image.

Hoberman and Shandler's inclusion of contemporary writing about Jews in show business makes their book an even more valuable resource. Excerpts from Henry Ford, William Shaefe Chase, and Father Coughlin testify to the virulence of antisemitic accusations directed against Hollywood in the interwar years. Articles from the souvenir program for The Jazz Singer illustrate why the play and film resonated with immigrant audiences whose aspirations matched those of Jack Robin. A manual perpetuated immigrant stereotypes by instructing actors how to speak with a Yiddish accent. The Modern Screen piece about Marilyn Monroe's conversion to Judaism before marrying Arthur Miller reminds readers that Gentile celebrities before Madonna have turned to Judaism out of expediency or for spiritual meaning.

Unlike Entertaining America's broad scope and multiple perspectives, Elliot Gertel's Over the Top Judaism is narrowly focused on exposing how cinema and television champion intermarriage, distort Jewish beliefs and rituals, stereotype Jewish parents as overbearing, or spoof bar-mitzvahs and weddings as orgies of conspicuous consumption. Gertel detects examples of such defamations not only in well-known motion pictures and television programs, but also in obscure ones. The caricatures he describes certainly exist, but are they maliciously targeted only at Jews or a more general manifestation of a secular culture that finds humor in anything related to sexuality like circumcision, that favors individual choice over collective loyalties, that lampoons the hollowness of materialism even as it promotes it, and that honors the ethics of religions but abhors their practices? Taking jabs at ethnic chauvinism, family enmeshment, religious customs, and the materialism of upwardly mobile groups has been a staple of films and television programs like All American Girl, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, The Jeffersons, Moonstruck, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. These series and movies affectionately highlight the tensions between primary group affiliations and traditions and how individualism blurs the ethnic, racial, and religious boundaries that the former seek to maintain.

Gertel's dour observations are not always accurate or consistent. He cites the Americanization of The Goldbergs without mentioning how Jewish the show had been until 1952. While he praises the Jewish Theological Seminary's production Saying Kaddish as a sincere effort to portray the soul searching done during shiva, he dislikes the show's pat ending. Without any convincing proof, he insinuates that Keeping the Faith, one of the few movies to advocate spirituality as an antidote to an obsession with career advancement, treats the priest played by Edward Norton Jr. more positively than the rabbi played by Ben Stiller. Gertel considers the undeservedly neglected film The Plot Against Harry as one of the most "Jewish" films ever made because it affirms Harry's teshuvah. Harry undoubtedly comes off as a real mensch despite his criminal record, but his repentance results from a near fatal heart attack and not from any religious revelation. Finally, the brash black pilot in Independence Day was Will Smith and not Eddie Murphy. The difference between these two books is that the first applies historical and sociological analysis to understand a topic that is a product of these forces; and the other is a Judaic exegesis of media creations whose purpose is to entertain rather than preach.