How Jewish is Hollywood?
A few weeks ago we discussed African American elites and their privileged place in the socioeconomic hierarchy of the United States? Interesting conversation and one worth having. Here is another...
From the early days of the founding of this country, a belief running through this largely Christian culture has been that Jews are an enemy of the christian churches, will suffer the displeasure of God until they accept Jesus, and in more recent years, are members of a group that is intent on bringing down the United States government. Jewish people, many god fearing Christian Americans assert, and some very powerful ones at that, control both the banking and entertainment sectors of our society.
For those of you who do not know the history, and I'll assume that this represents most of you, the Christian churches have always had a rather rancorous relationship with Jewish people. In spite of the fact that Jesus lived and died as a Jew, and presumably will still be a Jew when/if he ever returns. In spite of the fact that early followers of Christ who wrote the Christian New Testament all considered themselves to be Jewish throughout their lives (yes, I'm not kidding). Jewish Christians turned against their Jewish brethren and throughout the years painted members of this group as the persecutors and murderers of Jesus--not the Romans. Why this happened is an interesting story, and one that I'll leave you to explore if you have any inclination to do so.
But the bottom line is that Jewish people have long suffered the wrath of Christians with long (albiet distorted) memories and short tempers...and a predilection to savage and brutal behavior. Martin Luther, for example, perhaps the most important figure in the emergence of Protestantism, wrote the script for Adolph Hitler. "Round up the Jews, the scourge of civilization, and put them in work camps or kill them," is essentially what he said. (Here's a summary.)
So it is with this in mind that I'm led to the current posting about the prevalence and power of Jewish moguls in Hollywood. Keep in mind that Hollywood does not determine this culture -- even though it certain plays a role in how we see ourselves as a people. To understand my reluctance to post the article one only has to read some of the comments that readers made about it. Some are thoughtful and considered, but all too many demonstrate a near total lack of understanding of a very complex issue. For those in this group, the article merely confirms their anti-Semitic thinking.
So when is it acceptable to open up a "pandora's box" of bigotry and misinterpretation? A few years back the Jewish Theological Seminary sponsored a coffee table book that described how Hollywood is run by Jewish people. It is called "Entertaining America," in case you're interested. Hmm... Check out the article and reflect on the implications.
87 comments:
In response to the blog, “When Does Conversation Step Over the Line?”, and the article, “How Jewish is Hollywood”, I do not think that it is that important to stress the involvement of Jews in Hollywood. Why does it matter whether you are Jewish, Catholic, Methodist, Protestant, Muslim, etc. Hollywood is still Hollywood. I do not see how your religious backgrounds affect how you can produce a movie or write a script for a television show. It is one thing to be proud of your religion, but to go around launching a public relations campaign with sayings such as "Hollywood: More Jewish than ever!"; "Hollywood: From the people who brought you the Bible"; and "Hollywood: If you enjoy TV and movies, then you probably like Jews after all." I just think that is being a bit too arrogant, dramatic, and obnoxious. When Joel Stein called and asked six highly positioned people in the entertainment companies, five of them turned them down because they thought that could possibly be insulting to the Jewish community. I think it is equaly, if not more, insulting to the other religious communities out there. Is he hinting that Jews are better because they are more involved in Hollywood? It is almost as if he is putting down the work of others because they are not Jewish. When he says “I want America to know about our accomplishment”, it does not change my viewpoint any more towards Hollywood. I do not see the big deal that yes, they control Hollywood. The article, I believe, is just producing more negative views against Jewish people. At the end of the article, Stein contradicts himself when he says “But I don't care if Americans think we're running the news media, Hollywood, Wall Street or the government”, because in a couple paragraphs up he said that as a proud Jew, he wants Americans to know about the Jewish accomplishment in Hollywood. And why does he care so much that the Jews keep running Hollywood, Wall Street, or the government? I personally do not see the big deal or understand why religious backgrounds have to come into play while producing entertainment for Americans. The only thing that I think religious backgrounds do affect is when it comes to government. Religion and politics always have a bit of a rough patch.
Yeah there is definitely a belief that Jews are the enemy from the viewpoint of Christians. But it is only to a certain extent. Growing up, I went to Catholic school from preschool to my senior year in high school and did not have one Jewish friend. It was not by choice; it just because I was always surrounded by the Christian community. When I came to Penn State, I formed many friendships with Jewish people and did not know they were Jewish until after a friendship was already made. Maybe I do not have strong enough beliefs, but saying Jews are the enemy, is little too much over the edge.
Throughout my life I have come to see myself as a very liberal person. In that I’m not quite a tree-hugger or anything but I think very liberally about different situations. As I was reading both the article and the blog, all I could think about was “why does it really matter?” Who really cares what religion the people who make movies observe? When you’re watching a movie, do you ever wonder what religion the person who directed it follows? I’ll be honest when I say that I don’t think I have ever thought anything like that. What does religion have to do with banking or entertainment? I just don’t really understand the big deal about Jewish people controlling Hollywood. As a Jewish person, I was pleased to hear that Jews have some power somewhere, but no one makes a big deal about the fact that everyone in political power is Christian. I just wish sometimes that people would stop and think of what they are wasting their time talking about. People are mad that they do not have total national domination and that Jewish people have control over a few things. Really? I mean I know I am very liberal, as I said earlier and maybe I think a little too simply but, in the big picture, why do these people care about something that affects them so insignificantly? Do people not watch television or movies because of the religion of the people who run the corporations that produce them? I highly doubt it.
I understand why Sam wrote about the history of Judaism and the relationship between Jews and Christians, but I think that it’s fairly irrelevant. Honestly, I feel that Christians do not exactly understand why they are unhappy about the two areas of society where Jewish people dominate, but rather feel that they should be. This may come off sounding conceited but I think that if people thought similarly to how I do, they would be a lot less angry and prejudiced towards others. What I mean by “think how I do” is putting situations as simply as possible. Does it affect your daily life if two men marry each other? How angry would you be if someone told you that you could not get married to the person that you love? In this case it would be something along the lines of “do you like movies any less knowing that they are made by Jewish-run companies?” or “are you not going to watch the movie based upon the producer’s religion?” I guarantee that a lot of people would answer “no” to one or both of these questions and maybe even realize that the fact that they care about Hollywood being run by Jews is stupid. All in all, I just think that people need to recognize how minutely they are affected, if at all, by Jewish people in Hollywood.
As a Christian, I don't think it's that insulting that Jews are at the heads of the major movie and television corporations. Good for them. I don't see it as a competition between races. For example, if a Jewish person was hired for a job instead of me, I wouldn't think it was because I was a Catholic and the company prefers Jews. That's stupid. Obviously, they're the most qualified or have simply been in power the longest and aren't ready to leave.
I also think it's dumb to think that just because they're Jewish and in charge that the movies and television shows are swayed religiously. To be honest, I can't think of the last time I saw a movie that was about Judaism or a movie that had the main character a devout jew. There are countless films about Christianity such as Passion of the Christ and others but none on Judaism. Who cares that they're all Jewish?
However, I guess I can look at it as a type of success story. During the Holocaust, mass genocide left many Jewish families poor and separated from the rest of the world. It's cool to think that in less than a century many of them hold such prestigious positions.
I don't really see the problem with this article. I understand that it's supposed to be bigoted and in a way, racist, but I just think it's just the writer's humor coming out. I don't believe that he really thinks that Jewish people are the absolute supreme of America. I also think that Hollywood is very influential, but not nearly as influential as the government in which most people in head positions are Christian.
The author is also not bashing any other races. He's speaking up for the power of Judaism. Honestly, it's about time someone did that. When you're young, whether it be high school or college, it's not necessarily considered "cool" to be Jewish. Many Jewish people try to hide from their religion by not sticking up for themselves and their families when racist Jew jokes are told which happens too frequently. This may sound trite, but there's a basic component of Facebook underneath your Information that says what religion you are. I know many people who are Jewish who simply take that out of their profile. They don't want it on display that they practice Judaism. For example, my Jewish friend was talking about the dynamics of his frat house. He said "40% of us are Jewish and 70% are anti-semitists." I questioned that statistic and said, "Didn't you mean 60% are anti-semitists?" He laughed and replied "No. 10% of us wish we weren't Jewish."
I am not really sure where to start with this as I come from a unique perspective. My mother was raised Irish Catholic, attended Catholic school and raised by pretty religious parents. She turned a lot of head when the man she chose to marry was a Jewish man reigning from public school, my father. My dad’s side is not particularly religious, my grandparents at least. They hail from Staten Island and speak with that stereotypical New York/Jewish accent. My remaining relatives from that side reside in Staten Island. My father quit Hebrew school to play baseball. If you asked him, he would probably identify himself as agnostic or even atheist; however with the last name Solomon, anti-Semitism is something with which he considers himself familiar. He often brings up the fact that Hitler would not have spared his life regardless of his personal religious affiliation. The last name Solomon would have sent him straight to the concentration camps. From what I know, my ancestors emigrated before Holocaust times. That’s beside the point.
My views are pretty up in the air as far as religion goes. I have had the opportunity to celebrate Christian holidays, mostly from the family together-ness aspect. I have also embraced the Jewish culture. I consider myself to be agnostic and I will likely take on whichever religion to which my future husband is native. Truthfully, I feel a bit lost when it comes to religion and partly wish I was raised with some sort of affiliation. Most people who know me are confident I will marry a Jewish man. My most recent boyfriend was Jewish but who knows. I am not opposed. Currently, my college friends are predominately Jewish but this is due to my predominately Jewish sorority. At home, it is evenly split. My background story demonstrates the unique position I have.
When it comes to anti-Semitism I am certainly affected. I have a Jewish last name and have a lot of Jewish friends. Like my father says, Hitler would not have spared me. My confusion with religion often leads me to ponder the fact that Jesus was Jewish. It seems a bit ironic to me, especially with my lack of religious education.
As far as the Jewish dominance in Hollywood, I feel it is pretty representative of the trends we have discussed in class. Certain races excel on the SATs, having higher incomes, and live in poverty. It makes sense that these patterns exist in employment areas. There are some stereotypes that can be true to form. My father is one of the biggest money-savers I know. This could be interpreted as “cheap” or “stingy” like the stereotype says. On the other hand, my father has no qualms buying nice things for himself and the family. He is just smart with his money. There are many Jewish people who are in positions of power. Could it be just one big coincidence? I’m not so sure. It is instinct for cultures to stick together. Heck, since I have gotten to college one of the biggest emphases has been on networking. If Jewish people are associating with other Jewish people, AKA networking, it is no wonder they dominate certain industries. The socialization factor of the Jewish culture is one of the aspects with which I identify very strongly. I think that could largely have to do with concentrated presence of Jewish people in certain areas.
I really do not see the point of this article. I am not sure why it really matters what religions people are and who is at the top, and I am also not sure that this article was really the best thing for Jewish people. Although it is important to discuss these things, and it is good that there are Jewish elite despite their ancestors rocky (to say the very least) history, I am not sure that people are very willing to hear it, whether this is right or not. I think the way he wrote the article was a little distasteful as well, as he was almost outraged that Americans did not realize Jewish people are at the top of Hollywood. Again, why does this matter?
As far as the comments to this blog, it definitely does show how ignorant some people are. I could not believe the person that wrote “I wish jews wrote pro-Jewish movies. In reality, they write pro-satan movies”. Other people wrote that Jewish people make movies about the holocaust to make us feel guilty one more time about it. These comments really are sickening looking back on history and seeing how Jews have been persecuted throughout life. People seem to just want to forget the past and pretend it never happened.
The thing that really bothers me, however, is the fact that Martin Luther was anti-semantic. As a protestant, I have learned a lot about our history and somehow this escaped the reading and discussions. I realize there are dark sides to every religion, but it is always a slap in the face when you learn something terrible about something you have always believed in. It also seems to be a common trend in all aspects of culture and society. Societies cover up their messy pasts and promote an image for their people to hold true. Maybe this is necessary—you need the majority of people to believe in your propaganda or you will not have a unified orderly group of people. After taking this class though I have been continually disgusted with our society and all that it sweeps under the rug. It seems that religion is just as terrible with this. I always get really strange looks when I tell people I don’t really consider myself to have a particular religion, but I am very religious. People who are really religious especially seem to be very offended or scared and sort of back away. I just never could really accept every part of any religion. Or the bible (or any holy book) for that matter. I agree that it had good intentions, but the words can be misinterpreted in so many terrible ways, leading to anti-gay sentiment and few women’s rights in much of the world today. Also, most of it was written so long after any of the stories took place that who knows what really happened. It just seems funny to me that anyone can really take each word SO seriously. Really I think what you should get out of it all is to be accepting of other people, help them out, thank god, and just be a good person. But sadly, even the most religious are not able to do this. Like the Willard preacher..need I say more.
Before college, I honestly never put much thought into Jewish culture. I grew up in Houston, Texas where there were many Jewish communities and in fact, my best friend was Jewish. Although I realized that she did not celebrate Christmas and had certain holidays of her own, I did not appreciate the social and cultural divides that separate Jewish-Americans from Christian-Americans. When I moved to southeastern Pennsylvania in 2000, my new community had hardly any Jewish individuals and the majority of the population was Catholic. Now at Penn State, my roommate is Jewish and I finally see how much being Jewish affects her life. Previously, I just considered Judaism another religion and it did not seem all that different to me than the various sects of Christianity. If someone tells me that he or she is Jewish, my opinion of them would not change in the least. Maybe this is because I am not religious myself so I do not really think of religion as a dividing factor. I really think it is silly for Christians to discriminate and feel hatred towards Jews since Jesus himself was Jewish! It is absolutely ridiculous. Judaism was the mother religion according to the Bible. I really am surprised when I hear about anti-Semitic remarks being made today. I guess it should not be too shocking; there is always some group of people who can find a way to hate another group of people. The whole thing just really does not make sense to me. There are many different divisions in Christianity that have pretty different practices and beliefs and they do not seem to have to much trouble with one another.
For my roommate, being Jewish is an integral part of her identity. Even though she is not very religious and is not sure about her beliefs in God and the Bible, she 100% considers herself Jewish. She grew up participating in Jewish youth groups, attending Jewish summer camps, and her entire group of friends throughout high school was Jewish. It is like the cultural part of being a Jew far outweighs the whole religious side of it. This is quite interesting to me because I have never witnessed this sort of behavior with Christians. I guess it stems from the fact that Judaism is a minority religion in the United States so Jewish-Americans take pride in their culture and stick together. I guess because you cannot tell that someone is Jewish by their outward appearance that the social groupings seem a little odder to me. When I see a group of Asians together that seems much more normal than if I was introduced to a group of all Jewish individuals. This social tendency just goes to show that people take comfort in being around others who are similar to themselves both physically and culturally.
I took a stab at reading the link that was posted in the main article, explaining how Martin Luther was an anti-semite, but it does make sense in a very twisted way. During the Middle Ages there was a further spread of anti-semitism that resulted in many Jews being prosecuted, yet again, for things they had not done. What was this event, however? This little thing called the Black Plague. Jews were blamed for it mercilessly because they lived in further secluded communities that were capable of taking care of themselves and keeping their lives clean. (When I say "clean", I mean through means such as bathing)
However, it was incredibly interesting to see the ties that existed between Hitler, Martin Luther and many anti-semitist acts as a whole. It almost seems to be the same way how there is now also a very anti-Moslem like culture that exists in the United States and other countries with terrorist issues due to a large portion of their population being Christian. Granted, many may find martin Luther to be this great inspiration, a mover and innovator and yet, this is where a problem exists with things like "Organized Faith". Many will disagree that Organized Faith can be any sort of real problem due to a large number of hateful crimes exhibited on members of other religions to be by fanatics, but that veil is losing its touch more and more each day. You can look back to the start of the Christian movement, to Assyrian culture (if you really know your history), moving up the line to the Witch Hunts of Salem, and so on. These "fanatics" that are seen are not the only ones that showcase their hatred towards members of other religions and cultures. They aren't even that fargone either in their ideals that they show. In the time of the Assyrians, they razed Babylon, albeit for less hated reasons than trading reasons back then. At the start of Christianity, Jews were not seen as real citizens in the Roman empire because they were monotheistic as opposed to the popular polytheism back then. Jesus didn't help their cause much either by also attempting to spread Monotheism.
Perhaps being an Agnostic is skewing my view of how I see things, and this may rightfully be so. But, I feel that the link within the article and the article itself show that it's better to say "I don't know" to ultimate judgment, destination, and whatever else have you as opposed to actually declaring your faith. I feel that trying to shove scripture down one's throat not only inspires them to not follow the faith you're trying to push upon them, but also leads them to want to commit those "acts of violence" that are so claimed to occur. If it weren't for people blaming the Jews for every little thing and living in such a hostile area, there would be no such reason for the Zionist movement. But, I suppose every society needs their own form of KKK.
After reading the article about Jewish people controlling Hollywood, I found myself not caring that much about who ran Hollywood. I never really thought about it. And if it was dominantly run by Christians or Catholics or whomever it does not really matter. But whoever is running Hollywood they are doing a great job and should continue doing what they are doing. If their religion affected what comes out of Hollywood then I think I would notice. A lot of religions want to be recognized in society, especially Jews, and if this is one way to show that they go against the American stereotype then that is great. I am all about people breaking typical negative stereotypes. I agree with Foxman when he said it should not be said that Jews control Hollywood but they just happen to be Jewish. Saying that Jews control Hollywood is for lack of better words scary. No one wants to hear that something that is a big part of their culture is control by someone who is different from themselves.
I grew up in a Christian environment. Everyone that went to my school was some type of Christian, my entire family was Christian, and I was never exposed to the Jewish culture. I never knew a Jewish person. The most I learned about the religion was while I learned about the Holocaust. I even never felt that rival between Christians and Jewish people. There would be the occasional “Jew “ joke where it was said they were cheap but that is just the typical stereotype. My roommate here at school is Jewish. This blog made me question if she has something against me because of my religion. Because I was not taught to hate the Jewish religion I do not judge her because of what she believes in. I just find myself mistakenly asking her if she is going home for Easter. This rival is stupid. I am questioning the integrity of a girl who I have become great friends with over religion. There are so many religions and people get really caught up in them. Believe what you want to believe and let others do the same. No one should waste their time trying to point out that others are wrong to believe in what they believe. On a last note, the website about Martin Luther was a little shocking. That was certainly never taught in school. I always thought Hitler was the one to start the movement against Jewish people in Germany. There are definitely others who did the same, Martin Luther, and those people should be recognized for doing so. What happened before Hitler, the people that also influenced anti-Jewishness, should be taught to show how the Holocaust really came about.
I think it’s a pretty fair and accurate assessment of the movie industry today to say that Jews are really running the show. The vast majority of Hollywood execs are Jewish, which in turn means that Jewish people have the most power. I don’t think that this is offensive to say, because it is blatantly true. This has been a long standing tradition, since the early days of Hollywood, but I don’t necessarily think it has to or will always be true.
I see how it might be offensive to say that “the Jews control Hollywood” because that implies that they have some kind of negative and biased control over all of the messages and films that are released. It has a sort of sinister sound to it, like there is a conspiracy of the Jews against the rest of the world and the “innocent” audience of these films.
I think that the results of the survey “Only 22% of Americans now believe "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," down from nearly 50% in 1964” is good, despite what the author of the article says. I think this shows a lessening of paranoia by the general American public about some sort of Jewish conspiracy. These individuals may also just be ignorant of the fact that most higher-ups in Hollywood are Jewish. The other surveys that were assessing attitudes towards Hollywood execs were based on ideas people have of the entertainment industry, not prejudices about Jewish people. I think that they would hold the same beliefs and attitudes whether these powerful execs were Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or anything else. I guess I really can’t speak for everyone, but I know that I feel like in order to be that successful in the business you generally have to be kind of ruthless and power-hungry. Because of this, these people probably are not very similar to me, not because they are Jewish.
I am aware of stereotypes about Jewish people, and the long-standing prejudices held by especially Christians. The concept of anti-Semitism from Christians is pretty ridiculous. We should all know that Jesus himself was a Jew, that all of his original followers were Jewish, and that the first half of the Bible is the same as the Pentateuch. I like to think that most Christians know his, but that is obviously not the case, or they just don’t really understand what that means.
This conversation seems a little slippery because the wording in the questions, and the long history of anti-Anti-Semitism. Jewish-Americans have every right to be proud of the accomplishments of Jews in Hollywood, and they may joke that they “control Hollywood”. But non-Jews may feel uncomfortable saying this, and implying some sort of conspiracy or unfair bias in the film industry. Maybe there is a reason that Jewish people are attracted to high jobs in the business, but maybe it’s just because they are really good at that type of work, they see other Jews being successful, and decide to try it as well.
Why does any of this truly matter? Why does it matter if the executives are Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, etc.? I personally don’t care about the religious background of the Hollywood executives, or any doctors, lawyers, etc. As long as they are doing their job and doing it well, it should not have any meaning to people whatsoever. Would you really need to ask if your doctor was Jewish, Christian, etc. before they performed an emergency operation to save your life? Would it make a difference to you, when you knew they were the only one who could do the operation? I would hope not. If you look at the overall picture (specifically in the case of the article), religion, is not affecting the kinds of movies and television that we see as a public. People don’t go to the movies and say, “Oh my goodness, you could tell that picture was so Jewish.” In fact, before reading that article, I had no idea that all of the Hollywood executives were predominately Jewish. The executives and everyone else in the business are simply there to produce media that the people would find entertaining or interesting, and something that they will sit down and pay money to see. Contrary to what some radical personalities may argue, just because the executives are Jewish does not mean we are getting purely Jewish movies and television.
Don’t get me wrong, I realize that this makes probably makes those of the Jewish faith proud, knowing that they have come such a long way and have people of the religion in such respected positions. I know if I were Jewish, I would probably feel the same way. However, I don’t really think it needs to pointed out to the American public. Yes, it is what it is, and they should be happy and proud just knowing themselves, not proving a point by sharing their accomplishments with the rest of us.
In reference to the fact that Christians find those of the Jewish faith to be enemies of the church, I think this has changed a great deal. I am a Christian, and I do not believe any Jewish person to be my enemy, especially because of the religion they choose to follow. I realize that those who practiced Judaism in the past have been discriminated against, but I believe that has become less commonplace in today’s society. We have changed and have learned from our mistakes. We have learned to be more accepting of others, even if they do not believe the same things as us. Overall, we have come a long way. I think it is safe to say that we have agreed to disagree when it comes to religious beliefs and how we practice our faith.
As a kid I grew up Greek orthodox, which is basically the same thing as being Christian and the church would have been the same as any American Christian church but the services were entirely in Greek. Now let me throw it out there that to this day I know only a few words in Greek and as a kid refused to go to Greek school. I did not grow up in Greece, I grew up in Virginia. My grandparents however we’re very prominent figures in the Greek church both participated in the choir every week and my grandfather after he passed was actually honored by having the choir room named after him. With all this being said I should tell you that I never had an interest in going to church and quite frankly dreaded the Sunday’s when my parents actually decided to go to church. My father is American and dreaded going to church for the same reasons I did, my grandparents old Greek friends were crazy, and most importantly we didn’t speak Greek. The services were extremely long, so imagine yourself sitting through an hour and a half church service where you didn’t understand a single word that was being spoken. Needless to say because of my experiences in the Greek church I am a little bit naïve when it comes to the stories of the bible or religion in general. I do however believe in God and that Jesus is the son of God. And through my experiences have come to the conclusion that as Sam said, Jesus was a practicing Jew. I am happy to say that two of my best friends in the entire world are Jewish, but neither seem very religious. We share the common belief that there is a God and Jesus is the son of God. I however, could not care less that the people running Hollywood are Jewish. I see no Jewish themes to the shows on TV or the movies that are made. I did however find the comments after the article to be very interesting and some showed a lot of ignorance. I challenge any of those people to show me how the Jewish people are exerting their beliefs in the stuff we watch. The comment about Dolly Parton being denied a reality show because of the religious undertone of the show is ridiculous. I’m pretty sure she was denied because the mass majority of people watching reality TV would rather watch overweight people shed their fat, or Ty Pennington make over homes for underprivileged families. I mean come on, who wants to watch Dolly become an Opera Singer? I know I don’t, Id rather go back to Virginia and sit through a church service.
I definitely think it is ironic that Jews are so actively persecuted by Christians seeing as Jesus of course was a Jew. But then again, when does anything really make sense. Many of these people are uneducated and follow the masses. I’m sure that all of the Nazis in World War II didn’t hate Jews, (some of them may have secretly been Jewish), but they did what they felt they had to. It’s crazy to think how easily someone can be swayed by the majority. I think it’s called group think. I remember hearing of a study that illustrated this. Three lines were drawn on the board, one being obviously shorter than the other two. A group of people were placed in the room, with the sixth person not knowing anything about the experiment and the others being part of the control. Each of the five people did not choose the overly apparent shortest line as being in the shortest. When it got to the sixth person, they too saw another line as being the shortest. How willing people are to just conform instead of dealing with possible persecution for being different? Especially when it is a life or death situation like it was under Hitler in World War II. But that was back then; haven’t the Jews gotten enough shit from the world?
I don’t really know why Jews are so heavily persecuted these days. Perhaps enough people were convinced in the war that they actually were subhuman. Maybe everyone feels that they are the reasons for various problems that we face in the economy. I mean they were the first money lenders who charged interest. Maybe it is jealousy that fuels the fire; Jews do control banking and entertainment in America today. Or perhaps it is just the majority persecuting the minority. I think at this point it is probably a mixture of all of these things. And of course ignorance. This is probably the case especially down south, where Jews are lacking but their persecution is prevalent. How can you hate someone or something that you have never seen or met. It is called conformity. If your mother, father, brother, friends, neighbors, perhaps even teachers are saying something you are probably going to believe it. If that many people are in accordance, certainly they are speaking the truth. Obviously I am being facetious, but I think that I am not too far off here. I have heard stories of people living down south who have claimed to think that Jews have horns. Are you kidding me? Jews have horns? It is just a religion. You can convert to Judaism. Does that mean that you would grow horns once you converted? Read a book sometime.
I, along with many other reponses I see, do not think that it is a big deal that Jews are
making up a good portion of Hollywood, and are doing well. I know this is a soc. class, but is
it really important if one race, gender and religon is a majority in a certain industry?
Everything can't balance perfectly, certain races, genders and religons are goign to dominate in some places and struggle in others thats just how it is. Although it is fitting to the
stereotype that Jews are generally well off, and jobs in Hollywood I'm sure pay well, but I
don't really care what backgrounds these people have, as long as they do their job well. The entertainment business is difficult, and definatly an industry where you would want the most qualifed people getting the jobs, to maximize quality and entertainment (not that you shouldn't want the best candidate in every other situation, but I feel that entertainment especially
shouldn't make exceptions to quotas or anything like that). I also feel that just because a good
portion of Hollywood execs are Jewish does not mean that Jews "run the industry", or that the industry is Jewish. The fact that these execs are Jewish should be pretty much uninfluecial.
Maybe they way they were raised or their belifes give them a certain point of view on how to do
things, or on ways to run Hollywood for the moment, but it doesn't make the industry Jewish. I mean what if most of these execs retire in 10 years and Hollywood becomes primarly Christian? If
Hollywood turned from primarily one religon to another would it affect Hollywood at all? I do
not think anything about the work, way things are done, or anythign else involved would change
just because of the execs religous backgrounds. People love categorizing other people and
things, but I do not think that what religon Hollywood execs are is important at all to me, or
that anyone should really care. And as for the whole Christians vs Jews, I feel this argument is
just brought up so much. How many times do I have to hear how ironic it is that Jesus was born and died a Jew, and that the New Testamet is written by men who considered themselves Jewish. Continuing with the Christians vs Jews theme, why do people still bring up problems from hundreds and thousands of years ago that people today have no control over? Why should I hate, or love something or someone just because my ancestors hated or loved something or someone? Sam
talked about this before in terms of racism. Why should white people have to be almost reverse
racists, or feel bad about what happened in the past, while they themselves have done nothing
racist. People should stop focusing on what happened so long ago, learn from the past, but don't
hold grudges or stereotypes from it.
Generally, a covenant in biblical terms refers to God’s preferred means of defining his special relationship with Israel, in the form of a “contract” or “promise” that binds God to remain Israel’s patron Deity forever. Separate from the Noachan covenant, which is made with all humankind, the covenant with Abraham is exclusively related to the chosen people and is seen again with reference to the other two major Hebrew patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob. God promises countless descendents, divine presence, land, kingship, and blessing, emphasizing that he binds himself to Abraham’s progeny forever, perpetuating the God-Israel association for eternity. Jacob has a series of theophanies and boldly adds to the covenant promises of God by casting his own stipulations.
Interestingly, these voluntary pledges by God that appear in Genesis, require reciprocal obligations from Israel in Exodus, making God’s vow to protect Israel explicitly, entirely dependent upon the people’s obedience to the legal instruction given at Mount Sinai. God states the requirements in the form of apodictic law and Israel agrees to obey.
Different from this Mosaic covenant, where the agreement is conditional upon the people’s obedience to God’s instruction, the covenant made with David is strikingly similar to that of the Abrahamic covenant, in which God makes an unconditional oath to establish David’s royal line forever (though he did not with Saul), creating a concept of government where one single man is given the power to rule over the population.
Jesus of Nazareth, (7–2 BC/BCE—26–36 AD/CE), also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the incarnation of God. Islam considers Jesus a prophet, and he is an important figure in several other religions. Jesus' childhood home is identified as the town of Nazareth in Galilee. The Gospels place almost all events in Jesus' life in ancient Israel. Only Luke tells that Jesus was found teaching in the temple by his parents after being lost. The Finding in the Temple is the only event between Jesus' infancy and baptism mentioned in any of the canonical. According to Luke, Jesus was "about thirty years of age" when he was baptized. In Mark, Jesus is called a carpenter. Matthew says he was a carpenter's son, however, the Greek word used in the Gospel is "tekton" meaning "builder," which suggests he could have been an artisan of some type as well.
All three synoptic Gospels describe the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, an event that Biblical scholars describe as the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. According to these accounts, Jesus came to the Jordan River where John the Baptist had been preaching and baptizing people in the crowd. After Jesus was baptized and rose from the water, Mark states Jesus "saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven saying: 'You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased'
Mark starts his narration with Jesus' baptism, specifying that it is a token of repentance and for forgiveness of sins. Matthew omits this reference, emphasizing Jesus' superiority to John. Matthew describes John as initially hesitant to comply with Jesus' request for John to baptize him, stating that it was Jesus who should baptize him. Jesus persisted, "It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” In Matthew, God's public dedication informs the reader that Jesus has become God's anointed ("Christ").
I feel like many people are blatantly ignorant towards Jewish people and do not categorize it with racism because it is more of a religious choice. I was able to grow up as a Catholic in a predominately Jewish community and I loved it. I think that if people had the opportunity to do something that many Jewish people all over the world are able to do, their views would change. I am talking about the Jewish birthright.
Israel Outdoors is an educational tour program which sends people of Jewish birth to Israel. This is done through an organization called Tlalim Tours which has been involved in organizing these tours for 25 years now. There are over one million Jewish people who have been privileged enough to take this “birthright” trip.
“When I went to Israel a few summers ago it really changed my life. It was amazing to see a place so rich in history and beautiful at the same time,” said a recent traveler.
If you are between the ages of 18 and 26, and born Jewish, then you can go on birth right to Israel free of cost. For many Jews it is an opportunity to explore her religion and where her ancestors came from.
Many people of the Jewish faith this program is well known and many people do take the opportunity to go on this tour. You do not have to be Orthodox to go on the trip; simply you must be born Jewish. The program in funded by various Jewish federations from all over the world.
People are able to go on the trip with friends for ten days. Every day they would wake up early and eat breakfast. Then they would continue on their way to a different city, historical site, or the beach. Tour guides are provided on the trip who are very knowledgeable on Israel on it history. Tour guides are usually with people constantly, and always telling cool things about Israel adding in cool historic information as well. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and can really educate people.
“It was so cool to just learn about such an important place. Even the ground feels different there, it’s so awesome,” said a recent non-Jewish traveler.
As a child most Jews go to Hebrew school and attend synagogue on Saturdays regularly. This is not different form most other religions which leads me to believe we are very similar.
If you don’t believe in the Jewish faith that’s fine, we just need peace between all people. Life is not all about religion. Religion is a part of your life and your relationship with God is personal.
I am not surprised that the jewish people are largely in control of the entertainment industry. As a jew (half) I am very proud to say that the jewish people in general are a intelligent population. The majority of Jewish people that I know are fairly well off. Most of the Jewish parents that I know are professionals like doctors, dentists, lawyers, or other prominent professions. I do not know what it is about the Jewish people that make them so successful. Maybe it is just that the Jewish has a very smart gene pool. The Jews that I am familiar with are mostly hard working and productive citizens to society. That is why im not surprised that Jews are largely in control of the entertainment and banking industries. The stereotype that jews are cheap is not necessarily true, but many jews are certainly good with money. That helps for all professions, especially banking. The fact that Jews are in control of the entertainment industry reminds me of Les Grossman from the movie Tropic Thunder. He was a fat Jewish guy played by Tom Cruise, and he was the CEO of a large entertainment industry. He was a hilarious character. Throughout the movie he danced to Get Low and screamed his head off. This is not typical of Jews, but being high up in the entertainment industry certainly seems to be. So maybe this Les Grossman was based off of a real person. It certainly could be possible. The fact that Jews are so widely discriminated against baffles me. Do people really care that much that Jewish people do not consider Jesus Christ to be a god? It seems silly especially considering the jewish population is much more discriminated against than those who do not believe in any god at all. It surprised me that people hate on jews so heavily. This, I feel, because the Jewish people that I know are normal people, just like any Christian or any religion. The hatred on jews is stupid considering what they do for society. They make up a lot of our lawyers, medical doctors, bankers, accountants, dentists, and all types of prominent professions. The fact that Jews run the entertainment industry shows how much these people can do. The entertainment industry in America is a very large industry. The Jewish population is a very small population. The fact that such a small populations can control such a large industry says a lot about the Jewish people. The Jewish people hold so many high positions in our society. It is even more impressive considering that Jews become so successful despite the hatred against them. Anti-semitism is very evident in America and Jews still succeed.
Jews running Hollywood, I have to admit it’s not something I thought about nor did I think it was really that prevalent. I kind of always assumed that Hollywood was just run, by a bunch of rich white men. I’ve never thought about religion and I think in this day and age I don’t think people readily talk about religion. I’m not sure if that’s because people fear being discriminated against or if it’s because we live in a politically correct age where people don’t ask what your religion is. I know that I personally don’t know the religions of a lot of my friends nor do I share what my religion with all of my friends. It doesn’t matter to me and I think a lot of people of my generation don’t really care who has what religion. I’m not saying that’s the case with all people, but I think it’s much more common now not to know what a person’s specific religion is. With that in mind it doesn’t surprise me that not a lot of Americans know that there are a lot of Jewish people in Hollywood, but I don’t think they know how many people are Catholic and Baptist either. It’s just not common knowledge. However, I think for better or for worst the Christian influence is still heavy in Hollywood, all you have to do is look at shows like “7th Heaven”, people like Mel Gibson, and movies like “The Passion of the Christ,” to see that. The country is primarily Christian, so I believe that’s why we have yet to have a Jewish or Muslim president and a lot of media has Christian values and beliefs in it. So I don’t necessarily agree with the article’s author statement that without Jewish people all we would have to watch is the “700 Club,” because there are Christian values hidden in a lot of media you just have to look for it. It’s true that the Jewish were persecuted by many Christians and I know some of that still exists, but speaking as a Catholic person myself I can say I don’t feel that’s right and the Christians that do, at least, are in the minority. I was never taught that it was the fault of Jewish that Jesus died, in fact for the eight years that I was in religion classes I was always taught that it was the fault of the Romans for what happened to Jesus. I don’t believe the majority of the public feels upset with having a lot of Jewish people in Hollywood, perhaps this is naïve of me to say, but I think the majority people don’t care whose in Hollywood as long as they get the entertain they expect to get.
Many times when we thing of racism in the United States we immediately think of black prejudice because we hear so much about it and has become so common in our culture (sadly). However, there are many other racial groups that suffer as much or worse than blacks from racism, it is just not as talked about. Jewish people since the beginning of time (literally) have been persecuted and discriminated against. And even today, despite everything that the Jewish culture has been through, such as the persecution by the Romans not to mention the Nazi’s, Jews are still discriminated against. Many people blame this phenomenon on the Christian culture, which would not be far off from saying. After all, the Christians were the first ones to start the killing of Jews way back in Jesus’ time. However, aren’t people who are Christian supposed to be . . . well . . . . Christian? Being a Christian myself I found it hard to believe that people who truly consider themselves Christian could act this way towards the Jews. After all, Jesus, the son of God, our “savior”, was indeed a Jewish man. The people who wrote the bible were Jewish. The Jewish religion and culture is a HUGE part of Christianity because it is what it stems from. I recently found out through a friend taking a Jewish Studies Class that the Catholic in fact helped the Nazi’s during World War Two in the “cleansing of Jews”. Additionally, from this post I had never known that many blame the Jews, not the Romans who were actually responsible, for the death of Jesus or that Martin Luther wrote the script for Hitler to “Round the Jews . . . “ These two pieces of information boggle my mind! I just cannot wrap my head around why people would have such animosity towards a group of practically their own! Why they would want to persecute the culture of their savior?
Additionally, it is no secret that most of Hollywood’s most profitable studio heads, as well as the producers, directors, and actors, such as Woody Allen, Natalie Portman, Jerry Seinfeld, Harvey Firestein, and Ben Stiller, that work with these studios are Jewish. These people have created some of the most beloved movies and television out today such as Star Wars, Seinfeld, Annie Hall, Meet the Parents and etc. In the article that was posted in the blog from the LA Times said, “Yes, we [Jews] control Hollywood. Without us, you'd be flipping between "The 700 Club" and "Davey and Goliath" on TV all day.” This is so true. When you start to think of your favorite television shows and movies most of them have Jewish people as the main actors. So again, why do we will continue to discriminate a culture that has birthed ours? This is something I have never been able to understand and I don’t think I ever will.
There has been a long history of discrimination against the Jewish people. This discrimination stems from the fact that although they are an extreme minority group in the World and in the United States that the Jewish people represent a high majority of certain job markets. These include certain political positions, bankers, and jobs dealing with money, and those which are part of Hollywood.
I have heard these issues over my lifetime as someone who is proud of my Jewish culture and immerged in the studying of current events related to Judaism. I am always curious as to why issues about dominance in certain industries by a certain race, nationality, or religion are an issue. I found the article, “How Jewish is Hollywood?” to be very well written as well as a good source of facts on the issue. A statement in the article that I found most fascinating was, “I don't care if Americans think we're running the news media, Hollywood, Wall Street or the government. I just care that we get to keep running them.” I could not agree more. If the issues are being taken care of, Hollywood is succeeding, Wall Street is being run fair and ethically, then I do not think there is a problem. If the issue can be proved that the Jewish people are not hiring other just as qualified candidates because there are Jewish candidates with whom they are competing with, then that should be dealt with.
I have discussed in my discussion group that the discrimination against the Jewish people has many similarities and differences to other discrimination studies. For example, the Jewish people, although a minority, do not often fit the commonalities among other minorities. We have learned in class that minorities are often faced with lower median family incomes. This average cannot be applied across the Jewish people, like we have applied in class to Native Americans, Hispanics, Blacks, and other minorities of color.
Furthermore, an issue which currently has been in the news is that dealing with the New York Jets, first two home games, and the Jewish High Holy Days. Jets fans who observe these holidays are complaining that that they will miss a quarter of home games this season. At the same time many people find issues with the high number of Jews in Sports management and ownership just as they do with Jews in Hollywood. My problem with this is that, people are unhappy that the Jewish people are dominating the industry, which in their opinion excludes others. Even if they have a majority of the industry they clearly are not catering the industry to meet their needs. If they were trying to benefit the Jewish people then there would never have been games schedules on these days.
This is very ironic that this blog is about Christians and Jews. Just a few days ago I was discussing my Easter weekend with a friend from physics class. He asked me how it was and I told him that I did not do much since I am only half Christian, and half Jewish. He looked at me with a disgusted look on his face and then with a smirk said, “Ha! I’m sure that goes well with your parents. Do they even get along?” I was absolutely shocked with his comment that I couldn’t even respond the first few seconds after he said that. I then smiled back and said, “Actually they get along great thanks, and we enjoy very much the fact that we celebrate all the holidays within both religions.” He then shook his head with doubt. I responded to his uncertainty with, “I am actually very glad that this worked out for me and my family. We don’t have a barrier between us, nor do I have parents who force beliefs onto me. I am very thankful for being able to make my own decisions on my morals and personal beliefs without having the constant pressure of being told how to live my life and who I should look up to.” Well that certainly shut him up. But either way I was thinking about what had happened throughout the day. I have been asked about my religious beliefs plenty of times in my life, but for some reason this one was different. I think it was mainly because he specifically talked down upon my family, in particular my parents relationship. Most people just ask whether I focus more on one or the other, and to answer that question, no we practice both equally without having to go to church or temple.
When I started to read the article and blog, I completely disregarded the main issue, which was about Hollywood, and instantly thought about my personal experience that was previously described. Then after giving all of this some thought, I realized that it shouldn’t matter what religion anyone is. Who cares if they rule Hollywood? Who cares if “only 22% of Americans now believe the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews?” If the people producing the movies and television shows are not focusing mainly on Jews or trying to persuade everyone and their brother to become Jewish, then so be it. Don’t sit there are try to make something a big deal that is obviously not a problem. Why go and start something that will only cause things to get worse? As my dad always said, “Pick your fights, because not every one is worth picking.”
“I wish Jews did make pro-Jewish movies. In reality, they make pro-Satan movies.” This is just one of the comments that leapt off the page at me as I read the article and the postings, some thoughtful, some completely ignorant. This, obviously, was one of the completely ignorant postings, just like the rant yesterday in class’ postings that made me very frustrated and angry. I hate when people who are ignorant, and do not understand the complexity of a situation, try to comment on it and throw their two cents in about it. Never has two cents been worth so little.
First, I want to address this particular comment. The Anti-Semitism seemed to leapt out of the java-script of the page. Clearly, Satan himself is lurking in the shadows of every TV show and every movie in Hollywood today. Any time anyone perceives media depicting views, thoughts, or creeds different than those they personally subscribe to, they quickly blame it on some outlet. Damn Christians. Damn immigrants. Or, in this case, damn Jews. I guarantee most of the people commenting on this page about this issue wasn’t even aware that there were this many Jews in Hollywood. I would be willing to guess that the average American doesn’t even care who’s involved in the “behind the scenes” aspects of film and television; they just care that they can watch American Idol and CSI when they’re supposed to be on.
Another piece of Anti-Semitism that grabbed me was the cartoon that accompanied the blog this week. There’s an Anti-Semitic cartoon contest? Are you kidding? Where do people come up with this stuff? Since when did being the biggest bigot become such a valued superlative to hold onto? Secondly, the issues in this particular cartoon illustrated so much hate and ignorance, my mouth almost literally dropped. 9/11, the Holocaust, and Avian Flu as Jewish inventions? Wow.
I think people should be forced to learn more about issues and actually know what they’re talking about before they are allowed to comment on an issue. It seems so sad that people are so short-sighted and so ignorant, and most of them probably have no desire to be any different. They are quick to blame, quick to judge, and quick to choose sides and draw lines. Anybody reading this article with any kind of critical, journalistic mind could see that this is a complex, complicated issue. It is obviously not as simple as “Jews are controlling Hollywood and the media”, and not about Jews taking over the country and spreading their Zionistic propaganda. I just wish people would take more initiative to learn about things and seek the truth to issues, rather than remaining ignorant and uneducated.
This is an interesting topic because if you think about it, the Jewish culture is one of those that have the most prevalent stereotypes. In fact, a couple weeks ago in discussion group we did actually get into this discussion about stereotypes which led to the talk of popular Jewish stereotypes. For example, one of said stereotypes is that Jewish people tend to have bigger noses than most on average. Another is that they are greedy and hate to spend money. However, one of the most common assumptions is the fact that Jewish people tend to control power in ways such as controlling banks and even Hollywood. This may be an actual valid view that people may notice, but it is not to say that every bank is controlled and operated by Jewish people. Similarly, even if Hollywood were controlled by primarily Jewish people there are still many other people who are not Jewish that run the game. It is therefore a stereotype to say something like Hollywood is controlled solely by Jewish people or that they are what make it run so this is not really a valid assumption. Going on this, one should never really open up a “Pandora’s box” of bigotry because if you do intend to carry out an act such as this you most definitely should begin to look at the facts before you speak. Do the research and see if what you claim is true; because chances are is that it is not. Take for instance the Luther article. Many peoples comments I’m sure were very closed minded and anti-Semitic. This just goes to show how people will talk without thinking and knowing the facts. People may even agree with what was said in the Luther article even though this is coming from a man who lived five hundred years ago in a time of severe religious conflict. Luther criticized everyone not only Jewish people. He criticized the catholic religion and even the pope. He may have been the founder of Protestantism but why does that give him any credibility at all in his criticisms. You have to look into a topic and find out the facts for yourself to really have any understanding of it. You can’t take things at surface level and just believe what someone tells you is true and if you do you will lead a very misinformed life. Not to add irony to the equation, but I did once hear the saying “Ninety percent of all statistics are made up on the spot”. Obviously there is irony in this statement because this exact statistic was probably made up on the spot by the person who told me it but it is a relatively true saying if you think about it. In its essence it just means be wary of what you hear because it could very easily have been made up. On the contrary, it could have not been made up at all but it could have even more easily been twisted until it was so far from the original statement that it might as well have been made up. For example a statistic of forty percent could easily have become forty five the next time someone told it and then fifty, ect. Cetera That is why I always think back to this before I dive into something that I know nothing about.
I am not really sure how I feel about this. While I do not think that it is appropriate to go out and throw slander at an industry to group because it happens to be run by a specific racial group, is it really so bad to simply point it out? I feel that by trying to keep it hush and politically correct by not saying things, emotions get pent up. In this case would it be wrong or inaccurate to say that Hollywood is run by Jewish people? Not if the numbers are there. Do black people dominate basketball? Yes, and is that a negative statement? No, they really do. Just like south Americans and Asians handle baseball on an international scale, Brazilians always make it far in the world cup and hockey is mostly white people… really really white people. Are these statements untrue? No. Slanderous? No. So what’s the problem? I do not really know. That is the boundary however. If people start to throw slander in their direction, that’s when it crosses the line I feel. I have another statement for you. Japan runs seafood. While you could try to make an argument like, “well I like my lobster from Maine, or my whale from Norway,” that does not disprove that Japan runs seafood. That country alone consumes 1/3 of the world’s seafood every year. A fucking third! Out of 6 billion people! I would say that constitutes running a market. Is it slanderous? Again no, impressive if you ask me. Simply stating the fact is not so bad, however if you try to extrapolate why it is a specific group runs a specific industry then you might be crossing the line again, as that sports commentator whom I can’t remember his name did when he explained that the success of blacks in sports, I think it was football, dates back to slavery when only the strong survived or something to that extent. Maybe I’m different however, but I feel that I would feel the same way if I was Jewish and someone said, “oh well your race runs the entertainment industry, and the medical industry.” I would not perceive that as an insult, and you could point it out as much as you liked, because accusing a group of being successful is not such a bad thing. Maybe that is why I do not quite understand it. At the same time, I went to the liquor store recently and the woman at the cash register wanted me to say Minnesota with a long O like they do in the movie Fargo, assuming we all talked like that. However she was disappointed when I shot her down on that request because that pissed me off. In short, I guess I proved I don’t know where I stand on this issue.
I often feel that people are more passionate and hateful about the topic of religion than the topic of race. At least where I am from, I do not hear a lot of racist comments, except from my grandparents who are old and just don’t care. Religion, on the other hand, is a huge topic of debate – it is right up there with politics. Within my family, marrying outside of our religion, which is Roman Catholic, would create unimaginable tension and chaos. My brother married a Christian girl and they did not get married in a Catholic Church. My mother was in shambles. Also, when I was younger, my sister brought home a black boyfriend. No mention of race at the dinner table, but the poor guy did undergo interrogation about his religion, which thankfully for him was Roman Catholic.
With all of that said, it really does not surprise me that this article caused such steamy debate from the people who commented. I think it is important to keep in mind that the people who commented are those that are most passionate. If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t point that out. It’s difficult for me to move past the fact that this article was even written. The word “control” is so highly stigmatized…no one wants to be referred to as controlling or having complete control – it is a bad thing to be labeled. So why is Stein happy that Jews have “control” in Hollywood? It makes me think he has a complex. Jews have been beaten down again and again throughout history, and still face so much Semitism it is pretty unreal. Something I have picked up on from hanging out with Jewish people is that they often need to be the best at things, or at least better than people of other religions. They are also protective of what is theirs. In this case, Stein feels Hollywood is the property of the Jews, and does not want that taken away.
In reality though, anti-Semitism has been around forever. The Jews have a horrible history of being hated for all kinds of reasons, by people who are not Jewish. But so do Catholics. And Hindus. And Atheists. There is so much hatred toward religion in our country and in the world.
Switching gears a bit, what really stood out to me in Sam’s post was when he said “Hollywood does not determine this culture”. One of the ongoing debates I like to argue is whether we determine our culture or if our culture is determined for us. To me, our culture is always changing and evolving, and Hollywood and the media play a huge part in culture. So I have to disagree with Sam there, because I think in a way Hollywood does determine our culture. It tells us what is cool, what to wear and watch, how to act, among other things. However, it is up to us how we want to react to Hollywood.
So this is a little funny. For some reason Jewish people have been subject to countless amounts of discrimination since being enslaved by the Egyptians and then later vilified by radical Christians for allegedly killing their lord and savior. What often comes to mind when I think about these things is the old demonized depictions of Jews as hiding their horns beneath their curly hair and having an international “Jew club” that was responsible for taking everyone’s money and hoarding it into a secret cave in order to finance their world takeover. These notions are laughable and it just seems so ridiculous that someone would ever believe this stuff. The same thing goes for more recent assertions that Jews are in control of the banking and entertainment industry. Not to say that some Jewish people may not have a controlling interest in some banks and production studios. But to imply that they are all in cahoots for some larger conspiracy to bring down the United States government is ridiculous at best.
Most people who make these assertions have a very distorted or selective vision/ memory of past events. The Torah and the Old Testament is more or less the same thing; Jesus was Jewish from when he was born to the day he died, as were all his disciples and immediate followers, and was executed by the Romans not the Jews. Slander against the Jews by Christians is probably originally rooted in the fact that Christianity was a newborn fledgling religion and needed to gain more followers, so they preached how wrong and evil the Jews were in order to do so. The same is probably true for Martin Luther’s statements against the Jews when the Protestant sect of Christianity and Lutheran was first emerging. Speaking of Martin Luther, until reading that article I was completely unaware of Martin Luther’s anti-Semitic nature and overall hatred toward all Jews. The fact that he was so highly spoken of by Christians led to these less known about books i.e. “The Jews and their Lies”, to be used as propaganda for Hitler to influence very impressionable people facing hard times to gain power. The fact that he enacted many of Luther’s thoughts of concentration camps and burning synagogues is all the more horrifying.
Overall the article on Jews running Hollywood shouldn’t really be relevant to anything. Great there are a bunch of Jews running our banks and production studios, who cares! Guess what, there are barely any Jews in professional sports at all. I dare anyone to name more than three off the top of their head. I bet you can’t. Should that really matter? I don’t think so. It’s not a conspiracy it’s just the way it is.
I am Jewish, and while reading Stein’s article “How Jewish Is Hollywood,” my blood began to boil. This guy made me mad and almost ashamed to say I am Jewish. Do I think it is wrong for him to be proud of the Jews in Hollywood? No, not at all. But I do have a problem with him being so arrogant and condescending about it. Stein rants and brags about all the Jews in Hollywood and says that “Without us, you'd be flipping between ‘The 700 Club’ and ‘Davey and Goliath’ on TV all day.” He gives the impression that Jews are so much more advanced and knowledgeable than others and that they couldn’t come up with a good film idea without Jews. Thank God (no pun intended), for Abe Foxman trying to set Stein straight (even though he didn’t get the message). It is fine to say that executives happen to be Jewish or something of that sort, but when you start saying that Jews control Hollywood, you begin to take it too far. Control is such a strong word and in this context, it seems to demean the people who are not in the “us” category.
I don’t have a problem with Joel Stein being proud of his fellow Jews, but why does he care so much what other people think? If people do not know that Hollywood executives are Jewish, who cares? As a journalist for the Los Angeles Times, Stein should have something more important to write about than to whine that people don’t praise Jewish Hollywood executives. It also really bothered me when he said he only cares about wanting Jews to keep on running media, Hollywood, Wall Street and the government. I do not understand why it would be such a bad thing if the aforementioned were proportionately represented. I never used to understand the stereotype of the greedy Jew, but this article sure points it out. Stein reinforces and strengthens these stereotypes but proclaiming his greed for all the power. It is probably for people like Stein that our race relations are not as advanced as they could be. Some non-Jews never grow up around Jews or with Jewish friends and I know if I was one of those people, and I read this article, I would absolutely believe the stereotypes out there. There is already enough hate toward Jews out in the world; Stein shouldn’t be creating any more. For example, one of the comments on the article, “Ahhh no wonder we get such negative portrayal of the Church, Muslims, blacks and Latinoes in film thats because, you wont let creative ideas in your little fraternity, the hell with Hollywood, it's time to wake up, Hollywood produces garbage with the same one sided plots.” Stein’s article gives off the idea that Jewish executives are in cahoots with each other and won’t let any other people in. Great job Stein, I hope you’re proud of yourself.
I consider myself to not practice a specific religion, since I was raised in a neutral family consisting of a (raised) Catholic mother and a (ancestrally) Jewish father. Our family celebrated a “commercialized/Americanized” Christmas, not a religious one.
Now, after being in this class for almost a full semester, I’ve noticed myself becoming more and more partial to Jews and the Jewish population. Why? I don’t really know for sure…but I think a lot of the “Christian Killers” media we watched in class made me very disgusted with Christianity and followers of this faith. I am very aware that these were extreme examples, and that no religion is free of their of extremists. BUT, regardless, I’ve found myself feeling very connected to Judaism over the past few months.
So, after reading this article, I almost want to say, “Hell yeah, Jews, own Hollywood”. Because I feel like Christians have owned so many other mainstream national institutions, especially politics. Sure, we have a Black president, but certainly we’ve never had a Jewish one. American presidents have been Christian through and through. A lot of conservative views tend to be heavily “Christian”—especially with the last presidency of Bush. As someone without an official religion, I found it uncomfortable and almost offensive when laws/politics were influenced by the deep Christianity of the former president. The thing about Jews in Hollywood is, they don’t coat every movie, television show, and media display with some Jewish overtone. They simply happen to be powerful Jews. They didn’t turn Hollywood into a religious spectacle. Hollywood doesn’t represent a religion. These Jewish execs aren’t churning out tv shows about the All American Jewish family—featuring episodes on the daughter’s bat mitzvah or the college son’s birth right to Israel trip. MAYBE there’s a Jewish “friend” or neighbor…maybe. So I don’t see any reason for Christians (or anyone) to get in a fuss about Jews controlling everything. They may control Hollywood, but they’re not manipulating Hollywood. I think that’s the key difference.
Jews are powerful. Christians are powerful, too. I’m not going to get into other religions because I honestly feel uneducated on the issues as a whole to really be able to make judgments. The bottom line is that *rich* people are at the top—the small minority of powerful people are there and will stay there most likely due to family ties and last names.
There’s something about this article that made me feel fearful that the stereotype of a rich or successful Jewish person would be presented. Often times that can be the way non-Jews view the picture. That’s the only problem I found with the article. Fear that the author/writer/reporter (Stein?) would be seen as snobbish.
Hey Christians, want to know why there are so many Jews in positions of power in Hollywood. It’s because they’re smart enough to know that movies and television are a business with the sole goal of making money. If Christians stopped using religion as a scapegoat and started thinking about the business logistics of Hollywood, maybe they would be in positions of power in Hollywood as well. I am a proud Jew, although not a very religious one. I believe that Joel Stein’s article was written with the intention of being funny, but in fact failed miserably. Considering he wrote an entire article supporting stereotypes, I’m going to throw one out there as well. Stein definitely is not a good comedian, although stereotypes say that many comedians are Jewish. I disagree with Stein’s belief that the stereotype of Jews “controlling” Hollywood is a good thing. Yes there are many Jews in prominent positions in Hollywood, but the stereotype implies that Jews use Hollywood to force their beliefs on others and that they only want to ensure that Jews remain in power in Hollywood. The stereotype clearly is detrimental to Jews as proven by the many outrageous and heinous comments posted in response to this article. The responses I’ve read infuriate me so much, it makes me angry at Christians even though I know not all of them support the idiotic opinions of the people who read this article. Unfortunately I’m not surprised by these blatantly anti-semitic comments, as Jews have been used as a scapegoat for people’s problems since the early days of Judaism. I haven’t forgotten that 6 million Jews were killed in concentration camps just 65 years ago. Movies about the Holocaust are important because they remind us of the mistakes of the past so we aren’t doomed to repeat them again. Clearly the hatred towards Jews that many people in this country have has clouded these people’s judgment. These idiots think that the only movies made are the ones that help advance this so-called agenda of the Jewish people. I’m sorry but know there are plenty more movies about Christmas than ones about Chanukah, Passover, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah combined. Just look at Vince Vaughn’s recent movies. He’s come out with terrible Christmas comedies in each of the last two Christmases. December is the worst time of year for Jews in the media because the only thing on television or in theatres are Christmas movies or Christmas specials. One of the comments to the article stated that the movie The Ten Commandments is always on television during the time of Passover. This person’s right, Jews have one movie the entire year that plays occasionally channels like AMC. The only reason this movie is on television so often during Passover is that it gets good ratings because it’s the only thing on TV that celebrates the Jewish faith while everything else on TV celebrates Easter. If Christians think it’s annoying to have to watch two seconds of a movie about Judaism or any other religion, imagine how annoying it is for Jews and others to watch movies about Christmas and Jesus all the time. Christians need to stop using Jews and everyone else who doesn’t share their beliefs as scapegoats. The sooner they do this, the sooner they can become better at business and other industries in which Jews have prominent representation. Thank God Jews run the country than a bunch of naïve, prejudice, idiotic, and asinine Christians.
“When does conversation step over the line.” – Response. I found this intriguing for multiple reasons. First of which is the hypocricy of the Christian religion. What happened to love thy neighbor? I mean just because they identify as a different people does not mean they are not our neighbors. This is one of the reasons why I myself am not that religious. For the most part religion is misunderstood and used to do more bad then good. People take words and twist them. They also have no problem discriminating everyone who does not see things as they do. Jews have been getting the raw end of the deal for centuries, this is a fact. I mean I think especially in a country where we say that everyone can be what they want, believe what they want, we sit here and preach how their way is the wrong way. Another factor in history that has played a significant role in the discrimination of Jewish people is the fact that they know how to make money and more importantly keep it. Hitler went after them because they were the ones who had the money, he forced them into jobs that were seen as not respectable, trade jobs and such. This plan backfired in that the Jews have since made significant headway in these professions and thus money. They are also very responsible with their money, if this is a sterotype then so be it but its true. The Hollywood Industry is basically run by smart, business savy Jewish people because they know what they are doing and know how to capitalize on investments. I mean maybe all of this discrmination is based on envy which in itself can destroy a people’s culture. That’s how it has been for centuries, you see a group of people who have something you want another group of people mainly white people will go after them to get want they have. I think in 2009 we really should be past this shit, I mean what will the next 100 years bring if we don’t start correcting the problems we face now. Its like King of the Hill, you always want to be on the top and once up there you help people of your group get up there with you. If one Jewish man/women made it to the top of the Hollywood ladder such as say a producer or CEO of a recording company then they are more likely to help their friends. I think after all the persecuting the people of Jewish culture have faced we should not see their success as a bad thing, to be so discriminated for so long to reach the top of the cultural hill is an accomplishment.
When I first read the title of the article of Jews running Hollywood, I started to think about all the Jewish actors and comedians I enjoy watching and find entertaining. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld have led to a huge influence on the television industry, and now every sitcom is undoubtedly compared to that famous “show about nothing.” May I please give props to Larry David as being possibly one of the most natural comics in the biz. His timing and conducting of improvisational dialogue on his show is incredible. Find me a recent successful comedy of the last few years that doesn’t have Judd Apatow either producing or directing it and I’ll shake your hand with absolute earnestly and respect. Apatow and his fellow friend and Jew, Adam Sandler, continue to destroy the box office. As long as I’m discussing comedy, I must give credit where credit is due and support the brilliant comedic mind of actor, writer, and director, Mel Brooks. If you don’t find Blazing Saddles funny, well then me and my friends will have to “work up a Number 6 on ya” (if you’ve seen the movie; you’ll get it). Basically, I have concluded in my head that Jews have seemed to secure their leading control of the comedy scene in Hollywood. Then the author of the article started listed all of the Jewish CEOS and owners of Hollywood studios who wanted to the SAG actors to finish negotiated contracts or whatever they were doing. Maybe he is onto something.
But WHO CARES?!?
Someone’s religion just doesn’t seem necessary to attach to their career, unless that person’s career is involved with the place of worship of their beliefs or they work in a career devoted to the service of their belief system, i.e. if a person is a rabbi or a minister. I do understand, though, how Jewish people would call upon this fact that most of the controlling positions in Hollywood are occupied by Jewish Americans and how they would celebrate that fact. I think they deserve that right. Over the years Jewish people have had to overcome a lot. First fleeing with Moses, then the awful Holocaust ordeal, and they still get shit from Christians for the whole killing Jesus thing (not trying to be insensitive). Why not brag a little here and there for such an accomplishment of controlling Hollywood, though it’s a moot point? Perhaps because of the Jewish bloodline having to go through so much, they were blessed with the characteristic to persevere time and time again. Now that things have settled, those same characteristics exist in Jewish DNA leaving Jewish Americans and all Jewish people to follow opportunity, work extra hard, and reach the goals they set, whether they be high up or not.
When it comes to religion, I do not have one that I follow. I understand that religion shapes a person’s perception of life, but I cannot stand it when some tries to impose their religion and views on someone else. So having conflicts between people of different religions is very unnecessary. It shouldn’t matter what religion one follows, it’s not like their belief is affecting your life directly. I do not understand the author’s point of the article “How Jewish is Hollywood”. In my opinion it does not matter of whether who makes the movie or holds high position in the entertainment business because I will still watch them. As long as I’m being entertained it does not matter of who would produce them. Is the author purposely trying to create some type of controversy or is he trying to praise is fellow Jewish people?
It’s not like they are using the media as a means of propaganda to sway people to follow a specific religion. If anything when there are movies or shows that talk about religion Christianity is the number religion that is referred to. This country is run by Christianity, so it does not matter if the people who have high position in entertainment are of a different religion. There are more advertisement for Christian holidays or events rather than any other religion. I don’t want to sound harsh but honestly I don’t think that anyone even thought about it or even cared before that article. Regardless the entertainment business will not lose any money from this article. In fact the author could be just trying to give praise to Jewish people, so there is no harm in that. If there is any controversy, people should just stop getting upset at stuff that does not have an immediate effect to their life.
In regards to the blog I agree that Jewish and Christians as well as Muslims have been in conflict with each other ever since they were all founded. All three of these religions have the same basic views but they all just have different interpretations of god and the prophets that they believe. So this on-going conflict between each religion should stop because people are so concerned about the views of others rather than themselves.
But I would like to know when will America will be ready for a president that has a different background. There are a lot of people around this country who are not Christian and hold high positions. From the article the citizens of the United States do not have a problem with Jewish people having the majority of high positions in Hollywood. I would like to see what issues arise when a person who is not Christian runs for president. I remember they tried to give Barack Obama problems because of his diverse religious background.
My reaction to the article about Jews controlling Hollywood is who cares? I understand that it’s a “feat” because Jews were looked down on by Christians after the crucifixion. However, I don’t get why that man was “so upset” that only 22% of Americans thought Hollywood was run by Jews. This man makes it seem like a competition and he’s mad that Christians think they are winning the competition in Hollywood, when really the Jews have “taken the lead”. Jews have the stereotype of being very “well-to-do” and wealthy because they are extremely hard-working. It doesn’t surprise me that a lot of people who are rich or control Hollywood are Jewish. I feel that religion is important, but it shouldn’t define our success. If I were to become a wealthy woman, I would not be offended if someone didn’t acknowledge the fact I was a Christian woman. I think faith is something that helps keep us grounded and it a part of us. I was also kind of surprised at the Martin Luther article. I grew up a very conservative Lutheran. My entire family, both immediate and extended, is Lutheran and has grown up attending church every single Sunday. I had learned a lot about Martin Luther and even went to see the movie. Yet, I never once learned about his anti-Semitic views. I was always taught that since I was a Christian, I should love everyone and treat everyone the same, regardless of their religion, skin color, hair color, or any defining attributes. I think we should keep our faith to ourselves and practice it in our own way. Why should we make it known to everyone which religion is running the media? How would this man have felt if Muslims were actually the majority in Hollywood? It really is stupid. I think that this man’s competitiveness is why we should keep religion out of Hollywood. There is such attention on Tom Cruise’s belief in scientology and how Madonna is practicing the Kabala. Who gives a hoot? Our world revolves around Hollywood more and more each day, with Extra, Perez Hilton, and US Weekly. We concentrate way too much on how much certain groups were oppressed and I believe that’s why we can’t move forward and get past racism, sexism, and discrimination in general. Personally, even though I feel we should not be looking at the wealthier people’s races and religions, I feel it is great that we do have people whose ancestors were oppressed, now running our country. We have a black president and Jews are “controlling Hollywood”. So now let’s go back to practicing our faith in peace and try to work TOGETHER instead of separately in groups. Hallelujah!
The article seriously was meaningless. The world s going insane when it comes o race and religion. I don’t understand all of this crap. Religion is supposed to be some sort of relationship a person had with God and that’s it. No one should force it on others or make it a public statement. I seriously think hat every person should respect the other person’s religion and not turn into an argument or fight or war. The world is having wars over the stupidest things you can imagine. I wish that everyone would take this class and open their eyes. To be exact I wish politicians would! The article to be honest didn’t mean a thing to me. Hollywood is Hollywood. It’s diverse full of people that come and accomplish their dreams. They want o become an actor, director, produce, etc regardless of their religion. I never watched a movie and actually questioned where is this person from. What is his religion? It’s my last concern I just watch the movie and enjoy it. if I like the actor I just go through the internet and look up where that person’s from how did he come to who he’s today but not look at his religion and say oh yeah he’s Jewish I’m in love with him, oh he’s Christian I hate him, oh he’s Muslim TERRORIST. The person who wrote the article wants to say yeah Jewish are here and Hollywood is Jewish. Man I understand that Jews what to make it a statement that we are still here and we are not going anywhere because of the holocaust and what they’ve been through. But every person has to put these things behind. It’s so similar to the issue with black and white every issue I see just builds up from history and I know it’s hard to ignore history. But someone has to make the change for the world o change or else we would never be in peace. NEVER EVER! I’m just really fed up with a of this every person stereotypes a religion and that’s it the don’t even think about it twice. There’s more to it not everyone is the same. We are each different. It is tiring as in honestly. I see us in Penn state getting along every person coming from a different background. Es for sure there are people who just hate other religions and races but at the same time there are others who just want to get to know about these different races and religions. People who want to know what is beyond this bubble that we live in. Maybe it is freedom of speech is what causes all thee problems?
Im really happy that a post like this was brought up before the semester is over. The topic of Judaism as an culture or ethnicity or religion has been lightly touched upon, and it is definitely an issue I can relate to. Being from a predominately Jewish area in New York, I assumed that everyone understood the relationship between Judaism and the Christianity. I always saw it as generally positive, not hostile, just a simple difference in belief.
To come to college and realize how unaware some of me peers of the similarities between the two religions was really alarming. I never encountered such closed mindedness and inexperience when I told my new friends that I am Jewish. People were surprised, others rarely spoke to me again. It was a very weird experience for me coming from my hometown where almost every one was Jewish.
I felt more aware and open to learn about our differences and found that there is no logical reason for the hostility. People fail to realize that the main difference between Judaism and Christianity is our belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah (or son of G-d). We share many of the same ideals and believe in most of the same biblical stories. We all answer to the same big man upstairs. As it is mentioned in the blog, at one point in history, every present day Chirstian had a Jewish ancestor.
This class has taught me so much about awareness and understanding of races that are not my own. I think that antisemetic views could reduce if people are open and willing to learn about people that differ from them. Sometimes the religion issue is just as big as the race issue. Wars are fought and lives are lost everyday because of religious differences. Millions of Jewish lives were lost because of this sort of narrow minded thinking.
On a different note, in regards to the article, I always thought of the prevalence of Jewish Hollywood moguls was similar to the prevalence of Black men in professional basketball. I don’t see how either could be viewed as a negative issue.
When Hollywood was first becoming prevalent, in order to be successful in the entertainment industry, it was imperitive that you had a strong and broad social network. The best way to get recognized was to be aware of everyone else’s business, or in Yiddish, to be a “yenta” or gossip. It does not surprise me that the amount of Jewish people in the entertainment industry has decreased, because of the popularity of social websites like Perez Hilton and Us Weekly and Twitter.
In response to “When does a conversation step over the line,” I must say that I agree that Hollywood is run, not completely, but mostly by those of the Jewish faith. I was never sure whether or not the term “Jews” was acceptable when addressing Jewish folks, but I’m going to use it anyway for the sake that the blog entry uses it and I don’t really believe in being “politically correct” all the time. Anyway, it is true that Hollywood is predominantly Jewish. Why not? Look at the facts and examples; one cannot get away with telling me that Hollywood is not Jewish. What the hell do you think Stephen Spielberg is? Yes, the most innovative and creative director and producer in the history of filmmaking is a Jew. Awesome. Ari Gold, the character from Entourage, why do you think he’s Jewish? Because, the popular show, which I myself love and enjoy is making the stereotype (because it is in fact true) that many agents and successful people in Hollywood are Jews. Woody Allen! One of my personal favorite directors and actors as well, is VERY Jewish. Elliot Gould, Harvey Weinstein, Jerry Seinfeld, Brett Ratner, etc, are all jews and they make the shows and movies that I watch, the shows I love. There is no way that Hollywood would be as successful today if it weren’t for the jews. And again, with another stereotype, jews that are good accountants. It’s true. I bet ninety percent, if not more of the accountants in Hollywood are jewish. I’m not exactly sure how to explain why, but I just think that it is in their blood or their culture that numbers and successful business are just preprogrammed in jewish people. I must say, if Stephen Spielberg was not jewish, or the fact that him being jewish for some reason would have halted is success, then I doubt there would be the Hollywood that we all know and love today. In my own opinion, because he (Mr. Spielberg) has made such an impact on the entertainment industry, if he did not exist, then I probably wouldn’t enjoy movies as much as I do. If there was another Spielberg, and if somehow he did not exist and one was just there to take his place, say in an alternate universe, then how is he not in existence right now? If one Spielberg is great, why not two? Not to get all into race and religion and gender and all that, but it just so happens that his is how Hollywood is and I have no problem with that. I would not take anything in Hollywood and change it, except for a few directors and actors that I think are shit. Go Jews!
Prejudice towards Jews is unique for the fact that it spans both the globe and much of human history. I’m not an expert on the matter but there has to be more at play than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I think much of it can be linked to the discrimination which every other culture has endured. Sam pointed out that each group of immigrants to the United States shares the fact that at one time they were depicted as less than human. I think this may be the first step in spreading racism (if it’s not it is an important step regardless).
Immigrants in particular have served as targets for this discrimination. When we begin to view entire groups of people as being all of the same mold it becomes easier to deny them their rights and the common courtesy they deserve. Immigration has been a hot topic for as long as I can remember. As a white middle class male it’s easy to be caught up in the hysteria surrounding “Mexican immigrants stealing American jobs”. Often the situation depicts someone who I cannot connect to, a Mexican man who doesn’t speak English, stealing the source of income from a White man. “Mexican” is thrown around as an insulting term and if I were never to meet a person from Mexico it would be easy to begin thinking that there is something wrong with claiming Mexican heritage. With the economy on a downturn it becomes easy to get riled up as people begin losing their jobs. Who’s to blame? Those Mexicans is the message that you begin to hear.
It’s always easier when someone else is to blame for your struggles so we’re more than happy to push this on the Mexican culture. It’s even easier when those perceived to be responsible are seen as having less value than one’s own culture.
Over winter break I worked a construction job in New York City. I knew nothing about this line of work but I knew someone who got me a temporary job. The work was dangerous at times, we were not on the ground, and January in New York City isn’t exactly beach weather. It should come as no surprise that the majority of these scaffolding workers were Hispanic. In fact, many could not even speak English. Over the course of 10 days I began to realize that my mere presence was probably just slowing them down. In spite of this fact they showed me the ropes and made sure I did not kill myself. It was my first real interaction with Mexican immigrants. Until that experience, they were “those people stealing our jobs”, but now I hear Mexican immigrant and I begin to think of those guys I worked with. They were in many ways no different than my Irish ancestors who worked back breaking jobs in that very same city only a short while ago. The issue of immigration is much more complex than it’s often made out to be. No matter how you feel about it, I think it does no harm to remember that we’re still talking about human beings.
I really don’t care if the “chiefs of Hollywood” are Jewish or not. Obviously Joel Stein was bent out of shape by the results of a poll taken concerning “Jews in Hollywood” and wanted to set the record straight because he gets some satisfaction knowing that people of his race continue to be successful in many fields. I can’t really understand this “gang” perspective because I have never felt that I strongly identified with any race or particular religion. My connections have been to family and friends regardless of their religion or race. My pride has been rooted in my personal accomplishments, and the positive events that occur in our society although often few in number sustain my faith that humanity is reaching beyond itself for a higher purpose. It is okay that Stein has pride about his heritage to a point, but it is obnoxious and bordering on rude to rant on and on about how great he thinks Jews are at everything they do. It is great that the individuals he mentions have been successful, but drawing conclusions about the extraordinary talents of his entire race is bogus.
Truthfully, proclaiming superiority serves no purpose but to separate and alienate people. More importantly Mr. Stein, what exactly have you accomplished with your life? Maybe Stein and the multitude of other racially biased people should focus on people as individuals and on their own paths and contributions to society. Try addressing this challenge: the elimination of racial prejudice. Steins editorial only serves to outrage anti-Semitics and instigate conflict. I’m sure the fanatical Christian Right would love to blame “the fall of American youth from moral grace” on the “evil” Jews that control Hollywood! The reason these individuals have been successful in Hollywood is because they have dedicated their time to achieve success in their field. It is not because they are Jewish. Because I do not possess the religious fervor that fosters hatred of any race, I know that I am naïve about the extent of anti-Semitism in our country. Isn’t it just so ironical for all those Jew hating and fearing Americans to know that the media is controlled by these extremely capable and obviously intelligent individuals who just happen to be Jewish
Martin Luther’s hatred of the Jews infuriates me. The seeds of hatred that he planted in the 1500’s caused the near annihilation of a race in the twentieth century. It is ironic that the roots of evil can lie in religious beliefs (even “Christianity”), which proclaim guidelines for morality. It is when religious fanatics distort moral philosophies that people are led astray. Justifying murder because of prejudice against a person’s religious beliefs is immoral and insane. It illustrates the danger and error of human interpretation of divine philosophy. Perhaps this is the main reason that I am hesitant to follow a religious doctrine. Although I consider myself a spiritual person and believe in a higher power, I am not a member of a religious denomination. In most cases, it seems that joining demands a gang mentality kind of loyalty. I don’t want to participate in something that separates people, promotes intolerance, and closes minds.
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What’s so cool about dissing Jews?
I think it is appalling how an entire group of people can be accused for the wrong doing of a few and what happened in the past. (Muslims and terrorism, so I can feel the pain of Jewish people). I can honestly say that I have no problems with the Jewish people over what happens with Israel and the Middle East, and whatever issues have occurred with the Jewish people of the past. I feel so sorry how Jews were given a bad name years ago, but now that we look at it, the jewish people have come back and they’ve come back strong. They have the most rich lobbyists, and they control many major industries. This is a great improvement over how the Jewish people were segregated from the community and how they were mercilessly persecuted throughout history.
I think that the paranoia that is felt towards the Jewish people is unrealistic, and that is heavily-founded. Who cares, unless they are using that power for evil or whatever. There is nothing wrong with how they have improved themselves. The Jewish people’s strongest asset is their togetherness. They are able to come together so that they can better each other. What I don’t understand is how the peaceful people can scare populations so much. People fear so much, and they fear what they do not know. I don’t know why the American people or people fear Jews so much.
Another thing, I have to say is that I have no qualms with Jewish people or Israelis, but I have a problem with the Israeli government. This government is creating the same type of racism the Jewish people fled from, and thus they have become as evil as those who persecuted them. I guess the persecuted will persecute their weaker “foes”. They are repeating the crimes of their oppressors through numerous ways upon the Palestinian people, and everyone is staying silent and not talking about it.
With the anti-Semitism comic. What in the world? Anyway, as weird and stupid as it was I found it interesting that the more of the categories had to do with how Jews apparently beat down the Arabs. What was more interesting was that the writer of the comic had a convincingly European name. I was very confused about that, if he was an anti-Semitist than what stopped him from being anti-Arab. That part really confused me since I had no idea that a white European would actually care about Arabs even though he was a racist in his own right. Anyway, I believe that anti-Semitism is wrong, but some people are far to guilty of what happened to the Jewish people even though it wasn’t their fault, and are allowing Israel to do what they want.
Joel Stein’s article “How Jewish is Hollywood” is incredibly irrelevant. Does it really matter who is running Hollywood? I can’t ever recall watching a film with a pro-Judaism message. Much more than religion movies are determined by politics, almost every movie, especially ones that get recognized by the Academy, have a very liberal message. Besides the fact that many major studio executives are Jewish is a meaningless statistic the has little influence over anything, the writer Joel Stein seems to brag and get some kind of satisfaction from Jewish people being in control, this is both sad and weird. I never here black people brag about almost everyone in the NBA and NFL are black, or Christian people in general dominate many fields proportionately. When people start bragging about one ethnic or religious group does better or worse than another it can get real messy. It is only when we ignore or don’t find anything significant behind the fact certain ethnic or religious groups seem to have a niche in society will bigotry continue to disappear. Nothing good comes from people joking about stereotypes, but even less comes from bragging about what your religious or ethnic group does superior to others. Joel’s article states that he is just a proud Jew trying to put out the fact that Jewish people are very successful in society, Hollywood in particular, but it comes out more along the lines of ethnocentrism than just being proud. Saying that without Jews all people would be watching is the “700 Club” and other crappy television shows is incredibly ethnocentric, not just being proud. Religion has nothing to do with how well one can write a television show. Joel Stein also comments that Jewish people run the government and Wall-Street, which is news to me, but that is beside the point. My point is that I do not understand why Joel Stein needs to shove the success of Jewish people in the reader’s face, but they like every other religious group doesn’t have anything to prove anyway, and when Joel Stein gets caught up on what he thinks separates Jews from the rest he just further divides people when we really should be focusing on coming together. However, I liked a phrase ADL Chairman Abe Foxman used; saying just because Jews happen to be well represented in Hollywood as well as the law and medical fields doesn’t mean their religion affects their work, “This does not mean Jews make pro-Judaism movies just like Jewish doctors don’t perform pro-Judaism surgery. Joel Stein is obviously very passionate and proud of his heritage, but I feel he is off base and should focus on being more sensitive and productive towards fighting stereo-types and anti-Semitism rather than bragging that no one can entertain like Jews.
I really find it odd how easy it is for people to get away with Jewish jokes and taunts. I am not referring to anything anti-Semitic or something to that level but simply how the term Jewish can be attached to negative terms such as being greedy, stingy, conniving, crafty and so on and so forth. Pretty much throughout history Jews have had it pretty bad and have always been blamed for anything that happens or has happened to go wrong. I remember in Sam’s class one time how he mentioned that there are two absolutes throughout the world in terms of race relations; anti-Semitism and Negrophobia. From events such as the Inquisition, the Holocaust, and other numerous pogroms around the globe Jews have been expelled, persecuted and vilified by numerous groups of people many of them acting having been inspired by religious and political authorities like the Catholic Church, numerous governments in the Middle East and Nazi Germany.
Anyways, I am always perplexed at how people perceive Jews to be the ones running the world and everything from the financial system to the US government. I mean I know that there is a lot of heavy Jewish influence in many areas of banking, finance, mining, industry, politics etc. and granted that is okay in my opinion but the rumors about a Jewish controlled global economy fail to convince me. About a Jewish controlled Hollywood, I could care less. Maybe it’s true but I fail to see that as a sort of negative issue that needs a remedy or something like that. Anti-Semitism in my eyes is not any different from any racism that we typically see and as a matter of fact it appears to be getting worse with many people using the issue of the Israeli occupation of Palestine as a bulwark to advance their denigration of the Jewish people. Hey I am not Jewish by the way. Jews have contributed a lot to fields of medicine, industry, business, education and they have managed to achieve these feats despite their past experiences of discrimination and persecution. I salute them for that.
Whether or not you are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Lutheran, Catholic, or any other religion, if you are more qualified for the position in Hollywood, then you deserve it. So what if there is a trend that most successful producers and movie stars are Jewish? It is true, as the article had discussed, it is not like they are acting in order to force their Jewish beliefs upon their audiences. I can bet the majority of the public that does not look too far into what religious backgrounds the producers and actors/actresses come from, would have any idea they were Jewish to begin with. We need to take the time to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. I mean come on, is that all we really care about? Quite frankly, I think it’s ridiculous that this is even being discussed because religion is a personal choice or preference that no one should even have the right to bash on what religion a person is. I think there are just some people that are always finding ways to stir up controversy when it is completely unnecessary.
In addition, I have to disagree that all Christians view Jews as the enemy. I was born and raised Catholic by a STRICT catholic family. My parents are strict Catholics and my grandparents are even more. However, we have never bashed on Jews or looked at them any differently than any Muslim, Protestant, or Born again Christian. We are not one of those families that think Catholicism is the only great religion and everyone should practice it. Yes, we have discussed how difficult it would be to raise a family with one Jewish parent and one Catholic parent, but we never thought of Jewish people as our enemies. My parents would be accepting if we were to have a Jewish person in our family no matter how difficult it would be. Even though I only knew two Jewish kids in my high school, many of my best friends here at Penn State are Jewish and I would never have known that if it hadn’t come up in conversation. I would be a hypocrite to say that Jewish people are my enemies because that would mean anyone that had different beliefs or views on matters from me are my enemies as well. We each have our own beliefs and practices that we take pride in. Can’t we all just practice or own religions and get on with it? We need to stop wasting our time on stupid matters such as these when there are much more important things to worry about.
When does a conversation step over the line?
I am not really sure how to respond to this article. Is it supposed to be offensive? Is it supposed to be prideful? Is it saying “yay for Jewish people, they own Hollywood” or “boo Jewish people, they are taking over our culture”? I do not really see an issue with it personally. Ok, so Jewish people are really prevalent in Hollywood. Great, what does that matter? Christians are pretty much prevalent in all the rest of society. Every religion is more prevalent than another in some situation. Does that mean they are forcing their Jewish beliefs on us subliminally through media? Some people who are Jewish, just are culturally and not necessarily religiously. I think of this differently than how we think of people who are Christian. If you are Christian, it means you hold Christian beliefs. If you are Jewish, you could hold Jewish beliefs, or your mother could just be Jewish. I guess even the term “Jewish” could be broken up to mean two different things. In one aspect a religious term, in another aspect a cultural or even racial term. I wonder if you extend the term Jewish to mean a race? I know we talked about this exact topic in our group one time, but I think we discussed how a race is something you can physically see. At the time I agreed, now I am not so sure. I think race has more to do with where your ancestry originated geographically (which then could influence the physical aspects) and then how it can be passed genetically from one generation to another. In that sense “Jewish” could be a race. Maybe; I guess if you include having it be able to be passed down through the father as well. The other sketchy part of it being a race, is how you can convert to being Jewish. You can’t really convert to a different race, you are just born with it and stuck in that race for the rest of your life. I have gotten off topic at this point, but it’s an interesting question, the classification of being Jewish.
I read through some of the comments on the article, and, as Sam mentioned, some were intelligent, some not so intelligent, some outright ridiculous. People think the Jews are plotting to take over the world? Really? Taking away our morality? Playing the victim card? They are scared to promote Christianity? All of these ideas are very frustrating to me. The first one is ridiculous- have they looked at world statistics? 14 million Jews world-wide vs. 2.1 billion Christians and 1.5 billion Islamics as counter forces? They’d have to have some crazy underground plots going on. Are people aware the Jewish people have the same basic beliefs as what all the other monotheists believe and even share the same sacred texts? I am not even sure how the victim card comes into play in Hollywood, why would they even need to use it, if they own most of it to begin with? And in America, which was founded NOT BY CHRISTIANS contrary to common belief, but has somehow become a strongly Christian nation…do we need to worry about promoting more Christianity? Is 76% not a great enough percentage, I thought we were supposed to be an open-minded religious freedom country? I am not Christian by the way, if you had not guessed, I am part of a religious minority. Anyway, this has turned into more of a rant, but I’ll close by saying I think many of the comments would be funny if they weren’t actually serious about what they were saying. The only guy who I felt connected with what he was saying was the one who said at the end, “What difference does it make who made them? God made us all. Shalom”. If ever you were to try to convert me to a religion, it would be by example, not by trying to persuade me to believe what you believe.
Interesting article. For a while I couldn’t tell if the guy was joking or serious. I think he was actually serious now that I’ve read through. It is interesting to me because it seems like a totally new perspective. Usually I hear people bitching about being mad that the Jews have control of the entertainment industry and that Christians can never seem to break in. Yet this guy just seems really proud that his kind are in control of all eight major studio. Seems kind of closed minded. It seems if you really wanted to entertain people you would want lots of diversity, lots of ideas from all over the world. This guy seems like he wants Jews to run Hollywood forever; and he wants everyone to know about it. I guess it is good he has pride in his culture, but he seems a little to worked up about getting everyone to know Hollywood and the entertainment industry as a whole is run by Jews. He seems kind of like the opposite of anti-sematic, like anti-Christian I guess. Yet maybe if I had to put with all the shit Christians have given Jewish people I would be the same way. I wonder how it ended up that all eight major studios are run by Jewish people. Maybe they look out for their own even more because they feel secluded by the majority of Christians in our society today. I think this has a very negative affect on our society though, and only fuels the fire for Christians against Jews and vice versa. Why can’t we all just love each other you know. I do not identify with any particular religion, unless you say atheism is a religion, but I can imagine reading this article as a strong hearted Christian, as most Americans claim to be, there would be some anger at what I read. It honestly sounds like this guy is bragging they have kept Christians out of entertainment and that it will be like that forever. Pride and bragging are two different things and this guy seems to have taken it to the level of bragging. It is certainly not helping the Jewish population or the Christian population and really if he wants to keep it all in the family and make sure everyone in the industry is Jewish he probably shouldn’t make it his main goal to brag about how no one else has succedded in the indutry. It only inspires others to come and work their ass off to make it big. I wish religion didn’t cause so many problems in our society, but it to me it sometimes seems like more of an issue than race. We just need to realize people believe different things and coexist in peace.
I think when people talk about privilege it is hard to talk about them relating to people with “no privileges. I feel like people look at other and complain about what they do not have. We seem to loose focus on making money because we need to survive and try to make money because you friend has it. It just weird to hear all of the names that is associated with Jews. I have heard Jewish people called all types of name but the name I hear the most is “stingy” referring to money. I never understood the concept of people trying to keep lol. I personally think that Jew are just like any other person, but what I also think is that an older generation of Jews especially in America was coming from over seas and may have been poor. With this concept it is telling there families that saving money is great especially in America where we spend a lot of money on bullshit that really don’t mean nothing after we buy it. I guess everywhere we go in the world some group of people will have some type of concept that others will not understand. The thing is I am here and in this country there are concepts that I do not understand. For the time being I will just try to adjust to certain thing and if I cant adjust then so be it. I feel like there will always be a groups of people that understand certain thing that others just will not. On other hand it can work in vice versa because the people who you may not understand might believe the same way that you might believe. If there was a certain fear for white that I didn’t understand and if white felt the same about me here really is no difference. The fear is the exactly the same. I don’t know really know what to say about it because we can not always speak out of ignorance. I feel that the more ignorant thing that we may speak about has a strong chance of making this become more of a political correct definition. Like people who run media probably would put on an advertisement that black love chicken, instead of stating that all people love chicken. For the rest of my life I feel as though because I’m black I will always be associated with chick as Jews are associated with their stinginess. Do I like it? Not really. Its pretty dumb, but I I am past it. There is just more thing to worry about in the world. Whites run the media, but black have a big part to it as well and I will not believe for one second that there is one black man in a room of all white saying, “Put a black man in the chicken commercial. You know how they love their chicken.” Is it stupid? Yes. Am I past it? Yes.
In response to the blog, “When Does Conversation Step Over the Line?” I found this to be a very relevant topic to where I lived all my life. Growing up in a predominantly jewish area in Pennsylvania known as the Main Line, I have been around Jewish people my entire life. My best friends are jewish and they will be for the rest of my life. I felt like Sam’s article was very pessimistic and outdated. He made it seem like everyone hates Jewish people, and while they are often ridiculed or stereotyped on many occasions, this is not the case. Call me a biased Catholic, but I have never heard of the Jewish community being the “enemy of the Christian Church” in contemporary society. Actually, that is absurd. Never has anyone from my Church or surrounding churches denounced Judaism. Never has any of my CCD teachers said anything demoting or disrespecting Judaism. We respect the religion and its people. They are no different from us in most regards. Sure, kids joke around and stereotype Jewish kids as “cheap” but every religion has its stereotypes. I was not aware of the “Wrath of Christians” either in today’s society. Maybe I am misinterpreting what you are trying to say, but you are making it seem like we (Christians) are the enemies and every Jewish person has a clean slate. Maybe you are trying to provoke more passionate responses, but I did not feel that way when reading your article.
Having been around jewish tradition and holidays my entire life I am very familiar with Jewish culture. Actually my grandfather is Jewish and married my grandmother who was Christian. My grandfather always celebrated by himself, though he did always give us some gelt which you could say put me in the Holiday spirit. Furthermore, my entire hometown practically celebrated Jewish Holidays. Rarely would my schools get a day off for a “less important” Christian holiday but my public elementary school, middle school and high school all closed school for Jewish holidays. Of course I never complained about that--getting a day off of school to do whatever I wanted was great. Even here, I have many close ties with jewish kids in my fraternity and other fraternities alike. I have never distiniguished between religions and never will.
Now, in regards to the movie business in Hollywood, I find it absolutely ridiculous that they distinguish between religions. I do not have an issue with the movie business having a mostly jewish set of employees. If they are the most fit for the job then they deserve it. In the twenty first century, I think it is fair to assume that this should be less of a concern.
The fact that so many Jewish people run Hollywood is certainly fascinating, and it is easy to understand why many people would consider it some sort of conspiracy against Christianity. I hold nothing against them for their achievements, but would find it interesting to look into the history of how it became fact that Jewish people ran Hollywood. I would have appreciated some of that history from the author of the article, but instead he seems to just be glorifying how great his people are. That stance, to me, is a bit pointless. It is great to be loving of your own people, but if you’re going to tell others how great you are, at least offer some insight into how those people became so great.
The most fascinating part of this article for me was the quote by Martin Luther. I was raised in the Lutheran church, and although I was never very interested in it and do not involve myself with it anymore, it is interesting that something so awful as that has never been mentioned by anyone I know. The entire church is based around the philosophy of an individual who was a gigantic bigot, and nobody questions that philosophy? Baffling. I wonder how my parents, both of whom are extremely caring and accepting of all people, would react to finding out about this. Even more amazing, I wonder how my pastor would react. Does he know? It seems pretty unlikely that he went through biblical school and had never heard that Martin Luther was a gigantic anti-Semite. He seems to me like a really decent guy too.
This is not to say that I wasn’t aware of some of the ugly sides of the church I was raised in. At a very young age I noticed that hanging from the church Christmas tree was the cross shape that the KKK uses as one of their symbols. My mom explained it by saying that it was bastardized by the KKK in the same way the swastika was bastardized by the Nazis. But either way, that means that a lot of members of the KKK are possibly Lutheran. And maybe I’m wrong to judge my church based on some extremists. It’s not like I’ve ever really paid attention to what my church was teaching teaching. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that such a terrible group of people spawned from protestant roots.
But returning to the original point of the article, I see no problem with the prevalence of Jews in Hollywood. They earned their spot there quite some time ago, and now they are established. Nepotism is a large part of capitalism and I honestly don’t see any problem with it.
On a daily basis I am amazed at my ignorance, as individual cases of it seem to crop up incessantly. I had no idea Jews "ruled" Hollywood. To me this is both surprising and unsurprising, not from an evaluation of the character of Hollywood's output, but as an extension and perpetuation of a pervasive cultural phenomenon.
During one (or perhaps several) lectures, Sam brought up the tendency for some of the more significant instances of domestic cultural appropriation or change to find their roots in minority or "fringe" groups. He brought up skateboarder attire and popular music. Popular music (jazz, rock, etc) is a distinctly American product, and finds its roots in African-American music that eventually came to be termed "the blues." Perhaps we're seeing something of the sort with Hollywood, and American film, as a Jewish product.
In any event, this wouldn't be the first time Jews have "done such a thing." Western music in the classical sense has certainly had its fair share of crucial Jewish contributors including Adler, Babbitt, Berg, Berlin, Bernstein, Copland, Davidovsky, Eisler, Feldman, Foss, Gershwin, Glass, Kagel, Kern, Kirchner, Klemperer, Kurtag, Ligeti, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Milhaud, Offenbach, Perle, Reich, Rubinstein, Schnittke, Schoenberg, Slonimsky, Subotnick, (Tilson) Thomas, Weill, Zemlinsky, Zorn. The list goes on, and those few I've listed already read like a who's who. In point of fact, the Nazis had a hard time reconciling what they considered the true German art form (absolute musik) with some of the most influential German musicians themselves (i.e. their backgrounds). Music is clearly not the only arena in which may major figures have been Jewish, of course, but the musical example should suffice for now.
In all, I think it somewhat confounding to, in this instance, consider Jews as a fringe group (albeit a technical minority) in American culture. Their dominance in Hollywood should be evidence enough to their firm integration as a driving cultural force. They are a Part of America, and moreover, they are American. The distinction the author of the article draws between these Jews and the rest of America is somewhat shortsighted, I feel. Apart from being a numerical majority, I don't necessarily feel that, intuitively, Christians have a more significant influence on our cultural values and perception. Of course, "Christian" values may indeed pervade our cultural core, but how different are these than Jewish values? I'm no Semitic expert, and I'd love some feedback. Do we not share the 10 Commandments? What teachings are uniquely Christian besides the words of Jesus, and how far do they deviate from Jewish ones aside from his claim to Messiah-hood? Besides, I don't think mores regarding decency, modesty, or propriety from any religious source have much bearing on mainstream American culture today anyhow. Neither Judaism nor Christianity can be said to promote what Hollywood tends to, that being sexual saturation, drugs, violence, and cheap thrills, among other things. I know, I'm old-fashioned and simple minded. I'm Catholic. Oh snap!!!
This post reminds me a lot to the times when I was a kid looking at the missalette during Good Friday service, before the reading of the passion of Christ there was a statement from the Catholic church that pretty much said Jews should not be persecuted or reviled as the murderers of Jesus. The statement said Jesus, his family and all the disciples were Jews and that Jesus died in order to fulfill the prophecy that he died for our sins. I never really understood why this had to be printed because I never really thought about it that way, but I guess there are a lot of anti-Semitics out there that views Jews as the murderer of Christ.
I can kind of understand where the anti-Semitic feelings come from, whenever there is a group that has a lot of power, or is believed to have a lot of power, people are going to feel resentment, anger or fear. Of course it’s not right, and it’s kind of ironic because many of the people with anti-Semitic feelings are white people who are seen as the most powerful people in our society, so I guess they have to take out some of their troubles on someone and since Jews are viewed as the most powerful people in banking and entertainment they are the ones that become subject to the ridicule.
I can understand where some of the Christian sentiment comes from because according to the gospels Pontius Pilate wasn’t the one that wanted to kill Jesus, he wanted to him go but the Jews said Jesus had to die according to their law, so if you take that literally the Jews did kill Jesus, but they can’t be held accountable for that, that’d be like holding a 16-year-old Alabaman responsible for Slavery or me responsible for the terrible atrocities suffered by Native Americans.
As far as Hollywood influencing society, it does happen, but if you look at media it’s not like all actors and actresses are Jewish, and even the Jewish actors and actresses don’t really act out the Jewish stereotypes, they act more white and that’s because producers and directors know what America wants and identifies with and that’s white people, so in order to be successful and make money they appeal to what America wants. So I don’t really feel like Jews are running the country or controlling society, but at the same time I also feel like they’re wrongly accused and ostrascized, it’s unfortunate and often gets overlooked and it needs to be examined more closely because it’s a part of race relations that doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
Being that I am Jewish I felt almost obligated to comment on this blog. I found myself scanning through my classmates’ responses to this blog and seemed to make a consensus of those who say, “I don’t care who runs Hollywood,” “Why should I care?.” I find this quite funny that everyone does not care about this, but we are so quick to say that a black man is running our country or white people dominate country music. Why does it not matter? To me, it matters a lot. It matters that people of my religion are doing big things in the world, because years ago we would not have been given that opportunity. It matters because people who are scared of Jews or who have never met a Jew in their life are being more influenced by them than the really know. I understand that this article took somewhat of a satirical approach to the concept but so did many of our other articles read on this blog and everyone seemed to care a lot more about those.
Jews do run Hollywood; there is absolutely no ifs, ands or buts about it. Network heads, studio heads, most major producers and directors don’t work on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippor, because they are Jews. Jews have faced, and in my mind will always face anti-Semitism. There is always going to be that one group who hates the Jews, just like there is always going to be that one group that hates the blacks. I think that Jews should celebrate their success in a booming industry like entertainment. We are shaping the minds of the entire world through movies, and although Jewish ideology is not being pushed through messages in the movie, it is nice for me to know that the person backing the production and I have a connection. I don’t think that bigotry is a word that can be used to discuss Joel Stein’s article. Stein does not mention once being intolerant of other’s ideologies, he mentions that he is frustrated that people don’t recognize the success of people that share his religion in high places. His ideas of campaigning to people to get the word out of Jews in Hollywood seems like a pure comedienne routine and I don’t think that people should take that seriously.
It makes me really frustrated that Soc 119 is still filled with a bunch of people who don’t care. This is exactly what Sam is telling us is the wrong thing to do. You should notice race, you should notice religion and you should care. Not caring leads to allowing others to discriminate, not caring is the first step to disaster. So in closing class, please care a little more next time, and if you don’t care at least pretend to.
I do not understand what the issue is really with the public thinking that Jewish people run Hollywood or not; which could be due to my lack of fully comprehending the issue at hand or because of the fact that I am accepting and open-minded so this topic is not something that I naturally think too much about one way or the other. Also, it should be taken into account that I have a strange relationship with all things Jewish because when I was younger I was raised as Jewish and went to temple every week, but now I consider myself to be agnostic. I do not relate to being Jewish at all, except for the fact that I might “look” Jewish and/or if someone asks me “what I am” I normally say Italian and Jewish, for whatever the reason. So due to the above, I have a complicated relationship with the concept of being Jewish or not, and as a matter of fact I do not quite understand any religion at all or the fact that different religions have such strong conflicts and no tolerance for each other. While thinking about these aspects that shape my opinion on this issue I come to realize that I cannot grasp and probably do not share the same outlook as most individuals on this topic (or the view of a Christian or a Jew, which seem to be the two opposing sides here). But, from my point of view, I think this whole article is barely worth discussing. The author of the article starts off by saying he has never been so upset by a poll in his life and that he wants to start a campaign to convince Americans that Jews run Hollywood, his whole point is that he is outraged and wants everyone to believe and to know that Jews do indeed run Hollywood. But then he ends the article by saying I do not care what Americans think, I just care that we keep running Hollywood, which is hypocritical to his entire article. In addition, if only 22% of Americans think that Hollywood is run by Jewish people, then why would they think that Jewish people are controlling the industry and making decisions that have the best outcome for Jews, like the ADL Chairman said. He relates this to the fact that the ADL poll “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’”. But obviously again if the number of Americans that think Jews are running the entertainment business is only 22%, then they are not referring to Jews in this ADL poll, since the numbers do not match up by any means. When I hear 43% and 59% of the public thinks that Hollywood is not sharing and is weakening religious and moral values I do not think it has anything to do with the personal religious views of the executives, I just feel like it refers to the content that is produced promoting sex and violence and so on in our media. This media content by nature would weaken values, but I did not think that Americans were thinking this because they also thought that these executives were Jewish. I am not sure if I am wording my opinion well enough here that it is making sense, but I tried to explain how I interpreted this article, though it might not be correct.
So in all honesty I have never thought about Jews running Hollywood, in fact I have never thought about any particular religion controlling Hollywood. But with this new knowledge it brings up questions like Why? Seriously why are there so many Jews in one area of business when we as a country scream equal opportunity. Shouldn't the distribution of religion in Hollywood reflect that of the country as a whole. But obviously it doesn't. OK all that aside, still the question of why lingers. How do we explain this? Maybe we can apply something we learned in class something like we get jobs from people we know. The entertainment industry is no different and probably even more than most , someones got to give you your big break to get ahead in the entertainment industry. So Jewish people, in high positions will give their friends and family jobs and those people will give people jobs and so it continues just like any other industry in the country. But does it matter who controls the industry? What difference, tangibly, would we see from this Jewish controlled Hollywood and one that reflected the country? I don't think there would be one really. And we do need to distinguish for the sake of this argument the difference between a practicing Jew and Jewish by blood. My cousins are Jewish by faith their father is Jewish and their mother was raised catholic from what I can tell. So technically they are half Jew but they practice Judaism. I also know someone who is Jewish by blood but in no where near a practicing Jew and no none in her family has been for a very long time. So what are we talking about when we say that Jews control Hollywood.
I would also like to address the antisemitism in the history of Christianity. Yes there has been a pretty bad track record for Christian and Jews. And as for the Jews killing Jesus they did sort of. Yes the romans executed him but the people were given a choice. First of all it was the Jewish religious authority that got him arrested in he first place and too because it was a Jewish holiday the roman leader, pilot gave the people a choice to release Jesus or a notorious murderer, but they people chose to release the murderer instead of Jesus. So yes romans killed him but that doesn't mean the Jewish community didn't play a part. But I am just as much to blame as they are. Seriously. As a Christian, I believe Jesus died because of me just as much as he died because of the Jewish community at the time of his death. He wouldn't have had to die if it was for yours and my sins. My sins put him on the cross just as much as the people of his time put him on the cross. So really Christians shouldn't be blaming the Jews for anything.
I’ve grown up pretty liberal, and am very aware of ‘Jew’s ruling Hollywood. I have heard this on TV a lot, and just through different people. I don’t think it is a big deal at all who makes the movies or controls the media. I have heard numerous conspiracy theories saying how Jews control the media and use television and news as mind control to have non-Jews under their power, or some ridiculous notions like that. Maybe they do hold all the top positions, but if that was the business they were raised in, you would assume they’d stick to it if they were successful. I always wondered why so many Jews were involved in the media, and were the heads of these corporations. I’m sure though, if we looked deeper into it, we would find certain trends or sociological reasons which enabled them, or helped them rise to the top of the industry.
If you ever watched Entourage, the HBO show, you’ll see how Ari always talks about the Jews and how they are ruling things. (Ari is also a Jew). Agreeing with others, movies are just movies. How can a Jewish guy producing Spiderman translate into a plot for world domination and mass mind control of America? And even if that is the case, that Jews control Hollywood, you could make the same argument that Christians control our government. Which topic warrants more attention: A religious group controlling a movie studio, or a religious group controlling the strongest and most advanced country in the world? I think the answer is pretty clear. But because we (mostly) are Christians, we ignore this, and don’t see anything wrong with it. I think I heard that out of the entire Senate there was 2 Jews total. I think
Also, think about the last time you watched a movie where the character had strong Jewish undertones? When was the last time you saw a movie where the main character was a Jew. Minus Schindler’s List, which some deniers were outraged about, I can’t think of many. And Schindler’s List, even IF the holocaust deniers are right, and it never happened(Which I believe it undoubtedly happened), it doesn’t change that from being a good movie. It was more than just the Holocaust and feeling bad for the Jews, it was also about a man who wanted to repent for his wrongs, and showed a message that could be applied to other scenarios. And like someone else said, why should they be ashamed to be Jewish? Just because they are successful doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be proud of their religion. I know in high school many different kids that were Jewish (there was only actually a few of them), were almost embarrassed to tell people their religion. One of my friends I didn’t even know until I was friends with him for some time. In conclusion, I don’t think who runs Hollywood should be an issue. And if people wanted to start about conspiracy theories, maybe it’s our government’s way of taking the heat off of them while they blindly ravage innocent nations in the middle east.
After reading the article by Joel Stein, I was truly amazed by the numerous Jewish people who apparently “run” Hollywood. It isn’t that I do not think that Jewish people should be in control, but simply because I was unaware of who exactly ran Hollywood. I always envisioned Hollywood as just a collection of people creating ideas of ideal ways for people to live. Hollywood was the one pushing the ideas of how women are supposed to look and how men are supposed to act. To learn that many of these people are Jewish means nothing to me, although I’m sure that others do not feel the same. I am just as disappointed in the disgustingly skinny models becoming younger and younger now that I know that many of the people who set these precedents as I would be if any other group was setting these terrible standards.
I think it is fair to say that Hollywood executives (like most average Americans) are looking out for their own self interests. Making money one’s self and one’s family is most people’s primary goals. I understand, though did not truly agree with this. I am very liberal, and have been disappointed by our current “rich get richer, poor get poorer” trend. As has been discussed many times in class, the King of the Mountain is a perfect replica for how we live and have lived as Americans. It is possible that this is how so many Jewish people run Hollywood, but it is also how so many Christians hold government positions.
I believe that people nowadays understand that Jewish people are not crazy or really any different from Christians. Movies like Borat (not produced in Hollywood), poke fun at the stereotypes of Jewish people when the two main characters joke that, “the Jews are changing their form into ants”. Many people laughed at this part because of the ridiculousness of the comment, not because they actually thought these ‘different’ people could change forms.
What I am trying to say is that I hold the (possibly naïve) view that people have changed and grown past stupid stereotypes. It is hard for me to sit here and say that some people don’t have an advantage because many do. White males hold advantages over other people that are impossible to ignore. With that being said, I believe that the average person of the United States does not have ill intentions towards any race. I believe that the fact that, “Only 22% of Americans now believe "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," down from nearly 50% in 1964” shows more about the intelligence of the citizens of our country than anything else.
First off, I’m not Jewish and I don’t know a whole lot about Jewish people in general. I was very surprised, though, when the article exposed the fact that all the head-honchos mentioned in the article are Jewish. Never—before reading Sam’s blog and the article—did I realize a stereotype and thoughts of Jewish people running Hollywood even existed. After reading the article and blog though, my opinions quickly changed. I immediately began feeling some minor anti-Jewish feelings wondering why Christians don’t hold any of the higher positions in these industries or, more particularly, these companies. It didn’t take too long, though, for me to relax and realize that it really isn’t THAT big of a deal.
I’m actually a little relieved to hear that Hollywood isn’t being steered, guided, directed, etc by Christian men and women because it would be a horrid testament to their beliefs and Christians in general. I don’t mean this to insinuate that Jewish people have no morals, ethics, sensibility, etc. (However, this doesn’t bode well for the Jewish community in my eyes.) Unfortunately, it could be a case of a few proverbial flies spoiling the milk.
On the other hand, there are numerous movies that do support Christian values and efforts. The companies these Jewish people lead make many of these movies. So, is it all bad? No, it is not. Personally, as I get older and have a family, as long as I don’t have to worry about censoring every movie my child sees and there continues to be positive and entertaining movies playing on the big screen, I have no problem accepting the responsibility of teaching my own children about Christianity and, on an even broader scale, life in general. It shouldn’t matter who is leading a particular industry as long as the quality is acceptable.
For instance, if it would turn out that all (or at least most) cereal companies were led by Christians, I highly doubt it would be an issue… Wheaties are Wheaties after all. Likewise, if Muslims owned the majority of auto companies, people wouldn’t stop driving and buying cars.
Perhaps I’m still too naïve about what exactly the big deal is with Jewish people controlling Hollywood. Perhaps I should really be more informed about the issue before trying to write a 450 word blog entry about it. Nonetheless, it really doesn’t bother me and I don’t understand why it would bother anybody in the first place. It isn’t as serious as a swindler dealing with taxes or a child molester being a teacher. No, it’s really no worse than a white kid dating a black kid. Culture says it should be taboo, but really is there any problem with it? I think not.
I did not want this to be the last discussion board topic. Weeding through the responses, all I feel is bitter.
Joel Stein, for those who do not know him (and apparently few in this class do), is a comedic writer. I would not exactly call him a satirist; the best I can describe the style is that he writes with his tongue permanently implanted in his cheek. He has been a columnist (or has occasionally written) for the LA Times, Time Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly since the early 90s. His style is distinctive and, in my opinion, witty.
For the students who supposedly thought long and hard about the “tone” of the piece and how serious Stein was, all they had to do to end their internal debate was look at his Wikipedia page and see that he guests on VH1’s Best Week Ever. It would not have taken any effort and would have led to a more informed (or an informed, period) post. Instead, some of my fellow classmates addressed his column as though he was fanatical and out of his mind.
To address Stein’s argument, we have to accept his premises, which are as follows:
Fact #1 – There are a lot of Jewish people in high-level positions in Hollywood.
Fact #2 – Fewer people know or recognize that fact than in previous years.
As a Jew, I do not care or take pride in how many of My People live in California.
I do care, however, that I feel shame every time someone makes the correlation between my parents’ income and my religion. “Of course you’re upper-whatever. You’re Jewish.” No. Not of course. Not anything. I don’t have magical powers. My parents don’t have an aerogarden in our kitchen that grows money.
I am not cheap at all, but I am (wait for it) good with money. My parents taught me what a credit score was in high school and apparently, given the number of college students in this country with mounds of needless bills, not all parents had that forethought. I feel ashamed that my credit score is good. And I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t have to apologize.
This may all seem tangential, but it boils down to: don’t write off my (or their) accomplishments. I attribute Fact #2 to the sad fact that many Jews do not want non-Jews to know how many Jews there are in Hollywood because they do not want the non-Jews to feel resentful.
The fact that there are more Jews does not imply anything other than that there are more Jews. Denying it looks like people resent or are trying to ignore any made up implications. My sister is an actor and her agents, manager, entertainment lawyer, publicist… all Jews. Did they get their jobs because they all went to the same Hollywood synagogue? Or walked into the interview and said “Shalom! Hire me!”? No. Christians and other religions are not, as far as I can see, at a disadvantage and do not need any L.A. affirmative action to get them jobs.
So tell me why people are afraid to say that there are a lot of Jews in Hollywood. Because, as far as I can tell, the Americans are proud that Hollywood is in the U.S. – and Jews should be proud to be playing integral roles in the industry. I’m not asking for a parade – just an affirmation when the poll question is asked.
This is an interesting blog topic and I’ve been waiting for a Jewish-themed one all semester. First I will start by saying that I am Jewish. Second, I will say that yes, the presence of Jews in Hollywood is overwhelming and painfully obvious. Third, I will say that I do not agree with the article attached to the blog.
Jews have had a hard time forever. For whatever reason, we are hated and reviled everywhere from central Pennsylvania to Timbuktu. There are countless stereotypes about Jews; we’re greedy, cheap, egotistical and nasty. When an article like this comes along, it only perpetuates stereotypes that we think we’re better than everyone else. I understand that the author, Joel Stein, is only sharing his opinion about how proud he is of his brethren and to be Jewish. But he also sounds “high and mighty”.
In response to the question posed in the title of the blog, this is exactly when a conversation steps over the line. I may not have the right outlook on it however, because I am Jewish. I read things like this and I squirm a little, just because I think that I expect people to be pissed about it and write nasty anecdotes in the comments section. It’s a self-preservation thing, and I just want people to like us. I don’t want someone bringing up and perpetuating stereotypes just to get a laugh. Of course if he was a comedian and he was performing, it would be a different story. But the article was published in the Los Angeles Times; not the right stage for such a conversation.
Now in all fairness, the article was obviously supposed to be funny and it is clear that Hollywood has a lot of Jews in high places. Maybe, I’m just being a little too prude. Who knows?
In response to “How Jewish is Hollywood?” and “When does a Conversation Step over the Line?” I really think I depends on what context you are speaking, if something “crosses the line” or not. I am a film major, and not Jewish. But, I know that there are a ton of people in my major who are, in fact, Jewish. Their religion does not make them any more creative or better at film making than I, I guess it’s just a coincidence that a lot of Jewish people are interested in film making. Jewish people not only are in charge of major film production companies, but are also in charge of major fortune-five hundred companies in different fields. Personally, I do not think someone’s religious beliefs are going to effect their decisions to run a business or, in the case of this article, a production company. I feel like when someone is running a company they need to have good social skills, be confident, be able to speak their mind, and make good decisions. It has nothing to do with believing in Jesus and that the Savior has or has not come yet. It means nothing when running a business.
I am very unsure as to when it is ok to “open a Pandora’s box” of misinterpretation and bigotry. I do not feel like I am very narrow-minded, so I do not know if I would ever open up a box of bigotry toward anyone. I like hearing different opinions. I feel like this world would be so boring if everyone had the same opinions about everything. I think opposing opinions make for very interesting conversations and more creative thinking. Just because Jews basically run the film industry, does not mean they are making every single creative decision for those companies. They sit in meetings with other high powers with in their companies to make decisions together. There are a lot of different people in Hollywood with many different religious beliefs. Whether they be Jewish, Mormon, Christian, Catholic, Atheist, or whatever other religions they may be, they all come together to produce entertainment for everyone. They do not only produce entertainment that caters to their own specific religion because that is not how you run a business and there is now way they would make money. Regardless of beliefs, Hollywood is a business and if the production companies are not making money, they are not doing their job. In the article “How Jewish is Hollywood?” Joel Stein has every right to be upset in the poll saying that only 22% of Americans believe that Hollywood is run by Jews. He completely proved himself by listing every Hollywood executive’s name that is Jewish, which is all of them.
While the phrase ‘Jews own the media’ is seen as something derogatory by many, but it certainly contains a much less absurdity than the phrase ‘Jews have absolutely nothing to do with the media.’ As an American Jew who one day hopes to be an entertainment lawyer perhaps my two cents may be something of value for I would consider such a topic to be my proverbial shit. First let’s travel back to Europe during the middle ages. Due to the supremacy of the church Jews were not allowed access to land ownership which was by far the most important measure of one’s wealth. As a result if Jews desired wealth they were forced to make a career providing services to those who could, these services included managing the health, financial, and legal affairs of their clients as well lend money, which was considered usury and forbidden by the Roman Catholic faithful (who ever heard of a Jewish physician, accountant, lawyer, or money lender?). Since such positions required quite a large amount of knowledge education became highly valued, which worked out perfectly because Jews had always valued education and learning in the traditional study of torah. These traditions carried over as Jews emigrated in large numbers from Europe to the United States. Now what exactly does any of this have to with the entertainment industry? The thing about Jews is that since little was historically open to us in the way of opportunity so whenever we see it presented we usually take advantage of it. In America such a need for entertainment on the mass scale (thing produced and consumed on the mass scale being so authentically America) was presented and Jews saw an opportunity and gravitated towards it. Why exactly did we happen to be so good at it my personal hypothesis is that since Jews were so often persecuted and excluded they had to find ways to adapt to keep their spirits up. One such way was humor, I mean after all nearly every American has some type of experience with a hilariously funny Jewish person be it Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Gilda Radner, Ben Stiller, Whoopi Goldberg, Mel Brooks, the three stooges, or that class clown who couldn’t eat bread for a week in the spring. After all when you have experienced so much collective hatred and discrimination as a group you simply cannot afford to despair. The entertainment industry is the surreal world of escapism that keeps us going when the going gets tough for everyone and I would like to believe that the ubiquitous Jew can be someone who can relate to them. As far as what the appeal in concrete terms is I cannot speak for all of my people but I can speak for myself. In my family it was never an option that I wouldn’t attend college and be gravitated towards a stereotypical Jewish profession, however, guts make me queasy, numbers bore the ever living daylights out of me, and most lawyers I know should be put out of their misery. That being said a life glamour, parties, creativity, and escape is highly appealing to me.
I just want to start off with how I am extremely surprised by that fact that Martin Luther was an anti-Semite. I was raised Lutheran (I’m Agnostic now) and I’m 25% Jewish. I my great Uncle was a Rabbi. I have never heard anything about this and I’m pretty sure my parents, then ones who were Lutheran, have never heard anything about this either.
But anywho. I personally see no problem with this article. I see it as a bit pretentious when someone takes credit for something that someone of their race or religious did, but all of us, including myself, can be accused of doing this at one point or another.
I personally see the fact that all the major media companies are owned by Jewish men as a positive and a negative. Let’s see it this way; they are all older white male. Surprise! An older white male is the corporate president of a big business. This could be seen as a complete lack of progress towards equality if you see it from a determinist’s point of view. The day a person of color, or a woman is elected as a corporate president of big business, that is the day we can be proud to live in a forward thinking country. But on the other hand; the Jewish people throughout history have had the short end of the stick. Jewish people have been subject to oppression of several different kinds through several different generations of hate and intolerance, the fact that even one person of this ethnicity was able to gain power is a great step forward towards equality. Someone who believes heavily in freewill, I imagine, would not see this as a coincidence, but instead see this as Jewish people rising up and being so strong that 8 of them were able to make it to positions of power.
Now I usually find myself in the middle for these kinds of arguments, but this time around I have to take the side of the determinist. I think that there is no way that it could be a coincidence that that many Jewish white males made it to positions of power in the same working field. It seems to me like this is a prime example of white male privilege, a problem that many white males, including myself, have a hard time wrapping our heads around. With this particular example I feel like being Jewish might have helped them get a leg up too. People have a tendency to hire people who they think share the same values as them. A Christian person is much more likely to hire another Christian person over a Jewish person or an Islamic person.
This article dances on the line of being inappropriate, but I see it as forgivable.
After reading “How Jewish is Hollywood?”, it’s hard not to agree in some ways that Hollywood is run by many Jewish people. However, I think it’s a little ridiculous how Joel Stein gets so upset about the recent poll results. I agree with the Anti-Defamation League, who believes this poll is a victory against stereotyping.
Ever since the Holocaust and Hitler’s death, I believe that most of the talk about discrimination has been about race, not religion, up until 9/11, but that conversation is focused around Islam. This class has had me really focused on issues of race all semester, so maybe it’s just where my head has been at. But discrimination and prejudice on the basis of religion is definitely an important topic and has been throughout our history. While it’s important that people focus on race, the issue of religion also needs to be tended to because it seems to have been overshadowed by race issues.
Reading Stein’s article worried me because looking at it from a certain point of view, it reminded me of something a radical might say. I understand that Jewish people have gone through one of the worst discriminations in history during the Holocaust, but some of Stein’s comments are a little extreme. He states at the end of the article “I just care that we get to keep running them”, but his whole articles talks about wanting all Americans to recognize the Jewish “control” in Hollywood. While it is something to be proud about and the people in Hollywood including all the Jewish people involved obviously do deserve credit on how well Hollywood works, it’s not working towards less stereotyping. If this was an article from a black man commenting on how now that Barack Obama is President, all that he cared about was that black men would keep running the country, there would be many unhappy and angry people. This man would be called a racist and rightfully so. Now understanding that this is a big step especially for Jewish people, considering their past discrimination, and something to be proud of, it still does not make it right for Stein to make that comment.
In this world today, a great deal of conflict is centered on religion. There are wars because people don’t understand or respect another’s’ religion. This is something that can be easily avoided. America is a country where people are allowed to practice whichever religion they choose, but stereotyping based upon someone’s religion is still prevalent today. Ultimately, being open to other people and their different beliefs is extremely important to solving the prejudices that people still hold today. Hopefully, Joel Stein will realize that he is feeding into the Jewish stereotypes still around these days.
There seemed to always be a present rivalry between the Jews and the Christians. I feel that it’s primarily derived from the issues of crucifixion. But in retrospect, I think that the issue with who is more successful is quite the joke. With touching on the empirical side of my study, I conducted two interviews with two individual students and asked those questions pertaining to their role in the fashion world. I had a variation of questions such as; How do you define someone who’s fashionable? Do you consider yourself to be a fashionable person? Are you intrigued, like, or even care about fashion? When you look at how fashion is portrayed in the media, how do you feel? Do clothes or aesthetics play a big role in who you are? Does it lie on the top of your priorities? Do you purchase designer clothes? Do you judge others, either negatively or positively, based on the way they dress? At the end of each question, I asked them to embellish by answering why or why not? Leroy Gray attends Penn State University and is studying Mechanical Engineering as a first year graduate student. He discussed with me that he defines being fashionable as somebody who dresses with a popular trend or style. He doesn’t consider himself personally to be fashionable because he dresses how he wants to and it perfectly satisfied. He said sometimes what he wears may be parallel to what the current trend is but it would be purely unintentional. To an extent, he is into fashion. He may be intrigued by some things but he considers it to mostly be about conforming. The media, to him, is the source of what sets the trends. He says it is often portrayed as giving out a universal image of what the perfect person is supposed to look like and he doesn’t agree , being as though people come with different styles and attitudes. Fashion is not a priority or a big part of his life but it is an interest or concern that may fall in the middle. He says he purchases brand name clothes because he like the look and the quality of the clothing, but will mix it up with less costly items as well. He judges people on the way they dress based on how they portray themselves aesthetically. He would consider a negative portrayal, for instance, as someone who dresses really urban. Positively, he would think of someone of that manner who dresses neatly, not based on quality or labels at all. Jarrett Barbour attends Temple University and is studying Magazine Journalism as an undergraduate in his junior year. He defined fashion as someone possessing the ability to channel ones personal style, into a harmonious blend between originality and trendiness. He would indeed consider himself a fashionable person.
I don’t know much about religion. If you ask me religion is pretty ridiculous. Since I don’t know anything about Jewish and the Christen all I can say it’s think about it logically. People KILL because of one book. Are there anyone right now alive today have seen people that wrote the Bible? How do you know it’s real? How do you know if it is fake? I know, I know. You are problly going to give me some sort of lecture of how it is faith in God. I think it’s sad how people believe that God wants them to kill. If there is a perfect being such as a God, I don’t think they would want you to kill other people just because they have a different belief. But as I was saying I think it is crazy that people killed Jewish people just because they were thought to be bad. There were no actually proof that it even happened. People should not have just killed based on one book.
For some reason religion reminds me of cults. People are so brainwashed to believe one thing that they fail to see the truth and how ridicules their beliefs are. I think people can or do believe whatever they want, but they should keep in mind that other people also have the same right as them. So going all out and to kill on religion is not the right thing to do. When people say they kill for religion they are just looking for an excuse to kill people that doesn’t “fit” into their group. There is no right reason to kill and people are just using religion to take it too far.
Thought I can’t just blame on people, because their parents believed it, their community believe it too. It’s hard to grow up in an environment like that and see the flaw of your people. No one wants to admit that their group is the wrong one and their group is the guilty one. This actually reminds me of the video we say in class about the two little girls who was dancing and singing for hate. It’s not really their fault. They grow up in an environment like that and it can’t be helped that they turned out that way. If they parents were from New York, and lived in the center of the city, I doubt they will be the way they are today. It’s just passed down from generation to generation. And in this class blood Is thicker than water really do apply. I just hope later in life they can go out and explore what’s out there and be different from their parents, or go to class and learn that their thinking is wrong. They can do it. I hold different views from my parents, and we actually had arguments about it. But I know I am more open minded than them and it’s up to people in our generation to be accepting.
Ok so, after reading the article about Jewish people running Hollywood, I am a little perplexed about understanding what exactly the problem is that some people are having with this issue. First of all, does it really matter who is running what, as long as it is efficient and the movies and television networks are producing and showing things that is in demand in our society I really could care less from what religious affiliation the executives are from. Also, after reading the article I must say I as actually pretty surprised, I really never knew that so many of the major executives in Hollywood were Jewish, I mean I did have some idea that many of them were Jewish, but I guess I never really looked into just HOW many of the up-high people are Jewish. And frankly, all I can really say is, good for them! Whether it is a coincidence or not that they all happen to be Jewish, these people have the brains and the skill to be running and leading huge corporations that essentially run America. Thinking about it, I do not this tv would be any better or worse if all Christians were executives in those companies, I really do not believe that it would make any difference at all. As for the one guy in the article who was getting all worked up by the phrase/ comment that Jews “control” Hollywood, he really just needs to get over himself. If he does not like it well then that is just too bad. He should not be going around and discrediting other people’s accomplishment simply because he doesn’t like to face the apparent facts that the most influential people in the television/ media business happen to be Jewish which is not his particular religious affiliation. Although ok, maybe saying that Jewish people literally “control” Hollywood could be a slight over statement, I think that a statement like that really doesn’t do any harm nor is it intentionally offensive or meant to hurt anyone of any other religious beliefs. Me being a Christian, I highly believe that sometimes other Christians just need to relax and stop being so hyper sensitive about their religion being the best.
The current conflict with Iraq, though sparked by recent events such as the September 11th attacks on the world trade center in New York City, has been largely based upon past relations with Iraq throughout and after the Iran-Iraq War. Internal competing religious, tribal, and ethnic factions mainly between the minority Sunni Muslims and the majority Shiites has been a problem since the reign of the Ottoman Turks ended. With the rise of the Saddam Hussein to presidency in 1979, becoming the dictator of the ruling Baathist Party, the people of Iraq would be ruthlessly squandered, but only with the resources and help of western nations including the world’s hegemonic power: The United States. (Miller and Mylroie, 1990: 18-29) Of course, after the invasion of Iraq by the United States, the main goal has been to establish a workable democratic regime, one that can be enforced by the people of Iraq themselves, as well as dismantling any weapons of mass destruction program. Though the goal has not been to establish imperialistic paternalism over the country, the United States, through its actions has actually increased the violence in this particular region of the world. Due to the Sunni Arab insurgency, terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, and nation-wide chaos and criminality, it is arguable that the U.S. may not simply be able to leave Iraq. If that is done, Iraq will be left worse off than how it was found and the world’s leading power may find itself unsupported and looked down upon by its democratic counterparts throughout the world, most certainly causing the U.S. to have a lowered “leadership” position in the world. This current conflict with Iraq will have future implications for every nation involved and may put the position of the world’s hegemonic power into great jeopardy.
Modelski’s cycles of world leadership, which describe the past succession of world powers since the year 1500, have shown that every nation since that year (except for Great Britain) has only been in power for roughly 100 years. With four stages including global war, world leadership, delegitimization, and deconcentration, Modelski claims that the U.S. is in its last stage and that a new world power should arise based off of this model. This claim is a very accurate one because the U.S. essentially has no support from the rest of the world in this war. Only Israel and Great Britain have shown their support but no other alliances have been formed. In fact, there has been a very strong negative opinion from the rest of the world; something even more than a simple opposition to the war. Lewis H. Lapham illustrates his view on the actions of the war quite bluntly in his article Regime Change:
“Better understood as radical nationalists than as principled conservatives, they borrow the logic endorsed by the American military commanders in Vietnam (who found it necessary to destroy a village in order to save it), and they offer the American people a choice similar to the one presented by the officers of the Spanish Inquisition to independent minded heretics—give up your liberty, and we will set you free” (Lapham, 2003: 632).
I agree with Abe Foxman that the phrase, “Jews control Hollywood”, is very dangerous. This is the kind of phrase that would promote stereotypes. Yes, the film industry in Hollywood is majority Jewish, but I don’t think that the religious views of the Presidents and CEO’s affect what goes into movies or how the industry works. I think it is good that the industry is “waging an organized campaign to weaken the influence of religious values in this country." Not that I find the views of Jews to be offensive, but it makes sure that religion does not have too much of an influence. I think that if the entire country was aware of the high percent of Jews in Hollywood, people would revert to the stereotypes of Jews being rich and controlling. I don’t have a problem with it being majority Jewish. Seeing as almost everything else in my life has been predominantly white-Christian, it seems kind of nice to see things from the other side of the fence. It really isn’t healthy to be in the majority for everything your whole life. You will eventually get a distorted view of what life is really like. But although I do not have a problem with being in the minority, some people probably have a problem with not always having the power. I do not really know what to think of those people. I think it is just a coincidence that there are so many Jews at the top of Hollywood. I mean, does their religion make them any better at running movie studios? I’m sure there are many other Jews who are at the top of other industries but people have yet to notice it.
On the other hand, I have seen in a few movies some Jewish-aimed jokes. One went so far as to cross the line of anti-Semitism; the movie Borat. Although it was probably produced or funded by a Jewish person, they stopped at nothing to make fun of Jews. One scene showed Borat, scared out of his mind, running away from an old Jewish couple. He thought that the couple had morphed into cockroaches. He threw dollar bills at the cockroaches to try and get them away from him. This example just goes to show that even though the majority of high figures in Hollywood are Jewish, they are not so stuck up as to not make fun of themselves and their own people. After watching the HBO show, Entourage, I kind of got an inside view on Hollywood. Many of the agents who represent actors are Jewish and many of the “money men” who buy the scripts and pay the director are Jewish. All I can say is good for the Jews I guess.
As an atheist, I’ve always personally felt that religion should be treated as a completely separate matter and a quality that people shouldn’t be judged by. I have always thought that faith is a good thing, especially for those who it means a lot to. I think it takes a very strong person to have faith in their religion and have firm beliefs behind it, and that’s clearly a positive thing if you can have it work out like that. That being said, faith has never been a part of my life – it’s not for me, merely a distraction if you will. But I still think that religion is a huge driving force of our culture, and that being said it’s a very important thing to analyze especially in this type of a class setting. In fact, it’s crucial to analyze religion in our culture today – and Jews in Hollywood is a very thought provoking topic.
All of this being said – why should it matter that Jews have a lock in the banking and entertainment sectors of America? Personally I feel that their religion shouldn’t matter and they shouldn’t be judged by it. I feel that after reading the blog and article that I’ve seen a lot of tasteless and ignorant comments, perhaps even anti semantic comments. After reading about Martin Luther, all I could think about was the ignorance and anti Jew statements. Why should it matter? Isn’t this a country built on mixed cultures, races, and identities? We should step forward and look at situations like this not by religion or race. Doing so is basically stereotyping – and I don’t see how it helps the situation in Hollywood at all. That’s another thing about this article that confused me – yes, the belief that Judaism is the enemy of the viewpoint of Christianity exists. But why embellish this by pointing it out? Aren’t we trying to move past that?
How will Jewish people react to this? Should they be proud, should they be ashamed, should they be appalled? Once again, I don’t think that it should matter. However there will always remain those who embellish this – Jews who will take this type of response for granted or as a positive thing for their culture. Do Jewish people believe they are of a higher status because they now have control over Hollywood or the banking and entertainment sector of America? I don’t think they should – never should a person be judged by solely their religion. It’s the same type of idea as racism, except with religion – yet we see Jewish people who will embellish this thought for their own self benefit. All in all I can understand the main purpose of the article, but in the end we have to realize that we shouldn’t judge people by their religion.
I don't think we yet consciously understand how powerful art is in shaping our view of the world, more powerful even than the Media because, when it actually is art, it's able to get past our barriers and reach in directly to that place in us that both recognizes the truth of things and can respond to the need for change. We seem to have some sense of this. One need only to look at how ardently we censor art. Film is art, although we don't yet see it as such generally, and it puts many forms of art together to present an extremely powerful work of art to an audience, one that can, with a single well-made movie, literally change one's view of the world. I don't know who is 'in charge' of Hollywood, but whoever they are I'm glad they're there for the most part. Although the film industry puts out a lot of low quality art, if we can even call bad movies art, and it does produce many a movie of just downright propaganda, it is a bastion for right reason, is on the cutting edge of the right altered morality, and is attempting to step out of the avenues of hate.
The issue in question is not so much a religious one per say. The Jewish people are more a people than a religion, although this is a very debatable topic among Jews and non-Jews alike. It's the question of Jewish identity, and this isn't the place to debate it. Now, any group of people with strong ethnic ties tend to help their own members and exclude people not of their group. Jews are no exception to this common behavioral pattern in humanity. It could very well be that some of what is just passed off as anti-Semitism is actually the fear of this happening or people complaining about it taking place. So it's a question of power again.
Now back to Hollywood, though in the context of this comment it seems appropriate to go through Israel to arrive there. When I lived in Jerusalem a Catholic priest was transfered out of the country because he was asking the question what was the difference between the concept of the chosen people and the master race. Of course there is a difference, but it's certainly a good question to ask, especially now given the relationship Israel is currently having with Palestinians. I'm not trying to be sensational here or to hit below the belt. I've been leading up to a point, a question really. I find it quite odd that as of yet there is no major movie from Hollywood that shows Israeli treatment of the indigenous Palestinian population, the inhuman side, the hatred and violence directed against them. Why is that? Could it have something to do with the above mentioned tendency, and if so, is it anti-Sematic to question this?
I have just read the “When Does a Conversation Step Over the Line?” article and blog and the first thing to come to mind is wow. I guess the first thing I would have to say is who cares who runs Hollywood. Hollywood is in the business of entertaining people and making movies. Does it really matter if the “big wigs” are Jewish or black or white? For me the answer is no. I can’t say that I have ever really sat down and thought, what is the nationality or religion of the person who produced/directed/ect this film. If it sucked it sucked and if it was great it was great. All I ever really cared about when I watched TV or a movie was if it was entertaining or not. Now, I am not trying to downplay anyone’s achievements, simply stating that in this particular case it is something that I haven’t really thought about. Maybe that is wrong, but nonetheless I still watch movies to be entertained not because someone of a specific religion or race was in charge.
In response to Dr. Richard’s blog, I found his thoughts to be interesting. I have am unsure of why Jewish Christians turned against their Jewish brethren as Dr. Richards puts it. It is a question I think is worth exploring. I find it odd that people would label the Jewish people as murders of Christ and hold it against them. I mean I can see the obvious reasons why that might upset some people. Killing someone’s savior might ruffle some feathers, but wasn’t that the way it was suppose to happen according to the scriptures? Although I still have faith in mankind. I do not think all Christians have ill will against Jews. I know several Christian Jewish couples that have gotten married and are happy and I think that is great.
I had no idea that Martin Luther had those feelings. I will admit that speaks a lot to my ignorance. It does show that everyone is human and capable of harboring such nasty feelings, even, as Dr Richards says, “the most important figure in the emergence of Protestantism.” It does make me wonder how such feelings of hatred could be conceived. What were Martin Luther’s interpretations of the Bible? I don’t think the intent of God was for people to have such feelings, but then again the intentions of God and God itself is another discussion.
Dr. Richard’s asked the question, “So when is it acceptable to open up a ‘pandora’s box’ of bigotry and misinterpretation?” I do not know that there is an easy answer to that question. But sometimes I think that box needs to be opened for if it stays closed how will the misinterpretation ever be cleared and how will one that is a bigot have a chance to change their ways? Then again on the other hand its not called pandora’s box for nothing.
After reading the blog “When Does Conversation Step Over the Line?” I personally believe that Jews have had it hard their whole lives. Since the beginning of time people have been throwing the Jewish people around, whether it be slaves for an Egyptian king or the ghettos of Europe. No matter what Jews have had the roughest time by far throughout history. Even today, people still criticize them as being the wealthy stuck up people, not caring for anyone but themselves. As a Roman catholic I think that Jews running Hollywood is a good thing. Good for them, they deserve it, finally something good going their way. I think it’s ridiculous to think that since Jewish people are running the movies, that they are all leaning toward the Jewish faith. If anything the movies that are about the Jews show them suffering and the persecutions they went through. It’s terrible that Jews are still being bashed in the world of today. When I was younger in a catholic grade school, one of my friends was Jewish. People used to make fun of him all the time based solely on his religious views. It happened to be that he had black curly hair which is a staple of Jewish people and wore the yamikah around with him. We, as gentiles think they look funny because they wear a little hat on their heads all the time, when in fact it is a symbol of their religion. My views of the Jewish faith are up in the air. Since I was raised in a catholic church and have gone to catholic school since I was in kindergarten my beliefs are that Catholicism is the supposed “chosen” way. Recently though I’ve been on field trips to Jewish temples and have researched Jewish history in Germany. It changed my whole perspective on the Jewish faith. Once you get to know someone who is Jewish you would understand. Hollywood is doing well with the major studios and positions being run by Jews. They know how to work well and get the job done fast and efficient. I don’t think a Catholic or a Protestant put in the same position would do a much better job. People of the Jewish faith stick together though. As Catholics we look out for ourselves and no one else. The Jews however, look out for each other; they all know what they’re going through and help each other out. People have to learn to get over themselves and start opening their eyes to the future of a real globalized world. A globalized world where everyone from all over the world has to work together and combine all our resources to survive.
In response to the blog “When does conversation step over the line?” and the article “How Jewish is Hollywood?”, I think it is ridiculous to even discuss the large Jewish presence in Hollywood. I just do not understand what everyone’s obsession with religion is. Religion is supposed to help people in some way or give them something positive to believe in. However, it seems that it is just another tool for discrimination and persecution. I could care less about the religion of the actors, directors, or producers of the movie or TV show that I am watching. In fact, I could care less about the religion of anybody. Religion is a personal choice and it is essentially something that was made up by people who could not fully understand the world. Some people need something to believe in, and for many, religion fills that void. As for the animosity between Jews and Christians, I simply do not understand that either. If you are Christian, then you believe Jesus existed and that he is the Son of God. You also believe that Jesus was Jewish! It seems pretty hypocritical to then turn around and say you do like Jewish people. When it comes down to it, I really believe that all religions are wrong. No one has the answers to the questions that religion attempts to answer. If people want something to believe in, that’s fine and I think that religion can really serve a positive role in most people’s lives. However, people who persecute others because of religion definitely need to rethink their attitudes. If someone didn’t bring it to my attention and if I didn’t watch the TV show “Entourage”, I would have never known Jewish people had such a strong presence in Hollywood. It’s not like Hollywood is sending out Jewish messages or Anti-Christian propaganda through TV and film. Since this is not the case, then there should be no problem with the Jewish presence in entertainment. The US Presidency has historically been occupied by Protestants, and that never seems to cause much of a stir. I feel that people need to relax when it comes to religion. Practicing your own religion is great, but if others believe something different or don’t want to participate then that should be fine. We should also be less concerned with what religious group is in Hollywood, Wall Street, or whatever. If you like a movie or show, then it shouldn’t matter the religion of the people involved. If you don’t like a movie or show, then it also shouldn’t matter the religion of the people involved. I know that religion can be a very sensitive issue, but if everyone can just think about it rationally and increase their tolerance, then maybe the Jewish presence is Hollywood won’t even be discussed anymore.
The blog When Does a Conversation Step Over a Line is about the situation of the Jewish people in modern times. The blog reflects the different beliefs and prejudices of people, particularly the Christians, about the Jews. It points out how people perceive the Jews not only in religious matters, but also in social and even political arenas. These prejudices are actually rooted in history, as the blog indicates. The intertwined histories of the Christians and the Jews have not produced an always civilized relationship between the two despite the fact that Jesus Christ and the earliest Christians are Jewish in religion.
I believe that we are in a society that always has an instant opinion about people when they find out that they are a Jew. The implication of the blog is that the misjudgment against the Jews is a burden that has been carried and passed on generation after generation by the largely Christian culture, and this long standing resentment have resulted in sufferings for the Jews. On the other hand, many powerful Jews are also known to control the banking and entertainment sectors. When people learn that a person is a Jew, they automatically assume that he or she is wealthy, or that he or she owns a business. It is a stereotype that all Jews are businessmen, and that Christians are the ones made to do the dirty work. People also think that the Jews are close-fisted or cheap about any issue involving money.
The blog also presents the prevailing influence of Jews in the entertainment industry. The coffee table book Entertaining Americawas mentioned. This book illustrates the power of Jews in Hollywood, although this reality does not really define or change society’s actions toward the Jews. In college, I have experienced several encounters when people tell their friends that they are Jewish, they are often either made fun of or told that they are the first Jew they have met. Snide remarks and inside jokes are frequent, and this caught me by surprise coming to this society after growing up in a highly populated Jewish area. The author of the blog was reluctant to post this issue at the beginning. He even regarded to it as a “Pandora’s Box,” maybe because it could insinuate wrong opinions and spark unwanted comments. And perhaps, the author had enough bases to think so. The biasness and discrimination against the Jews are not understated. Though this is not generalizing everyone else against the Jews, I agree with the author in describing this as a complex issue that takes open-mindedness to deal with.
So I dare ask, how can the belief in one Supreme God save us all if judgment time is being served here on earth?
Anti-Semitism, prejudice against the Jewish people, has occurred certainly more than once in history. Emperor Claudius is said to have exiled the Jews from Rome in A. D. 51. In A. D. 70, they were scattered over the Roman Empire after the destruction of the Temple. Also, Edward I banished them from England in 1290 and Ferdinand and Isabella also exiled the Jews from Spain in 1492. Still, after all that torment, six million Jewish people were killed under Hitler and his Nazi regime. Clearly, throughout history the Jews have had it tough. However, as a group of people they were able to overcome and create the strength to move on. I am Jewish, I am a descendent of a survivor and I am very proud of that fact. For too long, we have been kicked around, mocked, harassed, hated, and killed for our beliefs, yet through it all we have stood together and survived. Today, the Jewish people have it better than ever. As a people, we are known for being well off and educated. We are also predominant in Hollywood, the media, government, and in banking. For this I raise my glass and shout out a big “Lachaim”. I love the fact that Jewish people have so much prestige in the United States. I love the fact that many Jews run law firms and doctors offices. I love that Jews are high powered executives in Hollywood and the government. It truly demonstrates how determined Jews are for respect. In past history, The Jewish people had to hide their identity because they were scared of being killed. They would pray in underground shelters and hide their menorahs and other pieces of Judaica. They could not be proud of their beliefs, culture, and religion. On the other hand, Jews today are proud to be Jews. We are not afraid to make Jewish jokes or appreciate our heritage. This is demonstrated in the movie Funny People. The first t-shirt worn my Seth Rogan in the movie was a T-shirt that symbolized being a “Super Jew”. This is a big step for Jewish people; we have finally come out of hiding and told the world we are here to stay. Although there are still many people today who want to rid the world of Jews, it does not seem to have as much affect as it once did. The Jewish people have finally overcome the days of exile. They are now dominant figures in the world, who are constantly advancing in many aspects. Throughout history, Jewish people have gained much respect and it took us many agonizing centuries to get to the point of where we are today. Just like, Joel Stein, all Jewish people should be proud of our high positions in Hollywood and other such businesses. I know I am!
What does it matter if those in the Jewish community play a large role in Hollywood? The author spends a lot of time emphasizing the importance of the people in charge of the different studios but what he does not realize is that nobody cares who is in charge, let alone what their religion is. It is my understanding that the only person who anyone every pays attention to what religion they are, is the president of the United States. Now if the president of the U.S. was Jewish his argument would have been a little stronger but not much. There is no point in arguing who is what religion. In fact, America is always trying to get rid of discrimination, whether it is race, gender, or religion. This article makes it seem like the author thinks that Jewish people are better than everyone else. Stein even goes as far to say that America has gotten “dumb” in response to the polls which were released by the Anti-Defamation League. Furthermore, he states that, “Jews totally run Hollywood.” This does not help the cause of eliminating discrimination nor does it even make sense to want to stereotype Hollywood or television.
I personally, have never even heard that some of the head honchos in Hollywood are Jewish. Granted, I am from a small town on the east coast but if it were really that big of a deal, I think I would have heard about it before now. In response to Dr. Richards comment, I have a different perspective on the Jewish community. I have been a Christian my entire life and have never thought of Jews in a negative way. The way I see it, Jews are God’s people and for this reason they will be saved (this is according to what the Bible says). Thus, they do not need to believe in Jesus or the New Testament. Now because Jewish people only believe in the Old Testament the rules they live by are a lot stricter, as far as I am concerned. I know a lot of hypocritical Jews who say they are Jewish but do not follow all of the rules. However, I also know a lot of hypocritical Christians. It is for this reason and many other reasons that I believe Christians and Jews are not much different. Therefore, I do not think it is necessary to start a campaign in an attempt to “re-convince America that Jews run Hollywood.” This country is made up of a multitude of religions. It is considered a free country. In the constitution, it clearly states that the people of America have freedom of religion. Thus, the Jewish community should not be considered any better than any other religious community.
What does it matter if those in the Jewish community play a large role in Hollywood? The author spends a lot of time emphasizing the importance of the people in charge of the different studios but what he does not realize is that nobody cares who is in charge, let alone what their religion is. It is my understanding that the only person who anyone every pays attention to what religion they are, is the president of the United States. Now if the president of the U.S. was Jewish his argument would have been a little stronger but not much. There is no point in arguing who is what religion. In fact, America is always trying to get rid of discrimination, whether it is race, gender, or religion. This article makes it seem like the author thinks that Jewish people are better than everyone else. Stein even goes as far to say that America has gotten “dumb” in response to the polls which were released by the Anti-Defamation League. Furthermore, he states that, “Jews totally run Hollywood.” This does not help the cause of eliminating discrimination nor does it even make sense to want to stereotype Hollywood or television.
I personally, have never even heard that some of the head honchos in Hollywood are Jewish. Granted, I am from a small town on the east coast but if it were really that big of a deal, I think I would have heard about it before now. In response to Dr. Richards comment, I have a different perspective on the Jewish community. I have been a Christian my entire life and have never thought of Jews in a negative way. The way I see it, Jews are God’s people and for this reason they will be saved (this is according to what the Bible says). Thus, they do not need to believe in Jesus or the New Testament. Now because Jewish people only believe in the Old Testament the rules they live by are a lot stricter, as far as I am concerned. I know a lot of hypocritical Jews who say they are Jewish but do not follow all of the rules. However, I also know a lot of hypocritical Christians. It is for this reason and many other reasons that I believe Christians and Jews are not much different. Therefore, I do not think it is necessary to start a campaign in an attempt to “re-convince America that Jews run Hollywood.” This country is made up of a multitude of religions. It is considered a free country. In the constitution, it clearly states that the people of America have freedom of religion. Thus, the Jewish community should not be considered any better than any other religious community.
In response to the article “How Jewish is Hollywood?” I think that Joel Stein is missing the point in this whole idea. He may be proud of the fact that so many Jewish Americans have made it to the top of Hollywood, but in reality it shouldn’t matter what religion these executives are. It should not matter if it is a Catholic, Jew, Muslim, or whatever other religious person who is in charge of Hollywood. I think there should be less focus on what religion these executives are and put more of an emphasis on what kind of a job they do. It shouldn’t matter what religious affiliation these people have.
By putting the focus on what religion these it opens the door for anti-Semitism if this information is put into the wrong hands. To a lot of people saying that the “Jews control Hollywood” has a very sinister and negative connotation to it. Even if it is meant as a complement it has a negative feeling to it as if they are using their power to push their views onto other people. If someone was reading this article who was an anti-Semite they could use it to further validate their views of the Jews as a sinister controlling bunch. I mean there are people who are out there who believe in these Jewish conspiracies where the Jews are secretly in charge behind the scenes and an article like this does not help to get rid of these views. Joel Stein seems to be trying to emphasis the fact that the Jews are controlling Hollywood when I think we should be trying to move away from this point of view and move towards one where it doesn’t matter what religion anyone affiliates with. He makes it sound like there is some big competition between all of the religions to be in control and that the Jews are winning. It puts a stress on what religion these people are and identifies them as Jews or non-Jews rather than just calling them successful individuals. I agree more with Foxman’s point of view in that by saying that the “Jews control Hollywood” there is a very ominous feel to the statement. I agree with him in that I would rather say that “many executives in the industry happen to be Jewish”, rather than focusing on this idea that the Jews are controlling Hollywood. Saying that the Jews control Hollywood is a negative stereotype that is as bad as any other one you can come up with because of the negative connotations that come with them. As a non-religious person I will never understand why people need to identify people into these little religious groups instead of just identifying people as individuals.
Being Jewish this article really fascinates me. I was raised Jewish and I never really took the time to see how many Jews there are and what they have accomplished. Reading this article I learned how much of an impact Jews really have in the market today.
know that many people are Jewish, but what does it matter if people do not think that Jews rule Hollywood? How does that affect everyone else? As someone who watches movies I really don’t know when a producer is Jewish or Christian. I don’t think the religion of a producer or CEO should matter. Personally I am very happy that I was raised Jewish- I believe that it is important to follow what you believe in. I don’t think it should matter who runs Hollywood. Overall this article I thought had no bearing on what society should think about Jews. The one big impact this article had was that the Jewish religion is becoming noticed. More people are opening up to the idea of Jews. Even though the Jewish society is recognized, throughout history we have been persecuted and shoved under the rug. This article does show the world how big of an impact Jews are making.
This blog was really fascinating because I felt somewhat happy that people from “my religion” are so high up in the Hollywood chain. I know from experience that many producers are Jewish; in fact, my bosses at ABC this summer were all Jewish. Like we have been talking about in class the skin type of a person is a big topic, so is religion. Clearly people are still somewhat shocked at how well Jews have risen in society. In today’s society I never thought that people would be surprised, Jews like most people in the world are very smart. As someone who takes a slight offense to the stereotypes and jokes I am really proud that this article went out. The fact that many people doubt the triumphs of Jews is ridiculous. Most Jewish women and men that I know are doctors, lawyers, surgeons, dentists and many more noble professions. Just because the Jewish race is placed under microscope does not mean that others have the right to dumb us down and doubt our skills.
I do not think that the Jewish religion is superior to any other religion, but it is nice to know that there are people who believe in similar things as me, at the top. At the beginning of the article I thought who cares if Jews run Hollywood, it is not that big of a deal, but apparently I was wrong. If just 22% of people think that Jews are prominent in society, then that is a huge problem. This article overall has a good affect as to what people think after they read it. Something like this allows people to open their minds to different ideas and think in a new way that could seem foreign.
In response to “When does a conversation step over the line?” and “How Jewish is Hollywood?” I couldn’t help but think about my knowledge about Jewish people. I grew up in a small, predominantly Christian town in northeastern Pennsylvania. Therefore, I do not have much exposure to any religion besides the one my parents taught me; Catholicism. Obviously there are other people out there with limited knowledge about all the different religions and cultures that differ from their own. I believe that this is a major contributor to why certain people have stereotypes for people and cultures they are unfamiliar with. Limited information leads to stereotyping.
What I do not understand though is why it matters what someone’s religion is in the first place. I do not understand why people get so offended when someone else’s beliefs differ from their own. My religious practices have nothing to do with anyone else’s life. They are my personal choice.
Also, what does religion have to do with the entertainment industry? Honestly I don’t even know the names of directors of movies. If I do not even know their name then why should their religion be important?
I think that people are too interested in labeling each other. We yearn for something or somebody to put us into a category. I don’t know if this is supposed to boost the self-esteem and make us feel accepted into society or what. This labeling and categorization that goes on in our society creates immense separation. Although competiveness is not always considered a detrimental characteristic, in this case I feel like the competition between two categories of people is creating a void. Rather than groups cooperating and working together, they are trying to diminish each other. Separation seems to be the source of all animosity. People see themselves as separate from each other and separate from the earth. In my perspective, when we live separate from other beings great damage is caused.
Isn’t that why most of the world is at war? Because my people are better than your people or vice versa. How can we live peacefully in a world that is constantly at war? Honestly, petty things like this just should not matter. It really pisses me off that people choose to limit their scope of vision to external and superficial things. Why do we allow ourselves to be so limited? What is it going to take before people realize that they are the cause of all the trouble? We all have the solution inside of us. If we take a good look at ourselves, we can begin to heal. We can become better people who look at the deep stuff rather than the superficial stuff.
In all honesty I could not get through this article without laughing out loud! As a young Jewish girl who hopes to one day work in the entertainment industry, I face this argument all of the time. So I will answer your question with the same response that I give everyone else...who cares!!!! So what if Jewish people are becoming successful in the movie industry? Why does it matter to everyone else? It's not as if the Jews are turning Hollywood into a cult and excluding all other religions from working in the industry. If that were true, then there would be an issue. But it certainly is not.
The article "Entertaining America" stresses that Jews have worked their way up to even control many of the studios. I say kudos to them for being good at their jobs. They certainly have not gotten where they are simply because they are Jewish. There is no special pass that helps Jewish men and women succeed faster and farther than people of other religions in Hollywood. I'm sure that these Jewish men and women have worked very hard to move up the ladder. They should not be penalized just because they are "members of the tribe."
Also, You would never see powerful Christian executives being stereotyped by their religion. Why the Jews? Haven't we suffered enough throughout history? Is it really necessary to try and push us down again? Why can't everyone just work together and not consider religion as a factor. It's not as if Hollywood is conquering world peace. Studios are only there to entertain us.
More importantly, I definitely disagree that Jews are trying to use Hollywood to make movies and TV shows that make them look better. There are plenty of movies and television shows that have Anti-Semitic dialogue. Also you have to look at the big picture here. If the stereotype holds true that Jews are frugal and love money, why would they only release pro-Jewish movies and shows.Trust me, if that were the case, the studios would loose a ton of money. No Jewish executive would ever let that happen.
The bottom line is that people are taking this argument way too seriously. At the end of the day the public is not going to care if the majority of the executives in Hollywood are Jewish, Christian, Muslim or from Mars. All that matters is if they make entertaining movies. We should stop worrying about such trivial matters in life. That is such a waste of energy. Think of what could happen if people transferred the energy they used in this argument towards something worthwhile, like fighting world hunger. Who knows what could happen.
I was attracted to reading this article because I am a Film major, interested in working in Hollywood, and I am also Jewish. I thought the article would not only apply to me and be interesting, but also maybe inspiring somehow? However, if I could choose a word to describe Joel Stein’s article, I would say it is just snobby. I come from a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and am in a mostly Jewish sorority here on campus, and don’t think I know any other Jew who would talk in such a boastful and smug way about other Jews, like we’re better than others or something. His article made me uncomfortable. I mean, it is cool to hear that all of the leading executives, chairmen, presidents, etc. are Jewish, but I don’t think its anything to be arrogant about.
How could Joel Stein begin an article like he did? He says “I have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22% of Americans now believe the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews." Is that really the most upsetting poll you have ever read Joel Stein? If so, that’s just pathetic. There are much more important things going on in our country than a debate over whether or not Jews “control” Hollywood. And yes, I bet these men Joel Stein refers to are all great at their jobs, but as a Film major I can assure you that there are many other important jobs and positions required in Hollywood that add to Hollywood’s success, and all those thousands of people are NOT all Jewish.
The fact that this article was even written is just weird to me. But I feel like this is just a typical opinion article from an American. Americans always believe that their religion, their race, their city, their football team, etc. is just the best and nothing else compares. This attitude is not pride, its ignorance and selfishness. I think that boasting your football team (go Steelers) and their players (yeah Big Ben and Heinz!) is one thing, but boasting your religion and its most successful and wealthy “players” is just ridiculous. This article made me a little embarrassed to be a Jew. I wonder how many of the men that Joel Stein mentioned would agree with him that the lack of knowledge of their dominance in the Film industry is of utter most importance in America.
It is only important to Joel Stein for the American population to know that Jews “control” Hollywood because it translates to Jews being the wealthiest Americans. And to Americans, wealth is power. I think that Joel Stein just wants to prove Jew’s status in Hollywood with the hope of rubbing the success in the people’s faces that think Jews are worthless.
The fact that many top positions in Hollywood are held by Jews is not a conspiracy like many people make it out to be. I took Comm 150 last year, which is basically a class on the history of film. We learned that the birth of American film was partly started by Thomas Edison and his associates in New York City. Many Jewish immigrants living in New York were taking part in this new lucrative enterprise producing their own movies. To counter all this competition, Edison legally integrated barriers that would keep other filmmakers from operating. In response to these new restrictions, Adolph Zukor (Paramount), Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner (Warner Bros.), Harry and Jack Cohn (Columbia) all made the move to Hollywood. The Founders of all the major motion picture studios were Jewish. They moved west so they could have freedom in making films. The movie business in New York never really picked up, but filmmakers in Hollywood were able to flourish. So it’s no surprise as to why Hollywood is “run” by Jews—because Jews founded it. Naturally, like any family business, they landed positions in the filming industry for their relatives. They got jobs for cousins, sons, and friends who just happened to be Jewish.
In the article “How Jewish is Hollywood”, Joel Stein satirizes the idea that Jews run Hollywood. He is upset about the results from a recent poll that suggests Americans no longer believe Jews “run” Hollywood, when the reality is that they do! But I don’t understand why this is a bad thing. Why does it matter what religion a shows producer is? They are not subliminally injecting the entertainment industry with pro-Jewish propaganda. People in top positions in entertainment are not trying to “weaken the influence of religious values in this country”. They make television and movies that they think will appeal to the majority of Americans, because they are businessmen interested in making profits. So when Joel Stein asked to interview Gentiles in top positions, it would obviously be insulting to them and their Jewish co-workers for them to accept the interview. I’m not surprised that they all declined the interview with Joel Stein.
Christians have always “pointed the finger” at Jews whenever they needed someone to blame. The Martin Luther article shows that Protestant Germans, which make up most of the U.S. population, have brought these attitudes with them to America. When the terrorists took down the Twin Towers some people blamed the Jews. Just as when the Black Death spread across Europe, Jews were blamed and persecuted. Jews in Hollywood is no conspiracy to control the American audience, they are simply the founders of the movie industry.
I lived right outside of Boston this summer so I was right in the middle of the Gates and Cambridge Police incident. This occurrence made headline news all summer and created quite a stir amongst both black and white racial groups. From my point of view, I thought things were blown out of proportion and the media coverage was overwhelmingly unnecessary. The words exchanged by both members of the incident were totally unethical and Barack Obama also said some uncalled for words. When people get behind the microphone they sometimes go on a power trip for some reason and say some things that they should keep to themselves. Obviously they are well educated people and should have the awareness not to say the things they did. A lot of issues and dilemmas usually start with someone opening their fat mouth and saying something that they shouldn’t, and it will probably stay that way as long as humans are living on Earth. Even when I see some athletes during a post-game interview I think to myself WTF were they thinking. I realize that everyone is different but it sometimes hard to believe the words that come out of people’s mouths. Hopefully people are learning from other people’s slips and will prevent themselves from doing the same. If we could put an end to these stupid remarks then it could help stop people from being put into awkward and uncomfortable situations. These situations are ultimately unavoidable and there’s really no way to prevent this problem.
In future generations I believe that these prejudices will be significantly reduced amongst people of the world and not as many of these situations will arise. Global networks are beginning to expand and become more popular amongst everyone in the world. These tools will connect people and hopefully bring them closer together. Eventually I believe these will help bring a decrease in the amount of racial groups across the world. I lived with an Indian girl this summer that I became very close friends with, but sometimes I would catch myself using terms that I could tell offended her in some way. In high school I didn’t have the opportunity to communicate with anyone from a different ethnic background so it was a great learning experience for me. At Penn State, I still notice that there is a lot of separation amongst different ethnic groups. If I walk into the HUB, I notice that there will be a group of Asians at one table, and then a group of Black people at another table. I think it would be cool to see some of these different ethnic groups connect somehow, but I know that can be difficult to do with language and cultural barriers.
After reading the article, “How Jewish is Hollywood?” I truly do not understand why the columnist Joel Stein, and probably many other Jews in Hollywood, extensively care about the entertainment industry being so heavily Jewish. I think it’s great that he has pride in his religion and in his fellow Jews, but honestly, why should their religion differentiate their accomplishments and make them better than anyone else? Stein writes, “As a proud Jew, I want America to know about our accomplishment.” What is so very outstanding about the work done specifically by Jews? Why is it necessary that America knows about their successes alone? Why does being Jewish give Stein, and others Jews, the right to be extra proud? It’s wonderful, and almost expected, to take pride in one’s religion, but I think this article takes that pride too far. Stein practically demands that you acknowledge the Jews’ successes solely because of their faith. Companies are not supposed to hire or not hire based on religion, so what makes Stein believe that Jews exclusively had a terrible obstacle to overcome in order to reach such powerful positions? I believe I can assume that all employees are chosen on skill and experience, not religion. With this in mind, I wonder what makes these Jews think they have the ability to call themselves a minority and proclaim their successes as grander than yours or mine.
Joel Stein has taken it upon himself “to re-convince America that Jews run Hollywood.” That’s just dandy, but in my opinion, completely irrelevant. I’m pretty sure that having America aware of the fact that Jews are running our entertainment sector isn’t one bit vital. What difference will it make for the American people, or the Jewish honchos themselves, to know the religion of these executives? I do not feel that they have left anything unproven; sales, likability, and respect will not increase just by being aware of their religious affiliation. I simply cannot understand why it is relevant to brag to the American public that Hollywood is run by Jews. To me, it appears that Stein feels the need to show off, like the Jews have something to prove. I’m not sure what situation makes him feel that the Jews of Hollywood are the underdog. Being Jewish should not separate these entertainment workers from everyone else in the industry, and it should not be a reason for them to flaunt their accomplishments. Each person’s successes should be weighted equally, not more or less because of religion. As a Catholic, I do not feel that Catholics have the right to be acknowledged more so than another religion group. Nor do I feel that a Wiccan in Hollywood should be recognized because he or she is a minority. Personally, I think someone should be given respect because of their professional successes, not because they developed professionally despite their religion.
I found the ‘How Jewish is Hollywood?’ article to be very eye-opening. There have always been stereotypes of how Jews are the heads of banks or good with money and very business savvy, but as the article points out, they really do run Hollywood. I don’t deem this to be an important issue, but interesting none the less. I actually lived in Hollywood for an entire summer a year ago, and anyone who has ever spent time there knows that no matter what religion a person is, people from the West Coast are a lot different than people from the East Coast. So studio executives from L.A. are going to be a lot different than Jewish people from State College.
In terms of Christianity versus Judaism, I do not think that is as big of deal as it’s made out to be. As a Catholic I have never thought of the Church’s relationship with Jewish people as “rather rancorous.” I have gone to church every Sunday since I was born. My father goes to church every day of the week. Never once was I taught hatred toward Jews, or any other religions for that matter. I have heard the theory that Jewish people killed Jesus even though it was actually the Romans, but that is what separates our religions. They did not believe Jesus was the son of God and therefore gave him up to the Romans. And even if Jesus was Jewish, Catholicism believes Jesus was our savior and that He will come again, whereas Jews do not believe he ever came and still wait for His first appearance. Even if our religions are different that does not make one better than the other, and that does not make a Christian better than a Jew.
Personally I can see this article as a somewhat of a success story. After the Holocaust and the genocide of millions of Jews, it took these men less than a decade to reach some of the highest positions in today’s society. I mean, Jews only make up about two percent of the world’s population. It is undeniably a great feat. Like the author says, “As a proud Jew, I want America to know about our accomplishment.” If I happened to be Jewish I would probably have similar feeling as the author.
Finally, I think this class should be a requirement for all majors. It allows people to state and discuss their views, but it is a forum to learn and grow in a knowledge that is different from what one would normally learn. I think it is important to be able to see many things from all different perspectives, not just one’s own. I feel it is necessary for the betterment of our generation. I know it has already helped me rethink the way I see things.
While searching race relations project this week this article jumped out at me. I like the concept of “Jews running Hollywood” that I’ve heard many times before. Even though the article displayed many examples of Jews who are high powered Hollywood executives the contention that Jews “run” Hollywood is ridiculous. It may be true that there are many Jewish people in Hollywood with high end jobs but these executives don’t get together and make decisions based on their religion. Not to mention there are hundreds, probably thousands of high end jobs in Hollywood. The author of this article did a good job of listing all the Jews in positions of power to make it seem like they are in control of Hollywood. I can admit while reading I was shocked by the amount of Jews running networks or studios. However, even though there were plenty of Jews on this list, what about all the other studios in town, what about all the agencies, all the other networks, not to mention the actors and actresses? Maybe the ratio in Hollywood is more favored towards the Jewish but in no way should this skew be misrepresented towards the fact that Jews run Hollywood.
Even though I disagree with the reason the author had for writing this article I don’t necessarily agree with the contention that this article crossed any imaginary line that makes it inappropriate. To start off, the author of this article is in fact Jewish. This alone shoots down any idea that it is inappropriate or steps over any boundary for conversation. Is there not a bylaw in the rules of political correctness in this country that says you can only make fun of the groups you belong to? It’s the rule of thumb, if you’re Jewish; it’s acceptable to make fun at the Jews expense. That’s the same rule that allows black people to say “nigga” while if a white person says it you expect that white person to get jumped by any and all black people who may have heard it. Furthermore, the author never spoke badly or disrespectfully towards Jews. To say that there are many Jewish Hollywood executives can’t be considered anything other than the truth. The article wasn’t written in a demeaning way towards gentiles, it seemed more like the author was kind of proud that people who share the same religion as him have done so well, a golden star of sorts; you can’t blame a guy for that.
There needs to be less attention brought to small things such as this. This is a Jew who is proud that his fellow Jews have been able to hold a major piece of Hollywood, even if he might be exaggerating a bit when he says that Jews run Hollywood.
Trying to think of some rebuttals to the theory that “Jews run Hollywood” is not the easiest task there is. I thoroughly enjoy watching comedy movies so all I ever really see is Jewish actors such as Jonah Hill, Adam Sandler, and Seth Rogen lighting up my life with their movies. The list doesn’t stop at comedy though. In fact, if you Wikipedia “Jewish Actors,” the list is unfathomable, however there is not even a page for actors of any other religion. Even if you watch any of the celebrity roasts these days, Jewish comedians such as Lisa Lampanelli and Jeff Ross openly make fun of the fact that they control the entertainment industry. With substantial evidence, it is hard to naïvely disagree with this fact, so all I can do is simply agree.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing; it’s just a fact that the entertainment industry is not very representative of the United States in whole. There are many more Catholics in America yet somehow they are not as influential in Hollywood. I don’t think it’s that harmful to say that Jews (can I say ‘Jews’?) may be more driven than other religions and therefore work harder to attain the positions in the world that they want. It may not be true, but it sure seems as such. So many Jewish people occupy some of the most prestigious jobs in the country so I don’t see why people just say that they control the media. Why isn’t it “Jews control the orthodontistry market”?
Are all the goya in the country mad that Jewish people are the presidents of large companies? I don’t think Jews are strategically positioning all their powerful leaders into positions so they can expel all the non-Jews and take over America. Who the hell cares if people of one religion work more in one part of the work force then the other? I don’t think that fact alone makes Jewish people better than anyone else. It just means they work in the entertainment industry more.
The word “control” also makes this seem a little more totalitaristic than I think it needs to be. It doesn’t seem like the Jewish studio-heads are rewriting every policy to make it more Jew-friendly. Maybe they are signing more Jewish actors and actresses on purpose and maybe they are just signing the best talent they have in front of them. This whole debacle is just a little too ridiculous to consider too heavily.
It’s not as though there are mandatory religion checks before entering the Screen Actors Guild. If there were, it seems these days that everyone would have to be Scientologist to enter. Scientology had begun recruiting every major celebrity actor so I think people should be more concerned with a ludicrous religion based on outlandish stories than one of the earliest, most stable religions there is.
The article starts off by talking about the relationship between Jews and Christians throughout history and that has influenced how Americans perceive Jews today. Throughout their history of existence, Jews have struggled to better themselves and find a homeland. Judaism is one of the three big monotheistic religions along with Islam and Christianity. The three religions clashed against one another on many occasions throughout history but Jews were always the common factor. Jews influenced many events on this planet and still continue to make an impact on our world today. After WWII and all the horrible things that happened to the Jews (Holocaust), Jews around the world sought for a homeland that would unite them finally. With Britain’s help, they went into Palestine and claimed it theirs because they said that it was the land that was promised to them and they deserved it just as much as the Arabs and Palestinians already living there. They fought the Palestinians and with the United States behind, they were able to defeat the Palestinians and kick them out of their own land and only give them a small portion of it. The war now between the Palestinians and the Israelis has been going on for close to sixty years and they still haven’t come to a solution. During this time, many innocent Palestinians (Muslims) and Israelis (Jews) have died. Jews in America hold the highest positions in jobs and of course there’s that stereotype of them being the richest. The issue with religions will never be settled and I think until this world comes to an end, the issue will prevail. Christians, Muslims, and Jews believe in the same God of course.
So going back to the article about Jews impact on Hollywood and how they ‘run Hollywood’; to me it was very funny. Although Jews in this country especially are targets to mockery, Jews have showed and proved all their haters that with hard work and dedication, anything can be achieved and the highest ranks can be reached. They control a lot of things in our government today and without the Jews in this country, I don’t think America would be the same country. Just like Jews have good qualities that have made a power to reckon with, they also encompass a lot of negative things that have caused hatred towards them from many countries. There’s good and evil in everything I believe. There are good and bad people in every country, in every race, in every religion and Jews are no exception. There are good Jews that believe in their book and are good people who lead good lives. And of course there the bad ones that kill and cheat and do all those sorts of things but at the end of the day, we can’t generalize and say that all Jews are good or bad or stingy or whatever.
This is an interesting topic that stems from the belief that the United States is based off of Christian ideals. I don’t think this is true anymore. Our country is so multi-cultural and multi-religious, so I don’t think you can really pin point United States culture or religion to any sect.
I’ve heard a lot of hearsay about Christians blaming the Jews for Jesus’ death. These types of statements are both confusing and strange to me. I don’t quite know what to think, although it is kind of becoming a joking matter in some United States’ cultures. I’ve often heard “oh, the Jews killed Jesus” along with other jokes about Jesus and Christianity altogether. I’m not sure quite what to make of it all. I know people will always make fun of controversial or sensitive topics, but I do believe there is a line that people cross way too often.
I find it interesting to read in the blog that the New Testament of the Bible was written by Jews, who considered themselves Jews their whole life. This a weird mix of dividing religions, that starts from the beginning of Christianity. I still wonder what the differences between Judaism and Christianity really are. I feel like they’re so similar. The Torah and the Bible follow such similar paths up until the life of Jesus. From my understanding, the Jews did not accept Jesus as their true savior. However, I’m sure it’s not that simple.
I’m also enrolled in a history class: the history of Nazism and Fascism (hist 143). It’s a great class here at Penn State for those of you looking for a history GH that satisfies your international credit. In this class were going into great detail about how Hitler and the Nazi party used propaganda inspired by past historians, writers, and even religious leaders. It’s often very disturbing to learn about how influenced some people can be by past history and famous figures. It can make people do incredible things (both great and horrendous). This makes me curious when I hear about Martin Luther hating the Jews. He is a very well respected figure in many Protestant religions. However, how can someone so well repected have such a hatred for someone of another religion?
It really confuses me when I think about people throughout history that have held such incredible leadership positions, but had character flaws that make them despicable people in my eyes. I don’t care if Martin Luther started churches, helped poor people, while curing AIDS; his contempt for the Jews is just inexcusable.
As for Jewish people been seen in America as rich and wealthy, with a big hand in banking and Hollywood, I don’t really have any opinion on that. Most Jewish people I know are really hard working from wealthy families that contribute to society and our economy. I didn’t quite realize that Jews had a stronghold in Hollywood, however, I just saw Jerry Seinfeld tonight at the Eisenhower Auditorium. He’s Jewish and he’s one of my favorite comedians.
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