Two years ago, I interviewed Neal Gabler, a harsh critic of an Academy Museum omission. With its new exhibit, the author, still unsparing, helped tell the complicated story
I learned years ago - pre 2000 - that Hollywood was about Eastern European Jews providing a Protestant America with a Catholic morality. And that’s pretty well known I thought.
The main problem is that they apply a different standard to Jews that they didn't apply to anyone else in the museum - which is the very definition of antisemitism.
Did they mention that Pedro Almodovar tortured bulls on his film MATADOR? No.
How about Spike Lee's Jewish caricatures in Mo Better Blues?
Or Bruce Lee's womanizing?
Or the founders of BLM being accused of embezzling $10M?
Their claims of "well this is accurate, or for context" is complete bull pucky. It's hateful. Why would blackface even come up in an exhibit about Jewish contributions to cinema??!!
I will admit the part about Easter European Jews is a bit confusing since it seems to be poorly researched. Carl Laemmle is not an Easter European Jew, he is from my grandfather’s hometown of Laupheim, in southern German, not Eastern Europe. He was also early on very active in helping German and other European Jews escape the Nazis. But that story actually is also a good example of how anti semitic the US was at the turn of the century.
I learned years ago - pre 2000 - that Hollywood was about Eastern European Jews providing a Protestant America with a Catholic morality. And that’s pretty well known I thought.
The main problem is that they apply a different standard to Jews that they didn't apply to anyone else in the museum - which is the very definition of antisemitism.
Did they mention that Pedro Almodovar tortured bulls on his film MATADOR? No.
How about Spike Lee's Jewish caricatures in Mo Better Blues?
Or Bruce Lee's womanizing?
Or the founders of BLM being accused of embezzling $10M?
Their claims of "well this is accurate, or for context" is complete bull pucky. It's hateful. Why would blackface even come up in an exhibit about Jewish contributions to cinema??!!
DO BETTER!!!!!
Great piece!
I will admit the part about Easter European Jews is a bit confusing since it seems to be poorly researched. Carl Laemmle is not an Easter European Jew, he is from my grandfather’s hometown of Laupheim, in southern German, not Eastern Europe. He was also early on very active in helping German and other European Jews escape the Nazis. But that story actually is also a good example of how anti semitic the US was at the turn of the century.