A poll finds more Americans disagree with the statement that 'Jews control Hollywood.' But here's one Jew who doesn't.
Joel Stein
December 19, 2008
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," down from nearly 50% in 1964. The Anti-Defamation League, which released the poll results last month, sees in these numbers a victory against stereotyping. Actually, it just shows how dumb America has gotten. Jews totally run Hollywood.
How deeply Jewish is Hollywood? When the studio chiefs took out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago to demand that the Screen Actors Guild settle its contract, the open letter was signed by: News Corp. President Peter Chernin (Jewish), Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey (Jewish), Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger (Jewish), Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton (surprise, Dutch Jew), Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer (Jewish), CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves (so Jewish his great uncle was the first prime minister of Israel), MGM Chairman Harry Sloan (Jewish) and NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker (mega-Jewish). If either of the Weinstein brothers had signed, this group would have not only the power to shut down all film production but to form a minyan with enough Fiji water on hand to fill a mikvah.
The person they were yelling at in that ad was SAG President Alan Rosenberg (take a guess). The scathing rebuttal to the ad was written by entertainment super-agent Ari Emanuel (Jew with Israeli parents) on the Huffington Post, which is owned by Arianna Huffington (not Jewish and has never worked in Hollywood.)
The Jews are so dominant, I had to scour the trades to come up with six Gentiles in high positions at entertainment companies. When I called them to talk about their incredible advancement, five of them refused to talk to me, apparently out of fear of insulting Jews. The sixth, AMC President Charlie Collier, turned out to be Jewish.
As a proud Jew, I want America to know about our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood. Without us, you'd be flipping between "The 700 Club" and "Davey and Goliath" on TV all day.
So I've taken it upon myself to re-convince America that Jews run Hollywood by launching a public relations campaign, because that's what we do best. I'm weighing several slogans, including: "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 called ADL Chairman Abe Foxman, who was in Santiago, Chile, where, he told me to my dismay, he was not hunting Nazis. He dismissed my whole proposition, saying that the number of people who think Jews run Hollywood is still too high. The ADL poll, he pointed out, 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."
That's a sinister canard, Foxman said. "It means they think Jews
meet at Canter's Deli on Friday mornings to decide what's best for the Jews." Foxman's argument made me rethink: I have to eat at Canter's more often.
"That's a very dangerous phrase, 'Jews control Hollywood.' What is true is that there are a lot of Jews in Hollywood," he said. Instead of "control," Foxman would prefer people say that many executives in the industry "happen to be Jewish," as in "all eight major film studios are run by men who happen to be Jewish."
But Foxman said he is proud of the accomplishments of American Jews. "I think Jews are disproportionately represented in the creative industry. They're disproportionate as lawyers and probably medicine here as well," he said. He argues that this does not mean that Jews make pro-Jewish movies any more than they do pro-Jewish surgery. Though other countries, I've noticed, aren't so big on circumcision.
I appreciate Foxman's concerns. And maybe my life spent in a New Jersey-New York/Bay Area-L.A. pro-Semitic cocoon has left me naive. But 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.
The modern U.S. entertainment industry was started by Jews. This is their niche. It shouldn't surprise people that Hollywood is disproportionately Jewish. Incidentally the adult film industry too is disproportionately Jewish, both behind and in front of the camera. Harry Reems and Ron Jeremy are two examples of Jewish "actors" in that industry.
There's a long history in the U.S. of groups finding a niche in the economy, exploiting it, and dominating it. This isn’t unique to Jews. Some just like to think it is.
Additionally, some Jews like to downplay Jewish involvement in Hollywood because it is used to nurture notions of surreptitious Jewish dominance of our society and the world.
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 {Posts: 1829 } Location: Lookin DC Metro, Feelin Geneva
Posted: Sat 16 May 2009 17:45 Post subject:
[quote="cjohns48233305"]
Quote:
There's a long history in the U.S. of groups finding a niche in the economy, exploiting it, and dominating it.
Not Blacks! Well not in porportion to other groups
Sports and entertainment, definately...blacks dominate two major sports (football and basketball) and have a significant presence above their population in baseball.
There's a long history in the U.S. of groups finding a niche in the economy, exploiting it, and dominating it.
Not Blacks! Well not in porportion to other groups
Sports and entertainment, definately...blacks dominate two major sports (football and basketball) and have a significant presence above their population in baseball.
What "cjohns48233305" was referring to was actual control of a niche. Blacks in professional sports are more like employees.
I remember watching an interview with William Julius Wilson about 20 years ago in which he stated that northern blacks in the the late 19th and very early 20th Centuries had a niche in things like catering and babering in cities like Philadelphia. This was before the beginnings of the migrations from the south and massive European immigration.
Yeah!i just read this book that talks about this very same thing!
Quote:
I remember watching an interview with William Julius Wilson about 20 years ago in which he stated that northern blacks in the the late 19th and very early 20th Centuries had a niche in things like catering and babering in cities like Philadelphia. This was before the beginnings of the migrations from the south and massive European immigration.
There's a long history in the U.S. of groups finding a niche in the economy, exploiting it, and dominating it. This isn’t unique to Jews. Some just like to think it is.
Additionally, some Jews like to downplay Jewish involvement in Hollywood because it is used to nurture notions of surreptitious Jewish dominance of our society and the world.
Exactly. WASPs -- investment banking, advertising, many others. Italian-Americans -- funeral services, trash hauling, construction. Irish-Americans were at one time stereotypically police officers. Gay people -- fashion. Asian-Americans -- engineering. The list goes on and on. Jews stand out only insofar as anti-Semites routinely trot out Jewish presence in a field, real or imagined, as evidence that Jews control everything. Hence the sensitivity among Jews to anything that might contribute to that stereotype.
I do not believe that homosexuality became an ethnopolitical self-identity (as opposed to merely a sexual preference) until the late 1930s. See, for example, John Howard, Men Like That: A Southern Queer History (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1999).
I do not believe that homosexuality became an ethnopolitical self-identity (as opposed to merely a sexual preference) until the late 1930s. See, for example, John Howard, Men Like That: A Southern Queer History (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1999).
I'm sure you're right. It did strike me as a bit of an odd match, but it seemed illustrative of the phenomenon in question so I decided to include it.
I'm sure you're right. It did strike me as a bit of an odd match, but it seemed illustrative of the phenomenon in question so I decided to include it.
Oh, I agree with including it as an example. I just thought it was odd that a new ethnopolitical self-identity can somehow pop up out of nowhere, in the 20th century, when even feminism began before the Civil War.
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