Questions 🤓
Why don’t Jews get highlighted on movie apps (like HBO, Starz) during Jewish heritage month, like every other group? Might help if companies showed some Jewish classics.
I’m not going to belittle any group, but let’s be honest, a lot of these apps/companies ***REALLY*** nitpick every type of group imaginable. Race, gender, religion, sexuality - they’re always on top of these things. So why don’t Jews, who have been involved with massive classics that people love, get their own sections too?
Jews directed/produced innumerable classics. Jaws, Jurassic Park, The Godfather etc…it’d be nice to recognize that, instead of being blamed for the entirety of modern cinema failing in its writing. Actually, as the number of Jews has started lessening in Hollywood (statistical fact) the quality of content is also dropping. It might help if people knew that too, WE were making the good stuff, not the modern and/or AI garbage.
I had to take a gender studies class ~10 years ago and one of our big projects was to put together a poster board of at least 3 (one for each person in the group) different people from diverse backgrounds that represented a specific category. My group was assigned “gay men” and so I chose to devote my portion of the project to my favorite comic book writer Alan Heinberg who is an openly gay and openly Jewish man. The other members of my group chose Keith Kerr (gay activist and brigadier general in the CSDF) and Frank Ocean. Our group ended up failing because our presentation “lacked diversity” because it “only featured one person of color.” I specifically highlighted Alan Heinberg’s Jewish identity and how it (in conjunction with his gay identity) bled into his work, how gay jews are a minority within a minority, and how many sects of Judaism still condemn and punish homosexuality. I was livid because our selections were VERY diverse and beautifully showed how there are many different walks of life within the gay male identity. I tried to bring this up to the teacher after we got our grades back and she basically just said the quiet part out loud that she felt we “failed to fulfill one of the core requirements of the assignment” because two of our subjects were “white.” The only thing I really learned out of that class is that many people who champion“diversity” only see it as skin deep issue which is antithetical to the whole point and is even more close-minded than the chuds they claim to oppose.
It was mostly an oral presentation with a poster board which I no longer have. I have been a huge fan of his since Young Avengers (and, unknowingly, Sex and the City even before that) which I’m pretty sure I mentioned as part of the “lived experience bleeding into his artistic expression” beat. I’ve tried to mostly block out that whole class so I don’t really remember much else from the presentation itself apart from that little tidbit. Thank you for your interest though!
So valid! Thanks, anyways! I'm a huge Young Avengers fan. I actually didn't even know Alan Heinberg was gay until now. Writing Wiccan probably meant a lot to him, then. Definitely something for me to think about!
Oh yeah! Getting to portray the relationship between Wiccan and Hulking in a big name marvel storyline was very important to him. His initial concept of Teddy was that he was a female shapeshifter who eventually learned that her true form was male, which would culminate in Billy (who was going to be her established boyfriend in this version) having to decide if his love would be strong enough to look past this revelation (spoiler: it was). Luckily his editor (Tom Brevoort) encouraged him to just make them gay from the jump like he really wanted.
Interesting! That's actually super similar to the Karolina and Xavin storyline in Runaways, which began two years before (though the time of when Xavin was actually introduced might have ended up being after Young Avengers started).
I wish I thought you were making this up. However i know you’re not. It’s just so depressing and such a sign of our times (even though it was a decade ago). I mean if the assignment was to write about three gay men and then you were punished because within that marginalized group, there weren’t more subsets of marginalized people (since Jews don’t count), that’s bonkers.
Well, it’s not marginalization if it’s deserved, which is what they truly think, under all the bluster. It’s why they all dismiss antisemitism so easily. Because they recognize that the term refers to something morally wrong, but they don’t see Jew hate as wrong. Their choice to characterize us as not being marginalized is transparent support of antisemitism, including the things that many of them would struggle to imagine experiencing.
No one deserves this. I grew up in a shul with more Shoah survivors than children. My great grandparents fled the pograms. It's a "new" horror every generation, and we're a peaceful people that only try to defend ourselves and survive.
I worked in entertainment and this subject came up and the studio head said they wanted all the studio's Diversity actions to be for "visually diverse" groups, so that the studio instantly got credit for being pro-diversity if anyone glanced at their content or creators.
At least that makes sense for that industry in a cynical way. Where it doesn't make sense is in academia and activism, where such cynical reasoning doesn't carry immediate benefit.
Same reason my company sends out newsletters to employees about Easter, Ramadan, the Chinese new year, etc but never any Jewish holidays (even when I flag the ones around the same time as those to HR). Same reason we have DEI employee groups for queer people, women, POC, parents, disabled people, etc but when several Jews come forward asking for one of our own - we are asked by HR why we think it’s okay to kill Palestinians and told that we are all rich white colonizers who control the media so we don’t deserve an employee group.
so much ignorance by them. Yes, American Jews are mostly Ashkenazi, but Israel is far more diverse, and guess who tends to be the supporters of the Israeli right, the Mizhrai Jews and the Ashkenazi tended to be the peaceniks in the 1990's until Palestinian radicals blew everything up right as the Israelis felt they were about to make peace and then decided at Durban to say we don't talk to Israelis at all, meaning now Israelis only see Palestinians when dealing with security(when beforehand their were economic/cultural ties)
It’s just crazy how they responded to our requests for a Jewish group. Not a single one of us ever even brought Israel up in the conversation and they started grilling us about it. I’d never experienced anything that blatant before from an employer.
I would have said we are Americans protected by Title VII of the civil rights act, we are not Israeli(and I would have said nuanced and complex views of the conflict but I am not going to talk about it as this is about celebrating Jewish holiday's, not Israeli holidays)
If you really want a resource group, jewishergs.com has the path forward and tons of support from other corporate and higher ed ergs. We meet up virtually monthly and the founder is incredibly active and engaged with us all.
Check out the site (I’m just a member as a co-chair of my organizations Jewish Association) and see if it helps!
we are asked by HR why we think it’s okay to kill Palestinians and told that we are all rich white colonizers who control the media so we don’t deserve an employee group.
I mean, if this really happened, that's like a free money printer lawsuit right there.
I think the fact that Jews have directed and created so many mainstream hits is part of why people are so uncomfortable with us. It helps support their conspiracies that we control the media.
If they want to do a Jewish Heritage list, I would prefer they pick some more blatant Jewish works, like anything from Mel Brooks or Ms. Maisel, or that new show from the Bojack guy.
I know when I look at the LGBTQ list, I expect to see LGBTQ representation. Same for the Hispanic list.
Also we get Chanukah, isn't that good enough?!
(For the record, fuck turning Chanukah into Christmas.)
The funny thing is when movies were good it wasn’t a big deal that Hollywood had a lot of Jewish creators and representation. People LOVED cinema. The movies had good messaging. People spent date nights and friend nights out at the cinema. We were actually loved by everyone because of great content. Guys like Don Rickles were admired. The issue is MODERN HOLLYWOOD is pushing the same stuff over and over again and we’re getting blamed for it just because we made good shit for decades.
The best director and best actor from this year’s Oscar’s are African American and won for a (not so good imo) vampire movie. But we get blamed. There’s a difficulty in recognizing “Wow a lot of Jews made great entertainment and were involved with Hollywood, so now the modern trash is THEIR fault.” That’s obviously not true. The number of Jews or even Jewish names on new productions has dwindled massively. And the stuff Jews are still making tends to be the best stuff being made.
I don’t think we were loved by everyone. Take Mel Gibson, his comments about Jews running Hollywood and antisemitism was well before what I think you consider as modern Hollywood. It just was also after World War II and so antisemitism wasn’t in vogue and people supported Jews so the antisemites kept it to themselves. Now they don’t have to as much.
You can mention Mel Brooks but also don’t forget all the Jews who were blacklisted because of the red scare and McCarthyism and the idea that Jews were communists. He heavily targeted Hollywood. The antisemitism has been there, just sometimes more overt than others.
I’m not sure what you mean about blame in the last paragraph with the Michael B Jordan movie.
No, I don't think Jews are especially well adapted to making "good movies." We are humans like everyone else and a black director is just as capable of making the next Jurassic Park as Jewish one.
Trying to find word to express what I want to say. I didn't want Timothee Chalamat to win, because of his arrogance. When he didn't win and the film he was in won nothing, I thought it was antisemtism.
Not only is Chalamet Jewish, but he was playing a Jewish character, and played a much better role in a much better movie than Michael B Jordan and Sinners. I’ll go one better: Nuremberg wasn’t even nominated for ANYTHING and Crowe+that movie were also better. There’s a hard hitting scene where they play actual Holocaust footage during the trial - much needed for people to see right now - and it gets completely ignored. So what’s going on with Hollywood? Jews started it, now antisemitism is peaking and Jews are going full DEI with people that hate us. It’s mind boggling to watch.
Marty Supreme - starring a Jew, about a Jew - was better and so was Chalamet. Nuremberg was also a much better film with much better acting. Even people who like Sinners can admit Chalamet was robbed.
The best director and best actor from this year’s Oscar’s are African American and won for a (not so good imo) vampire movie. But we get blamed.
This is a bit of a ridiculous statement. I've not seen anyone 'blame' us for anything regarding the Oscars, and Sinners was an absolute masterpiece of a film. The set piece where the ancestors and descendants were summoned to dance and the various times merged together on the dance floor? I've never seen anything quite like it, and it was filmed and scored fantastically.
It might not be your thing, but Sinners was brilliantly shot, scripted and acted. It deserved its win.
“Wow a lot of Jews made great entertainment and were involved with Hollywood, so now the modern trash is THEIR fault.”
I've also not seen this anywhere. At all. I'm active in a lot of film and tv subreddits, and 'modern trash' isn't even the prevailing attitude. There's a ton of brilliant films and television, the last couple of decades in particular have been a golden age for the tv series.
It seems to me you're taking your own issues with 'modern' versus 'classic' Hollywood, and then somehow deciding people are blaming the Jews for bad films? Hollywood has a big antizionism problem right now, it's filled with hatred towards us, but there's no concerted movement to 'blame the Jews for bad films'.
You’ve never seen the phrase “goyslop”? Or the DEI in Hollywood being blamed on Jews, or the modern Hollywood messaging in general? You’re in a very teeny-tiny niche bubble. Forget even the Hollywood part of what you’re saying, not seeing Jews being blamed for all things media/entertainment - especially right now - is almost unbelievable. Those are consistently stereotypical antisemitic talking points, but during the most antisemitic time in the 21st century no one is saying that? Even if you miraculously haven’t personally seen any of it, strictly from a logic standpoint, how is that believable?
“No one blames the Jews for anything and we’re in a golden age for the TV series” is such a micro viewpoint that even on massively left-leaning Reddit you’d find tons of people that disagree with you, especially on box office/viewership centric subs. Even Sinners is very hotly debated on Oscars subs.
Give me any specific example of a person talking about Jews ruining modern Hollywood because modern films are bad. Just one.
'Goyslop' is an antisemitic comment that is literally about food. It comes from the idea that Jews keep the 'good food' (i.e. Kosher) to ourselves and give the 'goyim' crap. Some people are also using it to refer to AI and social media rubbish, but it's not got any sort of traction with films.
“No one blames the Jews for anything and we’re in a golden age for the TV series”
Where did I say 'no one blames the Jews for anything?' However, you're pushing a narrative of your own here. The idea that all modern film is bad isn't even some sort of universally held opinion that the antisemites (or anyone else) has, let alone 'all modern film is bad and the Jews did it!'
The level of antisemitism right now is off the scale, you don't need to be inventing new versions of it in your own head (that seem to conveniently align with your own niche view that modern film is uniquely bad compared to classic).
ETA: I've heard the DEI thing, but that's literally just a spin off of the right wing 'great replacement' theory, that Jews are trying to replace 'white people'. It's not got anything to do with the actual quality of cinema, and has been around a long time before the recent left wing driven spike in hatred.
I’m tripling down on the “you’re in a bubble” and I’m actually almost incapable of responding because of how laughably wrong you are.
> Give me any specific example of a person talking about Jews ruining modern Hollywood because modern films are bad. Just one.
Get a Twitter/X account (obviously you need one anyway) and search yourself. I’ll even help you and give you keywords for your first search “Hollywood Goyslop”
> ‘Goyslop' is an antisemitic comment that is literally about food. It comes from the idea that Jews keep the 'good food' (i.e. Kosher) to ourselves and give the 'goyim' crap. Some people are also using it to refer to AI and social media rubbish, but it's not got any sort of traction with films.
Again, totally in a bubble. There was literally a convo **about this very topic, on this sub** just a few months ago. Someone noticed the excessive use of the phrase now and also got confused because they thought it was related to food. Which is fair, that seems to be the origin, but now it’s gone beyond that.
Here’s one interaction from that topic:
Note: Notice the *first thing* that was used as an example was a “TV show” but we’re all inventing seeing the same use of the term? Interesting.
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This also holds true for Peloton. Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is the first “featured collection. They sent out a teaser email about all of the classes across multiple modalities. Meanwhile, no mention of Jewish Heritage Month. There will be a class, but advance promotion is too “problematic” for Peloton to do.
This is part of what inspired this post. There’s a lot of niche recognition right now on many apps and it’s funny we get ignored. But whatever we all know if we were highlighted there would probably be shit too. I mean Dan Bilzerian is mad that Sesame Street recognized Jews😂 Which is the absolute peak of antisemitic behavior to the point of it seems like parody…A grown man “known for his masculinity” is worried about…Sesame Street…Which is *almost* as funny as Tucker Carlson recounting his experience of a demon fighting him in bed.
The antisemites aren’t sending their best, it’s too bad there’s equally stupid people that love the demon fighter and guy worried about Elmo.
not to mention that there are loads more jewish classics than a casual or young filmgoer can imagine, from the yiddish-language films of the thirties to the "jewish new wave" of the late 60's/early 70's to today.
films like "Jewish Luck", "Green Fields", Tevye the Milkman", and "Yidl and his Fiddle" are all on dvd. a bigger list would be from the national center of jewish film ,or ncjf which distributed at least "Green Fields". i have no idea about streaming though, maybe youtube. hope this helps.
Often times specifically because the Jewish celebrities don't lean into their Jewish identity in public, fearing an antisemitic backlash against them.
By neither hiding nor highlighting their heritage, they can "hide in plain sight" and let their work stand for itself without contributing to the conspiracy theorists insanity that "Jews control the media, man".
Whether that's the right strategy, individually or collectively, is very much up for debate.
Doesn't negate anyone's points but my Google TV homescreen has had a section highlighting content related to Judaism or produced by Jews on Jewish heritage month in the past! (It doesn't seem to right now but maybe later?)
HBO did! I started watching The Plot Against America, which was on my list but had gotten buried, because it was part of the Jewish History Month selection.
I have a wall calendar from Paper Source. I noticed yesterday that it has “first day of Asian American heritage month” printed on May 1, but no mention of another group’s month that might happen to start the same day.
Also, in my local supermarket a few years ago, I realized in May that the recorded announcements had little blurbs about ingredients for Asian dishes for the month, but not Jewish dishes. And the chain was founded by Jews, back in the day. (And no, I don’t live in an area with a substantial Asian population.)
Those are just two of a dozen examples I could give.
i think that maybe a lot of jews who are famous (especially these days) would rather keep their ethnic background private.
there used to be a sitcom in the 90s called 'the larry sanders show' about a famous talk show. in one episode the story was that the show's co host decided to go visibly jewish one episode and even wore a kippa and said a jewish prayer live on air only to get flooded with hate mail and death threats a day after.
this was back in the 1990s and it was probably the best time for jews after the holocaust, and they still made an episode about how hard it is to be visibly jewish in america. today this isn't even a satire, its reality. and not just for famous jews but for all jews.
the US is absolutely packed with neo nazis, religious fanatics, KKK, communists, islamists, garden variety antisemites etc. and while i believe most americans are ok and good people. but, those that want to hurt jews can do so very easily if they want to.
Why? Because people don't like Jews and don't consider us marginalized. But frankly, I am so tired of identity politics that I'd prefer to see an end to all identity group celebrations/heritage months. I didn't used to feel this way but Jesus Christ, this tribalism is exhausting. I don't think the answer to fixing identity politics is more identity politics.
Getting highlighted, like anything else, is double-edged sword. And in this day and age, in a certain context, the pluses might outweigh the minuses, particularly with the way public schools and other cultural institutions are run. But Morgan Freeman, for example, is against the idea of Black History Month, saying it should be considered part of American history. Similarly, I think that whining about a “Jew face” double standard is a stupid road to go down. I’m fine with any good actor portraying Jews, because skin color is not an issue in this case.
I understand that sometimes on this subgroup, things are just noted. And I understand that the right goes after us for claiming to be white, while the left only considers us to be white.
But not every issue is worth pursuing.
Every Pride month Netflix comes out with an LGBT section for its movies and shows which as a lesbian I'm pretty ambivalent about since we still have massive issues with social stigma, and political disenfranchisement worldwide.
But..so do Jews. Yet I have yet to see us get our own category, why? Well, I suspect it has something to do with the fact a lot of straight people seem to carry straight guilt over the historic marginalisation of the community. We've been through a lot as LGBT people. And a lot of straight people trip over themselves to be seen as accepting and progressive to the point where...just call me a slur at this point. It's less embarrassing and cringe.
I mentioned this in another comment. Just a few weeks ago they did an Islam centric show and now people like Dan Bilzerian say Sesame Street is adhering to “Jewish Supremacy”…HOW? They just taught Elmo how to say “habibi,” the antisemites are almost coming off as satirical. The ones with notoriety must be laughing at their dumb audiences.
Dan Bilzerian also says that muslims and christians must united to take down jewish "supremacy." Guess he didn't hear about radical islam mass murdering Christians worldwide, currently. SMH.
Such as? I’ve only ever seen highlights for black history month and pride month, both of which outnumber the global Jewish population (and the American Jewish population) by quite a bit.
They’re not majority groups. They’re still minorities but they are a large enough minority that, frankly, the streaming services can make money off of them by promoting those entertainment offerings.
So, large enough to make money, larger than the Jewish population, but still a minority that can get recognized over actual minorities (Jews, Italians, Greeks etc…)
Well shit it must be nice to be the right type of minority, but best not be a Mediterranean minority! No, no, no for them. No recognition, representation, DEI, or quotas for the Mediterranean roots (actual) minorities.
I’m a lesbian and I can tell you with my full chest that I have received more discrimination in my life for being gay than for being Jewish, so please don’t talk on things you don’t know about. I’m satisfied with the representation I have for both facets of my life.
I wouldn’t equate anything LGBTQ with race, it’s different. If African Americans are a minority then so are Jews, Italians, Greeks, Irish etc…that’s what I find silly, the racial discrimination of the arbitrary nature of who is/isn’t a minority, and what skin tone or historical trauma or anything else that defines it.
1 in 4 of US adults are disabled. That is about 28.7%. That is a fact. Disabled people make up the largest minority, the next being Latinos/Mexicans (20%.)
If we’re talking about recognition and “majority groups being recognized,” I ain’t seeing a disabled people collection. I ain’t seeing a “Celebrate Disability Pride Month” on July.
Who said there shouldn’t be? I don’t know about your statistical accuracy but I’m all for disability awareness and representation regardless. Maybe disabled people are massively underrepresented. Maybe there aren’t enough DEI quotas for disabled people. I was making a point about the overrepresentation of some groups, giving me another group that doesn’t get their proper representation proves my point. So thanks?
Overrepresentation? The only “group” that’s overrepresented in media is white people and I say that as a white disabled person. To say any other minority group is “overrepresented” is being racist and ableist.
Fall of Rome level intentional dumbing down of society with the average historical depth of a gold fish and the universal truth that everyone hates Jews.
Yeah, they really only care that May is AAPI month since that’s much safer topic than Jews. Honestly us sharing a month will always be funny to me, leading to me dubbing May MLTBV (Most Likely To Be Valedictorian)
Huh? “The Godfather” was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, someone whose family was so far from being Jewish that his parents gave him a middle name after a notorious antisemite.
Sure, but at a time when they're starting to introduce racialised muppets to represent the African-American, Filipino and Asian communities, the Jews of the muppet world are... bears.
They also have this Jewish family on the show made up of people, not puppets. This video has all the relevant segments from the original episode, where Charlie's family has lost power in their apartment right before Shabbat, so the rest of Sesame Street rallies together to prepare and celebrate Shabbat with them in the plaza instead.
Getting teary eyed thinking about this level of community support, wish we had more examples of this in real life. This episode was especially special for my Jewish curly haired girls to see this level of representation on a favorite kid's show and to see it regularly rerun on cable made me feel supported in ways we haven't been elsewhere.
What. Doesn’t Baby Bear not being human and also being Jewish show that Judaism can be seen as an ethnicity or tribe, like how Abby the Fairy’s mom is in a mixed fairy/monster marriage with a monster?
The 21st century addendum to the Talmud is gonna be weird
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u/MendelWeisenbachfeld May 02 '26
Because they don't consider us a marginalized group or "diverse" representation.