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the classical Hollywood era were Jewish: Carl Laemmle (Universal), Adolph Zukor (Paramount), Louis B. Mayer (MGM), Harry Cohn (Columbia), and the Warner Brothers. With Jewish men as the leaders of the film industry, many other people of Jewish heritage went into the business as directors, writers, actors, and technicians. Consequently, American Jews have had a greater say in how their images were being fashioned in American cinema than any other racial or ethnic minority.

      Possibly the one studio to show some commitment to upholding its Jewish heritage was Warner Brothers. Consistently hiring more Jewish actors than did other studios, Warner Brothers also made films about Jewish characters on a somewhat regular basis. The studio won a Best Picture Oscar for The Life of Emile Zola (1937), a film that focused on the notorious “Dreyfus affair,” a major French military trial that pivoted on anti‐Semitism. Warner Brothers was also the first studio to repudiate Nazi Germany in its films, several years before the United States entered World War II, most memorably in Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939). Executives at the other studios refrained from making films critical of Nazi Germany so that they could maintain their European film distribution deals. While these decisions were thus partly fueled by capitalist desires, Jewish industry heads were also worried that taking a forthright stand against Hitler could reawaken anti‐Semitic sentiment against Hollywood. In fact, that is exactly what happened in the wake of films like Confessions of a Nazi Spy. Special US Senate committee hearings were held, accusing Hollywood of trying to push the United States into World War II. The transcripts of these hearings are filled with ugly anti‐Semitic rhetoric, a good example of how pervasive (and acceptable) such feelings were during this era.

Still frame from the film Funny Girl displaying Egyptian-born Omar Sharif as Jewish entrepreneur Nicky Arnstein opposite Barbra Streisand as Jewish comedienne Fanny Brice.

      Funny Girl, copyright © 1968, Columbia.

      Jewish American writers, directors, actors, producers, and comedians continue to thrive in the American film industry. Writer‐director‐actor‐producer Mel Brooks began his long career as writer for the seminal TV comedy Your Show of Shows (1950–54), and later created the spy spoof Get Smart (1965–70). His cinematic comedies The Producers (1967), Young Frankenstein (1974), Blazing Saddles (1974), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) have made generations of movie fans laugh out loud. Jewish American entertainers continue to thrive on television as well, especially in sitcoms. Back in the earliest days of TV history, The Goldbergs (1949–57) was a popular sitcom focusing on the titular Jewish family. Adapted from a successful radio show by its creator and star, Gertrude Berg, The Goldbergs had to recast a central character when actor Philip Loeb was accused of being a communist. Although Berg fought to keep Loeb on the show, he allegedly accepted a settlement and withdrew from the show; he died in 1955, another casualty of the anti‐communist (and anti‐Semitic) Red Scare. More recent decades have given us enormously popular TV sitcoms like Seinfeld (1989–98) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000–), both of which draw humor from the foibles and neuroses of their urban Jewish characters. The recent Amazon Prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–)

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