Get your head out of your tuches time!!
Nothing could be more important at this point in the history of the planet and the relatively connected history of the Jewish people than finding out what percentage of Americans (or that subset of Americans who don’t hang up on pollsters) think that Jews control Hollywood.
Ace reporter columnist/funny guy Joel Stein insightfully reports that
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.
Despite this, (and because we have not yet emerged from the Bush era into the reality based world) only 22% of Americans now believe “the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews”. Meanwhile Abe Foxman (remember him? ADL fightin’ the bad guys… pointing out genocide… except in Armenia…) thinks that this number is too high.
“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.”
Someone remind me why the ADL exists any more?
The poll is here.
The full column is here.
It seems appropriate to note that the reason that there were, originally, so many Jews in Hollywood is that film was a new industry that a lot of Ashkenazi immigrants could get into without the anti-Semitism that pervaded many other business sectors. And the films that came out of Hollywood’s early years, especially, provided a lot of fascinating fodder re: the assimilation dance. One would think that’d be the kind of POV that Foxman would have a field day with, no?
“Jews control Hollywood” can be read in two different ways. “There exist Jews who control Hollywood” is something different than “the Jews collectively control Hollywood.” The first is mostly accurate. There are Jews who run major media corporations and many media corporations are run by people who are Jewish. It does ignore the Rupert Murdochs and other non-Jewish media moguls, and they are important to note.
The second implies a sort of bloc of power and a homogeneity among Jews – that you and I somehow control Hollywood by virtue of being in the Jewish cabal that monolithically exerts its influence through the media. This concept is problematic and symptomatic of “traditional” anti-Semitism. Once you start saying “the Jews” do x, y or z, you run into issues of racism.
It’s as if I said, “The Chinese control the Chinese restaurant industry.” As silly as that sounds, it’s inaccurate. The Chinese restaurant industry is controlled by Chinese people, but not by the monolithic Chinese. Jen Tang, who I went to high school with, controls as much of the Chinese restaurant industry as I control Hollywood – that is, none.
So I think you read the question as #1, and the ADL reads it as #2.
I also wanted to note that #2 implies collaboration between the Jews running Hollywood. That sort of stuff reeks of classic “clannish” “Protocols” anti-Semitism.
The ADL exists for a lovely goal, that being the elimination of Jew hatred, under some thought that this benefits other minorities too. Perfectly good goal.
Except that every damn legacy Jewish organization spends huge amounts of time and money on fighting anti-Semitism. The ADL is just one of tons of said groups.