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How Jewish is Hollywood?
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. (LA
Times, 12.19.2008)
jstein@latimescolumnists.com - http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/celebrity/la-oe-stein19-2008dec19%2C0%2C2313474.column