COMMENTARY: TV’s Image of Jews Threatens Vital Pluralism

c. 2000 Religion News Service (Rabbi A. James Rudin is the Senior Interreligious Adviser of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) Because television plays a defining role in shaping our national values, important questions are constantly being raised regarding the images TV transmits about America’s ethnic, racial and religious groups. In 1999 the American Jewish Committee, […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(Rabbi A. James Rudin is the Senior Interreligious Adviser of the American Jewish Committee.)

(UNDATED) Because television plays a defining role in shaping our national values, important questions are constantly being raised regarding the images TV transmits about America’s ethnic, racial and religious groups. In 1999 the American Jewish Committee, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and the Jewish Television Network cosponsored a conference that examined television’s changing image of American Jews.


While the meeting focused on Jews, it has profound implications for the general society. Conference proceedings have recently been published by the AJC, and the troubling findings should be required reading in all network boardrooms.

In the years following World War II, commercial TV quite deliberately presented a carefully homogenized view of American life, especially families. White Anglo-Saxon Protestant images dominated the airwaves with few exceptions. “Father Knows Best” and “The Brady Bunch” were typical of the many shows that relentlessly portrayed a white bread America without bagels, tacos or pita.

There were exceptions, but even “ethnic” programs were highly problematic. For decades African-Americans protested the highly popular “Amos ‘n’ Andy” radio and TV series that once permeated American homes. That two white men systematically spoofed black Americans for great financial profit speaks proverbial volumes about the depth of American racism.

Sharing the airwaves with “Amos ‘n’ Andy” was “The Goldbergs,” a radio and TV standby that ran from 1929 until 1956. Jews actually played key roles on this program including Molly Goldberg, the quintessential Jewish earth mother who was wise, winsome and wonderful at resolving the problems of her Bronx-based family as well as her Christian neighbors.

But Gertrude Berg, who played Molly, made a conscious decision never to bring in “anything that will bother people … unions, fund raising, Zionism, socialism, intergroup relations. … I keep things average. I don’t want to lose friends.”

And for nearly 30 years “The Goldbergs” attained high ratings by remaining “average” during the Great Depression, World War II, the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Hispanic-Americans were also victims during network TV’s early years. The negative image of the cartoon “Speedy Gonzalez” who was neither quick of mind nor body unfortunately shaped a generation of Americans. The wildly popular “I Love Lucy” featured a hot-blooded impulsive bandleader, Ricky Ricardo, portrayed by Desi Arnaz. Arnaz’s real life and TV wife, Lucille Ball, was the comedic WASP character who frequently balanced out the wacky Latino.

In recent years as the always diverse American population became clearer, there were a plethora of TV shows featuring African-Americans and many popular programs had Jews in prominent roles, including “Seinfeld,” “The Single Guy,” “The Nanny,” “Mad About You,” “Murphy Brown,” “Friends,” “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Chicago Hope” and “Frasier.”


But as the Los Angeles conference sadly noted, the images of Jews on such programs have often been negative and harsh. No one demands that artists create an antiseptic Norman Rockwell image of Jews and Judaism, but ugly stereotypes perpetuate anti-Jewish attitudes.

Especially troubling were TV images of Jewish family life. Over 90 percent of Jewish TV characters are either intermarried or romantically involved with non-Jews. An intact Jewish family is a rarity on the tube. In many cases the Jewish religion is given short shrift or even belittled. Mischievously wicked portrayals of TV rabbis, ritual circumcisers and others provide ready made comic cannon fodder. Authentic Jewish moral and religious values are frequently omitted in favor of disrespectful and inaccurate cartoonlike figures.

The Los Angeles conference participants reserved their harshest criticism for the almost universal negative treatment of Jewish women on network TV. The list of spoiled young Jewish women who only seek bargain sales and rich doctors as husbands is plentiful on “The Nanny,” “Mad About You,” or “Suddenly Susan.”

Older Jewish women are also trashed on TV. Jewish mothers especially are controlling, possessive and manipulative stereotypes and caricatures. Some critics view these images as part of a larger trend to debase women in general to get higher ratings and sell more products.

Does any of this matter? After all, most TV programs represent escapism and an unreal world. Why get upset over some whiney, shallow and materialistic make-believe characters?

TV images do matter because the medium is a 24/7 electronic umbilical cord that provides a constant source of not only hard news, but cultural and social attitudes as well. The continuing injection of negative images into the body politic is certain to create a social pathology that weakens our nation and distorts the extraordinary vital and positive pluralism that is a hallmark of 21st century America.


KRE END RUDIN

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