One of the sad things about the Jewish rise, for me anyway, is that Jewishness seems to have become a signifier for entitlement. When I was a child, Jewish was still a signifier for being outside, for being persecuted. But all that has changed: today we are all over the establishment and Joe Biden speaks of our “immense” influence on the culture, and John Kerry says that the Jewish community has the greatest influence over Middle East policy. But Jews are deeply uncomfortable with the shift in image, have difficulties adjusting to the new reality.
That’s the takeaway of a long interview that Terry Gross, the hugely popular NPR host, did of Mitch Hurwitz, the creator of the hit series, “Arrested Development” on Wednesday in which Hurwitz’s Jewishness came up repeatedly.
Hurwitz said that the show makes fun of the “Bluth” family’s prejudices about lots of different people, but the writers can’t really handle a Jewish stereotype:
it really isn’t the point of view of the producers that Mexicans are inferior or black people or poor people or gay people. We’ve even taken a couple of shots at Jewish people but it gets complicated because we can’t quite decide if the Bluths are Jewish or not. And there’s nothing funny about Jewish people. I mean, let’s face it. They’re beloved. Why isn’t there a Hebe-phobia(ph)? You know, you would think that would just take off. Like, oh, he’s a Hebe-phobic. Well, I guess it’s called anti-Semitic. Never mind. I retract the comment.
Gross didn’t follow this point at all. It’s too sensitive. The Jewish position in society is simply too privileged now to address in a serious and straightforward manner.
Hurwitz told another story that shows just how loaded the subject is. After his parents got divorced in the 1970s, he and his brother sold cookies outside his father’s place in Newport Beach, California. The father didn’t want his sons selling cookies in this “affluent” area so he rented a vacant former taco stand for his boys, and they sold the cookies there, and then miraculously three weeks later, an LA Times reporter discovered the stand, and “then this article ran on the front page of The View section on a Sunday.” Every part of this story is about entitlement. And now the media-savvy Hurwitz is a big deal producer, whose ordeal, related on Fresh Air, was that Fox canceled “Arrested Development” 7 years ago.
That’s actually why Hurwitz is squeamish about making the Bluths Jewish. It would involve playing off the new Jewish image, privilege. In fact, Jewish power is today being widely acknowledged, by Joe Biden, John Kerry, Peter Beinart, lately Jeffrey Goldberg: “cultural, political, financial — every sort of power.” It’s too bad that Terry Gross, who is a serious person, didn’t ask Hurwitz, who is smart and charming and open, about his entitlement issues.
Too beloved. I can’t square this with AIPAC’s antisemitism indices .
it really isn’t the point of view of the producers that Mexicans are inferior or black people or poor people or gay people. We’ve even taken a couple of shots at Jewish people but it gets complicated because we can’t quite decide if the Bluths are Jewish or not. And there’s nothing funny about Jewish people. I mean, let’s face it. They’re beloved.
That sounds really strange. First of all, there is nothing funny about Mexicans, blacks, poor people or gay people either. Second, philo-Semitism is a form of anti-Semitism, because in both cases Jews are reduced to their Jewishness and receive special treatment. Admiration can turn into envy and hatred every quickly.
jeezus, this again. no, gross ‘didn’t follow this point at all because it’s too sensitive.’ she didn’t follow it because it’s not part of her agenda, which is two-fold: 1. follow breathlessly every perceived threat to jews, historical or contemporary; 2. breathlessly stroke the egos of her guests, many/most of whom just happen to be jewish. (yes, what a coincidence). I used to frequent ‘fresh air’ in spite of gross, because she does pull in interesting guests. but this ‘serious person’ is perhaps the least prepared professional interviewer I have ever heard (regularly cocking up the most fundamental biographical details of her guests, for example), and has completely devolved into NPR’s version of larry king. it’s cringingly embarrassing to listen to her, the circle jerk she conducted with m.weiner recently being the last straw, so to speak. another entitled mediocrity who has failed up. she should be on the local government access channel on cable TV, not a nationally syndicated whatever she is.
Gross stopped being a serious person when she caved along with NPR to fear of funding cuts when the neocons went after NPR funding.
I just saw an interview with Sherman Alexie (Indian rights documentarian and poet) on Moyers. Alexie did about 2 minutes on how much he loved and identified with Jews. Jews invented American comedy. Jews invented Hollywood. Jews are successful. Jews are my editors and have helped me every step of the way. But he never touched on the similarities between Native American genocide and Palestinian genocide (+/-) at the hands of Israel/Jews. He just couldn’t go there despite the glaring parallels.
http://billmoyers.com/segment/sherman-alexie-on-living-outside-borders/ (starts at 28′)
I suspect Alexie’s reluctance to reflect on the obvious (or simply nuance his thinking) is related to Hurwitz’s “squeamishness” (which in and of itself is an observation of the obvious on my part). Alexie didn’t even seem to have discussed it with his Jewish friends out of some sense of reverence, or something. Strange and disappointing part of an otherwise interesting interview.
MW has its work cut out for it.