I cherish intelligence, creativity and achievement rather than the superficial criteria of DEI which suggest that one’s gender, colour or sexual orientation necessarily make one worthy of admiration. Far from being Anti-Semitic, therefore, I treasure the contributions which those of Jewish extraction have made to Modern Western Culture. While I find the vast majority of today’s films predictable, banal and witless, debilitated either by political correctness or the juvenile mentality of their presumed audiences, the films of the 30s, 40s and 50s bristled with wit, charm, creativity and, often, satirical innuendo, clearly assuming audiences with the intellectual capacity to appreciate all of the above. What have come to be known as the “screwball comedies” of the 30s and 40s, I find particularly enchanting. That an inordinate number of the screenwriters, producers and directors of these films were Jewish is truly remarkable.
One of the most wonderful of the screwball comedies was “It Happened One Night” directed by Frank Capra and released in 1934 by Columbia Pictures. Columbia, a major force in the history of American cinema, was co-founded in 1924 by Harry Cohn. He, far from being “privileged” with excessive wealth from day 1, was in fact born to a working class Jewish family in N.Y.C..
In 1940 Columbia produced the hilarious “His Girl Friday” starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. The author of 35 books, Ben Hecht, born of Jewish immigrant parents, collaborated with Charles Lederer in creating the screenplay. The witty, rapid-fire dialogue of the film has generally garnered accolades, while the approach to the political issue confronted by its main characters, who are journalists, is seen by some to be racist. But the simple fact is that it managed to derive humour from the contentious relationship between Grant and Russell while casting a satirical eye on the newspaper industry without succumbing to the sort of “political correctness” that would be demanded of such a film today. It was, in other words, a film about complex, imperfect human beings rather than a piece of political propaganda.
An interesting aspect of the two films cited above is that they featured female characters who were both intelligent and courageous, ladies who in no way fit the stereotypes of a society supposedly given to the idiotic notion that Women should be seen and not heard. The movies, that is to say, implicitly, intelligently supported Women’s Rights decades before Feminism was to become a mainstream movement. At the same time they impugn the gross generalization that our society has always been systemically, oppressively “patriarchal.”
Speaking of liberated women, who more perfectly fits that category than Catherine Hepburn who in 1940’s “The Philadelphia Story” fought Cary Grant no less energetically than had Rosalind Russell in “His Girl Friday.” The opening scene in which she showers him with the contents of his golf bag is truly hilarious. Directed by the brilliant George Cukor, born of Hungarian-Jewish parents, “The Philadelphia Story” was produced by MGM whose 1924 founders, you may have already guessed, were also of Jewish extraction. Samuel Goldwyn, a Polish Jew, won multiple awards before his death in 1974. Louis B. Mayer, born in the Ukraine, an immigrant to New Brunswick, ultimately ended up in the States where he joined Goldwyn in founding this company which was to become a major creative force in America for 100 years! Also a part of their team was the German Jew Irving Thalberg, called “The Boy Wonder” for his youthful ability to select quality scripts, directors and actors in producing MGM’s films. When he died at the age of 37 in 1936, FDR eulogized him as follows: “The world of art is poorer with the passing of Irving Thalberg. His high ideals, insight and imagination went into the production of his masterpieces.”
While I could go on and on citing Jewish individuals such as Dorothy Parker, Nora Ephron, etc., for their wonderful contributions to America’s cultural past, I would briefly like to point out that some of the best television shows gracing our screens over the last 20 years have also been produced by those of Jewish extraction. 1990’s “Northern Exposure” exploits the cultural differences between N.Y. lawyer Joel Fleischman and the Indigenous inhabitants of Alaska where he is compelled to spend several years in the repayment of his college loans. Its chief creator-writer, Joshua Brand, himself a N.Y. Jew, refuses to bow before the tyranny of political correctness and the show’s ironies cut both ways, exposing the shortcomings of both Joel’s world-view and that of his new northern neighbours. “Gilmore Girls” and “Thirtysomething” are two more wonderful shows which manage to transcend the simplistic cliches of Political Correctness while exploring the complexities of what it means to be a Thinking Human Being. Hardly surprising that they are the products of Amy Sherman Palladino, Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, each of whom is a member of this ethnic group which seems to have been tormented throughout history out of sheer Envy. Ironically, isn’t Envy of those who have excelled an inevitable product of the Neo-Marxist Narrative? Isn’t the Left’s repudiation of Capitalism rife with the exploitation of this ugly human vice? My point is simply that while Hitler’s Antisemitism is typically deemed to be a form of Right-Wing fanaticism, it is actually more aligned with the mentality of the Political Left, while those of a Conservative mindset, focused on merit and achievement, must inevitably celebrate Jews for their amazing contributions to genuine human progress.