Deltanine

A poll finds more Americans disagree with the statement that 'Jews control Hollywood.' But here's one Jew who doesn't.

Commentary by Joel Stein from here

Follow up:

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.