Jewish entertainment professionals contended in an open letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday that Jews are an “underrepresented” group in Hollywood and should be considered a “protected class” under the new DEI standards. The performers, whom the Hollywood Bureau gathered for Jewish Representation (Jews In The City), stated that while they agreed with the Academy’s intention to discriminate against White people, Jews ought to be treated differently since they have a distinct “genetic identity.”
The new requirements were announced in 2020 after the Academy announced Academy Aperture 25, and they were determined by a task force led by Academy governors DeVon Franklin and Jim Gianopulos. The criteria were modeled after a template inspired by the British Film Institute (BFI) Diversity Standards, which are used to determine eligibility in certain categories of the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) Awards and certain funding eligibility in the UK. The announcement came just shy of the five-year anniversary of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. The board of governors voted on the measure in June 2020 during a Zoom meeting that was postponed to avoid conflicting with George Floyd’s funeral.
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The group said that even though some Jews are “white-passing,” it’s only because they “carry the DNA of their foremothers’ oppressors.” Jews being left off of the list of protected groups “erases Jewish peoplehood and perpetuates myths of Jewish whiteness, power, and that racism against Jews is not a major issue or that it’s a thing of the past,” the letter asserts:
“This is not negated by the fact that Jews, like all marginalized groups, have white-passing members. Their colonization and exile led to millennia of persecution, and many Jews still carry the DNA of their foremothers’ oppressors.“
The Hollywood Bureau for Jewish Representation of Jews in the City, an advocacy group, organized the letter. “Jews are a very misunderstood group, which means that while other communities have benefited from diversity, inclusion, and authentic storytelling, Jews have been left out,” the group’s founder and executive director, Allison Josephs, tells CNN.
“An inclusion effort that excludes Jews is both steeped in and misunderstands antisemitism,” reads the letter, organized by the group Jew in the City’s Hollywood Bureau for Jewish Representation. “Jewish people being excluded from the Motion Picture Academy’s Representation and Inclusion Standards is discriminating against a protected class by invalidating their historic and genetic identity.“
Greg Berlanti, Josh Gad, Mayim Bialik, David Schwimmer, Julianna Margulies, Debra Messing, executive producers Marta Kauffman and Kevin Bright of Friends, Michael Rapaport, Tiffany Haddish, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, Brett Gelman, Mark Feuerstein, Emanuelle Chriqui, Iliza Schlesinger, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, David Shore of House, David Kohan of Will & Grace, former NBCUniversal TV and streaming chair Susan Rovner, former MGM chair and CEO Gary Barber, producer Gail Berman, and producer Nancy Spielberg are among the approximately 260 people who have signed the letter thus far.
As comedian Dave Chappelle put in his 2022 special; “This is a rule. You know the rules of perception [in the social contract]: if they’re black then it’s a gang, if they’re Italian it’s a mob, but if they’re Jewish it’s a coincidence and you should never speak about it.”
Do you have an answer for the JQ? Is Hollywood becoming more or less discriminatory? Let us know in the comments!
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Under represented? Since the founding of Hollywood they have been over represented. What chutzpah.
This is the most ridiculous thing I have read all day. But I don’t want to lose my bank account so I will leave it at that.