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.
