Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The "Jew" in Cinema: From the Golem to Don't Touch My Holocaust

The "Jew" in Cinema: From the Golem to Don't Touch My Holocaust

Bartov, Omer

Paperback

Series: Helen and Martin Schwartz Lectures in Jewish Studies

JudaismFilm Studies

ISBN10: 0253217458
ISBN13: 9780253217455
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: Jan 7 2005
Pages: 392
Weight: 1.46
Height: 0.95 Width: 6.20 Depth: 9.16
Language: English

From cinema's beginnings, the film image of the Jew has closely followed the fortunes and misfortunes of Jews. Analyzing more than 70 films made in the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, East and West Germany, France, Italy, the United States, and Israel from 1920 to the 1990s, noted historian Omer Bartov argues that depictions of the Jew in film have been fed by, or have reacted to, certain stereotypical depictions of Jews arising from age-old prejudices. These images, in turn, both reflected public attitudes and helped to shape them. He points to Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ as one of the most recent examples of the phenomenon. In trenchant discussions of individual films, Bartov develops four basic cinematic representations of the Jew as perpetrator (especially in antisemitic films), as victim (especially in films about the Holocaust), as hero (especially in films about the state of Israel), and as anti-hero (especially in films about the Arab-Israeli conflict).

This absorbing book reveals the ways in which powerful images remained deeply embedded in the creative imagination, even as the circumstances that originally engendered them underwent profound changes. Bartov concludes that some of the fundamental prejudices about Jews, which predate cinema, persisted in cinematic depictions throughout the 20th century, although they have been reinterpreted according to changing political regimes, ideologies, and tastes. Covering a range of traditions and periods, The Jew in Cinema provides original and provocative interpretations that often contradict conventional views. Placing cinematic representations of the Jew within their historical context, Bartov demonstrates the powerful political, social, and cultural impact of these images on popular attitudes.

The Helen and Martin Schwartz Lectures in Jewish Studies

Also in

Film Studies

View All