Whoopie the Goldberg

The repeated charge that the Jews run Hollywood is inherently anti-Semitic. There are no monthly meetings where Jews all get together and plot conspiratorial schemes. “The Jews” don’t run anything, not Hollywood and not the world… although individual Jews since the beginning days of the film and entertainment industry have made their significant mark on Hollywood.

But what most people don’t know is that for Jews to excel in entertainment, they had to pretend in the past to be regular white folks. They had to do what’s known as “passing” so people would watch their films.

Though 60% of Jews living in Israel are Jews descending from Spain, the Middle East and North Africa, over 80% of Jews in the U.S. descend from people who fled Europe and, therefore, my curly hair aside, look as white as any other European.

So how did the Jews “pass”?

Just by way of example, from the 1930s to about the 1960s, Jews in entertainment almost uniformly hid their Jewishness by changing their names to non-Jewish, white-sounding names.

American actor Kirk Douglas was originally Issur Danielovitch.

Filmmaker Woody Allen was originally Alan Konigsberg.

Singer billed in the 1920s as “The World’s Greatest Entertainer,” Al Jolson, was born as Asa Yoelson.

On screen, vigilante justice-fighter Charles Bronson was actually Charles Buchinsky. I loved his films as a teenager but didn’t know he was Jewish.

Actor Zsa Zsa Gabor was Sari Gabor.

Michael Landon from Little House on the Prairie was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz.

Legendary entertainer Jerry Lewis was Joseph Levitch.

Fellow Jew Archibald Leach became famous Academy Award–nominated actor Cary Grant.

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield was born Jacob Cohen.

Louis B. Mayer, the second M in the famed MGM movie production company, didn’t change his name, but he went to great lengths to distance himself from anything else Jewish. He wanted to fit in with the rest of society. Who doesn’t?

The full list of those who masked their true Jewish identities is much longer, but you get the point.

Of course today, a Jewish-sounding name in Hollywood isn’t a liability. Just ask Jerry Seinfeld, although Winona Rider (formerly, Laura Horowitz) never got the memo.

I understand why Whoopie Goldberg thought Jews are just white with a different set of religious beliefs, but that’s why we need to have a conversation about this topic.

Despite Hitler’s proclamation about Jews being an inferior race, Jews aren’t a race in the way we think of race and skin color. Whoopie was technically correct on that point. Jews are not a race.

But where she got it wrong is that Jews also aren’t just a religious group. And the Holocaust wasn’t just about inhumane Hitler wiping out fellow white people.

So, who are the Jews?

It’s a complicated question even for some Jews to answer, in part because there aren’t comparisons to use as examples. There’s no “tastes like chicken” analogy.

Jews come in all types of colors. Black, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, Indian. And yes, white. I’ve met Ugandan Jews, Moroccan Jews, Uzbek Jews, Yemenite Jews, Swedish Jews and Italian Jews.

So clearly, the Jews aren’t a group based on shared skin hues.

But they also aren’t only a religious group.

A person can’t be Christian if they reject Jesus, but a Jew is still a Jew even if he or she rejects the religion part. A person isn’t Hindu if they think the entire Hindu religion is hocus pocus, but a Jew is born a Jew and dies a Jew no matter what. Even if they deny the existence of a higher power.

That’s because Jews are a people. A tribe, if you will. A nation. But more aptly, they are an ethno-religious group. An ethnic group with shared religious beliefs and traditions.

Like other indigenous peoples, Jews started out as a land-based culture with various traditions and beliefs tied to their land Judaea (Israel). They have an origin story, like other indigenous peoples, laid out in ancient texts culminating in their escape from slavery in Egypt to freedom in their home Israel. You don’t have to accept the origin story as divine, just like you don’t have to accept magical origin stories for any other group such as Native Americans. But it is the Jewish nation’s birth story, nonetheless. And it’s been the same story put in writing for thousands of years.

When the Judaean land was colonized and conquered by numerous outside forces, the Romans being one of the worst, most Jews were forced to flee their home. Or in the case of Romans, taken as slaves to Europe.

For the Jewish nation to avoid being thrown into the dustbins of history, Jewish leaders mostly living outside of Israel in places like Iraq (then Babylonia) created an entire system of how to be Jewish without their land-based culture. Without a culture based on the center place of ceremony: the Temple in Jerusalem.

After all, the identity of the Jewish nation was inextricably connected to Israel. How on earth could they survive without their ethnic home and Temple related traditions?

In the ensuing 2,000 years, exiled Jewish leaders continued to build on preserving the Jewish national identity without their own land, authoring literally thousands of books to address how to live as a Jew without their Temple. These leaders promulgated national rules and parameters for living. Whether for a Jew in Russia. A Jew in Tunisia. Or a Jew in Argentina.

Jews also kept their identity as a separate nation because hateful people reminded them every step of the way. The Holocaust being the worst reminder.

Although things started out hard for Jews in America, Jews ultimately excelled in part because of their European skin color. Jews endured severe hardships trying to make it, but they still had the ability to fit in more than non-whites. A Jew could walk into a bank without being judged based on their appearance. A Jew could get pulled over for speeding and not worry about whether the police were going to pull a gun or search the car for no reason. White-looking Jews got to reap some of the benefits white Americans experience.

Recent disturbing upticks in Jew hatred aside, the reason Whoopie could choose the Jewish stage name Goldberg is because America ultimately emerged as a safer and more welcoming place for Jews to live. We were finally allowed to join clubs and go to universities after years of exclusion. We could finally become anyone we wanted to be.

I don’t doubt that when Whoopie was thinking about race, she was thinking about how Black people endure hardships based purely on skin color, but the light skinned Jews in America don’t.

So in that sense, Whoopie was right about the race part.

But her underlying point was far off target and showed a deep ignorance about who the Jews are.

Whoopie, the Jews are a distinct people with a rich national origin story. Jews are a people. And Hitler didn’t try to annihilate us because he was merely inhumane and we were just some other white group. He hated us because of our distinctiveness. He hated the Jewish nation.

I must give her credit though. Whoopie’s ignorance, however unintentional, did one wonderful thing. It allowed us to have a long overdue national discussion to learn about who the Jewish people are.

Once we understand each other’s identities and experiences on a deeper level, we will be more equipped to create a harmonious society where differences are celebrated rather than dismissed or attacked. A society where we aren’t defining for others what their stories and experiences are.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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