The Modern Jewish Experience in World Cinema

Lawrence Baron, editor

Brandeis University Press WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS Contents

Preface xi Abbreviations: DVD Rental and Purchase Sources xv

Introduction: The Modern Jewish Experience in World Cinema, Lawrence Baron i

I. ADVANCEMENT AND ANIMOSITY IN WESTERN EUROPE, 1874-1914 23

I. One of Us? Contesting Disraeli's Jewishness and Englishness in the Twentieth Century, Tony Kushner 23 z. Representing the Past and Present in The Life ofEmile Zola, Nico Carpentier 29 3. The Dreyfus Affair According to HBO, Lawrence Baron 35 4. Renoir's The Grand Illusion and the "Jewish Question," Maurice Samuels 40 5. Chariots of Fire: Bigotry, Manhood, and Moral Certitude in an Age of Individualism, Ellis Cashmore 49

II. THE SHTETL ON THE PRECIPICE: EASTERN EUROPE, 1881-1921 59

6. Fiddling with Sholem Aleichem: A History of Fiddler on the Roof Stephen J. Whitfield 59 7. Yentl: From Yeshiva Boy to Syndrome, Pamela S. Nadell 66 8. Redressing the Commissar: Thaw Cinema Revises Soviet Structuring Myths, Elena Monastireva-Ansdell 74 9. Cinema as Site of Memory: The Dybbuk and the Burden of Holocaust Commemoration, Zehavit Stern 82

III. THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE JEWISH IMMIGRANT, 1880-1932 89

10. From Hollywood to Hester Street: Ghetto Film, Melodrama, and the Image of the Assimilated Jew in Hungry Hearts, Delia Caparoso Konzett 89 II. The Right Film at the Right Time: Hester Street as a Reflection of Its Era, Hasia Diner 98 12. Cultural Erosion and the (Br)other at the Gateway of Sound Cinema, Joel Rosenberg 105 13. Ethnic and Discursive Drag in Woody Allen's Zelig, Ruth D. Johnston 114 14. Uncle Moses: The First Artistic Yiddish Sound Film, Hannah Berliner Fischthal 120 Vlll : CONTENTS

IV. REVOLUTIONARY ALTERNATIVES: ZIONISM AND COMMUNISM, 1880-1932 12-5

15. The Birth of a Language, or the Man Who Loved Hebrew, Yvonne Kozlovsky Golan 125 16. They Were Ten Revisited: Zionism, Trauma, and New Identity, Eldad Kedem and Benjamin Ben-David 132 17. Jews of Steel, J. Hoberman 140

V. THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS REPERCUSSIONS 145

18. Muffled Music, Lawrence Baron 145 19. "In Italy There Has Never Been Anti-Semitism": The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Giacomo Lichtner 150 20. "All Men Are Jews": Tragic Transcendence in Kadar's The Shop on Main Street, Jeffrey Saperstein 155 11. History, Memory, and Art in Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants, Christopher Shorley 161 22. A Reel Witness: Steven Spielberg's Representation of the Holocaust in Schindler's List, Frank Manchel 16 8 23. The Pianist and Its Contexts: Polanski's Narration of Holocaust Evasion and Survival, Michael Stevenson 178 24. A Hungarian Holocaust Saga: Fateless, Catherine Portuges 186 25. Filming the Text of Witness: Francesco Rosi's The Truce, Millicent Marcus 194 26. Our Children: Responding to the Holocaust, Ira Konigsberg 201 27. "Teach Me Gold": Pedagogy and Memory in The Pawnbroker, Alan Rosen 208 28. "What Is the Way?" Finding Meaning and Purpose after the Holocaust, Asher Z. Milbauer 220

vi. ISRAEL'S HEROIC YEARS, 1947-1967 229

29. Filming the Israeli War of Independence, Ariel L. Feldestein 229 30. Screening the Birth of a Nation: Exodus Revisited, Yosefa Loshitzky 237 31. Feminism, Zionism, and Persecution in Iraq: The Story of Herzliya Lokai and Her Imprisonment in the Baghdad Women's Jail, Daphne Tsimhoni 244 32. From Black to White: Changing Images of Mizrahim in Israeli Cinema, Yaron Peleg 252

VII. ACCEPTANCE IN POSTWAR AMERICA, 1945-1977 259

33. The Chosen: The Jew as Both American and Alien, Michael W. Rubinoff 259 34. Jew and Not-Jew: Antisemitism and the Postwar Hollywood Social Problem Film, Steven Alan Carr 266 IX : CONTENTS

35. Southern Jewishness on Screen, Eliza R. L. McGraw 273 36. Jewish Women and the Dilemmas of America's Postwar Middle Class, Riv-EUen Prell 280 37. Of Lox and Columbus: Jewish and American Themes in Goodbye, Columbus, Joellyn Wallen Zollman 288 38. A Serious Film, Norbert Samuelson 294 39. When Chippewa Falls Meets Manhattan, Sylvia Barack Fishman 303

VIII. A DIVERSE DIASPORA 311

40. Like a Bride: The Chicken and the Egg, Elissa Rashkin 311 41. The American Dream on St. Urbain Street: Richler's Duddy Kravitz and Canadian Cinema, Scott Henderson 320 42. Jewish Assimilation in Hungary, the Holocaust, and Epic Film: Reflections on Szabo's Sunshine, Susan Rubin Suleiman 327 43. Burman's Ode to El Once Neighborhood: The Lost Embrace, Tamara L. Falicov 335 44. Sexuality, Orthodoxy, and Modernity in France: North African Jewish Immigrants in Karin Albou's La Petite Jerusalem, Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall 340

IX. CONTEMPORARY ISRAELI EXPERIENCES 349

45. Munich: A Bitter Fruit on the Olive Branch, Nigel Morris 349 46. Dancing Solo in the Lebanese Mud, Ilan Avisar 358 47. Beta Israel in the State of Israel, Lawrence Baron 365 48. Love in Search of Belief, Belief in Search of Love, Shai Ginsburg 371 49. The Arrangement: Time of Favor, Yvonne Kozlovsky Golan 377

X. CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN JEWISH IDENTITIES 385

50. Jewish New York in CrossingDelancey, David I. Grossvogel 385 51. Torch Song Trilogy: Gay and Jewish Foundations, Jonathan C. Friedman 390 52. Against Tribalism: David Mamets Homicide, Philip Hanson 395 53. Self-Criticism in Public, David Kraemer 405 54. Keeping the Faith: A Multicultural Jazz Singer, Lawrence Baron 412

Appendix: Alternate Films 421 Contributor Biographies 427 Acknowledgments 433 Index 435