Jews in American cinema (Hollywood)

Most of the founders of the major studios that shaped Hollywood in the early twentieth century — Carl Laemmle (Universal), Adolph Zukor (Paramount), William Fox (Fox), Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer (MGM), the Warner brothers (Warner Bros.) — were Jewish immigrants from central and eastern Europe, or their sons. Starting often from modest trades in commerce and theater exhibition, they built an industrial and cultural empire that shaped the American and global imagination. This trajectory illustrates a spectacular social mobility, but it also fed antisemitic stereotypes about a supposed Jewish grip on the cinema. The studios, eager for assimilation, broadly promoted an idealized and consensual vision of America, in which explicitly Jewish themes long remained discreet. The relationship between American cinema, Jewish identity, and the representation of minorities remains a lively field of cultural analysis.

Sources & resources

• Jewish Virtual Library ↗
• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan