Honors 525:112:01 Fall 2009

Laurie Bernstein (856) 225-2716 http://crab.rutgers.edu/~lbernste/ lbernste@camden.rutgers.edu

Office hours in Armitage 354 Tu 8:30-10 am, W 10-11:30 am, & by appointment

Syllabus for Honors Seminar

Mavens, Moguls & Movie Stars: Jews On & Off Screen

Descriptions of Hollywood as dominated by Jews reinforce both anti-Semitism and Jewish pride. As Neal Gabler points out in An Empire of Their Own, there is much truth to the stereotype: Jewish immigrants and sons of Jewish immigrants founded the major Hollywood studios of the last century - Warner Brothers, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20^th-Century Fox, Paramount, and Columbia Pictures. Jews can still be found in disproportionate numbers as producers, writers, and actors in films and television. Yet contrary to anti-Semitic paranoia, Jews’ contributions on and off screen have not furthered any particular political or religious agenda. In fact, as Gabler argues, by “inventing Hollywood” Jews like Harry Cohn and Louis B. Mayer not only assimilated into the mainstream but fueled myths of a white, Christian, apple-pie America. In this course we will explore the historical and contemporary roles of Jews in the U.S. film industry and television through books, articles, films, and TV shows.

Required reading

Henry Bial, Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2005), ISBN 047206908X

Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood (New York: Anchor Books, 1989), ISBN 0385265573

J. Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, eds., Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), ISBN 0691113025

David Zurawik, The Jews of Prime Time (Lebanon, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2003), ISBN 1584652349

Samantha Baskind, “The Fockerized Jew? Questioning Jewishness as Cool in American Popular Entertainment,” in Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies v. 25, #4 (2007): 3-17 (available on Sakai Resources)

Sylvia Barack Fishman, “I of the Beholder: Jews and Gender in Film and Popular Culture,” Working Paper Series no. 1, The Hadassah Research Institute on Jewish Women (May 1998): 1-44 (available on Sakai Resources)

Christopher J. Knight, “Woody Allen’s Annie Hall: Galatea’s Triumph over Pygmalion,” in Literature/Film Quarterly v. 32, #3 (2004): 213-221 (available on Sakai Resources)

Course requirements

Attendance (20% of final grade)

Students are required to attend each and every class meeting prepared to discuss the assigned readings, and to arrive to class on time. A full 15 points will be subtracted from a starting number of 100 for each absence. There will be no excused absences, regardless of the reason. Participation, classroom conduct, and punctuality will also figure into this part of the final grade.

One primary source analysis (15% of final grade)

Students will choose one of the historical (“primary”) sources in Hoberman and Shandler for detailed annotations informed by the other assigned readings. Detailed guidelines for this assignment will be posted on Sakai Resources.

One essay review (15% of final grade)

Students will choose one of the essays posted on Sakai Resources (excluding the ones assigned by Baskind, Knight, and Fishman) for a critical review. Those who receive a grade of C+ or lower on their review are required to rewrite and turn the review in exactly one week after it was handed back. Other students have the option to rewrite in response to my comments, so long as they turn in their revised paper one week after it was handed back. Detailed guidelines for this assignment will be posted on Sakai Resources.

Quizzes (20% of final grade)

Students will take quizzes on the readings by Bial, Zurawik, Fishman, and Baskind.

Oral presentation (10% of final grade)

During our last three meetings, students will screen for their fellow students a no-longer-than-half-hour television episode relevant to our discussions of Jews on and off screen (a list of possible selections will be provided).

Final paper (20% of final grade)

By 5 pm of the evening prior to their scheduled presentation, students will post on Sakai a formal paper that analyzes the imagery and themes in their chosen episode with explicit reference to the arguments in Zurawik’s The Jews of Prime Time. A final version of this paper is due no later than 2 pm on Monday, December 21. Detailed guidelines for this assignment will be posted on Sakai Resources.

Optional weekend trip to Manhattan’s Tenement Museum

Schedule of meetings - Wednesdays from 1:20-4:20 p.m. in Robeson 203

Sept 2 Bialystok and Bloom unbound: The Producers

Introduction to each other and the course

Read and be prepared to discuss Gabler, 1-7, Hoberman & Shandler, 11-13

Viewing of The Producers (Mel Brooks, 1968) 90”

Sept 9 Nostalgia for the Lower East Side: Hester Street

Read and be prepared to discuss Gabler, 8-78; Hoberman & Shandler, 14-39, 150-155

Viewing of Hester Street (Joan Micklin Silver, 1975) 92”

Sept 16 Assimilationist victory: The Jazz Singer

Read and be prepared to discuss Gabler, 79-150; Hoberman & Shandler, 44-57, 76-99, 156-166

Viewing of The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927) 88”

* Primary source annotations due

Sept 23: Postwar visions of anti-Semitism: Gentleman’s Agreement

Read and be prepared to discuss Bial, 30-58; Gabler, 151-236; Hoberman & Shandler, 68, 167-181, 258-263

Viewing of Gentleman’s Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947) 118”

Sept 30 Competing visions of anti-Semitism: Crossfire

Read and be prepared to discuss Gabler, 237-310; Hoberman & Shandler, 58-65, 136-143, 204-219

Viewing of Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk, 1947) 86”

Oct 7 Confronting stereotypes: What Makes Sammy Run?

Read and be prepared to discuss Gabler, 311-386; Hoberman & Shandler, 65-67, 69-75, 182-187

Viewing of What Makes Sammy Run? (Budd Schulberg, 1959) 105”

Oct 14 Nostalgia for the shtetl: Fiddler on the Roof

Read Bial, 59-106; Gabler, 387-432; Hoberman & Shandler, 188-195

Viewing of Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison, 1971) 179”

Oct 21 Oedipus wrecked: Where’s Poppa?

Read and be prepared to discuss Bial, 1-29; Hoberman & Shandler, 220-243

Viewing of Where’s Poppa? (Carl Reiner, 1970) 82”

*Essay review due

*Revised primary source annotations due

Oct 28 The schlemiel and his shiksa: Annie Hall

Read and be prepared to discuss Bial, 107-136; Knight, 213-221

Viewing of Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977) 93”

Nov 4 The princess and her shagets: Baby It’s You

Read and be prepared to discuss Fishman, 1-44

Viewing of Baby It’s You (John Sayles, 1983) 105”

*Quiz on the assigned reading (10% of final grade)

Nov 11 Returning home: Everything Is Illuminated

Read and be prepared to discuss Bial, 137-157; Hoberman & Shandler, 196-203; Baskind, 3-17

Viewing of a Everything Is Illuminated (Liev Schreiber, 2005) 106”

*Quiz on the assigned reading (10% of final grade)

Nov 18 *Oral presentations

Read and be prepared to discuss Zurawik, 1-77, Hoberman & Shandler, 244-257

Dec 2 *Oral presentations

Read and be prepared to discuss Zurawik, 78-171

Dec 9 *Oral presentations

Read and be prepared to discuss Zurawik, 172-241; Hoberman & Shandler, 274-279

Dec 21 *Revised papers on oral presentations due in my office between noon and 2 pm

Students may hand in their final paper before this time, but they need to follow-up and check with me to make sure their papers were received.