CONSIDERED OPINION

RABBI NECHEMIA COOPERSMITH COURTESY: AISH.COM

Jewface is overblown. The primary consideration in casting should be believability, not race, colour, orientation or religion.

Comedian Sarah Silverman believes that roles portraying Jews in film and television should go to Jewish actors. The issue has been called “Jewface” and Silverman has spoken out against the lack of Jewish representation in Hollywood, as some major Jewish roles have gone to non-Jewish actors.

Recent high-profile examples of this include Helen Mirren playing Golda Meir in an upcoming biopic Golda and Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, which Cooper himself is directing (he received flak for the large prosthetic nose).

It’s a long list: Steve Carell plays a Jewish father in The Patient. Will Ferrell plays a Jewish psychiatrist in The Shrink Next Door. Michelle Williams won rave reviews and an Oscar nomination for her role as Mitzi Fabelman in Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans, playing Spielberg’s feisty mum. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays the Jewish mum in Jonah Hill’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner remake, You People. Felicity Jones portrays Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex.

Rachel Brosnahan is the lead in The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, a series replete with Jewish stereotypes.

At a time when people are ultrasensitive to issues related to inclusion, diversity and cultural approbation, a number of critics are pointing out the blatant double standard when it comes to Jews. It’s another example of “Jews don’t count,” to use UK comedian David Baddiel’s title of his book, which shows that when it comes to bigotry and