Is it wrong for non-Jewish actors to play Jewish roles?

racism, “Jews don’t count as a proper minority”.

Well, I’m not buying into the whole Jewface controversy.

I see the double standard and hypocrisy when it comes to casting Jews, but I disagree with Silverman’s solution. The answer isn’t to cast only Jewish actors in Jewish roles; it’s to open up the it’s not essential, if you’re a great actor. The primary consideration in casting is believability. Can this actor convincingly play this role? Michelle Williams pulled it off. Meryl Streep won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Angels in America, where she played a rabbi and a ghostly Ethel Rosenberg – two Jews and one a male! casting net regarding all minorities and cast based on who is the best actor for this specific role, regardless of his race, orientation or religion.

Casting Emma Stone in Cameron Crowe’s Aloha received justified flak because this very white actress looks nothing like a woman who has one quarter Chinese and one quarter Hawaiian descent. She wasn’t believable – bad casting, not bad politics.

The outrage behind Jewface is misguided. Yes, Hollywood should remove the double standard, but do it by keeping one factor in mind across the board: who is the best actor who can most convincingly portray that role?

Don’t confuse the issue of Jewface with cultural appropriation. Over the past 12 months, we have seen a plethora of mainstream series and films telling authentic Jewish stories. Only Spielberg (and his Jewish co-writer Tony Kushner) could write The Fabelmans and only writer-director James Gray could create Armageddon Time, about a Jewish family in Queens in 1980. If a non-Jew were to write these intimate stories about a minority to which he doesn’t belong that would be cultural appropriation. That is not his story to tell; he can’t do it justice.

Acting is the art of convincingly pretending to be someone that you are not. I’m sure Helen Mirren will make a great Golda Meir – she’s a great actress. And Bradley Cooper will fully inhabit the role of Leonard Bernstein. Neither of them has to be Jewish to play those roles effectively. It may help, but

Kazakhstani journalist? Who else could pull that off? Some people believe that only LGBQT actors should play LGBQT roles, but did anyone have an issue with Neil Patrick Harris, an openly gay actor, portraying a womaniser in the series How I Met Your Mother? He was acting, as were Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain.

But a non-Jewish actor playing a Jew isn’t taking anything that doesn’t belong to him. He’s acting and we all know he’s acting, and when done well he brings authenticity and honour to the role. That’s why a Middle Eastern Jewish actor can convincingly play an Arab role on stage or screen – in fact, Ari'el Stachel, a Jew, won a Tony for Best Featured Actor for playing Haled, an Egyptian jazz enthusiast, in The Band’s Visit.

As Jews, let’s save our kvetching for the genuine crises with which we need to urgently contend.