Keynote Address: “Cops and Criminals: Jews in Twenty-First Century Film and Television”

Description

Hayim Nahman Bialik, the famed Hebrew poet, said during the 1920s that the Jews would know that their dream of a nation-state had been fulfilled when there were Jewish prostitutes, Jewish thieves, and a Jewish police force. The world of film and television has realized this dream as it depicts Jews on both sides of the law, both as criminals and crime preventers. Since Jews were historically involved in gangsterism, including Ace Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz, and Bugsy Siegel, and, more recently, Bernie Madoff, Harvey Weinstein, and Jeffrey Epstein, they have also long been represented in film, both in terms of feature film and documentary. On the other side of the law, the world of the police is perceived as one that excludes Jews. Back in 1944, German-Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote of “the traditional Jewish fear of the ‘cop’ – that seeming incarnation of a hostile world.” But that hasn’t stopped their fictional representation on film and television. This paper will provide an illustrated discussion of twenty-first century representations of Jewish criminals and police in a variety of contexts (film and television) and locations.
23 Oct 2022

Event (Conference)

Title34th Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization
Period23/10/2224/10/22
Web address (URL)
LocationCreighton University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and The Jewish Federation of Omaha
CityOmaha
Country/TerritoryUnited States
Degree of recognitionInternational event

Event (Conference)

Title34th Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization
Date23/10/2224/10/22
Website
LocationCreighton University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and The Jewish Federation of Omaha
CityOmaha
Country/TerritoryUnited States
Degree of recognitionInternational event