The American Jewish Story Through Cinema

Goldman (Visions, Images and Dreams: Yiddish Film Past and Present) offers readers a superb, thought-provoking analysis tracing the metamorphosis of the image of the Jew as portrayed through 80 years of American cinema. He reminds us that filmmakers "reflect the world in which we live" and are influenced by prevailing attitudes of the time when a movie is produced. He explains the unique contributions made by the Yiddish theater and films of the early 20th century, which were purely for a Jewish audience, and discusses the slow process of assimilation by Jews into mainstream America. Goldman paints a powerful portrait of the Jewish image by focusing his study on nine films that had a profound influence on the American public. With special recognition to the important contributions made by Daryl F. Zanuck, Barbra Streisand, and Barry Levinson, the author considers how some of these films almost didn't make it to fruition because of Hollywood politics or fear of retribution by the Jewish community.