Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

Rutgers University Press

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
book: The New Jew in Film
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

The New Jew in Film

Exploring Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2012

About this book

Jewish film characters have existed almost as long as the medium itself. But around 1990, films about Jews and their representation in cinema multiplied and took on new forms, marking a significant departure from the past. With a fresh generation of Jewish filmmakers, writers, and actors at work, contemporary cinemas have been depicting a multiplicity of new variants, including tough Jews; brutish Jews; gay and lesbian Jews; Jewish cowboys, skinheads, and superheroes; and even Jews in space.

The New Jew in Film is grounded in the study of over three hundred films from Hollywood and beyond. Nathan Abrams explores these new and changing depictions of Jews, Jewishness, and Judaism, providing a wider, more representative picture of this transformation. In this compelling, surprising, and provocative book, chapters explore masculinity, femininity, passivity, agency, and religion in addition to a departure into new territory—including bathrooms and food.  Abrams’s concern is to reveal how the representation of the Jew is used to convey confidence or anxieties about Jewish identity and history as well as questions of racial, sexual, and gender politics. In doing so, he provides a welcome overview of important Jewish films produced globally over the past twenty years.

Author / Editor information

NATHAN ABRAMS is a senior lecturer in film studies at Bangor University in Wales. He is the author and editor of numerous books and articles, including Jews and Sex and Studying Film.

Reviews

"Providing a comprehensive and engaging investigation of the new American Jewish cinema, Nathan Abrams builds upon previous studies to broaden the spectrum of  both cinema and Jewish cultural scholarship."
— Lester D. Friedman, author of Hollywood’s Image of the Jew

"Thorough, insightful, and solidly theorized, The New Jew in Film more than picks up where Erens and Friedman left off. Besides its international reach, the book opens—especially in its religion, food, and toilet sections—significant new areas of ethnic-based investigation."
— Vincent Brook, author of Driven to Darkness: Jewish Émigré Directors and the Rise of Film Noir


"Abrams adds fresh perspectives on emerging global film depictions of Jews in an investigation of how old, fixed categories of stereotypes have been subverted since 1990. This is a brilliantly conceived study of representation. Abrams shows how cinema has become the vehicle for normalizing Jews, generally stereotyped and mocked but now framed in ordinary ways. Highly recommended."
— Choice

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    Contents

    v
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    List of illustrations

    vii
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    Acknowledgements

    ix
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Introduction

    1
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    1. The Jew

    19
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    2. The Jewess

    43
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    3. Sex

    68
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    4. Passivity

    91
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    5. Agency

    109
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    6. Religion

    134
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    7. Food

    160
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    8. Bathrooms

    183
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Conclusion

    207
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Notes

    215
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Bibliography

    219
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Filmography

    237
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Index

    247
    Download PDF

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
June 22, 2020
eBook ISBN:
9780813553436
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813553436
eBook ISBN: 9780813553436
Keywords for this book
The New Jew in Film; Exploring Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema; NATHAN ABRAMS; film studies; study of over three hundred films; new and changing depictions of Jews; new and changing depictions; Jews; Jew; Jewish; Jewishness; Judaism; masculinity; femininity; passivity; agency; religion; bathrooms; food; representation of the Jew; Jewish identity; Jewish history; racial politics; sexual politics; gender politics
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
Downloaded on 15.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.36019/9780813553436/html
Scroll to top button