Jewish stereotypes

Jewish stereotypes include negative and positive images that are based on perceived physical traits and cultural patterns. In the late 1800s, cartoons depicted Jewish Americans as having big noses. Jewish Americans have also been portrayed as clannish people who have undue influence and power in politics and in the world of finance. Other stereotypes involve the image of the Jewish American Princess (JAP), a spoiled, privileged young woman, or the Jewish mother, an interfering mother who makes her children feel guilty. More favorable stereotypes portray Jewish Americans as industrious people who are good financial providers and value education for themselves and their children.

Clannishness is the outgrowth of being part of a minority, feeling left out, or not belonging, and sometimes feeling inferior. According to Sidney J. Jacobs and Betty J. Jacobs’s Clues about Jews for People Who Aren’t (1985), minority members often seek a sense of belonging and comfort by forming groups with similar people. Clannishness may be the price Jewish people and other minority groups pay to retain distinctive cultural and religious practices. Jewish people may have interacted closely with each other partially because they were barred from joining the greater society by restrictive housing clauses, university quotas limiting the number of Jewish people admitted, country clubs that refused to accept them, and discrimination that kept them out of top executive jobs.

Several stereotypes of Jewish people involve finance. Some of the earliest Jewish immigrants in the United States, as well as the Eastern European Jewish people, were peddlers and shopkeepers, and perhaps because of non-Jewish resentment of this role, Jewish people have been accused of being crafty, devious merchants. An old European stereotype saw Jewish people as international bankers trying to control the financial world; this image was accepted by many Americans, some of whom still believe that Jewish people control the US banking industry. An additional stereotype was extended to the claim that Jewish people control the media and Hollywood. The belief that a secret Jewish conspiracy had undue influence over the world’s power structures can be a dangerous one; the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an early-twentieth-century text making such a claim, was widely used as anti-Semitic propaganda, including by the Nazis. Literature has also supported this stereotype with characters in famous works such as Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1600) and Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist (1838).

The JAP stereotype depicts a spoiled, hedonistic, self-centered young American Jewish woman who has been pampered and overindulged by her wealthy parents. This exaggerated and offensive portrayal may reflect non-Jewish jealousy of some Jewish Americans’ socioeconomic success. Because the term “JAP” is part of the American vocabulary, many people who use the term may be unaware of its offensive nature. (The term is, however, also sometimes used by Jewish people themselves.)

The Jewish mother stereotype portrays a woman who invokes guilt in her children. This stereotype often goes hand-in-hand with a portrayal of Jewish men as “mama’s boys” who are insufficiently masculine due to the influence of this overbearing female figure. Jewish American writers such as Philip Roth and Woody Allen have used this stereotype in their writing for dramatic or humorous effect. Such use of racial and ethnic stereotypes by members of the minority group has been criticized as promoting prejudice but also defended as the minority member’s right to create an in-joke. The question of whether it is acceptable for Jewish people to invoke Jewish stereotypes aside, the “Jewish mother” stereotype has also been criticized within the Jewish community for its perceived sexism. There are, however, fewer gendered stereotypes that are frequently embraced by Jewish writers in a self-deprecating manner, such as the idea that Jewish people are particularly neurotic or that they love to argue.

To promote better relations between Jewish and non-Jewish people and to attempt to eliminate stereotypes, Jewish religious congregations sometimes hold interfaith activities and worship services. Rabbis and board members frequently serve on citywide boards and committees. Jewish people play an active role in such organizations as the National Conference of Christians and Jews (now known as the National Congress for Community and Justice), formed in 1927 to combat racism, bias, and bigotry in the United States.

Bibliography

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Ferrari, Chiara Francesca. Since When Is Fran Drescher Jewish? Dubbing Stereotypes in The Nanny, The Simpsons, and The Sopranos. U of Texas P, 2010.

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Wisse, Ruth. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton UP, 2013.