THE JEWS AND HOLLYWOOD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 353, 29 March 1946, Page 11

THE JEWS AND HOLLYWOOD

"SPEAKING CANDIDLY INDEED: An Open Letter to Gordon Mirams."’ Bertie Heymann. Public Relations. Committee, Council of Weilington Jewry.

(Reviewed by

K. J.

Sheen

T was inevitable that Mr. Mirams’ remarks in his book Speaking Candidly on the influence of Hollywood’s Jews upon American films should lead to controversy. He, I think, courted it. So that it is no surprise to read Mrs. Heymann’s reply. What is surpfising is the relatively calm and intelligent tone of the argument upon such a prejudiceclouded issue. It is the very model of what controversy should be in a civilised world. Feeling, which is strong, never over-rides courtesy and there is every acknowledgment of the other’s sincerity. The kernel of G.M.’s_ argument was. that the Jewish producer, . predominant in Hollywood, has _ influenced Hollywood films in certain undesirable ways through certain evil tendencies inherent in Jewish culture, including "lack of social consciousness," a

"basic sensuousness," and a different ethical outlook from the Christian. Mrs. Heymann eloquently and convincingly defends the claim of Jewish culture as she defines it, and has no difficulty in repudiating G.M.’s sweeping generalisation on its tendencies. Her strictures upon his quotations from an anonymous Jewish author seem also fair and decisive. One unsatisfactory fedture, however, is that her definition of culture as a set of values produced by a people in a conscious effort towards improvement is rather arbitrary, and she seems to have somewhat misjudged the intention and scope of G.M.’s argument, in which "culture" is used in a more familiar, looser, way. The contradition in terms, for example, of which she accuses G.M, for his phrase "the worst elements in Jewish culture" is only a contradition in terms of her own definition. She comes closer to the heart of the matter at issue when she says: "Jewish culture, the principles of Judaism have nothing to do... . with the fact that some (or even many) of the film magnates are Jews. ... They are the product or perhaps the embodiment of our time which has put profit above achievement, pleasure above happiness 4. ete." This is very true and much more important than the mere historical fact, which, incidentally, she might have taken the trouble to explain, that the typical Hollywood film nroducer is a Jew.