Yahoo Lifestyle USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center Study Examines Portrayals of Jews in Contemporary Scripted TV
About half of the Jewish characters depicted in scripted TV shows were played by Jewish actors, according to a study of portrayals of contemporary Judaism in TV released by the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center Media Impact Project.
The “Jews on Screen” study conducted as part of the center’s Media Impact Project sought to examine how Jews are portrayed in scripted TV and whether depictions of Jews and Jewish life have moved beyond the hateful stereotypes of the past. At a time of rising incidents of antisemitism in the U.S. and elsewhere, the Lear Center emphasized “the importance of nuanced and humanizing portrayals of Jewish Americans in entertainment” as essential to fighting bias.
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“Decades of research indicate that scripted media – including television and film – can play an important role in shaping attitudes towards members of marginalized communities Entertainment media
can promote and reinforce stereotypes or biases, but can also mitigate them. As such, it’s
critical to have a baseline understanding of how Jewish Americans are typically portrayed in
contemporary media,” the study states.
The findings were reached by analyzing 108 Jewish characters in 49 episodes from 15 scripted TV series that aired between 2021 and 2022. The series were chosen because they had “the most mentions of 30
keywords related to Jews or Judaism,” per the study.
The study found that 56% of those characters were played by Jewish actors while 24% were played by what the study described as confirmed non-Jews. At 65%, male characters were more likely to be played by Jewish actors than female characters (44%).
One third of Jewish male characters were shown were traditional garments such as yarmulkes. Nearly half (48%) of those characters were religious professionals such as rabbis and funeral directors while 19% were specified to be Orthodox. Less than one in five characters mentioned Judaism in their dialogue. Some 30% of the characters were portrayed as wealthy or upper-middle class.
The study also probed specific attitudes and portrayals of Orthodox Jews. At least half of the shows in the study had at least one Orthodox character in a speaking role. Half of the episodes had characters who expressed “negative judgments” of Orthodox Judaism.
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