During the initial credits of most Hollywood movies, I end up seeing, under the heading ‘Producer’ or ‘Executive Producer’, names that sound distinctly Jewish.
It seems to me that not only is the percent of procucers who are Jewish larger than the percent of Jews in the population , but they seem to possibly even be the majority among producers.
Am I making a mistake as to what names ‘sound Jewish’?
Are there any hard numbers on what percent of Hollywood producers are Jewish?
Probably just several that produce a lot of movies. For example the Weinstein Brothers. Who was that comedian that said, “Ever read the credits at the end of a movie? Its like reading Shindler’s List.”.
If you can, see a documentary called Goldwyn: The Man and his Movies. This’ll help explain why historically the number of Jewish film producers was historically high.
As for current numbers, I’d say it’s because once you’re in (and family connections help immensely at getting in), you tend to stay in for decades. Hollywood is fairly insular and resistant to significant change.
Ignore redundant use of “historically”. The second use is redundant.
That means I didn’t need it.
:sigh:
I don’t beleive that Mel Gibson is Jewish . 
Not true. the Hollywood landscape has undergone enormous change in the last decade, resulting in the fall of former notables and rise of multitudes of small mavericks. Historically the representation, clout and money of Jewish players has been enormous, but some observers say the scene today is more diverse.
From “Jews, Hollywood, and Popular Culture, 1930-1950”
Norman L. Friedman
Philip French’s The Movie Moguls and Nolan Zierold’s The Moguls-givegood overviews and collective/comparative portraits of the small group of top-level Jewish-born entrepreneurs who fashioned the [Hollywood] dream factories, Marcus Loew, Adolph Zukor, Sam Goldwyn, Carl Laemmle, the Selznicks, Jesse Lasky, William Fox, the Warner Brothers, Louis B. Mayer, B. P. Schulberg, Harry Cohn…
The moguls, thus, brought to Hollywood certain business skills acquired in related retail trades and, by the 1930’s, six of the eight major studios were Jewish controlled and managed. In addition, persons of Jewish birth were prominent among the second and third level of business-oriented producers, managers, assistants, agents, and lawyers.
note: I’ve heard these statistics before, but hope this particular author is mainstream. Other posters can contribute information re: recent changes in Hollywood.
Well, it’s evolved certainly, but it wasn’t eager to do so.
I’d heard that some Jews turned to film because they were barred from more “traditional” industries.
www.jewishcurrents.org/2004-jan-dekro-bush.htm
Note the phrase I bolded. Of course, gentiles were also involved in early Hollywood–& even before the industry moved West. Joe Kennedy did his bit as a producer. But–despite his wealth–many of “the right people” considered him just another Mick.
I’m sure the demographics have changed.
I also think it was repetitive too.
It wasn’t that long ago that many “respectable” businesses would not hire Jews. In addition, there was rampant discrimination in housing and college admissions.
From JewishJournal.com
"Of course the Writers Guild keeps no statistics on race or ethnicity, but not all screenwriters are Jewish, explained Dan Petrie Jr., a writer and director, and a former head of the Writers Guild. He had just chaired a session, called “Breaking and Entering,” where a panel of six successful writers explained just how difficult it was to break into the industry, but also just how they each had succeeded.
Petrie, a pleasant, sensitive man, estimated that between 30 and 50 percent of the screenwriters were Jewish, a high percentage given that Jews constituted just 2.5 percent of the U.S. population. In any case, he seemed to imply, it was not significant. Ethnicity was not some underground message that worked its way into scripts."