# This writer claims there are virtually no female Jewish lead roles outside of Holocaust films- True? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437 "2010-05-23T04:30:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/21 "2010-05-23T09:00:57Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > A character can be identifiably Jewish even if a gentile plays him/her (Rhoda Morganstern, or John Turturro’s character in **Mo’ Better Blues** ), or identifiably goyish even if a Jew plays him/her (Zoolander, any Michael Landon character). Since characters seldom state their religious or ethnic self-identification, I think we can fall back on the idea of whether the audience is supposed to assume the character is Jewish. Film is full of such shorthand. Exactly. This strikes me as trying to create controversy where none exists. ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/22 "2010-05-23T09:39:11Z")
Munich, Pineapple Express, Requiem for a Dream, and Royal Tenenbaums all featured male leads identified as being of Jewish descent. As for female leads hmm… this is just a guess, but are any of the Sex and the City broads supposed to be Jewish? ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/23 "2010-05-23T10:20:53Z")
I’m confused. Is it just leading actresses who are Jewish? If so, apparently there are ton of films in the aughts with a Jewish leading lady judging on [this list](http://www.freebase.com/view/user/jfry/default_domain/views/jewish_actresses). Notable names: Jennifer Connelly Scarlett Johansson Gwyneth Paltrow Helena Bonham Carter Rachel Weisz Kate Hudson Natalie Portman All leading ladies who’ve made multiple films each this decade. That’s worth a few dozen right there. Or is the complaint that there aren’t any female leading roles where they really Jew it up, whatever that might mean? If so, that seems like an odd criticism. Shouldn’t that be taken as a virtue, not a vice? As in, not perpetuating Jewish stereotypes? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/24 "2010-05-23T10:33:17Z")
Charlotte in SAtC is a convert. ::Hands in man card:: ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/25 "2010-05-23T11:24:09Z")
There was a movie in the 70’s or 80’s with Barbra Streisand pretending to be a boy to get into a Jewish prayer school. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/26 "2010-05-23T11:28:50Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Frankly, I can’t think of many recent non-historical movies where any character of either gender was explicitly any particular religion. Are there a lot of movies about Catholics, Protestants, and/or Mormons I’ve been missing? Most movies that feature weddings (or funerals!) portray them as religious ceremonies. It’s nearly always some sort of Christian ceremony, so while the characters may not be particularly devout or observant they are at least nominally Christian. I can’t off the top of my head think of any movie I’ve seen from the past decade that featured a Jewish wedding. There probably have been some, but I didn’t see them. I can actually think of two popular American movies from the past decade that featured an Orthodox Christian ceremony (_My Big Fat Greek Wedding_ and _Sideways_), and according to [the Pew Forum](http://religions.pewforum.org/reports) there are about three times as many Jews in the US as Orthodox Christians. > [@Krokodil](#): > > All these Adam Sandler movies and nobody’s ever played his mother, sister or daughter? There probably have been, but the female lead in a movie is rarely the mother, sister, or daughter of the male lead. There are exceptions, but these are usually supporting rather than lead roles. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/27 "2010-05-23T11:35:03Z")
While not the lead, Kathy Bates featured prominently as the mother in The Waterboy. > [@Lamia](#): > > I can’t off the top of my head think of any movie I’ve seen from the past decade that featured a Jewish wedding. IMDb shows [5 titles](http://www.imdb.com/search/title?keywords=jewish-wedding&release_date=2000,2010&sort=release_date_us,desc&title_type=feature) from 2000 to 2010 with the keyword “Jewish Wedding”: Defiance (WWII era) Wedding Crashers Heights Dummy Suzie Gold ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/28 "2010-05-23T11:43:08Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > IMDb shows [5 titles](http://www.imdb.com/search/title?keywords=jewish-wedding&release_date=2000,2010&sort=release_date_us,desc&title_type=feature) from 2000 to 2010 with the keyword “Jewish Wedding”: > > Defiance (WWII era) > Wedding Crashers > Heights > Dummy > Suzie Gold I’ve never even heard of any of those except _Wedding Crashers_. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/29 "2010-05-23T14:19:08Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > How many non-WWII movies from 2000-2010 feature male jews a protagonists? I think some of the characters in _A Serious Man_ might have been Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/30 "2010-05-23T14:31:02Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > I think this is a damn good question. Can anyone name some recent movies where the male protagonist was Jewish? _A Serious Man_, by the Coen Brothers had a Jewish protagonist and wasn’t based on WW2: [A Serious Man (2009) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019452/) ETA: Shakes fist at **Biffy** ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/31 "2010-05-23T16:21:32Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > While not the lead, Kathy Bates featured prominently as the mother in The Waterboy. > > IMDb shows [5 titles](http://www.imdb.com/search/title?keywords=jewish-wedding&release_date=2000,2010&sort=release_date_us,desc&title_type=feature) from 2000 to 2010 with the keyword “Jewish Wedding”: > > Defiance (WWII era) > Wedding Crashers > Heights > Dummy > Suzie Gold In **Wedding Crashers** they only crash a Jewish wedding. \*\*Defiance /B] didn’t have female lead roles. **Dummy** was about a Jewish family where the daughter is a wedding planner, but she wasn’t the lead character. In **A Serious Man** , the main character is quickly divorced by his wife. So again there’s no female lead role. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/32 "2010-05-23T17:04:23Z")
Wasn’t the lead female role (Lorraine Bracco) in Goodfellas supposed to be Jewish? I hesitate to post this, as I generally loathe mafia movies, and I have only seen Goodfellas once, many years back, but I remember when watching it, I was kind of surprised that an Irish/Italian mobster (Ray Liotta) would have a Jewish wife… Am I way off base in thinking this? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/33 "2010-05-23T17:25:53Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Am I way off base in thinking this? No, Lorraine Bracco’s character in Goodfellas is explicitly Jewish. There’s a scene where Henry first meets her mother, where she lies to her, claiming that Henry is half-Jewish, so her mother won’t be upset that she’s dating a non-Jew, and they have a Jewish wedding. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/34 "2010-05-23T18:52:21Z")
The movie I mentioned earlier “In Her Shoes” features a Jewish wedding (as did “Private Benjamin” but that was the wrong decade. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/35 "2010-05-23T19:09:25Z")
I think the female lead in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist was Jewish (although I think she was attending a Catholic school). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/36 "2010-05-23T19:22:07Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Or is the complaint that there aren’t any female leading roles where they really Jew it up, whatever that might mean? If so, that seems like an odd criticism. Shouldn’t that be taken as a virtue, not a vice? As in, not perpetuating Jewish stereotypes? Well, if so, the OP should catch Judy Greer as Esther Bloomenbergansteinenthal in _The Hebrew Hammer_ (2003). ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/37 "2010-05-23T23:07:23Z")
I also demand that more Japanese women get leading roles. On top of that, why is Lucy Liu the token Asian female? Where’s the Koreans? The Vietnamese? If we’re talking about religion, why aren’t there more Jains or Hindus? It’s not just Jewish women. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/38 "2010-05-23T23:27:29Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > If we’re talking about religion, why aren’t there more Jains or Hindus? I don’t know that one could claim Jains are underrepresented in American cinema, since the percentage of Jains in the US is very low. They aren’t even listed separately in the Pew Forum report I linked to above. I don’t know how often Jains show up in Indian films. There are roughly four times as many Jews as Hindus in the US, so accurate representation would give us 1/4 the number of Hindu lead roles as Jewish lead roles. I can’t think of many big American films from this decade that have Hindu female leads – I didn’t see _The Darjeeling Limited_, was there a Hindu leading lady in that? – but there have been a few British films that saw wide release in the US that do, such as _Bride and Prejudice_ and Best Picture winner _Slumdog Millionaire_ (which also features a Muslim male lead). ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/39 "2010-05-24T00:21:10Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > No, Lorraine Bracco’s character in Goodfellas is explicitly Jewish. There’s a scene where Henry first meets her mother, where she lies to her, claiming that Henry is half-Jewish, so her mother won’t be upset that she’s dating a non-Jew, and they have a Jewish wedding. Yeah, later on Karen’s mother complains that Henry stays out all night because “[he and his friends] aren’t Jewish,” adding that Karen’s father “never stayed out all night” (and hadn’t been able to digest a decent meal in six weeks. Now that’s a Jewish mom, right there). Of course, neither Karen nor her mom are “leads.” ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437/40 "2010-05-24T00:27:39Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > There was a movie in the 70’s or 80’s with Barbra Streisand pretending to be a boy to get into a Jewish prayer school. Yentl, but it was mentioned upthread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-writer-claims-there-are-virtually-no-female-jewish-lead-roles-outside-of-holocaust-films-true/540437.md?page=3)