You are a writer. A magazine has assigned you the task of writing an article about anti-Semitism. You set about it but you are stuck. What can really be written about it that has not already been thoroughly explored by other writers? Yes, you can go to the library and do your research. And you can accummulate endless facts and figures regarding the experiences of the Jews…the plight of Jews over the centuries.
But it’s all been done before. Then one day, sitting down with your mother, trying to explain the predicament, it comes, out of the blue, fortuitously: that “eureka” moment: Why not live as a Jew and experience first hand what that entails regarding actual encounters with others. Actually experience the prejudice and the discrimination yourself.
In other words, an existential account that goes far beyond the usual “analysis” of it as academic or a journalistic exercise.
Think Black Like Me. Only the bigotry here is relgious. One might insist that bigotry is bigotry is bigotry…but there are different factors here that make distinctions inevitable. With religion, our attitudes can revolve literally around Heaven and Hell…around being doomed or being saved. Does that then make such prejudice more rather than less reasonable than, say, judging someone based solely on the color of their skin? That depends on who you ask of course.
But with religion, prejudice can get tricky. There is just so much at stake with regard to our mortality…and to our fate throughout all eternity. If you don’t take an “ecumenical” approach to it, it is not necessarily irrational to embrace only your own particular liturgy. And yet so much prejudice is blind. Or political.
And while there is one reference to racial prejudice here there is not a single solitary person of color in the film from start to finish. Nor any discussion of the obvious gender stereotypes. That I suppose is for later movies.
It’s also important to point out that this was filmed in 1947. In other words, just a few short years after the world became more fully aware of the Holocaust. And at a time historically when a subject matter of this sort was, to say the least, “controversial”. Especially coming out of Hollywood.
IMDb
[b]The timeliness of the film is revealed by a telling exchange that took place between screenwriter Moss Hart and a stagehand, as reported in The Saturday Review, December 6, 1947, pg. 71: “You know,” a stagehand is reported to have said to Mr. Hart, “I’ve loved working on this picture of yours. Usually I play gin-rummy with the boys when scenes are being shot. But not this time. This time I couldn’t leave the set. The picture has such a wonderful moral I didn’t want to miss it.” “Really,” beamed Mr. Hart, pleased not only as a scenarist but as a reformer. “That’s fine. What’s the moral as you see it?” “Well, I tell you,” replied the stagehand. “Henceforth I’m always going to be good to Jewish people because you never can tell when they will turn out to be Gentiles.”
Among the concerns that the movie’s anti-anti-semitic message would stir up a “hornet’s nest” was the bizarre belief that “Jewish friendly” films and novels from the time were linked with communism. The fear was not entirely unfounded, as many of the people involved with the film were brought before the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC), including Darryl F. Zanuck, Anne Revere, (perhaps most notoriously) Elia Kazan, and John Garfield. Garfield was brought before HUAC twice, was blacklisted, taken off the blacklist and put back on it again and it was believed that it was the stress of these experiences which led to the heart attack that killed him at the age of 39.
The movie mentions three real people well-known for their racism and anti-Semitism at the time: Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D - Miss), who advocated sending all African-Americans back to Africa; Rep. John Rankin (D - Miss), who called columnist Walter Winchell “the little kike” on the floor of the House of Representatives; and leader of “Share Our Wealth” and “Christian Nationalist Crusade” Gerald L.K. Smith, who tried legal means to prevent Twentieth Century-Fox from showing the movie in Tulsa. He lost the case, but then sued Fox for $1,000,000. The case was thrown out of court in 1951.
When other studio chiefs, who were mostly Jewish, heard about the making of this film, they asked the producer not to make it. They feared its theme of anti-Semitism would simply stir up a hornet’s nest and preferred to deal with the problem quietly. Not only did production continue, but a scene was subsequently included that mirrored that confrontation. [/b]
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman’s_Agreement
trailer: youtu.be/KYDIWrcevkQ
GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT [1947]
Directed by Elia Kazan
[b]Phil: Funny, your suggesting the series.
Kathy: Is it? Why?
Phil: Oh, uh…lots of reasons.
Kathy: You make up your mind too quickly about people. Women, anyway. I saw you do it when you sat down. You cross-filed and indexed me—a little too well bred, self-confident, artificial, a trifle absurd, typical New York.
Phil: No, I didn’t have time for all that.
Kathey: Yes, you did. I even left out a few—faintly irritating upper-class manner…overbright voice.
Phil: All right, all right, I give up. You win.
…
Tommy [Phil’s son]: What’s anti-Semitism?
Phil: Well, uh, that’s when some people don’t like other people just because they’re Jews.
Tommy: Why not? Are Jews bad?
Phil: Well, some are and some aren’t, just like with everyone else.
Tommy: What are Jews, anyway? I mean exactly.
Phil: Well, uh, it’s like this. Remember last week when you asked me about that big church, and I told you there are all different kinds of churches? Well, the people who go to that particular church are called Catholics, and there are people who go to different churches and they’re called Protestants, and there are people who go to different churches and they’re called Jews, only they call their churches temples or synagogues.
Tommy: Why don’t some people like them?
Phil: Well, that’s kind of a tough one to explain, Tom. Some people hate Catholics and some hate Jews.
Tommy: And no one hates us 'cause we’re Americans.
Phil [more uncertain]: Well, no, no. That’s, uh… that’s another thing again. You can be an American and a Catholic…or an American and a Protestant…or an American and a Jew. Look, Tom, it’s like this. One thing’s your country, see? Like America…or France or Germany or Russia, all the countries. The flag, the uniform, the language is different. And the airplanes are marked different? Differently, that’s right. But the other thing is religion… like the Jewish, Catholic, or Protestant religions. [/b]
They’re the same and yet…different.
[b]Mrs. Green [Mom]: So you think there’s enough anti-Semitism in life already without people reading about it?
Phil: No, but this story is doomed before I start. What can I say about anti-Semitism that hasn’t been said before?
Mrs. Green: I don’t know. Maybe it hasn’t been said well enough. If it had, you wouldn’t have had to explain it to Tommy right now.
…
Phil: I’ll have to get facts from your research people.
John [editor]: I’ve got eighteen hacks on this magazine who can do this series with their hands full of facts. I don’t need you for that. What do you think I brought you here for? Use your head. Go right to the source. I want some angle, some compelling lead…some dramatic device to humanize it so it gets read.
…
Mrs. Green: No ideas at all yet?
Phil: Sure, plenty of ideas, but they all explode in my face. They just don’t stand up. The right one causes a click inside you. It hasn’t happened yet. Doesn’t look like it’s going to, either. I’m bored with the whole thing…bored with myself, as a matter of fact.
Mrs. Green: Isn’t it always tough at the start, Phil?
Phil: Never like this. Never. I’ve tried everything–anti-Semitism in business, labor, professions. It’s all there, but I can’t make it give. I’ve tried everything, separately and together. When I think I’m getting onto something good…I go a little deeper, and it turns into the same old drool…of statistics and protest.
…
Phil: Gee, I wish Dave were here. He’d be the guy to talk it over with, wouldn’t he?
Mrs. Green Yes, he would. Still overseas?
Phil: Yeah. Looks like he’s stuck there, too. He’d be just the one, though. Hey, maybe that’s a new tack. So far, I’ve been digging into facts and evidence. I’ve sort of ignored feelings. How must a fellow like Dave feel about this thing? Over and above what we feel about it…what must a Jew feel about this thing?
…
Phil [sitting down to write a letter to Dave]: Now, what do I say? What do I say? ‘‘Dear Dave, give me the lowdown on your guts… when you hear about Rankin calling people kikes. How do you feel when Jewish kids get their teeth kicked out byJew-haters?’’ Could you write that kind of a letter, Ma? That’s no good, all of it. It wouldn’t be any good if I could write it. There’s no way to tear open the secret heart of another.
…
Mrs. Green: Every article you wrote, the right answers got in.
Phil: Yeah, but I didn’t ask for them. When I wanted to find out about a scared guy in a jalopy I didn’t stand out on Route Sixty-six and ask a lot of questions. I bought some old clothes and a broken-down car and took Route Sixty-six myself. I lived in their camps, ate what they ate. I found the answers in my own guts…not somebody else’s. I didn’t say, ‘‘What does it feel like to be an Okie?’’ I was an Okie. That’s the difference, Ma. On the coal mine series…I didn’t sit in my bedroom and do research. I didn’t tap some poor guy on the shoulder and make him talk. I got myself a job. I went in the dark. I slept in a shack. I didn’t try to dig into a miner’s heart. I was a miner.
[then it dawns on him…like a bolt of lightening]
Phil: Ma…maybe. Hey, maybe…I got it! The lead, the idea, the angle. This is the way. I’ll–I’ll be Jewish. I’ll…well, all I got to do is say it. Nobody knows me around here. I can just say it. I can live it myself for six weeks, eight weeks, nine months.
…
Weisman: As an old friend, this is a very bad idea, John…the most harmful thing you could possibly do now.
John: Why is it a harmful idea?
Weisman: It’ll only stir it up more. Let it alone. We’ll handle it our own way.
John: The hush-hush way?
Weisman: Call it what you like. Let it alone. You can’t write it out of existence. We’ve been fighting it for years. We know from experience…the less talk there is, the better.
John: Sure. Pretend it doesn’t exist…add to the conspiracy of silence. I should say not. Keep silent and let Bilbo… and Gerald L.K. Smith do all the talking? No, sir. Irving…you and your… let’s-be-quiet-about-it committees have gotten no place.
…
Elaine: If your name was Saul Green or Irving you wouldn’t have to go to all this bother. I changed mine. Estelle Walovsky to Wales. I just couldn’t take it—about the job applications, I mean. So one day I wrote the same firm two letters…same as you’re doing now. I sent the Elaine Wales one after they’d said there were no openings. I got the job, all right. Do you know what firm that was? “Smith’s Weekly.”
Phil: No…
Elaine: Yes, Mr. Green. The great liberal magazine that fights injustice on all sides. The one we work for. It slays me. I love it.
Phil: Mr. Minify know about that?
Elaine: No. He can’t be bothered thinking about small fry.
…
Elaine: You just let them get one wrong Jew in here, and it’ll come out of us. It’s no fun being the fall guy for the kikey ones.
Phil: Miss Wales, I’m going to be frank with you. I want you to know that words like yid and kike and kikey and coon and nigger make me sick no matter who says them.
Elaine: Oh, but I only said it for a type.
Phil: Yeah, but we’re talking about the word first.
Elaine: Why, sometimes I even say it to myself, about me, I mean. Like, if I’m about to do something I know I shouldn’t, I’ll say, “Don’t be such a little kike.” That’s all. But let one objectionable one…
Phil: What do you mean by objectionable?
Elaine: Loud and too much rouge…
Phil: They don’t hire any loud, vulgar girls. Why should they start?
Elasine: It’s not only that, Mr. Green, you’re sort of heckling me. You know the sort that starts trouble in a place like this…and the sort that doesn’t, like you or me…so why pin me down?
Phil: You mean because we don’t look especiallyJewish…because we’re OKJews…with us it can be kept comfortable and quiet?
Elaine: I didn’t say…
Phil: Miss Wales, I hate anti-Semitism…and I hate it from you or anybody who’s Jewish…as much as I hate it from Gentiles.[/b]
These things do get complicated.
[b]Professor Lieberman: If we agree there’s confusion, we can talk. We scientists love confusion. Right now I’m starting on a new crusade of my own. I have no religion, so I’m not Jewish by religion. Further, I’m a scientist, so I must rely on science…which shows me I’m not Jewish by race…since there’s no such thing as a distinct Jewish race. There’s not even a Jewish type. Well, my crusade will have a certain charm. I will simply go forth and state I’m not a Jew. With my face, that becomes not an evasion but a new principle—a scientific principle.
…
Professor Lieberman: There must be millions of people nowadays who are religious only in the vaguest sense. I’ve often wondered why the Jews among them still go on calling themselves Jews. Do you know, Mr. Green?
Phil: No, but I’d like to.
Professor Lieberman: Because the world still makes it an advantage not to be one. Thus it becomes a matter of pride to go on calling ourselves Jews. So you see, I will have to abandon my crusade…before it begins. Only if there were no anti-Semites could I go on with it.
…
Kathy: I’m not asking you to make loopholes where it counts—at the office, meeting people, like at Anne’s tonight—but to go to Connecticut to a party.
Phil: And if we were to use my house…Besides, Jane and Harry, I thought they were grand. KathY: They are, but some of their friends…
Phil: And it would just make…a thing, a mess, an inconvenience.
Kathy: It would.
Phil: For Jane and Harry, or for you, too?
Kathy: I’d be so tensed up, I wouldn’t have any fun. If everything’s going to be so tensed up and solemn…
Phil: I…I think I’d better go now.
…
Tommy: Say, Pop! Are we Jewish? Jimmy Kelly said we were. Our janitor told his janitor. Phil: Well, what did you say toJimmy Kelly?
Tommy: I told him I’d ask you.
…
Phil: I’ve been saying I’m Jewish, and it works.
Dave: Why, you crazy fool! It’s working?
Phil: It works too well. I’ve been having my nose rubbed in it, and I don’t like the smell.
Dave: You’re not insulated yet, Phil. The impact must be quite a business on you.
Phil: You mean you get indifferent to it in time?
Dave: No, but you’re concentrating a lifetime into a few weeks. You’re making the thing happen every day. The facts are no different, Phil. It just telescopes it, makes it hurt more.
…
Tommy: They called me a dirty Jew and a stinking kike, and they all ran away.
Kathy: Oh, darling, it’s not true. It’s not true! You’re no more Jewish than I am. It’s just some horrible mistake.
Phil: Kathy!
…
Tommy: They were playing, and I asked if I could play too, and one said that no dirty little Jew could play with them, and they all yelled those other things. I tried to speak, and they all yelled that my father has a long curly beard, and they turned and ran. Why did they do it, Pop?
Phil: Did you want to tell them that you weren’t Jewish?
Tommy: No.
Phil: That’s good. There are a lot of kids just like you who are Jewish, and if you had said that, you’d be admitting there was something bad in being Jewish.
Tommy: They didn’t even fight. They just ran.
Phil: I know. There are a lot of grown-ups like that too, only they do it with wisecracks instead of with yelling.
…
Kathy: Phil, I’ve got something to tell you. I’m pretty tired of feeling wrong. Everything I say is wrong about anything Jewish. All I did was face facts about Dave and Darien…and to tell Tom just what you told him.
Phil: Not just what. You’ve only assured him he’s the most wonderful of all creatures—a white Christian American. You instantly gave him that lovely taste of superiority…the poison that millions of parents drop into the minds of children.
Kathy: You really do think I’m an anti-Semite. You’ve thought it secretly all along.
Phil: No, I don’t. But I’ve come to see lots of nice people who hate it and deplore it and protest their own innocence, then help it along and wonder why it grows. People who would never beat up a Jew. People who think anti-Semitism is far away in some dark place with low-class morons. That’s the biggest discovery I’ve made about this whole business, Kathy. The good people. The nice people.
…
Kathy: You’re doing an impossible thing. You are what you are for the one life you have. You can’t help being born Christian instead of Jewish. It doesn’t mean you’re glad you were. But I am glad. There. I’ve said it. It’d be terrible. I’m glad I’m not. I could never make you understand that. You could never understand that it’s a fact… like being glad you’re good-looking instead of ugly, rich instead of poor, young instead of old, healthy instead of sick. You could never understand that. It’s just a practical fact not a judgment that I’m superior. But I could never make you see that. You’d twist it into something horrible—a conniving, an aiding and abetting… a thing I loathe as much as you do.
…
Dave: What’s wrong, Phil? Flume Inn?
Phil: Tommy got called a dirty Jew and a kike by some kids down the street. Came home pretty badly shaken up.
Dave, Well now you know it all. That’s the place they really get at you—your kids. Now you even know that. Well, you can quit being Jewish now. There’s nothing else. My own kids got it without the names, Phil. Just setting their hearts on a summer camp their bunch were going to… and being kept out. It wrecked them for a while. The only other thing that makes you want to murder is…There was a boy in our outfit, Abe Schlussman. Good soldier. Good engineer. One night, we got bombed, and he caught it. I was ten yards off. Somebody said, ‘‘Give me a hand with this sheeny.’’ Those were the last words he ever heard.
…
Elaine [looking at the manuscript title]: ‘‘I Was Jewish For Eight Weeks.’’ Why, Mr. Green… you’re a Christian. But I never…I’ve been around you more than anybody else.
Phil: What’s so upsetting about that, Miss Wales? There is some difference between Jews and Christians? Look at me hard. I’m the same man I was yesterday. That’s true, isn’t it? Why should you be so astonished, Miss Wales? Still can’t believe anybody would give up… the glory of being a Christian for even eight weeks? That’s what’s eating you, isn’t it? If I tell you that’s anti-Semitism…your feeling of being Christian is better than being Jewish…you’ll say I’m heckling you again…I’m twisting your words around, or it’s just facing facts as someone else said to me yesterday. Face me. Look at me. Same face, same eyes, same nose, same suit, same everything. Here. Take my hand. Feel it! Same flesh as yours, isn’t it? No different today than yesterday. The only thing that’s different is the word Christian.
…
Anne: OK. I’m a cat and this is dirty pool. But I’m intolerant of hypocrites. That’s what I said, Phil. Hypocrites. She’d rather let Dave lose that job than risk a fuss. That’s it, isn’t it? She’s afraid. The Kathys everywhere are afraid of getting the gate from their little groups of nice people. They make little clucking sounds of disapproval but they want you and UncleJohn to stand up and yell and take sides and fight. But do they fight? Oh, no. Kathy and Harry and Jane and all of them…they scold Bilbo twice a year and think they’ve fought the good fight for democracy. They haven’t got the guts to take the step from talking to action. One little action on one little front. I know it’s not the whole answer but it’s got to start somewhere. It’s got to be with action, not pamphlets…not even with your series. [/b]