Would You Give Me Money for This?

My PhD dissertation focuses on the interaction between screen Jews, both male and female, with their Gentile counterparts in Jewish-Gentile romantic films, and how their relationships are structured. There has never been an extended study of Jewish-Gentile romantic relationships in American film, even though such films often contribute the most fleshed-out discussions of what it means for Jews to be Americans, and vice versa.

In these films, the Jew, as stripped and vulnerable as anyone entering into a love affair, is generally faced with the question, “What makes me different from this Gentile, whom I love?” Indeed, this is often a major motivating factor in the narrative friction in such films. In these conflicts, we can also identify a number of key archetypal participators in the struggle of “love conquering all.” One chapter will show how the Gentile and the Jewish parents, who are often the delivery system for traditional values (in favour of non-mixed marriages), may be categorized according to their argument types, such as assimilation anxiety, ancestral loyalty, or concerns involving racism or spiritual conflicts.

Another common element in such films places a potential Jewish mate into the path of the errant Jewish protagonists. This potential mate is immediately, and unattractively, contrasted with the charms and beauties of the Gentile love interest. How such negative images of Jews as mates are constructed and what ideologies lie behind such portrayals will comprise another chapter. Thus far, my theory is that, on the surface, most American films support (and help create) a romantic ideal of democratic cultural mixing as part of the American Dream, while denouncing more traditional arguments supporting Old World endogamy.

In the twenty films I am analyzing, however, I have discovered that such films still portray an inherent conflict when two cultures attempt to meld. Two chapters will be devoted to the characters of the Jews and Gentiles who embark on these complicated romantic adventures, the challenges they face, and the results they experience. I believe that continuing investigations into the construction of ethnic identity, especially in something as influential as Hollywood film, is crucial to our understanding of the political and social standings of minority populations in North America.