In Millennial Jewish Stars, postdoctoral fellow Jonathan Branfman examines the different screen personas cultivated by six millennial Jewish stars: Drake, Lil Dicky, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, Seth Rogen, and Zac Efron. Each chapter analyzes a star’s particular framing of their Jewishness and digs into the cultural implications of that framing. Drake has created a persona that runs counter to the stereotypes of the Jewish man, which Branfman calls “detachable Judaism.” Lil Dicky (aka David Burd) leans into those very stereotypes in what the author refers to as “vicarious Jewface.” Jacobson and Glazer’s feminist personas exemplify “Jewessface.” And Seth Rogen and Zac Efron have taken on the opposing personas of “Beta Male” and “Goyface.”
Branfman folds into these descriptions the broader cultural understandings — and misunderstandings — of Judaism as an ethnicity, and of what he calls “racial antisemitism.” Each persona is built on stereotypes of the Jewish mind and body, stereotypes that “descend from at least eight centuries of religious, artistic, and racial stigmas … ”
The book occasionally situates the discussion within current events, such as Whoopi Goldberg’s now infamous comments that misrepresented the ethnic aspect of Judaism. It also places the discussion within intersectional studies, where it is normally ignored: “ … antisemitism often goes unnamed in feminist, queer, and critical race theory: these fields often conflate Jews with white gentiles or mention Jews only as oppressive colonizers in Israel-and-Palestine.”
While the author attributes these personas to the stars themselves, there’s little discussion about the extent to which writers, producers, directors, and/or agents play a role in that character development. But the book’s aim is to better equip readers, including scholars and activists, to understand the role of Judaism in broader discussions of race — and for the most part, it succeeds in that goal.
This is a scholarly book on an accessible topic. While some of the language is dense, Branfman’s work helps us understand how these stars curate their screen personas in alignment with — or in opposition to — age-old Jewish stereotypes, as well as what the persistence of those stereotypes tells us about our understanding of race.
Ada Brunstein is the Head of Reference at a university press.
