audiobook The "Jew" in Cinema: From The Golem to Don't Touch My Holocaust (The Helen and Martin Schwartz Lectures in Jewish Studies) by Omer Bartov in History

Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Decent book. Could have been a bit better.By KinoChelovekI have read quite a bit in this book; and thought that the writing was pretty good. It analyzes the portrayal of the Jewish character through much of cinema. Dr. Bartov has done quite a bit of research and work on the book; and it is great resource for information.However; I am startled about how little it contains about early Jewish cinema. He seems to be analyzing Jewish cinema through post-Holocaust eyes; but fails to mention any of the classics of what is termed either Yiddish Cinema or Jewish Cinema. To leave out characters and movies from silent cinema; he seems to create a bias (for lack of a better word) about the portrayal of Jews. To me; if you write about Jews in cinema; you cannot simply omit the portrayals of Jews in movies like "Jewish Luck" and "Ost und West." I found that problematic. Analysis of just those two movies provides a breadth of writing about how Jewish characters were viewed and received; and how early Soviet cinema was in a quandary about how Jews should be portrayed in a Socialist Realist way. One could argue that Stalin had his own type of "Holocaust" with his purge and death sentences on Jews in the Soviet Union (after all; Isaac Babel was killed).I understand that Jewish studies has a "cloud" called the Holocaust that seems to be a priority of writings about the Jewish arts; but you can't simply write about the Jew in cinema without writing about the pre-Holocaust Jew at all. For example; he only mentions Isaac Babel by name just a few times; and he worked in the Soviet cinema in its early years and was extremely prolific in literature with describing Jewish characters; just as much as Sholom Aleichem.Maybe Dr. Bartov will expand his writing to include earlier works from other countries (rising nation-states) and how those cinematic characterizations transformed Jewish identity from that of the Pale (Yiddish) Jew (like the "luftmensch") to how Jews are seen in the post-Holocaust world. Restated as a question: How does one look back at pre-Holocaust Jewish cinematic identity with post-Holocaust eyes and what is now seen that was not seen back then? What he does write is quite good; but there is so much more that can be said.I'm not terribly disappointed with the book; but I would expect much more as far as a historical study of the portrayal of Jews BEFORE the Holocaust (other than "Der Golem" (1920); which; in itself; is an anti-Semitic movie; but has an extremely eerie pre-Holocaust look).Try J. Hoberman's "Bridge of Light;" which covers quite a bit of what Dr. Bartov omits (and a great book - see my review).3 1/2 Stars of 5.