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Lena Dunham has been accused of playing into anti-semitic tropes in a satirical article that compared Jewish men to dogs.
In the piece, titled Dog Or Jewish Boyfriend? A Quiz, the Girls creator, whose mother is Jewish, asks readers to decide whether the statements she makes in the article apply to her Jewish boyfriend, Jack Antonoff, or their pet dog.
She then lists things like, “He doesn’t tip,” and “I feel that he is judgmental about the food I serve him”, adding, “This is because he comes from a culture in which mothers focus every ounce of their attention on their offspring and don’t acknowledge their own need for independence as women. They are sucked dry by their children, who ultimately leave them as soon as they find suitable mates.”
The piece has upset many prominent Jews, including Jordana Horn, who has responded to Dunham’s article on website Kveller, stating, “I suppose Lena Dunham feels that she has some sort of humor EZ Pass, and The New Yorker has indulged her in that thinking… because apparently Jews are a group you can make fun of and it is deemed kinda intellectual and funny to do so.”
She adds, “If you take issue with what I’m saying, then do me a favour and imagine this same essay entitled, ’Dog or Black Boyfriend? A Quiz.’ Much easier to imagine that essay running in a Ku Klux Klan newsletter than The New Yorker, am I right? But somehow, a piece like this running in The New Yorker in 2015 is supposed to be OK with us.”
Meanwhile, one Twitter user, writes, “NewYorker Wow. Do you post every piece of anti-Semitic drivel that gets submitted, or only if its written by lenadunham?”
The piece has also been attacked by Anti-Defamation League officials – National Chairman Abraham H. Foxman was not happy with the stereotypes in Dunham’s piece and stated the dog comparison evoked memories of “the ’No Jews or Dogs Allowed’ signs from our own early history in this country.”
The New Yorker’s editor David Remnick has defended his guest writer, stating, “The Jewish-comic tradition is rich with the mockery of, and playing with, stereotypes. Has Mr. Foxman never heard Lenny Bruce or Larry David or Sarah Silverman…? Lena Dunham is a comic voice working in that vein.”
Agencies/Canadajournal
IT IS ANTISEMITIC TO CRITICIZE LENA DUNHAM SHE IS JEWISH. ANYWAYS NOT ALL JEWISH MEN, JUST HER MAN, LIARS
Actors of fully Jewish background: -Logan Lerman, Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mila Kunis, Bar Refaeli, James Wolk, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julian Morris, Adam Brody, Esti Ginzburg, Kat Dennings, Gabriel Macht, Erin Heatherton, Odeya Rush, Anton Yelchin, Paul Rudd, Scott Mechlowicz, Lisa Kudrow, Lizzy Caplan, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Gal Gadot, Debra Messing, Robert Kazinsky, Melanie Laurent, Shiri Appleby, Justin Bartha, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Margarita Levieva, Elizabeth Berkley, Halston Sage, Seth Gabel, Corey Stoll, Mia Kirshner, Alden Ehrenreich, Eric Balfour, Jason Isaacs, Jon Bernthal, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy.
Andrew Garfield is Jewish, too (though I don’t know if both of his parents are).
Actors with Jewish mothers and non-Jewish fathers -Jake Gyllenhaal, Dave Franco, James Franco, Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Radcliffe, Alison Brie, Eva Green, Joaquin Phoenix, River Phoenix, Emmy Rossum, Rashida Jones, Jennifer Connelly, Sofia Black D’Elia, Nora Arnezeder, Goldie Hawn, Ginnifer Goodwin, Amanda Peet, Eric Dane, Jeremy Jordan, Joel Kinnaman, Ben Barnes, Patricia Arquette, Kyra Sedgwick, Dave Annable, Ryan Potter.
Actors with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, who themselves were either raised as Jews and/or identify as Jews: -Ezra Miller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alexa Davalos, Nat Wolff, Nicola Peltz, James Maslow, Josh Bowman, Winona Ryder, Michael Douglas, Ben Foster, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nikki Reed, Zac Efron, Jonathan Keltz, Paul Newman.
Oh, and Ansel Elgort’s father is Jewish, though I don’t know how Ansel was raised.
Actors with one Jewish-born parent and one parent who converted to Judaism -Dianna Agron, Sara Paxton (whose father converted, not her mother), Alicia Silverstone, Jamie-Lynn Sigler.