«The films have changed, but the topics are the same.»
Klaus Samuel Davidowicz on Rabbis in Feature Film
Most people know about rabbis not from experience, but from the media, most often from feature film. Yet how rabbis are depicted in movies varies considerably. Prof. Dr. Klaus Samuel Davidowicz, a Judaist who founded Visual Jewish Cultural History as a subject at the University of Vienna, offers insight into rabbi as portrayed in feature film. In his interview with museum director Dr. Naomi Lubrich, he surveys silent films to comedies and Netflix series to westerns.
Naomi Lubrich: Mr. Davidowicz, What is the history of rabbis in films, which ones are particularly memorable?
Klaus Davidowicz: The span is very broad: We’re looking at a more than one hundred years of film history spanning many countries, each with their own Jewish cultures. Rabbis in Hollywood films are different from their counterparts in Europe, and even within Europe the film traditions are different in Germany as they are in France. And Israel, of course, is a case in itself.
Let’s start with two early examples from the USA and Germany: in «The Jew’s Christmas» (USA 1913), Isaac is a pious rabbi whose daughter Leah has fallen in love with a non-Jew. Rabbi Isaac initially rejects his daughter, but after a stroke of bad luck, he reconciles with her. To help her in her time of need, rabbi Isaac sells his prayer books. This film is about assimilation. It came out at a time when tens of thousands of Jews from Eastern Europe were immigrating to the United States.
Two years later, in 1915, «The Golem» was filmed in Germany. It depicts «Rabbi Loew,» who exercises Solomonic authority over his assistant, the golem, a monster. Rabbi Loew’s knowledge is depicted like black magic. Without the film being explicitly antisemitic, Rabbi Loew does what antisemites accuse Jews of doing, namely exerting influence by means of obscure forces. Rabbi Loew had a notorious successor: in the Nazi film «Jud Süß» (1940), a new «Rabbi Loew» uses astrology to incite the Duke of Württemberg, Karl Alexander, against the good of his people.
NL: How do today’s films portray rabbis?
KD: In the last twenty years, ultra-Orthodoxy has become a popular topic, for instance in the series «Shtisel» (2013) and «Unorthodox» (2020), and already in the 1997 film «A Price above Rubies». Many are stories of withdrawal from the charedi communities towards a secular, modern life. These include «Disobedience,» is a love story between two women, and «Hassodot» (Israel/France 2007), about women who study rabbinical teaching at a yeshiva. In these films, the perspective on ultra-Orthodoxy is inner-Jewish – and often critical.
In the past century, the plots and styles have changed, but the themes have remained the same: The films show Jews struggling to keep their own customs in a non-Jewish surrounding culture. The stories are about liberal Judaism versus Orthodoxy – all the way back to «The Jew’s Christmas.»
NL: What about comedies? Was it a taboo to show funny rabbis on screen?
KD: In 1972, Woody Allen directed «What you always wanted to know about sex but never dared to ask» with a scene in which the winner of a game show gets to live out a perverse fantasy in front of the camera. The lucky winner is Rabbi Chaim Baumel, and his wish is to be tied up and whipped while his wife eats pork. I don’t find this scene funny at all – on the contrary, I find it repulsive. Woody Allen was being provocative. The movie appeared at a time when many believed antisemitism had been overcome.
But there were also truly funny rabbis in the 1970s, for instance in the comedies by Mel Brooks, among them «World History, Part One» (1981). An early comedy featuring a rabbi is «The Frisco Kid», a western from 1979 with Gene Wilder playing a rabbi who immigrates from Poland to San Francisco. «Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob» (1973) is a legendary French comedy of errors starring Louis de Funès. The protagonist, a racist, disguises himself as a rabbi.
NL: What about female rabbis? In 2001, Molly Parker played Rabbi Ari in «Six Feet Under.» Was she the first of her kind?
KD: I’d go back earlier and argue that the first female rabbi in film was «Yentl» in 1983. Yentl is a shtetl girl whose father secretly teaches her the Talmud, which is forbidden for girls in orthodox Judaism. After his death, she disguises herself as a man and studies at a yeshiva, a religious school. So she is, in my opinion, a woman in the role of rabbi. Today, female rabbis have become so common in American films that they are hardly noticeable, see the series «Transparent» (2014) with Kathryn Hahn as Rabbi Raquel Fein.
NL: Mr. Davidowicz, thank you very much for your insights.
verfasst am 03.03.2025
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