History Main / YouHaveTohaveJews

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1641780250027277000 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]
->''"In any great adventure, if you don't want to lose,''\\
''Victory depends upon the people that you choose.''\\
''So listen, Arthur, darling, closely to this news:''\\
''We won't succeed on Broadway if we don't have any Jews."''
-->-- '''Sir Robin''', ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}''

For a minority forming less than one quarter of one percent of the world's population, Jews are astonishingly well-represented both as creators of media and as characters appearing in that media. This is largely because much of the most popular media is created in the USA, and specifically in the two parts of the USA with the highest per capita Jewish populations, UsefulNotes/LosAngeles and UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Therefore, this trope is an example of both HollywoodProvincialism and BigApplesauce.

Of course, like so many others, this rather sensitive trope began as an inversion of another trope. There was a time when working in media was one of the few options for ambitious, intelligent, well-educated people who happened to be Jewish. Anything considered to be academic or high art would be under considerable pressure to appear "respectable," and cater to the segregationist views of the time. Anyone who was not (or could not pass for) white, heterosexual, Christian ([[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant most likely Protestant]]), and often times male might be considered a risk to the company's reputation. Since radical new media, such as {{film}}, {{radio}}, ComicBooks and, later, {{UsefulNotes/television}} were [[NewMediaAreEvil often callously dismissed as vulgar]], they tended to hire the people no one else would take -- i.e. Jews. Despite the doomsday warnings of segregationist MoralGuardians, new media took off and people who once had to scramble for an employer became part of history. In short, many might say that the Jewish people who ran Hollywood did so because ''[[http://www.randomhouse.com/book/57285/an-empire-of-their-own-by-neal-gabler they were the ones who built it ]]''. Most major Hollywood studios, including the Big Five (Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, Creator/RKOPictures, Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures, Creator/WarnerBros, and Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer) and the Little Three (Creator/{{Universal}} Pictures, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, and Creator/UnitedArtists) had at least one Jewish founding member, with the prominent exception of Walt Creator/{{Disney}} Studios (as such, [[UrbanLegends some say]] that Creator/WaltDisney hated Jews, when in fact his beef was specifically with left-wing Jewish labor leaders he suspected of infiltrating his studio), and every American studio currently has Jews in at least some high ranking executive and creative positions. Creative types usually write what they know, and despite the ever-lingering specter of antisemitism in the early twentieth century, many writers, directors, producers, etc. most certainly [[WriteWhatYouKnow would have passed on their own perspective into their work, intentionally or not]].

This trope does not lend itself to a simple list of examples, as such a list could easily smack of antisemitism ("what's with all these Jews?"). That is not what this trope is about at all. It is, nevertheless, noticeable to viewers and readers who live in areas where Jewish populations are much smaller (e.g. the UK, where Jews were, according to the 2001 census, outnumbered three to two by ''[[Franchise/StarWars Jedi]]''). As it's a TropeInAggregate, please add examples only where this trope is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, or possibly {{averted|Trope}} if it's really incongruous.

It should also be noted that often, while Jewish heritage is common in media, Judaism and Jewish culture are often rare: The audience will be told that a character is Jewish, but uniquely Jewish cultural events will not be discussed, unless there is a VerySpecialEpisode revolving around Hanukkah or Passover, the character is an anti-Semite or loves Jewish culture, or the main character(s) is/are Jewish.

Contrast WhiteMaleLead, although in many genres they do intersect. This usually results in AllJewsAreAshkenazi.
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* The GagDub of ''Anime/GhostStories'' made Leo JewishAndNerdy. In the original, he may have been non-Japanese, given his name, but there are hardly any Jews in Japan.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In the 2009 one-shot comic ''Watchmensch'' released by Brain Scan Studios which parodies the ''Watchmen'' series, Rorschach is depicted as a lawyer who is known instead as "Spottyman" and is pretending to be Jewish. While a Jewish lawyer in NYC is nothing remarkable, a Gentile pretending to be Jewish is usually doing so because of this trope.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* The leads in ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'' were almost [[RaceLift turned into two Jewish guys]] due to ExecutiveMeddling. The producers added in two Jewish roommates as the lead characters' friends.
* Creator/MelBrooks, being a proud Jew who makes films the run on RuleOfFunny, often inserts Jewish references that are made more humorous for how incongruous they are.
** ''Film/BlazingSaddles'': The Indian Chief speaks Yiddish and has a Jewish {{spoonerism}} written in Hebrew letters on his headress.
** ''Film/ToBeOrNotToBe'': Brooks plays Polish actor and theatre impressario Frederic Bronski; after Warsaw is occupied by the Nazis, he is forced to report to the Gestapo censorship office, to obey what they decide is and isn't "acceptable" material:
--->'''Stagehand''': He's down there trying to convince them [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] wasn't Jewish.\\
'''Stagehand 2''': Shakespeare wasn't Jewish? Go figure.
*** Frederic comes back from the meeting fuming:
---->'''Frederic''': If it weren't for Jews, fags and Gypsies, there'd ''be'' no theatre!
** ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights'' jokingly replaced the Friar Tuck character with a Hasidic Rabbi (a cameo by director Creator/MelBrooks himself).
* Creator/WoodyAllen's GagDub film ''Film/WhatsUpTigerLily'' replaces the Japanese detective's name with "Phil Moscowitz".
* Doug the Head in ''Film/{{Snatch}}'' obviously believes in this trope. He appears the stereotypical Jew, wearing a yarmulke, saying "oy vey", running a slightly dodgy jewelery and precious stones business. He isn't actually Jewish, but he affects Jewishness because he believes it's good for business.
--> '''Turkish:''' ...and in the diamond business, it ''is'' good business.
* In ''Film/LordOfWar'', Yuri's father puts a great deal of effort into convincing people he's Jewish because he got to the U.S. from the USSR by claiming refugee status. He also believes it's good for his business networking.
--> '''Yuri:''' A contact at the synagogue landed me my first gun: an Israeli-made UZI.
* Explicitly stated in ''Film/ReversalOfFortune'' by Alexandra, Claus Von Bulow's current girlfriend; she says she told Claus to "hire the Jew (Alan Dershowitz)''.
* In ''Film/WalkHard'', there are Jewish procuers, because, you know, "those Jews control show business."
* ''Film/JoeVersusTheVolcano'' includes a Polynesian tribe that descends partially from ancient Jews, so one of their tribal chants is the Israeli folk song "Hava Nagila."
* ''Film/BlackChristmas2019'': There has to be at least one Jew in this Christmas movie. Fran helpfully drops the fact that she's Jewish when wishing Riley a Merry Christmas. The sorority also has a Hanukah menora prominently placed in the main living room, which makes a comeback as an ImprovisedWeapon in the climax.
* There of course would have to be a gag in ''Film/WeddingCrashers'' where in the montage of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin weddings the protagonists crash]] to hook up with one night stands, they go to a Jewish wedding. Neither of the characters are Jewish.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Lampshaded in the FAQ (Future Alien Questions) section of ''Literature/EarthTheBook'' for religion.
-->'''Q:''' We were surprised you devoted so much time to Judaism, since it made up only one fifth of one percent of the world's people.\\
'''A:''' What do you mean?\\
'''Q:''' It just seemed disproportionate.\\
'''A:''' Oh. Well. Sorry you had a problem with the pages about the Jews.\\
'''Q:''' We didn't have a problem with them.\\
'''A:''' Really? Because it sounds like you had a problem with them.\\
'''Q:''' No no no. [[SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX In fact some of our favorite pages in the chapter were Jewish.]]
* ''Literature/TheAmazingAdventuresOfKavalierAndClay'' explains this in relation to UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks.
* In ''Literature/EndersGame'', the Polemarch, Strategos, and Hegemon of Earth are all Jewish, and a popular military myth claims that [[BadassIsraeli Jewish commanders never lose wars]] (presumably they never heard of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_bar_Kokhba Simon bar Kokhba]]). It's noted, however, that the soldier who turned the tide of the war was in fact not Jewish.
* When one ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fan complained that there didn't appear to be any Jews at Hogwarts, JK Rowling responded that a minor character called Anthony Goldstein (who had all of three lines in the entire series) was Jewish.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Creator/JonStewart (né Leibowitz) is fond of exercising [[NWordPrivileges J-Word Privileges]] with this trope, as when he jokes on ''Series/TheDailyShow'' about the "Jew-run media". Once while accepting an Emmy award, Jon claimed the secret to the show's success was "diversity"; he then indicated the dozen or so white men making up the writing staff and pointed out one who "used to have a beard" and another who "isn't Jewish".
* Rick Sanchez blamed this trope for his dissatisfaction over his career trajectory as a TV journalist. In an [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/oct/01/rick-sanchez-cnn-jon-stewart-jews-television-bigot interview that quickly went viral]], Sanchez blamed the abundance of Jews in the media, and specifically Jon Stewart, for his failure to become a leading name at CNN. Apparently he [[CaptainOblivious couldn't think of a single reason]] other than his [[EverythingIsRacist Cuban heritage]] for why he wasn't the most respected journalist at CNN.
* Surprisingly, considering the city in which the show is set and the Jewish heritage of [[Creator/JerryBruckheimer its producer]], [[AvertedTrope averted]] in ''Series/{{CSINY}}''. Neither the main characters nor the actors who play them include any Jews. Particularly notable in that its sister show ''Series/CSIMiami'', which is set in a city that houses substantially fewer Jews than NYC, ''does'' include Jewish cast members (the most prominent being Jonathan Togo, who plays CSI Ryan Wolfe).
* On a sketch from ''Series/MrShow'', David Cross played a RightWingMilitiaFanatic who claimed that his property was his own country. He ran cameras off his land whilst yelling that {{Creator/HBO}} stands for "Hebrew Box Office" and various complaints about the liberal Jew-run media.
* Invoked and subverted in ''Series/BreakingBad'' by AmoralAttorney Saul Goodman. His real name is James "Jimmy" [=McGill=] and he's Irish-American, but as he tells Walt, he uses the name "Saul Goodman" professionally because people (or at least criminals) are more likely to hire a Jewish lawyer ("The Jew thing I just do for the homeboys, they all want a pipe-hitting member of the tribe, so to speak.") ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' would later show that he also used the name in the past while pulling scams on people with his friend Marco for beer money, and then again when he started selling burner cell phones to criminals. Since his customer base already knew him as Saul Goodman, he saw it as only logical to continue operating under that name as a lawyer, since he'd most likely be getting the same people as clients.
* David Simon, creator of ''Series/TheWire'', had to explain his intentions when he put a very Jewish man (Maurice Levy, played by the equally-Jewish Michael Kostroff) into the role of the "evil lawyer". He explained that every gangster in Baltimore is represented by one of three or four Jewish lawyers who specifically are hired by leading gangsters. To him, the role was about realism, not being politically incorrect. In contrast, the "good lawyer" of the show (Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman) is also Jewish, though it's much less noticeable (besides the character being non-observant, she is played by the non-Jewish Dierdre Lovejoy). (For the record, David Simon is himself Jewish).
* In the first season of ''Series/{{Louie}}'', Louie CK gets a part in ''Film/TheGodfather''. His agent tells him Creator/MatthewBroderick asked for him specifically, and that they're remaking the Coppolla original "but with all Jews".[[note]]CK might better be described as "lapsed Catholic with some Jewish heritage."[[/note]]
* In ''Series/MadMen'': Roger orders Peggy to hire [[BunnyEarsLawyer the highly eccentric]] Michael Ginsberg as a copywriter against her better judgment simply because Roger thinks that every ad agency needs a Jew to be successful. Contrast this with an episode in the first season where Roger "ha[s] to go all the way down to the mail room" to find a Jewish employee for a meeting with a Jewish-owned department store.
* Referenced in the first episode of ''Series/{{House}}'' when [[InformedJudaism Wilson]] wonders how Foreman could have gotten through medical school without learning a thing or two about Jews (specifically, that they don't all keep Kosher). (The series does not contain this trope, as given that it's set in a hospital in Central Jersey, there may be too ''few'' Jews in the cast--although the absence of East and South Asians is even more glaring.)
* Season 2 of ''Series/{{Defiance}}'' introduces Cai, an Irathient (alien race from another planet) Jew. He was orphaned as a baby and raised by a human Jewish couple. He is a practicing Jew and works as a lawyer.
* Played with on ''Series/AllInTheFamily''. Archie's racist assumptions were being challenged when he found out many people in his life were Jewish, despite not fitting any of his (or the audence's) pre-concived steriotypes.
* Mocked when Seth [=MacFarlane =] hosted the Academy Awards. When Mark Wahlberg and ''Film/{{Ted}}'' showed up to present the awards, Ted took note how a number of respected, Oscar-winning actors just happen to be Jewish. When Wahlberg said he himself wasn't Jewish Ted told him "wrong answer if you wanna work in this town" before elaborating to the crowd how he ''was'' Jewish and how much he wanted to donate to Israel.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' when London reveals she celebrates Hanukkah, despite not being ethnically Jewish. She also occasionally throws Yiddish slang terms out there.
-->'''London:''' Miss out on eight days of presents? Not this Shiska.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' lampshades this in an ImagineSpot for Elliot where she imagines creating the perfect robot finacee - and he's also [[MatzoFever Jewish]]. She then says her parents will kill her for marrying a Jew.
* ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' has an accidental example. Joe Liebgott is portrayed as a Jew in the miniseries, to play up the emotional impact of the concentration camp episode. However in reality he wasn't actually Jewish - and his comrades mistakenly thought he was. His family revealed this information after the miniseries aired.
* One episode of ''Series/{{Lovejoy}}'' features a diamond merchant with a black hat and Yiddish accent and so on. When Lovejoy catches him eating a ham sandwich, he explains the schtick: "It's expected."
* Invoked in an episode of ''Series/CurbYourEnthusiasm'', where Larry hires a lawyer named Berg, assuming he was jewish, but becomes disenchanted once he sees him riding a motorcycle. He confronts the lawyer and accuses him of being a "fake jew", then hires another lawyer, after making sure that one ''is'' Jewish - doesn't end too well. Larry David, of course, is Jewish, but the episode's writer Alec Berg, on whom the character is based, isn't.
* ''Series/You2018'': Upon learning that "Will Bettelheim"'s real name is Joe Goldberg, wannabe director Forty asks if Joe is a "self-hating Jew" and comments that it sounds like a name for a Hollywood producer.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Lampshaded by [[http://www.complex.com/music/2013/08/rap-jewish-lawyers-video-lyrics this supercut]]: a great number of hip-hop artists have Jewish lawyers. The accompanying article explains this connection between Black people and Jewish lawyers goes back a long way. Jews were by and large the only white people to actively support the Civil Rights Movement, and so Jews were as disproportionately represented among civil rights lawyers in the '60s as they seem to be among rappers' counsel today.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* Lampshaded hilariously in the Creator/MontyPython musical ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}'', in the number "You Won't Succeed on Broadway (If You Don't Have Any Jews)". They succeed after all because [[spoiler:Patsy]] turns out to be Jewish, though he's reluctant to reveal it to heavily armed Christians. In the UK, the song was changed to "You Won't Succeed on Show Business (If You Don't Have Any Stars)" because there's no Broadway in the UK and Jews have not had the same impact on entertainment there.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Many of the prominent citizens of Rapture in ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' are of Jewish descent like lead designer Ken Levine ([[https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/04/09/faith-in-rapture-ken-levine-shares-thoughts-on-creating-authentic-diversity.aspx as he acknowledged in an interview]]), including its founder Andrew Ryan, [[MadArtist Sander Cohen]], [[MadDoctor Dr. Steinman]], and scientist [[TheAtoner Brigid Tenenbaum]] (a Holocaust survivor). However, considering the setting, most if not all of them are atheist or at least non-religious, much like Levine himself.
* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' has an [[InvokedTrope odd case of the fan base demanding this.]] Jews were not originally included in the game, with the justification that there weren't any Jewish rulers in the game's time frame. Then the {{DLC}} ''The Old Gods'' pushed back the start date to a time when the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars Khazar Khanate]] existed, where large portions of the nobility converted to Judaism. This wasn't in the game, so people began [[GameMod modding]]. Then [[Creator/ParadoxInteractive Paradox]] announced the ''Sons of Abraham'' DLC, which, among many things, introduced Jews to the game proper.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* [[http://multiplexcomic.com/archive.php?name=27 This]] ''Webcomic/{{Multiplex}}'' strip implies that Hollywood Jews [[JesusTaboo water down Christmas movies]] to promote secular themes rather than religious ones.
* Normally, ''Webcomic/EverydayHeroes'' goes to great lengths to [[SubvertedTrope subvert tropes]] ... then introduces a [[http://eheroes.smackjeeves.com/comics/2111617/legalese/ Jewish family]] consisting ''[[ExaggeratedTrope entirely of lawyers]]''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The website [[http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=619 Jew or Not Jew]], which speculates whether certain celebrities/historical figures/fictional characters are Jewish, inverted this with [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the Seven Dwarfs]]. They concluded that six of the dwarfs are Jewish (Dopey being the non-Jewish one) because apparently in a large group of Jews you have to have at least one non-Jew.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* The comedy song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8LmMtScH3g&feature=related All I Want for Christmas Is Jews]]"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* In his book ''Outliers'', Malcolm Gladwell claims the predominance of Jewish lawyers in New York City was due to a shift in business culture. For decades the Ivy League WASP-dominated law firms wouldn't sully their hands with the "dirty tricks" parts of business law (e.g., hostile takeovers), leaving those cases to the rising Jewish law firms. Around the late 1970s, "dirty tricks" became the established culture of big business, and the Jewish firms were poised to take advantage of it while the WASP firms struggled to adapt to the new paradigm.
* For many centuries, Jews were prohibited from owning land and otherwise discriminated against. As a result, they wound up being merchants, moneylenders, and members of the new middle class. Christian and Muslim usury laws which made it a sin to collect interest also played a big role in getting Jews into finance (Jewish law prohibits charging interest on loans to other Jews, but not to Gentiles). Another profession that didn't require owning land or being a member of the upper classes was entertainment; in addition, "outsiders" have a different vantage point on the majority culture, which may help make them better entertainers.
** Jews could also cross the borders between Christian and Muslim kingdoms and get an in to the economy on the other side that couldn't be gotten directly. As a bonus this also made them handy diplomats and spies on occasion.
* This bit by Creator/WoodyAllen:
-->"When I was thrown out of college I got a job on Madison Avenue in New York. A real dyed-in-the-wool advertising agency on Madison Avenue wanted a man to come in and they'd pay him ninety-five dollars a week to sit in their office and look Jewish. They wanted to prove to the outside world that they would hire minority groups, y'know. So I was the one they hired. I was the show Jew at the agency. I tried to look Jewish desperately. Used to read my memos from right to left all the time. They fired me finally, 'cause I took off too many Jewish holidays."
* In Yuri Slezkine's ''The Jewish Century'' the writer sets up the ethnographical model of "Apollonarian" (territorial food producers) and "Mercurian" (wandering artisans) peoples. In his model Jews (except for Israelis who are Apollonarians) are Mercurians who, like Parsees, Roma, etc., survive by staying outside the conventional system and doing things awkward for an Apollonarian for reasons of tradition (that is, Jews were merchants because some aspects of that work were awkward for gentiles; just as some synagogues hire "Sabbath goy" gentiles to work on the Sabbath in a reversal of that). Under this theory the reason you have got to have Jews is that some jobs needed to be done by Jews or someone like them.
[[/folder]]
----

** ''Film/ToBeOrNotToBe'': Brooks plays Polish actor and theatre impressario Frederic Bronski; after Warsaw is occupied by the Nazis, he comes back from a meeting at the Gestapo censorship office, fuming about what they do and don't consider "acceptable" material:
--->'''Frederic''': If it weren't for Jews, fags and Gypsies, there'd ''be'' no theatre!

* Invoked and subverted in ''Series/BreakingBad'' by AmoralAttorney Saul Goodman. His real name is James "Jimmy" [=McGill=] and he's Irish-American, but as he tells Walt, he uses the name "Saul Goodman" professionally because people (or at least criminals) are more likely to hire a Jewish lawyer. ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' would later show that he also used the name in the past while pulling scams on people with his friend Marco for beer money, and then again when he started selling burner cell phones to criminals. Since his customer base already knew him as Saul Goodman, he saw it as only logical to continue operating under that name as a lawyer, since he'd most likely be getting the same people as clients.

* ''Series/You2018'': Upon learning that "Will Bettelheim"'s real name is Joe Goldberg, aspiring director Forty asks if Joe is a "self-hating Jew" and comments that it sounds like a name for a Hollywood producer.

* Averted in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. None of the cultures or characters parallel Judaism or Jewish people at all.

* Averted in ''Series/GameOfThrones''. None of the cultures or characters parallel Judaism or Jewish people.

* In ''Literature/EndersGame'', the Polemarch, Strategos, and Hegemon of Earth are all Jewish, and a popular military myth claims that [[BadassIsraeli Jewish commanders never lose wars]]. It's noted, however, that the soldier who turned the tide of the war was in fact not Jewish.
* When one ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fan complained that there didn't appear to be any Jews at Hogwarts, JK Rowling responded that a minor character called Anthony Goldstein was Jewish.

* [[http://multiplexcomic.com/archive.php?name=27 This]] ''Webcomic/{{Multiplex}}'' strip implies that Hollywood Jews [[JesusTaboo water down Christmas movies]] to promote secular themes rather than religious ones. The reality is more likely that [[MoneyDearBoy religious movies don't tend to put asses in seats]].

* Invoked and subverted in ''Series/BreakingBad'' by AmoralAttorney Saul Goodman, whose real identity is the Irish-American Jimmy McGill. He tells Walt that he uses "Saul Goodman" because people (or at least criminals) are more likely to hire a Jewish lawyer, though ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' would later show that he also used the name in the past while pulling scams on people with his friend Marco for beer money, and then again when he started selling burner cell phones to criminals. Since his customer base already knew him as Saul Goodman, he saw it as only logical to continue operating under that name as a lawyer, since he'd most likely be getting the same people as clients.

* Invoked and subverted in ''Series/BreakingBad'' by Saul Goodman (actual name [=Jimmy McGill=]), an Irish-American AmoralAttorney who claims to use the name, because people (or at least criminals) are more likely to hire a Jewish lawyer. [[Series/BetterCallSaul Though he has also used the name in the past when scamming people for beer money with his friend Marco]].

-->-- '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwxRhZiFWy4&feature=related Sir Robin]]''', ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}''

Of course, like so many others, this rather sensitive trope began as an inversion of another trope. There was a time when working in media was one of the few options for ambitious, intelligent, well-educated people who happened to be Jewish. Anything considered to be academic or high art would be under considerable pressure to appear "respectable," and cater to the segregationist views of the time. Anyone who was not (or could not pass for) white, American- or British-born, heterosexual, Christian ([[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant most likely Protestant]]), and often times male might be considered a risk to the company's reputation. Since radical new media, such as {{film}}, {{radio}}, ComicBooks and, later, {{UsefulNotes/television}} were [[NewMediaAreEvil often callously dismissed as vulgar]], they tended to hire the people no one else would take -- i.e. Jews. Despite the doomsday warnings of segregationist MoralGuardians, new media took off and people who once had to scramble for an employer became part of history. In short, many might say that the Jewish people who ran Hollywood did so because ''[[http://www.randomhouse.com/book/57285/an-empire-of-their-own-by-neal-gabler they were the ones who built it ]]''. Most major Hollywood studios, including the Big Five (Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, Creator/RKOPictures, Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures, Creator/WarnerBros, and Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer) and the Little Three (Creator/{{Universal}} Pictures, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, and Creator/UnitedArtists) had at least one Jewish founding member, with the prominent exception of Walt Creator/{{Disney}} Studios (as such, [[UrbanLegends some say]] that Creator/WaltDisney hated Jews, when in fact his beef was specifically with left-wing Jewish labor leaders he suspected of infiltrating his studio), and every American studio currently has Jews in at least some high ranking executive and creative positions. Creative types usually write what they know, and despite the ever-lingering specter of antisemitism in the early twentieth century, many writers, directors, producers, etc. most certainly [[WriteWhatYouKnow would have passed on their own perspective into their work, intentionally or not]].

* Creator/MelBrooks, being a proud Jew who makes films the run on RuleOfFunny, often inserts Jewish references that are made more funny for how incongruous they are.

* Invoked in an eisode of ''Series/CurbYourEnthusiasm'', where Larry hires a lawyer named Berg, assuming he was jewish, but becomes disenchanted once he sees him riding a motorcycle. He confronts the lawyer and accuses him of being a "fake jew", then hires another lawyer, after making sure that one ''is'' jewish - doesn't end too well. Larry David, of course, is jewish, but the episode's writer Alec Berg, on whom the character is based, isn't.

For a minority forming less than one quarter of one percent of the world's population, Jews are astonishingly well-represented both as creators of media and as characters appearing in that media. This is largely because much of the most popular media is created in the USA, and specifically in the two parts of the USA with the highest per capita Jewish populations, UsefulNotes/LosAngeles and UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Therefore, this trope is an example of both SoCalization and BigApplesauce.

* In ''Literature/EndersGame'', the Polemarch, Strategos, and Hegemon of Earth are all Jewish, and a popular military myth claims that [[BadassIsraeli Jewish commanders never lose wars]]. It's noted, however, that the soldier who turned the tide of the war was in fact not Jewish, but half-Maori.

* Lampshaded hilariously in the Creator/MontyPython musical ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}'', in the number "You Won't Succeed on Broadway (If You Don't Have Any Jews)". They succeed after all because [[spoiler:Patsy]] turns out to be Jewish, though he's reluctant to reveal it to heavily armed Christians. The joke was changed to "stars" in the UK. (The title of the song is also changed, to "You Won't Succeed in Showbusiness").

* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' has an [[InvokedTrope odd case of the fan base demanding this.]] Jews were not originally included in the game, with the justification that there weren't any Jewish rulers in the game's time frame. Then [[{{DLC}} The Old Gods]] pushed back the start date to a time when the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars Khazar Khanate]] existed, where large portions of the nobility converted to Judaism. This wasn't in the game, so people began [[GameMod modding]]. Then [[Creator/ParadoxInteractive Paradox]] announced ''[[{{DLC}} Sons of Abraham]]'', which, among many things, introduced Jews to the game proper.

* In ''Series/MadMen'':
** Roger orders Peggy to hire [[BunnyEarsLawyer the highly eccentric]] Michael Ginsberg as a copywriter against her better judgment simply because Roger thinks that every ad agency needs a Jew to be successful. Contrast this with an episode in the first season where Roger "ha[s] to go all the way down to the mail room" to find a Jewish employee for a meeting with a Jewish-owned department store.

* An aversion in US politics. Not only has there never been a Jewish President of the USA, nor even a Jewish candidate, it was not until 2016 that a Jewish politician (Bernie Sanders) even won a primary. Contrast with UK politics, where there was a Jewish Prime Minister in 1868 (Benjamin Disraeli), and more recently many prominent politicians with Jewish heritage (e.g. Michael Howard, Conservative Leader of the Opposition, and Ed Milliband, Labour Leader of the Opposition).
** However, in 2000, Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Joe Lieberman was the first Jew to be on a major party ticket.

* The website [[http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=619 Jew or Not Jew]], which speculates whether certain celebrities/historical figures/fictional characters are Jewish, inverted this with [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the Seven Dwarfs]]. They concluded that six of the dwarfs are Jewish (Dopey being the non-Jewish one) because apparently in a large group of Jews you have to have at least one non-Jew.

For a minority forming less than one quarter of one percent of the world's population, Jews are disproportionately well-represented both as creators of media and as characters appearing in that media, to a degree that is astonishing. This is largely because much of the most popular media is created in the USA, and specifically in the two parts of the USA with the highest per capita Jewish populations, UsefulNotes/LosAngeles and UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Therefore, this trope is an example of both SoCalization and BigApplesauce.

This trope does not lend itself to a simple list of examples, as such a list might smack of antisemitism ("what's with all these Jews?"). That is not what this trope is about at all. It is, nevertheless, noticeable to viewers and readers who live in areas where Jewish populations are much smaller (e.g. the UK, where Jews were, according to the 2001 census, outnumbered three to two by ''[[Franchise/StarWars Jedi]]''). As it's a TropeInAggregate, please add examples only where this trope is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, or possibly {{averted|Trope}} if it's really incongruous.

* A fan asked Creator/JKRowling on Twitter if there were any Jewish wizards or witches in ''Literature/HarryPotter''. She responded that a minor Ravenclaw called Anthony Goldstein was Jewish.

** The first season had two storylines contrasting New York's WASP and Jewish culture. The firm meets a Jewish businesswoman who wants to expand her department store beyond its Jewish clientele. Meanwhile, the firm also gets hired to advertise Israel as a travel destination.

* [[http://multiplexcomic.com/archive.php?name=27 This]] ''Webcomic/{{Multiplex}}'' strip implies that Hollywood Jews [[JesusTaboo water down Christmas movies]] to promote secular themes rather than religious ones. The reality is more likely that [[MoneyDearBoy religious movies don't tend to put asses in seats]]. Or that Jewish writers have only ''experienced'' watered down secular Christmases so that's all they know how to write about it.

* In his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpVM_cij9eY Hanukkah Song]], Creator/AdamSandler lists a whole boatload of famous Jewish folks.

* As of 2019, the United States Supreme Court contains three Jewish justices - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan - or one-third of the Court's total. However in the whole history of the US Supreme Court, out of 114 justices, only 8 have been Jewish (and 14 have been Catholics). Incredibly however, for a country where there are twice as many Protestants as Catholics and Jews combined, as of 2019 there are 5 Catholics and 3 Jews on the bench, leaving only a single Protestant supreme court justice - and even he was RaisedCatholic!

* Most Jews serving in the U.S. Congress are Democrats, predominantly based around New York City, Los Angeles, or Miami. There are two Republican Jewish congressmen, Long Island’s Lee Zeldin and Memphis’s David Kustoff.

* ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights'' jokingly replaced the Friar Tuck character with a Hasidic Rabbi (a cameo by director Creator/MelBrooks himself).

* In ''Film/WalkHard'', there are Jewish procuers, because, you know, "those Jews control show business".

* As of 2019, the United States Supreme Court contains three Jewish justices - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan - or one-third of the Court's total. However in the whole history of the US Supreme Court, out of 114 justices, only 8 have been Jewish (and 14 have been Catholics). Incredibly however, for a country where Catholics and Jews combined make up barely a quarter of the population, as of 2019 there are 5 Catholics and 3 Jews on the bench, leaving only a single Protestant supreme court justice - and even he was RaisedCatholic!

* As of 2019, the United States Supreme Court contains three Jewish justices - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan - or one-third of the Court's total. However in the whole history of the US Supreme Court, out of 114 justices, only 8 have been Jewish (and 14 have been Catholics). Incredibly however, for a country with a Protestant majority, as of 2019 there are 5 Catholics and 3 Jews on the bench, leaving only a single Protestant supreme court justice - and even he was RaisedCatholic!