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Highlights how millennial Jewish stars symbolize national politics in US media
Jewish stars have longed faced pressure to downplay Jewish identity for fear of alienating wider audiences. But unexpectedly, since the 2000s, many millennial Jewish stars have won stellar success while spotlighting (rather than muting) Jewish identity. In Millennial Jewish Stars, Jonathan Branfman asks: what makes these explicitly Jewish stars so unexpectedly appealing? And what can their surprising success tell us about race, gender, and antisemitism in America? To answer these questions, Branfman offers case studies on six top millennial Jewish stars: the biracial rap superstar Drake, comedic rapper Lil Dicky, TV comedy duo Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, “man-baby” film star Seth Rogen, and chiseled film star Zac Efron.
Branfman argues that despite their differences, each star’s success depends on how they navigate racial antisemitism: the historical notion that Jews are physically inferior to Christians. Each star especially navigates racial stigmas about Jewish masculinity—stigmas that depict Jewish men as emasculated, Jewish women as masculinized, and both as sexually perverse. By embracing, deflecting, or satirizing these stigmas, each star comes to symbolize national hopes and fears about all kinds of hot-button issues. For instance, by putting a cuter twist on stereotypes of Jewish emasculation, Seth Rogen plays soft man-babies who dramatize (and then resolve) popular anxieties about modern fatherhood. This knack for channeling national dreams and doubts is what makes each star so unexpectedly marketable.
In turn, examining how each star navigates racial antisemitism onscreen makes it easier to pinpoint how antisemitism, white privilege, and color-based racism interact in the real world. Likewise, this insight can aid readers to better notice and challenge racial antisemitism in everyday life.
"Branfman takes the seemingly unserious—celebrity, entertainment, humor—to tackle serious questions of Jewishness, race, and sexuality in North America. Millennial Jewish Stars is no hot-take: students and scholars alike will appreciate his astute eye and careful analysis of Jewish celebrities and their public performances."
"An incisive, cogent, and beautifully thought-provoking exploration of the complex relationships among white supremacy, antisemitism, queerness, US racial politics, masculinity, and popular culture. Expertly unpacks racial antisemitism and the relationship between Jewish racial difference and queer masculinities by centering performances from pop culture artists such as rappers Drake and Lil’ Dicky and actors Seth Rogen and Zac Efron. With analytical heft and poignant clarity, Branfman compels us to reconsider what we think we know about race in America."
"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."
"Until now, feminist, queer, and critical race theories have largely not been in conversation with Jewish studies or theoretical studies of antisemitism, for a variety of reasons chronicled by Branfman in his introduction, and Millennial Jewish Stars seeks to create a theoretical field that puts these various critiques into conversation with each other."