From 1989 through 2002 there was an unprecedented surge in American sitcoms featuring explicitly Jewish lead characters, thirty-two compared to seven in the previous forty years. Several of these--Mad About You, The Nanny, and Friends--were among the most popular and influential of all shows over this period; one program--Seinfeld--has been singled out as the "defining" series of the nineties. In addition, scriptwriters have increasingly created "Jewish" characters, although they may not be perceived to be by the show's audience, Rachel Green on Friends...

The past few decades have seen a remarkable surge in Jewish influences on American culture. Entertainers and artists such as Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Allegra Goodman, and Tony Kushner have heralded new waves of television, film, literature, and theater; a major klezmer revival is under way; bagels are now as commonplace as pizza; and kabbalah has become as cool as crystals. Does this broad range of cultural expression accurately reflect what it means to be Jewish in America today?

Bringing together fourteen new essays by leading scholars, You Should See Yourself examines the...

From its earliest days, the American film industry has attracted European artists. With the rise of Hitler, filmmakers of conscience in Germany and other countries, particularly those of Jewish origin, found it difficult to survive and fledufor their work and their livesuto the United States. Some had trouble adapting to Hollywood, but many were celebrated for their cinematic contributions, especially to the dark shadows of film noir.

Driven to Darkness explores the influence of Jewish TmigrT directors and the development of this genre. While filmmakers such as Fritz Lang, Billy...

Unlike the more forthrightly mythic origins of other urban centers--think Rome via Romulus and Remus or Mexico City via the god Huitzilopochtli--Los Angeles emerged from a smoke-and-mirrors process that is simultaneously literal and figurative, real and imagined, material and metaphorical, physical and textual. Through penetrating analysis and personal engagement, Vincent Brook uncovers the many portraits of this ever-enticing, ever-ambivalent, and increasingly multicultural megalopolis. Divided into sections that probe Los Angeles's checkered history and reflect on Hollywood's own...

Although Woody Allen's films have received extensive attention from scholars and critics, no book has focused exclusively on Jewishness in his work, particularly that of the late 1990s and beyond. In this anthology, a distinguished group of contributors--whose work is richly contextualized in the fields of literature, philosophy, film, theater, and comedy--examine the schlemiel, Allen and women, the Jewish take on the "morality of murder," Allen's take on Hebrew scripture and Greek tragedy, his stage work, his cinematic treatment of food and dining, and what happens to "Jew York" when Woody...