Michele Chinitz

Hannah Arendt wrote that the Jew as pariah „as Chaplin portrays him could not fail to arouse the sympathy of the common people, who recognized in him the image of what society had done to them all.“ Yet such acceptance still shows Jew as outsider. This course explores Jewish representation in popular film. What is the function of ‘the Jew’ through varied lenses and settings, whether Weimar Berlin or 1980s New York? We will discuss the imaginative potential of the Jewish figure as cliché, charismatic wit, messianic hope, and allegory through which cinema critiques the present. Creators include D.W. Griffith, Bob Fosse, Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, Tony Kushner, and Quentin Tarantino. Infrequent texts locate the cinematic Jew in politics of the Other. Discussion and film aim at speaking and listening skills. All English levels are welcome.

Michele Chinitz studied Literature, Philosophy, and Film Theory at Oxford University in the UK and Williams College in the US. The Jewish Federation of North America sponsored her to research Jewish methods of learning in Jerusalem in 2007. Her writing on psychoanalysis and literature received numerous university awards in 2010.

Location: Jüdisches Gemeindehaus, Room 10

Registration: Jüdisches Gemeindehaus, Room 11

Organizer: Jüdische Volkshochschule