As an exhibition opens celebrating the role of Jewish people in British entertainment, Matthew Cain asks why it is so important for Jews to explore their culture through the arts.
He was famous for being the lead singer of T-Rex and dying in a car crash at the age of just 29. But what many people don’t know about Marc Bolan is that he was also Jewish.
He features in an exhibition at the Jewish Museum which celebrates the role Jewish people have played in Britain’s entertainment industries. It references names as diverse as Sid James, Simon Cowell and Amy Winehouse – and goes back 125 years to the roots of Jewish entertainment in Britain.
As with many immigrant populations there was a strong desire to keep alive their own traditions – like Yiddish theatre. But there was also a need to react against existing portrayals of Jews, like Shylock and Fagin.
One question jumps out at me more than any other whilst looking around this exhibition, blogs Channel 4 News Culture Editor Matthew Cain. Why is it so important for Jews to explore their culture and ethnicity through entertainment and the arts? It strikes me that a need for a strong identity has solidified under various waves of repression, from Tsarist Russia to the Holocaust.
And how is this identity express and explored other than culturally? Particularly when traditional Jewish art forms such as Yiddish theatre were banned in Eastern Europe in the mid-19th century. Doesn't it stand to reason that Jewish emigrants would want to keep these cultural traditions alive in their adopted countries?
Read more: How Jewish entertainers shaped the British identity
As you might expect, Jewish comedy has a strong presence in the exhibition. We are all familiar with the self-deprecating, anecdotal humour which has been so influential – from American imports like Curb Your Enthusiasm to recent British TV shows like Friday Night Dinner.
The exhibition includes some surprises. There is the work of Michael Balcon, who produced the archetypically English Ealing comedies, and Gerald and Ralph Thomas, who gave us the Carry On films – in the process becoming more British than the British.
It is clear from this exhibition that the work of all Jewish entertainers does not explore specifically Jewish subject matter. So in Britain’s famously multicultural society, just how relevant or appropriate is it to continue segregating entertainment according to culture or ethnicity?
By celebrating the contribution of Jewish entertainers, perhaps the overriding message of the exhibition is to remind us just how much of British culture in general has been shaped by all immigrants – and not just Jews.