From Nanny Fine to Ziva David- Fictional Jewish Women Characters on Television

From Nanny Fine to Ziva David

Fictional Jewish Women Characters on Television

In which I explain my obsession with Mossad Agent Ziva David

 

As a Jewish American woman, I have always been interested in the fictional portrayal of contemporary Jewish women in television programs. While there are many excellent and well known Jewish actresses, the characters are different story.  The two stereotypes are the Ugly, Loud Mouthed, Pushy, Flashy, Jewish Mother and the Beautiful but Hard Up, Self Centered, Miserable, Single Jewish woman. 

Three examples of the Jewish mother character are Sylvia Fine, Helen Seinfeld, and Linda Richman.  Generationally,  these woman, who characterize  the "Jewish Mother" are from the G.I. or Silent Generations, born 1900-1940. Sylvia Fine was the mother of Fran Fine from "The Nanny." Helen Seinfeld was Jerry's mother on "Seinfeld", and Linda Richman was the Mike Meyer's character from "Saturday Night Live," based on his real life mother-in-law.  All of these women are from an era long gone.  They were loud, as all Jewish female characters seem to be.  They had their hey- day in the 1960's and 1970's.  In contrast to "good" Christian women, these women wore bright colors, dyed their hair (oh, the scandal), did their nails, and wore diamonds and furs.  They were showing off.  It was first time in Jewish history that their husbands were allowed to be successful, and of course they were ridiculed.  Too loud, too flashy, and of course, too Jewish.

Their Jewish daughters are Baby Boomers or Gen X'ers.  They have one thing in common, they are always single and very hard up.  Fran Drescher, playing Fran Fine in "The Nanny," is a  satire of the Jewish woman who despite her beauty and slender figure, still can't get her man. Her thick, nasal, New York accent made everything she said a joke. Although many seem to think that "Seinfeld's" Elaine is Jewish, the character says in at least one episode that she is not. But do you remember the  "shrinkage" episode?  Jerry brings a Jewish girlfriend, "Rachel" to the beach with the gang. George feeds the kosher-keeping Rachel lobster.  It was revenge for the "shrinkage" remark.  "Seinfeld", the all time most popular Jewish comic of the Baby boomers, never had a Jewish female character in his series for more than a few episodes. 

Generation X had comedies that featured female Jewish characters. I'll mention two -  "Friends" and "Will and Grace."   Grace Adler is also thin, beautiful, loud-mouthed, Jewish, and lonely.  So lonely, that her best friend and roomate is a gay man.  Like that happens in real life. For part of the series, Grace does get her Jewish doctor, but that doesn't work out, and she ends up divorced.  She's also so neurotic that no one ever takes her seriously.

Rachel from "Friends" is the epitome of the Jewish female Gen X character.  Rachel is spoiled and self-centered, a J.A.P on wheels.  But the strangest thing about female Jewish characters in "Friends" was how Monica could be the sister of Ross.  Ross, looks, acts, and smells like a "typical" nerdy, neurotic,  Jewish man .  Yet Monica is the WASPyist girl to hit the glowing screen.  In one episode Ross is running around trying to clean the menorah, and Monica is baking Xmas cookies.  Huh?  I suppose that means they are half Jewish .  X'ers might want to claim Charlotte from "Sex in the City" as a Jewish character, she does convert to marry. Actually, this is the most true to life situation in any of these programs.  I don't want to forget "Buffy the Vampire's"  Willow Rosenberg.  A Jewish female character who is a pagan lesbian,  Also, not so far from the real world.

So now we are in the era of the Millennials, and comedies are being replaced by Pro-American Propaganda shows like NCIS, The Unit, and 24.  I'm not saying this is good or bad, I'm doing a character critique.  Heroes are emerging for the Hero generation, and we finally have a Jewish Woman Hero Character,  Ziva David on NCIS. (Pronouced Zee-va Da-veed )  The character is a Mossad agent who is working with the American agency to solve crimes.  I'm not going to go into all the back story, you can look it up yourself on the NCIS website or in Wikipedia.  Ziva David differs from the characters above because she isn't American, she's Israeli.  She proudly wears a gold Star of David in every episode, and is scripted with humorous lines that show she is not a native English speaker.  Her beauty is played down.  She wears simple makeup, knit tops, and  ubiquitous cargo pants to conceal her firearms and knife.  She is a new Jewish female character for a new era.  It doesn't matter that Ziva David is played by an actress originally from Chile, Cote de Pablo.  What, do you think Natalie Portman has time for a weekly television series? 

NCIS is only one series being written with blatant Pro-American propaganda.  Again, I remind you, I don't think it's a bad thing, I am just pointing it out.  Ziva David's character is written to cement the relationship of Israel and the United States against Islamic terrorism.  It is written in broad strokes of us versus them for the American viewer.  Ziva has  brains, beauty, and training by Mossad, but I'm afraid she'll be upset when she finds out her partner, and sometime lover, Tony, has been deceiving her about his new love.  Oh well, at least no one is laughing at this Jewish female character.   

I'm warning you now, don't change the channel on Tuesdays at 8 p.m.    I've watching my own role model.  A female Jewish character for the era of Heroes, one who is unafraid to wear her Star of David around her neck, while she is kicking ass and saving the world.   I'm watching Ziva David.

Official Website of CBS NCIS television show

The real Naval Crime Investigative Service

 

 

Comments

[John J. Xenakis]

Dear Janet,

Like you, I appreciate that Jewish chick Cote de Pablo ... errrrr ... Ziva David -- not because she's .. ummm .. Jewish, but because she's super hot. But isn't her name pronounced ZEE-va da-VEED?

You make some very good points about the treatment of Jewish women on tv. The only examples I would add are the Jewish characters in WW II movies, where of course they're portrayed as Nazi victims.

Religion is always a tricky matter in TV entertainment, because there always seem to be political overtones. Thus, a Christian character would be assumed to be pro-Republican. On the other hand, there's a new Canadian show (coming soon to America) called "Little Mosque on the Prairie," a comedy featuring Muslims in positive roles. This will presumably be thought of as pro-Democratic.

Sincerely,

John

John J. Xenakis
http://GenerationalDynamics.com

[wright]

Hi,

You made some good points in this post. I'd never really thought about the portrayal of Jewish women on tv. I'd also like to point out that Grace and Leo (the Jewish doctor) did get back together again. They remarried and had a daughter.