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
Minneapolis Punk Band
bitchy 
