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Greater than 260 Jewish leisure figures — together with the actors David Schwimmer, Julianna Margulies and Josh Gad, and the producers Greg Berlanti and Marta Kauffman — signed an open letter to the Academy of Movement Image Arts & Sciences on Tuesday, criticizing the group for excluding Jews as an underrepresented group in its variety efforts.
In 2020, the academy issued a set of requirements as a part of its variety initiative that acknowledged quite a few identities as “underrepresented,” together with ladies, L.G.B.T.Q. folks, an underrepresented racial or ethnic group, or these with cognitive or bodily disabilities.
Faith isn’t one of many classes thought-about.
These initiatives will change into a part of the requirements required for a movie to compete in the perfect image class starting this 12 months. For a movie to be eligible, a minimum of one of many lead actors or a major supporting actor have to be from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group. The academy has stated that features actors who’re Asian, Hispanic, Black, Indigenous, Native American, Center Jap, North African, native Hawaiian or different Pacific Islander.
“An inclusion effort that excludes Jews is each steeped in and misunderstands antisemitism,” stated the letter, which was organized by the Hollywood Bureau of the group Jew within the Metropolis. “It erases Jewish peoplehood and perpetuates myths of Jewish whiteness, energy, and that racism towards Jews isn’t a serious problem or that it’s a factor of the previous.”
The letter added that Judaism was not simply a problem of religion, but in addition an ethnicity.
This isn’t the primary time in recent times that the academy has confronted criticism from the Jewish group. When the group opened its long-awaited museum in Los Angeles in 2021, the contributions of Jewish immigrants like Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer, who have been largely liable for the founding of the Hollywood studio system, have been barely acknowledged. In response, the academy stated it will open a everlasting exhibition devoted to the beginning of Hollywood and the Jewish filmmakers who established it. Referred to as “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Film Capital,” the exhibit will debut on Might 19.
In response to Allison Josephs, the founder and government director of Jew within the Metropolis, the letter has been within the works for the reason that summer time, months earlier than the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, as the brand new academy requirements have been being mentioned.
“It seems like a really large mistake to not acknowledge that we’re possibly essentially the most persecuted group all through all time,” she stated in an interview.
The academy declined to remark.
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