O pinion
How Gal Gadot Is Changing the Image of the Jewish Woman
BY BENJAMIN KERSTEIN | ALGEMEINER
IF THERE IS SUCH a thing
as the most famous Israeli or
even the most famous Jew in the
world, it is in all likelihood the
actress Gal Gadot. Indeed, when
a film like “Wonder Woman” is
a hit from the U.S. to China and
back again, it could hardly be
otherwise. One imagines that the film
has thousands, perhaps millions,
of fans who have never heard of,
say, Benjamin Netanyahu. Being
a prominent world leader is one
thing — being a blockbuster
movie star is quite another.

Generally speaking, Israelis
and Jews are fairly proud of
Gadot’s success, mainly because
she is seen as an excellent, if
informal, cultural ambassador
for the Jewish state. And Gadot,
unlike previous Israeli interna-
tional stars, plays roles more
in accordance with Israel’s
sabra archetype — the Zionist
“new Jew” liberated from the
Diaspora: beautiful, smiling,
athletic, slightly exotic and
with just a touch of swagger.

She feels, in other words,
both genuinely Israeli and very
much the image Israelis would
like to present to the world.

More than anything else,
however, Gadot is unapolo-
getic, completely open about
her Israeli and Jewish identi-
ties, with none of the cringing
deference other Jewish celebri-
ties often make to potentially
hostile audiences.

But there is something else
Gadot is doing, perhaps invol-
untarily, that is less tangible
and less connected to Israel per
se: By simply being who she is
with the celebrity she enjoys,
Gadot is remaking the cultural
image of Jewish women in the
non-Jewish world.

Over the last century,
non-Jewish cultural products
— and, regrettably, quite a few
Jewish ones — have tended
to portray Jewish women
according to a rather small
set of derogatory stereotypes:
the ugly but conveniently
promiscuous slut; the materi-
alist, demanding and sexually
withholding JAP; and, of
course, the grasping and suffo-
cating Jewish mother.

None of these are particu-
larly appealing stereotypes,
and they weren’t meant to be.

Nonetheless, they were and, in
many ways, still are immensely
popular, especially in American
cultural products, where they
are usually played for cheap
laughs and tend to get them.

It should be noted that
this is, in fact, a relatively
new development. For most
of Diaspora history, such as
in Shakespeare’s “Merchant
of Venice” and 19th-cen-
tury European literature, the
“Jewess” was in fact seen as an
exotic, highly sexualized and
desirable object: the beautiful,
inscrutable woman of the
East who the non-Jewish man
sought to capture and conquer.

This was, of course, an equally
derogatory stereotype in its
own way, but it does point to
the fact that the image of the
Jewish woman in non-Jewish
eyes has always been a
malleable one, and subject to
rapid change.

What Gadot — or at least
the image of Gadot — is accom-
plishing, however, is something
quite new: She is remaking the
image of the Jewish woman
via Israeli means. That is to
say, the image is finally being
remade by Jews. While it
still has remnants of the old
stereotypes, especially of the
exotic Oriental, it nonetheless
is taking place almost entirely
on Gadot’s own terms. That
is, on Jewish terms, and this is
something that, interestingly,
the non-Jewish world appears
finally ready to accept.

One can see this in the
very fact of Gadot’s casting as
Wonder Woman. While comic
book films are, of course, not
profound art, they do speak to
the collective unconscious of
a particular culture. Wonder
Woman has for decades been
a feminist icon around the
world; an embodiment of the
ideas of female strength, intel-
ligence, beauty and power.

And the film itself was
also groundbreaking, not
only because it was the first
female-led superhero block-
buster. More important was the
uniqueness of the story it told —
most superhero “origin stories”
are about the coming of age of
a young boy, a classic universal
archetype. “Wonder Woman”
was about the coming of age
of a young girl, introducing
a new universal archetype
into mainstream pop cinema.

That the non-Jewish world has
proven itself willing to not
only accept a Jewish actress in
such a role, but to embrace it
enthusiastically, is in historical
context fairly remarkable.

It is true that, in some
ways, Gadot had to be Israeli
to accomplish this. Israel’s
relatively unusual policy of
drafting women into the army
has long created an under-
ground fetish for such things
as “the girls of the IDF” —
that is, powerful and forceful
women who can hold their
own among men — and it was
likely that putting a non-Israeli
Jew in such a role would have
been a step slightly too far for
an ever-cautious Hollywood.

But by giving the world a new
image of how a Jewish woman
can and ought to be seen,
Gadot’s success may be a step
toward changing this.

Jewish girls around the
world can look at Wonder
Woman and see themselves in
a way they cannot with other
female heroines, and perhaps
they too will begin to insist on
putting an end to pernicious
stereotypes that have already
persisted for far too long. l
Benjamin Kerstein is a columnist
and Israel correspondent for The
Algemeiner. Why Christmas Is the Best Day to Be a Jew
Christmas, and they succeeded
as much as possible in a
Catholic and Protestant suburb
of Pittsburgh.

Our next-door neighbors
invited my family to their big
Christmas Eve party every year.

The crowd always welcomed
us, and eventually we reached
a customary status as the Jews
of the party. We were among
the last to leave, with a short
BY ALEX KIRSHNER
commute and no church the
next morning.

THE CHRISTIANS OF my
Christmas could be hard,
childhood tried hard to make though, especially early on.

me feel welcome around When you are 5, the slow
14 DECEMBER 24, 2020
drip of Chanukah presents
doesn’t match a bearded man
chimneying in to shower you
with gifts all at once. (And when
you are 5, you don’t realize how
lucky you are to get gifts at all.)
A menorah in the window for
eight days doesn’t match extrav-
agant lights all over the yard for a
whole month. Christmas isn’t for
us, and it’s hard for a kid to inter-
nalize the notion that something
so culturally dominant is not
for you. Shouldn’t everything
be for you?
But adulthood brings
wisdom. As I’ve aged, I’ve
JEWISH EXPONENT
come to view Christmas as a
uniquely wonderful experience
for American Jews. In fact,
when I look upon Christmas
through a particular lens,
Dec. 25 reveals itself as the
single best day of the year to
be Jewish.

As Jews, we spend a lot of
time being yelled at. Even when
we are not being implicated in
world-dominating conspiracy
theories by anti-Semites, life is
hectic. But on Christmas, there
may be nobody at all to even
bother us, much less subject us
to their worst vitriol. In fact, on
Christmas, Jews can enjoy an
almost unprecedented serenity.

Even before a pandemic
relegated many Americans
to work-from-home setups
that tore down whatever thin
boundaries existed between
work and home, it had become
difficult to live a single day of
responsibility-free life without
going on a solo vacation or
throwing your phone into a
lake. Even then, your boss or
someone in your house might
find you and ask for something.

See Kirshner, Page 15
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



O PINION
Has COVID Killed the B’nei Mitzvah Party?
BY RABBI ALEX LAZARUS-KLEIN
I REMEMBER MY bar
mitzvah party well, not because
of how big it was, but because
of how small.

As a middle class child going
to a wealthy suburban Jewish day
school, I knew how outlandish
some of the parties could be —
large halls, DJs, and fi ve course
meals. Even the invitations were
big, arriving in the mail with
intricate packaging as a signal
of just how expensive the aff air
would be. One of my classmates
was carried out on a throne to
begin the festivities.

For me, it was terrible.

I actually had to go to the
guidance counselor
for support. My parents tried hard,
but all they could aff ord was a
small band and a buff et style
meal. As a 13-year-old, I was
mortifi ed.

Th e competition has only
grown fi ercer over the years.

“Keeping Up With the Steins”
was funny, not because it was
Kirshner Continued from Page 14
Th e bill from ignoring them
comes due within days.

Unless, of course, you are
observing Jewish Christmas.

To be a Jew on Christmas
is to spend an entire day doing
either nothing at all or whatever
you want. Like most Jewish
families, mine had traditions
for this day. I kept a strict
calendar growing up: Wake up
(whenever I wanted), clean out
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM satire, but because of how close
it was to reality.

In the age of COVID, all
of that has been thrown out
the window, replaced by small
outdoor gatherings at the
family home — that is, if the
weather cooperates. Early on
in the pandemic, a family had
wanted to use the synagogue
parking lot to host a socially
distanced gathering, complete
with food trucks and a sibling
musical act. Even that seemed
outlandish. Both as a pulpit rabbi and
a father of an upcoming bat
mitzvah student, I must say I
am relieved.

Th e battle over family status
and bragging rights has grown
old. While b’nei mitzvahs
where I live in western New
York tend to be a little more
subdued, they still can wreak
havoc on the family budget.

Not only that, they take away
from the real purpose of the
event: to celebrate the accom-
plishments of a young woman
or man becoming a Jewish
adult. During the past eight
months, I have witnessed
the most meaningful b’nei
mitzvah ceremonies in my
career. Despite the obstacles,
the students and their families
have risen to the occasion,
overcoming great odds to
demonstrate their commit-
ment to a 4,000-year-old
faith. Whether via Zoom or
in person, the look they have
given me aft er it is all over has
been priceless.

At my niece’s recent celebra-
tion in Philadelphia, my
sister-in-law remarked at how
meaningful it all had been,
even more so than those of her
other children. I have to agree.

Not because the others didn’t
do an amazing job — they did
— but because this one had to
be earned. Reading Torah and
Haft arah in an almost empty
sanctuary was far from ideal,
but it helped remind everyone
why we were there in the fi rst
place. As we prepare for my
daughter’s bat mitzvah later
on in 2021, I have to ponder
if this will become the new
normal. Even aft er the vaccine
has arrived, can we please take
stock of the new rituals that
have been developed and never
look back? ●
my closet (whenever I wanted,
or skip it), shoot baskets at
the still-open JCC (whenever
I wanted), go sit in a 100-seat
auditorium to watch a movie
with 30 other people, nearly all
of them from our synagogue
(whenever I wanted, pending
showtimes), and go for Chinese
food, coincidentally with many
of the same people. I just as
easily could have done none
of these things and faced no
consequences or guilt.

When I moved away
from home and joined the
workforce, I adopted a new
Jewish Christmas tradition:
to talk to exactly one person
all day, and for that person
to be the woman who took
orders over the phone at a
Chinese restaurant on 14th
Street in Washington, D.C.

Roommates need me to clean
the kitchen? No, they’re home
with their families. Colleagues
need something? No, this is
the one day they’re not on
Slack. Parents want to talk?
Alex Lazarus-Klein is the rabbi
of Congregation Shir Shalom,
a dual affi liated Reform and
Reconstructionist Congregation
in Buff alo, New York. He is a
participant in the fourth cohort of
the Clergy Leadership Incubator:
Training Visionary Spiritual
Leaders for the American Jewish
Community sponsored by Hazon:
The Jewish Lab for Sustainability.

This piece was fi rst published by
eJewishPhilanthropy.com. KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Cantor Mourns Cohen’s Death
I JUST PICKED UP my Exponent and was beyond saddened to
learn of the passing of Elias Cohen (“Advocate for Elderly Elias
Surut Cohen Dies at 93,” Dec. 17).

Th ere was a whole aspect to Cohen’s persona that should be
mentioned, especially poignant for me at this moment in that in
a few hours I will kindle the last candle of Chanukah.

Cohen singlehandedly maintained all the religious objects
at Main Line Reform Temple for more than 30 years, including
the many chanukiyot in the Temple’s possession. Th is was not
a few hours’ work. He came into the building weeks before
the High Holidays, painstakingly cared for every kiddush cup,
Havdala set, Torah breastplate, Shabbat candelabrum, etrog
holder, Megillah container, Passover plate and other objects
beyond counting.

Th is was not the act of someone who expected or wanted
recognition. As always, Cohen simply saw a need and quietly
stepped up. He did it because he loved the klei kodesh (sacred
objects) that beautify Jewish life. Most people were unaware of
Cohen’s contribution but, when the Holy Ark was opened on
Erev Rosh Hashanah, his handiwork gleamed as brightly as did
his soul.

May this beloved shammash be bound up in the bonds of life
eternal. ●
Marshall Portnoy, cantor emeritus | Main Line Reform Temple
STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
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Th ere will be no print edition of the Jewish
Exponent the week of Dec. 31. Th at week, please
visit us online at jewishexponent.com, where the
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Be heard.

Email your letters
to the editor.

letters@jewishexponent.com See Kirshner, Page 19
JEWISH EXPONENT
DECEMBER 24, 2020
15