Cop-out
They should have cast a Jewish actor. It was a copout using a Gentile character as the lead.
shareDo you mean that the main character, Green, should have been a Jew, rather than a Gentile (non-Jew) pretending to be a Jew?
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Fowler's knots? Did you say ... fowler's knots?
Exactly. Why not make the lead character Jewish, rather than a Gentile? Writing the part as a Gentile produces the same kind of distancing we see in the black/white situation in the US, where well-meaning scripts feature white actors as the central characters in movies designed to cast light on injustices suffered by black characters, as in the recent movie "The Help"
shareThe reason was so that the anti-semitism could be presented from the viewpoint of someone to whom it is a new experience. As a non-Jew, Green's experiences would be more relevant to non-Jewish viewers of the film. When he's figuring out how to write the article, Green recalls his previous articles. He wrote about coal miners by becoming a coal miner, and he wrote about migrants by becoming one.
There were Jewish characters in the film, such as Green's friend Dave and Green's secretary Elaine, who had dealt with anti-semitism all their lives, and viewed it as nothing more than "business as usual."
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Fowler's knots? Did you say ... fowler's knots?