“Does he actually say the word Jewish?” – Jewish representations in Seinfeld

Abstract

My objective is to provide insight into how “Jewishness”, primarily as a cultural signifier, is created in the sitcom Seinfeld and how it is a reflection of contemporary conversations and negotiations of Jewish cultural identity within North America. This kind of research is important because television is still a primary media source despite declining ratings (Marc 1997), and sitcoms are the primary workhorse (and globally distributed) of the TV networks, hence NBC's “Must‐See TV” and the astronomical salaries that top sitcom stars receive. Seinfeld is a breakthrough “Jewish” sitcom (Brook 2003) because it is the first time, since The Goldbergs left the air in the 1950s, that a Jewish lead character is directly defined (Jerry self‐identifies both directly and indirectly) as Jewish. Like Jack Benny and George Burns, he is assimilated, but he is not in the Jewish closet. This historical development is of interest to those who study the shifting nature of race via class in North America, the racing of Jews in particular, and how this racing informs popular TV representations of Jews. However, the sitcom is also notable and fascinating because it engages in the historical network TV practice of Jewish selfcensorship, and it also employs primarily negative stereotypes. The rest of the core and supporting ensemble are ambiguously sketched in terms of ethnicity (not race, I argue they are raced in terms of unmarked whiteness) and they are stereotypical and self‐deprecating. They can be read as Jewish or not Jewish, but there is no direct or clear designation. Jewishness appears as signifiers and coding that can be read as Jewish (food, philosophical references) and possibly Jewish (mannerisms, phenotype, anxiety). Therefore, two more key questions that I address are: Why are only Jewish characters, as opposed to other white ethnics in sitcoms, presented ambiguously? Overall, how does the complex relationship between Jewishness and whiteness shape the Jewish representations in Seinfeld?