by Mark M. Bello CBS canceled The Late Show just days after Colbert slammed its parent company for a $16 million Trump payoff. Coincidence? America deserves better than silence. So, who was responsible? CBS? Paramount? Skydance? Some yellow-haired bully? Who? On July 11, Stephen Colbert opened The Late Show with a scathing monologue aimed squarely […]
by Mark M. Bello “It can happen here. Maybe it has.” —Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) How did we get here? How did we get from Gentleman’s Agreement—a bold, conscience-driven film that dared to speak America’s name alongside antisemitism—to a country where antisemitic tweets trend globally, Holocaust denial lives on YouTube, and pop culture megastars declare love […]
by Mark M. Bello As the Red Scare faded and the Hollywood blacklist slowly dissolved, American Jews stood at a crossroads. The moral clarity that briefly followed World War II—when Gentleman’s Agreement dared to confront antisemitism—was gone. In its place emerged a more complicated terrain: the Cold War, the establishment of Israel, McCarthyism’s lingering paranoia, […]
Hollywood, High Society, and the Limits of Polite Protest Introduction: From Courage to Silence by Mark M. Bello When *Gentleman’s Agreement* premiered in 1947, it seemed like a turning point. A major studio film—helmed by Elia Kazan, produced by Darryl Zanuck, and starring Gregory Peck—had taken aim at polite, coded anti-Semitism in America’s high society. […]
Hollywood, High Society, and the Limits of Polite Protest Introduction: From Courage to Silence by Mark M. Bello When *Gentleman’s Agreement* premiered in 1947, it seemed like a turning point. A major studio film—helmed by Elia Kazan, produced by Darryl Zanuck, and starring Gregory Peck—had taken aim at polite, coded anti-Semitism in America’s high society. […]
by Mark M. Bello In Part 1 of our 5-part series on a century of American anti-Semitism, we explored the origins of Gentleman’s Agreement and the courage it took for a Protestant director, producer, and actor to shine a spotlight on a form of American bigotry that few cared or dared to speak about. In […]
Where is the list? What are they hiding? by Mark M. Bello How is a man credibly accused of rape, sexual assault, and child abuse NOT disqualified to be President of the United States? Not once—but twice? Worse, Donald Trump doesn’t merely survive, he thrives—winning elections, appointing judges, and standing in the Oval Office while […]
Part I: Before the Film – The Climate of American Antisemitism (1920s–1940s) by Mark M. Bello In 1947, a non-Jewish movie mogul named Darryl F. Zanuck released one of the most daring films of its era: Gentleman’s Agreement. While it was not the first film to address American bigotry, Gentleman’s Agreement was the first mainstream […]
Part I: Before the Film – The Climate of American Antisemitism (1920s–1940s) by Mark M. Bello In 1947, a non-Jewish movie mogul named Darryl F. Zanuck released one of the most daring films of its era: Gentleman’s Agreement. While it was not the first film to address American bigotry, Gentleman’s Agreement was the first mainstream […]
by Mark M. Bello There’s a sensible expression I’ve heard throughout my life: “You’re not paranoid if they’re really out to get you.” History teaches us that when Jews sense a threat, we ignore it at our peril. We’ve seen what happens when we dismiss hate as fringe or unserious. From Pharaoh to Haman, from […]
