David Baddiel is often accused of “banging on about anti-Semitism ”. Mention hatred towards Jews and there might even be a bored eye roll. But sometimes the prejudice is much worse.
In his documentary Jews Don’t Count on Monday, the comedian, author and presenter, whose Twitter bio brilliantly just reads “Jew”, recalls an incident that affected him deeply.
At a football match with his brother Ivor, a fan started aggressively chanting, “F*** the f***ing yids”, then, for absolute clarity, “F*** the Jews”. Ivor told the man to shut up, then nearly burst into tears.
But the abuse is not the point. The point is there was no outrage. No one was turfed out of the stadium. No one started a movement. There was no hashtag.
Based on his book of the same name, Baddiel’s film makes the point that Jews are not considered a minority – a view he knows will typically receive a backlash. And judging from his Twitter feed this week, he was right.
Part history lesson, part sparkly celebrity interviews and with plenty of humour around a difficult subject, Baddiel asked: “Why, in a time of extreme sensitivity towards minorities and offence, do these ancient negative stereotypes persist?”
The stereotypes are all too well-known but to illustrate his point, Baddiel asked some famous Jews, who relished the outrageousness of it all.
“We run Hollywood, we control the banks, we’re looking to take over the world,” said actor David Schwimmer.
“They can be vermin, they can be filthy, they can be super rich,” said Countdown co-presenter Rachel Riley.
“We’re a sort of hidden, malevolent force,” said actor Stephen Fry.
And my favourite line, from US comedian Sarah Silverman: “If we controlled things, wouldn’t we have better PR?”
As a Jew who can relate – shout out to the school mum who said I was “nice for a Jew” and the uni mate who wanted to “kill off the Jews” – I thought Baddiel’s film was a smart conversation starter.
Taking aim at those “right-thinking” supporters of other minorities, it was enlightening, using examples from all genres to highlight this blind spot.
Baddiel, whose mother fled Nazi Germany, didn’t shy away from tough talk.
Special praise should go to former Nottingham Forest footballer Jason Lee, who accepted a long-overdue personal apology over Baddiel’s racist blacked-up impression of him in the 90s.
It’s a terrible failing on Baddiel’s part, but shouldn’t be used to ignore anti-Semitism. At a time when Jewish hate crime is on the rise, this is an important film about a millennia-old prejudice that should be called out.
