Lawrence Bender, who produced movies like “Pulp Fiction,” “Reservoir Dogs” and “An Inconvenient Truth,” had stood up for minorities and a number of oppressed groups throughout his illustrious four-decade career in entertainment. While he showed support for all types of people, when October 7 happened, he discovered that his non-Jewish friends weren’t reciprocating. In fact, they abandoned him.
“On October 8, I found that the people I was spending so much time supporting, loving and being with weren’t there for me,” the Oscar-nominated producer said. “I wasn’t getting the phone calls I imagined. I got upset and angry and felt like I was alone.”
Bender told this to a crowd of about 100 people on Wednesday, Nov. 29 at The Happy Minyan, a synagogue in Los Angeles that was hosting “How Hollywood Can Flip the Script Since Oct. 7,” a panel event co-hosted by the Jewish Filmmakers Network and JITC Hollywood Bureau. Moderated by actor and writer Marcus J. Freed, as well as founder of the network, the panel also featured JITC Hollywood Bureau Founder Allison Josephs; Sal Litvak, co-writer, director and producer of “Guns and Moses”; and Alison Peck, screenwriter of Netflix’s “You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.” The room was filled with actors, directors, screenwriters, casting agents and other members of the arts and entertainment community in Los Angeles.
After telling his personal post-October 7 story, Bender went into how his latest project, “Red Alert,” a four-part Israeli American series on Paramount+ that dramatizes the events of that day, came about. He first invited three different October 7 survivors to his home, along with 150 people who came to hear their stories.
“I asked them, ‘How many people here feel afraid?’ and everyone raised their hand,” he said.
Over the last 25 years, since the Second Intifada, Bender has been very involved in Israel advocacy. When given the opportunity, he decided to jump on board and become executive producer of “Red Alert,” which he filmed over the course of two months in Israel during the war.
“I made it so the world could understand what happened on October 7,” he said. “We chose to make a drama instead of a documentary so that we have a shot at changing minds.”
Changing perceptions was the focus of Josephs’s comments on the panel. Since 2021, the JITC founder – who runs the Jew in the City website and the Jewish Institute for Television & Cinema Hollywood Bureau – has worked hard to battle Jewish stereotypes on screen. She advocates for better representation of Jews in Hollywood and pushes back when she sees Jews being portrayed in untruthful or disparaging ways.
Recently, she put out a video called, “Like a Jew” where she asks adults and children to “act like a Jew.” At first, the adults engage in tropes like showing Jews counting coins, being anxious and shopping because they’re spoiled. But after seeing how the children pushed for good middot, they changed their attitude and said they would just be themselves from now on.
“People believe the tropes because they think Jews run Hollywood, and that they are fine because they have white privilege,” Josephs said. “There has been a dehumanizing of Jews happening in Hollywood, and that’s where we come in.”
Along with educating Hollywood on the Jewish community and battling misconceptions, Josephs also established the Jewish Media Awards, which recognizes authentic Jewish representation in the media. Entertainment honorees this past year included Jeff Astrof, a writer on “Friends” and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s first COO who was in the October 7 film “Screams Before Silence.” The Jewish Media Awards are the first of its kind for the community.
At the JFN event, Peck talked about portraying Judaism in a positive light in her bat mitzvah comedy, which Adam Sandler produced and starred in. The movie came out in 2023, pre-October 7.
“I wanted the movie to be focused on Jewish joy, and I was careful not to include stereotypes as much as I could while still making it feel realistic,” she said. “A lot of [Jewish characters on] TV shows and movies complain about going to Hebrew school or having a bat mitzvah. I wanted to really show characters who didn’t hate being Jewish.”
Additionally, the screenwriter strived to make it feel both relatable to Jews and have a more universal message.
“I emphasized that now, more than ever, we need positive Jewish stories,” Peck said. “My goal was to make it feel authentic, like only someone who grew up Jewish would recognize it, but it could still be accessible to everyone.”
Litvak, who runs The Accidental Talmudist with his wife Nina and is an observant Jew, made “Guns and Moses,” which stars a Chabad rabbi who protects his community after a murder has occurred. They wanted to make sure that in their film, Orthodox Jews were shown in a realistic light.
“If you see an Orthodox Jew in a movie, it’s to make fun of him with a silly costume or accent,” he said. “There are a lot of Jewish actors in Hollywood who don’t want to be typecast as Jews. There is a lot of cowardice.”
The Litvaks have also experienced what they believe to be antisemitism on review pages for their movie, as there are many very high ratings, as well as a number of very low ones, which is not normal.
“Who are these people saying the movie is a one out of 10 stars?” Litvak said. “People can step forward and help [by reviewing it]. You have to support your fellow filmmakers and creatives. We have to help each other and stand together. That’s never been so important as it is now.”
All of the panelists emphasized how they would keep creating and speaking up for the Jewish community, including Bender.
“For most Jews in the Diaspora, they feel like me, like my soul is in Israel,” he said. “When you talk about your own people, it just feels different.”