Charlie Chaplin: Jewish or Goyish?

As nearly as can be determined, Charlie Chaplin is virtually part Jewish almost most of the time.
John McCabe, Charlie Chaplin

In March of 1978, Charlie Chaplin’s body was stolen from his tomb in Switzerland and held for ransom. Two months later it was discovered buried in a farmer’s field and returned to his wife Oona, who remarked, dryly, ‘Charlie would have found this ridiculous.’ According to rumour, the Swiss government suspected that his remains had been stolen by anti-Semitic groups, upset that a Jew should be buried in a Christian cemetery. Chaplin’s Jewishness made him an enemy of the FBI and put him on the Nazi’s list of international targets. He is perhaps one of the most famous Jews in American history hence it is all the more surprising to learn that he was not, in fact, Jewish.

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The Larry David Opus

Outing the Jewish Male

‘Hey, I may loathe myself, but it has nothing to do with the fact that I’m Jewish.’ (Larry David)

The late Lenny Bruce famously defined ‘Jewish’ as anything edgy, ethnic, urban and subversive, despite its origins. Dylan Thomas: Jewish. Ray Charles: Jewish. ‘Goyish’ was, by contrast, anything conservative, safe and associated with the sterility of the suburbs. This devotion to the subversive goes back to some of the most sacred roots of Judaism since Abraham broke his father’s idols and has long been a source of pride but also division between Jews and their neighbours. It is a division more felt than seen, but one which lies at the heart of Jewish comedy in North America. Through his ground-breaking work in first Seinfeld and then Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David appears to have achieved the impossible and made the Jewish ‘Jewish’.

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