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Jul 4, 2026
Chai Noon
Jews and the Cinematic Wild West
Summary
Only a few Westerns contain explicitly Jewish stories or themes, and very rarely do Old West tales involve identifiably Jewish characters. Yet Jewish contributors have shaped the Western—once Hollywood's most popular genre—ever since the silent era, both onscreen and offscreen, and some filmmakers have sought to infuse the genre with a distinctly Jewish sensibility. In Chai Noon: Jews and the Cinematic Wild West (University of Wisconsin Press, 2025), Friedmann engages with larger themes of Jewish identity in popular film, including depictions of race, ethnicity, and foreignness. He also identifies similar concerns within the invention and creation of the imaginary West writ large in American culture. The juxtapositions prove to be both unexpected and intuitively understandable.
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Marci Mazzarotto
Marci Mazzarotto is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Communication at Georgian Court University in New Jersey. Her research interests center on the intersection of academic theory and artistic practice with a focus on mass media (particularly film & television), along with popular culture and the avant-garde.
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