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A '''Jewish lawyer''' is a [[stock character]] and common [[Stereotypes of Jews|stereotype of Jews]], with Jews and Jewish lawyers depicted as [[Jewish intelligence|clever]], greedy, exploitative, dishonest, and engaging in [[moral turpitude]] and excessive [[Legalism (Western philosophy)|legalism]]. The stock character of the Jewish lawyer appears frequently in [[Jews in popular culture|popular culture]], and the abundance of Jewish lawyers and [[Jewish doctor|doctors]] in television has been attributed to the disproportionate number of Jewish lawyers and doctors in real life. |
A '''Jewish lawyer''' is a [[stock character]] and common antisemitic [[Stereotypes of Jews|stereotype of Jews]], with Jews and Jewish lawyers depicted as [[Jewish intelligence|clever]], greedy, exploitative, dishonest, and engaging in [[moral turpitude]] and excessive [[Legalism (Western philosophy)|legalism]]. The stock character of the Jewish lawyer appears frequently in [[Jews in popular culture|popular culture]], and the abundance of Jewish lawyers and [[Jewish doctor|doctors]] in television has been attributed to the disproportionate number of Jewish lawyers and doctors in real life. |
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In the [[United States]], it was initially difficult for [[American Jew|Jews]] to enter the legal profession, though by the end of the 20th century, a disproportionate amount of lawyers were Jewish. In [[Nazi Germany]], [[Adolf Hitler]] of the [[Nazi Party]] was appointed [[Chancellor of Germany]] in 1933, and he and the party introduced [[Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany|anti-Jewish laws]] that made life difficult for [[German Jews|Jews]], including legislation that stopped Jewish lawyers from practicing. |
In the [[United States]], it was initially difficult for [[American Jew|Jews]] to enter the legal profession, though by the end of the 20th century, a disproportionate amount of lawyers were Jewish. In [[Nazi Germany]], [[Adolf Hitler]] of the [[Nazi Party]] was appointed [[Chancellor of Germany]] in 1933, and he and the party introduced [[Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany|anti-Jewish laws]] that made life difficult for [[German Jews|Jews]], including legislation that stopped Jewish lawyers from practicing. |
Revision as of 11:56, 14 September 2010
A Jewish lawyer is a stock character and common antisemitic stereotype of Jews, with Jews and Jewish lawyers depicted as clever, greedy, exploitative, dishonest, and engaging in moral turpitude and excessive legalism. The stock character of the Jewish lawyer appears frequently in popular culture, and the abundance of Jewish lawyers and doctors in television has been attributed to the disproportionate number of Jewish lawyers and doctors in real life.
In the United States, it was initially difficult for Jews to enter the legal profession, though by the end of the 20th century, a disproportionate amount of lawyers were Jewish. In Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, and he and the party introduced anti-Jewish laws that made life difficult for Jews, including legislation that stopped Jewish lawyers from practicing.
Stereotype
The concept of the Jewish lawyer is a common stereotype of Jews,[1][2][3] with Jews and Jewish lawyers depicted as clever, greedy, exploitative, dishonest, and engaging in moral turpitude and excessive legalism.[1][4] The stereotype dates back to Joseph, the son of Jacob, in the Hebrew Bible.[1] It gained prominence in the mid-to-late 20th century when Jews began to move into the legal profession.[5] Due to the similar stereotypes of Jews and of lawyers, the combination of the two is said to be particularly memorable.
Popular culture
The stock character of the Jewish lawyer appears frequently in popular culture.[1][6][7] Examples of Jewish lawyers include: in film, George Simon in Counsellor at Law (1993); in literature, Shylock in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, who is a "clever but vengeful and greedy moneylender";[1] and, in television, Stuart Markowitz in the legal drama L.A. Law, a tax lawyer who is "more principled than some of the other lawyers at the firm".[8] Maurice Levy of the drama series The Wire, played by Michael Kostroff, is a Jewish lawyer, with the "New York accent and the quintessential pale skin, brown hair and Ashkenazic nose of the typical American Jew".[4] Ben Meyer in the television drama series The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, which aired between 1990 and 1992, was the first ongoing Jewish character in a regular series to always wear a kippah. The abundance of Jewish lawyers and doctors in television has been attributed to the disproportionate number of Jewish lawyers and doctors in real life.[6]
Marc Galanter in his 2006 book Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture said that Jewish lawyers do not appear frequently in lawyer jokes, despite the prevalence of jokes about Jewish claimants and the animosity Jewish lawyers faced from their rivals at the bar.[9] The book states that lawyers from other ethnicities also do not appear frequently. He said he could only find three jokes about the lawyer's Jewish identity, none in current circulation.[10] The book states that ethnic characters appear in jokes about clients, defendants, and witnesses, but that lawyers were ethnically undifferentiated. He attributes this in part to political correctness, which makes ethnic jokes unacceptable in certain settings. At the same time, lawyer jokes have expanded by taking in jokes that were earlier told about ethnics, and certain lawyer jokes borrowed heavily from jokes about Jews.[11]
United States
In the United States, it was initially difficult for Jews to enter the legal profession, though by the end of the 20th century, a disproportionate amount of lawyers were Jewish. In the 1930s, in New York, Jews comprised half the bar, generally occupying the lower levels of the profession. In the 1950s, barriers to Jewish entry to elite law firms began to give way. In the early 1960s, there was concern over "too many" Jews.[12] Around 1960, one in six law students were Jewish, although there were no statistics on the population of Jewish lawyers. In 1968, a sociologist produced a report on Wall Street lawyers and found a "tremendous lessening of discrimination—especially toward Jews".[12] This allowed Jews to increase their presence in the upper echelons of the profession, and a 1995 survey of partners in the highest-billing law firms found that 22 percent were Jewish.[12]
Nazi Germany
In Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party was appointed Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933,[13] and he and the party introduced anti-Jewish laws that made life difficult for Jews. The Nazi Party considered the concentration of Jews in the legal profession to be a sign of "Jewish infiltration".[14] On 31 May 1933, Hanns Kerrl, the justice minister of Prussia, asked that all Jewish lawyers, state lawyers, and legal officers submit requests for retirement. Jewish lawyers were to present themselves at court only in the same proportion of the total number of trails as the percentage of the Jewish population of Prussia. On the same day, Hans Frank, the justice minister of Bavaria, retired all Jewish judges, state and official attorneys, banned Jewish lawyers from entering the courts and forbade Jewish notaries from practising their profession.[14] On 1 April 1933, there was a Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses.[15] In April 1933, several laws and decrees were passed which made life difficult for Jews in several professions in order to encourage them to emigrate. The most important of these was the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April 1933, which enabled the firing of non-Aryans in the civil service.[16] On the same day, the Law on the Licensing of Lawyers (Gesetz über die Zulassung zur Rechtsanwaltschaft) enabled the government to fire non-Aryan lawyers, with some exceptions for war veterans, fathers or sons of those killed in the war, and lawyers who had been licensed before 1 August 1914.[14] At the time, almost a fifth of all lawyers were Jewish. Of 4,500 Jewish lawyers in early 1933, 1,400 (30 percent) had lost their jobs by June 1933.[17] By September 1933, 34.8 percent of lawyers in Hamburg had lost their jobs; in Prussia, 32.2 percent were dismissed and 40.5 percent were "voluntarily" dismissed.[18] The Jewish lawyers that remained had a loss of business as few Gentile people would go to court accompanied by a Jewish lawyer. On 25 April 1933, the Law against the Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities was passed, which introduced a quota of 1.5 percent for new admissions of Jews to schools and universities.[17] The laws against Jews simplified the rejection of Jewish judges. Although rejection required a reason "sufficient to justify distrust in a judge's inpartiality", the judge's race could now be used as such a reason and a number of successful challenges were made under this.[19] On 15 September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were passed, which deprived Jews of German citizenship and prohibited marriage between Jews and other Germans.[20]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e Asimow, Michael; Mader, Shannon (2004). Law and Popular Culture: A Course Book. Peter Lang Publishing. p. 76. ISBN 978-0820458151.
- ^ Irons, Peter H. (1993). The New Deal Lawyers. Princeton University Press. p. 128. ISBN 978-0691000824.
- ^ Feingold, Henry L. (2002). Zion in America: The Jewish Experience from Colonial Times to the Present. Dover Publications. p. 262. ISBN 978-0486422367.
- ^ a b Michaelson, Jay (3 March 2006). "A Jew and a Lawyer Are Sitting in a Bar...". The Forward. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
- ^ Merwin, Ted (2006). In Their Own Image: New York Jews in Jazz Age Popular Culture. Rutgers University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0813538099.
- ^ a b Pearl, Jonathan; Pearl, Judith (1999) .The Chosen Image: Television's Portrayal of Jewish Themes and Characters. McFarland & Company. p. 97. ISBN 978-0786405220.
- ^ Sanua, Victor D. (1983). Fields of Offerings: Studies in Honor of Raphael Patai. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 159.
- ^ Asimow and Mader, p. 77.
- ^ Galanter, pp. 150–151.
- ^ Galanter, p. 151.
- ^ Galanter, p. 152.
- ^ a b c Galanter, Marc (2006). Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-0299213541.
- ^ Nicholls, David (2000). Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion. ABC-CLIO. p. 120. ISBN 978-0874369656.
- ^ a b c Bajohr, Frank (2002). Aryanisation' In Hamburg: The Economic Exclusion of Jews and the Confiscation of their Property in Nazi Germany. Berghahn Books. p. 66. ISBN 978-1571814852.
- ^ Feldburg, Michael (2002). Blessings of Freedom: Chapters in American Jewish History. Ktav Publishing House. p. 79. ISBN 978-0881257564.
- ^ Gourvish, Terry (ed.) (2003). Ziegler, Dieter; Wixforth, Harald; Osterloh, Jörg. Business and Politics in Europe, 1900-1970: Essays in Honour of Alice Teichova. p. 189. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521823449
- ^ a b Business and Politics in Europe, 1900-1970: Essays in Honour of Alice Teichova, p. 191.
- ^ Bajohr, p. 67.
- ^ Diemut, Majer (2003). "Non-Germans" under the Third Reich: the Nazi judicial and administrative system in Germany and occupied Eastern Europe with special regard to occupied Poland, 1939–1945. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 397. ISBN 978-0801864933
- ^ Levy, Richard S. (2005). Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution (volume 2). ABC-CLIO. p. 515. ISBN 978-1851094394.