The Australian period drama A Place to Call Home is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of a TV program putting the Jewish identity of a main character front and center in a respectful, meaningful way. No, it doesn’t always get it right (including some butchery of the Hebrew language and inaccurate portrayals of Jewish rituals); and yes, it veers into cheesy-melodrama territory a fair bit (including much that is reminiscent of Downton Abbey in family dynamics and unlikely plot twists). But its protagonist, Sarah Nordmann, is a concentration camp survivor and former resistance fighter who is deeply committed to her faith. Her story of coming home to Australia after the war, coping with trauma and alienation, finding a place for herself in an often hostile, antisemitic community, and trying to maintain her Jewish identity in an interfaith relationship makes this show more Jewish than anything I’ve seen produced for American TV, which tends to stick to broad Jewish characterizations and vaguely Jewish-inflected humor.
With all the Jews working in American film and television, why is it left for Australia, with its 0.4% Jewish population, to give us a popular drama that deals substantively with being a Jew?
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