Alright. I’m not going to lie. I’m a little nervous about writing this article. Being Jewish on the internet is stressful enough, let alone in the era we live in now. But hey. Might as well get it all out in the open. My name is Kate Voigt, and I’m a Jewish woman. I’m also an aspiring TV writer, and I’ve noticed there’s not a lot of Jewish leads in dramatic American TV shows. If there are TV shows with Jewish leads that aren’t comedies, they’re often about anti-Semitism or Nazis. I struggle with the fact that, while those themes and those terrors should never be forgotten, I would love to see a dramatic tv show about a Jewish person who is not in any sort of entertainment business and has a personality outside of their faith.
Don’t get me wrong, shows like Transparent and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are amazing programs that I have consumed and enjoyed, but I just think that there’s a need for Jewish people, specifically Jewish women, to have a show where faith isn’t the entirety of their character.
I worry about saying these things online, because there needs to be a wider range of representation on television- African Americans, Latinx people, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, all need to be on the small screen to show people of those communities that they do matter. I just would like Jewish people to be added to that list.