Being raised Jewish, I heard this common phrase jokingly told often during holiday celebrations:
“They tried to kill us. They didn’t. Let’s eat.”
That’s an honest-to-God view that many Jews have about our struggles throughout the ages. How many times have various cultures, politicians and people focused on the Jews as a scapegoat for war, misfortune and even plague? It’s a tale as old as time. It seems that societies are always just this close to blaming everything on the Jews.
That’s the society we see in the first trailer for HBO’s The Plot Against America. The limited series, from David Simon and Ed Burns, is based on the novel by Philip Roth. It takes place in an alternate America where FDR is defeated during WWII and the new American president is aviation champion and well-known anti-Semite Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh’s assent to the presidency is not good for American Jews and things quickly go from bad to worse for God’s chosen people.
Make no mistake: while the show will feature an America that never was, Simon and Burns will definitely be using the plot as a way to reflect upon an America that is, a country that far too often gets swept up in xenophobic hatred led by politicians and public figures who beat the very same drum that Lindbergh did before. Yes, he never became president but the vile things that Lindbergh said are still believed by many Americans. And many of these hateful people would gladly fall behind a politician who openly says what they all privately believe. You think we are that far away from the world showcased in The Plot Against America? We aren’t, not by a long shot. Take a look at the 2016 election and the rise in hate crimes across this country in the last few years. We are always on the precipice of this terrifying alternate history.
The Plot Against America has an all-star cast featuring John Turturro, Zoe Kazan, Winona Ryder and Morgan Spector, who seems to be portraying the too-rarely-seen “Tough Jew” character archetype last employed by Inglourious Basterds and Munich. The show premieres March 16th on HBO. Let’s hope it has a lot to say.
“THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, a limited series based on the acclaimed Philip Roth novel of the same name, imagines an alternate American history during World War II, told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey as they endure the political rise of Charles Lindbergh, an aviator-hero and xenophobic populist, who captures the presidency and turns the nation toward fascism. Created by frequent collaborators David Simon and Ed Burns (HBO’s “The Wire” and “Generation Kill”), the six-part limited series THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA debuts MONDAY, MARCH 16 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.”