The American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League told the entertainment news site TMZ that Bradley Cooper’s use of a prosthetic nose to depict Jewish composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein in the Netflix film “Maestro” is not antisemitic.
“We do not believe that this depiction harms or denigrates the Jewish community,” the AJC said.
The ADL told TMZ that “Throughout history, Jews were often portrayed in antisemitic films and propaganda as evil caricatures with large, hooked noses. This film, which is a biopic on the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, is not that.”
TMZ called the criticism that it’s “Jewface” for a non-Jew to play a Jewish character “fringe and largely dismissed.”
