Hollywood and Israel

The authors dutifully recall the best-known events in this story – an entire chapter is devoted to the planning, production and lengthy afterlife of Otto Preminger’s 1960 adaptation of Leon Uris’s Exodus (1958), starring Paul Newman – and they namecheck all the major Jewish and non-Jewish Hollywood figures who have embraced Israel and the Zionist cause, from Kirk Douglas and Elizabeth Taylor to Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra. But where the book most impresses is in its exploration of lesser-known aspects of the relationship, including the activity of studio moguls, lawyers and government officials. -- Abe Silverstein * Times Literary Supplement *
[An] engaging new book . . . The deeply researched, artfully written Hollywood and Israel documents the extensive and occasionally absurdist tentacles of the California connection. -- Saul Austerlitz * Foreign Policy *
In Hollywood and Israel: A History, Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman set the record straight about the relationship between Israel and Hollywood and provide interesting insights into both. -- Mike Watson * Washington Examiner *
[This] book’s greatest strength lies in its elucidation of the economic dimension of the relationship between Hollywood and Israel. -- Hazem Fahmy * Jewish Currents *
The book is replete with cinematic moments depicting Israel. -- RICH TENORIO * Times of Israel *
The links between Hollywood and Israel are many and this book will give the reader a detailed course in both. -- Brian Fishbach * Jewish Journal *
A meticulously researched and thoughtful account of the financial and emotional ties between two sets of world-class mythmakers—the creators of the Hollywood dream factory and the builders of the modern Jewish state. -- Glenn Frankel * Moment *
This book is well researched, as well as informative and entertaining. * Man of La Books *
Combining pioneering research with meticulous scholarship, this wonderful book illuminates an unknown dimension of Hollywood history and the U.S.-Israel “special relationship.” With a cast of world-famous actors, mighty moguls, colorful propagandists, and a rabbi to the stars, it’s also a hugely entertaining read. -- Hugh Wilford, author of America’s Great Game: The CIA’s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East
This pathbreaking book documents the complex relationship between the U.S. film industry and the state of Israel from its origins to the present. It is a history of activism within Hollywood and the attempts of the government of Israel to encourage and steer that activism, punctuated by crises and moments of introspection. Milestone films like Exodus and Munich are here, but so are forgotten documentaries and passion pieces by stars like Kirk Douglas as well as TV spectaculars to celebrate major anniversaries of Israel’s founding. Shaw and Goodman are sober and objective in their tone and meticulous in their documentation. In one volume they have added a major element in our collective understanding of Hollywood's place in foreign policy. -- Nicholas J. Cull, author of Public Diplomacy: Foundations for Global Engagement in the Digital Age
This is a brilliant book, acute and perceptive. It rests on an amazing range of unused archives, including American, Israeli, and Arab sources and, more unusually, those of stars of film and the streaming services—and it is beautifully written. -- Kathleen Burk, author of The Lion and the Eagle: The Interaction of the British and American Empires, 1783–1972
Their comprehensive and readable volume touches every conceivable angle. -- Sheldon Kirshner * Times of Israel *
[A] hugely absorbing and entertaining book. * Jewish Chronicle *
A good starting point for anyone wishing to learn more about the relationship. * Solzy at the Movies *
Their book provides a comprehensive account of the ways in which a foreign country—Israel—sought to bind the influence of Hollywood to its own public diplomacy goals for over seventy years. * Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs *
[An] engrossing tale of the fascinating, at times complicated, and sometimes surprising relationship between Hollywood and Israel. * Israel Studies Review *
Hollywood and Israel is an excellent source for Middle East and media and cultural studies, history and interdisciplinary studies, and political science and the role of soft power in international relations. * Arab Studies Quarterly *
A volume that richly merits the accolades showered upon it...a model study and a pleasure to read. * Contemporary Jewry *