The real reason Jews care about Marilyn Monroe
It’s not just that she didn’t ‘look Jewish’ or that she made an odd pair with Arthur Miller
Marilyn Monroe in 1953. Photo by Garrett/Murray Garrett/Getty Images
To the editors:
As someone who loves film, Judaism, and history, I found PJ Grisar’s article on why so many Jews find Marilyn Monroe fascinating somewhat lacking.
It is certainly true that Monroe “didn’t look Jewish,” but there were plenty of Jewish beauties to admire—Lauren Bacall, for example. I suspect the fascination goes deeper than appearance.
Monroe did not merely represent beauty. For many Americans, she represented America itself.
Three years before her conversion, all eyes were on two other Jews for very different reasons.
While the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had nothing directly to do with Monroe, the broader zeitgeist may help explain why so many Jews took her to heart.
This was still an era shaped by immigration quotas, university restrictions, social-club exclusions, housing covenants, and lingering questions about whether Jews could ever be fully accepted as Americans.
I also think the article glosses over the significance of her marriage to Arthur Miller, reducing it to a story of beauty and brains. Miller was one of the most important Jewish intellectual and cultural figures in America.
He was also a highly controversial figure during the McCarthy era and one of HUAC’s top targets.
In 1957, he was convicted of contempt of Congress and sentenced to a fine and a prison term, though the conviction was overturned the following year.
Monroe could have distanced herself from Miller and the controversy surrounding him.
She did not.
I agree that Elizabeth Taylor ultimately lived a more publicly and explicitly Jewish life. Yet I think Monroe’s conversion remains meaningful because of its symbolic weight. For many Jews, it represented a moment when one of the most famous women in America chose to join a community that was still fighting for full acceptance.
Perhaps that is why so many Jews continue to find her story compelling. The fascination may indeed say something about Jews—but it also says something about the place Jews were coming to occupy in American life.
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