Politics and high emotion on display at the Emmys
PROFOUND SADNESS, political outrage and haimishe humour were all on display among the Jewish winners of Emmy prime-time TV awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. While receiving her award for
the comedy series about a Jewish family whose father comes out as transgender, director Jill Soloway compared US presidential hopeful Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. She said: “Jews wereother-isedinNaziGermanytogain political power for Hitler, and right now, DonaldTrumpisdoingthesamething.” Jeffrey Tambor, the lead actor in
was also honoured, with the award for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series.
veteran Julia LouisDreyfus won her fifth consecutive Emmy for her role in and drew tears from the audience when she paid tribute to her father, William, who had passed away days earlier.
Meanwhile, executive producer David Mandel accepted the outstanding comedy seriesawardwithatouchof humour: “This is for chubby Jews from the Upper West Side, wherever you are.”
Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn garnered the prize for supporting actor in a drama (
He is the descendent of an old Prussian Jewish family on his father’s side, although, to his regret, not related to composer Felix Mendelsohn or philosopher Moses Mendelsohn.
David Benioff and Daniel B Weiss werehonouredforoutstandingwriting for the episode “Battle of the Bastards.”
Hank Azaria won the Emmy for guest actor in the comedy series
and Susanne Bier took top spot as director of the limited series, movie or dramatic special category, for the BBC show