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Philip
Schuyler Green, a widowed journalist, arrives in New York from California
with his son Tommy and his mother to work for Smith's Weekly, a
leading national magazine. John Minify, the publisher, wants Phil to
write a series on anti-Semitism, but Phil is lukewarm about the assignment.
At a party, Phil meets Minify's niece, Kathy
Lacy, a divorcee to whom Phil becomes attracted, and Kathy reminds her uncle
that she suggested the series some time ago. Tommy asks his father
about anti-Semitism and, when Phil finds it difficult to explain, he decides
to accept the assignment. He is frustrated, however, at his inability
to come up with a satisfactory approach, for he and Minify want the series
to go deeper than just exposing the "crackpot" mentality.
After trying to imagine how his Jewish boyhood
friend, Dave Goldman, who is now overseas in the Army, must feel when he
experiences bigotry, Phil decides to write from the point of view of a Jew.
He continues to have difficulties writing, though, until he realizes that
some things can never be known until one experiences them firsthand, and
that the only way to get the necessary experience is to appear Jewish in the
eyes of other people. When Minify announces the series to a luncheon
group, Phil casually mentions that he is Jewish.
Later, Phil learns from his new secretary that
she was told there were no positions with the magazine when she applied
under her real name of Estelle Walofsky, but when she reapplied using "Ethel
Wales," she got the job.
On his first day as a Jew, Phil becomes the
target of slurs and learns of discriminatory rules at his apartment
building. When he tells Kathy, with whom he has fallen in love, about
his story "angle," she is at first confused that he might really be Jewish.
The next day, the magazine's personnel director
is reprimanded by Minify for his policy of not hiring Jewish secretaries and
is told that every future ad must include the line, "Religion is a matter of
indifference." When Miss Wales learns about the change of policy,
however, her fear that a "kikey" Jew will ruin things for them prompts Phil
to state that he hates anti-Semitism as much from her as from a gentile.
Later, Kathy, to whom Phil is now engaged, tells
Phil that her sister Jane in Darien, Connecticut has planned a party for
them on the next Saturday, and Phil reluctantly agrees to allow Kathy to
tell Jane about the ruse. When Kathy asks Phil not to discuss
anti-Semitism at her sister's party, Phil refuses and and Kathy berates him
for being argumentative.
Soon
after, Dave arrives in town on leave to look for a home, as he has been
offered a job in the area. When Phil tells him about the series and
says that, as a Jew, he is having his "nose rubbed in it and doesn't like
the smell," Dave says he is just not "insulated" yet.
Phil and Dave then meet Anne at a restaurant,
where a drunken patron calls Dave a "yid, and Dave violently shoves the man
away. Afterwards, Phil receives a call from Kathy, who says she is in
Connecticut to confront Jane. When Phil arrives in Darien for Jane's
party, he is surprised that the guests are interested in the series, but
Kathy does not reveal that Jane screened the guests and only invited the
"safe ones."
Two days before Phil and Kathy's wedding, the
couple learns from Anne that the Flume Inn, where they plan to honeymoon, is
"restricted," meaning that Jews are not allowed but, when Phil's mother has
a minor stroke, the wedding is postponed anyway. Dave, who has not
been able to find a house, says he must return to his family and miss the
wedding. Angered because he feels that Dave is being rejected because
he is Jewish, Phil goes to the Flume Inn to confront the management.
When he gets evasive answers to his queries, Phil raises his voice in anger
and says he is Jewish, which disturbs some of the guests.
Phil returns to Kathy and argues that she should
help Dave find a home in Connecticut. When she reveals that the Darien
citizens have a "gentleman's agreement" not to sell to Jews, Phil castigates
her for not wanting to fight. Tommy, in tears, interrupts their
quarrel and says that the kids at school called him a "dirty yid" and a
"stinking kike." After Kathy tries to comfort the boy by saying that
he is no more Jewish than she, Phil calms his son, then angrily lectures
Kathy for instilling in Tommy a sense of superiority as a white Christian
American. Phil contends that his biggest discovery has been that the
"nice people," who are not anti-Semitic, sustain prejudice by not protesting
against it. Kathy decides that they cannot marry due to Phil's temper
and leaves despite his apologies. That night, Phil tells Dave about Tommy,
and Dave says that he can now quit, as he has learned what it is like when
anti-Semitism hits one's children.
Phil delivers the first half of the series,
entitled, "I Was Jewish for 8 Weeks," and announces that he is returning to
California. Meanwhile, Kathy asks Dave to meet her at a restaurant,
where she relates that earlier that night, a man told a bigoted joke, to
which no one in her party objected, and that she felt ill about it.
Dave's repeated question of "What did you do about it?" helps Kathy realize
that she has been getting mad at Phil because he expected her to fight, but
she should have been getting mad at those who help maintain bigotry.
Dave advises that he has learned to "sock back" and that she might not feel
ill if she had done so. When Kathy says she is not a fit wife for
Phil, Dave contends that a man wants a wife who will go through the rough
spots with him and feel that they are the same rough spots.
Later, Phil's mother is reading his manuscript
when Dave comes in and calls his boss to announce that he has found a house
and will take the New York job. Dave explains that he will live at
Kathy's Darien cottage, and that Kathy has decided to live with her sister
and challenge the bigotry there. Thrilled that Kathy has changed, Phil
embraces her. |
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