The Baffling Appeal of “Jews Don’t Count”

It’s been a tough few months for the Jews.

We all know the cliche “Twitter isn’t real life,” but social media is, more with each passing year, where friendships are made and broken, where people explore their identities and beliefs, and even where elections are influenced and decided. Lately, Jews around the world who, like everyone else, spend much of their lives in this virtual sphere have had to contend with a deeply disturbed rapper wearing a sock over his head and babbling incoherently about how he will no longer let the Jewish mafia suppress his admiration for Hitler. Though it’s fair to say the response last year to Kanye West’s anti-Semitism was overwhelmingly negative, no one likes his status as the chief problem in the world being a constant matter of debate. The timing, therefore, couldn’t be more perfect for a new documentary, Jews Don’t Count, by the UK comedian David Baddiel.

Baddiel has been a familiar figure in British popular culture for decades. A regular on the comedy and late-night TV circuit, he made his name with the hit song “Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home).” Written to celebrate England’s hosting of the 1996 European Championships, it managed to capture the spirit of the “Cool Britannia” era that combined the worldwide success of Britpop, working-class patriotism, and progressive politics, culminating in Labor’s landslide victory in the 1997 elections. More recently, Baddiel has reinvented himself as a Jewish advocate, fond of explaining why those on the British left from which he hails have let the Jewish community down and need to become better allies. His 2021 book Jews Don’t Count, on which the documentary is based, made a big splash in the UK. The eponymous television adaptation, where he interviews influential Jewish celebrities from both sides of the Atlantic, aims for an even wider audience, having been hailed in the press as a “a doc so shocking it sounds like a siren,” “relentlessly irrefutable,” and a “powerful and important film about a veiled prejudice.” Alas, viewers of the documentary will not gain a better understanding of anti-Semitism, or how to combat it.