Alex Borstein accepts the outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series award for ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ at the 71st Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, Sept. 22, 2019. (Kevin Winter\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Borstein, who won for the second straight year for playing Susie the manager in Amazon\u2019s \u201cThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,\u201d started with a series of gags. Turning serious, she told the crowd that she came from a family of immigrants and Holocaust survivors, then elaborated on the circumstances of her grandmother\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandmother was in line to be shot into a pit,\u201d Borstein said emotionally at the podium. \u201cShe said, \u2018what happens if I step out of line?\u2019 [The guard] said, \u2018I don\u2019t have the heart to shoot you but somebody will,\u2019 and she stepped out of line. For that, I am here and my children are here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo step out of line, ladies,\u201d she concluded to applause. \u201cStep out of line!\u201d
But as with everything in our now pejoratively labeled \u201ccancel culture,\u201d many keyboard warriors took to their iPhones and asserted that maybe Borstein\u2019s speech wasn\u2019t so great after all.<\/p>\n
Many deemed it wrong for Borstein to, as they saw it, equate feminism with surviving the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Alex Borstein just compare women in general to Holocaust survivors with her, \u201cladies step out of line\u201d comment? And if she did suggest some kind of equivalency, then who do you think by implication get nominated for the role of Nazi guards? And you just let it go?\u201d one person tweeted at Ron Kampeas, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency\u2019s Washington bureau chief.<\/p>\n
But the main point of contention for many was that they heard Borstein\u2019s praise for her grandmother\u2019s behavior in stepping out of line as implicitly conferring blame on those who didn\u2019t \u201cstep out of line\u201d and were, instead, murdered. <\/p>\n
One Twitter user wrote that \u201cit\u2019s deeply ahistorical and victim-blaming to suggest a spark of individual courage would save someone from the nazis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome [people]l I know (including my wife, daughter of a survivor) found it at best eye-roll worthy, if not offensive. Her grandmother was lucky. Most others who did or would have tried the same would have been killed on the spot. Her story reinforces a narrative of \u2018if only they had just resisted a little more \u2026\u2019\u201d Josh Feigelson wrote on renowned Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt\u2019s Facebook page in a discussion of the speech.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs agreed: \u201cYeah, I found that line problematic. Virtually no victims had anything they could have done to save themselves. And those who survived generally took chances without knowing that it would work out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surely the idea that if everyone had only \u201cstepped out of line,\u201d the Holocaust wouldn\u2019t have happened, is odious \u2014 but it\u2019s also not at all what Borstein intended to convey.
The problematic element of the anecdote, of course, lies in all the people who aren\u2019t in it: the thousands of dead and nearly dead souls, writhing naked under piles of corpses in the pits dug by the execution squads. <\/p>\n
Did Borstein\u2019s applause for her grandmother\u2019s act convey disapproval, or even condemnation, of those who didn\u2019t step out of line? Her detractors would say yes. I think that\u2019s ridiculous.<\/p>\n
Just as the purpose of telling the story lies within its particular significance for Borstein herself, I\u2019d argue that it is equally important to look at the story Borstein tells with her everyday life. In making that argument, I turn to social media not as my jury \u2014 the role it usually plays in our society \u2014 but rather as my evidence.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve admired Borstein\u2019s comedic and acting chops for years only from afar (I\u2019m funny, but her agent has yet to return my phone calls). But thanks to Instagram and Twitter, I\u2019ve been able to admire her even more \u2014 not as a celebrity, but rather as a proud and outspoken Jewish parent.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BwgUPaEB9M2\/<\/p>\n
In 2019, being a proud and an outspoken Jew is nothing to be taken for granted. We live in a time when white nationalists are emerging from under their rocks and spewing hatred \u2014 and sometimes bullets \u2014 all too freely. So many people, celebrities and not, either don\u2019t acknowledge their heritage or hide it under a bushel. <\/p>\n
Borstein, in contrast, steps out of that line, if you will, to live her Jewishness out loud. She posts her Shabbat candles \u2014 complete with Shabbat tray in English and Hebrew \u2014 and challah on a Friday afternoon with the caption \u201cShabbat shalom.\u201d<\/p>\n
She posts a pic of her dad\u2019s coffee mug, which reads \u201cThe Greatest Grandpa\u201d in Hebrew. She posts a selfie celebrating her Emmy nomination with pastrami, Dr. Brown\u2019s and pickles at Katz\u2019s Deli: \u201cThis is how a Jewish gangster celebrates.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be honest: I just love Alex Borstein. By telling that story at the Emmys, she was living her own story the same way she lives her Jewish life: loud and proud. And that\u2019s something I wish more of us did, right here and right now.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/alex-borstein.jpg\")