Harvey Milk, in Life and on Film, Typified the Proud Jew as Outsider

[Shana A]

Harvey Milk, in Life and on Film, Typified the Proud Jew as Outsider
Though He Shunned Official Religion, His Political Activism Came with a Yiddish Inflection
By Rebecca Spence
Thu. Dec 11, 2008

http://www.forward.com/articles/14715/

San Francisco — In an early scene in "Milk" — the new biopic starring Sean Penn as slain gay activist and San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk — Milk, a proud new shop owner in the city's Castro district, seeks to join his neighborhood business association. He initially gives assurances to a skeptical association leader, saying, "I'm not an interloper." But in a bit of self-effacing humor, he adds, "I may be a Jew."

The quip is one of the film's only mentions of the iconic gay activist's Jewish identity. But it typifies his brash style and cheeky humor. It also points to Milk's profound sense of himself as an outsider.