Jewish talent recognized at Emmy awards

Tom Tugend

Jill Soloway, writer and director of

Jill Soloway, writer and director of “Transparent,” filming the second season of the show on set. (Courtesy of Amazon Studios)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – The Emmys took a shine to Jewish talent on Sunday evening as the prime time television awards unfolded at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

“Transparent,” the comedy series about a Jewish family whose father comes out as transgender won for both its director Jill Soloway and lead actor Jeffrey Tambor.

Speaking to reporters backstage after winning her award, Soloway compared Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to Hitler in widely reported remarks.

Trump, she said, is “the most dangerous monster to ever approach our life time. He’s a complete dangerous monster and at any moment that I have to call him out for being an inheritor of Hitler I will.”

“Jews were other-ized in Nazi Germany to gain political power for Hitler, and right now Donald Trump is doing the same thing,” Soloway said. “He’s other-izing people. He calls women pigs if they don’t look like beauty-pageant contestants; he blames Muslims and Mexicans for our problems; he makes fun of disabled people. This is other-izing with a capital ‘O.’”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus was the winner as actress in a comedy series for her role in “Veep.”  It was the fifth consecutive Emmy for the “Seinfeld” veteran.

Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn, the descendent of an old Prussian Jewish family on his father’s side, garnered the prize for supporting actor in a drama for his role in “Bloodlines.”

David Benioff and Daniel B. Weiss were honored for outstanding writing for the “Game of Thrones” episode “Battle of the Bastards.”

An Emmy went to Hank Azaria as guest actor in the comedy series “Ray Donovan.”

Susanne Bier took top spot as director of “The Night Manager” in the limited series, movie or dramatic special category.

Among the evening’s disappointments was a strikeout for Amy Schumer, who had been nominated for four acting and writing awards, and the slighting of Larry David’s impression of Bernie Sanders in “Saturday Night Live.”