“There were many Jews who marched with the civil rights protests; there were also Jews involved in excluding black citizens from certain institutions,” said Portman.
“That combination of collaboration and adversarial relationship is fascinating to explore – two minority groups that face discrimination and obviously found some measure of unity to face similar problems. But then also had differences because Jews could try to assimilate into whiteness, which many of them did as a survival method, making them part of a group that discriminated against others.”
The facts that the black victim, a hardworking activist and mother called Cleo Sherwood, attracted much less press coverage than 11-year-old Tessie Fine, and that her character was obsessed with uncovering how the lady in the lake died were “interesting” to Portman.
“Namely what happens when oppressed people oppress others,” she said. “It’s possible to be both oppressed and oppressor. And that sometimes when we’re looking for our own freedom, we don’t realise we’re stepping on someone else’s life.”
While antisemitism is depicted in the series, in the desecration of a Jewish cemetery with swastikas which echoes real-life events of recent years in places such as Illinois and Westhoffen, Portman said she had not experienced it first-hand. “I read, like everyone else does, about the rising tide of antisemitism which is disconcerting.”
