Jewish people, I think it’s uncontroversial to say, have vastly greater representation in almost all artistic fields. Admittedly, that would be true of Jewish people compared to most other similarly sized demographic subsets, too. But it’s still an interesting comparison because many people have made the comparisons between the two groups, and we share many similarities (tight-knit communities and high levels of educational achievement, to name two obvious ones).

So why the difference? There are some reasons that are historical, particularly Jewish people’s historic ties to showbiz. But I also don’t think that fully explains it - for example they also seem more prominent in fields like literature and painting - fields where there is no historical reason that I can discern why they should find greater success. So there must be other factors at play. I have theories as to what, but not much to back them up so they’re little more than speculation and not worth much.

But I do think it’s still fair to say that by and large LDS people are underrepresented in the cultural fields and overrepresented in the professional ones. And so I think that saying we have no cultural cachet (or cache, if you prefer) is largely true but only invites further questioning as to why.