Maurice Levy (The Wire) - Analysis and Origins

Analysis and Origins

Levy is among The Wire's least sympathetic characters; Slate writer David Plotz describes him as "the most repulsive piece of garbage in the city of Baltimore." He is also the show's most explicitly Jewish character. Avon Barksdale's sister Brianna refers to him as "that Jew lawyer," and Levy is shown using Yiddish words (for instance, saying Herc was mishpoceh, meaning "family" and describing Clay Davis as a goniff, or thief) praising his wife's brisket, criticizing McNulty for "dragging me from the Levy family preserve on a Friday night," etc. Some writers have suggested that the character reflects some anti-semitic stereotypes. Keith Kahn-Harris, for example, writes that "Levy’s crookedness, his cynical exploitation of the drug trade and his ’seduction’ of Herc all recall common negative stereotypes of Jews as sinister, venal and secretive." David Simon, who is Jewish, has explained the decision to make the character Jewish:

Why did we make this guy Jewish? Because when I was covering the drug trade for 13 years for the Sun, most of the major drug lawyers were Jewish. Some of them are now disbarred and others are not but came pretty close. Anyone who is anyone in law enforcement in Baltimore knows the three or four guys Maury Levy is patterned on.

If I have people from every other tribe in Baltimore portrayed negatively, everyone is maligned in some way, how can I not do that to the Jewish guy? How can I pull that punch? At that point I'm just being hypercritical. Here are good people from my own tribe who say how can you do that, and my answer is how can I not?

Rhonda Pearlman, "one of a handful of generally positive characters in the show," is also Jewish, and Kahn-Harris argues that Jay Landsman, a somewhat sympathetic character, is Jewish as well. However, Kahn-Harris writes that "Their Jewishness is not referred to as explicitly as Levy’s is and it is not treated as a significant source of either characters’ strengths and weaknesses." Maury has the distinction of being one of the few "street" characters to appear in every season of The Wire, the others being Poot Carr, Proposition Joe, Wee-Bey Brice, Omar Little and Bubbles.