It was hard to look at this movie in a Jewish light, mainly because it hardly had any Jewish ideas. The background of the story--it’s about a Jewish man, his non-Jewish wife and their kids--would make it seem that Judaism would be one of the main focuses of the movie.
But this is not addressed at all in the movie. It would make no difference to the plot whether he was Jewish or not. This is how Judaism is to a lot of people in this era. For a lot of people, Judaism is in the background and not the foreground.
The only obvious Jewish aspects of this movie are the common Jewish stereotypes played out by the main character’s parents (Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman). The couple always argues, and act as an anti-Semite would think a Jewish couple would act. They always argue and are conservative about their spending. Both parents have stereotypical Brooklyn accents and are portrayed as slobs. Aside from the stereotypes, some common Yiddish phrases such as “mensch” are strewn throughout the dialog. But that is Judaism for some people: a joke and stereotype.
Did you see the movie? What do you think? Comment and tell us what you think.
Daniel Gaudynski lives in Bayside and in 8th grade at The Academy (Hillel).
The Coalition for Jewish Learning is the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.