Who What & Where: Sex and the City, Kiss Me Kosher and Let Them Be
Our weekly round-up of all the best entertainment news, includes our month in Jewish history, Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat-infused tribute to his wife and a Beatles tribute!
TV: And then it was over!
We were all ready to give And Just Like That, the Sex and the City reboot, a one fish ball rating, until the finale. All the moaning about the menopause and embracing of grey hair was forgiven as well as the premature death of Mr Big and Carrie’s subdued grief in episode one, because the last episode was a Jewfest of epic proportions.
Granted, it was still the sort of woke that requires a sledgehammer to silence, but it was Jewish woke and that we can live with. Beware, this is a spoiler, particularly for anyone who doesn’t have Sky, but how could we not mention TV’s first ‘they mitzvah’? The simcha of convert Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and her husband Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler) was not what they had planned, but is it ever? And so, in a break with convention, their non-binary child, Rock, who is a now a ‘they’, got a ‘they mitzvah’, with rainbow-themed kippot and a transgender rabbi (played by Jewish transgender actor Hari Nef).
“It’s beshert,” exclaimed Charlotte, which could also be said of her friend Anthony’s sourdough hipster challah. “We’re already pushing the envelope with the ‘they’ mitzvah. Can we please give the old Jew something he’ll recognise?” Full of chutzpah for the soul, Sarah Jessica Parker – whose father is Jewish – gave generously to the community and, in the final minutes of the episode, she also gave us back the Carrie we know and love. Laughter then crying – it couldn’t be more Jewish, which is why it gets 5/5 fish balls.
Charlotte and Harry’s child identifies as ‘they’
This Month In Jewish History…
By Jewish News historian Derek Taylor
Solomon Schonfeld
Why are Jewish schools so popular? Because Rabbi Dr Solomon Schonfeld got such good exam results from his Hasmonean school that it was eventually considered as good as a public school.
In his time, the school played chess against Harrow. Before the war, he needed entry visas for synagogue officials who were oppressed on the Continent. “No way,” said the Home Office, “unless they have talents unobtainable in this country.”
“They have,” said Schonfeld, who was rigorously Orthodox. “They can make tsitsim!” The visas were approved. He also arranged the Kindertransport and visited Polish survivors after the war with an army bodyguard to avoid being assassinated. A charismatic speaker, surviving a severe brain tumour in later life, he died in February 1984.
Cinema: Laughter Lift
We can all live without conspicuous displays of affection – unless they come from Borat with his Jewish wife, Isla Fisher, on his shoulders while wishing her Happy Birthday. Thank you for sharing, Sacha Baron Cohen.
Jewish Smooching
If you live in dread of your child bringing home an unsuitable partner (at least in your eyes), Shirel Peleg’s Kiss Me Kosher is your kind of film. Shira (Moran Rosenblatt) has finally found love with Maria (Luise Wolfram), a German who has uprooted from her homeland to be with Shira in Tel Aviv.
There are wedding bells on the horizon for the two women, but there are cultural and religious differences to overcome, as well as facing up to Shira’s headstrong grandmother, Berta (Rivka Michaeli), who strongly disapproves of any marriage between Germans and Jews. But Berta has a secret – and he is Palestinian. All languages are heard amid much hilarity and a fair bit of kosher kissing. A tonic for Valentine’s Day.
Tickets from www.ukjewishfilm.org for JW3 screenings.
Watch and Learn:
Date confusion is one of the biggest Jewish niggles. Depending on where we are in the lunar-solar calendar, we’re either clashing with Christian national holidays – Christmas and Chanukah/Easter and Passover – or we are days, if not weeks, apart from them.
Take Valentine’s Day. For most, it’s next Tuesday, while for us the designated day of love, Tu B’Av isn’t until 22 August. Originally a post-biblical day of joy, it served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the Second Temple period.
Jewish singletons would be very sour if they only had one day to flip through Hinge, or it could force them to be less fussy and immediately settle on someone who might prove to be a winner. To prep for such an unlikely happening, we have several Jewish film romances to engineer a snappy shidduch.
Crossing Delancey: A successful woman is fixed up by her bubbe and a matchmaker with a guy who smells of cucumbers in brine. Moral: Keep your eyes open around Mrs Elswood.
Keeping The Faith: Ben Stiller is the hot rabbi in a love triangle with his priest pal (Edward Norton) and their mutual school crush (Jenna Elfman). Moral: Attend multifaith services with caution.
Longing: Missed opportunity as seen by the protagonist, who realises 20 years too late that his girlfriend was pregnant when they broke up. Co-stars Neta Riskin (Gitti in the much-missed Shtisel). Moral: Act in haste and your mother will never forgive you.
Charts Mazeltov
To Mosaic Voices as the group’s album Letter to Kamilla has unexpectedly charted at No 5 in the official classical music charts!
Tonight: Let Them Be
If you watched Peter Jackson’s three-part Beatles documentary, Let It Be, you’ll understand why the seven-member Let It Broigas tribute band is coming to JW3 tonight to perform the Let it Be album in its entirety, followed by a selection of their favourite Beatles tracks from 1966-1970.
It’s tonight, so start getting dressed.
www.jw3.org.uk
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