"He's Not Bad; He's Cha-Baad"

I forget how I first heard about the Hebrew Hammer, but I know as soon as I did, I was obsessed. I counted down the days 'til it came out in the theaters. I would call my sister at home and talk about the cool stuff on the website. Then I dragged a friend along to the Angelicka to go see it.

One interesting thing about seeing it in the theaters was that I'm pretty sure it wasn't a totally Jewish audience (okay, according to everyone at my high school, I don't "look Jewish," so you can never be sure, but I'm fairly certain there were some gentiles in the crowd). So I guess in a small way, at least, Kesselman managed to bring his piece outside of the community. And if his goal is partially to destroy the less-than-flattering Jewish stereotypes in the non-Jewish world, then that audience is necessary.

The other thing that's stuck with me about the experience is how different my reaction was to my friend's. She hadn't grown up in a particularly observant environment (like agnostic, but celebrates some holidays, you know what I mean), but had grown up surrounded by a bunch of Jews with similar attitudes. And she really didn't dig the movie. She found it offensive and thought that it portrayed Jews as whiny with "a lot of digestive problems." Meanwhile, I loved it! The opening scene is the best......Having gone to a public school where I was usually the only Jew in the class and sang mandatory Christmas carols and made Easter baskets every year, I could so relate. It was really refreshing/exciting to see a satire on that experience on the big screen. When my sister saw it, she felt the same way.

So why the difference in reactions? It could just be sense of humor. At the same time, part of the reason why I liked the Hebrew Hammer so much was because I could relate to one of its central themes. Growing up in a place where being Jewish was really common if not the norm, my friend couldn't really relate to the idea of not being accepted or being an outcast on some level.

I know Professor Cohen said it was distributed widely, but when I was looking to see it, it was only showing in New York, LA, and South Florida--places with huge Jewish populations. My sister actually couldn't find it in any theater around Orlando and had to watch it on Comedy Central (which is sad 'cause the edited version just isn't the same). I think this is really unfortunate because in addition to trying to destroy stereotypes in the non-Jewish world, I think the movie is letting Jews know that it's cool to be Jewish. And that message could be used more by Jewish living in Oklahoma than by Jews living in Boca Raton.

So after class I had to ask myself--How could I love the Hebrew Hammer so much, but HATE Heeb? Both are confronting stereotypes; both are sorta in-your-face; both use words like kyke and yid and heeb. I think Hebrew Hammer just does it better. The main difference I can see is that while Heeb comes from a place of "I'm Jewish, BUT....," Hebrew Hammer comes at you with "I'm Jewish, AND......." I'm Jewish and I'm sexy. I'm Jewish and I'm cool. I'm Jewish and I can kick your ass. These two parts of his personality are not in conflict and that makes him so much more appealing.