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Start Date
23-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
23-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
In the corners of stand-up and late night comedy, there have been numerous recent examples of cultural intersections between Black and Jewish Americans. This paper aims to investigate televised reconciliations of social and spiritual values of Blackness and Jewishness through focusing on one celebration: the bar and bat mitzvah. This coming-of-age ritual for young Jews has been a recurring backdrop in film and television, although it has recently featured Black performers adopting this tradition, in lovingly rendered appropriations. In her stand-up special Black Mitzvah, actor and comedian Tiffany Haddish reveals her intentions to honor her Jewish ancestral roots through engaging in Torah study. The ritual has also provided comic relief on Saturday Night Live, in a sketch involving host Drake recounting that sacred day. Most recently, Desus and Mero had the non-Jewish hosts, known for their affectionate embrace of immigrant communities in New York, undertaking that rite of passage. These cross-cultural articulations recall Jonathan Freedman’s concept of “discursive bleeding,” referring to the blurring between Jews and immigrant communities with comparable heritages. These displays of cultural blending also point toward a reconciliation of shared values between Jewish and Black communities in the United States. In an era where political controversies attempt to pit Jewish American groups against communities of color, and as populations of Jews identifying as non-White become more prominent in the American cultural mosaic, this paper will demonstrate how these televised expressions of spiritual joy also contain a potent rhetorical and sociopolitical power.
From Bodega Boys to Bodega Men: Coming-of-Age Rites and Black-Jewish Intersections in Contemporary Television
In the corners of stand-up and late night comedy, there have been numerous recent examples of cultural intersections between Black and Jewish Americans. This paper aims to investigate televised reconciliations of social and spiritual values of Blackness and Jewishness through focusing on one celebration: the bar and bat mitzvah. This coming-of-age ritual for young Jews has been a recurring backdrop in film and television, although it has recently featured Black performers adopting this tradition, in lovingly rendered appropriations. In her stand-up special Black Mitzvah, actor and comedian Tiffany Haddish reveals her intentions to honor her Jewish ancestral roots through engaging in Torah study. The ritual has also provided comic relief on Saturday Night Live, in a sketch involving host Drake recounting that sacred day. Most recently, Desus and Mero had the non-Jewish hosts, known for their affectionate embrace of immigrant communities in New York, undertaking that rite of passage. These cross-cultural articulations recall Jonathan Freedman’s concept of “discursive bleeding,” referring to the blurring between Jews and immigrant communities with comparable heritages. These displays of cultural blending also point toward a reconciliation of shared values between Jewish and Black communities in the United States. In an era where political controversies attempt to pit Jewish American groups against communities of color, and as populations of Jews identifying as non-White become more prominent in the American cultural mosaic, this paper will demonstrate how these televised expressions of spiritual joy also contain a potent rhetorical and sociopolitical power.
Bio
Jordan Z. Adler is a Ph.D. candidate in English (concentrating in media, cinema, and digital studies) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A native of Toronto, Canada, his doctoral research explores representations of millennial Jewish life, culture, and identity in film and television. In 2017, he graduated from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Montreal’s Concordia University, where his Master’s thesis focused on documentaries that examined nonviolent activism and peace-building movements in Israel-Palestine. His scholarly work can be found in Jump Cut, Offscreen, and Studies in the Fantastic.