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American Jew Tells: The Truth Behind Seth Rogen's New Movie | Israel today

2020-08-12T09:03:58.250Z


| Jewish cultureThere are more pickles in this story • The comedy 'An American Pickle' tells about the inner torments of secular American Jews • Spoiler alert Towards the end of the film 'An American Pickle', the character of actor Seth Rogen - in fact, one of the characters he plays in the film - is asked to be tenth in a dark synagogue. Rogen, who plays Ben Greenbaum, a young Jew from Brooklyn, shakes his head...


There are more pickles in this story • The comedy 'An American Pickle' tells about the inner torments of secular American Jews • Spoiler alert

Towards the end of the film 'An American Pickle', the character of actor Seth Rogen - in fact, one of the characters he plays in the film - is asked to be tenth in a dark synagogue. Rogen, who plays Ben Greenbaum, a young Jew from Brooklyn, shakes his head from side to side, bending over, mumbling "I don't know the words of the prayer, sorry." Moments later, it turns out that's not true. When the older worshipers around him say Kaddish, Ben joins them in the right places by saying "Amen," and then continues the prayer.

Ben Hari knows the words of prayer and American Jews like me who watch the film no doubt where he learned them - perhaps in the Jewish school to which he was sent on weekends, or in the Jewish summer camp or in another Jewish school where he studied in his youth. So why is he claiming he does not know the words of the prayer? Because Ben Greenbaum is not a religious person, or that's what he says to himself.

At the heart of 'An American Pickle', HBO Max's first feature film, based on a short story written by Simon Ritz, is a story about immigration, and assimilation into the new society. The film opens with a newly married young Jewish couple, Herschel (also played by Rogen) and Sarah Greenbaum (actress Sarah Snook). They leave Shlupsk, their imaginary shtetl in Eastern Europe, in 1919, after a raid by the Cossacks and reach the shores of New York, where they are greeted by the Statue of Liberty, the gateway to the fulfillment of the American dream. Sarah longs to get rich, so that one day she can purchase a tombstone for herself that will be placed on her grave, and after she becomes pregnant, Herschel announces that their son will be strong and that in 100 years "the greenbaum will be the most powerful, successful and powerful in the country."

Of course this is the stage where it again becomes clear that humans are making plans, but God is laughing. On one of his shifts at the pickle factory where he works as a mouse catcher, Herschel falls into a giant pickle barrel, the lid closes on it, the whole factory closes and no one visits the place for 100 years, until two children fly their glider through one of the factory windows. They go inside, lift the lid of the pickle barrel and find Herschel inside the barrel, wonderfully preserved on all of his limbs and shasa tendons and his tweed jacket.

After the story makes headlines, Herschel meets the only relative the doctors have been able to find - Nino, Ben Greenbaum, who lives in Brooklyn, and is exactly the same age as the missed Herschel. And yes, Ben Greenbaum also plays Seth Rogen, this time without a beard.

But from here, the plot does not go in the expected direction of a story from the legends about relatives who reunited under strange circumstances, but becomes a description of the rivalry between the two Greenbaums, which, of course, come from two completely different worlds. In the next scene Herschel wanders into Ben's (amazing and utterly-unrealistic) apartment in Brooklyn and wonders aloud why Ben is not hanging pictures of his family on the walls of the house. Ben twists and finally manages to find the only photo album in his possession with family photos, including photos of Herschel and Sarah, of their son Mort, of David son of Mort, and of his wife (i.e., Ben's parents) and even photos from Ben's bar mitzvah. Herschel asks where his parents are and Ben tells them they were killed in a car accident. Herschel asks Ben to tell him every detail about his parents' deaths so that "he can witness his grief" and so that they can both "connect through the common mourning", but Ben waves to him and suggests that they go eat something instead. Herschel insists they go visit the cemetery where the parents are buried. And after Ben also rejects this idea out of hand, Herschel suggests going to the synagogue, where they can say Kaddish and mourn the dead properly.

"I'm not really sure it's something I'm interested in doing right now, but I would love to accompany you there," says Ben.

"what's the problem?" Herschel asks.

"It's not a problem. I understand ... I understand why you are a religious person. It makes sense to someone from your time. But I do not ... I'm not really religious."

"You do not know an orphan Kaddish?"

"Not anymore, no."

"So how do you grieve for parents if you do not say an orphaned Kaddish?"

"I'm fine, do not worry," Ben replies.

But as you can already understand at this stage of the film, it is really wrong.

The two greenbaums continue on a collision course. Herschel starts a pickle business that is a huge success among New York hipsters, who are dying for their "authenticity." Ben does not like the project. There are also Twitter wars, cultural struggles and angry protesters, but the conflict that has particularly captivated me is the one that is taking place inside Ben’s head. This is a conflict that I, as an American Jew in the 21st century, can completely connect to.

Like Ben Greenbaum, I grew up in a Jewish family, studied Hebrew classes at the Conservative synagogue, spent the summer at Jewish camps, ate on Jewish holidays with family members and celebrated my bat mitzvah. And like Ben Greenbaum, my "Jewish life" ended after I left my parents' house.

It is very easy to see the connection between "I am not really religious" and "I am not really Jewish", and this fear - that the younger generation is moving away from religion - is causing great concern in the Jewish world. This is exactly the same concern that guides Herschel in the film, when he asks Ben how it is possible that the same Jew from his bar-mitzvah picture, stands today and says that he does not want to visit the synagogue, or say Kaddish about his family.

Ben's reluctance is familiar to many families of modern American Jews. Like Williamsburg pickles consumers, we too seek authenticity - we do not do what we do just because it is written in the Torah, or because our parents told us to, or because a great-grandfather who has been pickled in a pickle barrel for 100 years - tells us to do so.

At the same time, it is perhaps our stubbornness that prevents us from finding meaning in the traditions our ancestors have cultivated for years.

Even after more than ten years of work in Jewish professional circles, I still suffer from "impostor syndrome" when it comes to the traditional aspects of Judaism. True, I can still remember the words of the food blessing (or most, at least) because we said the prayer after every meal for my five years in the summer camps. But the question that still bothers me is is it okay for me to say a prayer when I do not believe in it in complete faith? Should I close my eyes and pray "Hear" when I am not sure that this God I turn to does exist? I do not know what our sages would say, but I began to tell myself that it was fine. I can decide to fast on Yom Kippur in a certain year if I feel like it, even if I am "not religious", and maybe have a meaningful experience - or not.

None of this means I'm more "religious" than I was ten years ago, just as I do not think we should believe that Ben Greenbaum suddenly became religious when he joined the Kaddish prayer at the end of the film. He's still a guy living in Brooklyn, who likes to make appliques and drink almond milk, and I really do not see him joining any rabbinical institution later in life. But he is more open to the possibility of finding meaning in his family traditions. And it is also likely that the next time someone offers to turn to the Jewish tradition to mark important moments in his life, he will not respond with such aggression.

The entanglement underlying the film An American Pickle (pickle - means both pickled vegetable and entanglement or problem) is not how two men of different generations and education will manage to get along, but how one American Jew can combine his personal beliefs and preferences with the age-old traditions that shaped his family. . This is an issue that the Jews of America and the Diaspora have been dealing with for 100 years, and it is very likely that we will continue to deal with it for the next 100 years, or as the verse states - for generation after generation and forever and ever.

Source: israelhayom

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