Table Of ContentSILVER SCREEN,
HASIDIC JEWS
SILVER SCREEN,
HASIDIC JEWS
SILVER SCREEN,
HASIDIC JEWS
The Story of an Image
SHAINA HAMMERMAN
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
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CONTENTS
1. Acknowledgments vii
1. Introduction: When Jews Are Like Jews xi
1. The Yarmulke beneath the Cowboy Hat: Signifying
Jewishness in the Hasidic Western 1
2. Th e Jewish Type and “le juif typique”: Typologies of
Jewishness in Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob 26
3. H ard-Core Jews: Woody Allen’s Religious Women and Men 53
4. Cinéma judéité: Projecting Jewish-Muslim Romance 77
5. What Lies beneath the Wig: Hester Street and Adaptation 104
1. E pilogue: Hijab, Habit, and Hasid 132
1. Filmography and Bibliography 139
1. Index 149
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Traditionally, this is the part of the book where the author offers
thanks for the support of the various institutions and grants that funded her
research. In my case, I can say that this book was reluctantly funded by my
husband, Octavio, and no one else.
Fortunately, support comes in many forms that are not monetary. Oc-
tavio is first in line for recognition of that kind of sustenance as well. His
affection and humor, as well as his challenges to many of this book’s most
basic premises, made this project better to write and better to read (I hope).
I am fortunate to count among my closest supporters some brilliant writ-
ers and editors whose wisdom, sharp criticism, and friendship bolstered this
project from the very beginning: Helene Wecker, Kara Levy, and Daniela Blei
are constant inspirations for me as writers, mothers, and friends. Other close
friends, within and outside academia, have provided assistance and most-
needed distractions along the way. I thank my talented friend Becky Nelson
for assembling the images for this book and designing its beautiful cover.
Michelle Scheurich, Lilach Shafir, and Leah Glazer are part of my daily life,
even though we don’t speak daily. Rachel Rothstein offers me unparalleled
camaraderie; even though our lives have taken different paths, I always have
the feeling we’re in this together. I cobbled together an amazing cohort of col-
leagues, and I’m grateful to Sarah Cramsey, Nicholas Baer, Erin Corber, and
vii
VIII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Lynne Gerber for celebrating my successes with me and bolstering me during
difficult moments.
Others in my life nourish me in ways that enable me to write: Coach
Ethan Jefferson, Devin Farney, Shannon Lundling, and Claudia Kindler keep
me healthy, take care of my family, and challenge me. I want to extend my
gratitude to my various San Francisco communities: Little Bear School, the
extended Splunk family, and my Shabbat Club friends (especially Deborah
Sommers).
This book began as a doctoral dissertation, and I continue to be grateful
for the guidance of my committee members. Your insights feature promi-
nently in this book; rest assured, your time was not wasted. Anton Kaes gave
me access to the discipline of film analysis, and Martin Jay inaugurated me
into the world of European intellectual history. Deena Aranoff is a model
of professionalism and showed me what it means to be an excellent teacher.
Mitch Hart brought his sense of humor to this project and has done me the
incredible honor of making me feel like an equal as his colleague.
I find great joy in writing about my advisor and mentor, Naomi Seidman.
She has been a close friend and confidante, but I can find no better way to
describe her than as my muse. Even as I sat down to write these acknowledg-
ments, I first opened Naomi’s books to see how she’d done it and let her prose
inspire mine. Naomi is my favorite writer; she is the person I channel when-
ever I write. She is the reader I most want to challenge and surprise. I cherish
our relationship, and I hope I have made her a little proud.
Speaking of people I hope to make proud, my family has always sustained
me, even when they couldn’t understand what it is I “do all day.” My parents
and siblings have challenged me to make my ideas clearer and my arguments
more grounded. Along with my nieces and nephews, they keep me aware of
what’s most important in life. It has been my great fortune to count my sis-
ter, Jessica Hammerman, as a colleague and a best friend. Along the way, my
brother, Eli, became a colleague, too. I thank my family for their support in
this and in all things.
The questions this book poses about national identity and the power of
Hasidic imagery originated in my own ambivalence about being Jewish while
living in France in the early 2000s. Since then, those questions have gained
some urgency, and they are no longer about me at all. Instead, I see the per-
nicious powers of racism, xenophobia, and sexism bubbling at the surface of
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Ix
both French and American national discourses. This book is meant to expose,
in its small way, how the benign world of popular filmmaking and the whims
of those with great intentions can come together to reveal exclusionary and
potentially dangerous impulses. I am very grateful to Dee Mortensen and
the whole team at Indiana University Press for giving me a forum to voice
these concerns in what feels like an ominous time in our social and political
history.
This book is dedicated to Max and Ariana. Truthfully, an idea became
a dissertation and a dissertation became a book because I wanted to model
perseverance for you. I wanted to show you that only you define the terms of
your success. You don’t have to read this book to know that I have found my
greatest success in life in being your mom.
