Borat...again
So I saw Borat for a second time on Friday. This time I paid closer attention to detail when Borat goes to the old Jewish folk's home. Why is it that the people are portrayed as having a bunch of pictures depicting Jewish life and a bunch of Judaica items in general. Also, the old woman in the film continuously talks about how she can't let them go hungry she needs to see them eat. Is this a reference to a stereotypical Jewish grandmother always needing to feed people? I mean none of this really bothers me, I'm just curious as to whether or not I'm reading too far into the movie.
Borat
So I finally saw Borat last night! It was hilarious! I could tell that I was the only Jew in the theater at the time though because there is this scene where Borat goes to this bed and breakfast, on the door is a mezzuzah, and when the man opens the door and the first thing you notice is a Kippah on his head, and I just busted out laughing! But I thought about how this related to my own paper, how Jews themselves potray Jews in films. It was clear that the couple were not observant because the kippah the man was wearing was like one of those cheap kippahs you find at synagogues and the woman did not cover her head at all. It seemed as if the only reason the man was wearing a kippah in the film was to make the point that they were Jewish, even though it was obvious from all the artwork in the film and the mezzuzahs all over the place.
My father and his Jewish Identity
My father was adopted from a Jewish family. My grandparents were both ashkenazi Jews, while my father looks like a middle eastern Jew. He commonly gets stopped at the airport and asked where he is from, and he was born in NYC, not anywhere in the Middle East. But that is besides the point, the point is that he grew up going to a predominately ashkenazi synagogue with family that was ashkenazi, and all though he looked like he was definitely not ashkenazi, but I don't think that he ever felt out of place. In fact I think that he actually felt like he looked more Jewish, which was what my real point is. I never actually thought that the stereotypical Jew was one that looked like a European Jew with white skin. I think I always thought the stereotypical Jew had dark skin. But that's just me.
