‘Bad Jews’: The play behind the title COMMUNITY

BY ROBERT ISENBERG

Alot has happened since 2013, when Joshua Harmon’s play “Bad Jews” was first staged, at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City. True, antisemitism was thriving in 2013, but the decade since has been even more frightening for American Jews: Antisemitic violence in the U.S. is now at an all-time high, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

SO, IF YOU happened to be driving down Jefferson Boulevard in Warwick, and you saw a big red sign proclaiming “Bad Jews,” your alarm would be understandable. Even learning that the sign was an advertisement for a stage play was small consolation to many.

Yet the Gamm Theatre is proceeding with its production of “Bad Jews” this month.

“Despite the deliberately provocative, and ironic, nature of the title, ‘Bad Jews’ is a testament to the fact that no one person is a monolith,” Tony Estrella, the Gamm’s artistic director, wrote in his program notes. “There is little agreement in any culture about who or what constitutes the ‘good’ or the ‘bad.’ There is no consensus on either the nature of our debt to the past or our aspirations for the future.”

“Bad Jews” takes place over the course of one night in a studio apartment in Manhattan. A beloved patriarch has just died, and his grandchildren are bickering over his

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 trembling voice, 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Yelena Kuklova, who as a child was hidden by her non-Jewish neighbors in a suitcase in a closet, echoed the sentiment.

“They killed us then because we were Jews. They are killing us today because we are Ukrainian,” she said, a slow cascade of tears spilling over her cheekbones. “We started our lives in war and we’re finishing them in war.” legacy. Daphna is fiery, loyal to her family and deeply committed to her Judaism. Liam missed the funeral, behaves with secular ambivalence and is dating a non-Jewish woman. In the middle is Jonah, who is both diplomatic and emotionally riven. Their bickering escalates as they debate the fate of a family heirloom, which barely escaped Nazi scavengers.

“I definitely relate,” says actor Hillel Rosenshine, 23, who plays Jonah in the Gamm production. “At times in the play, it feels like characters are talking past each other because one person is arguing about cultural Judaism while the other is arguing about religious Judaism. It can be a worthwhile distinction to make.”

Rosenshine is a Brown University alumnus, and his parents are both Israeli. He says his background is secular.

“I never went to Hebrew school, I seldom attended synagogue, and I eat pork,” he says. “So, on the one hand I grew up battling expectations of how Jewish I’m meant to be, trying to be as assimilated into secular society as possible.

“On the other hand, I’ve gone through periods of strong pride in my Judaism. There are times when I’m deeply afraid of becoming someone rootless, without some community or tradition to call upon. And in those moments, I echo Daphna in her pleas for preserving Jewish identity as an American.”

But the play is about more than Jewish identity, and many of the themes will speak to audiences regardless of their religion.

“I’ve lost a lot of people I love,” says actress Sarah Corey, who plays Daphna. Corey, who grew up in a Jewish family in Massachusetts, says she is also drawn to the theme of grief.

“One other thing I understand on a deep level, which this play really focuses in on, is the obligation for family to be there in a family member’s last months and weeks and hours

And so it was in battle-scarred Mykolaiv, 140 kilometers northeast of Odessa.

“What the Germans never managed to do, the Russians did,” said Eli Ben Mendel Hopstein, standing in front of his building, pockmarked from the shrapnel of a Russian missile.

Inside his home, Hopstein rifled through decades-old photos of himself in the navy.

“I know danger,” he said, “and I don’t feel it now.” He and minutes, or whatever you can make happen. To rush to bedsides and spend quality time or palliative time. You do not miss a family member’s last days and their funeral because you lost your phone skiing in Aspen. I judge Liam very harshly for that.”

For her lead role in the world premiere of “Bad Jews,” Tracee Chimo won a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play. The New York Times said the play “crackled with energy.” But still, those involved in the Gamm’s production know how badly the title comes across in these days of swelling antisemitism, which has led to concerns from friends and loved ones.

“My aunt just recently asked me worriedly if it was an antisemitic play,” says John Hardin, 36, who plays Liam. “I’m willing to bet it’s not the last time I’ll have that reaction to the title.”

Hardin is not Jewish, but he sees a connection between his relationship with Catholicism and the characters in “Bad Jews.”

“I still feel a sense of responsibility for what the Catholic Church supports and enacts in the world,” he says. “It’s a strange dilemma to habitually avoid the church and still feel tethered to it. I think that’s the same kind of friction that Liam deals with in the play.”

The phrase “bad Jews” could mean different things to different people, Corey adds. It could be a self-effacing joke, an accusation within the community or, indeed, a hostile slur. To describes himself as a proud Jew. “First, I am a Jew, then I am Ukrainian, and I never once hid this from anyone.” Mykolaiv, pro-Russia before the war, has become a source of pride for its residents because of Russia’s failure to occupy it. Even before the war, Mykolaiv was desperately poor. But now, following eight months of daily explosions, destruction is everywhere and the city’s critical infrastructure has been badly

Corey, Harmon’s fictional scenario evokes all these meanings.

“I think the meaning of the [title] is clear and multifaceted when you’ve seen the play,” she says. “In the Jewish faith, there is such an emphasis on mitzvah and performing mitzvot. So, I read the title also to mean that these [characters] are bad Jews – not all of them, I’ll let the audience decide who –because they are acting selfishly, and not with kindness and compassion to others. It’s an anti-mitzvah.”

Corey, who has performed in a wide range of productions as an actress and singer, says she was familiar with “Bad Jews” long before she was cast in the Gamm’s production.

“I loved [the play] from the first time I read it,” she says. “It is so spot-on as an exploration of grief and faith and family and Judaism and compassion and miscommunication. It’s hilarious and heartbreaking. When I found out about auditions at the Gamm, I really wanted this. This could easily be my family!” damaged.

“Bad Jews” plays through March 26 at the Gamm Theatre, in Warwick, GammTheatre.org. Join a free discussion, moderated by Rabbi Sarah Mack, on March 12 at 3:45 p.m. at the Gamm.

ROBERT ISENBERG (risenberg@ jewishallianceri.org) is the multimedia producer for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and a writer for Jewish Rhode Island.

Like Odessa, the city has no electricity for up to 22 hours a day. For more than half a year, large swaths of the city had no water at all. Today, residents can turn on the tap and get a murky brown liquid known as technical water, but it is far from potable. For drinking and cooking, they are forced to collect safe water in plastic gallon bottles at water stations all over the city, many of which were installed by the Israeli nonprofit IsraAID.

The first anniversary of the war marks two weeks since Alexei Shkurat and the other 89 new arrivals were greeted on the tarmac of Ben Gurion Airport by Israel’s new immigration minister, Ofir Sofer. Shkurat is on the lookout for a permanent home in a place where he can sell his art.

“Meeting with my children was the best event of the last year,” he said.