Silver Screen, Hasidic Jews

The Story of an Image

Shaina Hammerman

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780253031709
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

"A valuable contribution to a growing body of scholarly work on Jewish visibility in cinema." — American Jewish History Motivated by Woody Allen's brief comedic transformation into a Hasidic Jew in Annie Hall, cultural historian Shaina Hammerman examines the effects of real and imagined representations of Hasidic Jews in film, television, theater, and photography. Although these depictions could easily be dismissed as slapstick comedies and sexy dramas about forbidden relationships, Hammerman uses this ethnic imagery to ask meaningful questions about how Jewish identity, multiculturalism, belonging, and relevance are constructed on the stage and silver screen—questions relevant to any minority in present-day America and Europe.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: When Jews Are Like Jews
• 1. The Yarmulke beneath the Cowboy Hat: Signifying Jewishness in the Hasidic Western
• 2. The Jewish Type and “le juif typique”: Typologies of Jewishness in Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob
• 3. Hard-Core Jews: Woody Allen’s Religious Women and Men
• 4. Cinéma judéité: Projecting Jewish-Muslim Romance
• 5. What Lies beneath the Wig: Hester Street and Adaptation
• Epilogue: Hijab, Habit, and Hasid
• Filmography and Bibliography
• Index