Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 18, 2022

The cast of the forthcoming Israeli TV series Chanshi, which is currently in production, features two actors with Bay Area roots and diplomas from local Jewish day schools: Marnina Schon attended Tehiyah Day School, and Dor Gvirtsman graduated from Gideon Hausner in Palo Alto.

The show is a comedic drama about a Brooklyn-raised Orthodox woman named Chanshi (played by show creator Aleeza Chanowitz) who travels to Israel to attend her best friends wedding on the eve of her own wedding. Sexy hijinks ensue. Schon plays the best friend, and Gvirtsman plays Chanshis fianc. Henry Winkler is in the cast as Chanshis father. The show will air in Israel later this year on the HOT cable network, and talks are underway with U.S. and international distributors.

For a long time, Ive wanted to work in Israel, Gvirtsman, the son of Israeli parents, told J. I loved that I was able to use my Hebrew and Israeli-ness, though I had to Americanize my Hebrew for the role. (His mother, Dalit Gvirtsman, is a Bay Area Hebrew teacher who also writes the Hebrew-language BaInyanim blog for the local Israeli community.)

Both Gvirtsman, 27, and Schon, 28, have been acting since childhood. She appeared in Berkeley Reps 2005 production of Brundibar. He portrayed Danny in an L.A. production of Chaim Potoks The Chosen, which came to the Palo Alto JCC in 2018. He has also played small TV roles, including on the CBS drama S.W.A.T.

While Schon and Gvirtsman didnt know each other growing up, theyve become good friends in L.A., where they both live. Schons partner, Michael OKonis, led a USC a cappella group Gvirtsman sang in, and co-wrote a musical comedy about the NRA called More Guns, which all three of them performed in together before the pandemic.

Schon grew up attending both Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont and the Or Zarua Havurah, which her parents, Josh and Diane Wirtschafter, helped found. They are the same Wirtschafter family who created the Seder in the Zoom parody of Fiddler on the Roof that went viral in 2020, with Schon responding with her own parody video. (She uses Schon, her middle name, as her stage name.)

How Schon and Gvirtsman landed their roles in Chanshi could be considered very bashert (destined), as well as very L.A.

In August 2021, the Silverlake Independent JCC in Los Angeles posted Schons headshot on its Instagram account with an announcement that she would be leading its High Holiday services. The post noted that in addition to being a bnai mitzvah tutor, Schon was an actor and a musician. An L.A.-based friend of Aaron Geva, a director of Chanshi, forwarded the post to him.

Geva reached out to Schon via Instagram, introducing himself and telling her about the series, then asking if shed be interested in auditioning.

It was a great email courtship, Schon admitted. I was won over because hes so sweet and hilarious, and after watching Aleezas short films, I was laughing and crying. I was obsessed.

Schon asked Gvirtsman to help with her audition tape, and then to help prepare for her callback. She knew hed understand the material and could switch back and forth between Hebrew and English.

When Schon was offered the role, the directors told her they also wanted Gvirtsman, whose acting they had seen on the tape. Schon left for Israel in late December, with just hours to pack for a three-month stay, as Israel was preparing to close its borders to contain the spread of the omicron variant. It was her first time in the country since 2010 when she was a teenage Bronfman Fellow.

Based on her knowledge of television production sets in the U.S., Schon found some only in Israel differences.

For our first day on set, our basecamp was inside a public bomb shelter in a park, where hair, makeup and wardrobe were located, she said. And on my last day of shooting, it was in a synagogue.

One highlight of her experience was working with Henry Winkler and Caroline Aaron. (Aaron plays Chanshis stepmother, and is Joels mother on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.) The two of them have such great chemistry, she said. I kept pinching myself when doing my first rehearsal with them.

A low point was realizing after the fact that she had Covid when she filmed her characters wedding.

Chanshi may sound like the next installment of whats becoming something of a cottage industry of shows about Orthodox Jews who find fulfillment only after leaving the fold. Examples include Unorthodox, a 2020 dramatic series about a Hasidic woman who escapes from an unhappy arranged marriage, and My Unorthodox Life, a 2021 reality series about a formerly Orthodox fashion designer. But both Schon and Gvirtsman promised that their show diverges from that genre.

Many previous portrayals of the ultra-Orthodox world have been fetishizing and harsh critiques of that world, Schon said. Chanshi comes from a place of love and is much more about how these particular characters have navigated this world. Its a much more fair and gentle portrayal.

Gvirtsman compared it to the British comedy Fleabag, saying, Its as incisive and sharp, while really getting into the raunchy and uncomfortable. It also speaks to that straddling that a lot of Jews experience between Israel and America, and this wanting to belong in both places.

Added Schon, American Jews are going to love this show. Its hilarious and, in the words of the Israeli directors, its heart-touching. It just hits on something so deep that hasnt been seen before.

Read more:

Bay Area-raised actors join Henry Winkler in Israeli comedy 'Chanshi' J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Hebrew
Tags: