Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on April 3, 2015

From left: Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman of the Web series YidLife Crisis.

Two 30-something Jews sit in a restaurant, eating and bantering in sharp comedic bites. Their cadence is classically familiar, evoking influences from the Talmud to Seinfeld and the Borscht Belt; their arguments are essentially Jewish, centering on Jewish tradition, identity, hypocrisy and contemporary cultural meaning. Oh, and theyre speaking Yiddish.

Meet YidLife Crisis, a Yiddish comedy Web series created and produced by Montreal writer-performers Eli Batalion, 34 (who still lives there), and Jamie Elman, 38 (who now lives in Silver Lake).

Yiddish was never meant to be spoken only by older people, Elman said. Yiddish was always meant to be the secular Jewish language since were representing secular cultural Judaism, were making Yiddish part of that.

It is YidLife Crisis humor and inflection that resonates with a generation raised on Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, even if they dont speak Yiddish; an older demographic may not get the humor but delights in the Yiddish resurgence. But as a series, YidLife Crisis is less about the tactic and more about the tachlis the real discussions that millennials are having about Jewish culture and tradition.

In its four webisodes, YidLife Crisis tackles topics such as circumcision and what the essential nature of Jewish is, and uses talmudic cadence to debate Montreal bagel supremacy all conversations that continue to resonate with them as 30-something cultural Jews walking in the secular world.

Some of those conversations came to light at El Yid at El Cid, a YidLife Crisis-headlined performance at Silver Lakes El Cid restaurant, produced with two L.A. nonprofits, East Side Jews and Yiddishkayt. Other performers riffed on contemporary Jewish life and identity host and comedian Jessie Kahnweiler welcomed everyone to what she called Circumcision: The Musical and rapper Kosha Dillz presented his rhyming anthem Everything Is Kosher. Later, Mendy Pellin a Chasidic comedian and creator of YouTube channel Jewbellish proclaimed that he only believes in same-sects marriage before taking the stage to rap the song Talk Yiddish to Me. (At that point, a woman seated toward the back of the room turned to other audience members and said in disbelief, What is happening?!)

Over the last five to 10 years, Elman said, each Passover after spending time with their families for the seder, he and his Montreal friends meet up late night to hang out. Questions about the future inevitably come up: Most of our parents are still alive, but what about when its up to us? What are we going to do? Will we marry Jews? What do our parents want, and what do we want? What is the essence of a Jewish life? We cant help but talk about these things after the seder. The conversations get intense, but one of the things we love most about Judaism is the encouragement to ask questions.

One episode in particular has raised questions from some audience members. Episode 2 finds Chaimie and Leizer (the YidLifealter-egos of Elman and Batalion, respectively) in a deli, where an initial debate about a lean corned-beef sandwichbecomes a discussion about womens bodies and introduces the soon-to-be-indispensible Yiddish neologism nakkideh zelfie (naked selfie). In a simultaneous nod to and subversion of the famous deli scene from When Harry Met Sally, lets just say that Leizer decidedly will not have what Chaimies having.

This was about mirroring in a non-religious context the hypocrisy that we point out in the other episodes, Elman said, pointing to the first episodes storys dueling absurdities: Leizer eats on Yom Kippur but wont mix meat and milk, while Chaimie would never eat an improperly assembled poutine. The content is racy and pushes the envelope, Batalion admitted. Some may interpret it as offensive, but it is meant as an homage to the zaftig body, which has often been rejected by modern middle- and upper-class society.

See the article here:

Talking tachlis with YidLife crisis

Category: Talmud
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