Bad Jews - Play Guide

Theatre Calgary’s Play Guides and InterACTive Learning Program
are made possible by the support of our sponsors:
The Play Guide for Bad Jews was created by:
Zachary Moull
Artistic Associate
Want to get in touch?
 Send an email to [email protected]
 Connect with us on our Facebook page
 Tweet us @theatrecalgary #tcBadJews
 Follow our Instagram @theatrecalgary
Bad Jews runs from March 15 to April 10, 2016
For tickets, visit theatrecalgary.com or call (403) 294-7447
Table of Contents
THE BASICS
The Company ....................................................................01
Who’s Who? ...................................................................... 02
Time and Place ................................................................. 02
The Story ..........................................................................02
EXPLORATIONS
Joshua Harmon and Bad Jews ............................................ 03
Chai ................................................................................. 04
Sitting Shiva ...................................................................... 05
A Portrait of Jewish Americans ........................................... 06
Bad Jews Miscellany .......................................................... 07
CONVERSATIONS
Conversation Starters ........................................................ 09
Post-Show Conversations.................................................... 09
What’s Your Family Story? ................................................. 09
Wresting with Faith:
An Interview with Dr. Norm Schachar ....................... 10
Big Reads from Calgary Public Library ................................. 13
Calgary Jewish Community Centre ...................................... 14
Sources ............................................................................ 15
THE BASICS
-1-
The Company
Theatre Calgary presents
BAD JEWS
By Joshua Harmon
THE CAST
Liam Haber
Daphna Feygenbaum
Jonah Haber
Melody
Jeremy Ferdman
Bobbi Goddard
David Sklar
Katharine Zaborsky
THE CREATIVE TEAM
Director
Valerie Planche
Set, Costume, & Lighting Design Cory Sincennes
Production Dramaturg
Zachary Moull
Vocal Coach
Jane MacFarlane
Fight Director
Karl H. Sine
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
Patti Neice
Carissa Sams
THE BASICS
-2-
Who’s Who?
Daphna Feygenbaum: Liam and Jonah’s first cousin, a senior at Vassar.
She’s passionate about her Jewish identity and plans to move to Israel
after graduation to be with her boyfriend Gilad.
Liam Haber: Daphna’s cousin: his mother is the sister of Daphna’s father.
He’s a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago, where he specializes in
contemporary Japanese youth culture.
Jonah Haber: Liam’s younger brother, a sophomore at UVM.
Melody: Liam’s girlfriend, works for a Chicago non-profit.
Time and Place
Bad Jews takes place in a studio apartment in the Upper West Side of
Manhattan. It is the present day, in March, late at night after the funeral of
the three cousins’ beloved grandfather.
The Story
On the night after their grandfather’s funeral, three young Jewish cousins
are forced to bunk together in a cramped apartment. Daphna and Jonah
have been home from college since “Poppy” Feygenbaum died two days
ago, helping their parents prepare for the funeral and the shiva. Liam, the
eldest, missed the funeral after losing his cell phone on a snowboarding
trip. He arrives late at night with his non-Jewish girlfriend Melody.
Tempers flare when Liam and Daphna square off over the inheritance of a
precious family heirloom: a necklace that belonged to their grandfather.
The result is a ferocious and articulate brawl over religious tradition and
cultural legacy.
EXPLORATIONS
-3-
Joshua Harmon and Bad Jews
Playwright Joshua Harmon’s first inspiration for Bad Jews came at a Yom
Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial
Day) service during his second
year
of
interview
university.
with
In
an
Roundabout
Theatre for the play’s opening in
2012, Harmon recalls what he felt
was a “depressingly unmoving”
ceremony
in
which
the
grandchildren of survivors told
their ancestors’ stories, instead of
the survivors themselves. The
third-person perspective of the
recollections left him cold. “It
Joshua Harmon
was strange and sterile and
laden with clichés but lacking in genuine feeling,” he says, “and it scared
me.” That got him thinking about his own relationship to Judaism, and how
his generation will approach its cultural legacy and tell the Jewish story.
The eye-catching title Bad Jews was Harmon’s next spark. It’s somewhat
provocative given the long history of antisemitism – his own grandmother
asked why he couldn’t call the play Good Jews instead. But as Harmon told
the Jewish Daily Forward, “It’s an expression I have definitely heard people
my age use very freely.”In that context, it’s a self-deprecatory joke about
one’s own level of observance. Beyond that, the title points out the play’s
questions about cultural inheritance and the moral high ground. What does it
mean to be a “bad Jew” or a “good Jew” in today’s world? And who gets to
decide?
After having the original idea, Harmon let the project sit in his notebook for
several years, unsure of how to approach such a challenging piece while still
EXPLORATIONS
-4-
a student. When he returned to it in his late twenties and finally finished a
first draft, the script got immediate attention and landed him his first-ever
major production. That off-Broadway staging at Roundabout Theatre thrilled
New York audiences and was remounted the following year. Since then, Bad
Jews has become one of the most popular plays across North America. “I
firmly believe that by being incredibly specific,” Harmon says, “you can tap
into something universal.”
The play’s title aside, Harmon resists the urge to pass judgment on his
characters. He has said that he sees parts of himself in each of them and has,
after all, placed them in a difficult emotional setting. “Their anger doesn’t
come from a place of anger,” he told an interviewer. “It comes from a place of
love, and disappointment, and frustration at how to carry on their
grandfather’s legacy.”
Chai
In Bad Jews, three cousins fight over a pendant with
the Hebrew word chai that belonged to their beloved
grandfather. A Holocaust survivor, he kept the
pendant safe in the Nazi concentration camps by
holding it under his tongue. It’s a viscerally
meaningful family heirloom – and only one cousin
can have it at the end of the night.
The word chai means “living” or “life.” It’s related to the traditional
Jewish toast l’chayim, “to life,” and is pronounced with a raspy ‘h’ sound.
Since the word’s two letters (chet and yud) add up to 18 in Jewish
numerology, Jews often give monetary gifts in multiples of 18 to wish the
recipient the blessing of long life. Similarly, some Jewish people wear chai
necklaces for good fortune – and as a cultural symbol connecting the
wearer to the living Jewish tradition.
EXPLORATIONS
-5-
Sitting Shiva
Jewish funerals take place as soon as possible out of respect for the
deceased, and almost always within three days. It is an important mitzvah
(commandment or good deed) to accompany a loved one to their final
resting place and assure their proper burial, and attendees at a funeral
traditionally add a shovelful of earth to the grave as a final kindness. The
parents, children, siblings, and spouse of the deceased are designated as
avelim, the official mourners, and it is a mitzvah to comfort them in their
time of grief.
Shiva (literally “seven”) is the customary mourning period that begins on
the day of the funeral. The mourners gather at the home of the deceased
or a close relation to “sit shiva” for seven days. In Bad Jews, the family is
sitting shiva for “Poppy” Feygenbaum at the apartment of Liam and
Jonah’s parents, just down the hall from the studio apartment where the
play takes place.
Traditionally, mourners do not leave the shiva house (except to attend
synagogue on Shabbat). They sit on low stools or benches, symbolizing
their grief, and cover all mirrors, since personal appearance is not
important at such a time. Friends and family members visit each day to
bring food and take care of the mourners, who have no social obligation to
play the host or even take part in conversation. Visitors may also join the
daily service that includes the recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish, a
prayer that makes no mention of death and expresses hope for the future.
Taken as a whole, the ritual focuses on family togetherness at a difficult
time. It creates a space for grief, while also gently urging mourners back
towards the world of the living through the presence of their loved ones
and the support of their community.
EXPLORATIONS
-6-
A Portrait of Jewish Americans
In 2013, the Pew Research Center conducted a major survey of Jewish
people in the United States, called “A Portrait of Jewish Americans.” The
study found that “American Jews overwhelmingly say they are proud to
be Jewish and have a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people,” but
the nature of Jewish identity in today’s world is changing.
You can explore the full results online here, but these are some finding
that are particularly relevant to Bad Jews:

Jewish identity isn’t simply a matter of religion. A majority of Jewish
Americans said that being Jewish is mainly related to culture or
ancestry. There is a strong secular tradition, and more than two-thirds
agreed that a person could be Jewish without believing in God.

Holocaust remembrance is a major part of Jewish identity for many
Jewish Americans. The survey asked whether certain activities or
attributes are an essential part of what it means to be Jewish.
Remembering the Holocaust topped the list, and many also said that
leading an ethical and moral life or working for justice and equality
were essential to their Jewish identities. Eating Jewish foods, observing
Jewish law, or being part of a Jewish community rated much lower –
below traits such as intellectual curiosity or a good sense of humour.

The rate of intermarriage (Jews married to non-Jews) has increased
dramatically with each recent generation. It rose from 17% of those
married before 1970, to 35% of those married in the 1970s, to 58% of
those married since 2000. The study also found that children of
intermarriages are less likely to be raised as Jewish than those with
two Jewish parents, and are themselves more likely to intermarry.
“Am I a Jew? Yes, I’m Jewish, but I really have no religion. I’m
Jewish in that it oozes out of my pores uncontrollably.”
–Sarah Silverman
EXPLORATIONS
-7-
Bad Jews Miscellany
Here are some topics that come up over the course of Bad Jews:
Tattoos in Judaism
Leviticus 19:28 forbids permanent body markings such as tattoos:
You shall not make cuts in your flesh for a person who died.
You shall not etch a tattoo on yourselves.
Some commentators highlight
the Jewish belief that humans
were made in the divine image,
so the body should be treated
with
respect
and
dignity.
Others say the rule helped
differentiate
ancient
Israelite
worship from the practices of
other tribes. But religious law
aside, a strong cultural taboo
developed out of the Holocaust,
when
many
Jews
in
Nazi
concentration camps had their
identification numbers forcibly
tattooed on their arms.
Auschwitz survivor Sam Rosenszweig
displays his identification tattoo
(Rudy Purificato, U.S. Air Force)
Hebrew Names
Many North American Jews have a ceremonial Hebrew name, as well as a
legal English name. Daphna, whose English name is Diana, has made the
bold and uncommon decision to use her Hebrew name in everyday life,
perhaps in anticipation of her plan to move to Israel (make aliyah). Liam,
in contrast, likes to keep his Hebrew name a secret.
EXPLORATIONS
-8-
Passover
Passover or Pesach is the Jewish holiday that commemorates the Israelites’
liberation from slavery in Egypt. The main celebration is the seder, a ritual
meal that usually takes place in
the home, during which the
participants tell the story of the
exodus. For the duration of the
holiday, observant Jews do not
eat leavened bread or other
products made with wheat,
barley, spelt, rye, or oats; only
an unleavened bread called
Matzah
matzah, made solely from flour
and water, is permissible. This is to remember that when the Israelites fled
Egypt, they were in such haste that their dough did not have time to rise.
Shofar
The shofar is a ceremonial
musical instrument made from
a ram’s horn. It is played in
synagogue on Rosh Hashanah
(the Jewish New Year) and Yom
Kippur (the Day of Atonement).
Hora
The hora is a group dance that is
Blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah
(Flickr user slgckgc)
common at Jewish celebrations
such as weddings and bar or bat mitzvahs. Everyone joins hands or locks
arms in a circle and steps in time, revolving around the room, while often
the newlywed couple or other celebrants are lifted up on chairs in the
centre. The hora has its roots in Romanian folk dance; it became popular
in Israel in the mid 20th century and spread to Jewish festivities worldwide
from there.
CONVERSATIONS
-9-
Conversation Starters

What do you think should happen to Poppy’s chai?

Who do you feel more sympathetic towards, Daphna or Liam?

Why do you think the playwright made the decision to keep the
family’s older generation off of the stage?

Life-cycle events such as weddings and funerals can bring out deep
emotions and hidden conflicts in families. Do you see any of your own
such experiences reflected in the play?

What’s your most precious memory of a grandparent?

How important is cultural or religious heritage to your own identity?

Do you think the ending of the play is hopeful or pessimistic?
Post-Show Conversations
Have questions? Thoughts? A perspective to share? We invite you to join
us in conversation after each performance of Bad Jews to discuss the play
with members of our artistic staff and artists from the production. These
talks will take place in the main lobby immediately after the show.
What’s Your Family Story?
Bad Jews is a play about passing on family legacies and traditions. What’s
one story that you would want to share with your grandchildren? It might
be about a family member, a journey, an event, an important object...
In the main lobby before each performance, visit the writing tables and tell
us your story on a piece of stationery. After the show, check back to collect
one to take home!
Have you already been to the show? You can also email your story to us at
[email protected] or post it to Facebook or Twitter, #tcBadJews.
CONVERSATIONS
- 10 -
Wrestling with Faith
An Interview with Dr. Norm Schachar
Dr. Norm Schachar is Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of
Calgary, a founding member of Temple B’nai Tikvah (Calgary’s Reform Jewish
synagogue), and a board member of
Theatre Calgary. We asked him
about the personal resonances of
the play Bad Jews.
When did you first encounter
Bad Jews?
Dennis Garnhum emailed me
and asked me to read the play
to get my opinion on putting it
on at Theatre Calgary. My
mother had been diagnosed
with a terminal illness, and I
was just heading out the door
Dr. Norm Schachar
to go be with her in Toronto
alongside my brother and my sister. It was poignant to first hear about the
play in that context. The themes felt current in my own family dynamic. I
was with my family for six weeks, including my mother’s shiva.
What resonated most for you?
For me, there was the overriding theme of Jewish guilt. Guilt is used as a
motivator and a guide for expectations. It’s something that’s visited by
one generation upon the next: “Look what I went through, I want you to
have better...”
The Hebrew expression l’dor vador, from one generation to the next,
appears all over the place in the Bible and in prayers. But in this play,
there’s a generation missing. The parents don’t show up. The playwright
makes the grandchildren decide for themselves, with their own resources
and with all the pressures of modern life, and it’s an explosive dynamic.
CONVERSATIONS
- 11 -
Of course this play focuses on the microcosm of a Jewish family, but I
think you can laugh at it and cry with it whatever your culture.
Would you tell me about your own journey with Judaism?
I was born in 1945. When I was growing up, Jews weren’t allowed to join
the golf club. There was still a quota on Jews being admitted to medical
school and the university, even in Toronto, which is one of the most
Jewish cities in North America. My uncle who was born right after the
First World War, he got into medical school but he couldn’t get into a
surgery residency, because Jews weren’t allowed in surgery. A generation
later I got into surgery – I even got into orthopedics, which was sort of the
last bastion of the antisemitic people.
My parents were liberal and very proactive about integration, but they
were also fairly observant. We mostly kept kosher, I had a bar mitzvah.
And when I wanted to intermarry, that was a big deal. Basically I came to
Calgary in the first place because I was running from home. My parents
were so upset that if I married the love of my life, my non-Jewish
girlfriend, I would be setting the trend. It would be my fault if my brother
and sister didn’t marry in the faith. So instead of waiting for them to say
that they were going to sit shiva for me, I just left and came to Calgary. I
like to say that I came to Calgary as an adventure and stayed because I
loved it, but it was also because I knew that if I went back, that part of my
life would be complicated. So I live in Calgary because I’m Jewish, in a
certain sense.
I let everyone know I’m Jewish, since I feel that I’m a respected person
and I want to be a good example. But of course, the title of this play is a bit
scary for Jews. Jews like to fly below the radar a bit. We don’t want to be
known as “bad” anything.
The playwright’s grandmother asked him, “couldn’t you change the title
to Good Jews?”
The question the playwright’s raising is, what is a bad Jew? And then,
what is a good Jew? Even Jews can’t agree. If a bad Jew eats bacon, then
I’m a bad Jew. But if a good Jew teaches the precepts of Judaism, and tries
CONVERSATIONS
- 12 -
to stick to the ten commandments, and helps build a temple... then I think
I’m a good Jew.
Is it hopeful or discouraging to see younger generations still wrestling
with some of the same questions that you did?
I’m struck by the word “wrestling” in your question. In the Bible, Jacob
wrestles with an angel and his name is changed to Israel, which means
“he who wrestles with God.” And the Jewish people are wrestling with
God still. The idea of struggling with our faith is an ongoing theme. I
helped to start the Reform congregation in Calgary – part of my own
wrestling match. We started with nine families, and now we have 350
families. But the Jewish faith is still struggling. It would be a lot bigger if
we didn’t have that six million person hole in the middle of it. Our kids
will have struggles, and they won’t be little struggles. But I would say it’s
a worthwhile struggle.
The title Bad Jews gets attention and opens a difficult conversation, and
then we have to participate in the conversation. It’s like what Tevye says
in Fiddler on the Roof: “God, I know we’re the chosen people, but once in a
while, can’t you choose someone else?” But guess what, this playwright
has chosen us. He wants us to talk about these things.
And we all need to talk about questions of faith and culture and identity,
because they’re not going away. If we have to start off by talking about
bad Jews, that’s okay, because Jews are resilient. God put Jews on Earth to
wrestle with these questions, and I think these are very fruitful
conversations to have. Of course, the rabbinic tradition in Judaism is one
of scholarship and debate. If I wasn’t a surgeon, I would have been a
stand-up comic rabbi.
As for me, my mother was proud of me and my family, even though I
married out of the faith. At family gatherings where people talk about
intermarriage, I can say my wife became a leader in the Jewish
community, we have three daughters with university degrees, got two
doctors and a lawyer… Not bad. Not bad for a bad Jew.
CONVERSATIONS
- 13 -
Big Reads from Calgary Public Library
By Rosemary Griebel
Barney’s Version, by Mordecai Richler
Novel, 1997. Wherever Barney Panofsky ventures, craziness
happens in this portrayal of a thrice-married, cigar-smoking,
whisky-drinking possible murderer about to publish his highly
questionable memoir. A long, colourful rant against the world.
Winner of the Giller, Commonwealth Writers, and Stephen
Leacock prizes.
Between Gods, by Alison Pick
Memoir, 2014. From one of Canada’s most talented young writers,
an unflinching and moving memoir of the author’s journey to
uncover her Jewish heritage, while struggling with crippling
depression. An unusual story, told with heartbreaking insight
regarding what we carry with us and what we leave behind.
When We Were Bad, by Charlotte Mendelson
Novel, 2007. “The Rubin family, everybody agrees, seems doomed
to happiness.” With this opening, we feel certain Fate is going to
have other ideas. In fact, the powerful, envied family, headed by
Rabbi Claudia, seems so smug that we rather want them to suffer.
In reality, their happiness is largely a façade, and each member of
the household is bent on his or her personal kind of self-sabotage.
A witty, poignant portrayal of a family in crisis.
Click on the book covers
to check availability at
Calgary Public Library!
CONVERSATIONS
- 14 -
This Is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper
Novel, 2009. Simultaneously mourning the death of his father and
the demise of his marriage, Judd joins the rest of the Foxmans as
they reluctantly submit to their patriarch’s dying request: to spend
the seven days after the funeral together. A funny, emotionally
raw novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that
bind – whether we like it or not. It was made into a film in 2014,
starring Jane Fonda, Tina Fey, and Jason Bateman.
Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its
Moods, by Michael Wex
Non-fiction, 2005. This informative and amusing tour through the
Yiddish language and the fine art of complaint is not for klutzes or
nudniks. As illustrated in Wex’s book, Yiddish is fundamentally a
language of exile shaped by centuries of displacement and
oppression, and it has developed scores of words and idioms that
permeate English as well.
Calgary Jewish Community Centre
We asked Shula Banchik, Cultural Arts Manager at the Calgary Jewish
Community Centre, to read Bad Jews and tell us what she thought. Here’s
what she said:
Can’t wait to see the performance! When it's all about preserving
chai (life), everybody gives all they have. A passionate, explosive,
and hilarious piece of dark comedy, with thought-provoking
dialogue that took me on an identity journey.
The Calgary Jewish Community Centre offers social,
educational, recreational, and cultural programming and
is open to everyone. To learn more, visit their website at
www.calgaryjcc.com.
CONVERSATIONS
- 15 -
Sources
Black, Joe. “What to Expect at a Jewish Funeral.”
www.reformjudaism.org/what-expect-jewish-funeral
Diamant, Anita. Saying Kaddish: How to Comfort the Dying, Bury the Dead, and
Mourn as a Jew. New York: Schocken, 1988.
Karesh, Sara E., and Mitchell M. Hurvitz, eds. Encyclopedia of Judaism. New York:
Facts on File, 2006.
Pandolfi, Elizabeth. “There Are No Bad Jews in Bad Jews – Just Passionate
Ones.” Charleston City Paper, July 15, 2015.
Philologos. “Exploring ‘Chai’ Culture.” Forward, Nov 11, 2012.
“A Portrait of Jewish Americans.” Pew Research Center. 2013.
www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudesculture-survey/
Schleier, Curt. “Chief of the Bad Jews.” Forward, Oct 1, 2013.
Schwartz, Yardena. “Tattoos Reign in Israel – Jewish Law or No.” Forward, Feb
19, 2014.
Sernowitz, Gary. “I Do Not Want to Dance the Hora.” Slate, June 29, 2012.
www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/06/hora_and_my_jewish
_wedding_forget_tradition_i_will_not_dance_.html
Sod, Ted. “Interview with Playwright Joshua Harmon.” In Roundabout Theatre
Upstage Guide for Bad Jews, 2013.
Syme, Daniel B. “Sitting Shiva.” www.reformjudaism.org/sitting-shiva
“Tattoos and Numbers.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007056
Torgovnick, Kate. “For Some Jews, It Only Sounds Like ‘Taboo.’” New York
Times, July 17, 2008.
Uhry, Alfred. “The Mentor and the Mensch.” American Theatre, April 2014.