Following in the footsteps (though not quite filling in the shoes) of such comic geniuses as Allen Sherman, Woody Allen and the illustrious Adam Sandler, Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson embark on a mission to pinpoint, mock and exploit every typical Jewish stereotype under the sun. From classic paranoia to irrational fear of tools to the crippling guilt that only a Jewish mother can inflict, Jewtopia leaves no stone unturned.

The play opens at a Jewish singles mixer with the reunion of two childhood friends, Adam Lipshitz (Wolfson) and Chris O'Connell (Fogel). Chris is a gentile who has taken to crashing Jewish singles mixers in order to land a Jewish wife. Adam, of course, would give anything NOT to be there, and attends but for the heart attacks that threaten to ravage his mother's health if he does not marry a nice, Jewish girl. From their mutual needs they hatch a plan: Chris will help Adam get a Jewish girl (the idea being that gentiles are quite adept at this) and Adam will tutor Chris in all the niceties (and idiosyncrasies) of Jewish life, so that he will be able to slyly maneuver his way into the good graces of an unsuspecting Jewish bride-to-be.

Perhaps the most absurd premise of the show is what Fogel and Wolfson purport to be "Jewtopia." Jewtopia, the proverbial place where Chris promises Adam that he will find his match, his one and only bashert, is JDate. Following this premise and overusing the same actress to play five different Jewesses of varied strata, Jewtopia spins out bad date after worse date, leaving Adam more paranoid and panic-attack prone than ever before.

While Adam journeys through the seven circles of hell, compliments of Jewish internet dating, Chris receives "Jewish lessons," in which he learns not to tell his prospective mother-in-law that he "jewed the seller down," buys retail and is in perfect health.

All the while Yiddish phrases are being thrown around like it's Boro Park on a Saturday afternoon. And just so the humor is not lost on the audience, Jewtopia's playbill comes equipped with a Yiddish Glossary for "Bad Jews and Gentiles."

Satirical, self-mocking and at some times melodramatic to the point of absurdity, Jewtopia is in no way a debunker of Jewish myths, but in fact, their champion. To some, the play may be unforgivably offensive, while to others, it may simply be funny. In all fairness, it's probably a little of both. For their part though, Fogel and Wolfson maintain that they are really "a couple of nice Jewish boys...bar-mitzvahed and everything."

to see bangitout's interview with Fogel and Wolfson click here

If you are familiar with David Mamet it is most likely due to his prodigious résumé in the field of writing, specifically for the stage, screen, and television. The most frequent accolade thrust upon the writer of Glengarry Glen Ross, Wag the Dog, The Unit, and many other noteworthy projects is that Mamet possesses an uncannily well trained ear. He is blessed with the ability to write dialogue on the page in a way that represents the way human beings actually speak in the world. His words feel real, not contrived, or histrionic, or hyperbolic, but rather like the simple, pure and dirty poetry of the common man.

I am by no means a David Mamet expert, though I am familiar enough with a nice cross-section of his work to know that his reputation is well earned. Not knowing beforehand that the scribe was Jewish, I was surprised, intrigued, but mostly anxious when I learned that Mamet had written a book called The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews (published by Shocken Books in their new, excellent Jewish Encounters series). What could be more intellectually attractive to an orthodox Jew with literary leanings than being permitted to access the musings of the secular maestro of plain speech as he tackles the culture aspect of Judaism?

After reading the book I was amazed to learn that David Mamet is not a secular Jew, he is quite religious. And I was dismayed to learn that the plain speech of his scripts did not translate to this book as it reads more often than not like a highbrow disconnected polemic (though as a whole it is certainly coherent enough). The books feels like Mr. Mamet, in a burst of passion, rage, and devotion, emptied his savant brain onto paper over the course of a single caffeine fueled bender.

There are so many aspects of this book that I like that I resist pointing out its glaring flaws. I like that it is a gutsy, loud and proud pro-Torah statement by a Jew who has every reason to remain comfortable in the secular world and just go with the flow. The book is utterly rebellious. I like that The Wicked Son is bold and confident in its position and calls out all the phony, materialistic, narcissistic Jews and slams the pretenders. I love that, though it is by one of our own, it is written by a Jew with enough street credibility to make people listen. What is even more impressive is that the book clearly and unambiguously seeks only to make one person listen: the Jewish person who denies or is ashamed of his heritage. Though there is a glossary to define terms such as Akedah and Chumash, the book speaks powerfully and directly to the conscience of the knowledgeable Jew. Beyond a passing curiosity Mamet's writing here has little or no value for a non-Jew. The books jacket states, "To you who find your religion and race repulsive, your ignorance of your history a satisfaction, here is a book from your brother" – and this sentiment is accurately reflected within.

Mamet is not trying to move mountains with his work; he merely strives to administer a severely needed wake up call. His message is not entirely profound or original - it just feels that way at times because it is coming from such an unexpected source.

The themes of the book are as old as, ironically enough, the pyramids. Jews are despised and make great scapegoats for the problems of mankind. Jews play the victim and have become masters of self deprecation, self pity, and self hate. Jews, despite great success, influence, and achievement in world culture feel like they are despicable, strange, and unworthy (and then compensate for the sensation in many absurd and repulsive ways). Finally, we and our homeland are held to a different standard especially reserved to combat the impending Jewish threat of global domination.

Have we heard all this before? Sure. Many, many times. So why did David Mamet's rhetoric stir my spirit and demand and then draw from me more than I am accustomed to allow a potentially propagandist piece such as The Wicked Son? Probably because I believe much of it to be true, but even more-so I presume, because it is written with an untainted honesty and sincerity. The delivery of the message transcends the content.

I admit I do not know the first thing about David Mamet's religious experience (an interview was denied by Mr. Mamet's publisher, though based on the book, Mamet's guru is Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, a co-author of the book[1]), I will say however that the author comes off quite perceptibly as a Ba'al Teshuvah. I see it in his eagerness to educate, his invigorating dedication to Torah, his fire (attributes which benefit his arguments), but I also perceive it in his naiveté, his simplified understanding of biblical commentary and scholarship, and his still evolving and maturing religious outlook. I see it when he interprets the sin of the spies and of the golden calf and puts forth these interpretations as if they were set in stone. I see it when he criticizes Bacon Cipher yet he evidently is oblivious to Talmudic drashot which apply similar if not more far fetched methods to reach desired conclusions.

Stylistically, The Wicked Son is curiously repetitive, appearing to be a collection of independent essays, not a cohesive rigorous process as it should be. Mamet and Rabbi Kushner make numerous novel and interesting points like that the sin of the golden calf was perpetrated because of the nation's love and fear of G-d, not due to a lack of belief. He backs such theories up with psychological insight and befitting analogies, however making the chidush once is provocative and eye opening, making it twice is desperate and unsettling.

I realize in retrospect that the themes and arguments repeated throughout the book are excusable as they seem to be consciously rooted in the philosophy of chazarah. Teach the lesson over and over until it penetrates the layers of passivity and indifference, apathy and cynicism. Repeat the message until it is driven into the active consciousness.

In our day where Jews have the unchecked American freedom to turn their backs on their Judaism and the "medinah." Where a shul is many times an institution where the wealthy board members have more influence over policy than the Rav. Where orthodox Jews take pride in and pay homage to Sacha Baron Cohen, who sixty-nined a fat man on film, just because he semi-affiliates, speaks Hebrew, and is converting his girlfriend.  It seems chazarah is needed.

And from all places the much needed mussar come from David Mamet. Know who you are, he challenges. Know - as the Jew that you can't escape being - where you come from, where you are going, what you should expect, what you deserve, and what you must give. Know that simply by being born you have obligations and are indebted. Never forget that for the Jew the road to every destination travels through Judaism. Directly through with no short cuts, no scenic byways, no alternate routes. Embrace this fact, Mamet comfortingly says with his hands on both of your shoulder as he looks you directly in the eyes. Embrace this fact or be lost.

I never attended Jewtopia: The Play, and after leafing through the occasionally funny, rarely clever, and almost always insipid and obvious hardcover version, I don’t think I really need to. I get the joke. Sometimes in fact I live the joke and maybe even I am the joke. We all are. Jews, with our yenta mothers, hairy weak physiques, and ability to be paranoid, maintain a victim mentality, all while overachieving and controlling the universe. Let me be clear – I was not offended by the book although it will be offensive to those who take their Judaism seriously (what does that say about me?). The creators of Jewtopia, Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson, told me that they wrote the entire book and handed Warner Books a finished product including the artwork and layout. That said, the book looks great and has its moments where you will laugh despite yourself, but overall it disappoints a fan of good self-flagellating humor. Although a nebishy Jew like me naturally enjoys complaining and kvetching about everything, Jewtopia is just not fresh enough to win over someone who was raised embedded in the Jewish religion and culture. We made most of these jokes to each other in elementary school. Another problem is that the book crosses the line a number of times between humor and self-loathing. It should not be our job to inform the anti-Semites out there that they are on to something.

Bangitout spoke with Bryan and Sam before the holidays.

BIO: Although I think Orthodox Jews will be offended by the book, I found myself laughing at times. Do you concern yourselves with an angry response from Jews to the humor?

Sam: No, I don’t worry about that kind of stuff. When we came up with the bits we said if it make us laugh, it’s in. A few times we felt we went overboard – not in terms of offending Jews but crossing a line in a way with like a dirty joke. We love being Jews and the values we were taught from that. We can see why our Guide to Chasidic Sex offends but we are equal opportunity offenders…like South Park. If you get in the spirit of it you will see that everything is absurd and then you can’t help but laugh.

BIO: For all the skewering of Judaism, I noticed that book has an authentic touch. The book contains a lot of obscure Jewish knowledge. What are your backgrounds?  

Brian: Half of the book we knew already. I was raised modern orthodox. My mom’s house is kosher. We celebrate all the holidays. Sukkos. Simchas Torah. I had the knowledge about the traditional customs. Sam is from a reform background. Sam is better with all the other stuff, like the ridiculous over the top Bar Mitzvah. Whatever we didn’t’ know, we did research to fill in the blanks. I knew there were 613 mitzvot but I did research to fill in the ones I didn’t know. If you know the core, you can get more information. I knew we were expelled and persecuted so I did the research for the Timeline of Expulsion page.

A lot of it was our intuition. We did word play and jokes in the timeline, but basically the facts are true. We toyed with facts to make the jokes. With the expulsion page we are laughing at ourselves, it finds the human in the tragedy. A million things in the book are rooted in truth. Comedy needs a foundation in truth.

BIO: In the book you call the orthodox “G-ds brown-nosers”. Is that a compliment?

Sam: (laughing) Yes. They are the closest. Maybe that was jealousy on our part. You guys are set. I am from a reform family so I’m way down at the bottom.

Brian: Sam’s parents are ten times more “Jewish” than mine who are orthodox. Jewish in the stereotypical sense. Mine represent more the religious side. The orthodox crowd came to our show. Chasidim came in the whole get up. It really was a treat for us. They love it and come over to us afterwards. We have jokes about how the Chasidic girls in Crown Heights have great legs because they walk all day. We suddenly hear these girls in the audience hooting and it is a bunch of Crown Heights orthodox girls. That is the whole basis of our show and the whole culture of Jewish humor – If we can’t laugh at ourselves then who can we laugh at? This was the humor of Jackie Mason and Mel Brooks. They created an environment to laugh at ourselves and it was picked up by all the other comedians like Chris Rock. Its self deprecation. We have bits in the show about a Jew in a restaurant complaining and changing seats and all that…and it brings the house down. Judaism and comedy is our basis for survival. It is a survival mechanism. With the show we find a 99% approval rating. This is why we do it. The feedback usually is that we maybe went overboard, but it’s funny.

BIO: Holiday plans?

Brian: I go home and go to services and all that. When I was living at home my neighbor had a Sukkah so I could go there, Now? I’m not sure. Maybe I can hop on one of those Chabad Sukkah Mobiles. That’s a cool way to cruise around.

Safran Foer wrote something by twenty-five that I and my kind will never equal if we live a hundred years – it’s not a pleasant thought but its true. So for all us young Jewish “writers’ burning with jealousy here, looking to put down the nerdy looking dude on the book jacket (Zing!), lets give Joyce Carol Oates some credit – this guy is supremely gifted in both his technique and imagination. When you read his novel, you can feel his cerebral cortex popping, his neuro-synapses expanding with electric, untamed juices. He is simply better. I was convinced (or tried to convince myself) after the first fifty pages that his youth and inexperience were showing, that the seemingly gimmicky writing was pretentious and merely a cover for amateurism, but he draws you in and proves himself over and again.

After completing the somewhat humorous, but mostly sad (and entirely satisfying) novel, I felt for Mr. Safran-Foer who could not possibly be pleased with the film adaptation. While the book’s strongest, most touching and vibrant sequences and language use come from the flashbacks to the shtetl in the Ukraine beginning at the end of the 18th century and concluding with the Nazi invasion in 1942, the version on screen skips that element of the story all together. Liev Schreiber’s movie rather concentrates on the less compelling (and certainly less Jewish) storyline involving a character known as “the hero”, named JSF, who is escorted through obscure Ukrainian villages by a suspiciously profound thinking young Ukrainian named Alex and his tortured grandfather. The film terribly represents the book, both in essence and purpose. The book is about a lost past and a loss of innocence, both personal and global; the movie sticks us with Elijah Wood acting like an alien disguised as an FBI profiler bagging everything into Ziplocs.

The magic of JSF’s writing lies in his ability to reach beyond his conceivable experience and assemble prose like a sage author who has seen and felt things from a time gone and forgotten. Yes, occasionally he exposes some weakness – mainly in the modern day story (he is laughably turned on by the word “bitch”). It is possible that Foer relates more closely to a time a hundred years before his birth than our own. When he writes as Alex, he purposely wields the English language with unruly abandon, yet some of his choices fall flat (“cinchier”!). But this is merely looking for faults. Foer is a young person with the courage and confidence to tackle lofty subjects in an adult way and we can forgive him the awkwardness of Alex, a means to sometimes explain himself more clearly. It is sometimes as if the real novel takes place in Trachimbrod (the Ukrainian village of his ancestors) and is about a spirited, lovely, heartbreaking Jewish community wiped out, and Foer felt that in order to separate himself from the pack, in order to give the old world relevance, he needed to supply a modern person looking back, committing to a rigid search. For me, I would ask JSF to relax and have faith in the brilliance and worthiness of the mystery of the overturned wagon, the love of Brod, and the sadnesses numbering six-thirteen. Foer takes us unto the shtetl with his very acute prodding of Jewish politics and custom, and reflects much of the absurdity in an amusing, curious, insightful, and innovative way. Sometimes he gets out of hand with the outlandish metaphors (like Safran’s father-in-law’s blueprints within blueprints), but overall he makes the unbelievable not only palatable, but appealing and endearing. Brod, “his” great, great, great, great, great, grandmother is to my mind one of the most engaging, difficult, and provocative characters ever put to paper. JSF is less successful with his other major depiction, that of “his” grandfather, Safran. Though the disaffected character is intriguing with his aphrodisiac dead limb, Foer formulates him in a way that finds the author indulging in a fantasy to become sex obsessed Philip Roth a la his equally wonderful slice of Judaica, Portnoy’s Complaint.

In the book, toward the end, JSF writes as Alex that, “we often make ourselves appear as though we are foolish people, and we make our voyage, which was an ennobled voyage, appear very normal and second rate.” The hero of Everything is Illuminates has taken, and takes his readers on a very noble voyage and has shown himself to be an exceptional literary talent. Sure, once in awhile he makes himself appear second rate, normal, and mortal, but for a first novel written before his twenty fifth birthday, we would be devils to ask more from the man.