Comments about ‘Stranger Among Us, A’

There are many things to criticize about this film. There
are times when concessions either to commercialism or poor
conception and inaccuracy make this a maddening little
movie. There are, however, certain other qualities that,
inspite of glaring errors, make it among the most
sympathetic films dealing with the Chassidic community.

Of the two other major films that deal with the problems of
Orthodox Jewry, "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Chosen" one
can only say that they represent the revisionist viewpoints
of their authors. As such, their sins of omission and
comission are deadly. In "Fiddler..." orthodoxy is presented
in a totally unacceptable light: irrelevant, impotent and
paralyzed. Such a view is understandable in the context of
the haskalah - the "enlightenment" - that sought to demonize
and destroy the religion of 3000+ years by trivialization.
That it had the wide following it did is testamony to the
great number of assimilated ("modernized") Jews in our
times. It's a pity, too, for it bespeaks unfathomable
ignorance, intolerance and religious irresponsibility. "The
Chosen," whose locale (Williamsburg, Brooklyn) is identical
to "Stranger" presents an even more dangerous attitude. Now
our orthodox community has become virulent, violent and
ossified. Our "hero" eventually turns his back on his
people, cuts off his peyos, and "joins the real world." It
makes me nauseous to write these words.

"A Stranger Among Us," by contrast, goes to great length to
present the Chassidic community in a positive light. If its
values seem out of place, in comparison to the world as
represented by Melanie Griffith's character, it is exactly
because the community she comes into has maintained its
balast and it balance. This is certainly disconcerting to a
person for whom there are no rules (...).

What is interesting to me is the development of the
character from ignorance to awareness. The myriad details of
chassidic life are, for the most part, presented
sympathetically. The conflict between the mini-skirted cop
and the embarrased community are both humorous and touching.
This is stuff that can really only be appreciated from the
inside, so to say.

Problematical aspects of the film, given the basic premise,
are where the details fail - for they do, from time to time,
go terribly askew. The insistance upon Kabbalah as the main
source of wisdom for orthodoxy is, to say the least,
oxymoronic if not altogether inaccurate. Furthermore, it is
well known that so-called erotic Hebrew texts are not ever
to be understood literally (something that is also true of
the large corpus of Jewish legal material). Thus the scene
in which the Rebbe's son explains to our cop (itself a
categorical impossibility in reality) in rather
explicit language what the Kabbalah "means" is, quite
frankly, insulting. This kind of artistic license tends to
detract rather seriously from the film's otherwise
reasonable attitude.

One scene, Shabbos night, seems to me a rather unfortunate
rip off of "Fiddler" notable for its totality of error. Too
bad. Men and women dancing together (a la Martha
Graham) without a mechitza? Williamsburger chassidim singing
Lubavitcher nigunim? Russian style dances with men in
cossack boots, sitting at the same table with ersatz
sephardic Jews, etc. The collision of images is
(unintentionally, perhaps) laughable.

I am not disturbed so much by the conventional impossible
romance of the Rebbe's son and the female cop. We can look
to the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife for, so to say,
precedent.

I mention these things so much to quibble about them as to
point to the regrettable lack of consistency. The most
disturbing part of the film, though, is the discovery of
the real stranger. It is not the cop, as it turns out. It
is, in fact, the baal t'shuva girl, who having pretended to
become frum is, in fact, a cynical non-believer guilty of
murder. The hidden message here is quite clear. Chassidic
communities are, for all intent and purpose, closed. They
tend not to trust "outsiders" (and for good reason), even if
they are other Jews newly (recently, not so recently)
returned to observance. Wow! What a vehicle to reinforce
that attitude! In the guise of a fairly conventional murder
mystery, this particular aspect struck home quite
forcefully.

In the end, though, as if to demonstrate how the experience
had a positive effect on our cop, when confronted by her non
observant Jewish partner (whom typically, is always on the
make even as he condemns the chassidim as "an
embarrassment"), tells him she's waiting for her "bashert" -
her intended life partner. When he doesn't understand, she
tells him, "Go ask your rabbi."

Good. That's the right answer.

Maybe, one of these days, we'll have a commercial film about
chassidim that gets the details right, avoids the salacious
and the gratuitous.

But, naturally, Sholem Aleichem and Chaim Potok, the authors
of the original literary sources of these two films, were
not known either for their understanding or their support.

There are many things to criticize about this film. There
are times when concessions either to commercialism or poor
conception and inaccuracy make this a maddening little
movie. There are, however, certain other qualities that,
inspite of glaring errors, make it among the most
sympathetic films dealing with the Chassidic community.

Of the two other major films that deal with the problems of
Orthodox Jewry, "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Chosen" one
can only say that they represent the revisionist viewpoints
of their authors. As such, their sins of omission and
comission are deadly. In "Fiddler..." orthodoxy is presented
in a totally unacceptable light: irrelevant, impotent and
paralyzed. Such a view is understandable in the context of
the haskalah - the "enlightenment" - that sought to demonize
and destroy the religion of 3000+ years by trivialization.
That it had the wide following it did is testamony to the
great number of assimilated ("modernized") Jews in our
times. It's a pity, too, for it bespeaks unfathomable
ignorance, intolerance and religious irresponsibility. "The
Chosen," whose locale (Williamsburg, Brooklyn) is identical
to "Stranger" presents an even more dangerous attitude. Now
our orthodox community has become virulent, violent and
ossified. Our "hero" eventually turns his back on his
people, cuts off his peyos, and "joins the real world." It
makes me nauseous to write these words.

"A Stranger Among Us," by contrast, goes to great length to
present the Chassidic community in a positive light. If its
values seem out of place, in comparison to the world as
represented by Melanie Griffith's character, it is exactly
because the community she comes into has maintained its
balast and it balance. This is certainly disconcerting to a
person for whom there are no rules (...).

What is interesting to me is the development of the
character from ignorance to awareness. The myriad details of
chassidic life are, for the most part, presented
sympathetically. The conflict between the mini-skirted cop
and the embarrased community are both humorous and touching.
This is stuff that can really only be appreciated from the
inside, so to say.

Problematical aspects of the film, given the basic premise,
are where the details fail - for they do, from time to time,
go terribly askew. The insistance upon Kabbalah as the main
source of wisdom for orthodoxy is, to say the least,
oxymoronic if not altogether inaccurate. Furthermore, it is
well known that so-called erotic Hebrew texts are not ever
to be understood literally (something that is also true of
the large corpus of Jewish legal material). Thus the scene
in which the Rebbe's son explains to our cop (itself a
categorical impossibility in reality) in rather
explicit language what the Kabbalah "means" is, quite
frankly, insulting. This kind of artistic license tends to
detract rather seriously from the film's otherwise
reasonable attitude.

One scene, Shabbos night, seems to me a rather unfortunate
rip off of "Fiddler" notable for its totality of error. Too
bad. Men and women dancing together (a la Martha
Graham) without a mechitza? Williamsburger chassidim singing
Lubavitcher nigunim? Russian style dances with men in
cossack boots, sitting at the same table with ersatz
sephardic Jews, etc. The collision of images is
(unintentionally, perhaps) laughable.

I am not disturbed so much by the conventional impossible
romance of the Rebbe's son and the female cop. We can look
to the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife for, so to say,
precedent.

I mention these things so much to quibble about them as to
point to the regrettable lack of consistency. The most
disturbing part of the film, though, is the discovery of
the real stranger. It is not the cop, as it turns out. It
is, in fact, the baal t'shuva girl, who having pretended to
become frum is, in fact, a cynical non-believer guilty of
murder. The hidden message here is quite clear. Chassidic
communities are, for all intent and purpose, closed. They
tend not to trust "outsiders" (and for good reason), even if
they are other Jews newly (recently, not so recently)
returned to observance. Wow! What a vehicle to reinforce
that attitude! In the guise of a fairly conventional murder
mystery, this particular aspect struck home quite
forcefully.

In the end, though, as if to demonstrate how the experience
had a positive effect on our cop, when confronted by her non
observant Jewish partner (whom typically, is always on the
make even as he condemns the chassidim as "an
embarrassment"), tells him she's waiting for her "bashert" -
her intended life partner. When he doesn't understand, she
tells him, "Go ask your rabbi."

Good. That's the right answer.

Maybe, one of these days, we'll have a commercial film about
chassidim that gets the details right, avoids the salacious
and the gratuitous.