The Hebrew Hammer
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The Hebrew Hammer is a film that was released in 2003. It stars Adam Goldberg, Judy Greer, Andy Dick, Mario Van Peebles, and Peter Coyote. The plot concerns a Jewish superhero known as The Hebrew Hammer who must save Hanukkah from the evil son of Santa Claus who wants to destroy Hanukkah and make everyone celebrate Christmas. The film is set up as a parody of blaxploitation films (Melvin Van Peebles even appears in it, as "Sweetback"). Director Jonathan Kesselman has jokingly dubbed it the first "Jewsploitation", or Jewish exploitation film ever.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and appeared at several other film festivals, Jewish and otherwise, during 2003. It had a limited theatrical run in late 2003, but the majority of its viewings came from a series of showings on Comedy Central in December of that year. This version of the movie was edited for television: all profanities were bleeped, and some scenes were cut. The DVD, released on November 16, 2004), contains the uncut version, which is rated R.
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[edit] Synopsis
The movie begins with a flashback to a young Mordechai Jefferson Carver, who will grow up to become the Hebrew Hammer. At school, Mordechai is tormented by his fellow students and his teacher for being the only child to celebrate Hanukkah while everyone else is celebrating Christmas. After school, Mordechai walks down the street, only to see signs in all the store windows saying that Jews aren't welcome. Depressed, he lies down on the sidewalk, and spins his dreidel to cheer himself up... only to have it crushed under the foot of a mocking Santa who gives Mordechai the finger. Mordechai can do nothing but glare furiously at Santa as he walks away.
The scene then changes to Mordechai as an adult. He is now the Hebrew Hammer, a Certified Circumcised Dick who has dedicated his life to defending Jews. His snappy dress (a cross between the clothes of a pimp and an Orthodox Jew) and tough-guy demeanor have made him a hero to Jews everywhere.
But all is not well: trouble is brewing at the North Pole. Santa has just been murdered by his evil son Damian, who wants to do away with his father's tolerance for other religions and make Christmas the only holiday celebrated in December. Alarmed, an elite group of Jews calls a meeting of the Jewish Justice League, led by Chief Bloomenbergansteinenthal, who resembles Moshe Dayan. They argue about who should be sent to take on Damian, but are unable to agree until the Chief's daughter, Esther Bloomenbergansteinenthal, suggests the Hebrew Hammer. The Chief is initially reluctant to send the Hebrew Hammer (the one Jew banned from the J.J.L. for being too aggressive), but is eventually persuaded by Esther.
Esther goes to see Mordechai, but he is initially reluctant to help the J.J.L. Esther refuses to leave his side until he promises to help, and thus ends up accompanying Mordechai to Shabbat dinner at his mother's house. Agreeing to cooperate, the two women conspire to persuade Mordechai to help the J.J.L., but in such a way that he believes that he has thought of the idea himself.
Mordechai's first stop after meeting with the Chief is to go to the headquarters of the KLF (Kwanzaa Liberation Front). He meets with the leader of the KLF, Mohammed Ali Paula Abdul Rahiem, a friend of his. Mohammed takes Mordechai to question a former elf of Santa's named Jamal who lost his job when Damian took over. Unbeknowst to Mordechai, Jamal is really a double agent who is working for Damian. Jamal's clues lead Mordechai to a neo-Nazi bar, but Mordechai foils Damian's plan by single-handedly defeating the skinheads.
Damian is not sitting idle, however: with the help of his sidekick and lover (a grown-up Tiny Tim), he has put the next phase of his evil plan in motion, which involves distributing bootleg copies of It's A Wonderful Life to Jewish children to make them want to celebrate Christmas. Discovering this scheme, Mordechai counterattacks by exposing the Jewish children to all the Hollywood films that portray Jews in a positive light (namely Fiddler on the Roof, Yentl, and Chaim Potok's The Chosen).
Learning that Damian is appearing at a local K-Mart, Mordechai and Esther go there to confront him, disguised as a Gentile couple. Although they successfully catch Damian, he is able to turn the tables, and they are forced to flee, chased by an angry mob of children who are convinced that they want to cancel Christmas for everyone. With some help from the Underground Jewish Railroad, they are able to make their escape.
Returning to Mordechai's apartment, he and Esther act on their mutual attraction and make love. Things go awry in the morning, however, when Mordechai learns that Esther and his mother collaborated to persuade him to work with the J.J.L., which he misinterprets to mean that his mother told Esther to sleep with him. Before they can resolve their argument, they get an urgent call from the Chief telling them to return to J.J.L. headquarters.
At headquarters, they watch a video broadcast from Damian and Tim in which they announce their plan to drain the energy from the Jewish Atomic Clock in Jerusalem. Mordechai goes off by himself to save the clock, but is secretly followed by Esther. The two of them are reunited at the clock, but before they can defeat Damian, Shabbat begins, and they must rest. While they are resting, Damian kidnaps Esther, and orders Tim to kill Mordechai. Just as Tim is about to kill Mordechai, though, he is stopped by the Kwanzaa Liberation Front.
Together, Mordechai and Mohammed lead an assault on the North Pole to save Esther and stop Damian once and for all. By using Judaism's ultimate weapon (complaining and guilt), Mordechai is able to defeat Damian and save Esther. He then proposes to Esther, who gladly accepts.
The movie ends at the house of Mordechai's mother, where Mordechai and Esther are having dinner. As they dine, they see Santa's sleigh in the air, driven by Jamal, the new Santa Claus.
[edit] Jewish in-jokes
While the movie is intended to be enjoyed by Jews and non-Jews alike, there are certain jokes that require some explanation if the viewer is not familiar with Judaism.
- The name of the Hebrew Hammer is a reference to the story of Hanukkah, in which Judas Maccabeus helped retake the Temple in Jerusalem. "Judas Maccabeus" literally means "Judah the Hammer".
- The two protagonists are named Mordechai and Esther, a reference to Purim.
- Both Mordechai and the Chief refer to God as "G-dash-D" when speaking. This is a play on the tendency of some Jews to write 'G-d' instead of 'God' when referring to the Lord. This is due to the Jewish belief that the Name of God is holy, and should therefore not be written on a surface when it can be casually discarded or destroyed (e.g. a piece of paper). Although Jewish law technically only requires this level of care if the name of God is written in Hebrew, many Jews adopt this restriction in English discourse.
- The phrase "Shabbat shalom" literally means "peaceful Sabbath" in Hebrew, and is a commonly heard greeting among Jews on the Sabbath (some Jews prefer the Yiddish "Gut shabbes"). Several characters in the movie use this phrase in unusual ways: Mordechai uses it as an exclamation before attacking the neo-Nazis ("Shabbat shalom, motherfuckers!"), and Esther uses it flirtatiously before engaging in oral sex with Mordechai.
- When the Chief is trying to bring the meeting of the Jewish Justice League to order, he shouts, "Sheket B'vakasha!" repeatedly. This is Hebrew for "Quiet please!", and is familiar to unruly Hebrew school students everywhere as a teacher's admonition for the class to pipe down.
- At the meeting of the JJL, a seat placed behind the microphone on the dais allocated to the "League of Jewish Athletes" is conspicuously vacant, a self-deprecatory gag based on the supposed reluctance of American Jews to engage in competitive sports in favor of "intellectual" pursuits (a gag repeated in another scene as one of Damian/Santa's lascivious female assistants, introduced to Mordechai, says that she loves Jewish men because they are so intellectual, a stereotype that Mordechai plays to by commencing a pseudo-intellectual conversation intended to impress her further (he stops when he notices the jewelled cross lying in her cleavage and is suddenly brought to his senses since no Jewish man would ever date a "shiksa", a Gentile woman).
- While disguised as a Gentile couple, Mordechai and Esther are offered a free sample of bacon cheeseburgers, which violate several of the laws of Kashrus, (see kosher,) namely the prohibition against eating pork and the prohibition against mixing meat and dairy products.
- While storming Santa's hideout, Mordechai uses a tallit as a headband and tefillin as a climbing rope.
- When Mordechai is praying before breaking into Santa's hideout, he says the following prayer: "Baruch atai adonai...I don't know what the hell I'm saying...". This is a parody of the Hebrew phrase "Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha'alom", which means "Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe". This phrase begins many Hebrew berakhot (blessings). As Mordechai is using the phrase while praying before the wall of the hideout, the scene is a send-up of many Jews who recite the prayer without understanding its meaning, and those who visit Israel and begin praying in Hebrew before the Western Wall, only to realize that they do not have the slightest idea how to say a single complete prayer in Hebrew.
[edit] Controversy
The Hebrew Hammer parodies many common stereotypes about Jews. Some Jews find this insulting rather than amusing.
During filming, the movie came to the attention of the Anti-Defamation League, who were concerned that it might promote unfavorable images of Jews. After viewing it, they concluded that the film was not antisemitic in any way.
Many scenes were shot in Borough Park, Brooklyn, which has a large community of Hasidic Jews. Filmmakers were initially concerned that they might protest the movie, as they did with the 1998 film A Price Above Rubies, and shut down filming. To their relief, the reaction of the Hasidim in Borough Park was almost uniformly positive, and several residents of the neighborhood show up as extras in the movie.
[edit] Trivia
- When Adam Goldberg first got the script, he was reading it and got to the scene where his character would shout "SHABBAT SHALOM, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!" It was at that moment that he decided to do the movie, if for no other reason than to say that line.
- In the scene depicting the morning after Mordechai and Esther make love, it's clear that Mordechai has several tattoos, which are forbidden in traditional Judaism. Adam Goldberg has stated in interviews that the only reason for this is that he was too lazy to get up early in the morning to have the makeup artists cover up the tattoos. The tattoos go without comment in the dialogue because, according to director Jonathan Kesselman, the Hebrew Hammer has already gone against tradition by engaging in premarital sex, and so a couple of tattoos are nothing compared to that.
- Damian's name is a likely reference to The Omen, in which the boy Damien is the anti-christ.
- The movie is reminiscent of another blaxploitation spoof, Undercover Brother, which came out at about the same time. Both films have a scene in which the hero must pass a test of ethnicity in order be admitted to his organization's headquarters.
- Ed Koch has a cameo as himself in he movie.
