Jewboy: No kissing allowed

There aren’t many films, from anywhere, about the ultra-orthodox world of Hasidic Jews, precisely because these communities tend to be closed and private. Tony Krawitz, though not raised in a strictly religious Jewish family, says he did extensive research to try to get the details of a Sydney community right. It’s a story that could apply across a range of Australian enclaves, though – wherever the traditions of strict physical and spiritual discipline rub up against the desires of young people for experience, affirmation and physical contact. This is largely what Jewboy is about.

Yuri is forbidden to touch any woman, other than a family member like his grandmother. To break these rules will put him outside his community, but even after he chooses to leave that community, the prohibition is deeply ingrained. Krawitz dramatises these questions of freedom versus security with great delicacy, but also great force. Yuri’s disaffection within his community is extremely strong; his attempts to find equilibrium once he leaves the fold are equally affecting, because he’s so bad at life in the outside world.

Jewboy was Krawitz’s first short feature, and it was well received at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2005, where it screened in the section Un Certain Regard. The film won three AFI awards in 2005, including best short fiction film and best screenplay in a short film.

Jewboy synopsis

After the death of his father, a respected rabbi, 23-year-old Yuri (Ewen Leslie) rejects his strict Hasidic upbringing and becomes a taxidriver in Sydney. He gives up his own rabbinical studies, rejects his girlfriend (Saskia Burmeister) and insults his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor (Naomi Wilson). He befriends a beautiful young migrant woman Sarita (Leah Vandenberg) at the taxi depot, but she rejects his attempts at intimacy. Desperate and alone, Yuri is forced to decide who he really is.

Notes by Paul Byrnes

Education notes

This clip shows a young Hasidic Jew, Yuri (Ewen Leslie), helping his grandmother, Minnie (Naomi Wilson), in the kitchen as she finishes preparing food. There is a serial number on Minnie’s inner forearm, which would have been tattooed on her in a concentration camp in the Second World War (1939–45). At the synagogue Yuri is distracted by a young woman, Rivka (Saskia Burmeister). After the service Yuri goes into the kitchen, where Rivka is making pastries. Yuri traces his fingers gently around hers, without touching them, but when he attempts to kiss her Rivka quickly moves away and reminds him he is sitting shiva for his father, who has died. Rivka asks Yuri to leave the kitchen as the old women watch.

Educational value points

• Jewboy is the story of a young Hasidic Jew and his struggle between sexual desire and the proscriptions of his faith. Hasidism, also known as Chasidism, is a branch of Judaism that was founded in the 18th century in Eastern Europe. Originally liberal in its religious prescriptions, it is now seen as ultra-orthodox within Judaism. Its religious laws are strict, and men and women outside marriage, or who are not close blood relatives, are forbidden to touch or to be alone together in a secluded area.

• A synagogue is much more than a church – it is the centre of a Jewish religious community where Jews pray, study and do charitable work, and it is the social centre of the community. The Hebrew term for synagogue is 'beit k’nesset’, which means 'house of assembly’. Hasidic and Orthodox Jews use the Yiddish word 'shul’, which comes from a German word meaning 'school’, while Conservative Jews use the word 'synagogue’ and Reform Jews use the word 'temple’. The term 'synagogue’ is acceptable to all groups.

• The death of a close relative in Judaism is marked by various traditions, more particularly by those who follow an orthodox or ultra-orthodox practice, including the expression of grief by tearing one’s clothing, a prompt burial followed by a meal of condolence for close family, and shiva, the period of mourning that lasts for 7 days. During shiva the mirrors in the house are covered and mourners do not wear leather shoes. They sit on low stools rather than chairs, do not shave or cut their hair or wear cosmetics, do not work and do not participate in activities deemed to be pleasurable.

• The tattoo on Yuri’s grandmother’s arm identifies her as a survivor of Auschwitz, one of the camps set up by the Nazis during the Second World War where Jews, as well as Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals and prisoners of war were methodically put to death in what the Nazis called the 'final solution’. The Nazis built concentration camps, forced labour camps, death camps, transit camps and prisoner-of-war camps across Eastern Europe to imprison those considered to be political dissidents, or socially or racially undesirable by the Nazi state. Auschwitz was the only death camp at which prisoners were systematically tattooed with numbers.

• The clip illustrates some of the rites and rituals of prayer for Hasidic men, such as rocking back and forth. Each man wears a large white rectangular garment, called a Tallit, and two Tefillin, which are small black boxes with black leather straps attached. The Tefillin are made from the rawhide of a kosher animal. One Tefillin is worn on the head and the other is tied around the arm seven times. The Teffilin on the head contains four handwritten verses from the Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy in the Old Testament.

• Everyday Hasidic clothing is distinctive, and there are variations within Hasidic groups, but modesty of dress is the standard. The basic wardrobe for men always includes a skull cap called a yarmulke or kippah, and a hat. Men wear all-black or muted-colour suits with white shirts and white fringed garments called tzitzit katan. They do not shave their beards. Women and girls wear long stockings, long sleeves and high-necked blouses, and after marriage women cover their hair in a variety of ways by wearing head scarves, snoods or hair nets or wigs. Some Hasidic women shave their heads on their wedding night.

• Kosher food is food that meets the requirements of Jewish law, which includes prescriptions about the type of animals that can be eaten and the way in which these animals must be killed. The animal’s blood must be drained out before the flesh is eaten and certain parts of the animal may not be eaten. Meat cannot be eaten with dairy foods, there must be separate cooking utensils for meat and dairy foods, cooking utensils must not come in contact with non-Kosher food while the food is hot, and grape products made by non-Jews may not be eaten. Some of these kosher laws are similar to Islamic Halal laws.

• Jewboy was written and directed by Tony Krawitz (1967–), who was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and arrived in Australia in 1987. Krawitz graduated from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in 2001. He has directed two short films, Into the Night (2002) and Unit#52, which was screened at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2003, and an Australian television series, The Surgeon (2005). Jewboy was shown in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Film Festival in France in 2005.

Education notes provided by The Learning Federation and Education Services Australia