Loving the Bench

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m Jewish. It’s cool with me, don’t worry, and I’m sure it’s cool with you.

So what do Jews do on Christmas? A few people have answered this recently, most suggest Chinese food. I looked up what the correlation between Jews and Chinese food is, because I too love Chinese food and doubt it has anything to do with a genetic predisposition the stereotype would suggest.

Funny story - I was directing a play in Madison, WI a few years ago. It was a Daniel Simon play (brother of the more famous Niel Simon) called Convertible Girl. It was about a Jewish guy dating a non-Jewish gal. She wanted to get married, he didn’t and said it was because of his religion. So she converts, falls in love with Judaism, which is good, because he still breaks up with her. Anyway, the guy I casted for the lead role was not Jewish (but he had a real Jew face). We would hang out after rehersals and I would generally order Chinese food. One day I apologized for constantly forcing him to eat Chinese and said, “I don’t know why, I just love it.” He said, “of course you do, you’re Jewish.” That’s when I found about this connection.

What’s the connection? Well apparently it has to do with 3 things, lot’s of noodle based dishes, a non -dairy cousin, and immigrant proximity on the Lower East side. Makes sense.

But what do I do with my Christmas. A nice Zabar’s brunch, complete with whitefish and smoked mozzarella (which are my favorites). Enjoy the holidays everyone.