one<\/a> only girlfriend who was clearly identified as Jewish.<\/p>\nBut at the end of \u201cCrossing Delancey,\u201d the viewer is left believing that the improbable Jewish couple \u2014 the ambitious bibliophile and the pickle man \u2014 are going to give it a shot.<\/p>\n
There are other aspects of the film that deviate from the norm. Riegert\u2019s character is particularly interesting: The Pickle Man is no schlemiel \u2014 he\u2019s handsome, reasonably well-dressed and defies Jewish stereotypes, unlike Izzy\u2019s grandmother or the yenta. Sam speaks in dense, witty monologues, much like other leading male romantic interests of the time period \u2014 see Billy Crystal\u2019s Harry in \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally\u201d and John Cusack\u2019s philosophical Lloyd Dobler in \u201cSay Anything,\u201d both from 1989, for other examples. Sam is also a working-class Jew, something rarely seen on the big screen.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, Sam\u2019s Jewish identity is anything but boilerplate — neither secular nor pious, but a very American Jewish hybrid. The viewer can tell that he clearly isn\u2019t Orthodox. Yet he tells Izzy that he \u201cmade a special bracha\u201d and \u201csaid the prayer for the planting of new trees\u201d before their first official date. The line marks him as someone clearly very religious on his own terms. He doesn\u2019t attend synagogue every day, or maybe even every week, but he owns a strong and customized Jewish identity.<\/p>\n
(It\u2019s worth noting that Riegert, whose career has spanned roles from \u201cAnimal House\u201d to \u201cThe Sopranos,\u201d is Jewish. Irving’s father was Jewish, and she was married to Steven Spielberg at the time \u201cCrossing Delancey\u201d was released.)<\/p>\n
Beyond showing off the Jewish Lower East Side, the film is an outstanding travelogue of late ’80s New York City, which doesn\u2019t resemble the \u201cWarriors<\/a>\u201d-style hellhole that\u2019s often depicted, but isn\u2019t quite “Sex and the City,” either. Note especially the famed Papaya hot dog store scene, one of the movie’s great cross-cultural New York musical moments.<\/p>\nIn the end, the film is about tradition meeting modernity. Izzy is a modern woman who doesn\u2019t want to be tied down, while Sam is tied to the old neighborhood and represents a comfortably ethnic New York Jewishness. The coming-together of the two could feel forced, as if to make a metaphorical point. Instead the film treats them as two different Jewish individuals who willingly choose each other.<\/p>\n
In an age when the battles over intermarriage and Jewish demographics are as intense as ever, as love becomes something to argue about, it\u2019s refreshing to go back to \u201cCrossing Delancey,\u201d a timeless, warm tale of authentic Jewish romance.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/delancey1.jpg\")