{"id":48513,"date":"2019-05-02T01:13:51","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T07:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=48513"},"modified":"2019-05-02T01:13:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T07:13:51","slug":"11-jewish-facts-about-the-addams-family-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/11-jewish-facts-about-the-addams-family-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Jewish facts about \u2018The Addams Family\u2019 movies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By ARIELLE KAPLAN<\/p>\n<p>(<em>Kveller<\/em>) &#8212; They\u2019re creepy and they\u2019re kooky, mysterious and \u2026 Jewish?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_48514\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/addams7-1024x683.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48514\" class=\"wp-image-48514 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/addams7-1024x683-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/addams7-1024x683-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/addams7-1024x683-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/addams7-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48514\" class=\"wp-image-48514 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/addams7-1024x683-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/addams7-1024x683-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/addams7-1024x683-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/addams7-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-48514\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Raul Julia (Gomez), third from left, and Anjelica Houston (Morticia) from The Addams Family movies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Well, not quite. But between Morticia Addams\u2019 Yiddish pet name for her husband, Gomez, and to the very&nbsp;Jewish writer (Paul Rudnick) behind the movies\u2019 scripts, it\u2019s safe to say that the Addams family is, at least, Jew-<em>ish<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Hulu keeps adding to its vast trove of movies and \u2014 huzzah! \u2014 \u201cThe Addams Family\u201d&nbsp;and its sequel, \u201cAddams Family Values,\u201d&nbsp;are available to stream now.&nbsp;Notably these hit movies (from 1991 and 1993, respectively) are not based on the 1960s sitcom but on the TV series\u2019 original source material: the drawings of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams.<\/p>\n<p>In honor of the iconic movies\u2019 arrival to your TV or home computer, we searched far and wide to gather all the Jewish facts from \u201cThe Addams Family\u201d&nbsp;movies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1.<\/strong>&nbsp;Family matriarch Morticia (played by Anjelica Huston) endearingly calls Gomez (Raul Julia)&nbsp;<b>\u201cbubeleh.\u201d<\/b>&nbsp;It\u2019s a sweet Yiddish term that translates, in this context, as \u201cdarling\u201d or \u201csweetheart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Jewish director<\/strong>&nbsp;Barry Sonnenfeld \u2014 best known for&nbsp;\u201cMen In Black\u201d \u2014 made his directorial debut with \u201cThe Addams Family.\u201d In the sequel, Sonnenfeld makes a cameo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3.<\/strong>&nbsp;While filming a scene for \u201cThe Addams Family\u201d<i>&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;<\/i>when Gomez discovers Morticia tied up, bondage style \u2014 legend has it that Julia kept flubbing his line, which was in Spanish. So Sonnenfeld told the actor to take it from the top \u201cfor the Hebrew version.\u201d According to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/the-addams-family-the-worlds-biggest-rerun-199157\/\">Rolling Stone<\/a>, Julia asked, \u201cHow do you say \u2018leather straps and red-hot pokers\u2019 in Hebrew?\u201d When Sonnenfeld confessed that he didn\u2019t know, Julia asked about Yiddish. \u201cLeather straps and red hot pokers?&nbsp;<strong><em>Oy vey iz mir!<\/em><\/strong>\u201d Sonnenfeld replied, sending the whole set laughing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4.<\/strong>&nbsp;In \u201cAddams Family Values,\u201d everyone\u2019s favorite spooky teenager Wednesday and her brother, Pugsley, are sent to a sleepaway camp. But not just any camp \u2014 a&nbsp;<strong><i>Jewish<\/i><\/strong><strong>&nbsp;summer camp<\/strong>! While not explicitly mentioned in the movie,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/addamsfamily.fandom.com\/wiki\/Camp_Chippewa\">Camp Chippewa<\/a>&nbsp;is a real camp in Wisconsin that\u2019s popular among upper-class, Jewish households.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5.<\/strong>&nbsp;Marc Shaiman, one of the producers and composers of \u201cThe Addams Family\u201d&nbsp;music, is Jewish \u2014 and his cultural background clearly inspired his work on the film. There\u2019s \u201cFamily Plotz,\u201d a beautiful instrumental song that accompanies Gomez as he reminisces about his long-lost brother Fester.&nbsp;When Fester returns to his family after a mysterious 25-year disappearance, Gomez celebrates&nbsp; by dancing to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Mw0IakmQri0\">\u201cMamushka,<\/a>\u201d a traditional Addams family celebratory dance that is remarkably hora-like.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6.<\/strong>&nbsp;In \u201cAddams\u2019 Family Values,\u201d Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) marries the golddigging nanny Debbie Jelinksy (Joan Cusack). As Wednesday, the flower girl, walks down the aisle, a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ctPnwOuJs7U\">spooky rendition<\/a>&nbsp;of \u201cSunrise, Sunset\u201d from \u201c<strong>Fiddler on the Roof<\/strong>\u201d is played on the piano.<\/p>\n<p><strong>7.<\/strong>&nbsp;Scott Rudin, the producer of both movies, is Jewish. \u201cI was a&nbsp;<strong>Jewish kid<\/strong>&nbsp;from Long Island who didn\u2019t want to be a Jewish kid from Long Island,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2014\/12\/14\/the-man-known-as-hollywoods-biggest-a-hole\/\">Rudin said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8.<\/strong>&nbsp;Wednesday\u2019s love interest in \u201cAddams Family Values\u201d&nbsp;is Jewish (and played by the Jewish actor David Krumholtz).&nbsp;Portrayed as a stereotypical Jewish teen, Glicker wears glasses, is allergic to everything and has a&nbsp;<strong>neurotic mother<\/strong>. The pair meet at summer camp and share one kiss under the pretense that they\u2019d never see each other again. In an interview with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/heat-vision\/addams-family-values-had-secret-political-message-reveals-writer-1162918\">Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, Rudnick said that Glicker \u201cwas a reflection of Barry, Scott Rudin and myself because we\u2019re all nice Jewish boys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>9.<\/strong>&nbsp;Actually, the Addams Family was filled with&nbsp;<strong>Jewish contributors<\/strong>. The late Judith Malina, who played Grandmama Addams in \u201cThe Addams Family<em>,\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>is a Jewish German immigrant, and Dan Hadaya, who played Tully Alford, the evil lawyer who plotted to steal the Addams fortune, was born to a Sephardic Jewish family.<\/p>\n<p><strong>10.<\/strong>&nbsp;The legendary Jewish talk show host&nbsp;<strong>Sally Jessy Raphael<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 aka Sally Lowenthal \u2014 had a cameo in&nbsp;\u201cThe Addams Family.\u201d She played herself on her talk show, \u201cSally Jessy Raphael,\u201d and did a bit about \u201cVoodoo Witch Doctors in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>11.<\/strong>&nbsp;When \u201cThe Addams Family\u201d&nbsp;sitcom aired in the \u201860s, it was seen as subtle commentary on racism in the United States. While audiences were growing to love the quirky and spooky Addams family, Jews and black Americans were moving into previously all-gentile and all-white neighborhoods. Here, the Addams family served to represent the social issue that \u201cmonsters\u201d were invading their territory. Likewise, \u201cThe Addams Family\u201d&nbsp;and \u201cAddams Family Values\u201d&nbsp;addressed the same issues, and inviting viewers to accept the monsters for their loving personalities, despite their different appearance.&nbsp;<strong>Welcoming the stranger<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 clearly that\u2019s a Jewish&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>&nbsp;an Addams family value!<\/p>\n<div class=\"at-below-post addthis_tool\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.jta.org\/2019\/05\/01\/culture\/11-jewish-facts-about-the-addams-family-movies\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"11%20Jewish%20facts%20about%20%E2%80%98The%20Addams%20Family%E2%80%99%20movies\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7139],"tags":[8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48515,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48513\/revisions\/48515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}