Cool Jews from Cool Britannia

One of my favourite podcasts is Nextbook. An extension of the Jewish culture and literature website, Nextbook.org, the podcast has a lot of thought provoking stories and interviews.

Since they have a smashing correspondent in London, Hugh Levinson, they are able to cover British Jewry in a way you rarely see. Just a couple of days ago, Levinson posted an interview with filmmaker Vanessa Engle, who has recently aired three films about Judaism on the BBC. (As they point out on the podcast, since the films are not yet available on DVD or any US network, we'll have to wait to see the work itself).

Other Levinson interviews that I've enjoyed are:
*A tour of Brick Street, which, like New York's Lower East Side, now houses the latest group of immigrants.
* A talk with Claudia Rosen, author of The Book of Jewish Food, who talks about British salt beef and fried gefilte fish.
* Some time ago, he also interviewed the writer Naomi Alderman, but I fear that one has been taken off of the site.

All of these pieces shed light on a sub-area with which I've been fascinated for all long time, as I'm both a Jew and an anglophile. While there are many, many similarities, the Jews of England and Scotland (I'm not sure if there are any Welch Jews) are so different to us here in the States.

Years ago, there was a dust-up about the Jews of London wishing to construct and "eruv" fence, which is a nearly invisible wire surrounding a community. Attempts to stop the installation of the eruv prompted suggestions of deep anti-semitism in the UK. There was an article in the New York Times about the controversy in which they pinpointed the problem with Jewry in that part of the world. You can be an English Jew, but a Jew cannot be ethnically English. (Although I have a Jewish friend with family in Manchester who's a dead ringer for Pete Townshend.) Remember, when the Jews came to England, it was virtually homogeneous. Today, it's a completely different story. With the influx of Asians and West Indians and Africans, the British Jews seem like right old-timers. The definition of what it means to be English, for example, is changing rapidly.

Yet there was a time when British Jews (and here's the bit that's very different to what I grew up with) seemed to hide in the background: "Oh, don't notice us and our twisty bread on Friday nights." There was a time when nearly every black cab in the capital was driven by a Jew, but you'd hardly hear him chatting about going to "shul." My friend Edward, who grew up Jewish in London, tells a basic schism due to the fact that football matches used to be held mostly on Saturdays ... the rabbis had a difficult time keeping people in the pews and away from the pitch.

Today, being British and Jewish is becoming quite cool. Just ask Sacha Baron Cohen, Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), and Rachel Stevens (pictured above). And don't forget Madonna lives there, and she's sort of Jewish too!

There's a new Ricky Gervais podcast! There's a new Ricky Gervais podcast!

Ricky Gervais has had a ocassional podcast for a long time now.

If you lot haven't heard it, it features the co-creator of The Office and Extra, Stephen Merchant and a friend of their called Karl Pilkington. Essentially, it's three lads sitting around, having a go at each other. But the wildcard is this Pilkington. Evidently he was their producer when Ricky and Stephen had a radio show on XFM, and according to Ricky the best way to describe him is that he's a "shaven monkey with a head like a f**king orange."

The best part of the show is Ricky's reaction to Pilkington's "observations." (Once, famously, I think they were talking about eating rude parts of a kangaroo and he came out with the gem, "I could eat a knob at night," which was then turned into a dance mix -- actually several dance mixes.) Who knows if it's an act, but in the world of the show, Karl sort of skates through life, taking it all literally. (i.e., People who live in glass houses shouldn't knock about with actual stones, or their house will broken, etc.) There's no way to convey the tone of the show, so I won't try, but it is hilarious.

I encourage you to jump on the free podcast, available here if you have iTunes in America. This appears to be a one-off, a favor to a former boss who is now running New Music Express's station in the UK. I think the last one they did was in November of '07 and it may be donkey's years before they do another, with Ricky doing two movies and coming to America to do his standup show. Beside, the M.O. seems to be to send these out for free, and then sell each series ones some time has gone by. My suggestion is to listen to the ones that are still on iTunes and if you like them as much as I do, by the other downloads later. There are many hours of hilarity.

Everything is available throught the Ricky Gervais site, Ricky Gervais ... Obviously.

The one, the NME broadcast is pretty representative. Some out-loud laughs, but no "first-time-you-saw-the-Fawlty-Towers-where-he-beats-up-his-car-with-a-branch" moments. (Nick Hornby coined that description.)

Totally worth listening.

SPEAKING OF PODCASTS, check out The Secret Policeman's Ball. Yes, the comedy institution to benefit Amnesty International came back in '06. Stephen Merchant does some of the interviews. He was a little too hard on Jimmy Fallon and a a little too easy on Chevy Chase, but it turns out that in addition to co-creating history-making TV shows, he is very good interviewer.