All of the guys sitting by the pool, who were ogling her just moments before, turn away in an "
oy vey" gesture.
I don't mean the kitsch of
oy vey or the particularisms of intra-tribal speech.
One of the eager participants in this debate is Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, writer of "Up, Up and
Oy Vey," which explores the concept of the Jewish superhero.
In fact, watching commercials during the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards ceremony this year, I started to wonder about a few ads that connected to me on a Jewish leveleven without a Seinfeld-esque accent or a mouth-clamped "
Oy Vey." Are there brands that rely on what a colleague of mine has called coded Judaism?
For I have come to the moment at which, the second time I saw the movie (in my capacity as guest speaker at the Westchester Cinema Club), I heard from the row behind me, a spontaneous "
Oy vey."
It is less of a mouthful, than say, the "
oy vey school of meditation," which was promulgated by the late Beat poet and Jewish Buddhist Allen Ginsberg, and it can just be plain fun.
Maybe it was revolutionary zeal that led Chagall to these bold Russian strokes, but what the painting most powerfully conveys is "
Oy vey."
The year is 1927, the setting is Gotham's Winter Garden Theater and the plot of this new musical revolves around Jazz Age archetypes -- with a difference: Our hero is on roller skates, a gawky, squeaky Carmen Miranda confuses "
Oy vey" with "Ole," gangsters torture their victim with a lecture on table manners (in 3/4 time), and a Mediterranean Lothario thinks repeatedly singing his own name is a sure way to seduction.
For two weeks, The Kinsey Sicks, "America's Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet," will be offering their Christmas show,
Oy Vey in a Manger.