Long Story Short Has Many Poignant Jewish Moments & Some Tropes

More and more often these days, we are seeing that even if a show or film is not perfect from a Jewish representation perceptive, there is a lot to celebrate. That’s exactly how I would describe Netflix’s new cartoon dramedy by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Long Story Short. Let’s start with the good. Spoiler alerts ahead.

Jewish identity is very visible in this show. Jewish words and phrases are seamlessly woven into conversations (without translation). Jewish holidays and rituals are constantly celebrated and Judaica can be found in many scenes. One of the most interesting findings we had in the Norman Lear Center study we collaborated on recently is that Jewish identity is hidden most of the time. Less than one in five Jewish characters reference being Jewish in contemporary television. This show references it constantly. Our study also found that the vast majority of Jews portrayed are white presenting. With a main Black Jewish character, two mixed children as recurring characters, and some Mizrachi looking Israeli cousins, Long Story Short, offers diverse representation.

While our study found that TV shows tends to portray Jews as wealthy and elite, the Schwoopers, the main family on the show, are definitely middle class. The casting was also quite authentic. While Jews are cast to play Jews by confirmed Jews around half the time according to our study, the entire cast of Jewish characters is played by Jews. That’s almost unheard of. If you wonder why that matters, when other groups demand that kind of authentic casting for their parts, Jews are usually disregarded. The Jewish characters here seem to deeply understand what it means to be a Jew because they are.

There are also some incredibly poignant moments, like when Kendra, a non-Jewish Black woman is being cutthroat at work and finds herself at a Yom Kippur service in the middle of vidui – a prayer where we confess our sins from the past year. As Kendra reads the sins aloud, she realizes she has committed many of them and begins to cry. An old Jewish woman sitting next to her corrects her. “It’s not – I have sinned,” she explains, “It’s we have sinned.” Kendra is instantly comforted knowing that while she rightly feels guilty for her improper behavior, she is in a space where everyone is holding themselves accountable. The scene was not only authentic for a traditional Conservative shul scene, it illustrated to the viewer why Jewish traditions are wise and meaningful. A very rare television moment.

Later on in the show, we find out that the youngest son Yoshi has a secret he’s been keeping. He became modern Orthodox. When his mother comically (but sincerely) explains why her version of Judaism (progressive egalitarian Conservative) is better than his, Yoshi defends his choice. This lifestyle gives him meaning and community and he enjoys it. He sounds normal as he explains this. Our study found that Orthodox Jews on television are frequently dehumanized and unhappy with their lives. With Kendra becoming a convert and Yoshi becoming a ba’al teshuva, we have two people choosing Judaism, when so often Jews reject Judaism on television. Apropos to that, the Norman Lear Center study found that as many as one in three Orthodox Jews reject their heritage in scripted TV. My final favorite Jewish representation moments were in the last episode. Yoshi goes to Vegas for a family funeral and often with Orthodox representation we’d find the character being hypocritical. He’d get a prostitute or have a gambling or drinking binge. Thankfully Yoshi does none of that. Instead he is careful to celebrate shabbos, even when it’s inconvenient for him.

His family decides to join him. They find a way to put together a halachically permissible shabbbos and while Yoshi does have boundaries of what he can and can’t do, he’s not judgmental or obnoxious about it. Hannah, the daughter of Avi, who we are told is not Jewish (because Conservative Judaism doesn’t accept patrilineal descent, like Reform Jews do) volunteers to light the shabbos candles once it’s too late for the Jews to do it. As she lights, we see her grandmother, Naomi, standing with her, lighting at various stages of her life. Hannah may not be Jewish, but she has not forgotten Naomi’s tradition. It’s a really moving scene. By the end of the episode, Hannah asks if she can have a bat mitzvah. No conversion talk yet, but yet another character on the show choosing Judaism instead of rejecting it. Bravo!

There’s a lot to love about the show, but it does have some representation issues. The pilot is extremely tropy. In defense of the show, pilots are often over the top, but I wish they could have found another way to be over the top. The premise is very overdone. Nerdy, stocky Jewish guy brings home tall, thin, beautiful non-Jewish girlfriend to meet loud, not so attractive, crazy Jewish family. The Jews complain, they’re judgmental, they don’t seem to like being Jewish. They hold grudges. The mother, Naomi, is the quintessential overbearing Jewish mother. She does not really get better by the end of the show. At least not to her children. Beautiful blond non-Jewish girlfriend is shocked at how crazy the Jews are, but sticks around for some reason and even marries the Jew with the crazy family. In episode two, we hear Avi, the older son, list all the reasons he hates being Jewish after his sister accuses him of internalized antisemitism.

I understand that in order to tell a story we need tension and problems and then problems can be resolved, but hear me out: we’re not seeing disabled characters talk about why they hate being disabled. We don’t see Black, hispanic or LGBTQ characters talk about all the trauma they have for being hated. The new trend for representation is to have the characters have a human problem and have their identity be the tapestry of the story.

Because the show started off weaker in this regard, I was afraid that I was just going to see a bunch of moody, miserable Jews do Jewish things and sometimes crack jokes. As the episode progressed, the poignancy of the Jewish moments did too. I’m so grateful that they did beacause it’s a well written show with some fabulous moments of Jewish representation. But I think there’s a world where we can skip the tropes and just do the Jewish moments of wisdom and meaning and have the characters be very Jewish but have other life issues. I would have loved to also see some Jewish joy – the family singing a Jewish song with smiles on their faces. A Jewish wedding with dancing and people rejoicing. I don’t know if there will be a season 2. I’d like there to be. These are some ideas for what we can see next.

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