Tevye and Tradition: “Between the Temples”

These days cultural blending seems to be the thing among romantic couples. Certainly, I have no objection to true love in whatever form it takes. But I’m a bit weary of movies about Nice Jewish Boys who seem all too eager to cast off their family traditions in order to wed someone from an entirely different background. (Nice Jewish Girls, though, seem to be left high and dry—and then get to be the subject of snide jokes.) “Jewish nebbish falls for pretty blonde shiksa” is of course the premise of the very popular Meet the Parents, which came out in 2000. Twenty-three years later, we had You People, which begins with Jonah Hill’s character, surrounded by family, celebrating the ritual of Rosh Hashanah, then quickly segues into his falling for a handsome African-American woman whose parents (one is Eddie Murphy) are devotees of the Nation of Islam. I didn’t stick around to watch how love conquers all, but the cultural stereotyping on both sides didn’t strike me as all that amusing.

 I’m glad that the new Between the Temples doesn’t depend on the same old tropes. Yes, it’s about an unlikely relationship, but one that deeply respects Jewish tradition, though certainly in an unconventional way. I’ve heard this Sundance favorite described in terms of the age disparity in Harold and Maude, but the imbalance between the two leading players in Between the Temples, Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane, isn’t nearly so large. Still, she was his elementary school music teacher ‘way back when. They reunite purely by happenstance. He’s now the cantor at Temple Sinai, where the congregation is remarkably supportive of his inability to sing ever since his wife (described as a novelist and an alcoholic) died in a tragic sidewalk accident. As Cantor Ben mourns and mopes, Carla O’Connor (née Kessler) appears in his classroom and insists she be accepted as a bat mitzvah student. (As a “red diaper baby,” born to parents proud of their atheism, she loved attending her classmates’ bar  mitzvah ceremonies, but never was allowed to pursue a similar coming-of-age ritual for herself.)

 The relationship between Ben and Carla is an increasingly odd one, but I like the fact that it’s based on their mutual enthusiasm for Jewish ritual, though it can be argued that Carla (for one) is more caught up in the beauty of traditional cantorial music than in actual faith. Faith, in fact, seems a complex matter for everyone in the story. I was struck by the fact that all the families portrayed in the film defy stereotype. Perhaps the character who most stubbornly clings to tradition is Ben’s mother’s longtime romantic partner, a woman whom he considers a second mom. She’s a Manila-born convert to Judaism who chairs major synagogue events, professes that Jerusalem is her true home, and is quick to condemn anything she feels violates the minutiae of the religious ritual. (She’s played with ferocity by Dolly de Leon, so memorable in 2022’s darkly comic Triangle of Sadness.)

 I don’t want to suggest that Between the Temples works perfectly. Cantor Ben’s behavior at a key family shabbat dinner is so out of kilter that I just can’t buy it as a set-up for the film’s sweet but highly eccentric ending. But Jason Schwartzman is effectively screwed up as Ben, and it’s a delight to watch a leading screen performance by Carol Kane, whom I’ve loved ever since her Oscar-nominated role in Hester Street back in 1975. I’m not sure what Tevye would have thought of this unorthodox paean to “tradition,” but I’m glad I checked it out.