1. Avi Picard – Taub Center for Israel Studies, New York University
WAS THE BURECAS KOSHER
The Attitude To Religious People And Religion In The Israeli Cinema In the 1970’s
Avi Picard – Taub Center for Israel Studies, New York University

2. The Burecas Movies Israeli movie genre
Comedies dealing with daily lives of low-income Israelis
Represents the Ethnic tension
Mix marriage as a happy-end
Criticized for the way that the different non-hegemonic groups were represented in them

3. Israel’s Six Tribes The Arabs The Russian The Haredi (ultra-orthodox)
The Mizrahi
The National religious
The “Israelis” (secular Ashkenazy) - the hegemony
Members in the same tribe have similar life style, habits and norms.

4. The Background For The Mizrahi Low Status
The Colonial order E U R O P A N I S M
German Jews
Jews from East Europe
Jews from Moslem countries
Peasant Jews (Kurds, Shloe)

5. Modern Order and Religiosity
The Course of Modernity - From Religiosity to Secularity
The negation of the Diaspora
The behavior of Jews in exile is something that should change and its existence should be ignored

6. Israeli System of Schisms
National conflict – Jews versus Arabs
Political dispute – Right-wing (“Settlers”) versus Left-wing (“Peace Now”)
Economic differences – Rich and Poor
Religious tension – Orthodox versus Secular
Ethnic gap – Sephardic /Mizrahi Jews versus Ashkenazi Jews

7. Overlapping differences
Poor
Rich
Ashkenazi
Sephardic
Secular
Traditional
Left-wing
Right-wing

8. Why was religion Ignored?
Religious coercion and Orthodox Monopoly alienated Israelis from religion
The Blind spot of secular moviemakers

9. The Post Modern order - Ethnicity
German Jews
East European Jews
Jews from Moslem countries
Peasant Jews (Kurds, Shloe)
Post - Modernism

10. Post Modernist Mechanism Re-Legitimizing Non-Modern Phenomena
The Israeli burecas movies - cinematic expression of post-modern mechanism

11. The Post Modern Order – Religion Late in a decade
moving out from modernity -The end of Hierarchy
The Teshuvah Movement

12. The Strategies Burecas movies deal with religion
Ignoring the issue
צ'רלי וחצי
"Charlie and a half“ (1974 Boaz Davidzon – director)

13. The Strategies Burecas movies deal with religion.
Ignorance on the part of the movie producers
השוטר אזולאי, “the "Policeman” directed by Ephraim Kishon. With Shaike Ophir

14. The Strategies Burecas movies deal with religion
Ridiculing the issue
חגיגה בסנוקר (Party at the Snooker) 1975
Religion is a strong plot device

15. Scholars and the religious spot Ella Shohat as an example
The religiosity of Mizrahi figures is part of their presentation as primitive and backward