What's so funny about two American minorities that have slavery, the KKK, and chicken livers in common? That's what you'll find out in this extraordinary two-actor play on the history and absurdity of prejudice and racism within the context of the American Black-Jew experience. The Black Jew Dialogues combines fast-paced sketches, improvisations, and multi-media to create a show that has gained praise across the U.S. and the U.K.
The show premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland in August of 2006. In September 2007 it was the only American play invited to perform at the Leeds Jewish Performing Arts Festival in England. In the time between The Black Jew Dialogues has been touring to universities, high schools, synagogues, and theatres throughout the US with great success.
In The Black Jew Dialogues, Larry Jay Tish and Ron Jones take the audience on a hysterical and poignant ride through three days they spent together in a cheap hotel room discussing their own experiences, the history of their people, and why there has been a growing riff between the two groups since the early 70's. Through their dialogue the audience gains insight to the true nature of prejudice and how our inability to face our own biases separate us in ways that we may not even think about. The comic journey begins in the Egypt of the Pharaohs and travels through Africa, colonial times, to present-day America.
They find humor in everything from the Jewish involvement in the Dutch slave trade to two rednecks on a joy ride of hate. From a bar mitzvah boy explaining the cash kick-start his manhood receives, to octogenarian grandmothers singing and dancing about the joys of soul food and Jewish comfort food. The O.N.E Program, a program designed to make white people less fearful of blacks, and JUDAR, the ability that Jews have to spot other Jews. The Black Jew Dialogues is an exhilarating and insightful look at the state of race and cultural relations in America. You learn as much as you laugh.
Our great hope in writing the show was to use it as a catalyst to reunite our cultures. The black and Jewish communities in America share a history of pain, oppression, pride, and a deep commitment to civil rights and justice. In the past several decades our communities have slowly drifted apart.
From the inception of the N.A.A.C.P to black newspapers being first in decrying the abuse of Jews in Nazi Germany to the civil rights movement here, blacks and Jews have been arm-in-arm in their fight for social justice. Through laughter, honesty, conversation (and a little nosh), The Black Jew Dialogues is our attempt to revive this all-important union.
The success of the show has prompted the development of The Black Jew Dialogues Curriculum, which has been highly praised by the educators who have used it. Its focus is on the commonality that all Americans share including hatred, bigotry, and bias.
