APRIL 8 • 2021 | 41

She was also drawn to the 
humor behind the subject, 
which includes clever takes on 
whether the latke or haman-
tash is the more perfect Jewish 
food. “It was funny,
” Krause 
said. “I didn’t see a lot of funny 
films at Jewish film festivals, so 
the idea really intrigued me.
”
Krause began to research 
the debate, which is academ-
ic in nature, and connected 
with fellow debate enthusiast 
Benjamin Lorch, who now 
serves as an adviser and pro-
ducer for the documentary. 
The two partnered on the idea 
and officially began working 
on the film in the summer of 
2018 after Krause attended 
the Jewish Cultural Festival in 
Krakow.
Over the course of the next 
two years, Krause flew all over 
the world to gather informa-
tion. From Philadelphia to 
Israel, she interviewed people 
about the debate and what lies 
at the heart of Jewish culture. 
She spoke with rabbis, mod-
erators, foodies and debaters 
— including the oldest living 
debater, 98-year-old Bernie 
Weisberger — about the leg-
acy of the “Latke-Hamantash 
Debate.
”
Throughout her journey, 

Krause also found herself 
growing closer to Judaism, 
a personal accomplishment 
that she feels proud of. While 
Krause personally sides with 
the hamantash as the more 
perfect Jewish food, she’s heard 
sound debates on both ends in 
favor of the winning dish.

FILMING CONTINUES
Though the pandemic has 
slowed film production, 
Krause continues to conduct 
interviews over Zoom and 
aims to complete filming at 
the end of this year, along 
with releasing the film soon 
after.
She also filmed a trailer in 
West Bloomfield in 2019 that 
previews the documentary 
and teases “the greatest Jewish 
debate in history.
” It shows the 
intense academic rigor behind 
the subject, which has been 
dissected from every view-
point imaginable.
Once the film is complete, 
Krause plans to exhibit it at 
Jewish film festivals and then 
introduce it to the rest of the 
world. “It’ll add a little light-
ness and remembrance of the 
joy of our culture,
” she says of 
Latke vs. Hamantash. “Not just 
the struggles of our culture.
” 

At the University 
of Chicago with 
Bernie Weisberger, 
the oldest living 
debater

Amy Krause, 
center, and her 
production crew 
take a trip to 
Krakow, Poland, 
to see the 
debate for the 
first time. 

THE WEDDING 
COACH, SHIVA BABY,
HEMINGWAY’S JEWISH 
MATADOR FRIEND
The Wedding Coach, a 
six-episode Netflix romantic 
reality series, began stream-
ing April 7. The advance pub-
licity says: Jamie Lee shares 
her irreverent yet practical 
tips and tricks for wedding 
planning with struggling love-
birds.
Lee, 38, has climbed 
the comedy ladder. She 
was a writer’s assistant 
(2010) to Jerry Seinfeld as 
he co-hosted the reality 
series Marriage Ref. In 2011, 
she finished second on 
the Last Comic Standing.
After, she did stand-up sets 
on many major talk shows. 
She’s best known as a core 
cast member on the popular 
MTV series Girl Code (2013-
15).
Two Jewish-themed mov-
ies opened in the last few 
weeks. Donny’s Bar Mitzvah, 
set in Michigan in the ’90s, 
got terrible reviews “every-
where” and isn’t worth your 
time. The opposite is true 
of Shiva Baby, which opened 
April 2 in some theaters and 
is now streaming (for a fee) 
on Amazon. It’s a comedy/
drama set at a family shivah 
gathering. Almost all critics 
have lauded the cast and 
praised first time director/
writer Emma Seligman, 26, a 
Toronto native.
The PBS documentary 
series Hemingway (about 
Ernest, of course) premiered 
on April 5. It is a six-hour, 
three-episode series that was 
shown over three nights this 
past week. It was co-directed 
by Ken Burns (whose wife is 
Jewish) and Lynn Novick, 58. 
If you missed the first airing, it 

can be streamed on the PBS 
website. Michigan’s own Jeff 
Daniels provides the voice of 
Hemingway.
Before the series aired, 
I thought about writing 
about “Hemingway and the 
Jews.” No literary scholar 
disputes that he was, to 
some degree, antisemitic. 
But I was quite sure that 
the Hemingway filmmakers 
would address that issue. You 
don’t win as many Emmys as 
Burns and Novick have won 
by ignoring the flaws of their 
biographical subjects.
Oddly, however, I got back 
to the subject of Hemingway 
while checking out the back-
ground of David Caro Levy, a 
“hot” Latin American Jewish 
actor. Levy’s father was possi-
bly a bullfighter, and I flashed 
on Sidney Franklin (1903-
1976), a Jew that Hemingway 
greatly admired.
Franklin was born in 
Brooklyn to Orthodox par-
ents. Estranged from his 
police officer father, he went 
to Mexico as a teen and, 
almost on a dare, he stud-
ied bullfighting. He became 
a successful bullfighter in 
Mexico and Spain. 
Franklin was funny and 
fluent in Yiddish as well as 
several Spanish dialects. He 
was friends with Hemingway 
and James Dean. He was 
also gay, a fact he barely 
concealed during his lifetime 
(See 2019 NY Times arti-
cle, “The Gay Jewish Matador 
from Brooklyn”). 

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