1. Can Israelis swallow an Oscar-nominated, traif film star? (8-23-1996) http://www.jewishsf.com/bk960823/etbabe.htm
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August 23, 1996
Can Israelis swallow an Oscar-nominated, traif
film star?
KAREN SULKIS
Bulletin Correspondent
After months of porcine previews, the Australian film "Babe" arrived in the Holy Land.
Despite post-election fears that the Knesset's powerful new religious bloc might impose such untold
horrors as head-to-toe modesty on the beaches of Tel Aviv, the film's Israeli distributors say the delay of
its premiere had little, if anything, to do with the shape of the star's hooves.
It was all a matter of marketing, said Dorit Ishay, manager of the Yoram Globus Group, which is
handling the Oscar-nominated porker's foray into Israel.
"We wanted to release it in the summer," said Ishay. It would take that long for the film's voice-overs to
be dubbed into Hebrew. And summer is an optimum time to release films aimed at young audiences.
"Babe," which opened in July at a Tel Aviv multiplex near the Mediterranean, did draw mostly
youngsters. During the opening credits, audience reaction swelled to an audible "Iccchhh" as images of
pigs' innards rolled across the screen.
You don't get much of a chance to view pig innards in Israel. Not even in Tel Aviv.
Oh, in scattered shops the determined sleuth can find fancy imported foods and various pork cuts. But if
major supermarket chains want to avoid boycotts by ultrareligious Israelis and their sympathizers -- and
they do -- they won't carry traif. "Krab" with a K and fake shrimp are OK. The bona fides are not.
On the other side of the country, in the holy city of Jerusalem, "Babe" opened in the cineplex at Malcha,
the Middle East's largest mall, and the only mall with separate meat and dairy dining areas. As the
distribution company had anticipated, in Jerusalem "Babe" drew early receipts noticeably lower than
those of other films playing around town.
All of which begs the question: Is there something inherently unkosher about a movie with a pig in the
title role?
"Some people might have their sensibilities offended," offers Rabbi Artie Fisher, an observant Jewish
educator and head of Midreshet Rachel, a women's yeshiva in Jerusalem.
But, Fisher says, halachically speaking "a pig is no more unkosher than a horse. And I don't think there
was any outcry over `Mister Ed.'"

2. Can Israelis swallow an Oscar-nominated, traif film star? (8-23-1996) http://www.jewishsf.com/bk960823/etbabe.htm
2 of 2 8/27/07 11:13 PM
Still, Fisher says many Israelis feel there is "something beyond unkosher" about pigs. There are taboos
regarding the sale of pork in Israel that do not apply to other meats.
Ishay learned this the hard way. This past spring she spent months trying to arrange "Babe" product
tie-ins with fast-food restaurants, and was rebuffed.
Still, Fisher maintains that there is nothing more forbidding about pigs than about any other living
creatures. A live pig may be unkosher; "but...so is a live cow. Jewish law prohibits eating both."
Ishay and Fisher agree that for residents of "certain neighborhoods," mainly in Jerusalem, billboards
showing Hoggett Farm's favorite little porker surrounded by Hebrew letters might be a bit much.
While Fisher freely adds that his own kids loved the novel "Charlotte's Web" (which features a
loquacious pig named Wilbur), he notes that some Jewish sects do forbid their young people from
playing with toys in the shape of unkosher animals.
Right now, it's anybody's guess how long "Babe" will run. Some distributors use Israel as a test market
for films headed to Europe, but audiences here are notoriously fickle. Even in supposedly sophisticated
Tel Aviv, for example, Laurence Fishburne's star turn in "Othello" came and went in two weeks, while
the lurid and lowbrow "Showgirls" hung on for months until it was finally kicked out on its G-stringed
tuchis by the latest addition to the Roberto Begnini oeuvre.
And for every twisted little indie film like "Denise Calls Up" that enjoys a longer run in Israel than it
does in many U.S. cities, there is an "Ace Ventura II: When Nature Calls" that will not leave.
For now, Israelis can rest easy knowing that there is one less film the whole world has seen that they
haven't. And kosher or not, that's what counts.
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