Chanuka and Passover at Bubbe's?-is this orthodox

dr. pepper

Fri, Oct 03 2014, 2:55 pm

Hi, my kids told me they watched this recently at someone's house.
I tried researching online and didn't have a chance to watch the whole video through.
Is this legit? Who is behind this?
For some background, I let my kids watch all the Oorah stuff. Sometimes Torah Tots...I never heard of this one and wanted to hear from someone who has seen it if they think it's okay.
TIA and a gmar tov!

bigsis144

Fri, Oct 03 2014, 4:02 pm

OMG, blast from the past. I watched these when I was a kid in the 90s, so they're definitely not new. My mother has a friend who's a professional puppeteer who worked on these videos. Did they watch this on a VHS?

I would say they're created by "culturally Jewish" people (equivalent to Alef Bet Blast-Off) where they assume no previous knowledge of Judaism, use "Moses" instead of "Moshe" and "Passover" instead of "Pesach", etc. They use the sort-of-sfardi accent for Hebrew, so "cha-RO-set" or "ma-ROR", instead of chassidish/yeshivish "Ashkenazis". There's a non-Jewish puppet friend named Chester, an "old Jewish guy" stereotype...

But as far as I can remember, totally innocuous and neutral. They sing Dayenu and the Ma Nishtana... maybe slightly "lite" in terms of pushing the religious aspects (they do reference "the L-rd G-d of Israel" in relation to the plagues, but a bit more emphasis is placed on the "all people should be free/Pharaoh is a bully" side of the story. Know what I mean? Like when Chanuka becomes about religious freedom for all, and not specifically about Judaism throwing away outside influences.).

Last edited by bigsis144 on Fri, Oct 03 2014, 4:22 pm; edited 1 time in total

mommy3b2c

Fri, Oct 03 2014, 4:54 pm

dimyona wrote:

Sorry for hijacking, but Betsy Tacy? Now that's a glimpse of the past Smile

. I grew up with and loved that series.

Totally! I haven't thought of them in years. Will have to re read them now. Betsy and Joe's story was so romantic