Wonder Years revisits bar mitzvah episode
Reboot of The Wonder Years' bar mitzvah episode brings fresh considerations of race to the Jewish experience
The 1989 “bar mitzvah episode” of The Wonder Years was a milestone for Jewish representation in mainstream entertainment.
Back then, the episode was more personal, its tension stemming from main character Kevin Arnold’s envy of the attention given to the bar mitzvah boy.
Thirty-three years later, a revamped version of The Wonder Years that showcases the experience of a different teenager as he comes of age in 1968, has served up a new on-screen depiction of Judaism’s coming-of-age ritual.
The new episode – told from the point of view of protagonist Dean Williams, a Black teen growing up in Montgomery, Alabama – brings in wider social considerations.
In the episode titled “Brad Mitzvah”, the adult Williams (voiced by Don Cheadle) reflects on the Jewish experience in light of his own.
“Even though he looked white, people saw him differently, too,” Williams says early in the episode as a classmate throws a penny at Brad (played by Julian Lerner) in an antisemitic gesture.
“At 12 I didn’t understand the complexity and hate behind the joke,” Williams continues.
True to the spirit of the original, the episode ends on (spoiler alert) a more uplifting note.
Williams (played as a young man by Elisha Williams) continues later that “watching Brad get lifted up on that chair, I realised that standing up for yourself and owning who you are can actually elevate you in the long run”.
WITH JTA
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