Quiz Show

Written by Mordechai Shinefeld

Milchik and Fleishik Face Off in the East Village
On the rooftop of Manhattan’s 14th Street Y, seats packed by around one hundred people, and nestled within Howl! week, an annual East Village arts festival, six contestants competed in The Big Jewish Quiz Thing.

Split into teams called Milchik and Fleishik (Dairy and Meat, respectively), competitors answered questions on culturally Jewish topics like Fiddler on the Roof and Goldberg’s Peanutchews. The feature of an entire category dedicated to Leo Rosten, author of the Ashkenazi classic, "The Joys of Yiddish," lent a handy explanation for the niche of Jewish culture within which the quiz dwelled: It was a quiz for knishes and kneadelach, but not hasidism or chumras. (What’s a chumras? Don’t ask the contestants.)

The participants seemed to have been picked out of an emerging caste of Hipster-cum-Jewish culture. More than half the contestants blog, and none represented a traditional Jewish organization. Holding court were David Kelsey from HEEB Magazine, Steven I. Weiss, of Canonist.com, and Susannah Perlman, of the neo-burlesque fame for “Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad.” Judging from their collective inability to answer the questions, it’s safe to say the panelists were chosen more as icons than savants.

In spite of their knowledge gaps, the mix of partcipants sent sparks a-flyin'. Rachel Kramer Bussel, a writer best known for the “Lusty Lady” column in the Village Voice – fought against Perlman for the Milchik team.

Despite Bussel's lust, however, Fleishik dominated categories like basic Jewish trivia and spelling Yiddish words and Milchik mates hit the buzzer too late, when at all. “This is a good old-fashioned tuches whooping,” said Eric de Picciotto, the show’s co-host, said. Disgruntled Milchik team players articulated accusations of a rigged game, a la Twenty One.

“It’s fixed,” Weiss claimed. “They said it was Talmudic, so I learned all of Shas [the entire compilation of the Talmud], in preparation. In real Jewish knowledge…” he trailed off and nodded, as if the implications were clear. Though his Talmudic expertise was not tested, his team managed a surprising comeback. Milchik brought home the (fakin') bacon.

Discussing the battle with Kelsey after the show I mused about a possible strategy for winning contests like this one. “If you start losing in the beginning,” I suggested, “You’ll get the audience on your side and win in the endgame.”

“It’s victimology,” Kesley responded. “We’ll never be able to make it with that perspective.”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “The victims did quite well.”

“You’re still talking about the game,” he waxed. “I’m referring to the world.”

Howl! Festival honors Allen Ginsberg, who didn’t use his Judaism as the focus of, but as footnotes to some of his most intense work, including the poem that gives the Howl! Festival its name. Ginsberg probably wouldn't have participated in the event, but he probably would have been amused.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.