Bad Jews Play Summary

In Joshua Harmon’s scathingly funny play “Bad Jews,” opening at the Geffen Playhouse on June 17 (previews begin June 9), two cousins clash ferociously over who has the right to inherit the chai necklace that belonged to their beloved grandfather “Poppy,” which Poppy had preserved during the Holocaust by hiding the chai under his tongue.
As the 20-somethings quarrel while sitting shivah for their late grandfather, they represent opposite poles of the modern Jewish experience: Daphna Feygenbaum (Molly Ephraim), born Diana, is an acerbic, self-righteous Vassar senior who has become obsessed with her heritage since visiting Israel and now is determined to study with a vegan female rabbi and to make aliyah. Her equally self-centered and condescending cousin, Liam Haber (Ari Brand), meanwhile, is a profoundly secular student of Asian culture who wants to propose to his non-Jewish girlfriend (Lili Fuller) by …show more content…
Even so, Harmon, 32, who grew up in a Conservative Jewish home in Westchester County, N.Y., and took a Birthright trip to Israel in his mid-20s, admits that some viewers might find the play’s title incendiary. He said he received a bit of hate mail from people who had not seen the play during its original run in New York and that a poster advertising “Bad Jews’ ” West End run was banned from the London subway.
Was Harmon concerned that the nagging Daphna, who is described in the character introductions as sporting “hair that screams: Jew,” could be perceived as a negative cliché? “I don’t think she’s a stereotype in the least, because I have not seen a lot of plays where the protagonist is a 21-year-old, very strongly Jewish girl,” he insisted. And the snooty Liam, he added, can be equally offensive as the doubting