Jewsploitation

January 17, 2003

One Mean Heeb: Jonathan Kesselman brings the baddest Chasid to the screen in the first Jewsploitation film.

At one point in Jonathan KesselmanÕs "Jewish exploitation" comedy, "The Hebrew Hammer," Mordechai Jefferson Carver strides into a seedy skinhead bar wearing a long leather coat, a black fedora, pais, a tallit and an oversized gold chai. A chalkboard advertises beer on tap such as Old Adolf, but the titular superhero orders "Manischewitz, straight up." Then he crashes a bottle over the bartenderÕs head, whips out two sawed-off shotguns and shouts, "Shabbat Shalom, MotherfÑÑÑs!"