A YouTuber Reviewing a Pizza Shop Meets a Local Jew...

Why is this going viral?

A short clip of a friendly exchange between a food reviewer and a Jewish passerby is currently going somewhat viral on Twitter. Posted by Twitter user, @HungryChipmunk, whose biography gives their main interest as being in Jewish history, the short exchange between the two men seems to be striking many people as both refreshing and heartwarming. It struck me that way too and I watched it a few times in a row. However, being me, I also feel the need to analyse why a simple friendly exchange should be resonating with so many people, including myself!

What is the appeal of this short exchange? As one Twitter user, Tim, said, "Crazy that a totally normal interaction between two people is now seen as something exceptional." When I announced my intention to analyse this, people responded to me with an explanation. As one said, “Ah but it’s just lovely. Different cultures colliding. I love their interaction, curiosity, friendliness, trying out of words.” Another added, “Appreciation and celebration of differences, whilst tacit respect for another human being and the masses of shared ground. It is possible to celebrate both.”

This is, I believe, precisely what is appealing to people. Maybe there is always something inherently heartwarming about humans doing this, but the fact that is also feels so refreshing to so many people at this moment is significant. As Tim said in the conclusion of his tweet, “The media culture war/divisive tactics have really skewed what people think real life is like.” This gets to the nub of the matter, I think. It is not only that both men are particularly open and likeable characters but that, in their brief exchange about Jewish culture, there would have been much to problematise to the problematising mind. What is refreshing is that neither of them had one.

What could have been claimed to be problematic in that exchange? The food reviewer, whose name is revealed as “Matt” further down, is a large man and he offers non-Kosher food to a man of much slighter build whose kippah and payot indicate that he is Jewish. The name “Matthew,” although of Jewish origin, is most common among those of a culturally Christian background and Matt’s accent is English while the passerby’s accent and uncommon use of the continuous tense “I am eating only Kosher” suggest that English might be his second language.

For those inclined to problematise interactions through power dynamics, Matt could be read as the one in the position of power. He could also be accused of a microaggression. Think of the example given by the key developer of theories around microaggressions, Derald Wing Sue. He speaks of having been asked, with an African American colleague, to move to the back of a plane to balance it out by a white flight attendant. To Sue, it did not matter whether or not the flight attendant consciously observed the skin colour of the passengers she was asking to move or was just doing what would balance the plane out best, she should have realised the historical significance of asking a black person to move to the back. She had committed a microaggression, whether consciously or unconsciously.

If we were to transfer this reasoning to European history of the treatment of Jews (I strongly recommend against transferring this reasoning anywhere), we could equally say that Matt should have been aware of history in which people suspected of being secretly Jewish were accosted in the street and offered pork to get them to reveal themselves. Had they refused (which they wouldn’t because it is Christianity that required people to martyr themselves in a display of faith while Judaism allows for the breaking of rules for health & safety reasons!) they would have been taken for ‘examination’ by the Church.

It is quite clear that Matt was not thinking of this history at all when he offered pizza to the Jewish passerby, because when the other man, with a friendly expression but slightly creased brow said that he would, but that pizza was not Kosher and he was Jewish, Matt’s immediate response was a casual but sincere “Ah! I should have known that. I’m sorry, mate. My apologies. What’s that you’ve got there?” To this, the other man immediately broke into a huge grin and said “No worries” before explaining the purpose of the palm tree. The friendly exchange continues for a few more seconds before Matt checks that “Shalom” is the customary friendly greeting and farewell in Hebrew and the other man confirms that it is and these are exchanged before they part.

I think it is the sheer psychological healthiness of this exchange which so many people have found both heartwarming and refreshing. On examining my own warmth of feeling towards it, (Yes, I am doing auto-ethnography. Shut up) it certainly seems that that is what it is. The Jewish passerby had cultural precedent for feeling offended, unsafe, erased, culturally appropriated or the victim of a microaggression, but he did not. Instead, he stated his Jewishness as a straightforward explanation and had a friendly conversation, appreciating the other man’s interest in his palm tree and wish to use a Jewish farewell. The food reviewer had cultural precedent for feeling the need for an abject apology and promise to do better and examine his own unconscious biases or to hastily extricate himself from the conversation avoiding all further mention of Jewish culture or customs, but he did not. Instead, he acknowledged his lack of knowledge with a brief apology and then showed further interest in Jewish culture and customs.

Maybe it is crazy to feel so warmly towards a completely normal interaction in which two people assumed good faith and good will in the other, despite beginning with a cultural misunderstanding, and had a relaxed, friendly and interested exchange about cultural differences. If so, it is probably not the people finding both individuals so endearing and the whole exchange lovely who are crazy, but the cultural norms which make this feel like stepping into a warm bath. We will know we have beaten the dominance of the identitarian Culture Wars narrative when an everyday exchange like this does not feel like a heartwarming and refreshing cause for celebration. When we can just enjoy the “appreciation and celebration of differences with tacit respect for another human being” and the ‘interaction, curiosity, friendliness and trying out of words” for their own sake.

(Disclaimer: I am fully aware that most of you were already just doing that, before I came in and culturally analysed all the joy out of it for you. Sorry. )

Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash