"The Last Night of Ballyhoo"

Regent University's MFA theater program has produced a thoroughly enjoyable version of Alfred Uhry's "The Last Night of Ballyhoo."  A bit sweet but definitely more pointed than "Leaving Iowa" (reviewed here).  The play's analysis of Jewish assimilation in America and the divide between German Jews and "the other kind" (from "east of the Elbe," as one of the characters genteelly put it) raises issues of which I suspect most Regent theater goers were unaware.  After twelve years of practice with various incarnations of the Milwaukee law firm of Howard, Peterman, Eisenberg, Solochek & Nashban, I can report that both issues are still alive among America's Jews. 

For what it's worth, I've observed several things about Jews in America.  First, that conscious assimilation to a vaguely Christianized America (like the play's Freitag family) is on the wane.  Instead, we see a growing commitment to a slightly more Orthodox manner of life but an even larger and deeper secularization characterized by an increasing rate of intermarriage with gentiles.  Recognition of Jesus as Messiah among Jews has increased over the past 50 years but its significance in the big picture should  not be overestimated.  Second, that the divide between German and Eastern Jews is still around, at least in some places and in an older generation, but seems to be less pronounced.

A good play well done.