An Ode to 'Crossing Delancey,' [View all]

[elleng]

The author 'was born in 1988, the year Crossing Delancey — arguably the most Jewish rom-com ever made — came out. And yet, despite being passionately Jewish and an ardent fan of rom-coms, it somehow took me 31 years to see this enchanting, underrated masterpiece of the genre.

Crossing Delancey is the story of Isabelle “Izzy” Grossman (played by Amy Irving), a 33-year-old single Jewish woman living in New York. Her grandmother (played by Yiddish actress extraordinaire, Reizel Bozyk), through the aid of a Jewish matchmaker (the darling Sylvia Miles), tries to set her up with a nice Jewish boy. And in honor of Tu B’Av — an ancient matchmaking day that is currently celebrated as the Jewish Day of Love — I want to celebrate this movie, which extols the virtues of matchmaking and celebrates Jewish love, both familial and romantic.

The Delancey in Crossing Delancey refers to, of course, the bustling street that starts at Manhattan’s East River, on FDR drive, and ends at the Bowery, which was once the epicenter of the deeply Jewish Lower East Side.'>>>

https://www.kveller.com/an-ode-to-crossing-delancey-the-most-jewish-rom-com-of-all-time/?


I LOVE this movie! Did grow up in Brooklyn (and lived there until I was 9 years old and we moved to Long Island.)

P.S., Grandpa, whom I only 'met' when I was an infant, owned/managed a deli (in what's now Harlem.) He raised 5 kids 'alone,' after Grandma died during the 1918 'pandemic/flu,' and of course the kids helped out.

Dad recalled hating to have to reach into the pickle barrel weekend afternoon/evenings, as doing so left him with pickle juice 'scent,' so messed up his 'dating' ambience, and I suspect is/was why he disliked pickled foods thereafter!