Archetypal American ‘secular Jewish space’ gains due regard

Cate Thurston remembers the moment her team settled on what to call an exhibition about #Jewish #delis in America.

“We kind of just said it as a joke,” the co-curator says. We all had a laugh. And then we thought, wait, no, we could call it that!”
The title: "I’ll Have What She’s Having.
Comedy fans will recognise it as the punchline from arguably the most famous deli scene in film history: Meg Ryan faking an orgasm in front of Billy Crystal, provoking wide-eyed stares from patrons and staff. An older woman, played by director Rob Reiner’s mother, remarks to a waitress: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

😄The clip is among several playing in a loop in the exhibition, organised by the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, which opened this week at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. 👀
It is a celebration of the delicatessen – a German word that loosely translates to “a place to find delicious things to eat”
– as the vernacular of #Ashkenazi Jewish life

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/may/23/jewish-deli-exhibit-washington-dc-museum?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other