Unkosher Comedy Series Puts Treyf Front and Center
Some would argue that there’s nothing funny about treyf.
And the trio behind [“Traif (An Unkosher Series),”](An Unkosher Series ““Traif (An Unkosher Series),””) a new online comedy based on Brooklyn’s very real Traif restaurant, would argue that they’re wrong.
When Chef Jason Marcus opened the eatery — a bagel’s throw from Satmar enclaves in Wiliamsburg — he got pummeled by Orthodox media for serving mostly pork and shellfish dishes such as salt-and-pepper shrimp and lobster with spicy sausage.
Since Traif’s creators live in Los Angeles, the show’s set in a Fairfax restaurant led by a chef named, ahem, Jason Marco.
“I hope kosher-eating people look at this and say this is a funny concept,” producer Lew Levy, who’s Marcus’s uncle, told the Jewish Journal. “The restaurant is now very well-accepted in Brooklyn. Jason has spoken with rabbis in the community and they peacefully coexist.”
According to the series’ website, each episode will highlight a dish or ingredient from the real Traif restaurant, and the recipes will be posted online.
More Dish of the Day
Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected]
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO