Anne Frank Lookalike Competition!
Win $200 in cash!
Happy Friday.
Here’s a story for you, a lesson from that story, and then a more meaningful story related to the first story. Got it?
Last Shabbat was sort of an unusual Shabbat. Friday night was great—I brought my non-Jewish friends to synagogue (hopefully a Drop on that soon!), but since my favorite Shabbat partner was out of town, I found myself walking around Gramercy early Saturday afternoon.
I had just left a tour of the National Arts Club with New York Adventure Club, a local company I help out with and a great way to explore hidden gems around the city, when I saw this flyer on a street light:
There have been a few of these lookalike competitions around town, from Timothée Chalamet to Pedro Pascal, each with their own similarly designed flyer of black and white and Comic Sans.
That’s why I almost overlooked this one, until the photo on the flyer stopped me in my tracks. An Anne Frank lookalike contest? Did Anne Frank belong in the same comedic or heartthrobic (I just made up that word) bucket as Timothée and Pedro? Not that I think Timothée is a heartthrob, but still. I was exasperated.
Storming off (admittedly I was too stunned to rip the flyer down), I pulled up Instagram to see if anyone else was posting about this. Even though I’ve been keeping my phone mostly off on Shabbat (a practice that’s been spiritually fulfilling!), I had it on that day to help check people in for the tour.
Not finding any news about this competition, I took my anger to my feed and made the following post:
As you can see from my caption, I felt the need to do something. While I understood I probably wouldn’t change minds, I think representation is important, no matter how small. Showing a crowd that people are offended by this and there’s a way to educate matters.
I quickly became obsessed by this competition and what to do about it, hunched over my phone while pacing the streets, trying to contact Jewish organizations and influencers, getting my friends’ opinions on what to do, and rallying the troops to oppose this.
That was when I realized I never scanned the QR code on the flyer. So disgusted by the idea of the contest, I stormed off and took to social media before pausing and finding out more information.
I found a website where you can scan a QR code from a photo (thanks, technology!) and it brought me to the page for a new musical called Slam Frank.
I had heard of this musical before. It’s a satirical show about her life based on a viral Twitter thread in 2022 that accused her of having white privilege. The made-up theater troupe in the show pokes fun at progressives by reimagining Anne as a pansexual Latina named Anita Franco.
Okay. Fine. The flyer was probably a marketing stunt for the show (with improper grammar, I may add). I updated my Instagram post to reflect my latest discovery. But as someone who’s in marketing, I thought the address should send people to the theater. (I later DM’d the musical about this. They never responded.)
Which led me to wonder: was there ever a real contest? I never showed up to the park. I decided this flyer was taking up enough of my precious Shabbat energy.
I later learned that the contest was probably fake, and the flyer was likely created by a Jew to mock the woke. This person may have been related to the theater or not.
My heart sank all over again, not just because I found this “joke” to be unhumorous, but for how I reacted to it. How easily I let a piece of paper break my social media boundary on Shabbat, and in doing so, allowing the idea of Jew mockery to win for a moment.
And worst of all, the stunt got me writing about the musical on this Substack, which means their marketing worked. Fool me once!
So I guess the lesson here is when things upset you, take a beat, find out as much information as you can, and remember to breathe. Remember your values. Even though my phone was on, I didn’t have to take to social media, or contact my fellow Jews who I knew would be equally upset about this. I don’t regret posting the flyer though, since the post sparked some interesting conversation (and I hope it will in the comments here as well!.
I refuse to let Jew mockery or bad humor take over this week’s Drop! So I’m sharing a story that brings me hope.
It’s a story my colleague told me a couple of years ago, explaining her reason for converting to Judaism. She grew up in Ecuador in a family that wasn’t Jewish. I’ve been wanting to share her story for a while now, and figured this was the perfect week to do so. I’ll let her share the rest!
“When I was a child, I often got in trouble at school for being too talkative. To keep me out of trouble, my mother handed me books and told me to read instead of chatting with friends. One of those books was The Diary of Anne Frank.
Anne’s story made me wonder about Judaism, about why anyone would persecute others for their faith, or risk everything to protect them, and about why identity and belief could be worth enduring, hiding, or even dying for. Growing up in a city of over two million people with fewer than 500 Jews, my first encounter with Judaism came through Anne’s voice. I was heartbroken by her fate but deeply moved by her resilience and her ability to find light in the darkness.
I did not know it then, but that book began the journey that would lead me to become a Jew by choice years later. I still thank Anne for teaching me how to stay proud in the face of adversity, to find joy in small moments, and to keep believing in the goodness of people and the hope of a better future.”
Instead of Anne’s legacy being stripped down to her looks, it’s her words that continue to reach across cultures, generations, and languages. They inspire new beginnings and new connections to Jewish life, even in the unlikeliest places.
So maybe that’s the lesson. Hatred or mockery will always find ways to reach us. Sometimes it can get under our skin. But so can light. And I want to keep choosing and reaching for that light.
Have a spooky Shabbat 🎃,
P.S. Shabbat Drop Book Club got moved to 11/16 so you have more time to read As a Jew by Sarah Hurwitz! Don’t miss our virtual hang!
This book is for anyone who cares about how the Jewish story get framed and misrepresented, and how to take back and own our collective story.
Great article, hard to believe someone would stage a stunt like this. Anne Frank's story isn't trivial but a warning to never forget the Holocaust.