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Gary Shteyngart reflects on his botched bris in a new short film

JL;DR SUMMARY Gary Shteyngart's short film, "The Guy Who Got Cut Wrong," explores his traumatic childhood experience of a botched circumcision performed as a seven-year-old Russian immigrant in Queens. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish TraditionJewish IdentityNew YorkImmigrationCircumcisionDocumentaryTraumaHumorGary ShteyngartDana Ben Ari

Places mentioned

New York City, New York, United States
"In the film, over a montage of photos depicting his New York City childhood including one of him at a typewriter Shteyngart narrates how his botched circumcision came to be."
Russian Federation
"So says Jewish writer Gary Shteyngart in The Guy Who Got Cut Wrong, a new documentary from The New Yorker about the botched circumcision Shteyngart received as a 7-year-old Russian immigrant to the United States."
Israel
"Ben-Ari said she was inspired to make the film after reading Shteyngarts essay. While working on Breastmilk, the issue of circumcision came up quite a bit."

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Cairo Item ID 62837
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Retrieved 2025-10-01 05:30:56 UTC
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