With all the recent excitement surrounding the Artemis II mission, it’s hard not to be swept up into the wonders, mystery and scientific amazement that surrounds outer space. If you’re expecting, you might be considering an out-of-this-world name for your future little star. If you’re looking for something both space-related and Jewish, you’re in luck. 

Jews have made major contributions to the study of space over the years, whether as physicists, astronauts, astronomers or mathematicians. In fact, Jewish involvement in astronomical research dates back to the medieval period in Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. Throughout the Torah and many other Jewish texts, there are concrete references to astronomical phenomena and celestial bodies.

There’s also a rather staggering number of Jewish sci-fi writers and creative artists who have produced, written or acted in books, films and TV shows relating to outer space: Isaac Asimov, Stanley Kubrick, Natalie Portman, Leonard Nimoy, Jane Yolen and Mel Brooks to name just a handful. (Though it must be said, while “Spaceballs” is still a hilariously awesome film, I cannot in good faith recommend naming one’s child Vespa, Dot Matrix or Lone Starr.)

Outer space is a wonderfully rich resource when it comes to finding the perfect name. Read on for galactic inspiration! 

Boys’ names

Arno: Arno Penzias was a German-American Jewish physicist and astronomer who helped confirm the Big Bang theory.

Barkai: Barkai means “morning star” in Hebrew, perfect for your future early riser.

Ilan: Choosing this name could be in remembrance of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli Jewish astronaut who was on the fatal 2003 Columbia mission.

Immanuel: Immanuel Bonfils was a French Jewish astronomer and physician who wrote on celestial phenomena like eclipses and astronomical tables.

Karl/Carl: Karl Schwarzschild, a German Jewish astrophysicist and astronomer, was the first to solve Einstein’s field equations. The C spelling is in honor of Carl Sagan, internationally acclaimed astronomer, planetary scientist and writer who helped found NASA programs and won a Pulitzer Prize.

Koren: Koren means “shining” in Hebrew.

Meir: Meaning “from light” in Hebrew, Meir can also be for Meir Neumark, a German Jewish translator born in 1688 who translated some of the first astronomical texts from Latin and German into Hebrew.

Ofek: Ofek means “horizon” in Hebrew.

Samson: Samson is derived from the Hebrew name Shimshon using the root word “shemesh,” which means “sun.” Both Sammy and Sunny/Sonny could make for adorable nickname options.

Shavit: Shavit means “comet” in Hebrew.

Girls’ names

Esther: You probably know Esther as the queen from the Purim story, but the name derives from an old Person word meaning “star,” which gives this name both royalty and celestial vibes. 

Joan : Joan Feynman was an American Jewish astrophysicist and space physicist known for her work on solar winds, sunspot cycles and auroras.

Judith: Honor the legacy of Judith Resnik, the American Jewish astronaut who was also the first Jewish female astronaut in space, lost during the Challenger disaster in 1986.

Leia: You can play off the classic Hebrew name Leah with this spelling as a nod to the legendary outer space fictional character Princess Leia, played by Jewish actress Carrie Fisher.

Levana: We love Levana, meaning “moon” in Hebrew, to the moon and back.

Noga: Noga means “radiance” or sometimes “morning light” in Hebrew.

Reysa: Reysa Bernson was one of the founders of contemporary astronomical studies in France. She was tragically killed in the Holocaust.

Shterna: Meaning “star” in Yiddish, the diminutive version of Shternie is also used.

Sivan: The Jewish lunar month of Sivan corresponds with the Gemini constellation, perfect for those spring babies.

Vera: Vera Rubin was a pioneering American Jewish astronomer who was an expert in galactic rotation rates and dark matter. She was the winner of numerous awards and a staunch advocate for women in science.

Gender neutral names

Kima/Kimah: Kima is used in the Torah to describe a particular star cluster, generally thought to be referring to the Pleiades cluster.

Kochav: Kochav means “star” in Hebrew.

Raz: Meaning “mystery” or “secret” in Hebrew, this name can be a nod to how space continues to fascinate us with its unexplored secrets and depths.

Sahar: Sahar means “moon” in Hebrew.

Shachar: Shachar means “dawn” in Hebrew.

The post Jewish Baby Names Inspired by Space appeared first on Kveller.

Since October 7 and the Israel-Hamas War, Israel’s inclusion in the Eurovision, Europe’s most popular televised TV contest, has been a hot topic. It’s led to backstage drama, crowds booing, massive protests and security concerns, and this year, multiple countries are refusing to participate in or air the contest if it includes Israel.

Now, a collective of big-name celebrities is making their voices heard on the matter. Dozens of music industry big shots and Hollywood stars have signed a letter in support of Israel’s inclusion, on behalf of Creative Community for Peace.

Who has shown their support? Amy Schumer, Mila Kunis, Jerry O’Connell, Erin Foster, Jeremy Piven, Matthew Weiner, Anthony Edwards, Matisyahu, Liev Schreiber, Helen Mirren, Gene Simmons, Scooter Braun, Boy George, Mayim Bialik, Sharon Osbourne, Debra Messing, Emmy Rossum, Dame Maureen Lipman, Ginnifer Goodwin, Selma Blair, Skyler Astin, Gregg Sulkin, Patricia Heaton, Diane Warren, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Joshua Malina and Tracy-Ann Oberman are just some of the over 1000 names on the open letter.

A few of the signatories shared their personal feelings in the letter. Music exec and grandson of survivors Scooter Braun wrote that artists “should never be discriminated against for who they are, who they love, or where they’re born… These boycott efforts do nothing but distract from the uplifting and unifying power of music – something we need now more than ever.”

Israeli-American Kiss singer and bassist Gene Simmons also wrote about the power of music to bring people together, and claimed that “those advocating to exclude an Israeli singer from Eurovision don’t move the needle towards peace, but only further divide the world.”

“After a horrendous violent attack on Israeli civilians, calls for boycotts and excluding Israeli artists from international events simply because they are Israeli is abhorrent and shameful. Targeting Israeli musicians in this way tarnishes the unifying spirit that is Eurovision,” actress Mayim Bialik wrote.

Actor Jerry O’Connell shared that he believes that “no artist should be silenced for where they are from. These boycott efforts destroy the very connections the arts are meant to build.”

Sharon Osbourne, the Jewish wife of late rock icon Ozzy Osbourne, shared that “artists and culture are being dragged into the angry, misinformed politics of the moment. Attempts to exclude Israelis from the international stage twist art into a tool of division and erode the shared humanity that the arts are meant to preserve. I’ve watched this play out for over three years, and it just breaks my heart.”

You can read the full text of the letter here. 

Israel is still slated to appear in the Eurovision this year with a song titled “Michelle” that incorporates both Hebrew, French and English lyrics. Singer Noam Bettan will participate in the contest’s first semi-final on May 12, and if Bettan moves forward, he will compete with the rest of the 25 finalists on May 16. While Israel isn’t in Europe, it partcipates in the competition because its national broadcaster, KAN, is part of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which helms the show.

Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain have announced they won’t participate in or broadcast the competition if Israel competes. Yet the EBU has announced that the majority of its members do not want to vote on Israel’s inclusion, and are letting the contest continue as scheduled. They did, however, make a change in the voting guidelines, possibly following allegations of Israeli interference in past years.

The Eurovision will stream on Peacock in the U.S.

The post Helen Mirren, Amy Schumer, Liev Schreiber and Others Sign Open Letter In Support of Israel’s Inclusion in the Eurovision appeared first on Kveller.

For 25 years, the competition show “Survivor” has spanned ages, cultures and countries, becoming reality TV’s foundational series. This social experiment, with a few dozen people alone in nature, forced to work together to survive the elements and vote each other out until there’s a “Sole Survivor,” is now in its 50th season. 

Most people don’t expect their rabbi to be a “Survivor” superfan. Yet so much of what I love about “Survivor” is what animates my Judaism: thick and nuanced relationships. And I’m not the only member of the tribe to feel this way. 

When I moved to a new community to serve as a pulpit rabbi, “Survivor” became a point of connection with b’nai mitzvah students, young adults and empty nesters in my congregation
Naturally, I became curious if this double bond — “Survivor” fan and Jew — extended to the island. So, I reached out to some of the show’s greatest Jewish players to find out if and how their Jewish identity translated to the game. I spoke with season three winner and self-described “wilderness icon” of old school “Survivor” Ethan Zohn; Adam Klein, winner of Season 33 and unofficial representative of the new school of “Survivor;” and Tiffany Seely, a player from the New Era and season 41, which had more Jewish castaways than any other season.

On how being raised Jewish shaped their game philosophy:    

“After my dad died when I was 14 years old,” Ethan Zohn shared, “I realized the value of community because we went to minyan pretty much every night [to say Kaddish]… the Jewish community reached out, embraced us, reinforced our values at a time when we felt completely alone as a family.” 

“So for me,” Ethan continued, “I was able to survive as a young boy because of the Jewish community… I did think about that on ‘Survivor’… I made myself crucial to everyone else’s ‘Survivor’… I wasn’t able to get through life without my Jewish community… so if I could be that person for everyone out there, they couldn’t vote me off.” 

Tiffany Seely, too, spoke to how her “community-oriented” Jewish values “helped frame how [she] approached trust, loyalty and conflict,” noting that the “social values and identity awareness that come from [her] Jewish background influenced how [she] connected with other players and… navigated challenges mentally and emotionally.” 

For Adam Klein, upbringing was perhaps most present in his game through familial ties. He shared, “Family is incredibly important in Judaism, and getting to have my family be such an important part of my time on the show meant so much to me. I felt my mom’s presence out there with me every single day, both times I played, and my brother and dad both got to come out on the show for the loved ones visits. All of the tools that allowed me to win the game came from the way I was raised, and my win was as much theirs as it was mine.”

On how they connected with fellow Jewish players:

While shared identities have long been a bonding tool on “Survivor” – from the all-women’s alliance on “Survivor Micronesia” to Christianity being used to cohere a group on “Survivor South Pacific” — Jewish connections have never been explicitly highlighted on the show.  

This was true even in season 41, which had four Jewish players – Tiffany Seely, Evvie Jagoda, Liana Wallace and Sydney Segal. Though the four were diverse when it came to age, race, beliefs and backgrounds, they bonded over their religious heritage. 

Tiffany shared, “There were moments where we naturally connected, understood elements of each other’s humor, values and cultural touchstones, and it helped shape some of the social bonds we formed early on. Evvie and I immediately connected and shared a great chuckle at the “I knew you were Jewish” conversation we had at the water well; it was almost unspoken. Then Liana jumped in and [the three of us] discussed [how we were]… ‘the tribe within the tribe.’” 

Tiffany was not initially on the same tribe as Segal, but they “connected at merge… discussed being Jewish, and took it from there.”  

For Klein, too, a shared Jewish background came up with a tribe member. He reflects that these conversations helped him and Hannah Shapiro bond, saying “I don’t believe there have ever been two Jews in the final three together in any other season!”  

On being outwardly Jewish on the show:

Ethan was the first self-identified Jewish contestant on “Survivor,” competing in its third season which aired in 2001. For Ethan, this was something to navigate: 

“They put me on a tribe with a guy named Big Tom Buchanan, from a town [with] 24 people… [he had] never met a Jewish person before. I had never met anyone who hadn’t met a Jewish person before,” he added. “I made a conscious decision to hide my Judaism in the first six days… he wasn’t treating me any differently, but was asking questions… feeling for the horns, talking about foods you eat, what he knew about Jewish people… We had deep conversations. It wasn’t anything malicious, he just hadn’t met a Jewish person before.”

Ethan went on to discuss how though he initially wanted to lie, backstab and do whatever it took to win, when he got out there and found himself hungry, tired and thirsty, he reverted to who he was outside of the game and shifted his strategy accordingly. “I didn’t want to hide who I am. If I’m going to win this thing, I need to be me, and play, and that’s how I felt I could win the game. So I flipped the script, I put my [Maccabi] shirt back on… I went on and played the show.”

Though Ethan navigated lack of awareness about the Jewish experience, as the first Jewish player on “Survivor,” his edit managed to sidestep many of the stereotypes about Jews that contestants had to navigate in later seasons. Adam shares that he “and other Jewish players seem much more likely to be called ‘weasels’ or something to that effect by people watching the show. I think there is a preconceived bias that Jewish people are more sneaky or conniving and so I worked especially hard in the game to make sure that people saw me as honest and trustworthy.” 

On two very explicitly Jewish moments on “Survivor”:

Tiffany took me behind the scenes of the moment when she exclaimed “Baruch Hashem!” on Season 41, to the delight of Jewish viewers everywhere:   

She shared, “I had been on a tribe where we barely ate…When we finally were about to eat, I couldn’t help but rejoice. I blurted out, “Baruch Hashem,” because in my everyday life I would say something like that… I was really surprised and honored that the show chose to leave that in the edit. It felt like a tiny glimpse of my personality and my Jewish identity — how even in a tough, chaotic environment, I take a moment to acknowledge gratitude.”   

On Ethan’s season, one of his claims to fame came during the food auction, when he pooled his money with Big Tom, only for host Jeff Probst to reveal that they had won a breakfast plate including ham.

Ethan recalled, “Tom is celebrating, ‘He’s a Jew, he won’t eat the ham!’ He’s laughing, I’m laughing… starving to death on national TV… I choose not to eat the ham. It skyrocketed me to Jewish wilderness icon and every Jewish mom on the planet wanted me to marry their kid… it’s not like I was super kosher, I just never had pork before in my life [and thought], do I really want to do it now?”

Ethan continued, “I could have got pissed off but I didn’t… I really took the time to get to know Tom better… and once you get to know someone, you can connect with them in a more positive way. My whole goal was to get to the end of the game with this guy.”

On their lives after “Survivor”:

In addition to the legacy of these three iconic players’ time on the island, they continue to make Jewish fans kvell with their ongoing leadership. Ethan travels the country speaking and raising money for philanthropic causes, including many Jewish ones. Tiffany continues to educate around the BRCA gene mutation, a marker for increased cancer risk more prevalent in Ashkenazi Jews. 

Adam coaches up-and-coming reality TV contestants, which also reflects an aspect of his Jewishness. “In my job as a reality TV casting consultant, helping people find their voices and stories for their auditions, I am constantly digging to try to figure out how and why someone is the way that they are. Digging deeper, asking questions and finding the ‘whys’ is something I have always been interested in, and I think a lot of that comes from Jewish culture and tradition.”

After 50 seasons, “Survivor” has developed its own kind of oral tradition — stories passed down, lessons carried off the island. How lucky we are to have these members of the tribe keeping that tradition — and ours — alive. 

The post Three Jewish ‘Survivor’ Contestants Tell All appeared first on Kveller.

In 2019, the Naama Issaschar affair made big headlines in Israel — when a young Israeli-American woman was detained in Russia under charges of drug smuggling. In 2022, NBA player Brittney Griner made even bigger headlines after she was arrested under similar charges while playing in Russia during the offseason.

A new Israeli thriller series borrows from both these stories and takes them to a new extreme, telling the tale of a young Israeli woman detained in Russia, accused of drug smuggling — and the determined mother trying to move worlds to get her daughter back, all while uncovering a “deadly web and corruption,” according to the series’ synopsis.

“Unconditional” is premiering on Apple TV this May. It comes from creators Adam Bizanski, known for directing music videos for The Shins and Zero 7 and for the Israeli show “Magpie,” and Dana Idisis, who c0-created “On the Spectrum,” which was adapted by Prime Video into a show titled “As We See It.” The show is directed by Johnathan Gurfinkel (“Six Acts”).

It stars Talia Lynne Ronn in her debut TV as Gali, 23, and Liraz Chamami (“Bad Boy”) as her mother, Orna. The pair are returning from a trip to India when the 23-year-old gets arrested for allegedly smuggling drugs into Moscow. With Gali behind bars, Orna goes on an arduous journey, making pleading media appearances and investigating every possible lead to help bring her daughter back home, as Russian authorities ask for Gali to spend 18 years in jail for her crime.

The show also stars singer Amir Haddad (known by his stage name, Amir), Yossi Marshek, who previously starred in Apple TV’s “Losing Alice,” celebrated theater and TV actress Evgenia Dodina (“Invisible,” “Virgins”) who is seen in the trailer telling Orna that her daughter has been taken because she knew “something critical for Israeli National Security,” and Vladimir Friedman (“Bad Boy”).

“Unconditional” is making its global debut on Apple TV with the first two episodes on Friday, May 8, with new episodes airing every Friday through June 19.

The post A New Israeli Show Is Coming to Apple TV This May appeared first on Kveller.

In the past couple of months, Paulette Dorflaufer has earned a lot of new fans.

It all started when the 82-year-old crossing guard was noticed by Ollie McAteer, a Brit living in New Jersey who has an account dedicated to reasons why he loves living in the Garden State. (As a fellow New Jerseyan, I must agree!)

Driving through Livingston, New Jersey, McAteer found the crossing guard of 20 years outfits impossible to ignore — the fur coat, the fascinator, the obvious flare. “Who is this crossing guard diva?” he wondered in a video that has since gone viral.

“We must know her story,” he rightfully declared.

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That story turned out to be more amazing than anything McAteer could have imagined. With her perfect romance heroine name, Paulette Dorflaufer has the most fascinating of life stories.

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Paulette was born in Nazi-occupied France to a Jewish family, the youngest of 10 children. While the rest of her family was taken to concentration camps — her parents and five of her siblings perished in Auschwitz — a needed hospital stay for the toddler saved her from that fate. She ended up in an orphanage in Marseille and was eventually adopted by an American Jewish couple from South Orange, New Jersey, at age 4. That couple has lost their biological daughter in a sledding accident.

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“When I was adopted, the orphanage gave me a white rabbit-fur coat and a white rabbit-fur muff, and I guess I never forgot it,” Paulette told the Washington Post. Paulette now has over 13 fur coats, which she rotates for her crossing guard duty. The mother of three and grandmother of seven (and a soon-to-be great-grandma!) got the job to be close to her granddaughter, who used to go to the elementary school where she’s now a crossguard.

While she doesn’t remember her native tongue of French, she always kept a keen French sense of style.

Paulette only discovered her family story as an adult. She went to dental school, became a dental assistant, met her husband and started a family. She only discovered she was French in 1965, and it would be six more years before a home decorator she hired would help her make contact with her family. She found a first cousin, who told her she had two living sisters in Paris and a brother in Marseilles. She discovered that her surviving French family had never stopped looking for her and met with them the following year. While her sisters have since passed away, Paulette, her children and grandchildren are still in touch with her French birth family.

Paulette is clearly a woman who loves to reinvent herself. She’s worked many jobs — a hand model, a teacher’s aide, a cosmetician at the mall — and every day, the kids she helps shepherd through the crosswalk love guessing what color Miss Paulette will wear today — a vibrant pink outfit? A calming shade of blue? Paulette puts her heart into what she wears, from scarves to rings to floral and butterfly pins to her vibrant nails. She may no longer speak French, but she’s full of joie de vivre.

When asked by her granddaughter Rachel online what her life motto would be, Paulette replied that the most important thing was to have “a lot of love and caring and understanding with each other.”

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The post This Stylish Holocaust Survivor Crossing Guard from New Jersey Is Our New Obsession appeared first on Kveller.

In 1993, through “Schindler’s List,” Steven Spielberg revealed to the world — and particularly to Hollywood — that making movies about the Holocaust was a recipe for commercial and critical success.

Since then, we’ve seen a rise in the number of Holocaust films, including many that became, like “Schindler’s List,” strong award season contenders (two of which, “The Pianist” and “The Brutalist,” famously earned Jewish actor Adrien Brody two Best Actor Academy Awards, two decades apart).

While a Meryl Streep-starring miniseries “Holocaust” predates even Schindler’s List, it didn’t lead to quite the prolific amount of TV (though it did famously change the way Germany grappled with its aftermath) — that is, until these last few years. As TV has become as serious and star-studded as films, we’ve gotten more and more shows about the intrepid tales of survivors and fascinating stories about Nazis.

We’ve also seen a number of Holocaust movies that take on a different approach to telling stories about Jewish trauma and survival, with survivors’ descendants grappling with loss and memory, like “A Real Pain,” and TV shows about survivors themselves grappling with its aftermath.

Here are 12 recent TV shows and movies that tackle Holocaust stories that you can stream right now:

Movies:

“When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit”

This film, based on a book by Judith Kerr, tells the survival story of the Kerr family through the eyes of 9-year-old Anna. We have previously deemed it the best first Holocaust movie to show your kids.

Watch on Tubi

“Eleanor the Great”

This movie, directed by Scarlett Johansson, stars June Squibb as Eleanor, who takes on the Holocaust survival story of her late roommate as a way to handle her grief. Eleanor’s deception is at times hard to swallow, making this a complex and unique film.

Watch on Netflix

“Nuremberg”

This 2025 film about the Nuremberg trials of infamous Nazis, focusing on the psychiatrist who helped evaluate those put on trial, features an all-star cast.

Watch on Netflix

“The Survivor”

This Barry Levinson film stars Ben Foster as Harry Haft, who survived Auschwitz by boxing his fellow inmates.

Watch on HBO Max

“My Best Friend Anne Frank”

This touching Dutch film follows the friendship of Anne Frank and Hanneli Gosselar, who, unlike her famous friend, survived the Holocaust and made it to Israel with her family.

Watch on Netflix

Documentaries:

“UnBroken”

This documentary tells the story of seven siblings who survived the Holocaust together, only to be separated when they got to America.

Watch on Netflix

“Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis”

There are so many little-known stories about the Holocaust and the Nazis; this short documentary tells us one about an internment camp in which Nazis were imprisoned on U.S. soil, to be interrogated by Jewish American soldiers.

Watch on Netflix 

“Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial”

A fascinating documentary about the Nazis’ and Adolf Hitler’s rise and fall from power.

Watch on Netflix

TV Dramas:

“We Were the Lucky Ones”

This deeply Jewish, heart-wrenching series, based on a book by Georgia Hunter, tells the story of the Kurc family, who all survived the Holocaust in different ways. It stars Logan Lerman, Joey King, Michael Aloni, Hadas Yaron and many other exciting Jewish stars.

Watch on Hulu

“Transatlantic”

This show from the Jewish creator of “Unorthodox” tells the story of Varian Fry and the American Emergency Rescue Committee, which helped rescue European artists and intellectuals, many of whom were Jewish, from the Nazis.

Watch on Netflix

“A Small Light”

This series stars Bel Powley as Miep Gies, Otto Frank’s secretary who, along with several other of his employees, helped hide the Frank family in that famous attic complex.

Watch on Prime Video

“The Tattooist of Auschwitz”

Based on the somewhat controversial book by Heather Morris, this dramatic and often hard-to-watch show follows the love story between Lali Sokolov (Jonah Hauer-King, Harvey Keitel in later years) and Gita (Anna Próchniak), who Lali met while working as a tattooist at the notorious concentration camp.

Watch on Peacock

The post 12 Holocaust Movies and TV Shows Streaming Right Now appeared first on Kveller.

Noga Erez made history at Coachella this weekend as the first Israeli female artist to headline a show at the famous musical festival in Indio, California, now in its 25th year.

The singer, who was raised in Caesarea, Israel, has reached many musical peaks in her career, from performing at the Eurovision with Dana International to opening for Pink while seven months pregnant, but this latest historic feat almost didn’t happen.

It took a lot of get the successful Israeli rapper and musician to the Gobi Stage this past Saturday afternoon during the first week of the festival in the blazing sun.

Erez shared a video log of her and her crew’s journey from Israel, which is currently at war with Iran. The videos showed both Erez and her partner in life and music, Ori Rousso, in a safe room during sirens, wondering if they would make it to the festival in time.

While they managed to get to Los Angeles early enough, despite several cancelled flights, their crew didn’t have as easy a journey. They had to travel to Egypt, which didn’t let one of the members cross because he had camera equipment that wasn’t allowed across the border (they quickly stored it back in Israel and resumed their journey). Meanwhile, two of the members with Iraqi heritage, who have G6PD deficiency, suffered pretty badly when their red blood cells started breaking down while eating fava beans on their flight. Yet they all miraculously made it to LA.

The concert was a triumph, despite the self-proclaimed “meh” 2:05 p.m. time slot (“it’s not the headliner’s midnight peak, it’s the blazing desert heat when people are still sweating out the drugs they did last night,” Erez poetically described on her Instagram). Erez and her crew performed a rousing high-energy set to an enthused crowd. She began the show with a new song titled “Duck Season,” and ended with another new title in which she sang. “It’s the wild wild west / but we’re from the Middle East / Broke all the stats fam / We’re really doing this.”

“Billie Eilish” rapper Armani White took the stage to sing a couple of new numbers and Erez basked in his rhyming skills.

@mycallsname4u

NOGA EREZ – COACHELLA 2026 w/ Armani White. @nogaerez @Armani White #fyp #coachella #nogaerez #armaniwhite

♬ original sound – MyCallsName4u

Perhaps most alarming of all, Erez ended the show with a bloody nose. Some believe it was the result of said desert heat or a head bump from her daughter, but it is very likely that it was simply fake blood; Erez did project the Hebrew word for blood, “dam,” (which sounds a lot like the title of her hit song “Dumb”) on stage behind her during the show, and some online said it was a possible ode to “Pulp Fiction.”

Aside from her excellent music (her set featured hit songs like “Views,” “Dumb” and “Vandalist”), choreography and staging, Erez also shared a heartfelt message.

“I just want to say one thing. You don’t get to play a stage like this every day. I come from a very, very, very complex part of this planet, and to get us all here doing this… took kind of like forces that I didn’t know that I had,” she told the rapt crowd.

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“I’m so, so grateful to be here,” she continued to the sound of cheers. “And at the same time, I’m just heartbroken and sad because of things that are happening at home and around it. I just love this music thing so much, and right now, doing this thing is exactly what I’m doing it for… to put a bunch of strangers together and make them feel like a family united around something. Thank you so much for giving me this. We’re doing this, this is Coachella — un-fucking-beliavable.”

While Erez seems to be the first female Israeli to get a Coachella featured spot, many other Israeli acts have performed at the festival before her, including EDM group Infected Mushroom, which performed on multiple occasions, singer Dudu Tassa, Dennis Llyod and DJ Sahar Z, who also was part of this year’s line-up.

The most heartwarming moment of the concert came towards the end, when Erez and Rousso’s toddler daughter was brought on stage (with protective gear for her tender ears, worry not!). Erez held her in her arms in front of the cheering crowd, and with her (fake?) bloody nose, it made for an image of a truly badass triumphant mother and artist at her peak.

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The post Singer Noga Erez Makes Israeli Music History at Coachella appeared first on Kveller.

Your Jewish child will experience antisemitism.  

To deny this is ignorant, and to avoid it is irresponsible. 

Perhaps it’ll happen in college: 83% of Jewish university students have witnessed or experienced antisemitism and 78% of them have hidden their Jewish identity. Or it will happen even sooner: antisemitic incidents in K-12 schools have spiked 424% since 2020, while 62% of Jewish K-12 teachers say they’ve seen or experienced antisemitism at their schools. 

What will you do to prepare your child for this inevitability? 

If you’re quite serious about preparing your kids, you could make a point of studying the conversational and role-playing resources provided by psychologists and watchdog groups to fortify yourself to begin a series of hard conversations.

Or you could turn to children’s books.

Here are some Jewish children’s book titles that put modern stories that confront antisemitism into the hands Jewish and non-Jewish kids.

Picture Books (5+)

“Sharing Shalom” (2024) is the only picture book in print that depicts the vandalism of a modern synagogue. The result is a gentle and joyful story about a little girl who absolutely loves the place and is very into going to Hebrew school. She worries about the damage to this hub of her beloved community, but feels heartened by the way so many people she knows come together to repair it.

Conversation starters: first introduction to the idea of antisemitism; feeling self-conscious about being different; a reminder to look for the helpers; reinforces that love is stronger than hate

“Red and Green and Blue and White” (2021) is the newest of several picture books based on the true story of how the town of Billings, Montana responded when a Jewish family experienced a hate crime during Hanukkah. In this retelling, after a criminal throws a rock through her Jewish neighbor’s window, a non-Jewish child is the first to come up with the now-famous and heartwarming gesture of gentile-Jewish solidarity: putting up a paper menorah in the window of her own home. 

Conversation starters: first introduction to the idea of antisemitism; how being Jewish can feel brave; why the month of December can be difficult for Jewish people; ways we can be upstanders for our neighbors

Middle Grade Fiction (9-12)

“Don’t Feed the Lion” (2025) brings the conversation about antisemitism up to a realistic middle school level. A Jewish boy’s favorite pro soccer player makes an antisemitic comment and it emboldens his soccer teammates at school to experiment with antisemitism themselves. When one kid puts a swastika on the Jewish boy’s locker, the fallout is deeply personal but also far-ranging, impacting a network of kids and adults who each handle the problem differently.

Conversation starters: exploring various ways we might react if we faced an antisemitic incident at school; pressure on Jewish kids to respond “the right way”; the role of celebrities and public figures in influencing kids; whether social media helps or hurts when it comes to antisemitism; which adults we would count on to help in an antisemitic situation

“The Do More Club” (2023) also grapples with the after-effects of swastika vandalism, but in this novel-in-verse, we see how the Jewish main character follows up: He evolves his thinking away from fear and desire to blend in, and into his own brand of activism and collective action against prejudice and bullying.

Conversation starters: whether it’s ever appropriate or sensible to hide your Jewish identity; the relationship between visible differences and bullying; the fine line between bullying and hate speech; motivations to take positive action to support a cause (such as community organizing) 

“The Book of Elsie” (2022), a Purim-themed story, features a girl with a perfect Esther costume who is motivated to save her struggling synagogue’s annual Purim party, alongside her non-Jewish best friend. Late in the story the synagogue is vandalised with swastikas, though it happens alongside mention of other forms of prejudice and hatred. The plucky main character takes inspiration from Queen Esther as she bravely contends with the reality of antisemitism.

Conversation starters: the commonalities between antisemitism and other forms of hate and prejudice; the relationship between antisemitism today and antisemitism in stories that are part of Jewish tradition and Jewish holidays

“Linked” (2021) is the most well-known middle grade novel that grapples with swastika vandalism. A thread of “whodunnit” runs throughout the story, as the swastikas continue to appear at a small town Colorado school. The story also features a valiant effort by a group of students to take a public stand against the antisemitic graffiti and memorialize Holocaust victims by creating a paper chain six million links long. The book also touches on the complicated feelings of a child discovering his Jewish heritage for the first time.

Conversation starters: the “contagious” nature of antisemitism; the role apathy or indifference plays in allowing antisemitism to continue; the idea that Jewish people can sometimes be antisemitic; the dubious effectiveness of “Tolerance” lessons

Young Adult Fiction (12+)

“The Assignment” (2020) is a close study of what happens when a high school history teacher instructs his students to research, and then debate the merits, of Hitler’s “Final Solution” — including the most efficient way to execute it. (This book’s premise is ripped from a real-life headline.) Most students and parents don’t object to the project, but the novel’s two main characters very much do, despite previously respecting this teacher. They take a stand, and it goes viral in their community.

Conversation starters: antisemites will sometimes insist they are not antisemitic; what to do when a trusted adult reveals themselves to be antisemitic; how to take a stand against antisemitism when you have little support

“The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen” (2022) focuses on a thoughtful, funny and slightly rebellious Orthodox teen named Hoodie (Yehuda), whose insular community has just relocated to a fictional town in New Jersey. The unwelcoming vibes from the townies serve as scene-setting background to the main plotline — the forbidden budding romance between Orthodox Hoodie and the daughter of the town’s mayor — until the end of the book when it erupts into tragic, violent hate crimes. Despite being a victim, Hoodie still manages to bridge a divide between the two communities.

Conversation starters: the burden of antisemitism on observant Jews, who are visibly Jewish; the many different (inaccurate) perceptions of Jews, including stereotypes, that exist in the world; the steps Jews in different communities must take to stay safe

“Some Kind of Hate” (2022) shows what happens when an angry high schooler is rapidly radicalized by white nationalism through an online video game. Baseball player Declan starts the book with a Jewish best friend named Jake, and ends the book involved in a plot to attack Jake’s synagogue. Declan’s indoctrination is interspersed with chapters told from Jake’s point of view, as antisemitism seeps through their town.

Conversation starters: the complex reality of how misinformation online contributes to antisemitism; why antisemitism and other forms of toxic hatred take hold in regular people who are hurting or angry; how easily extremism, such as antisemitism, can be ignored by those it isn’t directed at; the idea of antisemitic euphemisms and “dog whistles”

The post Children’s Books About Antisemitism That Actually Speak to Modern Jewish Kids appeared first on Kveller.

This Wednesday, author Freida McFadden, the prolific writer behind best-selling thrillers like the “Housemaid” series, many of which have been adapted for TV and film, revealed her real identity in an exclusive interview with USA Today.

And while you may think that Freida McFadden is the least Jewish pen name in existence, it seems that her real name couldn’t possibly get more Jewish. The author’s real name is Sara Cohen, basically the Jewish female version of John Smith, the name of the first Jewish matriarch (with a just slightly unorthodox spelling) and the most quintessentially Jewish last name of all.

Cohen told USA Today that she felt like she was “tired of people debating if I’m a real person or if I’m three men,” referencing theories that have been posited by internet sleuths. She added that while she used a pen name so that she could keep practicing medicine, the 45-year-old, who treats brain disorders, now only works as a doctor perhaps “once or twice a month.”

Cohen was raised in Midtown, Manhattan, with a psychiatrist father and a podiatrist mother, the daughter of two doctors who both instilled in her a love for books (her mother was a fan of thrillers and loves her daughter’s writing, even if she doesn’t always get it). She has one brother, a music producer. She met her husband, an engineer, in computer science class, and the two live in Boston. The couple has two teen children — a son and daughter. The Daily Mail identifies her father as the late Carl Cohen, who passed away in 2024. An obituary from his colleague uses the Passover song “Dayenu” to recount his many accomplishments in the field of psychiatry.

Cohen hasn’t shared whether she is Jewish or not — to be fair, she didn’t share too much more about her life than what was already known through her fair share of press interviews. Yet, we feel fairly certain that she is, at least in some way, Jewish — though there certainly are a few non-Jewish Cohens, like football player Tarik Cohen (not to mention the divisive trend among mostly non-Jews of using the surname as a first name).

And while knowing that her last name is Cohen makes her use of wigs feel a little, well, extra Jewish, the author assures us that it has nothing to do with religious observance. “I have no idea how to style my hair,” she explained to USA Today.

The post Best-Selling Author Freida McFadden Is Actually Sara Cohen appeared first on Kveller.

It’s hard to think of a more delightful person to teach the basics about Judaism than Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman. She’s excellent at melding the profoundly, messily human with the deeply (and audaciously!) funny — and her sister is an actual rabbi, after all!

It seems that the team behind Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This,” that hit show about a “shiksha” who falls in love with a rabbi, agrees, as they’ve cast Silverman to play Rabbi Eden in the upcoming third season, described in Variety this week as “the warm, quirky teacher of an Intro to Judaism class, and a supportive presence for Joanne and Noah.”

Rabbi Eden, it seems, will help Kristen Bell’s Joanne, who, after a rousing speech from her sister-in-law Esther (the brilliant Jackie Tohn), realized she does want to convert to Judaism for Adam Brody’s Hot Rabbi Noah and for herself.

We’re sure Sarah’s sister, Rabbi Susan Silverman, who officiated Tiffany Haddish’s bat mitzvah, will give her plenty of tips on how to help welcome someone on their Jewish journey.

This casting choice is making me extra excited for season three. I’ve always thought Joanne’s journey towards conversion to Judaism would make for such a funny, and possibly enlightening, if done right, storyline. And after watching Leslie Grossman’s amazing Rabbi Shira in season one, I’ve been jonesing to see more women rabbis on the show.

Silverman isn’t the only thrilling new cast member we’ve learned of this week. To add some extra humor and drama to those early Judaism lessons, “Nobody Wants This” is bringing in Andrew Rannells to play Sebastian, Joanne’s nemesis in conversion class. Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan, “Nobody Wants This” showrunners, also famously helmed “Girls,” and just that one-line description of Rannells’ character is giving very fun Elijah vibes (for those who never watched “Girls,” Rannells played Elijah Krantz, Lena Dunham’s former college boyfriend who comes out as gay; the two had the most incredible scenes together).

Rounding out the list of Joanne’s classmates is Keyla Monterroso Mejia, whose character, Amber, is “a single woman enrolled in Joanne’s Intro to Judaism class who is obsessed with finding a Jewish husband.” I gotta be honest, this character description is definitely raising some red flags! But I have loved Mejia in all of her TV roles (most recently in “The Studio”) and shall remain optimistic.

But that’s not all (dayenu!). Sadie Sandler is joining season three, too. Adam Sandler’s eldest daughter, who is about to star in the Netflix movie “Roommates,” will be playing a psychic who gives a reading to Joanne’s sister, Morgan (Justine Lupe), in what is surely to be a quirky and funny situation.

Son of Borscht Belt comedian reps and funny Jew in his own right Steven Weber will be playing “Julian, a funny, grounded, cool and secure divorced dad.” Intriguing. Will he be a guide for Timothy Simons’ Sasha (who will be going on online dates with Stephanie Koenig’s Poppy) or a love interest for Esther? I’m still a little heartbroken about the demise of my favorite “Nobody Wants This” couple, but intrigued about what comes next for them.

Perhaps the most fascinating new season three cast member is someone who has been with the show from the very, very beginning — creator and writer Erin Foster, who based the show on her own love story with her NJB (nice Jewish boy, of course), and her journey becoming Jewish. Foster will be playing a very “Revolving Doors” version of herself (and the character based on her, Joanne). Foster’s Nicole is terminally single and a chaotic mess. Essentially, she’s Joanne if everything had gone wrong with her life.

Rounded out by Avan Jogia as a confident man who enjoys negging Joanne and Poorna Jagannathan as Sebastian’s biting aunt, these new cast members are most certainly giving me a lot to look forward to in season three of “Nobody Wants This,” which has been shooting around Los Angeles these past few weeks.

So are these pictures of Tovah Feldshuh’s Bina at the beach and at… a workout class?

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The post Sarah Silverman, Erin Foster and Sadie Sandler Join Cast of ‘Nobody Wants This’ Season 3 appeared first on Kveller.

This Passover, we’re all thinking about space. Artemis II is on the first space mission to the moon in decades, launching into space on April 1, the day of the first night of Passover.

While the mission’s commander, Reid Wiseman, might not be Jewish (though he has shared pictures of Israel from space and attended Space Week in the state as a guest astronaut), Jews have gone to space during Passover before — most notably, the second Jewish American NASA astronaut, Jeffrey Hoffman, whose first mission to space in 1985 coincided with the Jewish holiday.

Hoffman even tried to bring matzah onto Space Shuttle Discovery but unfortunately, the flight’s food coordinator, unfamiliar with the Jewish bread of affliction, vetoed that particular Jewish space mission. She cracked the matzah and saw the sheer number of crumbs it produced and simply told Hoffman, “That matzah is not making it to space.” While matzah crumbs are the bane of our existence during Passover, with endless sweeping and vacuuming, turns out they can be literally deadly to astronauts in zero gravity, where inhaling crumbs can cause some real damage.

But fear not — over his five space missions, Hoffman did manage to bring lots of Judaica to space, including several mezuzahs, atarot (the inscription on the collar of a tallit), a miniature Torah scroll, a yad, a menorah, a tallit and perhaps most famously, a silver dreidel made in Jerusalem that he spun for Houston and all to see:

Hoffman isn’t the only Jewish astronaut who has celebrated Hanukkah in space. Jessica Meir marked the Festival of Lights aboard the Soyuz-15 with fun Hanukkah socks (and also participated in the first all-women space walk with Artemis II’s Christina Cook). Jasmin Moghbeli, who isn’t Jewish, brought a felt menorah her Jewish kids made on her mission, along with a dreidel as a special tribute to her kids, her Jewish husband and their interfaith family.

The late Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli to make it to space, also famously brought a Kiddush cup to space and inquired with many rabbis about how to observe Shabbat while in orbit, according to the documentary “Fiddler on the Moon.” Tragically, just like Judith Resnik, the first Jewish NASA astronaut, he never made it back to earth alive. But pages from his diary, including one with the words of the Kiddush prayer, were returned to his widow in Israel.

While there are no Jews aboard Artemis II, it’s likely that there will be many more Jewish celebrations in space in the future — unfortunately, they’ll all have to be matzah-free (though perhaps some dehydrated matzah brei?).

The post What Happened When Jewish Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman Tried to Bring Matzah to Space appeared first on Kveller.

A North London music festival, the Wireless Festival in Finsbury Park, faced backlash that led to its cancellation today, April 7, after inviting Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, to headline.

Prior to its cancellation, several sponsors backed out of the festival, including Pepsi, Diageo and Johnny Walker. It faced criticism from everyone from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to Jewish “Friends” actor and activist David Schwimmer.

Schwimmer took to social media this Monday, before the festival’s cancellation, to thank the sponsors who backed out of Wireless, and to explain why he doesn’t believe Ye deserves to be forgiven for his years of antisemitism, despite his public apology earlier this year in the Wall Street Journal, which blamed his past statements on a health condition.

Ye’s years of public Jew hatred, Schwimmer asserts in the post, has real-life consequences, and he believes the rapper hasn’t truly made amends for it.

“For years, Ye used his considerable celebrity to promote hate and violence against Jews, spreading antisemitic lies and stereotypes to his 33 million followers — more than twice the number of Jewish people alive today,” Schwimmer wrote. He reminded his followers how just a year ago, Ye released a song called “Heil Hitler,” sold a swastika t-shirt on his website through a Super Bowl ad and claimed he was a Nazi while threatening to kill Jews.

“Ye’s words and actions the last few years have caused incalculable, irreparable damage,” Schwimmer rightfully determines in his searing post. “He has fueled worldwide hatred and inspired violence against Jews everywhere, and his erratic behavior has repeatedly shown he can’t be trusted.”

He called Ye’s apology simply “words on paper,” a way to advertise an upcoming tour, and not something that could really make up for “years of abuse.” Forgiveness, the “Goosebumps” actor believes, would take much more. Removing “Heil Hitler” from streaming platforms and denouncing the song would be one step, Schwimmer suggests. He also proposes meeting with Jewish leaders and artists and donating profits from the festival to Jewish organizations in the UK, where, Schwimmer writes, “attacks against Jews, synagogues and Jewish businesses are among the highest ever recorded.”

Until Ye truly builds back trust with the Jewish community and all his fans, Schwimmer writes, “he should not be granted a platform to perform.” Schwimmer also called out the musicians who performed with Ye at his first U.S. show in five years at SoFi Stadium earlier this month, including Lauryn Hill, Travis Scott, CeeLoo Green and Don Toliver, all who never called out Ye’s antisemitism and were happy to share the stage with him.

This isn’t Schwimmer’s first time speaking out against antisemitism. Throughout the years, the actor and director, who was raised Jewish in New York and Los Angeles, has been a vocal advocate for the Jewish community. At an ADL conference last year, he urged his fellow Hollywood stars to speak out against antisemitism.

Schwimmer has shared that his own speaking out has come with a cost: “I’ve been attacked and threatened by people I’ve never met. I’ve been abandoned by people I thought were friends and by organizations I thought were allies,” he revealed, but added that he “also found amazing moments of meaning and solidarity.”

The post David Schwimmer: Ye’s Antisemitism Has Caused ‘Incalculable, Irreparable Damage’ appeared first on Kveller.

How did famous Jews celebrate Passover in 2026? With matzah pizza, matzah brei, delightful dress up and even in their “Saturday Night Live” promos!

Here are just some of our favorite Jewish celebs who paid tribute to Passover on their social media feeds this year.

Tovah Feldshuh

The award for best Passover celebrity seder undoubtedly goes to Tovah Feldshuh, who came to her family’s seder dressed like the Egyptian princess who pulled Moses out of the water (with some jelly rings, of course). Her husband and son took on the role of Moses #1 and Moses #2, and the kids at the seder came in costume, too.

“Butterflies, wonder woman, soccer players, and princesses not to mention my nephew Noah dressed as a banana,” she shared.

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“And you shall teach your children from generation to generation,” Feldshuh wrote on Instagram. “What better way to do that then dress up as the characters and act it out and then ask the children to do the same.”

We couldn’t agree more! She is an icon, and we can’t wait to see her in season three of “Nobody Wants This.”

Alex Borstein

The award for funniest pre-Passover post goes to Alex Borstein, who apparently has a pre-sundown tradition of becoming one with a bag of fiery red Doritos, so as to recreate the plague of the blood in the bathroom when seder comes around (too much?). We love her so much for it, and are excited for her to be reunited with Doritos post-Passover.

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Molly Yeh

“Girl Meets Farm” host Molly Yeh celebrated her daughter Bernie’s birthday a few days before the Passover seder and shared an Instagram carousel from her multiple celebrations. Her seder, she shared on Instagram, took place in the middle of a snow storm. They used the PJ Library haggadah and ate delicious food, of course, including salad with matzah croutons, brisket and a sweet potato kugel that I would love to recreate for my next holiday celebration!

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Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler probably had a delicious seder at his home with his talented wife and daughters and maybe even his mom, Judy. While we don’t have any pictures of that, we do have Adam Sandler’s yearly Happy Passover social media greeting, and honestly, we’ll take it. Happy Passover, Sandler family!

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Mayim Bialik

“The Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik shared her Sunday Passover lunch: a classic matzah pizza with a side of… is that kosher for Passover coke? Mayim, you’re so fancy!

“Happy Easter to all those celebrating. And to those celebrating Passover, here’s my lunch today. The bread of affliction feast continues through Thursday here in America and ends Wednesday night in Israel ! Almost there,” she wrote. Almost there, indeed!

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Sheryl Sandberg

“Lean In” author Sheryl Sandberg shared her seder plate on social media, along with a prayer for “peace that stretches across borders. I’m praying for every community caught in the grip of conflict and hoping for a better tomorrow.”

“May this be the year we all find deep and abiding peace. Chag Sameach,” she wrote.

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LoveShackFancy’s Rebecca Hessel Cohen

After sharing her daughter’s incredibly pink bat mitzvah, LoveShackFancy boss Rebecca Hessel Cohen also shared her very pink Passover seder table. I love the pink matzah place “cards.” That may be the most elegant matzah I’ve ever seen!

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Jack Black

We don’t know how Jack Black celebrated Passover, but we do know that he paid tribute to the holiday during his promo for his (5th!!!) “Saturday Night Live” appearance this weekend. When Jack White said they were hosting the “Easter show, baby,” Black reminded viewers that it was also “the Passover show, homey,” and called the two holidays the most metal holidays of them all, touting lamb’s blood and Exodus as, rightfully, very metal. Also very metal? Black’s cover of “Chad Gadya,” which I listen to on Passover religiously. Black better bring that cover with him for his 6th SNL appearance!

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Phil Rosenthal

Doesn’t seder with Phil Rosenthal sound like such a delight? I personally would love to share some melt-in-your-mouth brisket with the “Somebody Feed Phil” host. In honor of Passover, Rosenthal promoted one of the best Passover foods to all of his followers, as well as those eating at his Los Angeles Jewish diner, Max & Helen’s, named after Rosenthal’s Jewish parents. That food? Matzah brei, of course. The diner will be serving it until Wednesday, and Rosenthal enjoyed his with some maple syrup.

“People no matter what you celebrate, have some matzah brei this week!” Rosenthal exhorted, and well, don’t mind if we do!

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Debra Messing

“Will & Grace” star Debra Messing shared a bittersweet Passover post, featuring pictures of her seder plate, making haroset and her puppy, Elsie, looking up at a bottle of Manischewitz wine, writing that the holiday fell on the anniversary of her mother’s passing.

She shared that the anniversary “always feels like there is a hole in my heart, and the sadness is familiar.” Yet at the same time, she added, Passover “has always been my family’s favorite holiday.”

“Happy Passover from Elsie and me,” she ended the post, which also contained a long reflection about the war in Iran and the state of antisemitism. “She is helping me make my mother’s Charoset. And yes, it is the best in the world.”

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Aerin Lauder

The granddaughter of Jewish cosmetics queen Estee Lauder shared her beautiful Passover table:

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The post How Jewish Celebrities Celebrated Passover 2026 appeared first on Kveller.

April is here, and those of us who keep kosher for Passover have just a few more days of munching on matzah left. But there’s a whole month of excellent Jewish and Jew-ish TV and movies to look forward to streaming on a screen near you.

Here’s all the Jewish TV coming in April 2026:

April 4: “Merrily We Roll Along” (Netflix)

Based on a play of the same name by Jewish playwrights George S. Kauffman and Moss Hart, “Merrily We Roll Along” remains one of Stephen Sondheim’s most beloved musicals. This recording of the 2023 Broadway revival features Jewish dad and forever Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe as Charley Kringas, one of the three friends the play follows. (Fun fact: Did you know a Richard Linklater movie version of this musical, starring Paul Mescal, Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein and being filmed over the course of 20 years, is currently in the works?)

Judaism rating: 1/4 couch potato latkes.

April 8: “The Boys” season 5 (Prime Video)

I once wrote that “The Boys,” a dark and smart take on superhero culture and patriotism, is one of the best shows ever made about Nazis. In the years since, the show, created by Jewish TV mastermind Eric Kripke, has remained incisive, relevant and critically acclaimed. But now the journey about a band of not-so-super superheroes and the not-so-hero-like band of “boys” trying to stop them is coming to an end.

This new and final season brings with it the return of many beloved Jewish stars — including Israeli actor Tomer Capone’s queer and fearless Frenchie. Paul Reiser also returns as The Legend. This season will also feature an exciting new star — Daveed Diggs, as preacher and superhero Oh Father. Seth Rogen, who produces the show, will also return for some cameo appearances.

Judaism rating: 1/4 couch potato latkes.

April 9: “Big Mistakes” (Netflix)

When trying to calculate how Jewish this project is, I felt a bit like the math lady meme. On the one hand, it stars and is helmed by Dan Levy, who gave us the “delightful half-half situation” that is David Rose in “Schitt’s Creek.” Levy has framed it as a chaotic family story, much like that hit series. On the other hand, the poster for this show is literally him dressed like a priest with a giant cross. And yet, the trailer features a joke about eating falafel.

It also stars Mark Ivanir, the Israeli actor who is literally in every movie and show these days, often playing Jewish doctors or Mossad agents. But… Ivanir plays a character called Ivan who might just be a Russian mobster.

Oh, and it was co-created by Rachel Sennott, who has often played Jewish characters despite not being Jewish herself.

So what to make of it? I don’t know. I do know that I will be watching. Here’s the synopsis: “Blackmailed into working for some very dangerous people, two deeply incapable siblings become the most disorganized duo in organized crime.”

Judaism rating: ???/4 couch potato latkes.

April 9: “Hacks” season 5 (HBO Max)

The final season of “Hacks,” the show about the relationship between comedy legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and comedy writer Ava Daniels (Jewish Emmy Winner Hannah Einbinder), is back for a final hurrah. So is Robby Hoffman’s Randi, a semi-autobiographical character who, like Hoffman, is ex-Orthodox. Other beloved Jewish stars returning this season include Dan Bucatinsky, Tony Goldwyn and Jake Shane.

Judaism rating: 1/4 couch potato latkes.

April 13: “Noah Kahan: Out of Body” (Netflix)

“Growing up half Jewish and having this face on me… it has kind of been a big part of my identity,” “Stick Season” singer Noah Kahan told Billboard in 2024. “I’m not going into a song, ‘Let’s get this one extra Jew-y.’ But I think it plays into the cultural aspect of [my music] — into the humor. And down to my diet. Like, I got the acid reflux stomach, just like my dad.”

Kahan’s father, who taught him how to play guitar, is Jewish; his mother, an author, is not. Kahan’s music often touches on mental health issues, which he’s spoken about inheriting from his father, though he said both his parents were supportive in helping him get therapy and help.

This documentary follows the celebrated Vermont-born and bred singer’s journey on tour and in making his upcoming album, “The Great Divide,” and often features his family, including the Fenway Park show in which he famously brought them all on stage.

Judaism rating: 2/4 couch potato latkes for music based on generational trauma and Jewish family.

April 17: “Roommates” (Netflix)

Another Happy Madison Jewish (Jew-ish??) coming-of-age movie starring a Sandler progeny is coming! After playing bat mitzvah girl Stacy’s (Sunny Sandler) sister in “You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah,” sidekick Charlotte in “Happy Gilmore 2” and her father’s onscreen daughter in “Jay Kelly,” Sadie Sandler now stars in the upcoming movie “Roommates” as a girl dealing with some very familiar-looking college roommate drama. Natasha Lyonne plays her mother, Nick Kroll plays her father, Carol Kane plays Gigi, Sarah Sherman plays her college’s dean and Adam Sandler appears to play said dean’s husband or other relation. It looks like a lot of fun.

Judaism rating: 3/4 couch potato latkes for being so Jewish star-studded.

April 23: “Running Point” season 2 (Netflix)

Max Greenfield’s Dr. Lev Levenson (an excellent wink at Kate Hudson’s “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” character and also the most Jewish name we’ve ever heard!) is back in season two of this basketball comedy starring real-life Jewish mom and challah maven Kate Hudson as Isla Gordon, the new manager of a basketball team historically run by the men in her family. In the first season, it seemed like the romance between Hudson’s Isla and Levenson was fizzling out, but we’re happy to see the return of this pretty adorable Nice Jewish Doctor in the new season.

Judaism rating: 1/4 couch potato latkes.

 April 23: “Hapless” season 2 (ChaiFlicks)

One of the most irreverent Jewish shows around has now landed on the Jewish streaming service ChaiFlicks. Starring Tim Downie as Paul Green, a Jewish journalist working for a British Jewish paper, there’s nothing this show, created by Gary Sinyor, won’t tackle or joke about, which makes it not for the faint of heart, but a fun watch for those who love Jewish humor that takes things too far.

Judaism rating: 4/4 couch potato latkes.

April 24: “Marty Supreme” (HBO Max)

One of the most Jewish movies of the previous year is finally making its streaming/TV debut on HBO Max. Directed by Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme” tells the story of Marty Mauser, played by Timothee Chalamet, a ping pong talent with big dreams. It’s based on the real story of table tennis legend Marty Reisman, features many Jewish details (including Yiddish signage in the Lower East Side) and stars (Fran Drescher! Sandra Bernhard!), and a disturbing Holocaust scene that is, unlikely as it seems, based on a true story.

Judaism rating: 4/4 couch potato latkes.

The post All the Jewish TV Coming in April 2026 appeared first on Kveller.

The harrowing March 12 car-ramming attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan left many Jewish parents across the nation shaken, especially those whose children were rushed out of the flaming building in the middle of snack time.

In the days and weeks that passed since the attack, which the FBI this week declared as “Hezbollah-inspired,” we’ve been in awe of the beauty and resiliency we’ve seen from the Temple Israel community. From the way they took ownership of the narrative around the attack by sharing powerful pictures of its aftermath, to the way they’ve gathered as a community to lift each other up and help rebuild, to the new tradition they’re proposing to start this Passover in honor of the youngest community members.

This year, the Temple Israel community is adding a single Lego block to their seder plate, for the kids and the teachers directly affected by the attack.

“A Lego is a child’s toy — it represents the innocence that was threatened, and the lives that were protected,” the synagogue shared on its Facebook page on the day before Passover. “It represents our creativity, our strength, and the sacred work of putting the pieces back together again.”

“Because if anyone knows what it means to rebuild and come out stronger, it is us. That is the story we tell every Passover. That is the story we are living right now,” the post continued. “One piece connects to another. Something new takes shape. Something even more precious and sacred than what came before.”

While the post was directed towards the Temple Israel community, I think we could all take inspiration and add a block to our seder plate this year — to honor Temple Israel, to honor all children affected by violence and antisemitism, and to honor all those building a better future for the Jewish community, in Michigan and beyond.

Wishing a very happy and safe Passover to all.

The post Why You Should Put a Lego On Your Seder Plate This Year appeared first on Kveller.

Between viral “what were you like in the ’90s” videos and the transporting hit show “Love Story,” we’re all feeling the ’90s fever this year.

That includes Kveller’s audience, who overwhelmingly voted for an unforgettable ’90s hit as the winner of this year’s Passover parody contest.

We are so excited to announce that the winner of the 2026 competition was New Jersey-based music teacher Sam Levine‘s parody of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up” titled “Plagues (What’s Going On?).”

Levine, who teaches both 4th and 5th grade music and Hebrew school classes, grew up in the ’90s and fell in love with the music of that formative decade. And so, when working on his parody, he wanted to choose a song from the ’90s, but one that his young students would also recognize. “Thinking of the big ‘heeeeeeeeey!!!’ in the chorus of the song ‘Whats Up’ by 4 Non Blondes and changing it to ‘plaaaaaaaaagues!!!,’ as well the line ‘I wake in the morning’ and thinking about the Pharaoh waking in the morning to find all the plagues, the song came into place!” he told Kveller over e-mail.

When we sent the lyrics to Temple Isaiah’s Rabbi Jaclyn Cohen, who performed an incredible rendition of last year’s parody contest winner, we were expecting greatness. But we’re happy to say that the video Cohen, videographer Emma Fierberg and their all-women team delivered exceeds every one of our expectations.

Rabbi Cohen perfectly channels lead singer Linda Perry with that bejeweled top hat, and we love all the ’90s touches they added to the video (the butterfly clips!). Yet our favorite part of the video might be the adorable group of kids acting as the 10 plagues, Moses, Pharaoh and the Israelites, which includes Cohen’s own 4-year-old making his parody video debut.

The post This Infectious ’90s Passover Parody Will Have You Asking ‘What’s Going On?’ appeared first on Kveller.

Passover is almost upon us on — the first night is coming up on April 1 (yes, it’s April Fools’ Day! But we promise that’s not a prank!).

Here at Kveller, we always want to help make your Passover seder the most joyful experience possible, which is why we’re offering Kveller’s Guide to Hosting a Passover Seder this year, and why we’re always here to answer all your seder-related questions.

Whether or not you’re hosting this year, here are some answers to all your burning bushes last-minute questions!

Wait, what? Seder is tomorrow?! I had no idea! What do I make?

First of all, breathe! You’ve got this. Second of all, did you know that you can cook an entire seder meal in one hour?? Here’s how.

I’ve procrastinated cleaning for Passover and now feel overwhelmed, help?

Yes, we can help! Here’s a great My Jewish Learning guide that helps make cleaning more manageable, letting you hone in on what you need and don’t need to do.

What should I bring for my seder host?

No one ever complained about some flowers and a bottle of wine, but if you’re looking for more creative ideas, we have a list with some of our favorite Passover host gifts.

Help! I forgot to buy a shank bone.

Nearly everyone we know has had this happen. The expert solution is to buy one at any time and just keep it in your freezer. Forever. But if you can’t make that happen by seder, we know people who have used a Milkbone, a stuffed lamb, and even a last-minute drawing of a bone.

How much brisket do I make per person?

According to the experts at Food52, you need one pound of raw brisket per adult and half a pound per kid. We do suggest adding a few extra pounds in there to account for surprise guests and for leftovers (you can make some brisket matzah nachos!).

I’ve given up on making the kids sit through the whole seder, but how do I make sure we can retell the Passover story together?

We’ve got a fun, two-page document that will help you retell the Passover story in a mostly age-appropriate way. Then you can let those kids go feral.

How do I make sure said feral kids don’t destroy my house at the seder?

How about a plastic frog treasure hunt? Hide a bunch around your house and give an extra prize to the kid who finds the most! Our guide to hosting a Passover seder has a whole section on how to keep kids entertained with even more ideas. You can also try obstacle courses, crafts or books, toys and games that help keep kids entertained.

If that’s not enough (dayenu?), we also have amassed the best Passover videos on the internet, Passover parodies, TV episodes and movies all about the holiday that you can keep on for the kids. Sometimes you just have to resort to screen time, so let’s at least keep it somewhat educational?

What are some fun Passover songs we can add to our seder?

You simply have to download Kveller’s Passover Parody Songbook and find seder-ready hits from every decade and genre.

How much wine do I need at my seder?

Half a bottle per person should be enough for the amount of wine you need to drink on seder night — those cups really don’t need to overflow!

How do I talk about the story of Passover with my 4-year-old who is afraid of everything?

While we’re big fans of the “Rugrats” Passover special and “The Prince of Egypt” here at Kveller, we know that they may be too scary for sensitive kids. There are a ton of other, more sensitive kid-friendly Passover videos out there (we have an article full of them!). For the particularly scared-of-everything kiddo, a Passover board book or kids’ book might be the best idea, but also, it’s OK to censor the scary parts and wait until they’re ready to take them in.

What should I give to the kid who finds the afikomen?

Honestly? Cash. What kid can resist it? But if you’re looking to change things up, we have some ideas for fun afikomen gifts that don’t break the bank.

What are some kid-friendly seder dishes for my pickiest guests?

The best answer here for the non-dairy/vegetarian seder is kosher for Passover schnitzel, but here’s a list of kid-friendly dishes for the seder if that doesn’t quite cut it.

What are some fun Passover pranks for my seder?

We thought you’d never ask! We love a seder prank, whether or not the night falls on April Fools’ Day like it does this year — so we’ve assembled a list of our favorite Passover pranks.

Where should I hide the afikomen?

Here are a few options from the Kveller Guide to Hosting a Passover Seder:

Underneath someone’s chair, Oprah style
Hidden in plain sight (taped to the refrigerator or somewhere else obvious but unexpected)
Between books on the bookshelf

How can I get my youngest to practice the Four Questions?

We feel you on this — in fact, we dedicated a whole section in our Passover guide to it and have an article full of fun videos and tricks on the topic.

I said I’d bring a dish to the seder but I’m not super skilled in the kitchen. Help?

We love these 25 super-easy Passover recipes from The Nosher. Like, these fudge cups are literally three ingredients.

What should I wear?

Short answer? Something comfortable and appropriate. Long answer? We asked some of our stylish friends to weigh in here.

The post All Your Last Minute Passover Seder Questions Answered appeared first on Kveller.

Passover starts on the evening of April 1 this year. That’s just 23 days before the premiere of “Michael,” a new Michael Jackson biopic starring the singer’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, as Jackson (and Jewish queen Kat Graham as Diana Ross), and beloved Jewish a cappella group Six13 couldn’t be more ready.

They’ve released a Michael Jackson Passover parody mash-up that would make the late singer moonwalk with pride. There’s a “Billie Jean” parody about Bubbe Jeanne at the seder. Of course, “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” is about startin’ the seder already. “Beat It” is about our journey out of Egypt, before the sun or matzah can rise. “Smooth Criminal” becomes a song about “True Miracles,” in which the men of Six13 assure us that Elijah is OK.

And we end with some saccharine sweetness: “Man in the Mirror” turned into “Meaning of Maror,” a lovely reflection about the symbolic Passover foods on the seder plate.

I do hope I’m not “gonna eat this chrain for the rest of my life,” as they sing in the last line of the parody. Unlike this delightful parody that leaves us wanting more, there’s only so much of that grated horseradish I can handle!

Watch “A Michael Jackson Passover” here:

The post This Michael Jackson Parody Will Make You Moonwalk to Seder appeared first on Kveller.

This year, Passover seder night falls on the most annoying holiday of them all — April Fools’ Day.

We don’t know the origins of this incredibly irritating and surprisingly ancient holiday in which people (and now, corporations like Google and Baskin-Robbins) famously prank each other, though in his “Complete Compendium of Universal Knowledge of 1895,” William Ralston Balch posited that the holiday’s roots may be Jewish. He wrote that a 1789 Public Adviser article posited that it dates back to “the mistake of Noah in sending the Dove out of the Ark before the water had abated, on the first day of the month among the Hebrews, which answers to the 1st of April.”

Whether or not we want to take ownership of April Fools’ as Jews, I do love the idea of marrying its humorous traditions with the Passover seder. I am a person who famously hates pranks, or really being teased in any way, and I usually spend all of April 1 in utter and complete dread.

And yet incorporating pranks into a seder sounds incredibly delightful. It’s a way to make the holiday meal — which can sometimes feel sluggish and long — more fun and engaging for everyone at the table, especially the kids. And it can even add in some tactile educational value (fill the house with actual toy frogs to recreate Egypt under the plagues?? My children would love that!).

With that in mind, I’ve asked my colleagues for their best Passover prank ideas, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Here are the best Passover pranks for your April Fools’ seder night:

Seder plate pranks:

Use a Cadbury cream egg or another Easter candy for the egg.

Use a stuffed chick for the egg.

Tell people that the haroset, herbs, matzah, salt water and boiled eggs are the whole meal.

Offer two types of maror — one mild, one intense. Then forget which is which.

Use candy for the seder plate instead of the real elements (here’s some fun inspiration).

Use a doggie bone for the shankbone (honestly we know people who do this every year).

Cut all the elements of the seder plate out of paper or felt, put them on the plate and pass them around like nothing is wrong.

Plague pranks:

Release real frogs (or just a lot of toy frogs!) at the seder, so that we can feel that we ourselves went forth from Egypt.

Put drops of red food dye in all the empty water glasses — when you fill them, it will look like blood.

Fill the house with plastic roaches for the locusts.

Put these cricket sound makers under the chairs for the locusts or start playing with this frog croaking fidget toy when no one is looking.

Lift up your sleeves to reveal some painted-on boils! Terrifying!

Pretend your power is out when your guests come in and that you’re just going to do a seder in the dark (maybe bring out some glow sticks or flashlights).

Food pranks:

Serve (fake?) bread.

Put the gefilte fish in the soup and the matzah balls on a plate.

Serve macarons instead of macaroons. (Hey, they’re kosher for Passover, so this is probably the most delicious prank you could pull!).

Decor pranks:

Set the table with all your Hanukkah decorations, menorah included, and ask who brought the latkes?

Pretend it’s Thanksgiving dinner with fall foliage and turkey napkins.

Set up a blanket with a seder plate in the living room and say you’re having a picnic-style seder.

Recreate the popular “dress for the wrong party” video for your seder — invite a bunch of guests and tell them to dress up for the wrong party, like a graduation or a bachelorette party, but keep some of your guests in the dark to make them extra-confused.

Elijah pranks:

Hire an actor to be a DoorDash delivery person named Elijah.

Have someone come in dressed up as the Easter Bunny and introduce themselves as Elijah.

Try to sit on Elijah’s chair and pretend you can’t because the ghost of Elijah is there.

Randomly empty other people’s wine or juice cups when they’re not looking and when they ask where their wine has gone say it was probably Elijah (make sure they still get their four cups!).

Afikoman pranks:

Don’t actually hide the afikomen, and watch people search… forever.

Hide matzah everywhere and insist none of them are the afikomen.

Haggadah pranks:

Replace the page of the Passover story in one person’s haggadah with an excerpt from “Moby Dick” (or other unexpected book of your choice) and then call on them to read it during seder.

Put a haggadah cover on a different book and put that around the table — it can be anything from a Superman comic to the latest issue of People Magazine.

Read the haggadah in Pig Latin.

Musical pranks:

Recruit a few people to start singing something completely random at a time when everyone is expected to sing something else — sing Cher’s “Strong Enough” when you’re about to start “Dayenu,” or “Closing Time” by Semisonic when you’re about to wrap up with “Chad Gadya.”

If you have a young baby at your seder, record a young kid doing the Four Questions ahead of time, and then when it’s time, put your phone behind the baby in a high chair and play it so it looks like the baby is doing it.

Replace the haggadahs with printed versions of Kveller’s Passover Parody Songbook (available here for digital download!) and randomly break into song.

The post All the Best Passover Pranks appeared first on Kveller.

Carol Mendelsohn, a TV maven know for her work on “CSI,” thinks that the new Fox show, “The Faithful: Women of the Bible,” may just exist because of the spirit of her great-grandfather, a Canadian rabbi whom she never met.

It was his voice she was channeling when, despite her producing partner Julie Weitz’s prior objections, she decided to mention their dream show — a TV drama about the biblical matriarchs — to the President of Fox in a meeting.

Weitz, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home in Los Angeles, “kicked me under the proverbial table,” Mendelsohn recalls in an interview with Kveller.

She thought the show would be a non-starter, but as it turns out, it’s been nothing but a dream to make — everyone, from writers to actors to DPs, were completely enchanted by the project, which premiered on Fox on March 22 and stars Minnie Driver as Sarah, the first biblical matriarch, a fiercely opinionated woman devoted to her husband while struggling with infertility.

“The Faithful: Women of the Bible” is a three-part biblical TV “event” that explores the lives of Sarah and her handmaid, Hagar; Rebecca, Isaac’s wife, and her relationship with her sons; and the complex relationship of sisters Rachel and Leah, the wives of Jacob.

It brings deeply felt performances from Driver and the rest of the cast. It’s a historical and biblical drama with a fantasy feel that at times harkens the melodrama and dark magic of “Game of Thrones.” And unlike so many recent shows and movies about the bible, from “House of David” to “Testament: The Story of Moses,” its beating heart is the stories of women.

Weitz and Mendelsohn talked to Kveller about how this show came to be, their approach to recreating biblical times, and who they’re hoping to portray in upcoming seasons.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What made you want to tell the stories of the biblical matriarchs? What place did these women have in your lives?

Weitz: I was raised [Orthodox] in Los Angeles. I grew up with these women through my education. This was the beginning of all of our learning. Personally, it was a dream to be able to bring this to life, to do this as a real drama, to dimension-alize them and make them relatable, real people.

Mendelsohn: I grew up in Chicago and attended a very Reform temple, and I didn’t know much about them — we didn’t have Bible studies. The truth is, before I even knew Julie, I was influenced by Julie because she ran Turner TNT, and they did a series about the women…

Weitz: Not the women, the men — the Moses and the Abrahams.

Mendelsohn: Julie really introduced me to the Bible stories. And I love them, and always regretted that I really didn’t read them when I was younger. So many men are named in the [Hebrew] Bible by name, around 1,700, and I think 93 to 137 women are given a name in the Bible. Things like that, now that I’m much older, fascinate me. Who are these women? As a woman, I lean in because I want to know about these women. I want to know about Sarah. I want to know about Hagar, who I’d never really heard of before we started the project. And Rebecca and Leah and Rachel.

When working on a series like this, there’s a lot to consider: real history, the biblical stories and, obviously, making good TV. How do you balance all these things?

Weitz: We have kind of an adage on how we approach this, which is, “If it’s written in the Torah, we keep to it.” Yes, there are spaces. If there is not information, we give ourselves some room to invent. But thematically, all of this was already there.

I don’t want to get too personal for Carol, but [while] Carol came from a Jewish family, Buddhism is a passion for her. I came from a very Orthodox family. My people were survivors, and [showrunner] René [Echevarria] came from a Cuban Catholic background, and then became Christian in both the intellectual practice as well as the faith practice. So the three of us were the sounding board. We had all these boxes we had to check off, right? And we invited a lot more people into the tent, experts, to keep us on track. So we had Jewish experts, we had Christian experts.

Then, the writers sit around and they talk about what the story needs. It has to be a good story. It has to have meat, and it has to have incident, has to have sacrifice, to have all that good juicy stuff that people want to see.

Each of these women had themes and journeys. Sarah’s was from faithless to faithful, and Hagar’s was a journey of freedom. Rebecca’s journey is about her family, her destiny and how they came crashing. And Leah and Rachel are about sisters who adore each other and become rivals. So each of these had this human roadmap. And that’s what became really intriguing to the writers.

I love the choice of lifting Hagar — Sarah’s handmaid and the mother of Ismail — to the status of the matriarchs. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Weitz: The show is not just about intimate stories, but also the grander story — where are we going to go in the future? How does this giant family tree evolve?

Not only are [Sarah and Hagar] attached because of what happened to them, but they also are attached because they’re the beginning of the bigger story of Judaism, the story of Christianity, the story of Islam. We didn’t want to become political; we wanted to be balanced, but you cannot start at the beginning without starting with these two women.

Minnie Driver is really stunning as Sarah. How was casting approached for this project?

Mendelson: Everyone knows Minnie Driver, and when the name came up, everyone just got on board — and then we had to get Minnie on board. She is an incredible actor, so smart. Just to watch her do her work and become Sarah, she’s a very giving actor, and her relationship with Jeffrey Donovan’s Abram/Abraham — it was just beautiful.

How did you approach recreating biblical times on screen?

Weitz: René was a great match for us; he’s a world builder. He started on “Star Trek” — what he’s drawn to is world-building and creating an environment that you think you know, but you don’t really know. What is the world that they were living in at the time? What was the magic in the world that they were living in at that time — a balance of history and fantasy.

The woman that did all of our set design had been an architect, and her sister was an archaeologist, and she leaned heavily on her.

Shooting in Rome offered us an incredible opportunity, because you’re next to the ancient world. So you were constantly reminded of ancient culture and the way people had to exist. It’s a modern city, but it was also a character; we were rarely on a sound stage. We were mostly in remote locations. So it really added to the reality of what we were building.

When the actors come to the set and put on their costumes and their makeup and their hair, and then walk out to Haran — this little Bedouin village that we built — they are instantly [transported]. And the animals…

Mendelson: Camels! I’d never touched a camel before.

Are there any other women whose specific stories touched you that you’re hoping to focus on in future seasons?

Weitz: All three of us agree wholeheartedly on a handful of names. Obviously, Esther, Deborah. There’s the fantastic story of Rahab, not a Jewish woman, except she converted. It’s the story of the invisible woman, who’s a prostitute in a tyrannical city, who finds her mojo. I mean, this is a woman who has no love for the powers that be, who are dictating people’s lives and throwing people out of a city and walling that city up. We see it as a biblical “Casablanca.” Her little inn is Rick’s Cafe, and she’s Humphrey Bogart.

We’re pushing pretty hard on Esther. We also love the women surrounding Moses. We love Miriam and Zipporah.

What do you want people to take away from this show?

Weitz: We just hope that this entertains people. We hope that who wants to watch a show like this and engage with a show like this is a broad audience. We don’t want to step on any toes for the faithful, either Christians, Jews or Muslims. But we just think that the stories are so compelling and personal and universal. We just hope we get people who love period dramas, who love women’s stories. We want everybody to come in and experience it, because we think there’s something so universal in what we were able to create.

Mendelson: I hope whole families watch it. They’re wonderful stories to be shared.

“The Faithful” is airing on Fox and streaming on Hulu/Disney+.

The post The Jewish Women Behind ‘The Faithful’ Bring the Biblical Matriarchs to Life appeared first on Kveller.