A “Spaceballs” sequel, “Spaceballs: The New One,” is coming in 2027 — and turns out, we have Josh Gad’s daughter to thank for it.

“Three years ago, I showed my daughter the oeuvre of Mel Brooks,” Gad said on a September 2025 appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” After Gad and (I’m assuming) his eldest daughter Ava, now 15, finished watching “Spaceballs,” Ava, who was about 11 at the time, asked if they could watch the second one.

Gad was befuddled about why his daughter was asking about a non-existent movie. His daughter responded with the reference that Brooks’ (very Jewish coded) character Yogurt says at the end of the film: “God willing, we will see you again in ‘Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money.'”

Gad had to break the news to his kiddo that the second movie simply didn’t exist. But that night, it came to him in a dream, fully formed — how very biblical Joseph of him!

And then — because as he told Meyers, “I’m just a jackass who just picks up the phone and calls Mel Brooks” — he did just that, calling the famous Jewish comedian and director (and now 99-year-old man!) to get his blessing for the script. When he finished pitching, Brooks told Gad that he had been dreaming of that very moment for 35 years. (I’m not crying, you’re crying!)

At the time of the interview, Gad was sworn to secrecy about the project, but he told the audience: “If you are a fan of ‘Spaceballs,’ you are going to love ‘Spaceballs 2.'”

We now know a little bit more about this ‘Spaceballs’ sequel, which yes, has finished shooting, but will only be out on April 23, 2027.

There are two Jewish Joshes behind this film: Gad and director Josh Greenbaum (“Strays,” “Will & Harper”), who Gad says was the perfect director for the movie because he’s “so funny, but he’s got pathos.”

The inspiration for the idea was the question “why do we look back on things,” Gad shared at CinemaCon, which feels very Jewish. It’s also a commentary on both the current state of cinema and on the Star Wars franchise, which the original 1987 ‘Spaceballs’ was a response to.

We know that Brooks will be reprising the role of Yogurt, and of President Skroob. Daphne Zuniga will now be the first Druish Queen Vespa (the late Joan Rivers will heartbreakingly not be reprising the role of robot Dot Matrix). Rick Moranis is also reprising his role as Lord Dark Helmet (“ultimately, I said yes to this because it was the only way I could get Josh Gad to stop texting me,” he said) and George Wyner is reprising his role as Colonel Sandurz.

Bill Pullman is not only reprising his role as Lone Starr, (dayenu!) but Pullman’s son, Jewish actor Lewis Pullman, will be starring in the movie alongside his father as Starr and Vespa’s son Starburst in a very outer space l’dor v’dor.

New cast members include Keke Palmer, Brian Grazer, Anthony Carrigan, Rowan Witt and of course, Josh Gad, who appears to be taking on the late John Candy’s Barf.

In a teaser for the movie, Brooks says that the film will not be titled “The Search for More Money,” because, well, he found the money in his basement! Instead, he says that because people kept asking him, “when are you gonna make the new ‘Spaceballs,’ when are you going to make the new one?” the movie is titled “The New One” because “it’s just like the old one but it’s newer, that’s why it’s called the new one.”

“May the Schwartz be with you,” he says at the end.

I can’t wait for the return of the Schwartz, and am so grateful that Josh Gad and his daughter’s Mel Brooks movie marathon made it happen!

The post How Josh Gad’s Daughter Inspired the ‘Spaceballs’ Sequel appeared first on Kveller.

When I interviewed Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry back in 2024, Fry — who people often don’t realize is Jewish — mentioned a Yiddish word he finds particularly wonderful: Naches.

I ended the interview by saying how much I “schepped naches” about both of them and the warm representation of Jewish family in their 2024 film “Treasure.”

A year later, Fry appeared on “On Life and Death,” Israeli translator Daphna Lewy’s podcast, and mentioned the word again, in connection with his late grandfather. Lewy, who translated Fry’s own books to Hebrew, asked Fry about his grandfather’s presence in his life. (The podcast is all about our relationships to death.)

Fry, who lost his grandfather as a child, initially said that growing up, he often imagined his grandfather’s ghost watching him in all his shameful childhood and early teen moments. But when Lewy pushed him a little, Fry conceded that his grandfather would also have been very proud of his achievements, like getting a scholarship to Cambridge.

“To use the excellent Yiddish phrase — he’d be kvelling with naches,” Fry tells Lewy, who then admits to him that she knows no Yiddish at all, because her proud German Jewish parents felt snobbish about the language as assimilated Jews.

Fry goes on to explain both words beautifully. “Kvelling means just bursting with pride and joy, and naches means just the pleasure you take in the success of someone in your family,” he says. To be fair, naches can apply not just to family and can even apply to yourself (though that doesn’t feel very Jewish, does it?!)!

Lewy then realizes the word has a Hebrew parallel, “nachat,” which means exactly the same thing. Fry rightfully asserts that yes, quite a few Yiddish words come from Hebrew.

Naches is indeed one of them. The word “nachat” appears in the bible and in ancient Jewish texts many times and means simply “contentment.” It can describe a sense of quietness and also stillness (as it does, for example, in this verse from the book of Isaiah). It can also describe that state in an inanimate object.

Nachat comes from the same root as the Hebrew word for rest, and therefore, at least for this native Hebrew speaker, is infused with a sense of peace. It’s also the root for the word “lehaniach” — to put an object down, in its place. In Hebrew, I’ve often found myself happily sighing in peaceful moments and commenting how much “nachat” they gave me, from watching my kids joyfully play with each other to enjoying a starry night together after a family BBQ.

In Yiddish, that brimming sense of joy and peace is directed more pointedly and perhaps more energetically at the loved ones around us. We often use it in b’nei mitzvah ceremonies or weddings but also when our kids do well in school or show particular wisdom and kindness. In Yiddish and in English, it’s often used in combination with the word “schepp,” whose root is a German word for scoop, and in this context simply means to derive.

At 70 Faces, Kveller’s parent company, we have a whole Slack channel dedicated to schepping naches, where we share birthday wishes, professional and personal achievements, and pictures and videos of our joyful celebrations, weddings, bar mitzvahs and meetings with new babies. It is such a pleasure to peruse through.

In a world where Jewish identity is often associated with strife, complaining and anxiety, schepping naches is where we find strength, pride and contentment.

If you’re ever feeling down, just ask yourself — who, or what, can I schepp naches about today?

The post This Yiddish Word Fills Us With So Much Pride and Contentment appeared first on Kveller.

Many millennials know Ian Ziering as the unforgettable Steve Sanders from “Beverly Hills: 90210,” with his charming blue eyes and blonde locks. He wasn’t always on his best behavior, to say the least (especially with his ex, Jennie Garth’s Kelly) but he always pulled through and tried to make amends in the end. As the series concluded, we discovered he became quite the devoted family man.

What some of us who grew up on the series may not know is that Ziering, like a few other 90210 stars, is Jewish. He was raised in a Jewish home in West Orange, New Jersey (he is also pretty competitive when it comes to playing dreidel). His father, whose family came from Galicia, had a gig as a Hebrew school teacher at Temple Sholom of West Essex in Cedar Grove, and at Temple Beth Shalom and Temple Emanuel, both in Livingston. So when Ziering welcomed his two daughters, Mia and Penna, with his now-ex Erin Ludwig, who isn’t Jewish, it was important for him to immerse them in his parents’ religion and traditions.

And this weekend, Ziering, who raised his daughters attending services at Temple Israel of Hollywood, celebrated a huge milestone for a Jewish parent: the bat mitzvah of his youngest daughter, Penna. He wrote a really heartfelt messages to the 13-year-old, who you can see in quite a few endearing and funny social media posts with her father over the years. He also thanked his current partner, Caila Dean, for helping make the simcha possible.

Ziering, who seems to share the specific Paul Rudd Jewish Gene that makes you never age, shared that he “has played a lot of roles in life, but being your dad is the greatest role I will ever play.”

“My beautiful Penna, I’m so proud to tell people that I’m your father,” he continued. “Today, as you become a Bat Mitzvah, I celebrate not only this moment but the incredible young woman you’ve become.”

He also called the moment a “great day for the Zierings, in a family that dates back 600 years, Penna Mae is the latest bat mitzvah.” He added an extra “congratulations, Pickle” for his daughter — what a great Jewish nickname!

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A hearty mazel tov to the entire Ziering family!

The post This ‘90210’ Star Just Celebrated His Daughter’s Bat Mitzvah appeared first on Kveller.

I’ve just scrolled through my first Father’s Day gift guide of the season and, once again, wondered why no one has ever made a gift guide for my specific brand of Jewish dad.

He’s not a barbecue dad or a sports dad. He’s undeniably a funny, silly Jewish dad, but he doesn’t want a book about Jewish humor — he tells the jokes, his way. He’s a golf dad, but he doesn’t want to read about golf, and he’s been playing for decades — why should he accept gear from someone who quit the high school golf team and falls asleep the moment the golf channel turns on (sorry Dad, but could you have picked a hobby with a little more energy)? He loves tech, but only when he discovers it and can tell me about it. He would not take kindly to my trying to introduce him to a new gadget. (See: His lackluster response to an Aura digital picture frame.)

My Jewish dad wants one thing and one thing only: socks with pictures of his family on them.

I know this because one year, after feeling guilty for sending him the same pair of socks with rotating photos of myself, my husband and my kids year after year, I tried sending him a gourmet version of a treat he likes. He texted me: “Thanks. Next year please send socks with pictures on them.”

Message received, Dad! I went back to my old standby: Divvyup, a truly seamless service for printing photo gifts. Just choose your product (they used to only do socks, but have branched out into blankets, can coolers, stickers and more), upload your photos and pick a color or pattern. They even have a pretty robust Hanukkah section with options that work for any time of year. (Pro move for a goofy Jewish dad: If you buy two different colors of socks with different photos on each, your dad might take it upon himself to wear one of each color — two Kveller dads have pulled this move.)

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go sift through my camera roll for this year’s perfect sock photo. You should too, so you can order your gift in time for it to arrive on Father’s Day!

The post I Buy This Father’s Day Gift Every Year for My Jewish Dad appeared first on Kveller.

Back in June of 2025, we wrote about how a “Young Frankenstein” Mel Brooks series based on the incredible 1974 film might be in the works, and how we needed it ASAP.

Now, we’re finally getting confirmation that we’ll be able to watch it soon (or soon-ish?). FX just picked up “Very Young Frankenstein,” helmed by Māori Jewish director and writer Taika Waititi and his excellent vampire comedy “What We Do in the Shadows” (also streaming on FX/Hulu) collaborators Stefani Robinson and Garrett Basch. The two will be executive producers along with Brooks himself, original film producer Michael Gruskoff and Kevin Salter, the executive producer of the recent and excellent “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!”

Nick Grad, the president of FX Entertainment, called the show “a completely original take on the classic story,” and shared that “in the hands of FX veterans Stefani, Taika and Garrett, alongside the iconic Mel Brooks, we know that fans will have as much fun watching this series as we’re having making it.”

The show will star Zach Galifianakis (“Between Two Ferns,” “The Hangover”), Dolly Wells (“Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “And Just Like That…”), Spencer House (“Teenage Bounty Hunters”), Tony-nominated Nikki Crawford, stand-up extraordinaire Kumail Nanjiani (“Silicon Valley”) and Cary Elwes (“The Princess Bride”). There’s no word yet on who will be playing who (or rather, what) but we’re glad there’s already a hilarious and gifted cast behind this show. (Galifianakis would make both a great doctor and a great monster, just saying!)

“It’s pronounced Very Young Fronkensteen,” Waititi shared on Instagram, referring to the famous line from the original movie.

Though we don’t yet know exactly when the show is coming, we can’t wait to meet our new very young Fronkensteen. And we’re so excited for this Mel Brooks renaissance we’re experiencing. A “History of the World” reboot streamed on FX/Hulu in 2023, and now there’s a “Spaceballs” sequel titled “Spaceballs: The New One,” set to premiere in 2027.

What a time to be alive as a Mel Brooks fan! Here’s hoping the 99-year-old comedian and film and TV maker makes it to 120 so we get many more of these delightful follow-ups to his oeuvre.

The post This Mel Brooks Series Is Actually Happening appeared first on Kveller.

Mah jongg, the Chinese tile game brought to America in the 1920s and adopted by Jewish women, has a new life. The jury is still out on what caused this current mahj explosion. A retreat from screens? Post 2020 lockdown social needs? Some really good marketing from a brand in Dallas? Whatever it is, the internet is fully stocked with everything you could ever want, whether you’ve been playing since your mom taught you in the 1970s or you just learned last week.

The post What To Buy for the Mah Jongg Lovers in Your Life appeared first on Kveller.

The Jewish movie moment I’ve personally been waiting years for is finally here: “The Floaters,” a Jewish summer camp movie starring Jackie Tohn, Sarah Podemski and Seth Green, is coming to theaters on July 10 — perfectly timed for summer camp season.

Directed by Rachel Israel, the movie stars the “Nobody Wants This” favorite, mah jongg lover and all around menschy actress Tohn as Nomi, a musician who takes up a job at her BFF’s summer camp after some band-related drama. Nomi, who is floating herself, is assigned to supervise the floaters, the kids who can not find their camp niche. Meanwhile, Podemski’s campy goodie-two shoes character Mara is stuck dealing with all the logistics and craziness of running the camp. (Anyone who has ever worked at a Jewish summer camp will feel so seen by this movie!)

This movie has everything. Dancing to Hebrew music, Aya Cash as an awesome camp rabbi, camp conversations about Israel and, perhaps most exciting to Jewish millennials, Seth Green as the resident villain, the rivaling camp director! (Kveller talked to Green about his experience filming this movie and his personal life-altering experience at Jewish summer camp.)

If that’s not enough (dayenu?), the movie also features “Police Academy” star and Pacific Palisades wildfire hero Steve Guttenberg and Jill Kargman, whose wonderfully Jewish and funny movie “Influenced” is out in theaters right now (and was also directed by Israel). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of Jewish talent in this movie, which ranges from pro wrestler Maxwell Jacob Friedman to young Guatemalan Jewish actress Nina Bloomgarden. You can read all about the rest of the cast in our first write up of “The Floaters.”

And just to seal the deal on why we’re so excited for this movie, it was filmed at an actual Jewish summer camp, New York’s Camp Tel Yehudah. The Korman siblings, who produce the movie, have a personal connection to the camp: their parents met there! So sweet!

“’The Floaters’ is a joyful summer comedy about finding your people and leaving your mark,” Israel shared in a statement this week. “We’re thrilled to share an experience of summer camp that audiences have never seen before.”

So get your lanyards, tie dye shirts and your acoustic guitars ready for the Jewish feel good movie of the summer. I truly can’t wait.

The post Jackie Tohn’s Jewish Summer Camp Movie Is Finally Coming to Theaters appeared first on Kveller.

I will admit, I had no clue that the fashion brand Edikted (pronounced, yes, “addicted”) even existed until my colleague Daci told me about it after spotting gaggles of teens proudly carrying its bags at the Mall of America. Perusing its website, I immediately had visceral flashbacks to my uncomfortable mid-noughties wardrobe and to the feeling of pulling up pants that had no business being that low-rise and shirts that had no business showing that much midriff without being a crop top. (I was obviously a cargo pants and band-t-shirt girl trying to be something I was not.)

But as they say in French, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose — and what was once peak fashion in the Y2K era is now peak fashion again. Edikted is the latest fashion craze among Gen Z-ers, who flock the shop’s multiple U.S. (and one U.K.!) locations and order ceaselessly from its pink online shopfront, which is adorned by skinny models showing aforementioned midriffs and takes me back to watching Britney Spears videos on repeat. Rumblings on the internet have deemed Edikted to be an Israeli brand — but is that true? The website’s “about” section is pretty opaque, so let’s investigate.

Is Edikted an Israeli brand?

Edikted’s headquarters are in Los Angeles. While the brand was founded in Tel Aviv in 2020, it soon moved its headquarters to the U.S., and its primary focus is the American market (though it has branched out to Europe, as previously stated, and does ship worldwide). It also has offices in Ramat Gan, Israel. The clothes, like with most brands that change their inventory at a fast pace, are not manufactured stateside; they’re made China, Turkey and Spain. The leadership behind the brand — like CEO Dedy Shwartzberg and COO Zvika Alon — are indeed Israeli.

So the TL;DR is: Edikted is a U.S.-headquartered brand that has an office in Israel and is headed by an Israeli CEO and COO.

Who are the founders of Edikted?

Researching this piece, I had no idea that I would not just get triggering flashbacks to my early 2000s fashion, but to mid-2010s Israeli mall-meanderings, where the neon sign for a store called Adika shone bright. Those who took walks in Soho in the late 2010s might remember the Adika store on Broadway.

The brand, founded in 2012, was spearheaded by CEO Dedy Shwartzberg, who would go on to found Edikted with many others who previously worked for Adika.

In 2020, Adika got some international fame when popular social media personality Charli D’Amelio wore a white crop top of theirs on one of her dance videos, making it one of the hit fashion items of that season.

However, drama started brewing when the people running Adika and Golf (the company that had purchased the brand in 2015) had very differing opinions of where the brand should go. Golf wanted to focus on the local Israeli market, while Adika’s leadership wanted to turn their eyes to a very lucrative international — and specifically U.S. — market.

It all came to a head in April of 2020, when the company’s leadership, Shwartzberg and his second in command, Alon, all quit, dooming Adika to a slow death. The brand is defunct as of 2023. We all can guess what happened next.

When was Edikted founded?

Edikted was founded by Shwartzberg and other members of the Adika team in 2020 and started selling clothes in early 2021. “Within the first month [January 2021], our KPIs were 10 times greater than what we had expected,” Shwartzberg told Glossy.

What’s the secret to Edikted’s success?

Edikted seems to have a really amazing understanding of its Gen-Z clientele, how they shop and what they’re looking for.

They send packages to influencers and celebrities like Addison Rae and share images of influencers in their swag.

Their packaging is bright, pink and recognizable, making for a fun unpacking experience. They move at a fast pace with the trends.

These are all lessons the team seems to have learned when working with Adika, but honed in over half a decade of running Edikted, with sales that appear to grow every year, despite brands with similar aesthetics (RIP Forever 21) floundering. In recent months, it opened shops in Chicago’s Oakbrook Center and Houston’s The Galleria.

Edikted and its Y2K aesthetics really don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

The post Is Edikted, Gen-Z’s Favorite Fashion Brand, Israeli? appeared first on Kveller.

Harrison Ford famously (well, famously to us!) once corrected Adam Sandler when he called him a quarter Jewish in his first “The Chanukah Song.”

When they met after the song’s release, the “Indiana Jones” actor was quick to fact-check the Sandman with a succinctly yelled: “Half!”

Ford is, indeed, half Jewish, or fully Jewish according to halacha (traditional Jewish law), because his mother, Dorothy Ford (nee Nidelman), was Jewish. In fact, Harrison is named, in accordance with Ashkenazi tradition, after his late maternal grandfather, who died when Dorothy was a child.

Ford, 83, didn’t have a particularly observant Jewish childhood. The actor, who is known for his jester ways, joked that his parents raised him and his brother “democrat.” He also said at an Actor’s Studio interview: “My mother is Russian Jewish, and my father is… was… Irish Catholic… As a man, I’ve always felt Irish, as an actor, I’ve always felt Jewish.”

It’s clear that as an interviewee, he also feels Jewish, a la Jewish Borscht Belt tradition, because he certainly knows how to dish a Jewish mom joke from time to time, as he did on Ted Danson’s (and sometimes Woody Harrelson’s!) delightful podcast, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name.”

The interview does get serious at moments, especially when the three talk about Ford’s ocean conservation efforts throughout the years (a reminder that he isn’t just an iconic actor but also a mensch) and the environment, and when Ford kvells about Jewish actor and writer Brett Goldstein (“he’s the best,” Ford says effusively) who co-showruns his show “Shrinking,” which he calls “a dream.” He also adds that his co-star, Jason Segel, is “a good, good person.”

But serious moments aside, the episode is mostly full of lots of humor.

As they start on a question about “Star Wars,” Ford, who is known for being a particularly funny and sharp interviewee, pretends to doze off. “I don’t need to be interviewed!” he tells the two hosts, which is when Danson decides to bring in the heavy guns: a question about Ford’s mother.

“Did your mother love you?” Danson asks, half jokingly.

Ford seems to sober up — but anyone who has watched him knows that sobering up is deceptive and just a sign that he’s just about to start on another joke.

“Well, now we’re getting down to brass tacks, aren’t we?” Ford replies somberly.

“My mother was Jewish, she didn’t need to love me that way,” he then says. “She loved me in the Jewish way.”

And like any semi-professional interviewer, Danson takes it as a cue to press deeper. “Elaborate,” he says.

“Well, first they take a piece of you and throw it away,” Ford answers dramatically to the hosts’ laughter. “Then they teach you a whole bunch of stuff that’s supposed to be good for you.”

I have to say, it took me a second to understand what Ford meant about “taking a part of you,” because I was not born a Jewish man and so I assumed that Ford meant something a little dark, melancholy and metaphoric — but then I realized that he’s likely just talking about his bris. That’s when they take something from you and throw it away or, rather, bury it. Get it?

Ted Danson, who is not Jewish, kept things PC by saying that Jewish mothers are “good family,” which Ford then, in a rare moment of interview sincerity, agreed with. “Yes, yes,” he says. “It was normal, a normal family.”

Ford then goes on to refute the claim that his mother was a radio actor, though his father was a vaudeville radio actor who did radio plays. The confusion likely stems from the fact that Dorothy Ford is the name of a famous actress and model from the 1940s, though she doesn’t seem to be related to Harrison in any way.

It’s not the only Jewish mother joke in this very enjoyable interview. When Danson declares that Ford is considered one of “the greatest movie stars of all time,” Ford asks, “By whom? My mother?!”

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The post Harrison Ford Makes an Excellent Joke About His Jewish Mom appeared first on Kveller.

I’ve always thought challah was food fit for a king, but in London last week, that statement was quite literally true.

Last Thursday, King Charles III visited Golders Green to check in on the local Jewish community and the two individuals injured during an antisemitic stabbing attack in late April, Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 74.

As part of his visit, he went to Grodz, a kosher London bakery founded by Lithuanian Jewish immigrants all the way back in 1888. He met the owner of the Golders Green location and chatted with patrons at the store. Then he was handed a beautiful loaf of challah by a group of kids from the local Jewish school. He graciously thanked the children and then handed the challah to his royal guard.

Imagine being tasked with the safekeeping of the king’s challah! What an honor. Now the only question we have is: How does the king partake in challah? Does he have it cut into prim slices or does he tear into it the traditional way? Does he like to make French toast the next day? Will he share a piece with the challah’s guard?

King Charles wasn’t just treated to a delicious Jewish baked good, though; he had a lot of interesting conversations with the local community, including Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, volunteers, local schoolchildren, parents, and other passerbys, smiling at them, shaking their hands and likely giving them all a great story that they will share in perpetuity of that time they met the king.

In a particularly menschy move, he told a local man who turned 100 that same day that he hopes “they give you a good celebration, and I hope you get a card from me,” according to BBC.

At the local Jewish Care charity centre, Charles III met with Rand, Shine and Shine’s sister, Doreen.

“He was very concerned. He didn’t let go of my hand, I mean, it was amazing, he is the king, but I felt a genuine warmth and concern,” Shine said of the encounter. He also talked to volunteers at the Hatzola service, the Jewish volunteer ambulance service, who had four of their vehicles set on fire this March.

While introducing new legislation the day before, King Charles III said in his King’s Speech that the UK and his government intend to take “urgent action to tackle antisemitism and ensure all communities feel safe.” His son, Prince Harry, also spoke out against antisemitism last Thursday, saying that “Jewish communities — families, children, ordinary people — are being made to feel unsafe in the very places they call home. That should alarm us, but also unite us.”

And did you know that there is a special blessing one says over the king? A volunteer for the Jewish neighborhood watch service, the Shomrim, recited it to the monarch. The She’chalak (who has shared, or who has given) is recited in Hebrew: “Baruch Ata Adonai, Shechalak MiKvodo lebashar ve’dam,” and translates into: “Blessed are You Hashem, who gave from His honor to flesh and blood.”

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Here’s hoping someone helped him say HaMotzi before he tucked into that scrumptious challah!

The post King Charles III Is Gifted a Challah at Golders Green appeared first on Kveller.

The complex story of how Paul Simon made his 1986 album, “Graceland,” working with South African musicians at the time of Anti-Apartheid boycotts, has always been worthy of a movie adaptation. And now, finally, one is coming.

The movie, “The Road Home,” will be directed by Bill Condon (“Dreamgirls,” “Kinsey,” “Chicago,” “Gods and Monsters”) and is slated to start shooting in South Africa this June.

Actor Johnny Flynn (“Emma”) will play Jewish musician Simon and the film will follow him making his sixth studio album at a time of great personal upheaval (another fallout with Art Garfunkel, his breakup with Carrie Fisher and the commercial failure of his previous solo album).

Cynthia Erivo will play singer Miriam Makeba, known as “Mama Africa” (recently made into a viral hit thanks to a song by French artist Jain), who helped launch the “Graceland” tour.

South African actor Thabo Rametsi will play “father of South African jazz” trumpeter Hugh Masekela. In the film, Masekela is torn between his collaboration with Simon and his loyalty to his friend Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (played by Guy Pearce), a leader in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, who accused Simon of violating the United Nations’ Cultural Boycott of South Africa.

The movie is the product of a six-year collaboration spearheaded by the Hugh Masekela Heritage Foundation. The foundation approached writer Michael Bronner to write the script; before his death, Masekela approached Zakes Mda to write a movie about Huddleston, and the script credit is shared between him and Bronner.

“It’s a story of an incredible resistance and resilience that this country and these people have had,” Condon told Variety. “What’s so interesting about this film is that it [shows] two forces on the same side. They both want to bring down its regime.”

Flynn, who is not Jewish, has a connection to Simon: He opened for the singer with his band Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit in 2018. Flynn was also born in South Africa and his family and parents supported the Anti-Apartheid Movement, which gives him a special connection to this project. “The music of South Africa – and especially that of Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba IS the sound of my childhood,” Flynn told Deadline.

Over on X, some have shared their dismay at Flynn’s casting, saying the tall British actor looks nothing like Simon. Flynn has also previously played David Bowie in the largely panned “Stardust.” This won’t be the first time Flynn has played a Jewish character — he’s previously played young Albert Einstein in the series “Genius,” and he also played Holocaust hero Nicholas Winton in the film “One Life.” 

As a pretty big fan of Flynn as both a musician and an actor, I’m also torn about this casting, even if it likely won’t stop me from watching the film. The movie also comes at a fascinating time, when there is so much controversy around BDS and cultural boycotts of Israel in present day.

Condon has stressed that the film is not a Paul Simon biopic in any shape or form. “It’s about all of these forces converging over one issue: that Paul Simon went to South Africa to work with local musicians on that classic album, ‘Graceland,’ and in so doing was seen to be sort of breaking the anti-apartheid boycott,” he said. “I think he would disagree with that, because he wasn’t paid, but that became a hugely controversial issue for some people.”

The post A New Movie About Paul Simon Making ‘Graceland’ Is Coming appeared first on Kveller.

Last year on the Today Show, actor, singer and Celebrity Jeopardy champion Jackie Tohn talked about her Jewish parents, Alan and Bella, their Florida retirement community, and her love for mah jongg while promoting season two of “Nobody Wants This.”

This week, she returned to the show to yes, gab about season of three of “Nobody Wants This,” which she finished shooting this month, but more importantly, to draw attention to an important health issue that affects a disproportionate amount of Ashkenazi Jewish women and some Jewish men, including Tohn’s own much beloved father (we’re obsessed with Alan, coverman!).

Tohn shared that last year in January, her father found lumps under his arms. Those lumps turned out to be metastatic carcinomas, and because his doctors couldn’t find a source for the cancer, they asked him to take a panel of hereditary genetic testing, a panel that showed that he was BRCA1 positive. For those who do not know what BRCA1 is, it’s a gene whose mutation can dramatically raise your risk for certain cancers, most notably breast cancer, though it can also increase the risk of ovarian and pancreatic cancer, as well as melanoma.

While we often think of these genes as passed down by mothers, it can be passed down from fathers as well, as Brad Hertz shared in this 2021 Kveller article. And that’s exactly what happened to Tohn; she mentioned her father’s diagnosis at a routine mammogram and got genetic testing in June 2025, and discovered she was also BRCA1 positive. At a meeting with a genetic counselor, she was told that she had an 85% chance of getting breast cancer.

“What’s crazy is when you get a diagnosis like this, you don’t know your options. It’s like someone giving you a single nail and being like, ‘Build the house, there’s a field,’ you’re like, huh? And so I said, ‘OK, let me put on my big girl pants, and I’m just doing this,'” Tohn told hosts Sheinelle Jones and Jenna Bush Hager.

The star found a medical team that she loved, and “on December 1, 2025, I got straight to reconstruction double mastectomy,” she told the audience.

Tohn wasn’t just there to share her own personal story — she wanted to raise awareness for the risk factors of BRCA. She explained that four factors make you more likely to be a carrier. The first three are “rare, young and multiple” — meaning if someone in your family had a rare cancer, if people in your family got diagnosed young with cancer and if multiple people in your family had cancer. And the fourth factor is one we’ve covered a lot here at Kveller since our founding: 1 in 40 Ashkenazi Jews, like Tohn and her father, are carriers of the BRCA gene.

Tohn encouraged those watching to get tested, partnering with Myriad Genetics — which discovered the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutation — to encourage testing for hereditary cancer risks, including BRCA1/2.

“I’m sharing my story because I am a Jewish woman in my 40s and no one had ever talked to me about BRCA,” Tohn shared in a press release. “I hope hearing about my experience encourages everyone to learn more about their family health history, start a conversation with their doctor, and explore a genetic test like the MyRisk Hereditary Cancer Test.”

The ad for Myriad’s MyRisk testing that features Tohn is full of haimish pictures of her and her family, at what appears to be her bat mitzvah, playing music with Alan and with her loved ones and family. There are adorable pictures with the cast of “Nobody Wants This” and with her partner (and show guest star) Joe Gillette. The ad even features the “Nobody Wants This” cast at Jackie’s “Boob Voyage” party ahead of her mastectomy (I’m obsessed) and her FaceTiming her mom from the hospital — because of course.

Tohn talks about how she is the type of person who does go to the doctor often and takes great care of her body because of her career, and yet she didn’t know about this mutation, and how the genetic testing was the key for her to hopefully lead the long healthy life she wants to (pu pu pu, kinehora!).

“I just hope my story ignites a fire in people to get themselves checked out,” Tohn says in the ad.

Amen. What a mitzvah, Jackie Tohn!

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The post Jewish Actress Jackie Tohn Reveals Her BRCA1 Diagnosis on the Today Show appeared first on Kveller.

Daniel Roher’s new heist movie “Tuner” is star-studded to say the least.

The Jewish Canadian Academy Award-winning director’s (“Navalny”) first narrative film stars Leo Woodall (“The White Lotus”) as Niki, a gifted piano tuner, who discovers that his perfect pitch hearing also helps quickly open challenging safes.

In the movie, Dustin Hoffman plays Harry Horowitz, with whom Niki works as a piano tuner; the two seem to have a really special connection, with Harry playing a surrogate father figure. When Harry gets hospitalized, Niki discovers through Harry’s wife, Tovah Feldshuh’s Marla, that the couple are being buried by medical bills — and he wants to help.

Enter Lior Raz’s Uri, a criminal Niki runs into on a job who recruits him to join his operation as a master safe-cracker. Uri’s accomplices are played by Israeli actors Gil Cohen who plays Yoni, and Nissan Sakira who plays Benny, Uri’s nephew.

The trailer looks amazing, with Raz playing the villain perfectly, though one Israeli critic has lamented the negative Israeli representation as a group of money-hungry criminals at such a tumultuous time, especially when put in contrast with the other, warm Jewish characters.

Celebrated French actor Jean Reno plays a famous composer and Holocaust survivor. Hoffman looks like the sweetest Jewish father figure who loves to kvell over Niki whenever he can, and Feldshuh plays an incredibly affectionate Jewish mom who warns Niki not to do anything stupid to help Harry. Obviously, he does not heed her warning. I guess the moral of this film is: Listen to your (surrogate) Jewish mom (especially if she’s played by Tovah Feldshuh).

The film is already getting rave reviews, and Woodall, who is also about to play Jewish American chef Anthony Bourdain in the upcoming “Tony,” has been nothing but effusive about working with Hoffman.

“He’s on that Mount Rushmore for me,” the actor told Esquire. “He’s obviously so large in stature, but quite small as a man. He’s a very approachable man, and an absolute joy to work with.”

“I tried to be as much of a sponge as I could and soak it all up,” Woodall said. “There were two big lessons: he treats every take like a rehearsal, and also, you think he’s got it all figured out but he does have his doubts and moments. That, to me was inspiring: I’m still gonna feel like this in 60 years, but I can figure out ways to cope with it, use it, and manoeuvre it.”

“Tuner” is coming to theaters on May 22.

The post Jewish Actors Lior Raz, Dustin Hoffman and Tovah Feldshuh Star in ‘Tuner’ appeared first on Kveller.

The Social Security Administration just released its list of most popular baby names of 2025, and we’re sorry to report that there are no big surprises off the bat. Olivia and Liam are the top names for the seventh year in a row. Meanwhile, Jewish baby name enthusiasts may remember that the Hebrew name Eliana was predicted to enter the top 10, and it did — it’s now sitting at number 10, just behind Sofia. 

But if you dig a little deeper, some unexpected Jewish names are on the rise. Each of the names below have jumped 75 spots or more in the top 1000 baby names ranking — expect to see more of them at your local Jewish preschool in the next few years!

Liora

Keep an eye on Liora! This Hebrew name meaning “my light” is the sixth fastest rising name for girls. It jumped 734 spots, entering the top 1000 for the first time ever at 900.

Eliora

Similar in sound and meaning to Liora (it means “God is my light”), Eliora is on a similar trajectory — it jumped nearly 400 spots and landed just behind Liora in the top 1000.

Romy/Romi

Not to toot our own horn, but we’ve been predicting a rise in this name. Not only did we write about it in January of this year, the founder of Kveller named her daughter Romi way back in 2012. This Hebrew name meaning “my exaltation” is a popular modern name in Israel and is in the top 10 searches on Kveller’s Jewish Baby Name Bank. Romy is the more common spelling in the U.S. — this variation entered the top 1000 in 2024 and jumped 230 spots in 2025, landing at 698. For its part, Romi moved up nearly 200 spots, securing its place in the top 1000 in the low 800s.

Eitan

Ethan is a popular baby name stalwart, but the Hebrew version of the name, Eitan, has stayed mostly under the radar. In 2025, it jumped nearly 200 spots and made its debut in the top 1000 at 921. Eitan means “enduring” or “solid.” The word is used as far back as the book of Exodus, where it means “perennial” or “ever flowing” with regards to the Red Sea. Eitan is also used in a somewhat iconic quote: “Let justice well up like water, righteousness like an unfailing (eitan) stream.”

Ira

An English form of the Hebrew word for “watchful” and probably the name of your Jewish grandpa, Ira is most definitely due for a comeback. The name has risen and fallen slightly around the top 1000 for the past decade, but this year it leapt 150 spots to number 822. Anecdotally, we’re seeing this name used for baby girls (adorable!), but according to the data, it hasn’t been a top 1000 girls’ name since 1947.

Eliezer

With a similar sound to popular names Elijah, Ezra, Eli and Eliana (and our personal favorite Yiddish option, Lazer), it’s no surprise that Eliezer is on the rise for parents who want a more unique take on a biblical name. In 2025 it entered the top 1000 around spot 900, rising 121 spots. Eliezer was the name of several biblical characters, including Moses’ son. Many interpret the name, which means “my God helps,” as a reference to God’s intervention in the Passover story.

Boaz

In 2025 Boaz jumped 120 spots and entered the top 1000 names just behind Eliezer.  This one was a surprise to us, and we can only assume its rise in popularity has to do with Kveller’s fall 2025 list of baby names inspired by Taylor Swift — the name means “swiftness.” Biblically, Boaz was Ruth’s second husband, known for his generosity. It’s never been a common name in the U.S., but according to the baby name experts at Nameberry, it’s popular in Holland.

Yisroel

This specific Yiddish spelling of the boys’ name Yisrael/Israel, meaning “struggles with God,” is used in Orthodox communities and has been in the top 1000 names for the past decade. In 2025, however, it had a big jump — 113 spots — landing in the 870s, its highest appearance yet. 

Ruthie

We love to see the adorable Ruthie on the rise! Ruth means “friend” or “friendship” in Hebrew, and biblically, she’s an iconic character (perhaps you’ve heard of the Book of Ruth?) who converted to Judaism. Ruthie was a popular midcentury name until it dropped off the top 1000 names in 1967. It reappeared in 2023, rose a little bit in 2024, jumped 100 spots in 2025, and is now the 781st most popular baby name. 

Ruth, by the way, has always been in the top 1000, and has been rising pretty steadily since 2000. Right now, it’s in the 170s. Baby name experts swear by The 100 Year Rule, which posits that a name trends every 100 years, and the name Ruth is a perfect example: it peaked in 1904 at number 4, and began its resurgence in the late 1990s/early 2000s — right around the time Ashkenazi Jews may have started naming their babies after family members named Ruth. With modern parents favoring an “-ee” sound at the end of names, the rise of Ruthie as a given name makes a lot of sense.

Sol — but for a girl

Sol rose 99 spots in 2025, but its popularity as a girls’ name is likely not Jewish in nature. It means “sun” in Spanish and Portuguese, and is pronounced with a long o (like soul). But its ascent begs the question: Why aren’t we using the Jewish Sol — as in Solomon, which originates from the Hebrew Shalom and means “peace” — for baby girls? If you’re having a girl and are naming after a relative named Solomon, you have our permission to name her Sol. (As always, if you take our advice, you must send cute baby pictures.)

Azriel

First appearing on the top 1000 list in 2021, and up 79 spots in 2025, this Hebrew name means “God is my help.” We can’t help but think its rise is related to the current trend of names with an EE-yell or el-LEE sound. 

The post These Are the Fastest Rising Jewish Baby Names appeared first on Kveller.

If you feel like you’ve heard more about Israel in the Eurovision in recent years than you ever have in the past, you’re not wrong. Since October 7 and the ensuing war, Israel’s participation in the popular camp song contest — one of Europe’s most beloved television traditions since its founding in 1956, famously helping make ABBA a global sensation — has been in great contention. But this year, the drama feels even bigger.

Let’s talk about it!

Wait, what is The Eurovision Song Contest?

Anyone who grew up watching the Eurovision takes this information for granted, but for the uninitiated, the Eurovision, which you can think of as Europe’s music Olympics, looks like a camp fever dream. Countries compete to win with a different song each year, with musical representatives that range from decked out metal bands to turkey puppets to maudlin ballad singers — who don’t all have to be from the country they represent (that’s how French Canadian Celine Dion came to represent Switzerland in 1988 — earning the country a win — and British-Irish Boy George came to represent San Marino this year, unfortunately not qualifying for the finals).

How does one win the Eurovision? Well, first, your entry has to make it to the top 20 in one of the two semi-finals. And then, like many music competitions, the 20 top entrants’ scores come from both a popular vote and a panel of professional judges. Each country appoints its own panel of judges and opens televoting, and those results get put together and broadcast live at the Eurovision (that process feels like the longest part of the night). Basically, each country is allotted 1 to 8 points to give a different country (you can not vote for your own country, obviously), as well as 10 and 12 points. Earning 12 points, or douze points, from another country is one of the most prestigious honors of the Eurovision. The country that wins gets to host the Eurovision the following year, another great honor and a possible boon to tourism!

OK, but Israel is not in Europe, right? So why does Israel participate in the Eurovision?

The answer is fairly simple. Israel’s national broadcasting, which today is KAN (the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation), is part of the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union, and has been for more than half a century. Many non-European networks are EBU members, and all countries in good standing can choose to participate in the contest, though many don’t. Some Arab countries, for example, refuse to participate as long as Israel is part of the contest, and there are also other reasons why these broadcasters might choose not to participate (it is a big financial investment, after all!).

It’s important to note that it’s these broadcasters, and not the governments of the countries, who send representatives each year; while there is an aspect of representing your country, it’s not meant to be a political one. The broadcasters are mandated to have journalistic freedom and not be tied to a specific government or administration. KAN has been under constant attack and has faced shutdown threats from the current Israeli government.

How long has Israel been part of the Eurovision?

Israel first participated in the contest in 1973. It has won the contest four times: in 1978 with the song “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” (recently featured in “The White Lotus”) by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta, in 1979 with Milk and Honey’s “Hallelujah,” in 1998 with Dana International’s “Diva” (the first transgender Eurovision winner!) and in 2018 with Netta’s “Toy.”

Who is representing Israel in the Eurovision this year?

Singer Noam Bettan is representing Israel with his song “Michelle.” In recent years, Eurovision representatives have been getting selected through a reality singing competition called “Next Star (to the Eurovision),” a rigorous and widely watched show that allows for popular voting mixed with judges scores, which means it’s really the Israeli public — along with talented judges — who are sending representatives to the Eurovision.

Bettan was already fairly well-known when he participated in the show. He participated in another 2021 reality TV show contest and has several successful singles out. He famously likes to bring his French Jewish heritage to his music, like he does in “Michelle,” which mixes Hebrew, French and English lyrics.

Alright, what is the drama with Israel and the Eurovision this year?

Since 2023, there has been a lot drama when it comes to Israel’s participation in the Eurovision. Eden Golan, who came in 4th place, couldn’t leave her hotel in Malmo unless she was in disguise and was constantly booed on stage. Backstage, she was mostly shunned by other contestants, who refused to be filmed with her, and some drama even got the Israeli delegation moved to a different space.

Yuval Raphael, a Nova festival survivor who represented Israel in 2025 in Basel, was also booed and jeered onstage and faced protests outside the Eurovision. She came in second place.

While Bettan is also facing booing and protesters, the drama really came to a head this year. It is also of a wider scope. Several longtime participants have decided to back out of both participating in and airing the contest, including Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands, all to protest Israel’s participation.

But it’s not just people’s anger about the Israel-Hamas War that’s the source of drama. Last year, Eurovision decided to change its voting process, allegedly because of allegations that Israel didn’t play fair and square. A recent New York Times article accuses Israel of using the Eurovision as a “soft power tool,” stating that the Israeli foreign ministry spent money on online promotion and was involved in trying to campaign to keep the country in the contest amid threats of a boycott and a vote to keep Israel out of it that never happened.

While there was nothing in the Eurovision guidelines that made such spending against the rules (the investment from the Israeli government was made unbeknownst to KAN), the EBU changed its policies around promotion this year for what its head said was reason of “perception” rather than any actual untoward findings. (“There is no evidence that Israel, as some Eurovision fans speculated, used bots or other covert tactics to manipulate the vote,” according to the NYTimes report.)

Last year, for example, there were campaigns urging people to vote for Raphael 20 times — the maximum allotted votes per person. This year, when EBU discovered Bettan telling viewers to vote for him 10 times (the maximum allowed this year), they quickly approached KAN to take them down — which the network promptly did.

Where does this leave Israel in the Eurovision?

It leaves the country exactly where it is: ready to compete in the Eurovision finals in Vienna this Saturday, May 16 after a triumphant performance at the first semi-finals on May 12. Israeli audiences will be watching with bated breath; the song is topping the local charts. According to the current betting odds, Finland is projected to win, and Israel to take 5th place.

The post Everything You Need To Know About Israel in Eurovision 2026 appeared first on Kveller.

In a recent commencement speech at his alma mater, Emerson College, Jewish “Happy Days” and “Barry” star Henry Winkler reminded the audience that he was in the bottom 3% of people academically. In the 1960s, Emerson was the only college to accept him of the 28 he applied to. He graduated in 1967 and went on to Yale drama school.

Yet, his incredible eight-minute commencement speech shows that he is in the top 3% of people when it comes to being a mensch. It was a compassionate and rousing address filled with advice that I’m sure many of the grads will take to heart.

In fact, I think we could all learn a thing or two from our modern Jewish sage, Henry Winkler. Here are some of my favorite nuggets of wisdom from the acting and comedy genius (and fishing maven!).

Always start with a Jewish joke — or two.

Winkler started his speech by talking to the fellow parents at the graduation about his young son Max, who, at every turn, when his father told him to go to college, to get a job, to show up for work every day, responded with: “God will provide.”

“I know two things about our son. He’s a slacker. And he thinks I’m God,” he then told the crowd, to roaring laughter.

He then went on to joke about his own Jewish father, who brought his family and his family business to the U.S. from Germany in 1939, narrowly escaping the Holocaust, during which Winkler lost many of his Jewish relatives. His father, Winkler explained, “wanted me to take over the lumber business that he brought from Europe.”

“I said, I’m not interested in wood,” Winkler explained before imitating his father, with German accent: “Why do you think I bought it over here?”

“I said, besides being chased by the Nazis, Dad, was there a bigger reason than that?” Winkler then recounted to more laughter. It’s a joke that Winkler has told before, but it works every time.

In Winkler’s autobiography “Being Henry: The Fonz… and Beyond” (which I highly recommend listening to as an audiobook, for some surprise cameos and passionate narration from Winkler), Winkler talks about how complicated his relationship was with his Jewish parents. They were German refugees who never quite accepted or supported or understood Winkler and his dreams and his struggles (the actor has dyslexia, which went undiagnosed for a very long time — he created the “Here’s Hank” book series to make kids like him feel seen). And yet here he is, immortalizing them with a delightful joke, finding the sweet in the bitter.

“Live by two words: tenacity and gratitude. Tenacity will get you where you want to go, and gratitude will make you enjoy the journey, no matter how bumpy.”

Winkler’s journey to Hollywood (the only wood he was interested in) wasn’t a smooth ride before he got to Emerson. “My life was like a cylinder of stainless steel, no hand holds, no footholds, and I kept trying to pull myself up into the sun, and I kept failing at everything,” he said of his childhood. But: “I had a dream and I never let that dream out of my mind.”

“You are not hired, no matter what you do, to fill time and space — you are hired to fill that time and space with your imagination.”

Winkler recalled the process of auditioning for “Happy Days,” getting the role of Fonz, and what he did to make that role his own.

“It says in the script, go to the mirror, comb your hair. I said, I don’t want to comb my hair,” he recalled of his first day on set, “I want to be original. Every actor has combed their hair. Do anything, write anything, I will do it. They said, ‘Oh, the producer wrote, go to the mirror, comb your hair.’ I go to the mirror. I pull out my comb, go, ‘Hey, look at that. I don’t have to, because it’s perfect.'”

With this anecdote, Winkler invited everyone listening to him to make every job and task their own, to do it in their own unique way.

“Listen to your tummy. Your tummy knows everything. Your mind only knows a few things.”

Winkler firmly believes in listening to your intuition and to what your body is telling you — but it’s his use of the word “tummy” that I find particularly endearing.

“You can not live a rich life if you don’t have empathy.”

Winkler believes that whoever said America’s problem is too much empathy was wrong. He thinks that no matter how much wealth you accumulate, true richness lies in being empathetic to others.

“Everyone of you is powerful.”

Winkler ended his charismatic performance by telling every single person in the crowd that in them lies “a great gift, and your job is to figure out what your gift is, because this world needs every single one of you, and your job is to find that gift and give it to the world. It doesn’t matter what it is, we need it — go.” Hear, hear!

Watch the full speech below:

The post Henry Winkler’s Emerson Commencement Speech Is One of the Best We’ve Ever Heard appeared first on Kveller.

Season three of “Nobody Wants This,” the Hot Rabbi show that became a Netflix streaming sensation, just wrapped filming earlier this May. The show about agnostic podcast host Joanne (Kristen Bell) and handsome LA rabbi Noah’s (Adam Brody) interfaith relationship drama will be coming back to the streamer sometime in 2026. (Past seasons have launched in early fall.)

We loved kvetching and kvelling about the show’s previous two seasons and the Jewish representation in them (we especially loved kvelling with Jewish star Jackie Tohn, who plays Esther, Rabbi Noah’s sister-in-law) and we’re definitely excited to share all our feelings about season three when it comes out.

But right now, we just want to share how much we’re loving the previews we’ve gotten of season three from the cast, especially from one Tovah Feldshuh, who plays Bina, Rabbi Noah’s stern and fearless Jewish mom who may or may not be softening to his relationship with Joanne.

Here are some of our favorite sneak peeks from season three of “Nobody Wants This.”

Bina at the beach

Feldshuh announced the beginning of shooting the new season with a beautiful video from the beach. “Sunset in Santa Monica, California, March the 9th, 2026, tomorrow starts the beginning of the filming of season three of ‘Nobody Wants This.’ Sending much love from the California sunshine,” Feldshuh said in a voiceover as the wind blew on the beach.

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Feldshuh also shared a beautiful picture of windswept Bina from Venice Beach after a great day of shooting. That’s where I’d go too.

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Look at the guns on Bina

The “Golda’s Balcony” actress gave us another little glimpse of Bina from season three. We can’t really tell what the scene will be about, but my first thought was a workout class with Bina because of how fit Feldshuh looks in this pic. But it could really be anything.

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A Sarah Silverman and Tovah Feldshuh selfie is all we needed

We’re so excited that Sarah Silverman is playing a rabbi in this new season of “Nobody Wants This.” Feldshuh shared a picture with her “beautiful pal,” with Silverman wearing a very rabbi-appropriate turtleneck (not that there’s one way to dress up as a rabbi!) and Feldshuh in a very shiny gold top. We love these Bina photos, give us a hundred more.

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Kristen Bell’s disposable camera

For the first week of shooting back in March, Netflix gave Kristen Bell a disposable camera! We got some glimpses into a shoot at the synagogue, Jackie Tohn in a turtleneck (more turtlenecks!) and other great season three fits (that skirt Kristen is wearing in the first picture is giving frum-chic).

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We also got a look at her… not-so-fancy trailer

I love knowing Kristen Bell’s trailer looks not so different from my own workspace.

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Jackie Tohn shared a really cute picture from the last day of shooting

Jackie, channeling her best royal Barbie, waved goodbye to the set in the last day of shooting, and shared a photo of a box of giveaway things from the season three set labelled “Nobody Wants Us.” 10/10 labelling, no notes.

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Want more updates about season three of “Nobody Wants This?” Here’s everything we know so far and some news about exciting new cast members, including Sadie Sandler and creator Erin Foster.

The post We’re Obsessed With These Behind the Scenes Photos From ‘Nobody Wants This’ Season 3 appeared first on Kveller.

My big flex — which is really more a product of circumstances — is that I was a Celine Dion fan before it was cool.

I was a fan before Titanic’s “My Heart Will Go On,” and even before the release of the unforgettable 1996 “Falling Into You” (the album that features the “Wuthering Heights”-inspired break-up song “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” written by Jewish New Yorker Jim Steinman).

It all started when I was an elementary school student at a private Jewish school in Belgium. One of the teachers decided to do a little school performance that included a song from Dion’s 1995 French-language album, “D’eux” (“Of Them” or “From Them,” but also a homophone for the French word for “two”). I became obsessed with the song. I needed the album. Every day, I demanded it be played in the car, in our living room, and eventually, on my Discman.

What that teacher — who I’m not sure was Jewish at all — didn’t realize is that she introduced me to what would become a vitally important Jewish text to me, from one of France’s greatest Jewish singer-songwriters, Jean-Jacques Goldman. The text? My favorite melodramatic ballad from “D’eux”: “La Mémoire d’Abraham,” which in English can mean both Abraham’s memory or Abraham’s memoir/book.

There is more Judaism in the album than one might expect. Goldman, the son of a Polish Jewish immigrant to France who became a member of the French Resistance and a German Jew who settled in Paris, wrote all but one of the songs on this album, and he actually incorporated Jewish themes into the lyrics.

“D’eux” has so many great songs written by Goldman. “Vole,” which was later translated into “Fly” for “Falling Into You,” is a touching song about grief. “If That’s What It Takes” and “I Don’t Know” are the two other Goldman-written titles from that Grammy-winning album. But “La Mémoire d’Abraham” is uniquely Jewish.

Growing up yelling out the song’s lyrics in my bathroom, I was sure the song was about our first patriarch. “Just one prayer, before we obey,” the song opens in French, and automatically made me think of Abraham’s journey to Canaan. I definitely should have examined the lyrics a little deeper, because in it I can also find the traces of my own family’s Jewish story: that of escaping persecution, maintaining Jewish faith, surviving the Holocaust and Jewish hate.

That’s because the song is actually based on “The Book of Abraham” by Marek Halter. In the book, Halter famously explores his family’s partly fictionalized Jewish history for 2000 years, starting when they were expelled from Jerusalem. Halter’s family story mirrors my family’s in many ways. He was born in Poland before the war, like many of my relatives, and he and his parents survived the Holocaust by escaping to Russia and Uzbekistan, like my own maternal great-grandparents. But in this book, he traces the history of Jewish persecution and othering around the world and throughout time, all the way back to the Spanish Inquisition and the Middle Ages. The book became a sensation and was adapted into a French comic book. Goldman had apparently written the lyrics for the song a decade earlier, around the time “The Book of Abraham” first came out, but realized he couldn’t sing the song himself — and instead found the perfect voice and delivery for it in Dion (a singer who is not Jewish, but does love to support good Montreal delis).

Over on Wikipedia, one editor suggested that the song is about the battle of the Plains of Abraham in what is now Quebec City, which makes a lot of sense when you know that Dion is from small-town Quebec and attached to her French Canadian roots, but makes little sense when thinking of Goldman. His lyrics, from my perspective, are very Jewish: “Long is the wait/Heavy is the pain in our hearts/But so big, is our love, our faith in you/But so hard to understand you sometimes.” Those words feel like they are sung towards God himself. For many survivors, it’s hard to juggle our pain and trauma with our faith — but love for tradition wins out.

The song ends with a solemn prayer for the future: “Guide our children, for the end of times/Filled with more joys than tears.”

Like many songs on “D’eux,” “La Mémoire d’Abraham” still gives me the shivers to this day. Even if Celine herself is not Jewish, I love that my favorite singer of all time has a song that makes me feel so seen as a Jewish person.

The post The History Behind the Celine Dion Song Based on a Very Jewish Book appeared first on Kveller.

I don’t think I need to hype up Amanda Peet’s newest movie, “Fantasy Life,” directed, written and starring Matthew Shear, in any way. The movie is about Sam Stein, a paralegal (Shear) who has a mental breakdown and winds up working as a babysitter for Dianne Cohen (Peet), an actress trying to revive her career after motherhood. Comedy and drama ensues, and the two form a special connection.

As you may have guessed by the characters’ names, the film is just so supremely Jewish and funny (complete with the requisite jokes about generational trauma and antisemitism that feel anything but stale). But it’s also a sharply written, very human movie about mental health and coming into your own later in life. I strongly recommend it.

And this Monday, May 17, Shear, who has starred in films like “Between the Temples” and “The Meyerowitz Stories,” will be joining Kveller (more specifically, yours truly!) for an exclusive screening and Q&A.

He’ll tell us all what making this movie was like, and what it was like working not just with Peet but with a slew of other incredible Jewish actors: Judd Hirsch and Andrea Martin, who play Peet’s character’s parents-in-law; Alessandro Nivola, who plays her husband; and Bob Balaban, who plays Peet’s dad. Need I say more? Well, if I do, the movie also stars Holland Taylor, Zosia Mamet and Jessica Harper!

If you aren’t already sold on the film, all you need to do is watch the trailer. Trust me.

Join us for a “Fantasy Life” Screening and Q&A with director Matthew Shear on May 18, at 7 p.m. ET.

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Larry David’s new historical sketch show, “Life, Larry and The Pursuit of Unhappiness,” or as, one YouTube commenter put it, “time-traveling ‘Curb'” is coming to HBO Max on June 26, and executive producer Barack Obama and Larry David just released a teaser for the show last week. If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be “kvetchy,” which once again, affirms the hypothesis that this is “Curb,” with some American history theory thrown in.

In the teaser, 44 tells viewers that he’s “sat across the table from some of the world’s most difficult leaders and wrestled with some of the globe’s most intractable problems” and yet none of that prepared him for working with Larry David. Honestly, that sounds vey plausible. Obama explains that he’s the producer of the show, which means he doesn’t need to deal with Larry everyday, and yet even the amount of interaction they have is too much. David then walks in to ask the former president if he’ll be his emergency contact, because of course that’s a joke David would write. Obama refuses; after all, he’s seen David call 911 “when you had something in your eye,” which the veteran comedian and comedy writer insists was totally warranted.

“Don’t you know other people who like you?” Obama finally asks.

“No,” David responds, shamelessly. And when he doesn’t get an affirmative answer from the former politician despite his nudging, he resolves to just ask his wife Michelle.

“You see what I’m dealing with here?” Obama then asks the viewer. “Impossible!”

It’s quite funny to see the former world leader get down to the level of kvetchiness usually reserved for David himself. And all joking aside, I’m sure he was happy to be in it for the ride. He even has a part in the actual show! As do J.B Smoove, Jon Hamm, Jake Reiner, Susie Essman, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jerry Seinfeld and Jeff Garlin. Some of the named roles in the show so far include Kathryn Hahn as Mary Todd Lincoln, Bill Hader as Abraham Lincoln and Sean Hayes who will play one of the Wright brothers.

And if you need more proof that this show will bring all the same Jewish, nebbishe Larry David energy as “Curb,” all you need to do is watch the first preview sketch, released last month. It’s inspired by the famous V-J Day in Times Square photograph, in which a sailor kisses a stranger in New York, in which David plays a passerby trying to get into the (nonconsensual) kissing action, only to get his comeuppance.

And while we don’t know anything about David’s character in the sketch, it sure does feel like a middle-aged Jewish man who took the train in from Brooklyn.

“Life, Larry and The Pursuit of Unhappiness” premieres on HBO Max on June 26.

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