Every year, I find myself wondering which will come first: the High Holidays or the first Hanukkah items at HomeGoods. You’d be surprised how often it’s HomeGoods.

My annual Hanukkah pilgrimages have become a shopping tradition of their own. Nothing quite beats spotting that first patch of blue from across the store.

Finding the display is only the beginning. The real hunt is figuring out which pieces are actually Hanukkah merchandise and which are simply blue, white or silver enough to have been recruited for the occasion.

Here are some of the cutest, strangest and most unexpected finds from HomeGoods Hanukkah 2026.

Ceramic Hanukkah Bear

Meet Maccabear — not his official HomeGoods name, but one we’ve lovingly bestowed upon him. This ceramic teddy bear has black button eyes, the cutest punim and some serious old-fashioned charm. His cream-colored sweater has preppy Ralph Lauren-meets-Hanukkah energy.

What works: The navy hanukkiyah on his sweater is kosher, with all nine branches accounted for! He also doubles as a cookie jar.

What doesn’t: Hanukkah isn’t exactly a cookie-centric holiday, and he’s much too big for gelt. Honestly, he’s cute enough without being a cookie jar.

Verdict: Now that he’s got a name, I’m emotionally invested in his future.

Hanukkah Gingerbread Houses

HomeGoods has even more ceramic Hanukkah “gingerbread” houses than last year, and they light up!

What works: One actually looks the part, with brown cookie-colored walls, blue-and-white twisted icing trim and blue dreidels with the correct Hebrew letters across the front.

What doesn’t: The others go in a very different direction. Some are almost entirely white with blue trim; others have brown, stone-like facades resembling old village buildings. Beyond a small hanukkiyah above the doorway, there’s little to signal Hanukkah. Less gingerbread house, more miniature synagogue.

Bonus history detour: Oddly enough, there is some historical precedent for this aesthetic. In parts of Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Jewish communities faced restrictions on how prominent synagogues could be compared with churches, sometimes resulting in relatively understated exteriors.

Verdict: I can explain the synagogue history. What I can’t explain is why miniature shuls have become holiday decor. Either way, I bought a few. Apparently, our family’s guinea pigs needed their own mini Eastern European village for Hanukkah!

3D Star of David

This freestanding, three-dimensional Star of David is wrapped in faux pearls over a gold wire frame and sits on a shiny gold base.

What works: Despite my first impression, it isn’t a tree topper.

What doesn’t: HomeGoods’ Passover Star of David used a similar framework, but added floral details and “Happy Passover” in the center. This feels more like someone found extra wire and pearls and decided Hanukkah needed another Jewish star.

Verdict: Nobody wanted this. And unlike the Netflix show, I’m not convinced we need it for another season.

Stemless Hanukkah Wine Glass

This stemless wine glass features a metallic-gold hanukkiyah surrounded by presents and Stars of David in navy, pale blue and gold.

What works: Each branch ends in a blue dreidel, topped with a small gem for the flame. After inspecting an unreasonable amount of Hanukkah merchandise over the years, I genuinely can’t remember seeing this particular dreidel-hanukkiyah mashup before.

What doesn’t: For once, not much.

Verdict: Pretty, original and thoughtfully designed. More of this style, please!

Hanukkah Ornament Garland

These six-foot garlands mix chunky, glittery Stars of David with metallic ornaments.

What works: The pink, aqua and light green version breaks out of the usual Hanukkah palette. Another sticks to traditional navy, silver and gold.

What doesn’t: No dreidels or hanukkiyot in sight. These feel like Christmas ornaments repurposed for Hanukkah. Plus, they shed everywhere. It’s giving elementary-school art project vibes from before loose glitter was banned for the good of humanity.

Verdict: Not a keeper. I refuse to be vacuuming up Hanukkah glitter until Passover 2027.

The Bedazzled Hanukkiyah

HomeGoods went full rhinestone here. This decorative hanukkiyah is covered in faceted clear stones, with amber teardrop-shaped gems standing in for the flames.

What works: The rhinestones are fun, and those amber flames are pretty cute.

What doesn’t: A bit clunky, perhaps. Basically, it’s Hanukkah costume jewelry for your wall.

Verdict: Mine came home with me. Now I just need to decide which wall is ready for this level of attention.

Hanukkah-Themed Candles

Hanukkah candles are plentiful this year, from deep blue to clear glass, decorated with Stars of David, hanukkiyot and raised dreidels. Names include “Festival of Lights” and “Joyous Hanukkah,” with scents like “Ambered Teakwood & Mahogany” and “Opulent Woods & Herbs.”

What works: They’re certainly dressed for Hanukkah. The scents seem random, unless they were specifically chosen to help mask lingering latke oil. In which case: genius.

What doesn’t: I wanted something more on-theme. Give me “Gelt Trip” or “Love at First Sufganiyah.” (You’re welcome for the free ideas, HomeGoods.)

Verdict: Then again, Bath & Body Works gave us a “Sufganiyot” candle in 2023 with notes of fried donut, sweet jelly filling and powdered sugar. I gagged upon first sniff, so perhaps the random woodsy scents are the better idea after all.

Hanukkah Throw Pillows

HomeGoods has no shortage of Hanukkah throw pillows, from needlepoint-style “Happy Hanukkah” and “Love & Light” options to embroidered designs.

What works: The colors offer welcome variety, including pink and blue flowers, pale blue greenery and a gold hanukkiyah with pink candles. My favorite features five furry friends in blue-and-white sweaters and scarves gathered around a hanukkiyah and presents.

What doesn’t: This assortment is basically the ugly Hanukkah sweaters of pillows: fun, but not exactly modern or something I’d actually put on my couch. I wish there were a few options somewhere in between.

Verdict: The dogs win. Apparently, all it takes to sell me a throw pillow is five furry friends and one correctly lettered dreidel. Happy Pawnukkah.

This year’s HomeGoods Hanukkah selection has been full of surprises. I searched in vain for a beaded Kawaii Dreidel Man to rival the adorable Kawaii Matza Man from Passover. Perhaps his time will come.

In the meantime, you can find me in Hanukkah pajamas, strategizing with Maccabear about where we’re going to put all these new finds.

The post The Cutest, Strangest and Most Unexpected Finds From HomeGoods’ 2026 Hanukkah Items appeared first on Kveller.

Hanukkah is just over a month away — first night is Dec. 4 this year — and you know what that means. It’s time to get your family Hanukkah pajamas!

I am a huge fan of Hanukkah merch. I love Hanukkah sweaters and decorations, and I love Hanukkah PJs most of all! After all, for a typically home-based holiday that’s all about a jug of oil lasting eight nights, you certainly need some comfy nighttime attire.

I have spent many years of my career curating Hanukkah pajama offerings from around the internet, and it does fill me with Jewish joy to see that there are more delightful, and even some more colorful, Hanukkah pajama options out there these days. While I do wish we had even more color options (most brands still lean very heavily on navy and other shades of blue), it’s nice that small and big brands alike have made making Hanukkah pajamas a yearly tradition, especially at a time when a lot of us want to celebrate Jewish pride.

So, without further ado, here is a pretty comprehensive list of all the Hanukkah pajamas available this year, including matching sets for the whole family.

So put on your pajamukkahs — it’s almost time for Hanukkah!

All of our recommendations are independently selected by Kveller’s editorial team. We may earn a commission if you buy something through one of our affiliate links.

Editor’s note: This piece first ran on Nov. 6, 2019 and was last updated on Oct. 30, 2026.

The post Hanukkah Pajamas for the Entire Family: 2026 Edition appeared first on Kveller.

If you’re wearing a bra right now, you can thank a Jewish immigrant named Ida Cohen Rosenthal for helping make it the garment we know today.

The story began in 1922, when Russian-Jewish immigrant Ida Rosenthal was working as a dressmaker at Enid Frocks, a Manhattan dress shop owned by Enid Bissett. It was the era of the flapper, and contemporary fashions favored a flat, boyish silhouette. Bras of the time, similar to what we might call a bandeau today, were designed to flatten rather than support the breasts. Ida and Enid thought that this look was unflattering and uncomfortable, so they began tinkering with undergarments that provided a more natural silhouette.

The result was a cupped brassiere that enhanced, rather than erased, the natural shape of the body. 

The bras were meant to be secondary to the dresses that the two sold in their shop, but customers loved them so much that they shifted their business model to focus primarily on the bras. 

By 1925, Ida’s husband William had joined the team, and the three opened a factory in New Jersey. They named their new company Maiden Form, a cheeky counterpoint to the “boyish form” of bandeau bras. 

The Smithsonian describes Ida as an innovative businesswoman who helped launch aggressive advertising campaigns, making Maidenform, as the company is now known, the first American lingerie company to advertise. She served as treasurer, president, CEO and eventually chairman of the board. When William died in 1958, Ida took over as president, leading the company at a time when it was still unusual to have a female corporate leader.

Ida and William are often credited with inventing the nursing bra, too, and during World War II, their factories manufactured special vests for soldiers that included pockets for homing pigeons.

And if Maidenform’s famous advertising campaigns are any indication, Ida was not afraid to have a little fun with her product. Beginning in 1949, the company’s famous “I Dreamed” ads featured women wearing nothing above the waist except their Maidenform bras while doing things like shopping, working and even running for office. Despite the initial scandal of showing women — gasp! — without shirts, the campaign lasted for two decades and became one of the most recognizable advertising campaigns in American history. Fans of “Madmen” might recall the season two episode titled “Maidenform,” in which a rival company turns to Don and crew to try and recreate the “I Dreamed” ad series. 

Behind this bra empire was a Jewish immigrant story.

Born Ida Kaganovich in 1886 in what is now Belarus, she was the eldest of seven children. Her father was a Torah scholar and scribe, and her mother ran a small general store. She worked as a dressmaker while she was in school and became involved in radical socialist causes. In fact, some sources cite potential legal trouble stemming from their political beliefs as a catalyst behind Ida and William’s immigration to America. 

After they married in 1905 and watched their company blossom over the ensuing decades, the Rosenthals remained deeply connected to Jewish causes. They supported organizations including the Anti-Defamation League and United Jewish Appeal, a precursor to the Jewish Federation that helped Jews escape Europe after Kristallnacht in 1939. NYU houses a collection of the family’s Judaica and Hebrew books, and the Smithsonian has a whole Maidenform archive, which speaks to the family’s personal and professional influence on 20th century America.  

Ida Rosenthal died in 1973, but the company she helped create continued as a family business for decades. It has been bought and sold a few times and today is a member of Hanes (like, the underwear) — still creating shapewear for people of all shapes and sizes. 

The post This Innovative Jewish Immigrant Created the Underwire Bra appeared first on Kveller.

Celebrating Hanukkah with your family can be a magical experience. But making sure you have everything you need to celebrate all eight nights? That’s a completely different story.

Unless, of course, you start getting ready now.

The Festival of Lights begins on the evening of Dec. 4 this year, which means we’re in peak preparation zone! There’s still time to purchase all the menorahs, decor, kitchen appliances and gifting supplies you need at a leisurely, humane pace. Give yourself the gift of not waiting until the last minute to get all the Hanukkah essentials. Your future self will thank you.

Read on for everything you need to celebrate Hanukkah 2026.

Everything we recommend below is independently selected by Kveller’s editors, unless otherwise noted. If you buy a product through our links, Kveller may earn an affiliate commission, which goes to support our nonprofit media organization.

The post Get Ready for Hanukkah With These Essentials appeared first on Kveller.

As age 50 looms closer on the horizon, I’ve come to a somewhat alarming realization: I am apparently becoming my grandmother. Well, not actually my grandmother — but the stereotypical bubbe, straight outta Brooklyn (or in my case, the Upper East Side via Los Angeles).

I play mah jongg. I teach mah jongg. I have strong opinions about mah jongg tiles. I’ve also become an avid needlepointer, with an ever-growing collection of canvases, an alarming investment in colorful threads and more than a few opinions about both. Somewhere along the way, my free time became devoted to what the internet has affectionately dubbed “granny hobbies.”

And I couldn’t be happier about it.

As a rabbi and a mother of two, I spend much of my life thinking about other people’s needs, schedules and experiences. My job — which I love — is to build community and connections, and like so many women, I also manage the endless logistics and mental load of family life. What I hadn’t anticipated was that these so-called granny hobbies would bring something I didn’t necessarily know I was looking for in my late 40s: new friendships, creative fulfillment and spaces where I can simply show up and enjoy myself.

I’ve begun to wonder whether our grandmothers — and the generations of women who came before — knew something we’ve been too busy to appreciate. There’s something special about gathering around a mah jongg table, something different from even a Shabbat or seder table. For generations, women have been the ones making sure those other tables are set, the meals are prepared, the traditions are passed down. But at the mah jongg table, we’re there for ourselves. The tiles give us a reason to come together, but the conversations, the laughter and the friendships are what keep us coming back.

I’ve discovered much the same thing through needlepoint. What might seem like a solitary hobby has introduced me to stitch nights, needlepoint shops, online communities and an entirely new circle of friends. Both pursuits come with their own rituals, vocabulary, traditions and learning curves… and people delighted to welcome you into their slightly obsessive worlds.

On a sunny Monday morning, at a random mah jongg meetup, I met a woman who has since become a treasured friend, confidante and my unofficial needlepoint sherpa. Thanks to stitch nights, I’ve found myself in group chats with women I might never otherwise have met, swapping ideas, sharing projects and talking about far more than needlepoint. We’ve shared our oys and our joys and found the very kind of belonging that I spend so much of my professional life trying to cultivate, which is to say, we’ve built genuine friendships.

In the book of Exodus, as the Israelites prepare to build the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary that will accompany them through the wilderness, the Torah tells us about the women who spun the fabrics for its construction. Exodus 35:25 reads: “And all the skilled women spun with their own hands, and brought what they had spun, in blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and in fine linen.”

As a feminist scholar of Torah, I have always been taken by this moment. But as I enter my “crone era,” I find myself wondering less about what they made and more about what happened while they were making it.

I imagine women gathered around their looms, talking about their children, their relationships, their worries, their lives. Laughing, complaining, offering advice, listening. I guess I imagine my friends and me at a stitch night or our weekly mah jongg game — only with fewer Trader Joe’s snacks.

Of course, the women of the Mishkan weren’t making things to pass the time. Their handiwork would become part of the sacred space where the Israelites gathered as a community. But I’ve spent enough time at mah jongg tables and stitch nights to say with confidence that we’re also making more than needlepoint canvases or winning mah jongg hands. We’re making friendships, connections and communities through the time we spend together.

So perhaps becoming a stereotypical bubbe isn’t quite the alarming development I initially thought. As it turns out, there’s a pretty long tradition of women making things — and making time for ourselves and one another.

Though I suspect the women of the Mishkan had fewer options for threads.

The post I’m Turning Into a Bubbe With My ‘Granny Hobbies.’ I Couldn’t Be Happier About It. appeared first on Kveller.

Fans of Netflix’s hit show “The Diplomat,” which recently dropped its fourth season, are kvelling over a touching reference that the show apparently made to the late Hersh Goldberg-Polin and his friend Aner Shapira. Both young men were killed by Hamas: Shapira during the attack on the Nova music festival, and Goldberg-Polin later in captivity.

“The Diplomat,” which stars Kerri Russel, Rufus Sewell, Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford, is a political thriller that has kept viewers on the edge of their seats over the last four seasons. Season four episode six, titled “les morts” (French for “the dead”), features a scene that takes place between Frances, a housekeeper at the American Ambassador’s residence in London, and Stuart, one of the ambassador’s top aides. Frances — who is British — tells Stuart that she has always had a soft spot for Americans, thanks to an American soldier who saved her father’s life during World War II.

The American soldier’s name?

Hershel Polin.

The story, according to Frances, goes like this: Her father and Hershel Polin were working on a joint mission in Belgium when they came under attack, and a grenade landed at her father’s feet. Without missing a beat, Polin grabbed the grenade and redirected it, but not before it exploded and he lost the lower part of his arm.

Photo by Clifton Prescod/Netflix © 2026

It is a quick moment in the episode, but the name “Hershel Polin,” the missing arm and the fictional character’s hometown — Richmond, Virginia, where the Goldberg-Polins lived before moving to Israel — quickly clued viewers into the connection. Many surmise that the use of grenades in Frances’ story is also a nod to Aner Shapira, Goldberg-Polin’s friend who famously defended the shelter where Goldberg-Polin and many others fled during the attack. He reportedly stood at the front of the shelter and deflected grenades that were being thrown at the festival-goers. Witnesses said that he did that seven times before he was killed by the eighth grenade.

Goldberg-Polin’s mother, Rachel, shared that many people have reached out to her family about the reference, but they don’t watch TV so they have not seen it themselves. “It’s striking to know there are many people around the world trying to ensure the stories of the hostages are not whitewashed or erased,” she said.

It is theorized that this tribute was written into the episode by Debora Cahn, the show’s creator, executive producer and showrunner. Cahn, who also produced and wrote high-profile shows like “Homeland” and “The West Wing,” has spoken about the ways in which growing up with grandparents who survived the Holocaust has had a lasting impact on her life, including her professional life. She remembers her grandfather as an amazing storyteller who, in her words, “never shut up” about what he and his family went through.

While at the time of this writing, Cahn hasn’t commented about the reference, it makes sense that a writer whose life was so impacted by hearing stories of Jewish persecution and Jewish endurance would feel compelled to memorialize Goldberg-Polin and Shapira. Though just a brief moment not necessarily connected to the bigger plot, it’s the kind of thing that adds richness to the show, both on screen and off.

The post Hit Netflix Show ‘The Diplomat’ Honors Hersh Goldberg-Polin appeared first on Kveller.

Paging Dr. Sexiest Man Alive!

Today PEOPLE crowned Jewish actor and dad Noah Wyle as 2026’s Sexiest Man Alive. “I thought that sounded like a prank — just not in a million years did I think that this would be an honor bestowed on me,” the 55-year-old best known as emergency medicine physicians John Carter on “ER” and Michael “Robby” Robinavitch on “The Pitt” told PEOPLE.

Well you better believe it, Noah Wyle! We hereby you diagnose you with a deadly case of being sexy.

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But Noah isn’t just sexy because of his mature, down-to-earth good looks. In the interview with PEOPLE, Noah time and again returns to talking about his wife Sara and kids Owen (24), Auden (21) and Frances (11). “[Fatherhood] was the most life-changing event in my life. They handed my son to me, and I was like, ‘Now I get it. It’s not about me, it’s about you,'” he recalled. Noah also shared the most romantic thing he’s ever done which is simply so perfect we have to include the quotation in full:

“When my wife and I were first courting, I had two kids from a previous marriage, and we weren’t always able to be together because I’d have them, and for almost a year I didn’t introduce everybody. So when we weren’t together, I would make these gifts for my wife. I’d make a book with photographs and mementos of things that we’d done on dates and drawings and poems and things that I’d find. Just ways of being able to do something for her when we were apart that I thought she’d like when we saw each other again.”

Someone get out the paddles, our heart just skipped a beat.

Some other highlights from the conversation include that Noah would title his memoir “Noah’s Arc,” his response to a question about when he finally felt comfortable in his skin being “I was so hoping today was going to be the day” and sharing that his first-ever nickname was Wyle Coyote. (Though if it were up to Kveller, we also would’ve asked Noah to talk more about the worm-related bar mitzvah incident that has caused him to never dance in public again.)

This isn’t the first time PEOPLE has given the award to a Jewish dad or Jewish man, period. Back in 2021, Paul Rudd received the honor and David Beckham (in 2015), Adam Levine (in 2013) and Harrison Ford (in 1998) all took on the title before him. However, this is the first time a Jewish actor has been crowned Sexiest Man Alive while portraying an explicitly Jewish character on TV.

On “The Pitt” — a show for which Noah has won four Emmys — Dr. Robby is a gruff ER doctor who is struggling to figure out how to be in the world after facing his own trauma. Faith is a huge grounding force for him. At the end of season one, viewers see Robby turn to the Shema and a Star of David necklace. In season two, Robby meets a survivor of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting and, after the two bond over Russian Jewish culture, his patient gives him new perspective on healing. Later, when Pitt regular Louie dies, Robby delivers a poignant eulogy to the staff and says, “May his memory be a blessing.”

It’s a background that is inspired by Noah’s paternal lineage. “Noah, where’s your family from?,” executive producer John Wells apparently asked when the show was in development. When Noah replied that they’re Russian Jewish, Wells asked him, “Well, what’s a name? What can we play with there? Would you want to play in that blood memory?” Clearly, the answer has been yes.

Though Noah Wyle is not himself particularly religious, he has shared in the past that his upbringing was full of his father’s Jewish heritage and his mother’s Episcopalian background. “There were certain tenets of both faiths that my parents thought were very important to instill in us. It was like a Chinese menu — one from Column A, one from Column B,” he once said. In 2013, he also shared that his children Owen and Auden occasionally attended Jewish Sunday School, so sharing some aspects of Jewishness with his kids is clearly important to him.

And honestly, what’s sexier than that? Mazel tov, Noah Wyle!

The post The Sexiest Man Alive Is a Jewish Dad, Again appeared first on Kveller.

Actress Jackie Tohn has had quite a year. Not only did she reprise her role as Esther Roklov in season three of “Nobody Wants This,” out now, she also revealed that she had a preventative double mastectomy after testing positive for BRCA1 and in the ultimate mensch move, has been raising awareness about genetic testing.

We were thrilled she took time out of her busy “Nobody Wants This” press tour to tell us what brings her Jewish joy —  our past interviews with Tohn have felt like phone calls with a friend, and based on our experiences (like the time she kvelled so hard over her dad that she made senior writer Lior Zaltzman cry) we knew she would have some incredible things to share. And we were right!

Here are 8 things that bring Jackie Tohn Jewish joy:

My dog Glen painted as a Rabbi. I mean, easily one of my most prized possessions. My BFF Kristen [Bell] was doing a movie where she played a painter and I had just moved into my house. So naturally, she commissioned the consulting artist on set to paint MY DOG AS A RABBI for my housewarming gift.

Jewish miniatures. I have collected miniatures since I was a tiny mouse. These black and white cookies and menorah are two of my faves. The plate of b & dubb cookies is SMALLER THAN A QUARTER. Bye!

Yiddish! My mom spoke Yiddish to her parents when I was growing up and I always LOVED the language. It’s very much like the people who speak it: funny, quippy and straight to the point. I wish I spoke it more. One of my fave phrases is — and forgive the hatchet job I’m about to do on the spelling but — “Mit ein tuchus, ni kenesht tansen e tzvai chasenas.” Which of course means “with one ass you can’t dance at two weddings.”

A grown up menorah. I had been using the world’s kitschiest menorah every year (see below) and finally decided, last year, that I was ready for a grown up one. I found this minimalist dream on the fabulous Judaica website Via Maris.

A kitschy menorah. My NYC Skyline Menorah is another prized possesh. My mom thrifted me this IMMACULATE PIECE OF ART about a decade ago, and only when I retired it last year (in exchange for the less frills one above), did I dig up the box and discover the name of the genius who designed it, who is also now the trophy holder for my favorite Jewish name of all time: Shepsil Scheinberg. “Shepsil Scheinberg the Menorah Designer” has to be one of the Jewiest series of words ever strung together. (P.S. Has anyone ever had three menorahs on their list?)

Yiddish Dad Hats. I wear one of their baseball hats almost every day. I have schlepping, schvitzing and kvelling. When I’m on a flight I get little “game recognizing game” nods. IYKYK vibes.

Tenement Museum ornament. I went to the Tenement Museum last year for the first time and absolutely loved it. As I have already articulated my love for miniatures, this itty bitty fire escape ornament hits me in all the right places. 

This miniature matzo ball trinket holder. OK, so, my mom (massive in the thrift game, huge) also thrifted me this perfect tchotchke. It’s a little trinket box in the shape of MATZAH BALL SOUP?!? Does it get any better than that? OH: IT OPENS AND THERE’S A TINY MATZAH BALL ROLLING AROUND ON THE INSIDE?!?! OK, too much good stuff in one place. I need to go rest.

The post What Brings Jackie Tohn Jewish Joy appeared first on Kveller.

Ezra Frech is a Paralympic champion, a disability advocate and reality competition show star. Last Tuesday, he also put his status as an incredibly loving son on full display.

On the dedication episode of “Dancing With the Stars,” Ezra and dance partner Daniella Karagach performed an emotional contemporary routine in honor of Ezra’s mother, actress Bahar Soomekh. “She was in Academy Award-winning films at the peak of her career as an actress and she left it all to take care of me,” Ezra explained to Daniella ahead of the dance. “Everywhere I went as a little kid there was people staring, pointing fingers, whispering about me. She worked so hard, she worked so hard to get me to feel confident in myself.”

As he spoke, the 21-year-old held back tears. (Same Ezra, same!) “She never hid my leg, she never hid my hand. She would tell me, ‘You walk into every room with your chin up, your chest out and you let them know you’ve arrived.'”

And arrive he did on the dance floor. Ezra began the dance with his mother by his side, taking turns literally and symbolically lifting each other up to “Bloodline” by Mon Rovîa. Daniella then took over and the pair glided across the stage, performing elegant lifts and leaps. Their step sequences were perfectly synchronized. But it was the first lift of the routine that was perhaps the most spectacular and one that Ezra claims is a first for “Dancing With the Stars.” Doing a “blade stand,” Daniella climbed Ezra’s prosthetic leg onto his back as the track and field athlete leaned forward and lifted the prosthetic off the ground. The dance then ended as it began: Bahar returns to the stage as her son embraces her.

Cue waterworks from almost everyone in the room, including Ezra and Daniella.

It was a routine that required impressive athleticism, endurance and artistry from Ezra, and the judges were more than happy to reward him for it. The pair scored a 37 out of 40 points with guest judge Kym Johnson awarding them the first perfect 10 of the season. Ezra and Daniella ended the night second in the rankings, just one point behind his Team USA teammate Amber Glenn and dance partner Pasha Pashkov.

“It was the honor of my life,” Bahar told Entertainment Tonight after the show. “I used to dance with him when he was a little baby, so to be able to dance with him now as an adult… and Dani, her love, her beauty, her choreography, she really captured the essence of our story.”

The post Jewish Paralympian Ezra Frech Honors Mom Bahar Soomekh on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ appeared first on Kveller.

I’m not saying you need another set of mah jongg tiles. I’m just saying Hanukkah is coming, and there are some really great ones out there. Whether you’re shopping for your favorite mah jongg buddy or dropping some not-so-subtle hints about what you’d like for Hanukkah, I’ve got you covered. From beautiful tiles and mats to delightfully unnecessary accessories, here are some of my favorite Jewish mah jongg finds.

And for a free weekly dose of Jewish mah jongg joy, be sure to sign up for Kveller’s Jewish Mah Jongg Club, my newsletter where I share game tips, fun facts, product recommendations and more.

The post 16 Hanukkah Gifts for Your Friend Obsessed with Mah Jongg appeared first on Kveller.

Doves. Challah. Torah scrolls. Three-pronged menorahs. Dreidels with gibberish Hebrew. After years of documenting the strange world of Hanukkah merchandise, I thought I’d seen it all.

Spoiler alert: I hadn’t.

Earlier this month, photos began surfacing of Old Navy’s newest Hanukkah pajamas. The print featured the usual suspects: hanukkiyot, dreidels, snowflakes, and… hamantaschen.

Yes, those triangular cookies traditionally associated with Purim.

Contributed by Yael Buechler

I would have happily bought a pair (team apricot here!), but there was a catch: For weeks, they were mysteriously turning up exclusively in Canadian Old Navy stores.

Just as I was trying to figure out how to import a pair across the border, the plot thickened.

Apparently, Canadian stores received urgent directives — including a notice as recently as Oct. 21 — to scrub the pajamas from the sales floor and ship them back. They weren’t just ordered to hide them in the stockroom — they had to banish them from the premises entirely.

Old Navy did not respond to a request for comment regarding the great Hanukkah pajama purge. While they haven’t officially slapped a “recall” label on the incident, folks familiar with the matter noted that such dramatic removals usually stem from product defects or licensing issues.

Do displaced hamantaschen qualify as a manufacturing defect? I know from hamantaschen defects: Most of the batches I bake burst open in the oven despite my aggressive corner-pinching.

Of course, Old Navy is hardly alone in the booming industry of questionable Jewish loungewear. My 10-year-old son has even coined a term for these merchandising mishaps: the “Hanukkahtastrophe.”

This season has been particularly rich in them. 

Caden Lane just released Hanukkah pajamas sporting jumbled Hebrew, random challah, and an inexplicable Christmas tree (and no, they weren’t marketed as multifaith jammies). 

Contributed by Yael Buechler

Burt’s Bees Baby stamped their dreidels with a mysterious symbol resembling the letter chet — which famously does not belong on a dreidel. 

Contributed by Yael Buechler

Pixie Lane went rogue with nonsensical, AI-generated characters. 

Contributed by Yael Buechler

Even Old Navy is a repeat offender; its 2024 collection included dreidels with backwards lettering.

To be fair, hamantaschen do occasionally sneak into general Jewish merchandise. West Elm’s adorable appetizer plates, for example, include a black-and-white cookie, rugelach, a jelly donut and hamantaschen. But a broad Jewish dessert assortment is one thing. Putting Purim treats onto Hanukkah-specific sleepwear is a whole different recipe for confusion.

Still, I have to give the company some credit here. As much as I coveted those pajamas for my ever-growing Hanukkahtastrophe archive (which currently occupies an entire plastic tub in my home), it is refreshing to see a major retailer pull the plug on flawed merchandise. I’ve watched too many brands leave completely scrambled Hebrew on the shelves long after the internet pointed out their blunders.

Whether the rogue hamantaschen were the true catalyst for Old Navy’s decision remains a corporate mystery. But whatever triggered the removal, the swift action is a minor holiday miracle in itself. Hopefully, more companies will start catching these gaffes before they hit the racks.

For the record, if anyone in Canada managed to snag a pair before they vanished into the retail abyss, I’d still love to get my hands on them.

I’ll wear them on Purim.

If you’re looking for cute, accurate Hanukkah pajamas for the whole family, check out this round up.

The post Old Navy’s 2026 Hanukkah Pajamas Included Hamantaschen — But You Can’t Buy Them Anymore appeared first on Kveller.

Editorial Note: Spoilers ahead for season three of “Nobody Wants This.”

The first two seasons of “Nobody Wants This,” Netflix’s runaway hit show about a rabbi who falls for a woman who isn’t Jewish, have featured Jewish customs familiar to a wide American audience: gathering for Shabbat dinner, planning a bat mitzvah, lusting over a young Mandy Patinkin. But in season three, the show brings us two Jewish traditions that may be less familiar to the broader Netflix audience: the hanukkat habayit and the mikveh. 

Hanukkat Habayit

In episode three, Noah and Joanne throw a housewarming party. Joanne suggests they hang the final mezuzah in their home at the celebration, and impresses Noah with her new Jewish knowledge by saying they can make it a “hanukkat habayit.” A hanukkat habayit is an open-ended ritual, which means you don’t have to do any one specific thing, but Joanne is right: hanging a mezuzah is often how people choose to fulfill this custom. And yes, it does share a root with the word Hanukkah — it means “dedication of the house.” (Hanukkah means “dedication.”)

The hanukkat habayit is a Jewish custom, not a law, so the way it’s practiced varies widely: For Sephardic Jews in Amsterdam in the 1700s it was an opportunity to study Torah; for Noah and Joanne it was an opportunity to make Joanne’s ex jealous and impress Noah’s co-worker. I would venture a guess that many of us haven’t heard of the custom at all (Noah even jokes that it’s “too Jewish” for him).

But is it surprising that we’ve taken a very basic instruction and turned it into an excuse to pack our house with people we love and feed them? Honestly, it’s more surprising that we haven’t turned this into a ritual so big it requires an endcap at Target and an entire section of recipes on The Nosher.

The Mikveh

In the final episode of season three, Joanne completes her conversion by going to the mikveh, a ritual bath. Jewish law dictates that the mikveh happens just before certain lifecycle events, like marriage and conversion to Judaism — which means Joanne’s mikveh ended up happening at the perfect time.

“The water of the mikveh is designed to ritually cleanse a person from deeds of the past. The convert is considered by Jewish law to be like a newborn child,” My Jewish Learning explains. “By spiritually cleansing the convert, the mikveh water prepares him or her to confront God, life, and people with a fresh spirit and new eyes — it washes away the past, leaving only the future. Of course, this does not deny that there were good and beautiful aspects of the past. But, in the strictest religious sense, that past was only prologue to a future life as a Jew.”

Though in “Nobody Wants This” Joanne chooses the ocean as her mikveh (which is totally kosher), in many Jewish communities there is a designated space for it. Joanne likens those spaces to “a tiny pool like I’m in a motel hot tub,” and sure, not every mikveh is luxurious, but some could definitely be described as spa-like. Who wouldn’t want to dunk themself in this luxurious mikveh in Los Angeles? (Joanne, I guess.)

Depending on specific customs, the ceremony can go a few different ways. In Joanne’s case, she submerges herself three times, saying a prayer each time: first the mikveh blessing, then the Shema and finally the Shehechiyanu.

Celebrations following the mikveh ceremony vary (though it’s definitely not customary to rent a beach house), but the Roklovs and the Williamses clearly love to entertain — and without these events, where would all their drama happen?

Obsessed with Jewish representation on TV? Join the club. Sign up for Kveller’s Jewish TV Club to watch, kvetch and kvell with us.

The post The Hanukkat Habayit and Mikveh, as Seen in Season 3 of ‘Nobody Wants This,’ Explained appeared first on Kveller.

Editorial Note: Spoilers ahead for season three of “Nobody Wants This.”

Many viewers may tune in to season three of “Nobody Wants This” for the Hot Rabbi, but I’m here for his mother.

With her perfectly timed one-liners, disapproving looks and larger-than-life personality, Bina Roklov, played by Tovah Feldshuh, steals just about every scene. Sure, she’s an overbearing Jewish mother stereotype at times, but Feldshuh makes Bina so gloriously unapologetic that I find her, dare I say, aspirational.

Feldshuh’s career is remarkable. She originated the role of Yentl on Broadway in 1975, eight years before Barbra Streisand brought the character to the big screen. She also portrayed Golda Meir in “Golda’s Balcony” and played Jewish mothers in “Kissing Jessica Stein” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”

In “Nobody Wants This,” Bina is a Soviet Jewish immigrant with a thick Russian accent, married to Ilan (Paul Ben-Victor) and mother to Noah (Adam Brody) and Sasha (Timothy Simons). We know little about Bina’s immigration story, but Feldshuh gives her the weight of decades of Jewish experiences and family traditions.

To celebrate the show’s return, here are six of my favorite Bina moments from across all three seasons.

1. “A shiksa.” (Season 1, Episode 1: “Pilot”)

Courtesy of Netflix

Sometimes an actress needs an entire episode to establish her character. Feldshuh needed two words.

When Joanne (Kristen Bell), Rabbi Noah’s new non-Jewish love interest, unexpectedly shows up at his synagogue, his sister-in-law Esther (Jackie Tohn) asks who she is. Bina delivers her immediate assessment: “A shiksa.”

It’s not just what Feldshuh says, but how she says it. Somehow, she manages to convey an entire range of emotions, from shock and suspicion to maternal disapproval, all at once.

2. Bina’s Secret Prosciutto Snack (Season 1, Episode 9: “My Girl Bina”)

Courtesy of Netflix

Joanne arrives at Bina’s home with a fancy charcuterie board featuring prosciutto (which, as a rabbi, I had to Google: it’s dry-cured ham). Bina is horrified. Pork in her home?!

The entire platter is declared tainted and sentenced to the trash.

Then Joanne catches Bina secretly eating the very prosciutto she condemned. Suddenly, Joanne has the upper hand over the woman who’s made no secret of disliking her.

But by the end of the episode, Bina smiles and tells Joanne, “To be honest, I like you so much more than I thought I would.” Then, without missing a beat, she whispers, “But you’re never gonna end up with my son.”

And just like that, Bina gets the last word.

3. Bina’s Basketball-Game Entrance (Season 2, Episode 2: “Leave It at the Tree”)

Courtesy of Netflix

If there were an award for the most iconic entrance in season two, Feldshuh would win it.

Bina shows up at Noah and Sasha’s “Matzah Ballers” basketball game (love the team name!) with dramatic sunglasses, a popped collar and a walk that turns every head. All of this is set to Fergie’s “London Bridge.”

Noah and Sasha’s reactions make the scene even better: two grown men who seem genuinely terrified by their mother’s mere presence. Bina doesn’t even need to say a word to command the entire court.

4. Bina’s Hamotzi (Season 2, Episode 3: “The Unethical Therapist”)

Courtesy of Netflix

At a Shabbat dinner in the Roklov home, Bina is in her element. Dressed in a bold outfit, with every hair in place, she leads the Hamotzi blessing with gusto, her voice rising above everyone else’s. Her sing-song rendition gives me major Hebrew school vibes.

She’s the first to wish everyone “Good Shabbos,” tearing off pieces of challah to pass around. She even directs Joanne to her proper seat and reminds her that phones aren’t allowed at the table.

The scene captures Bina in all her glory: the undisputed Jewish matriarch. Feldshuh makes this feel like second nature. It’s fitting that she grew up in Scarsdale, New York, where Friday night Shabbat dinners were a fixture of her family life.

5. Bina’s Rebbetzin Makeover (Season 3, Episode 2: “Daddy’s Home”)

Courtesy of Netflix

Worried about being seen as a liability to Noah’s career, Joanne knows exactly who to turn to for help: Bina.

When Joanne arrives at Bina’s stately home, we get a rare glimpse of the queen before she’s fully dressed for the part. She’s putting on her own makeup, wearing a champagne-colored satin blouse, with her usual elaborate brooches nowhere in sight.

Joanne asks for her help, and Bina turns toward her as though she’s just been handed the assignment of a lifetime.

She boldly declares, “Let me make you into a rebbetzin.”

It’s the twinkle in Bina’s eye as she delivers that final word that makes the moment. She’s practically kvelling at the prospect of taking Joanne under her wing.

6. Bina’s Hamster Guilt Trip (Season 3, Episode 8: “One in a Million”)

Courtesy of Netflix

Standing near the family’s backyard basketball court, Bina reminisces about Noah’s childhood hamster, who naturally had a Hebrew name. As someone who grew up giving my guinea pigs Hebrew names and now has three very Jewish ones of my own, I particularly appreciated this detail.

Apparently, the hamster went everywhere with young Noah. When he died, Bina buried him nearby so he could always watch Noah play. It’s a surprisingly sweet story, until you realize Bina is using it to tug at Noah’s heartstrings and get him on her side.

Leave it to Bina to weaponize the memory of a childhood hamster.

By now, one thing is clear: We need more Bina.

There are so many questions I’d love answered about Bina herself. How did she and Ilan meet? What was their life like before coming to America? And how did they raise two sons who turned out so differently?

Whatever happens next for “Nobody Wants This,” Feldshuh certainly doesn’t seem to be slowing down, and I hope Bina doesn’t either.

Forget another season. Give me a Bina spinoff.

Obsessed with Jewish representation on TV? Join the club. Sign up for Kveller’s Jewish TV Club to watch, kvetch and kvell with us.

The post Forget the Hot Rabbi — I’m Here for His Mother appeared first on Kveller.

Just in time for a cozy fall binge-watch, “Nobody Wants This” season three is now out on Netflix!

Over the course of the first two seasons, viewers have watched agnostic dating podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) and extremely hot rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) fall in love and navigate their exceedingly different lives. They’ve negotiated the usual early relationship bumps alongside Noah’s skeptical and chilly family and community and Joanne’s lack of clarity about whether she wants to convert to Judaism. At the end of season two, Joanne had finally decided that she was ready to make the plunge, while Noah’s brother Sasha (Timothy Simons) and Esther’s (Jackie Tohn) relationship fell apart. At the same time, Noah had started a job at the less-than-stellar Temple Ahava.

So, will Joanne actually convert to Judaism? Would that mean Noah and Joanne are end game? And how will Noah survive Ahava? Will Sasha and Esther work things out? Or will Sasha and Joanne’s sister Morgan (Justine Lupe) just get together already?

Read on to have all your questions (and more) answered. It should go without saying that this article includes many, many spoilers.

Episode 1: It’s Perfect

Joanne and Noah move in together, and it’s blissfully perfect until they start annoying each other: Joanne leaves every cabinet open (“I love closing every cabinet. It’s my passion,” Noah tells Esther later) and Noah looks over Joanne’s shoulder at her screen while she reads celebrity gossip and asks, “Do we know her?” This annoys Joanne so much (as it should, ew) that she starts having her morning coffee with Morgan at her house under the guise of “recording podcast ads.” Once Noah figures out what’s happening, he asks Joanne, “Why didn’t you just tell me to get lost?”, tells her she loads the dishwasher like a psychopath and carries her back home so she can try her morning routine in subpar conditions (aka in the backyard under an orange tree).

When Noah and Joanne are listing each other’s bad habits, Joanne tells Noah he’s got to stop leaving his mail out. “Either go to Brian’s wedding in Napa or don’t go to Brian’s wedding in Napa,” she says, but just get the invitation off the counter. Brian’s wedding isn’t just any wedding, Noah tells Joanne, it’s a wedding he’s officiating — and he wants Joanne to come with him.

Meanwhile, Sasha and Esther officially separate (we even get a glimpse of their elusive daughter Miriam when they break the news to her), and the newly sort-of-single Sasha moves in with Morgan and Lynn. (Platonically! He’s tall and can help them reach stuff!)

Notes:

• At one point, Noah says he would have liked to have been head rabbi at Temple Chai but “that’s not the way the rugelach crumbles.” I’m taking a poll: Have you or any Jewish person you know ever said that phrase?
• I’m kind of into their bright yellow kitchen, which is a positive development in my journey of trying to quit millennial grey.
• Noah is team top sheet, Joanne is team no top sheet, which confused my husband because he grew up with his parents insisting that “Jews don’t use topsheets.”

Episode 2: Daddy’s Home

Episode 2 opens at Joanne’s conversion class at Temple Chai, where she meets her nemesis, Sebastien, who is deliciously catty for literally no reason. The teacher, Rabbi Eden (played by Sarah Silverman), opens the class on a cheery note by saying “Don’t worry — the guilt doesn’t happen all at once, it just happens gradually. You barely feel it until one day you’re strangled and dead.”

While Joanne is in class, Noah roams the halls of Temple Chai and learns that everyone hates Big Noah, the rabbi who got the senior rabbi job he wanted. Noah vows to get his job back and schedules a meeting with the board who offer him what is basically an audition sermon at Rosh Hashanah services.

Joanne tells Morgan that she’s getting the sense that no one thinks she’s cut out to be a rabbi’s wife. Morgan suggests Joanne ask Bina for advice, which Joanne decides she must do immediately, leaving Morgan alone to record the podcast. Morgan convinces Sasha to let her interview him on the pod, where he brings up the once-viral advice self help phenomenon “Let Them.” Morgan counters with her own advice, which she makes up on the spot: Make Them.

At Bina’s house, Bina is up for the challenge of making Joanne into the perfect woman for Noah. “Let me make you into a rebbetzin,” she tells Joanne. Cut to: Joanne walking into Rosh Hashanah services dressed like… Bina.

“Oh, babe, you look awful,” Noah tells Joanne when he sees her, which makes me like him far better than anything he said in season 2 did. 

Joanne isn’t the only one in danger of getting caught by the fashion police. Morgan shows up in a slinky sparkly dress. To be fair, Joanne did tell her it was the Jewish new year.

Sasha and Esther whisper-argue about dating apps as the congregation chants Zochreinu. Noah, of course, crushes the sermon, which he starts by using a line Joanne wrote: “I know what you’re thinking: How did I get even cuter?”

When they get home, Joanne and Noah discover that someone has left their trash cans in front of their driveway. It’s their neighbor Travis — who happens to be Joanne’s ex. 

Notes:

• Do other people address rabbis as “Rabbi First Name?” I’ve never heard this and something about it feels infantilizing, like we’re all preschoolers about to make a grogger out of a paper plate and beans.

Episode 3: Housewarming

Joanne and Noah are throwing a housewarming party that doubles as a hanukkat habayit — a tradition Noah says is too Jewish even for him. No one in Joanne’s conversion class wants to come to the party, and Rabbi Eden seems especially averse. 

On the night of the party, everyone is distracted: Joanne not-so-subtly hinted to ex-boyfriend/neighbor Travis that they were having a party, and now she’s hoping he’ll show up so she can make him jealous. Noah is anxious that Rabbi Eden won’t show up. Sasha is trying to keep his parents from finding out that he and Esther are separated (at first he tells them she has a headache, which quickly spirals out of control in a hilariously Jewish hypochondriac overprotective parent kind of way) and Morgan can’t stop talking about her “Make Them” theory, which has gone viral.

Miraculously, some of Joanne’s conversion class does show up: Sebastien (who walks in, looks at the house and says “Uh, on a rabbi’s salary?”) is all in on “Make Them” and gets Morgan a meeting with his literary agent aunt. One of Joanne’s conversion classmates flirts with Sasha, leading Bina to realize that Esther and Sasha are separated. Rabbi Eden stops by and clarifies why she’s being weird: No, she isn’t upset about Noah drinking coffee on Yom Kippur like he thought — she’s jealous that she was passed over for the head rabbi job. (Which… come on, Noah, are you that dense?)

As Joanne and Noah perform the central ritual of the hanukkat habayit, hanging the mezuzah, Joanne notices Travis walk in and, in an attempt to make him jealous, goes completely off the rails.

Meanwhile, Bina has taken to bed in the face of the news of Sasha and Esther. “You have ruined my last years on Earth. Oy,” she says. A parade of guests tries to console her but nothing — not even Morgan’s “make them” speech — helps. 

On his way out, Travis warns Noah that Joanne is nuts. “Don’t ever talk about Joanne like that to me or anyone else,” Noah shoots back, and is adorably proud of himself afterward.

Notes:

• The mezuzah that Noah and Joanne hang at their hanukkat habayit appears to be this one.
• Because I know you were wondering: Yes, Sasha is wearing the $1800 Ridgeline Stripe Crew sweater from The Elder Statesman. Sasha’s taste in clothing has fascinated me since the beginning.

Episode 4: Brian’s Wedding

At a nail salon, Morgan and Joanne are arguing. Morgan will not shut up about her chance at a “Make Them” book proposal, eventually leading Joanne to storm out with only three fingers painted.

But Morgan’s book proposal meeting with Sebastien’s aunt is a disaster — despite borrowing the most literary glasses she could find, Morgan is completely unprepared. (Has she ever read a book? Unclear.) 

It’s time to go to Brian’s wedding in Napa, and Joanne and Noah play out a highly relatable couple argument about when to get to the airport. Noah, a classic Jewish-dad type, wants to get to the airport four hours before the flight leaves. Joanne says, “But then we’ll be at the airport for three hours!” (For the record, I’m on Team Should Have Talked About This Like, At Least the Night Before.) At the airport, chaos ensues in a way that cannot be summarized in the words I have been allotted for this summary. In a nutshell, Joanne gives away her ticket to an overzealous fan with space buns, Joanne gets her ticket back, and Noah takes a Bloody Mary to the chest and narrowly avoids being put on the no-fly list.

Meanwhile, Sasha is wearing a Kangol on an awkward date with a woman named Poppy.

Against all odds, Joanne and Noah arrive at the rehearsal dinner for Brian’s wedding, with no time to change. They’re playing Joanne’s favorite Taylor Swift song, the venue is decorated with her favorite flowers, they’re serving her favorite wine and, wait, Noah is down on one knee and there IS no wedding! There is no Brian! It’s a proposal! Why am I actually crying?

Notes:

• BRB while I pull together a Joyce Quaker Oates Halloween costume.
• I screamed at the reveal that Joanne’s full name is Joanne Elizabeth Williams, making her initials… JEW. Do I hate this detail or think it’s so ridiculous that I’ve come around to loving it?
• Nicole, the overzealous fan of Joanne, is played by Erin Foster, who created the show and based it on her life. So when she says things like, “I am Joanne, Joanne is me” she really means it. 
• The episode closes to the song “You” by Miley Cyrus, and as the screen fades to black we hear Miley Cyrus sing “I don’t need Jesus, ’cause baby you saved me” and I can’t decide: Is this funny? Eye-roll worthy? Poignant?

Episode 5: The Love Card

Joanne and Noah are engaged! Bina has made it her mission to plan her perfect wedding, a massive backyard affair with everyone she’s ever met. Joanne wants a lowkey “Julia Roberts wedding.” Noah just wants to make them both happy.

Esther gets her real estate license and, naturally, her first showing is a massive home with a killer view. Her client is Julian (played by Stephen Weber), a handsome older man who is so rich he has a private chef. Their banter is top notch. Sparks fly.

Speaking of sparks flying, Morgan and Sasha are (platonically) hanging out all over the city, and their (platonic?) chemistry is palpable. Sasha encourages Morgan to go to a writer’s group, but she bails at the last minute and gets her tarot cards read next door. In a scene that almost makes me believe in the power of Make Them, she basically forces the tarot reader (played by Sadie Sandler) to tell her what she wants to hear: That she’s a writer. Morgan grabs a random card to (platonically) bring to Sasha as a souvenir, which Lynn later tells him is the most powerful love card in the deck. 

Notes: 

• Previous seasons of this show were criticized for their portrayal of the Jewish female characters. The writers seem to have mostly softened those characters’ edges, but Bina remains awful. As is her right! God forbid a woman fake cry over her son’s wedding!
  

Episode 6: Heatwave

Joanne and Noah are looking at a wedding venue in a heatwave and of course, Bina is there, too, wearing a long sleeved button down shirt and insisting that the space is too small. (How will they invite distant cousin Irv?) Joanne loves the venue, and she and Noah have 24 hours to decide whether they can cut their guest list.

Against all odds, Morgan has written an appropriate book proposal. After Sasha tells her it’s great (Sash, why are you lying??) she fires it off to Sebastien’s aunt Eleanor and poses for an awkward photo with Sasha that her mom insists on taking. When Morgan leaves the room, Sasha whisper shouts to Lynn that the only possible remedy for his now-obvious crush on Morgan is for them to avoid each other.

Joanne and Noah try to get a table at Phil Rosenthal’s insanely popular restaurant Max and Helen’s for dinner. I live in Minnesota and even I know it’s impossible to get a table, and sure enough, the hostess (played by Lily Rosenthal, the actual owner of Max and Helen’s/daughter of Phil Rosenthal) shuts down any hopes they have of eating there — until Esther coincidentally shows up with mysteriously rich and well-connected Julian, who gets them into the restaurant. Noah, ever loyal, refuses to eat a meal with his brother’s ex’s new boyfriend.

The next morning, still sweating, Joanne has the bright idea to get in their pool while they try to cut their guest list. Why haven’t they been in the pool the whole time? Great question. But Morgan is already in the pool (well, on a float, and again, why aren’t these people cooling off IN WATER), and then Sasha arrives and suddenly Joanne and Noah are trying to have their conversation in the middle of a pool party. They set a series of arbitrary rules about who can and can’t be invited, have some difficult conversations that honestly could have waited, and deal with unwanted visitors like ex-next-door Travis and — surprise! — distant cousin Irv (played by Phil Rosenthal). In the end, Joanne admits that they can’t possibly whittle down their guest list.

Morgan is having a real rollercoaster of a pool party — she’s riding the high of submitting her book proposal, then languishing in a pool of despair once Sebastien arrives and tells her his aunt passed on said proposal, and then perking up again when she gets a DM from THE Andy Cohen inviting her to be a guest on “Watch What Happens Live.”

Notes:

• Can ANYONE shed light on why no one was cooling off IN the pool?
• Spotted: “Dining In” by Alison Roman on Noah and Joanne’s counter. (Try the roasted beets on page 33)
• My husband, who is a stickler for food safety in a way that he believes is somehow Jewish, claims that no Jewish man would ever risk opening the refrigerator during a power outage. He’s available for anxiety consulting in season 4! 

Episode 7: Watch What Happens

Morgan brings Sasha with her to New York (platonically) for her “Watch What Happens Live” taping. At the hotel, they are faced with one of the greatest romance tropes of all time: There’s Only One Bed. Lanky Sasha offers to sleep on the couch, so that’s settled, and they definitely will not be sleeping together.

Back in Los Angeles, Joanne and Noah have decided to turn off their phones for the night for a truly inspired Shabbat plan: smoking weed and tasting wedding cake. They are the B plot of this story, so nothing truly groundbreaking happens except that they choose a cake flavor (I can’t even remember which one, I was too invested in whether or not Sasha and Morgan end up in the same bed).

Morgan puts on the showstopper outfit she’s packed, only to discover that Lisa Rinna has already worn the exact same one — and the WWHL audience will notice. Cue a New York shopping montage that ends with Sasha buying Morgan a $15,000 Valentino dress. (As Sebastien might say, on a rabbi’s brother’s salary?)

Morgan absolutely kills it on WWHL (alongside guest stars Andy Cohen and “Summer House”’s Ciara Miller) and Sasha takes her out to celebrate. They eat and drink and talk and get vulnerable in a way that we haven’t seen Morgan do before. Throughout it all, they’re texting their siblings — who have their phones off — for advice. They almost kiss, decide they don’t want to ruin their friendship, and head back to the hotel where, need I remind you, there is only one bed.

Sasha and Morgan say good night, and after a very satisfying game of will they won’t they, Morgan decides to go to Sasha. She opens her bedroom door to find him there, about to knock. They kiss (not platonically) and the screen fades to black.

Note:

• With deepest apologies to Esther Roklov, this was a very satisfying episode. 
• Kirsten Dunst wore Morgan’s Valentino dress to the Toronto International Film Festival last year. Who wore it better?

Episode 8: One in a Million

Sasha wakes up in the New York hotel room, but Morgan is gone and won’t answer his texts. Noah and Joanne wake up from their phone-free Erev Shabbat to the text messages Morgan and Sasha sent the night before, plus one more from Bina telling them that they will be getting married in her backyard. (Lesson learned: Go phone free for the full Shabbat. Or maybe forever?)

Elsewhere in LA, Esther is “actually so chill” after learning that Julian has a date with another woman. But after staking out Julian’s house to investigate whose car is parked in his driveway, Esther realizes that maybe she isn’t actually all that chill with Julian dating other people. She tries to break it off with him, but he reveals that he canceled his other date and wants to be with Esther exclusively. 

In conversion class, Joanne and Sebastien (who are apparently friends now) are scrolling through pictures of Bina and Ilan’s home. “It looks like a Cheesecake Factory,” a horrified Sebastien says. “You can’t get married here.”

Joanne and Noah intend to tell Bina that they will under no circumstances get married in her backyard, but Joanne has a change of heart. Bina is thrilled and moves on to the next order of business: practicing the mother/son dance, which, naturally, will be to “How Do I Live” by Leeann Rhimes. Joanne apparently has never been to a single wedding in her entire life, because she is horrified by the thought of such a thing.

Joanne and Noah are hosting Joanne’s family to watch Morgan’s WWHL appearance, but they’re not done arguing about dancing. Joanne is adamant about not dancing with her dad — it’s just not their vibe! Later, Noah pulls Henry aside to get his take on the father daughter dance. (His take is “We barely even hug.”) 

Morgan arrives at the watch party and Joanne drags her into the bathroom to rehash the Sasha situation. Joanne quickly realizes that Morgan might actually have feelings for Sasha. “You have to tell him,” she says, and Morgan leaves the party to find him at work (which, apparently, involves parking garages). Sasha isn’t as moved by her grand gesture speech as she thought he would be. “Morgan, you left me,” he says. “I don’t know if I can. I’m sorry.”

When Joanne finds out that Noah went behind her back to talk to her father, their argument escalates into one about boundaries and culminates with Joanne saying “I’m sorry you can’t fuck your mom.” Shockingly, no one likes her joke! “Good lord! I would not have said that if I were you,” says Henry.

Joanne and Noah don’t want to go to bed angry and Joanne says those eleven words we’ve all had to say at some point in our relationships: “I’m really sorry that I said you wanna fuck your mom.” Joanne concedes that Noah should do the dance with his mom, and they both can finally fall asleep — until Joanne tells Noah that Sasha and Morgan had sex in New York. 

Episode 9: Last Christmas

In lieu of a big Jewish holiday celebration a la season two’s Purim party, this season we get… a Christmas episode! I’m excited for “Nobody Wants This” to teach me the meaning of Christmas beyond — as Noah says later in the episode — “all the obvious stuff I’ve learned from Coke commercials and Macauley Culkin.”

It’s Joanne’s last Christmas before converting, and Noah wants to send her off with an epic celebration. But no one else in Joanne’s life is playing along. Morgan is lovesick, Lynn is possibly trapped in a mattress store and suddenly offended that Joanne is acquiescing to Bina’s many wedding demands, and Henry is oblivious to anything and everything.

The episode is interspersed with flashbacks to previous Christmases, where we see glimpses of Joanne’s relationship with Travis, spot the *actual* first time Noah and Joanne cross paths, learn about the genesis of the sisters’ podcast, and find out why exactly Joanne believes so much in Christmas magic: Because no matter how bleak things felt, no matter how dysfunctional her family was, at Christmas they felt like a normal family and everything was OK. 

Noah begs Joanne’s family to get it together and give Joanne a perfect last Christmas. And in the end, it does all come together, but by then Joanne has learned an important lesson (as one must do in any piece of Christmas media): She doesn’t need Christmas anymore! Christmas made her feel cozy once a year, but now Noah makes her feel cozy every single day.

Other notable moments from this episode are Noah agreeing to let Lynn be their flower girl (a desire she revealed to him at the aforementioned mattress store), Morgan telling Sasha she doesn’t want to be friends anymore, and Morgan telling Noah she won’t be at his wedding if Sasha is there (this happens right as Joanne’s parents reach the crescendo of a karaoke version of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow”).

Notes:

• But seriously, did we ever get any explanation as to why Lynn is in a mattress store for the majority of this episode?

Episode 10: The Plunge

Bina is wedding planning again! On today’s agenda: ugly flowers, butterflies released from bags, and a band called The Champagne Society. When Noah (too) kindly tells her they’ve already hired a DJ, Bina is upset and Noah reminds her that this isn’t her wedding.

Morgan tells Joanne she will not be attending her mikveh ceremony because Sasha will be there. “What even is this thing?” Morgan asks, then hangs up on Joanne in the middle of her explanation. 

Sasha gets his own place, and Esther stops by in a great pair of pants to drop off a hypoallergenic pillow for Miriam, who still exists but is apparently not invited to any family events which is maybe fine because they all end up being kind of toxic? Sasha gives Esther a tour that ends in Miriam’s room, which Sasha decorated using Olivia Rodrigo’s Architectural Digest house tour. This obviously makes Esther want to jump his bones. Fade to black. 

At conversion class, Joanne and Sebastien are comparing mikveh plans — “Finneas is scoring mine,” Sebastien brags — and Joanne tells him that Morgan is refusing to come to hers. “Take a page from her book. Or her attempted book,” Sebastien advises with a smirk. “Make her.” And that’s a wrap on the season for Sebastien, my new favorite person.

Back in Sasha’s bedroom, Sasha and Esther decide to keep what happened a secret. Esther is now two for two on house tours that end in sex.

Joanne and Noah trick Sasha and Morgan into getting into their car together to drive to the beach for Joanne’s mikveh. But Morgan makes a run for it and Joanne has to chase her along the beach, ultimately arriving extremely late for her own ceremony. When the four of them finally arrive, they are greeted by chaos: Noah’s parents, Joanne’s parents, Esther and Rabbi Eden are already at the beach house the family rented and Lynn has just dropped the bombshell that Sasha and Morgan slept together. As the families trade insults, Rabbi Eden sneaks Noah and Joanne onto the beach to complete her conversion, which goes off beautifully and without a hitch. As they’re about to walk back to the house (which is still in chaos), Joanne and Noah decide to get married right there, alone, with just Rabbi Eden (who has a ketubah in her trunk, like all good rabbis should) and a random passerby who, thankfully, happens to be Jewish.  

Notes:

• The DJ Noah and Joanne hire is DJ Simon Tikhman, which is the name of series creator Erin Foster’s husband — the man who inspired her to convert, which ultimately led to the creation of the show. 
• Sadly, there is no Olivia Rodrigo Architectural Digest home tour, but there is an Olivia Rodrigo 73 Questions where she pulls Leonard Cohen’s book of poetry off of her shelf to recommend to viewers. 
• I personally need a fourth season, if only just to see Bina’s reaction to the surprise wedding. 

Obsessed with Jewish representation on TV? Join the club. Sign up for Kveller’s Jewish TV Club to watch, kvetch and kvell with us.

The post What Happens in ‘Nobody Wants This’ Season 3: An Episode by Episode Recap appeared first on Kveller.

Editorial note: Spoilers ahead for season three of “Nobody Wants This.”

In season three, episode two of Netflix’s virally popular show “Nobody Wants This,” dating podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) tells her Intro to Judaism class what brought her there in the first place. “I love the rituals and the openness. And I love the close-knit community and the, you know, cozy vibes,” the rabbi’s girlfriend shares with the group. “I really like the part about the cozy vibes, ” her conversion class nemesis Sebastien (Andrew Rannells) quips. “Is that from the Torah?”

It’s a moment that concisely encapsulates the tenor of the show’s latest season, which dropped on Netflix today. It’s the key to what makes these 10 episodes work well and it’s something that our rabbi-loving protagonist is not: “Nobody Wants This” has finally become self-aware.

As much as Judaism is at the center of “Nobody Wants This,” portraying it has never been the show’s forte. Critics Esther Zuckerman and Jessica Grose concluded that season one of the rom-com relied heavily on stereotypes of Jewish women, something that “Nobody Wants This” creator Erin Foster admitted to Hey Alma she wasn’t “thinking about too much.” Season two was worse — and it lacked the writing, character development and novelty to bolster it. It concocted a version of Judaism that was, to (annoyingly) quote myself, “not a religion to be explored with genuine curiosity and care, but one to be dealt with, maneuvered around, generalized and laughed at.” Finally, after an entire season of Joanne waffling about her decision to convert or not convert like she’s Erewhon-brand Hamlet, she ultimately decides that she is ready to be Jewish after sister-in-law Esther (Jackie Tohn) says Joanne already “feels Jewish.” According to Esther, this is because Joanne is, among a handful of other exceedingly non-specific qualities, “warm and cozy.”

That’s a whole lot of amorphousness upon which to base your decision to convert to a new religion, and Vulture critic Fran Hoepfner said as much in her review. “This is Judaism as hood ornament,” Steven Zeitchik affirmed for The Hollywood Reporter, “elements dropped in to make you feel like something is being explored but in a show that has zero interest in actually doing the work.”

Flash forward to Sebastien’s snarky “And what?” to Joanne in season three. Seemingly, this is a wink from creator Erin Foster and showrunners Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan. Message received.

The result is a season which leans into what “Nobody Wants This” is actually good at. The most interesting conflicts the show has developed are not because Joanne and her family are agnostic and the Roklovs are Jewish. They occur because Noah’s family are a prim, united front, aspiring towards high society culture while the Williamses are low-brow, woo-woo gay chaos incarnate. Viewers return to the show because Noah is sexy and emotionally mature, and there’s a juicy love triangle between Sasha (Timothy Simons), Esther and Morgan (Justine Lupe).

Season three delivers on all of these fronts. Joanne commits to the long-term by beginning conversion classes and Noah does the same by popping the question. This forces the Roklov and the Williams families even closer together to great comedic effect. We now live in a “Nobody Wants This” universe where Bina is overly involved in Joanne’s wedding plans, insisting Noah and Joanne get married on the basketball court in her backyard so Eliezer (Noah’s childhood pet hamster who is buried there, obviously) can witness the ceremony. Morgan and Sasha’s relationship deepens too, first when a newly single Sasha moves into Lynn’s spare bedroom and later when they hook-up on a business trip to New York. Timothy Simons and Justine Lupe are winsome comedy partners and freedom from Jackie Tohn‘s Esther (as much as we love Jackie) gives them the opportunity to really romp.

By contrast, Joanne’s conversion class is relegated to a handful of short scenes. Rabbi Eden (Sarah Silverman) drops a few pieces of Jewish wisdom, Sebastien and Joanne verbally spar, end of scene. By episode eight, Rabbi Eden is wrapping up Intro to Judaism and there’s really no sense of how much time has passed, nor how Joanne has grappled with what living a Jewish life means to her. Rabbi Eden says that each of her students will meet with a beit din, but we never see how that conversation goes for Joanne or hear about the beit din again. Presumably that conversation goes well because in episode 10, aptly titled “The Plunge,” Joanne completes her mikveh in the Pacific Ocean. Voilà, the blonde podcaster once called a shiksa is now a Jew.

In a different version of this show I would’ve loved for “Nobody Wants This” to seriously contend with the rigors of conversion to Judaism. Scenes of Joanne preparing for, in conversation with and maybe even challenged by her beit din could have established an interiority and depth to her connection to Judaism. Perhaps the Shechinah (the Divine Feminine) resonates with this version of Joanne, or maybe Judaism’s connection to the natural world and lunar cycles is appealing. At the very least, this version of Joanne could latch on to tikkun olam.

But “Nobody Wants This” is pretty explicitly not interested in deepening Joanne’s relationship to Judaism outside of her relationship with Noah. I’ve come to accept this as a good thing. Using how the show has portrayed Judaism in the past as a guide, I don’t think it would be very successful in attempting to do so. And as a Jewish viewer, I’ve learned the hard way that with Jewishness and “Nobody Wants This,” less is more. I’d much rather the show hold back on Judaism than attempt to take on depth it is not equipped to support. That Konner and Kaplan shepherd “Nobody Wants This” in this direction is a wise move.

The moments of Judaism that do exist in season three are enjoyable to behold because of their simplicity. In episode three, Noah and Joanne hold a hanukkat habayit, or Jewish home dedication ritual. As their family, friends and Joanne’s ex gather, the couple affix a mezuzah to the last unadorned doorpost in their house, beginning the process of building a Jewish home together.

The promise of the hanukkat habayit is then fulfilled in the finale mikveh. As Joanne stands on the beach with Noah and Rabbi Eden in the episode’s final moments, she talks about her conversion in relation to Noah and their future family. “I want our kids to know that they are part of something bigger than themselves or even our family,” she says. “And when they feel lost, they can have these traditions to guide them.” She then proceeds to walk into the waves, remove her bathing suit, dunk herself three times and recite the blessings.

In both instances the prayers are uttered correctly (brava specifically to Kristen Bell on her pronunciation), the rituals are done with intention, the values are consistent and everything is authentic to Noah and Joanne. The pinnacle of it all is when Joanne steps back onto the beach and Noah, so moved by the proceedings, asks her if she wants to get married then and there. It’s an ending I can certainly get behind. As the camera pans upward, zooming out from Noah and Joanne exchanging rings on the sand, it feels like “Nobody Wants This” is finally on the right track.

Obsessed with Jewish representation on TV? Join the club. Sign up for Kveller’s Jewish TV Club to watch, kvetch and kvell with us.

The post In ‘Nobody Wants This’ Season 3, Less Is More When It Comes to Judaism appeared first on Kveller.

I had no idea it was possible to pack so much Jewish joy into one hour and 38 minutes.

That, however, is exactly what Henry Winkler and Ike Barinholtz managed to do on a recent episode of Barinholtz’s podcast, “Funny You Ask.” Part trivia show, part interview, the episode is a master class in a particular kind of Jewish joy: hakarat hatov, a Jewish value usually translated as gratitude. Literally, though, it means “recognizing the good” — the active practice of seeking out what is worth appreciating in the world around us, no matter our circumstances.

Even for a Henry Winkler stan like me, this interview went above and beyond the level of charm I usually expect from the octogenarian. There are so many outstanding moments,  I don’t even know where to begin.

He shares that he skipped going to synagogue on Yom Kippur and instead went into his garden “like Emily Dickinson,” where he listened to Johnny Mathis’ rendition of Kol Nidre and “mused with God.” He brings up his obsession with Brandi Carlile (“I hugged her twice!” he shares, with a tone of awe in his voice). When discussing his love of fly fishing, he explains that he always catches and releases the trout because they are too majestic to eat. His appreciation of them is so profound, he never eats trout. He never lies about the size of his catches, he swears, though jokingly quips, “but I do lie about the size of my penis.”

Beneath the jokes is a genuine appreciation for the people and experiences that make his life so rich. Discussing the thrill of catching a fish, he says, “I’m feeling [joy] from my head to my toes. I am so happy. I do not assume I’m going to catch one, I am just so grateful that I did.”

Winkler seems to practice hakarat hatov everywhere, from his unembarrassed admiration for fellow performers to his appreciation for a career he describes as “the most incredible journey.” For someone who has been famous for decades, he is remarkably willing to be starstruck. His delight in Brandi Carlile is particularly adorable: here is a Hollywood veteran who could probably name-drop with the best of them, and instead he sounds like a fan who still can’t believe he got to hug his favorite musician. Twice!

The Jewishness of this conversation runs deep. Barinholtz eventually calls it “the Jewish hour,” and Winkler shares stories about his German-Jewish upbringing that are both funny and heartbreaking. When Barinholtz wryly asks why Winkler’s parents left Germany in 1938, Winkler quips about a “short guy with a mustache” who couldn’t comb his hair. The humor is classic Winkler, but the history behind it is devastating. His immediate family made it out, but his extended family did not. They were killed in the concentration camps.

“I never had real aunts and uncles,” he tells Barinholtz, “I never had a grandparent.”

Throughout their conversation, Winkler has the endearing habit of turning the spotlight off of himself and kvelling over others, and this tragic chapter of his family history is no exception.

Instead of focusing on the loss, Winkler speaks about the life that his parents built for their young family among New York City’s German-Jewish immigrants, describing the shul they helped found. They exposed him to nature and culture, such as the travelling Russian dance group that would inspire the moves that he so famously used to dance to Hava Nagila on “Happy Days.” He makes it clear that this wasn’t always an easy journey, but one that was important to his parents. The community they forged out of tragedy became Winkler’s found family, which allowed him to thrive. 

The admiration, appreciation and plain old joy is apparent in every story he shares.

There is no single Jewish approach to joy, of course. But Winkler offers a lovely example of hakarat hatov in action: the willingness to notice what is worth celebrating, appreciate the people who enrich our lives and let ourselves be delighted by them. Whether he’s catching a trout or hugging Brandi Carlile, he reminds us that recognizing the good is a practice — and a joyful one at that.

The post Henry Winkler Mused With God in His Garden on Yom Kippur This Year appeared first on Kveller.

Early this year, Jackie Tohn announced her BRCA1 diagnosis in a vulnerable segment on The Today Show. Now, the 46-year-old Jewish actress is continuing her advocacy for hereditary cancer awareness and research.

Tohn appeared on “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” last week alongside “Nobody Wants This” co-star and TV husband Timothy Simons. While Simons was competing for the Silver Lake Children’s Theatre Group, Tohn committed to donate her winnings to OCRA or the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance.

“What is so amazing about this organization particularly is that, of course, they’re trying to find a cure for ovarian cancer, but where they’re spending most of their resources is to advance the screening,” Jackie shared in a clip on “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire’s?” social media channels. “Somehow it’s 2026 and there is no pre-screening for ovarian cancer. And that’s crazy.”

After Jackie tested positive for the BRCA1 gene, a mutation which dramatically increases the risk for certain cancers including breast and ovarian, she underwent a preventative double mastectomy on Dec. 1, 2025. She also stated her plans to undergo a preventative oophorectomy. “I’m sharing my story because I am a Jewish woman in my 40s and no one had ever talked to me about BRCA,” Jackie shared in a press release around time she appeared on The Today Show, referencing the fact that 1 in 40 Ashkenazis Jews are carriers of the BRCA gene.

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Ultimately, Jackie and Timothy had an incredibly successful (an entertaining) run on “Millionaire,” splitting $250,000 between their two charities. Their team flew through the first five questions correctly responding to trivia about Superman, Q-tips, Vaudeville acts, mini-golf and Finnish culture.

At the $8,000 mark, a question about gold, TV’s Esther and Sasha utilized their first lifeline; asking “little fancy boy” host Jimmy Kimmel for his opinion. From there, each new question warranted discussion or the use of lifeline for Jackie and Timothy. On more than one occasion, Jackie got out of her seat to run around in anxious anticipation of whether or not they answered the question right. (It makes for great TV!) The pair decided to cash out on the $500,000 question, having used up all of their lifelines. The question asked them to identify the names of Snoopy’s siblings in Charles M. Schulz’ Peanuts Comics Strip.

“Tohn’s win will directly fund OCRA’s research, advocacy, and support programs for patients and loved ones impacted by gynecologic cancer,” the group announced on its website.

Yasher koach, Jackie and Timothy! What a beautiful act of tzedakah ahead of the “Nobody Wants This” season three premiere.

The post Jackie Tohn Raised $125,000 for Ovarian Cancer Research appeared first on Kveller.

The first time I heard the word “heimish” I was standing in a fluorescent lit conference room that would serve as a venue for some kind of Jewish speaking engagement. I was part of the team helping to plan the event, and the hosts noted that they wanted the room to feel “heimish.” I nodded like I knew what that meant, wrote the word down — maybe I could find some tablecloths or something that matched their vision? —  and looked it up as soon as I got back to my computer.

Heimish, I learned, had nothing to do with tablecloths, really. From the Yiddish word for home (heim), it’s a concept with no direct translation from Yiddish that means something like homey or cozy.

At the time, I was inspired beyond the dingy conference room. This was at the tail end of the hygge craze (hygge being the Danish coziness concept that had the world buying thick socks and scented candles in search of some of that world famous Scandinavian-chic happiness). I was not immune to its draw, but now I was learning Jews had an untranslatable coziness concept, too? I didn’t need to be turning to Scandinavians to achieve maximum coziness, I just needed to look within. Plus, I had always dreamed of a world that didn’t see the Jewish aesthetic as blue and silver Stars of David ad nauseum. Was this our moment? Who was going to wrap up this concept in a shiny package and send it out into the world?

But there’s more to heimish than coziness (just as I’m sure there was more to hygge than fake sheepskin throws, but I’ll let the Danish lifestyle sites thread that needle). The 1968 book “The Joys of Yiddish” breaks down the nuance: Not only does the word mean informal, cozy or warm, it also refers to “having the friendly characteristics or kind of rapport that exist inside a happy home” and can be defined as “unpretentious, putting on no airs.” The opposite of heimish, he writes, is snobbish, supercilious and charismatic. He finishes the entry with this: Jews put a high value on being heimish. 

So no, you can’t $40 candle your way to heimish (though with the help of Boy Smells I have certainly tried) the way you can with cozy. But every fall when we break out our pumpkin scented candles and thick house slippers and post the picture of Billy Crystal in his aspirational chunky white sweater, it’s not just the physical feeling of coziness we’re trying to achieve, is it? In our pursuit of cozy, are we actually chasing heimish?

The Jewish designer Jonathan Adler, known for his whimsical menorahs and ceramic jars for drugs, has a page in his 2012 book “100 Ways to Happy Chic Your Life” that explains how to have a heimish home.

“Always start with a chic and classique foundation,” he begins, which you have to admit sounds straight from the shtetl. “But then add a dash of humor, a pinch of quirk, a soupcon of folly. Family and friends are more important than objects. But those objects, and how you deal with them, can provide the setting in which to kibitz, dine and decompress with your haimisher menschen — yiddish for the people you feel (insanely) comfortable with. You should never want the meal, the conversation, or the fun to end.”

Despite Adler’s best efforts and a surge of interest into coziness, capitalism hasn’t come for heimish the way it did for hygge — if it had, I might have been able to order some decorations for the heimish speaking engagement in the fluorescent conference room. But as much as I love buying a candle and a new sweater, I kind of hope it doesn’t. Heimish is so much more than all that.

The post This Yiddish Word Is the Answer to Our Quest for All Things Cozy appeared first on Kveller.

Werewolf bar mitzvah,

spooky scary

Werewolf bar mitzvah,

Boys becoming men, men becoming wolves

If you recognize those lines, you are probably either A) a “30 Rock” superfan, B) someone who went to a lot of bar and bat mitzvahs 20-ish years ago or C) both.

Either way, you may have caught clips of Lin-Manuel Miranda singing this song to a packed house at Radio City Music Hall earlier this week. The occasion? A star-studded celebration of the 20th anniversary of “30 Rock.”

Videos of the event show the audience going wild as Miranda launches into the opening lines:

“I was working real late on my Haftarah / When I heard a little knock on my bedroom door-ah.”

Surrounded by dancers performing a gloriously campy routine, Miranda’s performance only gets better when Tracy Morgan joins him onstage. Morgan originally sang the song as the character Tracy Jordan on “30 Rock.” The moment was especially moving for fans who remember Morgan’s near-fatal 2014 car accident, which killed comedian James McNair and left Morgan with a traumatic brain injury.

But how did we get to a point where Lin-Manuel Miranda is singing about a werewolf bar mitzvah with Tracy Morgan? And what, exactly, is a werewolf bar mitzvah?

For that, we have to go back to 2007, when 30 Rock was in its second season. The sitcom followed the actors, writers and producers of “TGS with Tracy Jordan,” a fictional sketch comedy show modeled on “Saturday Night Live.” Morgan played Tracy Jordan, an eccentric actor trying to get his career back on track.

Tracy Jordan also had a penchant for get-rich-quick schemes.

Within the show, “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” was supposed to be one of those schemes. While rummaging through a box of belongings, Jordan pulls out his key to the city of Gary, Indiana, and, as he puts it, “my gold record from that novelty party song.”

Cue an eight-second music video. Dressed in full werewolf costume (including fake fangs), Jordan sings: “Werewolf bar mitzvah, spooky scary / Werewolf bar mitzvah / Boys becoming men, men becoming wolves.”

Those eight seconds went viral — or, at least, the 2007 version of viral. The clip proved so popular that writers Tami Sagher and Robert Carlock, who came up with the original lyrics, expanded it into a full-length song. Morgan recorded the new material, with Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) stepping in to re-record some of the lyrics. Glover, then a “30 Rock” writer, was known for his Tracy Morgan impression; much of the singing on the extended version is him impersonating Morgan. He also plays Jordan’s skeptical manager, who keeps interrupting. He questions whether the premise can sustain a whole song, noting that it seems “a little sweaty.”

From there, the song took on a life of its own. In a 2018 interview, Carlock recalled that his oldest child had heard it played at a bar or bat mitzvah party. Sagher had an even more direct experience: “‘Werewolf Bar Mitzvah’ played at my nephew’s bar mitzvah, and that was a delight,” she said. “It’s becoming a real Halloween song too.”

Indeed, in 2021, a Washington Post columnist ranked it the third-best Halloween song of all time.

What began as a joke on the show — a song that was so clearly a money grab for Jordan — grew to have its own genuine following.  

Which brings us to October 2026, when Miranda and Morgan united to perform the song for a cheering crowd. There are plenty of reasons to love the moment: nostalgia for anyone who awkwardly danced to it at a bar or bat mitzvah, affection for “30 Rock”’s gloriously absurd comedy and gratitude from fans who are happy to see Morgan back onstage.

There’s something lovely, too, about a Jewish lifecycle ritual becoming the centerpiece of such a ridiculous, enduring pop culture joke. Part of me can’t help but wonder if “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” would become quite so beloved if it debuted today, when depictions of Jewish life can feel subject to extraordinary scrutiny, but I am so appreciative of its continued place at the intersection of Jewish and pop culture.

So, whether you also harbor nostalgic memories of this song or are just being introduced to it by Miranda, here’s to another 20 years of celebrating boys becoming men and men becoming wolves.

As Miranda puts it best: l’chaim.

The post ‘Werewolf Bar Mitzvah’ Is Back and We’re Thrilled appeared first on Kveller.

Since I became a mother, my absolute favorite Jewish ritual has become Kol Hene’arim  (“all the children”), which happens on Simchat Torah, the holiday that took place earlier this month.

At synagogue on Simchat Torah, every adult who wants to do so is called up for an aliyah, to say a blessing over the Torah. Once every adult gets their aliyah, adult congregants take out some tallitot, or prayer shawls, and unfurl them over the bimah, the synagogue’s central podium. All the children gather underneath the canopy created by the prayer shawls, and the adults recite a communal blessing over them and sing a beautiful song for their protection. 

This ritual always makes me cry. Though the words are ancient, their meaning is contemporary: I got you and your kids. If I see your child fall, I will catch them. I will care for them when they are at my house. If they are in need, I am a safe person they can come to. The canopy of protection is both literal and metaphorical, and I sense that almost everyone holding the canopy is feeling that sense of mutual support for the children underneath. It is a beautiful ritual, the type of moment that makes me fully understand why I invest so much time in building Jewish community.

But a strange thing happened this year. The week after Simchat Torah, we celebrated my daughter’s bat mitzvah. The following week, she turned 12. But because the Hebrew calendar does not precisely align with the Gregorian calendar, her twelfth Hebrew birthday had taken place without our noticing, over Sukkot, before Simchat Torah. It was only when I arrived at shul that I realized that she was no longer eligible to stand under the canopy of the tallit. In the eyes of Jewish law, she was no longer a child. 

Historically and traditionally, the age of bar or bat mitzvah is an instantaneous transition — in one day you become a Jewish adult. Moving Traditions, the nonprofit where I work, has taught me to think about that shift very differently. We know that adolescence isn’t a single leap. It is a bridge from childhood to adulthood, sometimes short and sweet, sometimes winding and more challenging. As an organization, we have tried to help synagogues see the ways that they can accompany and steward young people over that bridge from childhood to independence, to rethink how the bar or bat mitzvah ritual can serve as an opportunity to give them support along that difficult bridge. 

It felt at odds with everything I had learned about that rambling transition for my daughter to suddenly be left out from under the canopy. My favorite Jewish ritual suddenly felt wrong. 

And then something beautiful happened. Although most adults have already been called to the Torah at this point in the services, one adult is always chosen to say one of the final blessings of the Torah right before this blessing over the children. That person stands on the bimah along with the children, and it is considered a special honor. 

Without any planning, the synagogue granted my diminutive 11-year-old-but-Jewishly-12-year-old daughter that honor. 

So that is where my daughter had her first aliyah, her first symbolic act of Jewish adulthood: still underneath the canopy of the prayer shawls. And with that one change, the ritual felt right again. The metaphor was explicit: My daughter was being granted the chance to hold her new identity as a Jewish adult, with all its requisite responsibilities and expectations, while still standing under the protective canopy of our community. She is beginning to walk down that winding bridge from childhood to adolescence, but the journey is not instantaneous, and she is not alone. This ritual helped me imagine that we were all, literally and metaphorically, still holding a protective canopy over her for just a bit longer. 

The post Why I Cried a Lot of Happy Tears on Simchat Torah This Year appeared first on Kveller.