We all know that nothing brings people closer together than a shared laugh. Laughter can dissipate even the most insurmountable of tensions, fostering closeness and community where it sometimes feels unlikely, even impossible. That’s what the show Comedy for Peace, now in its seventh year, is banking on: bringing people together with “no politics” and “just laughs,” according to its slogan.

The project, the brainchild of Israeli-American comedian Erik Angel, is celebrating its 7 year anniversary with a special New York show this Thursday, June 4, featuring Angel along with Canadian Indian comedian Feraz Shere, who grew up in a fairly non-practicing Muslim home and is known for his amazing impressions, Norwegian comedian Daniel Simonsen, Jewish queer comedian (and wife of a rabbi!) Liz Glazer and the very funny Houston, Texas-raised Chase DuRousseau.

Angel, whose real name is Dotan Malach, grew up fairly siloed as a Jew in Israel; he never had any profound conversations with Muslims while growing up. He came up with the comedy project after having so many positive interactions with Muslim friends and acquaintances after leaving his home country. The now New York-based comedian organized his first show in March 2019, and was surprised when 250 people came to see him and fellow Jewish, Christian and Muslim comedians on stage.

Since then, Angel and his fellow comedians have taken the show on the road — 250 shows across two countries and 100 cities — raising money for important causes. While the comedians don’t talk about politics, their sets are rife with jokes about identity: growing up Jewish, Muslim, Black, the children of immigrants… sometimes a comedian inhabits all those identities at the same time, like in the case of Tehran Von Ghasri. They joke about the particularities of the communities they come from and these shows leave many of the viewers feeling like they know more about the lived experiences of people who are not like them. Once in Florida, Angel tells Kveller via e-mail, a 92-year-old Jewish audience member chased comedian Gibran Saleem down to tell him how much he loved his set and how illuminating he found listening to his experience growing up Muslim.

October 7 brought layers of challenges to the project. Some Muslim comedians he’d collaborated before, Angel tells Kveller, stopped responding to his e-mails, while other continued their steadfast commitment to it.

“At one point, a woman even tried to publicly shame all of our Arab comedians for participating in a peace project with an Israeli,” Angel recalls. A show in Minnesota was cancelled, Angel says, after it was discovered that it was spread headed by an Israeli.

But Angel and his collaborators kept trucking on, making people laugh. The real purpose of the show, he says, is to foster productive conversations. And that is needed now more than ever.

“At the end of every show, we sit together and talk. People have spent two hours laughing, so their hearts are open and their defenses are down. The conversations that follow are deep, meaningful, and full of love,” said Angel.

Angel isn’t planning on stopping these shows any time soon. After all these years, “the project is still traveling, still growing, and still getting better.”

Get your tickets for the 7th anniversary show of Comedy for Peace here, use code PEACE for a discount. Discover future Comedy for Peace shows here.

The post This Interfaith Comedy Show Is All About Promoting Peace appeared first on Kveller.

When posting about her sister’s death this past weekend, Jamie Lee Curtis invoked the language that their paternal Jewish grandparents spoke in an ode to both her late sister, Kelly Lee Curtis, and to their roots.

“Kelly always signed off any message or fare thee well with a Hungarian blessing,” Curtis wrote on Instagram. “Isten Veled, God is with you,” is an expression used to say goodbye to someone for a long time.

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“Isten Veled to my sister of the sun and the moon,” Curtis wished her late sibling, who died at age 69 in her home while in hospice care on Saturday, May 30.

Kelly Curtis, an actor and producer who starred in shows like “The Sentinel” and movies like “Trading Places,” was Tony Curtis’ eldest daughter with his first wife, Janet Leigh. According to her sister, she was known as Aunt Cookie for her “powdered, almond, crescent cookies at Christmas,” and she was “proud of her Danish roots and Hungarian Jewish ancestry and was a devoted American patriot.”

Kelly passed away mere days before what would have been Tony Curtis’ 101st birthday, and Jamie wrote that “there’s a little bit of solace knowing that in whatever realm you end up in that he has two of his children with him, my late brother Nicholas and now my sister Kelly.” (Nicholas died in 1994 of a heroin overdose).

In the days since Kelly’s passing, Jamie, 67, is spending time revisiting old photos of the two of them (as many of us do in grief). Pictures taken on the eve of her wedding, in which the two are seen embracing. And then, pictures from their joint trip to trace the roots of their family (both their father’s Jewish Hungarian family and their mother’s Danish family) in 2012.

“We started out in Hungary, in Budapest, where Tony Curtis’ family, Schwartz, was from, a small town, Mátészalka near Budapest,” Curtis wrote to her followers.

The two went to Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe, which they joined efforts to restore, along with a group of Hungarian Jews. Their father, Tony Curtis, founded the Emmanuel Foundation, named after his own father, Emmanuel Schwartz, to help restore Jewish historical sites and promote Holocaust education, which became a vital part of the restoration.

“It’s a magnificent building with incredible history, and there’s a tree of life in this courtyard and each leaf has the name placed in memory of someone lost during the [Holocaust],” is how Curtis wrote of the synagogue. That Tree of Life memorial, created by sculptor Imre Varga in fact, was a donation from the Emmanuel Foundation. It commemorates the 400,000 Hungarian Jews murdered during the Holocaust, with 30,000 victims’ names engraved on the weeping willow tree’s silver leaves.

Jamie shared the picture of her and her sister holding hands, dressed in black, with straw hats shielding them from the sun, sitting under that tree.

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Curtis and her sister were so moved to find plaques in honor of their father and his family under the tree, placed there by friend and producer Deborah Oppenheimer. In 2021, Curtis wrote that the tree is a “permanent reminder of the past and a motivator for change for the future of the Jewish people!”

“It was a once in a lifetime trip with my sister Kelly, and it bonded us in our history and family,” Curtis recalled, and counseled anyone who has a sibling to take “at least one trip, just the two of you, to trace a little bit of your family history. It will be a lasting and permanent and important memory. It is for me and is helping me in these days of grief and mourning.”

May her memory be for a blessing.

The post Jamie Lee Curtis Recalls Visiting Budapest Synagogue With Her Late Sister, Kelly Curtis appeared first on Kveller.

Everyone is talking about “Yesteryear,” the satirical new novel from podcast host and writer Caro Claire Burke that takes on tradwife influencers. Entertainment reporters are buzzing about the film adaptation, which will both star and be produced by Anne Hathaway. Culture writers are arguing about whether the book is Good For Women.

But no one is talking about the one Jewish character.

Not that anyone should be — she’s mentioned once and takes up exactly three lines of air time. But those three lines were very important to me, personally: They perfectly summed up how I’ve experienced being Jewish online.

In “Yesteryear,” our main character Natalie is trying to cope with the life she’s built for herself. She’s left her sheltered, religious childhood in Idaho to attend Harvard, but finds she can’t fit in with the mostly secular East Coast college experience. 

After dropping out, she marries one of her former Harvard classmates who is — no offense to male lead Caleb — kind of a loser, though he is a rich loser. Caleb is so rich, in fact, that Natalie has used his family’s money to purchase a multi-million dollar ranch, her desperate attempt to help Caleb find something he’s passionate about. But buying the ranch came with secret conditions: Natalie’s father-in-law only agreed to give her the money if she promised to give him grandchildren. Lots of them.

Natalie finds herself pregnant, miserable and in charge of domestic jobs she loathes. She remembers advice her mother gave her after she first married Caleb: Pretend that you have an audience cheering you on.

She decides to stop pretending and become an influencer.

The Jewish character appears in an online workshop for influencers, where Natalie clocks that everyone in the Zoom call looks just like her.

“Nearly everyone had a little cross necklace glistening on their chest, except for one curly-haired woman from New Jersey, Rachel Weissman, who looked increasingly distressed in the opening minutes of the call until finally she turned her video off.”

Rachel is never mentioned again, but I like to think she minimized the Zoom call and listened vaguely as she opened a new tab and started searching furiously. Instagram influencers Christian? Why are all influencers Christian? Jewish instagram influencers? Maybe she questioned her entire sense of taste and style, or even whether creating content online was somehow a Christian activity and she had missed the memo.

This is essentially what I did, 10-15 years earlier, when I noticed that the network of women I followed and emulated online — the ones with Zooey Deschanel bangs and big hats and small dogs wearing bowties — all had one word somewhere in their online presence: believer. I was too blinded by their bookshelves organized in rainbow order and perfect toddlers in yellow galoshes to realize what now seems obvious: I was under the influence of the first wave of Mormon mommy bloggers.

I still remember the vaguely crestfallen feeling of thinking I had found a space where I could fit in, and realizing I was trying to be part of something that would never be for me and that I actually didn’t want to be part of. This wasn’t new — having grown up in Louisiana, I frequently found myself in situations where I wasn’t explicitly forbidden to be, but didn’t fully belong. Skating rinks with bible verses spray painted on the walls, restaurants with framed pictures of Jesus, innocent flirtations with boys in my tenth grade world geography class who thought I was going to hell.

Even though it wasn’t a new feeling, it was still exhausting. And in just three lines with a throwaway character, Caro Claire Burke brought that feeling top of mind. 

I hope the fictional Rachel Weismann turned off her camera, then turned off her computer, walked outside and touched grass. I hope she never looked at social media again. But if she’s still there, perhaps, like me, she’s scrolling through blatantly antisemitic comments on Instagram and realizing that vaguely feeling like she’s in the wrong place might be the least of her worries.

The post I Can’t Stop Thinking About the One Jewish Character in ‘Yesteryear’ appeared first on Kveller.

Happy June, or as I like to call it: the start of hot Brett Goldstein summer. The Jewish actor is not only starring in this month’s steamiest rom-com, but voicing a sheep in one of the hottest movies of the season (yes, it’s “Sheep Detectives”) and returning as Roy Kent this August in the last season of “Ted Lasso.” (I’m also very excited for his upcoming show, “Escorted,” but we still have to wait a bit longer for that.)

Of course, Goldstein is not the only Jewish hottie (is that OK to say?) gracing our screens this June. We’ve got the most acrobatic Jewish pop star of all, Pink, hosting the most delightful award show of the season; Gal Gadot’s Netflix return; Zoey Deutsch, the master of Botox face, bringing us yet another Netflix romcom; and… Larry David (which may stretch your definition of hottie, or not — we don’t judge).

Here’s all the Jewish TV to watch this June:

June 5: “Lorne” (Peacock)

This documentary about the Canadian Jewish legend at the helm of “Saturday Night Live” is pretty star-studded, featuring the voice of Paul Simon and many iconic SNL cast members and writers.

Judaism rating: 2/4 couch potato latkes.

June 5: “Office Romance” (Netflix)

In this new Netflix rom-com, Brett Goldstein plays Daniel Blanchflower, a lawyer who falls in love with his new boss, Jackie Cruz (the one and only Jennifer Lopez), the CEO of an airline company called airCruz. The names in this movie are so ridiculous, but the office romance does look very convincing and steamy. The film also stars Rick Hoffman, who played the famously Jewish Louis Litt in “Suits” and honed his rom-com chops in one of my personal favorite Hallmark Hanukkah movies, “Round and Round.”

Judaism rating: 1/4 couch potato latkes — but I really do need Brett Goldstein to star in a Hanukkah romance.

June 5: “Pillion” (HBO Max)

Is this kinky movie about an S&M relationship between a hot biker and a confidence-less barberhop singer and traffic cop really about Shabbat? Writer Reuben Baron is convinced that it is, and shared why in Hey Alma. You’ll have to decide for yourself by watching.

Judaism rating: barely a 0.1/4 couch potato latkes, but we can’t help but share a really good reach.

June 7: 79th Annual Tony Awards (Pluto TV)

The way I want every single Jewish nominee at the Tonys this year to win, from Caissie Levy to Daniel Radcliffe, Ben Levi Ross, Shoshana Bean, Aya Cash and Rachel Dratch. But what I want more than anything is for emcee for the evening, Pink, to come onto the Tonys stage somersaulting through the air, as she does in her concerts. No matter what, I believe it’s going to be a good show!

Judaism rating: 3/4 couch potato latkes — it’s Broadway baby!

June 19: “Voicemails for Isabelle” (Netflix)

Another rom-com with nothing Jewish but its romantic lead (and a Nora Ephron reference in the trailer)? I’ll personally take it. Jewish actor Zoey Deutsch stars as a woman who grieves her sister by leaving voicemails on her old phone number, not realizing that number now belongs to a cutie New York realtor (Nick Robinson). As said realtor says in the trailer, it’s very “You’ve Got Mail.” It’s not the Yom Kippur musical I’ve been wanting Deutsch to star in since she and bestie Ben Platt released this bop, but it will do.

Judaism rating: 0.25/4 couch potato latkes.

June 24: “The Hand of Dante” (Netflix)

Based on the book by Nick Tosches, this movie, directed by Jewish director Julian Schnabel, stars Oscar Isaac as Tosches and famed Italian poet and writer Dante Alighieri. Gal Gadot stars as both Giulietta in the present day, and Dante’s wife, Gemma Donati, in flashbacks.

Judaism rating: 0.25/4 couch potato latkes.

June 25: “The Bear” (season 5)

Since this list is mostly about non-Jewish-themed projects starring some of our favorite Jewish stars, I’d be remiss not to mention the final season of “The Bear” and its Jewish stars Ebon Moss-Bacharach and Jamie Lee Curtis (and hopefully some of last season’s exciting Jewish guest stars, though not, sadly, the late Rob Reiner).

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Judaism rating: 0.5/4 couch potato latkes.

June 26: “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness” (HBO Max)

What better show to watch during schvitz season than a new one from kvetcher-in-chief Larry David and co-produced by former Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama? The first clip from the historical sketch show does already feel pretty, pretty, pretty Jewish to me:

Judaism rating: 4/4 couch potato latkes. It’s Larry David.

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

There are shows I go to when I need to cry, and then there are shows that I go to when I need to heal. And there are few shows on TV I’ve found more genuinely healing than “Couples Therapy.”

There are a lot of things that make the show healing — the complex yet relatable and profoundly human stories of the couples, the cinéma vérité editing style, the music that gives one an almost pavlovian response — but first and foremost, there’s the show’s ship captain, Dr. Orna Guralnik, who leads the couples and the viewers through murky waters of love, anguish and betrayal with her calm, mellifluous voice.

It’s hard for me to talk about Guralnik without mentioning her pop culture predecessor, fellow Jewish therapist Esther Perel, who made real couple’s therapy accessible in her 2017 podcast “Where Should We Begin,” which is, to this day, an excellent listen.

The show is the brainchild of producer Josh Kriegman, son of two therapists, who wanted to bring the breakthroughs and emotional highs and lows of therapy to TV in an authentic way. Guralnik first came on as a consultant, but was talked into taking the central onscreen role. Five seasons later, it’s clear that she is a key ingredient in the recipe for winning TV. Shot in a studio in Brooklyn that genuinely feels like a therapist’s office, Guralnik meets with patients for around 20 hours of therapy that is broken up over the course of nine television episodes.

In the years since “Couples Therapy” premiered, Guralnik has become a fashion icon, a source of viral clips and impressions, and most of all, the source of some of the deepest cutting TV you can find today. In a world full of dramatic reality series (which have their very warranted place), Guralnik’s main goal is to quell the real drama between couples (and in one case, a polyamorous triad) and to guide them to safer shores. When she’s successful, it’s thanks not only to these sessions, but to her work with her mentor, Virginia Goldner, as well as a panel of experts, and, just as importantly, the couples themselves, who are there with a genuine commitment to improve their relationship.

In the most recent fifth season, Guralnik takes on couples with many divides, including political and ideological differences in the case of Marjorie and Jason. Over the course of their therapy, they learn, like so many of the couples features, how to really talk, how to really listen, and how to really make their partner feel seen. Jason learns how to see Marjorie’s distress over the Trump administration’s policies. Marjorie learns to, at least on some level, accept that Jason still feels a sense of optimism about it.

Yet it’s other conversations between these two that make for even better TV, like when Jason expresses profound sadness and hurt for a young Marjorie, who was put on Weight Watchers by her mom and made to hate her young body. Or when Marjorie and Jason learn to have productive conversations about how to treat their son’s ADHD instead of Jason acting defensive because of his own personal trauma around the diagnosis.

Guralnik’s Jewish and Israeli identity rarely ever comes to the fore. She was born in Washington D.C, and raised in Atlanta and Israel by two Israeli American parents, who she once wrote were the first couple she ever helped work things out. She came to the U.S. after her mandatory military service in Israel and raised her family and grew her career here.

She has treated Jewish patients on the show, like Micahel and Michal, an Orthodox Jewish couple whose religious identity is one of the few things not causing strife between them, and the Jewish Soviet refugee author Boris Fishman, who became last season’s “villain,” much to his chagrin. Yet her own Jewish identity, or really much of anything about Guralnik herself, does not come up on the show.

That is, aside from one point in season three, the first season of the show to air after October 7. In the season, filmed mostly before October 7, Guralnik treats a queer couple, Palestinian American Christine and Lebanese American Nadine. Nadine wants to open the relationship, Christine does not, and the two have very complicated relationships with trauma and their families that leak into the relationship.

Nadine and Christine don’t end up making it is a couple at the end of the season, but their different identities are mentioned in the season’s final episode.

“I’m really gonna miss you two. It’s been very moving to see how a relationship can morph and not get kind of bound,” Guralnik tells the couple. “Personally, to work with the two of you, Palestinian, Lebanese, Israeli — it’s all deeply important to create this kind of possibility.” Guralnik and Christine would later go on two have two deeply vulnerable conversations about their political and personal perspectives on Israel and Palestine for the Guardian.

“I feel love in this space. I feel like there’s a real shared experience,” Christine conceded in that same episode. It was a rare moment of TV: a Palestinian person and an Israeli person really seeing each other. And it was one of the most genuinely hopeful and — dare I say it — healing moments in a show already full of so much healing.

The post ‘Couples Therapy’ Star Orna Guralnik Is the Jewish TV Healer We Need Right Now appeared first on Kveller.

A little book called “Jokes for the John” lived in the bathroom of my childhood home. My dad, a loud Jewish guy from Brooklyn, loved its often distasteful content.  

I skimmed the book often, though most of the humor went over my head. But one joke about athletes stayed with me. As a mediocre softball player desperate to be a starter, it resonated. The joke was titled “Shortest Books Ever Written,” followed by a list that included “Jewish Sports Heroes.” 

I learned early on that Jewish people are supposedly not great athletes.

There was, of course, one exception. My dad worshipped Dodgers’ pitcher Sandy Koufax. “Did you know he was Jewish?” he’d ask about the superstar nicknamed “The Left Arm of God.” 

“Yes, Dad, you tell me all the time.” At least we had one, I figured.

Forty years later, I have four kids of my own, including three sons who worship basketball. Each had a ball in his hands as soon as he could grip and each has expressed an interest in playing in the NBA, as many young boys do. When we moved from NYC to a fairly Jewish suburb of New Jersey while my firstborns were toddlers, our journey as sports parents began. And in the 16 years I’ve spent watching them play basketball, I heard one thing consistently.

Just let them have fun. Nobody’s going to the NBA.

Sitting on gym bleachers as the years unfolded, I heard it from other parents, spectators, even coaches. Each time a mom clutched their head in anguish after an airball or a dad cried out about an awful call, someone would say it, or at least think it. What’s the difference? Nobody’s going pro. And then people would laugh.

I laughed too, even though I wasn’t sure I agreed. I thought my kids were great, especially A — but I wasn’t about to be the delusional parent who pumps their kid full of false confidence and creates an adult who can’t handle rejection. And if everyone else believed their Jewish sons’ sports careers ended with school, why shouldn’t I? 

But even after repeating to my son, “Baby, it’s just a game,” A pushed harder, doing things I couldn’t fathom: 5 a.m. workouts before school, training after practice, studying until 3 a.m. so he could spend hours shooting free throws. I told him to sleep, to relax and have fun. “Don’t put so much pressure on yourself,” I said. My inner voice reminded me about Jewish athletes, and I wanted to protect him from heartbreak.

What I didn’t ask myself then was who exactly I was trying to protect. It wasn’t the 17-year-old who believed in his abilities; it was his mother who believed an antisemitic stereotype since childhood.

Now, it’s A’s junior year, and he’s been on every best-player list in the state: highest scorer, most assists, top ranked juniors. He’s been named Breakout Player of the Year by a state sports publication and is talking to Division 1 schools. I know that’s not his inevitable ascent to being a pro, but who am I to say he’s not on his way?

After one of his recent games, a group of teenagers stopped me outside. “You’re A’s mom, right?” one asked. I said yes, shaking with pride. “He’s awesome,” another said. “He’ll be in the NBA one day.” I wanted to challenge it, but I stopped myself. “I think so, too,” I told them instead.

At the risk of sounding delusional, I’m done doubting my kids — not just A, but all of them. Wanna be the first Jewish President? A rock star? A Michelin-starred chef? Get it kiddo! We live in a world that roots against us — no matter our religion — and tells us what we can’t do until we’re “lucky” enough to prove otherwise. 

Will A make it to the NBA? Maybe. But I’ll be the Jewish mother who believes he can, and who lets him believe he can, too. And maybe one day, he’ll earn a spot beside Sandy Koufax (and actually, a long list of star Jewish athletes) in that book of sports heroes.

The post Jokes About Jewish Athletes Got to Me. Then My Son Proved Them Wrong. appeared first on Kveller.

October 7 pulled the rug out from under so many feet and shattered so many conceptions of reality.

In the new season of “Fauda,” which was completely rewritten after the day’s events and the ensuing war, Doron Kabilio (played by Lior Raz), the covert operative and hero of the international hit show, is trying to piece together what happened on that day. I mean that quite literally: He seems to have lost all recollection of everything that happened to him on October 7 itself.

Here’s what we know about the season so far:

When is season 5 of “Fauda” coming to Netflix?

Season five premiered in Israel on Yes on May 18, and is currently airing weekly. It is slated to come to Netflix, though no release date has been announced.

What happens in season 5?

Like the actor who plays him, Doron rushed down South to the Gaza border to help where he could. After an injury, he lost all memory of what exactly occurred in the eight hours he spent there; the only thing he remembers is the “distinct smell of flesh.”

Two years later,  he joins Steve (Doron Ben-David) and Eli (Yaakov Zada-Daniel) on a mission for revenge — reluctantly. When Captain Ayub pulls him back into the mission, Doron is dealing with PTSD. It’s very much a “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” moment.

Much of season five doesn’t seem to take place in Israel. Like previous seasons, “Fauda” goes international. Doron, Steve, Eli and Salem (Bian Anteer’s new character, a Bedouin from Rahat whose son was murdered on October 7), are hunting down October 7 perpetrators in Marseilles, France. They are on a private “off grid” revenge mission to find the Hamas operative responsible for the killing of their loved ones; Eli’s wife and children were also viciously killed on October 7. Doron, however, firmly believes that revenge will not bring anyone’s loved ones back, even if he reluctantly joins the mission.

In Marseilles, Doron meets Melanie Laurent’s Anne. The “Inglourious Basterds” actress long dreamed of acting in “Fauda,” and called the experience a “dream.”

This season not only takes on the events of October 7, showing them in graphic details, but also the anti-war protests outside of Israel. It was shot in Budapest and also in the area of the Gaza envelope (to the protest of locals, who felt that shooting the show on the grounds of trauma would actually trigger PTSD for those still dealing with the visceral aftermath of that day). It seems to be a season that centers trauma and revenge.

Does season 5 of “Fauda” take on the story of the hostages?

The answer to that is no. While some of the hostages who returned from Gaza did visit the set of the show last year, the show’s writers and producers, who were writing the script for the season while the hostages still hadn’t all returned, decided to avoid the topic.

“We’re not prophets, we couldn’t guess what the reality would be like when the season came out,” producer Liat Benasuly told Makor Rishon. “We didn’t touch sensitive subjects like the hostages and their families when everything outside was [still] burning.”

How did October 7 actually influence the shooting of season 5?

Aside from the season being completely rewritten, one of the show’s stars, Idam Amedi, was injured in action during the Israel-Hamas war. He only stars in one scene this season. The first episode of this season is dedicated to Matan Meir, who worked on the show, and was killed in action during the war, and the partner of co-creator Avi Issacharoff’s stepdaughter, who also lost his life during the war.

Benasuly said it took a while for that rewrite to happen — “for a few months, we put everything to the side,” she explained.

“This isn’t another season, it’s the season of post October 7, and we’re all still under the influence of October 7,” Issacharoff said in an interview. On social media, he shared that this is the season the creators are perhaps most proud of, and that it’s hoping to bring the pain of October 7 to the world.

“There was a day of shooting in which we focuesd on what happened to the characters on October 7. We left it broken and shattered… At a certain point, I felt like I couldn’t be there. To speak these texts, to experience these experiences. It was hard not just for the actors, but for me and the creators in the editing room who watch these scenes over and over again,” Benasuly recalled.

What has the critical reception to season 5 been like in Israel?

A Walla review said that this might be the show’s best season. A Haaretz review gives the new season two stars, calling the writing lackluster at times and saying that after watching the first couple of episodes, one is left with a sense of queasiness. Over at Mako, reviewers praised Laurent’s performance and the show’s cinematography. Israel Hayom called it “the season of revenge Israel asked for.” Time Out review also stressed that in this new season, “Fauda” gives up some of its complexities and two-sidedness, and worried that this new season, which brings forth unbridled Israeli pain, might be less popular than its previous ones abroad, since the world has so little room for that pain.

The post The New Season of ‘Fauda’ Tackles October 7 appeared first on Kveller.

I never faced antisemitism as a child. Sure, the occasional swastika would appear at a park or near a local synagogue, but I still felt, for the most part, safe and accepted in my community. Maybe it was because my parents shielded me from it, or maybe it just truly wasn’t that prevalent at that moment. 

I can’t say my children will have the same experience. Today’s kids are growing up fluent in technology, with constant access to influencer culture and the opinions of strangers through YouTube, TikTok, Roblox and other social media platforms and message boards. The world is at their fingertips, unedited, often cruel and impossible to shield them from. They are also being raised in a time where antisemitic sentiment and incidents are at their highest levels in decades.

Maybe that’s why an online incident that occurred in our local school district upset me so much.

On April 29, our district dedicated a social media post to #EndJewHatredDay. I didn’t even know the day existed, but I was pleasantly surprised to see them acknowledge it. The district posted a simple blue square with a caption that read:

“End Jew Hatred Day is a time to reflect on the impact of hate and the responsibility we all share to foster respect and understanding in our communities.”

It felt nice to be seen and supported. But that feeling did not last long.

The comments on the fairly innocuous post were a cesspool of hate, ignorance and classic antisemitic tropes. There were claims that the Jews must control the school district and jokes about donations from Israel and AIPAC. There were threats of pulling children from the district. There was anti-Israel rhetoric and antisemitic slurs. 

Seeing antisemitism spelled out online is always horrifying, but sadly never shocking. Still, I was uniquely upset by these specific comments. It’s one thing to know antisemitism exists broadly. It’s another to see it reflected in your own community and to consider how to prepare your children to navigate that reality. These hateful comments did not come from a random person or a bot; each one could have been written by a neighbor, a parent at school, my kids’ coach or a camp counselor. It felt very personal.

Despite my better judgement, I commented on the school district’s post. I requested someone monitor or turn off the comments; instead I was told to go back to Israel, called a rat and told the comments were justified based on the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza. It scared me. And if facing this as an adult impacted me in such a way, how do I prepare my elementary-age children to face this? 

I keep asking myself this question: How do I raise my kids to be proud of who they are and connected to their Jewish identity, while also preparing them for the reality that antisemitism exists in ways I didn’t have to confront at their age? How do I do this without causing extra fear or anxiety? How do I help them when I’m still coming to terms with this new reality myself?

Maybe there is no perfect answer. Maybe it starts with something simple, like the Star of David I wear every day: showing them what Jewish pride looks like. We’ll light Shabbat candles each Friday. They’ll attend Hebrew school and learn their history and traditions. We’ll tell the stories that were passed down to us and make sure they know their identity is something to celebrate, not hide. 

Maybe it’s OK that I do not have the answers. We are learning together. I want us to understand that although we can’t control the scary things around us, we can control how we react to them. I want us to know that Judaism can be a source of strength and celebration, not fear.  I want us to be kind, thoughtful and accepting of others — and I want us to be unapologetically proud of who we are. 

I don’t need our school district to pay lip service to a hashtag holiday about ending Jew hatred. I need them to actually support my children in their Jewish identity. But until they can do that — I will.

The post My School District Posted In Support of Jews. Then, the Antisemitic Comments Started. appeared first on Kveller.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A hearty mazel tov to the entire Ziering family!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is Edikted an Israeli brand?

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

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

Who are the founders of Edikted?

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

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

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

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

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

When was Edikted founded?

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

What’s the secret to Edikted’s success?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen. What a mitzvah, Jackie Tohn!

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