Mandel Maven's Nest Lilith Watch:
Critical Guide to Jewish Women on TV, in the Flicks and Popular Music

Jewish Women on TV

Jewish Women in (and Missing from) the Flicks

Jewish Women in Popular Music



-From the exhibit Jewface: "Yiddish" Dialect Songs Of Tin Pan Alley, at YIVO, Words and music by Edgar Leslie and Irving Berlin (1909). Collection of Jody Rosen. “This song tells the story (from the perspective of her boyfriend Mose) of a Jewish girl named Sadie Cohen who becomes an actress and performs the risque role of Salome in [Richard Strauss’s] opera.”

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To find specific reviews by Nora Lee Mandel search by TV show title as listed by season since 1999 via your search engine

Unlike everybody else, I am very careful in my analyses of films and TV shows to identify Jewish characters through actual evidence in dialogue, actions or supporting visuals (like the ubiquitous menorah-on-the-shelf prop). I look at how the character is explicitly identified, but have had to expand to implications, particularly by a Jewish-type-sounding name, though I find that no one else makes these distinctions. (Like Elissa Strauss, in The Forward, 5/14/2015, calls “Brassy Jewish Woman 2.0: Pamela From Louie C.K.”, though there has been no references that the character played by co-writer/producer/star (and Jew) Pamela Adlon is Jewish.) Even though I’ve stretched into what I call “putative Jews”, there needs to be more indication than who plays the part.
I’ve started taking into account how the audience reacts to them based on external assumptions, particularly if Jewish actresses portray them, either as identified by general knowledge or perception of physical characteristics, particularly curly hair as Samantha Shokin described (Tablet Magazine 1/30/2014). In The Writers’ Room (on Sundance Channel, Spring 2014), Julianna Margulies, sporting her hair pulled back straight in a pony tail, explained why she wears a full wig as “Alicia Florick” on The Good Wife: “I wanted her to look WASPy, but I'm a Jew with curly hair and I was a new mom. . . The network now wants me to call other actresses and tell them this is a good thing not a bad thing.”
The British find us exotic, so the interviews are more explicit as in The Guardian, 8/26/2014, “Jenny Slate’s career almost ended when she swore on Saturday Night Live. Now she’s in the year’s most talked-about film. Hadley Freeman meets the star of Obvious Child. . .I do feel that I look traditionally Jewish, and it’s something I’m proud of and it’s something I’m a little bit insecure about, because I think maybe people don’t see me as myself. You know, that’s not the main girl, that’s the friend. But you know, I’ve realised that’s my issue. I’m glad that I look like myself and I didn’t get a nose job to fit in, and now I’m starring in this movie and people seem to like it. So fuck it.” So I’m following her career and the characters she portrays.


I also note personality or other stereotypes of the actor/actress’s Jewishness, however defined by ethnicity or observance or some kind of Jewish identity so that their characters implicitly become Jewish because they have been cast. (Such as “tough Jews”, as David Mamet calls them, at least for male portrayals, particularly when non-Jewish actors play Jews, though I intend to read and comment on his essays "The Jew for Export" and related ones on the impact of Hollywood’s anti-Semitism.) I am repulsed by using octoroon/Hitlerian family tree definitions of "being Jewish" for any actor/actress, but certainly there are people who Americans think “look Jewish”, though that usually means some general European ethnic-ness, that could just as easily be Mediterranean or Eastern European, which gets even more complicated by the portrayal of Israelis.
The true diversity of how Jews really look is rarely reflected, like my redhead, freckled siblings, where my brother can “pass” in Celtic bands. I am therefore just as intrigued if actors/actresses who are perceived/identified as Jewish get to play non-Jewish roles.


Mayim Bialik posted on her social media, on 8/26/2015: “To the man who admonished me for discussing religion bc its ‘supposed to be a private matter’: it is private until Fox news asks you about it because you're on a TV show. And also, I'm Jewish. It's not just my religion. It's my ethnicity and peoplehood. It's public whether I like it or not!” Building on her popularity as the non-Jewish “Amy Farrah Fowler” in the still top-rated sit com, and long-term renewed, The Big Bang Theory, Bialik is now so active and visible as a Jewish feminist Zionist (and parent and scientist), that rather than cite her individual comments and posts, follow her Grok Nation website/platform.

Mila Kunis, whose Jewish family left Ukraine with her because anti-Semitism limited their opportunities, posted a defiant statement in A+, 11/2/2016, against the sexism in how Hollywood treats her: “’You’ll Never Work In This Town Again’…If this is happening to me, it is happening more aggressively to women everywhere."
In March 2022, Kunis initiated a hugely successful, and ongoing, fundraising campaign for aid to Ukrainian refugees.


Debra Messing, who is only sometimes cast as Jewish on TV and isn’t usually visibly Jewish identified what with her trademark auburn locks, “accepted an award on 5/7/2017 from GLAAD for her LGBTQ activism with: “Ivanka, girlfriend, what are you doing? Come on, it’s me Deb, lets talk for a second, one Jewish mother to another…Imagine how you’ll feel sitting at Passover seder if you can tell your children that you fought for justice and freedom. It will make you feel richer than owning all the skyscrapers and golf courses in the world…You can’t just write #womenwhowork and think you’re advancing feminism,” Messing said. “You need to be a women who does good work: #saywhatyoumeanandmeanwhatyousay.”

The frequent TV stereotype of the sexy kick-ass Israeli army veteran/Mossad agent took on an ironic reality with the movie casting of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Talia Lakritz noted in Jewish Week, 7/14/2015: “her service in the Israeli Defense Forces helped her land the role of sharp-shooting Gisele Yashar in the Fast and Furious franchise.” – which I admit I’ve never seen. But when the trailer got released a year later featuring the former Miss Israel, Twitter was busy with anti-Zionist attacks on her. (updated 4/5/2017)

Why look at how Jewish women are portrayed on TV and in the movies? Others are documenting general or different specific images of women and the impact that has and the messages conveyed about women. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, does terrific research on the quantity, quality, and types of women in film and television.
Apply her analysis to how Jewish women are portrayed: Geena Davis summarized her findings about female roles in G-rated movies and children's TV programming in The Wall Street Journal, 4/11/2011, "Life Imitates Art" interview with Rebecca Blumenstein: "They found that the more hours of television a girl watches, the fewer options she believes she has in life. And the more hours a boy watches, the more sexist his views become. . .Of the female characters that existed, the majority are highly stereotyped and/or hypersexualized. . . .Negative images can powerfully affect boys and girls, but positive images have the same kind of impact. We know that if girls can see characters doing unstereotyped kinds of occupations and activities, they're much more likely as an adult to pursue unusual and outside-the-box occupations."
The significance of this approach for other minorities: GLAAD through the 2016/2017 season does a detailed Network Responsibility Index/Where We Are on TV Report for “the quantity, quality, and diversity of images of LGBT people on television” and created Vito Russo Test for LGBTQ characters comparable to the feminist Bechdel-Wallace Test, that apply strictly to movies. NOW did a feminist analysis of prime time TV, that took into account racial but not ethnic minority women on TV. The first Gender Bias Without Borders was “an investigation of female characters in popular films across 11 countries”. (updated 5/25/2017)

Amidst all the brouhaha over a 3/24/2015 headline in Deadline that was originally called “Pilots 2015: The Year of Ethnic Castings – About Time or Too Much of Good Thing?”, by Nellie Andreeva all jumped on the People of Color issue and not the lack of real ethnic diversity on TV.
Dee Lockett in Vulture, 3/25/2015, pointing out The 13 Most Ignorant Quotes From That Awful Deadline Article” cites the dictionary definition then adds “Andreeva takes us back to the 19th century, when racists still referred to nonwhites as "ethnics" — and got away with it. . .And using the term to suggest anything otherwise — in this case, that it denotes only people of color — is a dangerous, slippery slope.” Soraya Nadia McDonald, the next day in The Washington Post, put in more TV industry context: “Andreeva’s repeated use of the word ethnic, which appeared in her story 21 times. . .was aping standard casting director language and writing for a trade publication , which maybe suggested why she finitially found it innocuous and unobjecitonable. It’s one of those things that gets taken for granted but ended up exposing a larger hegemonic rigidity with regard to how race is interprerted in Hollywood: a standard where whiteness is this assumed default unless a character is specified as ethnic a blanket term that served to cover an entire range of disparate identities, races, and ethnicities. Right there embedded in the industry’s customary vernacular, is this confirmation that actors of color and roles for them have basically been an afterthought.” What was lost in the racial storm that led to a formal apology was “ethnic diversity” that didn’t necessarily refer to People of Color.
Another term for these ongoing stereotypes as racist is Jewface, which cites “The Jewish Mother”, “Jewish Princess”, and “Nice Jewish Girl”. (updated 6/2/2016)


Why LilithWatch? Much of my thinking about the contemporary, post-"Molly Goldberg" image of Jewish women in popular culture was inspired by the archetypal "Lilith" on the long-running sitcoms Cheers/Frasier (played by Jewish actress Bebe Neuwirth). I used to do popular culture reviews examining how Jewish women are faring in television, rock 'n' roll etc. for LILITH Magazine, the national independent Jewish feminist quarterly.
Since the Lilith Fair women's concert tours 1997-1999 (and returning in 2010), the name “Lilith” has gotten associated even more with feminism, viz. the "Wichita Linebacker" episode of Veronica Mars, written by John Enbom and Phil Klemmer, which identified "Lilith House" as the locus for the stereotyped, protesting "militant feminists" at the fictional Hearst College.
Starting in the 3rd season of Supernatural, their Lilith was seen like a Super Demon whose death then was the Final Seal that brought on Armageddon at the end of the fourth season.)
In True Blood, in the 5th season, Lilith is worshipped (in Aramaic) as the First Human Vampyr, with her own Bible. Series creator Alan Ball, in an “Inside the Episode” interview after “In the Beginning”, describes that he conceived of her as “a Mesopotamian goddess” when she appears in a naked, then bloody vision to vampires (including Salome, yeah, that Salome) who drank what they believed was her blood. In the season finale by Ball, “Save Yourself”, a rebel vampire declares: She’s a mad god. She’s about nothing but destruction.-- just as her self-declared “Chosen One” drinks all her blood and reincarnates into a similar scary naked vision. The 6th season, in 2013, clarified this Lilith demonology. In “The Sun”, written by Angela Robinson, she appears in beautiful human form to him on “some spiritual plane” (as the writer explained in her “Inside the Episode” interview), albeit with three naked “blood sirens”, to correct misimpressions: God made me. Some worship me as a god, but there is no God but God., as she urges her Prophet to help vampires avoid a genocidal round-up he foresees in a sun-drowning crematorium. In “Fuck the Pain Away”, also by Robinson, sets Lilith’s first contact with human/fairies to 3500 B.C. At the naked Lilith’s first sight of “Warlow”: What are you. . God spoke to me of a creature like you. . You are destined to save vampire-kind. And she rapes and vamps him in the desert. Blended with her prophet today “she” declares: I made you into our savior!, though he is able to rid himself of her after a final image of her and her two minions blood-drenched bodies. At least her appearances here are getting more women to revive herstory.
Once Upon A Time (on ABC) in the 4th season, in 2015, gave a Disney-fied, fairy-tale spin to the Lilith legend – though all the many recappers I read were oblivious to the background or resonances. The episode “Best Laid Plans”, written by Jane Espenson and Kalinda Vazquez, revealed a flashback to the adoption in Minnesota of evil Queen Maleficient’s dragon baby in human form – she was named “Lilith – Lily”. Her eponymous episode, written by Andrew Chambliss and Dana Horgan, traced how her life just kept going bad with bad choices since she was taken away from her mother (and due to the manipulation of her life by “The Evil One” – Rumpelstiltskin, played by Robert Carlyle), as revealed to her by The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (played by Timothy Webber): The deck has been stacked against you. I owe you the truth. She’s the teenage nemesis (as “Lily Page” played by Nicole Munoz) of “the Savior” (“Emma Swan” played by Abby Ross as a teen, Jennifer Morrison as an adult, daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White, who had stolen her as the dragon egg): Emma, there are powers beyond our understanding, and your parents messed with them. So the only friend I ever had wasn't even my friend by choice. . . But every time I try [making better choices], it just blows up in my face. It's like I'm cursed or something. It's true. It's like my whole life is darkness. “Malificient” (played by Kristin Bauer van Straten, such a charismatic vampire on True Blood in tangling with the other Lilith) is furious at the parents: You've been so worried that the Dark One might turn Emma into a monster, you forgot that's exactly what you did to my Lilith. So, if I won't forgive you, why would she? So guilt-ridden “Emma” tracks clues to find “Lily”, despite others’ warnings: She was a weird one. Kept to herself. 'Course, she had one of those personalities that you wanted to stay far away from. A real loser. In “Mother”, written by Jane Espenson, “Lily” (played by Agnes Bruckner) bitterly (and ironically) compares her banishment and maternal separation: Sent me through the portal in my eggshell, like baby Moses in his basket., and angrily transforms into a dragon to exact her revenge: You screwed me over before we were even born. I had no more say in what happened than you did. But your parents did. . . Your parents are monsters, Emma. They banished me and threw you in a wardrobe. And now here you are, ready to die for them, because you're so perfect. The savior. Well, they deserve to be punished. And there's only one way to stop me, and you know it. . . Thanks to you, I'm hardwired for bad decisions. So come on just put me out of my misery. You know the truth. We both know my life isn't worth saving. And if you let me go, I will destroy everything. It's what I do. So come on be the hero and end this right here before it even starts. “Emma” explains You are not as responsible for your own misery as you would believe. The deck has been stacked against you, Lilith, and it's not your fault. Everything you do will be harder. And I owe it to you to let you know why. I owe you the truth. . .Let's start with the necklace. It isn't exactly a stone, but it did belong to your mother. Would you like to hear about her? “Lily”: Why didn't you just kill me when you had the chance? I would have. . . Isn't that the whole point of savior and anti-savior? “Emma”s better nature prevails and Mother Maleficient gets her daughter back in human form: It's too late, isn't it? You're too grown up for everything. You don't need me. And I know that I'm not what you were hoping for. “Lily”, in the episode’s theme, is forgiving: I thought that you'd be this scary dragon bitch, and we'd go get our revenge. You know, blasting all those who did us wrong. But you're just this real person. And you're so frickin' open, it kills me. Mom: Why does that kill you? I don't understand. Please, tell me. “Lily”: Because you want a relationship, a future. And anyone who's ever wanted that with me, it's just, it's never worked out. I've always let them down. I destroy everything that I touch. That darkness they put in me, it's serious business. Mom: I don't mind a little darkness. Look -- why don't you stay for a week, and I can teach you about being a scary dragon bitch? “Lily”: Okay. One week. -- i.e. to the season finale – which just set up next season for her search for her unknown dragon father, with a piece of the egg she was hatched from as her only clue. How Lilith is presented here is given additional irony in the penultimate episode “Operation Mongoose, Part 1” when “The Author” (played by Patrick Fischler) reveals that in his pre-magic life as “Isaac Heller” he was Jewish, by cracking a joke about getting a pen for his bar mizvah. (updated 5/11/2015)


I’m particularly interested in the presentation of romantic relationships, as popular culture so rarely portrays Jews with Jews, let alone in a positive light.


Jewish Women on TV
I got tired of people always citing "Mrs. Seinfeld" to me as proof there are still Jewish women on TV, whether one considers a nagging elderly mother as a positive image or not. So I started covering leading characters who are Jewish women in Friends, Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Killer, Once and Again, Will & Grace (which I found too silly a show to keep monitoring even as she did end up back with her supposedly Jewish doctor husband), etc. My comments on The Nanny have been quoted in the catalog for the Jewish Museum exhibit Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting, edited by J. Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, published by Princeton University Press, in Shandler's essay "At Home on the Small Screen: Television's New York Jews", and then in Joyce Antler's excellent academic study You Never Call! You Never Write!: A History of the Jewish Mother (Oxford University Press, 2007). No, I didn't write up Dharma and Greg where "Dharma Finkelstein" is Jewish only for the novelty of the name, like Whoopi Goldberg; Entertainment Weekly claimed that Jenna Elfman was specifically hired for the role because she didn't look Jewish.
Then with so few lead Jewish women characters, even the usual Dead Jewish Mothers, I turned to monitoring supporting roles, though I hadn't earlier covered the likes of the best friend on Mad About You, or the bat mitzvah of “Muffy” (played by Jami Gertz), where Devo performed, on Square Pegs (David Browne in The New York Times review of the DVD of the series on 7/13/2008 calls her “the proto-yuppie”). But then with so few of even those, I looked for recurring Jewish women characters. With so few of even those, I'm now looking at guest turns. While I don't watch many sitcoms, I do watch Law and Orders to catch the Jewish Mother Murdering Matriarchs, fitting in with how executive producer Dick “Wolf maintains this consistency is by making most of the victims wealthy white people, which he believes viewers are more interested in watching. He limits the number of shows containing minority victims, including blacks and Muslims, to four or five episodes a season out of 22 to 24.” (per “Law and Disorder” by Rebecca Dana, The Wall Street Journal, 7/12/2008.) (I'm watching Law and Order: U.K., on BBC America, to see if the ethnic pattern from the adaptation of the U.S. scripts has been translated across The Pond.) (updated 10/5/2014)
With so few of those, I’m watching shows with Jewish male characters to see if they comment about their Jewish mothers or even date Jewish women, though my nephew Eliav told me I’m behind on the Jewish women references on The League. Plus I watch shows set in NYC to see if they ever have Jewish women characters, or shows in work settings like hospitals or law offices where in the real world it is common for Jews to be working. Like in NBC's Kings that though it was based on the Biblical book the closest it came to a Jewish woman was an odd "Sabbath Queen" as Death in a nightmare episode. So now, I'm also now looking at made-for-TV-movies, time permitting. With so few definitely Jewish women on TV, I’m even commenting on putative Jewish women, who I define as those with clearly Jewish-sounding names with implied Jewish-ness unless specifically denied, particularly if the audience is viewing them as Jewish, and also even characters pretending to be Jewish. (updated 10/5/2014)
I do detailed transcriptions, when I have time, of full dialogue and scene descriptions because I’m annoyed by the snarky or too casual inaccuracy in fan/entertainment publication recaps, particularly in reference to Yiddish expressions or religious rituals, that get widely disseminated as definitive, let alone are blithely prone to assumptions and acceptance of stereotyping. So I figure there should be one place on the Web that presents the facts and context about Jewish women characters, by TV season to monitor changes over time, which I mostly define by the Emmy Awards criteria, so now starts around June 1. (updated 3/28/2014)
I have not kept up 100% with sitcoms, most kids' shows, such as on Nick or Disney, “unscripted” reality shows (like ones that switched a Jewish mother to a gentile family) or the Jewish mothers on The Real Housewives of New York City/The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Extreme Guide to Parenting, NYC Prep, Skin Wars,Russian Dolls, Shahs of Sunset, The Bachelorette, My Antonio’s Jewish mother, "procedurals" (those fiction investigation series without continuing story or character arcs), or Family Guy, satirical guests on The Simpsons, or Kyle Broslofski's Jewish mother satired on South Park, let alone Judge Judy. But even worse, I can no longer keep up with all the shows, even just the noteworthy ones, available on all platforms! So mea culpa on what’s missing. (But I do hope to eventually catch up with foreign and American shows via Netflix and other Israeli TV series on Chai Flicks).
Here’s actor (and now writer) Jesse Eisenberg’s new spin, posted by his Israeli friend Tal Kra-Oz on 1/28/2016, about the image of Jewish mothers who are unlike his own: “What makes the overbearing mother funny is that it’s not the mother thinking that her son is the best in the world, but the juxtaposition between the mother expecting the son to be the best in the world and permanently disappointed that he’s not: arrogance on behalf of your son and total disappointment in him.” Et tu daughters? (updated 8/4/2024)


Now that I focus more on Jewish Women in (and Missing from) the Flicks (including at film festivals), I refer you to Kveller and Hey Alma for more coverage of Jews on TV on more platforms than I can access or watch. But they go by calendar year, while I use the Television Critics Association (TCA) and the Emmys usual definition: TV shows airing the majority of their season between June 1 and May 31. (updated 8/4/2024)

2024/2025 Season
Jewish women characters were on: The Porter


2023/2024 Season
Jewish women characters were on: Astrid; Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Chosen
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Susie Greene etc.
Elsbeth
Little Bird
World on Fire – 2nd season


2022/2023 Season
Imports
Jewish women on non-fiction TV: Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge;
Jewish women characters were on:
All Creatures Great and Small – 3rd Season
Andor
Cobra 2: Cyberwar
The Equalizer – 3rd Season
The Goldbergs – the 10th season
Hallmark’s Hanukkah on Rye
Israeli TV series in U.S.
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Miriam “Midge” Maisel etc. in the 5th season
The Patient
A Small Light
Vienna Blood – 3rd season


2021/2022 Season
Jewish women on non-fiction TV: Gossip;
Jewish women characters were on: Blue Bloods; Call The Midwife; Hallmark’s Eight Gifts of Hanukkah
American Crime Story: Impeachment - Monica Lewinsky
Better Things – Final, 5th season
The Goldbergs – the 9th season
Grace and Frankie – Final, 7th season
My Unorthodox Life
Ridley Road
Vienna Blood – 2nd season


2020/2021 Season
Jewish women characters were on: Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Riviera
The Alienist: Angel of Darkness - Bitsy Sussman in the 2nd season
The Goldbergs – the 8th season
The Good Fight – Marissa Gold in the 3rd season
A Place To Call Home – Sarah Adams in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th seasons
Younger – Lauren Heller and her mother in the 7th season


2019/2020 Season
Jewish women characters were on: Arrow – Felicity Smoak in the final 8th Season; Earth’s Sacred WondersElena of Avalor; Good Trouble; Harvey’s Girls; Murdoch Mysteries; NCIS – Ziva David in the 17th Season; Preacher – Dany in the 4th Season; Suits; The Windermere Children
Better Things – 4th season
Fear the Walking Dead – Sarah in the 5th season
The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 7th season
The Good Fight – Marissa Gold in the first season
Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein in the 6th season
Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein in the 6th season
Hallmark Hanukkah Movies
Hunters – Ruth Heidelbaum and Mindy Markowitz plus in Season 1
Israeli Television Series Streaming in U.S.
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Miriam “Midge” Maisel etc. in the 3rd season
Our Boys
A Place To Call Home – Sarah Adams in the 1st season
The Plot Against America
Pose - Frederica Norman in the 2nd season
The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park – Jennifer Levin and her female relatives
Résistance - Marie Kirschen and Cristina Boïco
Unorthodox
Vienna Blood – 1st season
Will & Grace – Grace Adler in the revived, final 11th season
World on Fire – 1st season
Younger – Lauren Heller in the 6th season


2018/2019 Season
Jewish women characters were on: Claws; Deutschland 86; Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Good Trouble; High Maintenance; Poetry in America; Portraits in Architecture – Nada Breitman-Jakov; Suits; We Will Meet Again;
Arrow – Felicity Smoak in the 7th Season
Better Things in the 3rd season
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Rebecca Bunch and others in their 4th season
Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein in the 5th season
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – Abigail McCarthy plus in the 5th Season
The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 6th season
Israeli Television Series Streaming in U.S.;
Stockholm – Nilli and Zohara Zak in the 1st season
The/Le Tunnel – Elise Wassermann in the 3rd season
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Miriam “Midge” Maisel etc. in the 2nd season
Will & Grace – Grace Adler in the revived 10th season
X Company – 2nd and 3rd Seasons
Younger – Lauren Heller and others in the 5th season


2017/2018 Season
Jewish women characters were on: A Christmas Story Live!; The Alienist; Artful Detective/Murdoch’s Mysteries; Claws; Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are, Nazi Fugitives; Knightfall; Law & Order True Crime:The Menendez Murders; Preacher – Dany in the 2nd Season; Salvation; The Tale; and Under Her Skin. Putative Jewish woman on: Playing House.
Apt JKL
Arrow – Felicity Smoak in the 6th Season
Better Things
The Collection
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Rebecca Bunch and others in their 3rd season
Genius: Picasso – Gertrude Stein
The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 5th season
The Fosters – Emma Kurtzman in her 5th season
A French Village (Un Village Français) – 6th and 7th seasons
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – Abigail McCarthy in the 4th Season
Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein in the 4th season
Madam Secretary – Nadine Tolliver in the 4th season
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Miriam “Midge” Maisel etc. in the 1st season
Saving Hope – Dr. Sydney Katz in the 5th season
I Love Dick - Chris Kraus
Odd Mom Out – Jill Weber in the 3rd season
The/Le Tunnel – Elise Wassermann in the 2nd season
Veep – Shawnee Tanz in the 6th season
Will & Grace – Grace Adler in the revived 9th season
Younger – Lauren Heller and others in the 4th season


2016/2017 Season
Jewish women characters were on: Documentary Now; Fargo; Genealogy Roadshow; Hate Thy Neighbor; Hawaii Five-0; Homeland; Ray Donovan; Switched At Birth, This Is US – 1st season; and Who Do You Think You Are. Putative Jewish women characters were on: Code Black; I Love Dick; Doubt; New Girl; The Night Of; Once Upon A Sesame Street Christmas; and Saving Hope.
Arranged
Arrow – Felicity Smoak in the 5th Season
Berlin Station - Golda Friedman and others in the 1st Season
Better Things - Sam
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Rebecca Bunch and others in their 2nd season
Dirty Dancing
Feed the Beast – Ruth Klein
A French Village (Un Village Français) – 4th and 5th seasons
The Fosters – Emma Kurtzman in her 4th season
Genius – Elsa and Pauline Einstein and others in the 1st season
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – Abigail McCarthy in the 3rd Season
Girls – Shoshanna Shapiro in the 6th Season
The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 4th season
Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein in the 3rd season
The Interestings – Julie Jacobson and others in the pilot
Madam Secretary – Nadine Tolliver in the 3rd season
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Miriam “Midge” Maisel in the pilot
Odd Mom Out – Jill Weber in the 2nd season
Madiba– Ruth First and Helen Suzman in the mini-series
Ripper Street – Deborah Gorn and Rachel Castello in the 4th & 5th seasons
The/Le Tunnel – Elise Wassermann in the 1st season
The Wizard of Lies – The Madoff Women and others in mini-series
UnReal – Rachel Goldberg and others in the 2nd season
Younger – Lauren Heller and others in the 3rd season


2015/2016 Season
Jewish women characters were on: Aquarius; Banshee; Belief; Chicago P. D.; The Enfield Haunting; Grantchester; Homeland; It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia; Legends; Masters of Sex; NCIS; New Girl; Shades of Blue; The Strain, Suits – 5th season, and Who Do You Think You Are. Putative Jewish women characters were on: Devious Maids and The Walking Dead.
Arrow – Felicity Smoak in the 4th Season and 2nd Season of The Flash
Broad City – 3rd season
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Rebecca Bunch, her mother, and others in their 1st season
The Fosters – Emma Kurtzman in her 3rd season
A French Village (Un Village Français) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
Gigi’s Bucket List
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – Abigail McCarthy in the 2nd Season
Girls – Shoshanna Shapiro in the 5th Season
The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 3rd season
The Good Wife – Marissa Gold in the final season;
Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein in the 2nd season
Inside Amy Schumer in the 4th Season
The Knick – “Genevieve Everidge” in the 2nd Season
The Last Ship – Lt. Ravit Bivas in the 2nd Season
Madam Secretary – Nadine Tolliver in the 2nd season
Madoff – Ruth Madoff and others
Manhattan – Abigail Isaacs in the 1st season
Man Seeking Woman – Liz and Patti Greenberg plus in the 2nd season
Married – Jess in the 2nd season
Marvel’s Agent Carter – Ana Jarvis in the 2nd season
Mistresses– Ariella Greenburg in the 3rd season
Murder in the First - Raffaella “Raffi” Veracruz
Odd Mom Out – Jill Weber in the 1st season
Saving Hope – Dr. Sydney Katz in the 3rd season
Transparent– Sarah, Ali, family and friends
UnReal – Rachel Goldberg and others in the 1st season
Younger – Lauren Heller in the 2nd season


2014/2015 Season Jewish women characters were on:
The Book of Negroes, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Borders, The Dovekeepers, Boardwalk Empire, Downton Abbey, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Grimm, Houdini, Kosher Soul, The League, Mad Men, Makers: Women Who Make America, The Mysteries of Laura, New Girl, The Red Tent, Parks and Recreation, Ray Donovan, Scorpion, and The Strain. Putative Jewish women characters were on: The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Chasing Life, Elementary, Episodes, The Mindy Project, and Red Band Society.
Arrow – Felicity Smoak in the 3rd Season and 1st Season of The Flash
Big Bang Theory - Mrs. Wolowitz in her 8th and Final Season
Broad City – 2nd season
Community – Annie Edison in the 6th season
The Fosters – Emma Kurtzman in her 2nd season
A French Village (Un Village Français) – 1st season
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – Abigail McCarthy in the 1st Season
Girls – Shoshanna Shapiro in the 4th Season
Glee - Rachel Berry etc. in the 6th/final season
The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 2nd season
The Good Wife – Marissa Gold in the 6th season
Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein in the 1st season
Hart of Dixie – Dr. Zoe Hart in the 4th season
Hindsight – Lolly Levine
The Honourable Woman – Nessa Stein and more
House of Lies - Sarah Guggenheim in the 4th season
Inside Amy Schumer 3rd Season
In the Face of Crime (Im Angesicht des Verbrechens)
Madam Secretary – Nadine Tolliver in the 1st season
Manhattan – Abigail Isaacs in the 1st season
Man Seeking Woman – Liz and Patti Greenberg plus in the 1st season
Married – Jess in the 1st season
Transparent – Sarah, Ali, family and friends in the 1st season
Younger – Lauren Heller and mother in the 1st season


2013/2014 Season
Jewish women characters were on: Black Box, Call the Midwife, Drop Dead Diva, Fargo, Foyle’s War, Genealogy Roadshow, Generation Cryo, The League, The Mindy Project, New Girl, Parks and Recreation, Scorpion and Who Do You Think You Are?. Putative Jewish woman characters were on Elementary and Episodes.
Arrow – Felicity Smoak in the 2nd Season
Big Bang Theory - Mrs. Wolowitz in the 7th Season
Broad City
Community – Annie Edison in the 5th season
The Fosters – Emma Kurtzman in her 1st season
Girls – Shoshanna Shapiro in the 3rd Season
Glee - Rachel Berry etc. in the 5th season
The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus
Hart of Dixie – Dr. Zoe Hart in the 3rd season
House of Lies - Sarah in her 2nd season
Inside Amy Schumer – 2nd Season
Joan Rivers – everywhere
Magic City – Evans family, etc. in the final, 2nd season
NCIS - Ziva David in her final season
Princesses: Long Island – 1st and hopefully only Season
Prisoners of War (Hatufim) – 2nd Season
Strike Back – Rebecca Levy in her 2nd season
Transparent– Sarah, Ali, family and friends in the pilot


2012/2013 Season
Jewish women characters were on: Alphas, The Bible, The Big C, Blue Bloods, Bunheads, Children’s Hospital, Covert Affairs, Happily Divorced, a Lifetime movie, Mad Men, Major Crimes, The Mentalist, Raising Hope, Southland, Spies of Warsaw, Suits – 2nd season, Upstair Downstairs, and Weeds. A putative Jewish woman character was on Parks and Recreation, Scorpion.
American Horror Story: Asylum – “Anne Frank”
Arrow – Felicity Smoak in the 1st Season
Big Bang Theory - Mrs. Wolowitz in the 6th Season
Community – Annie Edison in the 4th Season
Girls – Shoshanna Shapiro in the 2nd Season
Glee - Rachel Berry and Sugar Motta in the 4th season
Hart of Dixie – Dr. Zoe Hart in the 2nd season
House of Lies - Sarah in her 1st season
Inside Amy Schumer - 1st Season
Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? - Joan and Melissa Rivers – 3rd season
NCIS - Ziva David in her 8th season
Prisoners of War (Hatufim) – 1st Season
Ripper Street – Deborah Goren in the 1st Season
Shameless (U.K.) – Esther Blanco (plus)
Strike Back – Rebecca Levy in her 1st season
Underemployed – Raviva


2011/2012 Season
Jewish women characters were on Blue Bloods, Bored to Death, Castle, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Gossip Girl, Happily Divorced, Hawthorne, Mad Men, MI-5 (Spooks), Modern Family, NYC 22, Pan Am, Prime Suspect, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Southland, TNT’s Mystery Movies, and Who Do You Think You Are. Putative Jewish women characters were on The Good Wife, How To Make It In America, In Plain Sight and Lost Girl.
Big Bang Theory - Mrs. Wolowitz in the 5th Season
Community – Annie Edison in the 3rd Season
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Susie Greene etc.
Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold in the 8th Season
Friday Night Dinner – Jackie Goodman in the 1st Season
Girls – Shoshanna Shapiro in the 1st Season
Glee - Rachel Berry and Sugar Motta in the 3rd season
Harry’s Law - Harriet Korn in the 2nd season
Hart of Dixie – Dr. Zoe Hart in the 1st season
Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? - Joan and Melissa Rivers – 2nd season
Magic City – Evans family, etc. in the 1st season
NCIS - Ziva David in her 7th season


2010/2011 Season
Jewish women characters were on 100 Questions, Being Human (U.S.), Boardwalk Empire, Brothers & Sisters, Castle, Desperate Housewives, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Good Wife, Grey's Anatomy, Hung, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Nurse Jackie, Outcasts, Private Practice, and Upstairs Downstairs. I happened to catch a Jewish actress on the "make-over" show What Not To Wear. Putative Jewish women characters were on Californication, Hawthorne, Huge, and Mad Men.
18 To Life – Bellow Mother and Daughters
Big Bang Theory - Mrs. Wolowitz in the 4th Season
Community – Annie Edison in the 2nd Season
Being Erica – Erica Strange – 3rd season
Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold in the 7th Season
Glee - Rachel Berry in the 2nd season
House, M.D. – Lisa Cuddy in the 7th season
Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? - Joan and Melissa Rivers – 1st season
NCIS - Ziva David in her 6th season
Skins (U.S.) – Tea Marvelli


2009/2010 Season
Jewish women characters were on Bored To Death, The Deep End, Fringe, The Good Wife, Leverage, Inspector Lewis, Mercy, Nip/Tuck, Private Practice, Psych, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Three Rivers, United States of Tara, Ugly Betty, and Who Do You Think You Are. Putative Jewish women characters were on Californication, Gray's Anatomy, Heroes, House, Party Down, and White Collar.
Big Bang Theory - Mrs. Wolowitz in the 3rd Season
Being Erica – Erica Strange – 2nd season
Community – Annie Edison in the 1st Season
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Susie Greene etc.
Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold in the 6th Season
Glee - Rachel Berry
House, M.D. – Lisa Cuddy in the 6th season
NCIS - Ziva David in her 5th season
Z Rock – Dina Malinsky, Joan Rivers and others in the 2nd season


2008/9 Season
Jewish women characters were on C.S.I., C.S.I.: NY, Diamonds mini-series, Eli Stone, Gossip Girl, Hallmark Hall of Fame, In Plain Sight, Nurse Jackie, Saving Grace, The Unit, and a Lifetime Movie of the Week. I happened to also catch a Jewish actress on the "make-over" show What Not To Wear. Putative Jewish women characters appeared in 90210, Californication, The Cleaner, Desperate Housewives, E.R., Gossip Girl, Hawthorne, Monk, and Sons of Anarchy.
Big Bang Theory - Mrs. Wolowitz in the 2nd Season
Being Erica – Erica Strange
Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold and others in the 5th season
House, M.D. – Lisa Cuddy in the 5th season
The L Word - Jenny Schecter in the 6th, final season
NCIS - Ziva David in her 4th season
Rescue Me – Valerie in her 2nd season
The Sarah Silverman Program in her 3rd season
The Starter Wife - Molly Kagan post-mini-series
Z Rock – Dina Malinsky, Joan Rivers and others


2007/8 Season
Jewish women were on The Cleaner, Eli Stone, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Lipstick Jungle, and House, M.D.. Putative Jewish women characters appeared in Big Shots, Californication, Cashmere Mafia, Canterbury’s Law, Desperate Housewives, Terminal City, and Ugly Betty.
Big Bang Theory - Mrs. Wolowitz in the 1st Season
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Susie Greene etc.
The L Word - Jenny Schecter in the 5th season
Mad Men - Rachel Menken and Bobbie Barrett
Mandrake – Berta Bronstein
NCIS - Ziva David in her 3rd season
Nip/Tuck– Rachel Ben Natan
Pushing Daisies– Charlotte “Chuck” Charles
The Riches – the faux Cherien Rich in her 2nd season
The Sarah Silverman Program in her 2nd season
Weeds – Bubbe Botwin
The Wire - Rhonda Pearlman in the 5th season


2006/7 Season
Jewish women characters also appeared on C.S.I., Desperate Housewives, E.R., Grey's Anatomy, House, M.D., John from Cincinnati, Justice, Numb3rs, The Nine, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, Rome, Standoff, State of Mind, The State Within, Ugly Betty, The Unit and Waking the Dead.
Brothers & Sisters – Nora Holden
Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold and daughter Sarah in Season 3B and Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold and daughter Sarah in Season 4
Heroes – Hana Gitelman
The L Word - Jenny Schecter in the 4th season
Mad Men - Rachel Menken
NCIS - Ziva David in her 2nd season
Rescue Me – Valerie in her 1st season and Beth Feinberg
The Riches – the faux Cherien Rich
The Sarah Silverman Program
Weeds - Yael Hoffman
The Wire - Rhonda Pearlman in the 4th season

2005/6 Season
Jewish women characters also appeared on E.R., Girlfriends, Grey's Anatomy, Nip/Tuck, Sea of Souls and Veronica Mars
Beautiful People - Annabelle Banks
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Susie Greene etc.
Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold and daughter Sarah in the 3rd Season
Everwood - Delia Brown in the 4th season
The L Word - Jenny Schecter in the 3rd Season
NCIS - Ziva David
Sopranos - Julianna Skiff

2004/5 Season
Jewish women characters also appeared on Grey's Anatomy, Judging Amy, Law and Order, Nip/Tuck, Veronica Mars and Waking the Dead.
Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold
Everwood
Joan of Arcadia
The L Word - Jenny Schecter in the 2nd Season
Numb3rs - The Late Mrs. Eppes
The O.C. - Rebecca Bloom and the Nana in the 2nd Season
Pilot Season
Queer as Folk - Melanie Marcus in the 5th Season
The Wire - Rhonda Pearlman in the 3rd season

2003/4 Season
Jewish women characters also appeared on CSI, Judging Amy and Law and Order: Criminal Intent.
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Anna
Everwood
Gilmore Girls - Paris Geller
Joan of Arcadia
The L Word - Jenny Schecter
Line of Fire
Miss Match
Nip/Tuck - Mrs. Grubman
The O.C. - Anna Stern and the Nana
The Practice
Rocked With Gina Gershon
Sex and the City - Charlotte Goldenblatt
Skin
Sopranos- Fran Felstein
Street Time - Rachel Goldstein
Wonderfalls

2002/3 Season
Jewish women characters were on:
Breaking News
Everwood
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Gilmore Girls - Paris Geller
Law and Order
Sex and the City - Charlotte York
Street Time - Rachel Goldstein
That Was Then
The Wire - Rhonda Pearlman

2001/2 Season
7th Heaven


2000/2001 Season

1999/2000 Season



2024/2025 Season

The Porter (2022 Canadian/BET+ co-production of eight-part series broadcast on some PBS stations this year) Based on true events from Canadian history in the 1920s unfamiliar to Americans, the development of the first Black-led labor union (and the expansion of the Black-run numbers racket) are stunningly well-portrayed and incorporated a wide variety of social, cultural, economic, and political issues of the time. A segregated Jewish-led labor union, run corruptly by “Moschel” (played by Alex Poch-Goldin) is almost as much an opposition as the evil capitalist railroad owner. Advised by A. Philip Randolph in the U.S., porter organizer/World War I veteran “Zeke Garret” (played brilliantly by Ronnie Rowe, Jr.) thinks he has figured out a way to manipulate them. His friend’s wife “Marlene Massey”, who has trained with the Black Cross Nurses of Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Assn, diagnoses that ill railroad worker “Steven” (played by Andrew Cromwell), fiancé of “Rebekah Moschel” (played by Megan Best) who appears in Episode 7 “Our Turn Now”, written by series creators Bruce Ramsey and Arnold Pinnock, had a secretive, now infected, circumcision because he’s hiding that not only is he not Jewish, but he’s “passing” as white altogether. “Steve” warns: Moschel only tolerates me because his sister loves me. With both her brother and her boyfriend treating the Jewish woman condescendingly (her brother sends her out to the bakery away from the discussions: Pick us up a few pieces of sponge cake), it is sad, but no surprise, that the attempted blackmail fails to win the vote to integrate the existing railroad employees’ union. (8/4/2024)

2023/2024 Season

The most powerful and effective Jewish woman impacting the TV season was Fran Drescher, President of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union of 160,000 members. They joined with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), representing the studios and streamers. Her strike declaration speech on July 13, 2023 laid out the themes and anger in universal labor organizing terms. While Jewish media have crowed about her dropping Yiddish phrases in other presentations, I was struck by her expressive hand motions (not to be confused with the ASL translator beside her, not visible in this clip).

Elsbeth (on CBS) – As Blue Bloods plays out its final, 14th season barely ever acknowledging the Jews in its New York setting, I was curious to see how the new Columbo-imitation series joining the crime-filled line-up on this network. None of the regular characters, of course, are Jewish, from the first episode there’s sprinklings of references to the title lawyer Tascioni coming from Chicago (and from Michelle and Robert King’s earlier The Good Wife) learning Yiddish, from characters who may be Jewish. This was most probable in the 3rd episode “A Classic New York Character”, co-written by Bryan Goluboff. Linda Lavin is very funny as the episode’s titular victim “Gloria Blecher”, the domineering, inferentially Jewish, president of a co-op board and of her cowed son “Lewis, Jr” (played by Greg Hildredth), who quotes her favorite Yiddish terms, like tsouris. And we learn at the conclusion just how much she dominated her husband, too. (4/25/2024)

The Chosen (on CW, Christian/Catholic, Amazon Prime channels) The evangelical Angel Studios presents what the showrunner calls a “realistic” portrayal of The New Testament. The publicists claim the series has garnered more than 550 million episode views across 175 countries. I’m up to watching Season 2 out of curiosity for the view of Jews in general and Jewish women in particular. Specifics forthcoming. (11/2/2023)

Curb Your Enthusiasm (on HBO, streaming on Max) – I’m several seasons behind, so I have not yet watched the final season. But the most prominent Jewish woman regular on this show about a misanthropic character is even more popular, “Susie Greene” (played by Susie Essman), such that HBO is successfully marketing her best-selling signature “Catch as Caftan”:

“Channel your inner Susie Greene and turn heads wherever you go. Look fabulous running errands, hitting the beach, or hosting a dinner party. It's the perfect blend of sass and sophistication, just like Susie herself. Sport your love for Curb Your Enthusiasm in style!” (In pink or blue prints, but I can’t wear polyester, let alone buying it for $75.95.) (7/6/2024)

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (on PBS, accessible through Passport by donor members)
In “Born To Sing”, (S10 Ep1), Canadian singer/songwriter Alanis Morrisette tells the Professor that she didn’t find out that her mother Georgia MaryAnn Feuerstein was Jewish until she was 28 years old. Some of her family survived the Holocaust in Hungary, but barely Communism, while her family’s roots go back to the same part of Galicia that is now in Ukraine as my maternal Steckel family. The Professor’s team was able to find a news clipping about what happened to her grandmother Nadinia and great-grandmother Katalin Gulyas in Canada, as well as tracing back to the early 1800s for her third great-grandmother Freuda Hardstein Blumankrantz in Drohobych. She notes that she intends to tell her kids how “super Jewish” she is. (1/3/2024)
“In Your Blood”, (S10 Ep9) features Michael Douglas and Lena Dunham, neither recognizable from their earlier work. Lena describes herself as “half-Jewish”, but the roots that were rarely discussed. Her grandmother was Dorothy Carol Trussel – ““She wasn’t forthcoming with information. She was about the present.” She only knew her grandfather as an orthodontist with a practice in Great Neck, and had no idea he’d volunteered for the military after Pearl Harbor. Prof. Gates’s researchers traced her great-grandmother Regina Seltinwirth (sp?), born in 1870, immigrated at age 14, married at 19. She was born in Tarnow, but the Prof. did not mention that when she lived there it was not Poland, but the Galicia also of my maternal Steckel family. But his researchers found a “gold mine’ -- her records at an all -girls primary school; gosh, would I be able to find that for my family? Regina left her parents and at least 11 siblings behind. The Prof’s staff was able to trace one of her brothers, who moved to Hungary with his wife and children. His daughter Ilona was separated and killed in the Kamenets-Podolsk massacre; her parents and brother survived. Prof. Gates: “You have a genetic connection to the Holocaust.” Dunham responded: “I share not just DNA, but probably features, emotional responses, and our approach to life.” Like almost all the Jewish guests on the program, he claims she’s related to Larry David, with never a discussion of Jewish endogamy. She clearly drew on her feelings about these roots for her performance in the 2024 film Treasure. (7/6/2024)

Astrid (Astrid et Raphaëlle, policier from France, part of PBS’s “Walter’s Choice” Imports) In “Golem”, S2 Ep 6, originally aired March 2021, with the series creators plus Hélène Hassoun credited as the writers, a love triangle among Orthodox Jewish AI tech entrepreneurs results in murder. The woman died in the previous year, but “Eve” (played by Chloé Franҫois) lives on in AI, for external purposes as a blonde, but in her actual brown hair and saved voice among her heartsick and revengeful friends. (11/21/2023)

Little Bird (Canadian six-part series broadcast on PBS) The story is like a fictionalized version of the documentary Daughter of A Lost Bird, that I saw at the 2021 Human Rights Watch Film Festival. But I did not expect that the forced removal of Native girl “Bezhig Little Bird” from her reserve-living family would result in her adoption into a Jewish home, becoming “Esther Rosenblum” (played by Darla Contois), as adopted by Holocaust survivor “Golda” (played by Lisa Eldelstein). The series was developed by showrunners Jennifer Podemski, who identifies as of “mixed Anishinaabe (First Nation) and Ashkenazi (Jewish)” descent (she grew up unaware that her maternal grandparents were victims of the residential school system, but with familiarity that her father is Israeli and his father a Holocaust survivor), and Nova Scotian playwright Hannah Moscovitch, whose son, per Instagram post, does “zoom Shabbat with his bubby and zaydie.” Commentary forthcoming. (updated 11/3/2023)

World On Fire – 2nd season - I forgot that “Henriette Guilbert” (played by Eugénie Derouand), continued from the first season, also created and written by Peter Bowker, is a gutsy Jewish nurse in the Resistance. Escaping suspicions in a Paris hospital for a small coastal village, she confessed her identity (that I didn’t catch), in worry about her brother’s arrest, to the cocky, flirtatious, handsome downed Jewish RAF pilot “David” (with a single name in the military that could be his first or surname, he is played by Jewish actor Gregg Sulkin) who she heals, protects, intensely romances while hidden in a farmer’s barn, and farewells for a boat back to England. He does Shabbat prayers upon his safe return, but she’s picked up by the Gestapo, who can tell her ID is a forgery and that she is really the daughter of Rose and Ben. In prison, she’s surprised when her contact warns she’ll be sent directly to Ravensbrück for females in Germany—and that Jews are treated differently there. Having survived torture (“I gave away two comrades who are already dead and one who knows they are coming”), she’s sure she can escape – perhaps hopeful to rendezvous with “David”. (11/21/2023)

2022/2023 Season

10-episode mini-series adaptation streaming at FX on Hulu, that I don’t usually have access to, as of November 17, 2022 of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is In Trouble, 380 pages, 2019, Random House, in paperback/Kindle/audiobook (National Book Award Longlist; Best Book of the Year: NYPL, NPR, EW, NYT, Time, WaPo, USA Today, VF, Vogue, Chicago Tribune, Guardian, GQ, , Refinery29, Elle, Good Housekeeping, New Statesman, Marie Claire, Town & Country, Evening Standard, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews) – that I haven’t read yet.

The Equalizer (on CBS) – While I sometimes watch NYC-set shows in case Jewish characters appear, I wasn’t interested in this violent re-make of 1980s series and additional re-incarnations, even though some episodes have been filmed in my neighborhood. There was pre-publicity about “Never Again” (S3 Ep11), co-written by two Jews, co-showrunner Adam Glass and debut script writer Ora Yashar, who in interviews has noted her family is Mizrahi from Iran, of a somewhat realistic hate crimes. First, two living Jewish women appear briefly about the crimes (and are not shown in any of the publicity stills). “Rebekah” (Ali Stoner) is the inheritor of a family business who called in the crime-fighters; “Cheryl McKenna” (Dawn McGees) is more unusual for TV: I'm not Jewish, but I'm in the process of converting. I love the community. They took us in after my husband died and everyone at Mitzi's is like family to us…And I don't want to leave what I've built…How can we leave the community when they are at their lowest? The publicity made much that this was the first episode that uses actor Adam Goldberg’s own background of having one Jewish parent, as he comes to Brooklyn to investigate antisemitic incidents. “Adam Keshegian” is revealed to have a Jewish mother, though there’s a twist on the usual dead mother syndrome: Mitzi's deli in Midwood? That's [my] old stomping grounds. Wow, haven't thought about that place in a long time. Best chocolate babkas in Brooklyn. Got me through some rough times…You know, growing up with a Jewish mom and an Armenian dad, I can't say I knew where I stood in the community, but I definitely know where I stand on hate crimes. Look at this. Antisemitic incidents were at an all-time high last year in the U.S. and assaults up 167%. No wonder the Jewish community is scared. The rabbi (played by Richard Mazur, but the publicity department identified him as Saul Rubinek, so most press coverage just said so) recognizes “Harry”s name: You're Sara's boy. You left us just before your bar mitzvah. “Harry”: Yeah. My dad and I moved to Long Island after the divorce. I didn't see much of her. Rabbi: Your mother, should she rest in peace, was a wonderful woman. He tells his Asian wife “Melody (Mel) Bayani” (played by Liza Lapira): The rabbi keeps talking about my mom like she was this perfect specimen of a human being. Not the mom I grew up with. What kind of mother abandons their kid? She didn't even fight for me when my parents split up. Another incident brings “Harry” again to the rabbi: Boychik, you have a good heart. Your mother... She should rest in peace... She had a good heart, too. She was always trying to help...It's like how every Jewish holiday started. They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat. “Harry”: I don't know how you can be laughing at a time like this. Rabbi: Do you know what your Hebrew name is?..It's Itzhak. It means laughter. You can't lose your joy, Harry. If you let them crush your spirit, they win. After he solves the crime, and saves the rabbi, “Harry”: I'm glad that you have such fond memories of my mom. But, I can't say the same about a woman who abandoned me the way that she did. Rabbi: Of course. You don't know, do you?...Your mother, she suffered from horrible bouts of depression. It was to the synagogue that she came, and it helped. But she felt she couldn't help you, and so she set you free so you could thrive. “Harry”: Why didn't my father tell me any of this? Rabbi: Because your mother made him swear he wouldn't. She was ashamed. “Harry”: 'Cause mental illness wasn't talked about much back then. Rabbi: It still isn't. And your father loved your mother very much. He would have done anything for her. But he didn't know how to help her. So he decided to help you instead. And look what a mensch you've turned into. Because you were born out of love. He explains to his wife that he feels moved to light a candle: I've never done this before. But I saw my mom do this for my grandmother. This is how the Jewish people honor their dead. Make sure that their memory lives on, burns bright. I was just so mad at my mom. I just... I never honored her or my people. This is for you, mom, and he says kaddish. (5/17/2023)

The Patient (originally on Hulu, repeated on FX) – In a 10-episode horror series created and written by Joel Fields and Joseph Weisberg (both Jewish), psychotherapist “Alan Strauss” (Steve Carell) held captive by a serial killer keeps flashing back to unchronologically revealed haunted times with his late wife “Beth” (played by Laura Niemi). She was a guitar-playing Reform cantor trying to reconcile with her Ultra-Orthodox-turned son “Ezra” (Andrew Leeds). In Episode 3 “Issues”, she insists on singing “Dodi Li” in Hebrew at his wedding, that quotes lines from “Song of Songs” – and several offended Ultra-Orthodox men from her daughter-in-law “Chava” (Amy Handelman)’s family walk out. At another point in his past the couple visit with the grandchildren – but bring their own food in plastic containers, eat off paper plates, and can’t have for dessert the ice cream their grandmother doles out to others. “Ezra” also has a younger sister “Shoshana”, played by Renata Friedman. I guess this is supposed to show that the therapist struggles with empathy like he’s trying to get his patient to feel? Disclosure: our cousin’s brother Alan Blumenfeld is in some episodes as “Chaim Benjamin”.
In Episode 5 “Pastitsio”, “Alan” makes a death pact with another prisoner to pass on messages: Tell my daughter, Shoshana, I love her very much and treasure our time together…I want her to find a way to move on. Ezra, my son... Tell him I loved him very much and that his mother loved him, too. Even when it was difficult between them. And that I'm... sorry that there was so much... conflict in the family when she was dying… When Ezra went to college... ...he fell in with one of those rabbis with the black hats and... suddenly he's an Orthodox Jew. No parties. Doesn't turn the lights on or off during the Sabbath. Beth, my wife...this all... just drove her crazy. Everybody following their own paths wasn't exactly her cup of tea. I did my best to help her with it, but…Ezra did not make it easy. His family could not even come over to our house without bringing their own food. You know about kosher food? It's regular food with a thousand rules. This one birthday party for Ezra's son... she wanted to bring some... When the prisoner talks about his life, “Alan” for some reason flashes back when his son was young and his wife leading the congregation with her guitar from “Shabbat Shalom” to a song for children “I’ve Got That Shabbat Feeling (Up in My Head)”. “Ezra” calls out: That’s my Mommy! “Beth” acknowledges him: I'm a cantor, but I'm also a mommy. This is my son Ezra. In Episode 6 “Charlie”, “Alan” flashes back to his session with his female therapist curious about his wife’s Jewish funeral. He shrugs: This one had more singing than usual. He has another flashback of his wife the cantor singing on the bima – but this time he’s not with their kids in the congregation.
Episode 7 “Kaddish” gets more into the parents complicated relationship with their son “Ezra” since he turned Ultra-Orthodox, but this still seems a thin reed to link empathy issues with a serial killer lacking any. He interprets his dreams as missing his late wife and estranged son. But he’s upset that he can’t remember the words to say Kaddish for his wife – so the kidnapper sets a computer printer to get the words. He goes on a rant, bringing together the issues of his dead wife and his renegade son: He's left us all in the dust. That whole family, his in-laws, they are over at his house constantly. Helping with the kids, waiting on them hand and foot. It's like they're all living together in the shtetl. Whenever we visited, we were like second-class citizens. We were somehow not Jewish enough. Beth, who devoted her life and career to Judaism... Liberal Judaism, but still... She was not Jewish enough. And we smiled, and smiled and smiled. When she got sick, he still couldn't get past himself. Always had to have the last word. She was lying there, in bed... in so much pain, spit coming out of her mouth. She wants to go out on her terms, with her family around her. We got the pills. It's all ready. And you know what the fսckеr, the little fսckеr said to me? "It's illegal." Not just that it's against God, but it's illegal. Like we're criminals. And he will have no part of it. Judgmental. That day, the last day, she's lying there, he gives his holier-than-thou speech, and he walks out of the house. And I go after him, mostly just to talk to him. Trying to get him to come back inside. "Don't-don't do anything that you are going to regret doing for the rest of your life." And I get back this torrent. I never understood him. I was never there for him. I mistreated him ever since he became Orthodox. I said the wrong thing to the rabbi at his son's bris. I didn't give a big enough donation to his fսcking yeshiva in Israel. I once said that his wife made the best kosher steak that I had ever had. How about that? I complimented his wife. I get that he was hurting. His whole life was a rebellion against his mother. I support rebellions, obviously. I get it. And his mother... there was a lot to rebel against. A lot of individuating to do. But at a certain point, you have to come back around. You have to grow up. Well, it sounds as if with all the emotion and pain swirling around Beth's death, Ezra hit a bad spot. You did, too. But we know these things pass. It didn't pass. That day, Beth wanted to die with her family around her, and he had to throw this tantrum. He was struggling to process the pain of his mother's death. Okay. But he's always been like that. He digs in, and he can't see any other way but the way he sees things. No wonder he became Orthodox. I've been reaching out, over and over. Nothing. I know grief can do this, but...
Episode 8 “Ezra” was twice as long as each of the others. “Allan” rants on about the misconstrued compliment on his daughter-in-law’s cooking. Then on about the donation to the yeshiva, comparing him to their daughter: After college, Shoshana's in medical school, and he has to go to this goddamn Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem. Fine. His second year, Beth has a conference there, so we figure I'll come along, and we'll visit Ezra. We get there, before we see him at the yeshiva, he sends, a set of instructions to her on how she is supposed to dress, like Beth doesn't know how to dress around Orthodox Jews. So, she covers her hair, every inch of her flesh. He takes us to meet the rebbe. Forget your stereotypes. Young, hulking guy. Could've played football. He tells us that Ezra is a real ben torah. And Ezra's just beaming, like this is the best compliment he's ever gotten. And the contribution? Ah. I was supposed to make a contribution, right there in the office. This was made clear to me. So, I write a check for $1,000. But then we're in the driveway, his mother is literally dying in the house, and he says I don't respect him. I don't respect his choices. That I gave Shoshana, whatever, $40,000 a year for medical school, and I gave his yeshiva a paltry $1,000. Is yeshiva free? He never asked me to pay for it. He got a job and a partial scholarship. He asked you for a donation. And I made one. Do you know what it felt like to walk through that yeshiva with Beth? Imagine if your son became a Scientologist, and you had to walk through the Scientology Center with him, and at the end, you gave a donation because you wanted to make a gesture, and he took it as an insult?...Ezra, you broke up our family." "You thought you had all the answers. You were so righteous. You humiliated your mother. You devastated her. I want to say you killed her, but I know that's not true. All your mother wanted, all she asked was to be able to hold the hands of both her children in her dying moment, and even this, you could not do. Your way of looking at the world had to be the only way. Everyone else is wrong." The imagined therapist reminds him: You said, "Like his mother." He continues to compare his kids: At synagogue, with Beth, the both of them so sure of themselves, about everything. Shoshana was mine. Reasonable, became a therapist. Able to consider everyone else's point of view… Rigid, know-it-all Ezra is as much my kid as Beth's. More. I did look down on him, on his religious choices. I have been blaming him. Then suddenly we see his son putting up missing flyers, and he doesn’t talk to his worried wife when he gets home. He brings their kids some kind of candy treat from what looks like a kosher store, that the family does not appreciate, so I didn’t get the comparison to them refusing his mother’s offer of ice cream dessert. In a series of scenes that I suppose was him thinking of his late mother, he listens Paul Simon’s secular song “You Can Call Me Al” in the car to his parents’ house, then inside he picks up a guitar that might have been hers, and sings “Take Me Home, Country Roads”.
The DVR or FX ate the last 2 episodes! (updated 5/28/2023)

A Small Light


The Frank, van Pels, and Gies families celebrate Hanukkah in the upcoming limited series A SMALL LIGHT, from National Geographic and ABC Signature in partnership with Keshet Studios. From left: Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank, Ashley Brooke as Margot Frank, Rudi Goodman as Peter van Pels, Billie Boullet as Anne Frank, Amira Casar as Edith Frank, Caroline Catz as Mrs. [Auguste] van Pels, Noah Taylor as Dr. [Fritz] Pfeffer, Joe Cole as Jan Gies, Bel Powley as Miep Gies, and Andy Nyman as Mr. [Hermann] Van Pels. (Photo credit: National Geographic for Disney/Dusan Martincek)
(shown on National Geographic and Disney+ Channels, co-produced with Israeli company Keshet Studios and Media) Eight-episode internationally cast mini-series focuses on surprisingly young Miep Gies who hid the family of her boss Otto Frank in the annex behind his jam business office. Husband-and-wife producing and writing team Joan Rater and Tony Phelan (who also directed three episodes) were the showrunners. Producer Susannah Fogel directed the first three episodes, and joined them in this panel. (Leslie Hope directed two other episodes; Ben Esler wrote Episode 4, William Harper wrote Episode 5.) In other interviews, Phelan described being inspired by visiting the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam with their children. While it looks like they well use the Amsterdam setting, it seems like so many in the population were involved in resistance activities.
Unlike the plaster saints presentation I expected, the characterizations are fulsome, even if the amount of fictionalizations about people in and outside the annex isn’t clear. As to the Franks, I liked the opening focus on “Anne”s quieter older sister “Margot” on July 6, 1942, as it was her call up to report to a work camp that precipitated their immediate need to hide. Both played by British actresses, “Anne” is droll as a teenage smart-aleck and her fairly authoritarian mother, already unmoored from having to flee Nazis from Germany to learn another language in The Netherlands, plotzing what to do with her in their confined situation. “Miep” negotiates with “Anne” to stop the arguing. But also cramped in the annex is another Jewish mother, “Auguste van Pels” (I thought Jews didn’t have aristocratic German names) who bemoans the loss of her physical possessions while doting on her son who seems more immature than “Anne”.
In Episode 3 “Motherland”, written by William Harper, we learn the Gieps, as romantic resistance-ers, have a Jewish landlady, a grandmother “Mrs. Henrietta Stoppleman” (Liza Sadovy) who is suddenly hosting her daughter “Frannie” (Jenn Kirk), son-in-law “Lou” (Sean Brodeur), and two noisy grandchildren, 7-year-old “Liddy Cohen” (Audrey Kattan) and 5-year-old “Alfred” (George Cobell) when their hometown of Leiden was declared off-limits to Jewish residents. But the daughter too hopefully thinks they can just return by train, abandoning the children at her arrest, sent to Westerbork transit camp, and on to a more permanent solution (as her brother on the Jewish Council learns). With surprising help from an SS officer (not the first German soldier seen to turn a convenient blind eye, and to even help the resistors), the tenants have to deal with two rambunctious Jewish children to be fostered somewhere safer, disguised with peroxided hair. As their exhausted “Uncle Max” says ruefully about trying to care for them just one day: They look just like me and Franny at that age. But they are not safe outside or inside. The grandmother who is first very upset about being separated from her “grandbabies”, rallies herself to make a moving farewell to them (approximate transcription, with missing lines): It doesn’t matter what color your hair is or what name people call you, you are your mother’s and father’s children and Oma’s children, you might be asked to do things that Jews don’t do, but it’s very important in Judaism is to preserve life, you have to live and you must do what you must and Oma will understand and always love you..
In Episode 4 “The Butterfly”, written by Ben Esler (who also plays a priest), the strains of hiding are also seen on a Jewish couple being shielded at a church. The wife “Dora” (Abigail Rice) has become more and more depressed about how their young son “Nathan” is faring, not believing a photograph because he’s gotten older. When allowed to glimpse him to show that he is being taken care of just makes her loudly hysterical and at risk of revealing their position and their protectors: I miss my baby! I let you talk me into giving him up. I don’t see my little boy, I see a stranger! I want to see my son!, and screams his name over and over. After the hiddens vicariously enjoy “Miep” going to her Christmas skating party (“Auguste” even loans her grandmother’s fur stole), they share together the first night of Hannukah, per the above still.
In Episode 5 ”Scheiẞfeld (Shitfield)”, the Jewish landlady (awkwardly with a slightly different name and played by a different actress) is accommodated out of town – but only in exchange to let the protector’s son stay in her apartment because he riled up the “Green Police” (aka Ordnungspolizei/ Order Police who wore green uniforms). “Miep” continues to be buffer between “Anne” and her mother, even over romance. “Edith Frank” gets to be portrayed more sympathetically than usual: Ten years ago Otto came to me and said I have a terrible feeling, I want to take the girls and get us out of Germany. I finally agreed and we got out. I hated him, but I never stopped loving him…Marriages grow up too, you have to let them. Anne calls our marriage passionless, but she doesn’t know. Otto knows how to keep us safe and raise our daughters and how I take my tea. There’s something romantic in that.
In Episode 6 “Boiling Point”, directed by Tony Phelan, written by Alyssa Margarite Jacobson, everyone’s nerves are on edge and getting careless, among the hiders and seemingly throughout the city, as the Allies advance. “Anne” and “Margot” are even planning their post-war lives. “Mrs. Van Pels” only half-jokingly warns “Anne”: If you publish that diary I want to read it first. Did you put in the time I got my hand caught in the sink? “Margot” wants to go to Paris and show her mother a Renoir and I want to be a midwife and help babies be born. However, the very pale “Edith Frank” is losing it – “Miep” finds her wandering outside the annex in her robe: I just wanted to get away for a minute…Their nonstop planning and chatters about the end of the war as if our girls are already free and out of danger. I feel so ashamed, I have this bad feeling. I can’t shake it. I have this dark hole in my stomach that this war will never end. Margot and Anne look at me and they have so much life in their eyes, so much hope. I can’t look back at them. I’ll kill it. I’ll destroy their hope from my eyes. It’s been two years since I’ve been outside, is it better? Tell me it’s better out there? Was the body of a man with a yellow star in a canal a suicide? In follow-up on the Jewish landlady, the Germans’ process of clearing out the apartments of disappeared Jews continues to be portrayed as ruthlessly efficient as it is corrupt. The music of Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn, from a flashback as played by a Jewish woman violin soloist (Julie Svecena) with the Jüdischer Kulturbund in a concert hall, then she segues into playing the same tune in a holding area for transport. Also in that holding area are two Jewish nurses (one perhaps is “Esther”, played by Jessica Boone). First they warn nursing, Yiddish-lullabye-singing mother “Corry” (Maya Gorkin) who doesn’t want to be parted Tomorrow on the transport you’ll bring this doll. At Westerbork you won’t have the doll. If they ask say the baby died on route. The nurse hands the weeping mother the doll. Would these nurses already know babies were being killed and the transport led to death? They even manage to sneak a few children away from the tail end of the round-up and arrange foster care. But then they need hiding places themselves. “Jan” compliments the nurses: You saved countless children. One retorts: How many countless children did we send off? Their own rescue is scarily accomplished with another German resistance collaborator – really there were so many in Amsterdam, or is this version bending over backwards to look “balanced”?
In Episode 7 “What Can Be Saved”, there is again an almost-reasonable Nazi who doesn’t arrest “Miep” during the raid of the annex on August 4, 1944. “Margot” cries more than “Anne”. In the finale “Legacy”, “Jan” is picking up the Jewish children he’d put out for fostering, particularly “Liddy Cohen”, their landlady’s granddaughter. The foster mother at first seems to be acting suspiciously, insisting the girl had become known as “Saskia”. But it’s sadder – she got diptheria, and the town doctor figured out she was Jewish, refused to treat her, and she died. While “Mrs. Stoppleman” has returned home to anxiously awaits her grandson, she realizes most of her chairs are gone, and “Miep”s explanation of needing firewood sets off a howl of frustration that one rarely sees that the survivors must have felt: Why is it always me who has to understand? They tell me my granddaughter Liddy is dead - they say, you have to understand, we did the best we could. You don’t know what it’s like to lose everything! My daughter, my son-in-law, my granddaughter. I know it’s silly because they’re only chairs, but they were my chairs! Mine! You had no right! The foster mother brings “Alfred” (Jasper Thatai), but notes he’s been called “Johann”. His grandmother sees he’s holding back: Do you remember me? I’m your Oma! With a big smile. As “Miep” had suggested, Oma holds out a dwarf figurine: Remember this little man? You used to love to play with him. In fact, one day you broke him all to pieces and we glued it back together. Do you remember that? Do you want to hold him? Look you can see where we glued him back together? “Alfred” comes over and whispers: I remember you. A commercial interrupted their probable reunion hug. “Miep” finds a shopping note in her pocket in “Mrs. Van Pels”s handwriting – “Cheese” - I can hear her say “Don’t forget to buy cheese.” She loves cheese…It’s been a month since liberation, a door opens and it’s never them. “Jan”, who has been working at the main railroad station checking in the displaced, reassures her, and we see the former prisoners there with shaved heads and wearing stripes. One is a shell-shocked “Sophie” (Anna Joan): They say I can qualify for services if I lived here.? I have no identification, and my mother and father are gone. When “Otto Frank” shows up like a ghost, the Mieps quickly learn that his wife didn’t survive. But they hold out hope for his daughters because they were sent to Bergen-Belsen which was a work camp, not a death camp, so that’s good news. and keep searching for information. The father tries to adjust: I’m heartbroken and I miss my family, but I’m here, explaining that “Peter” took care of him in the camp like a father, who’d been ill at the crucial selection. One of their rounds for information is getting the latest “confirmed dead” list – and “Otto” says kaddish for him. Walking in the park, a couple stops “Jan”: It’s you! You helped us. In the church you brought us a picture of our boy. We were reunited with our son Nathan a month ago. It’s been great. We are so grateful. Sorry to bother you, but he saved our family. Thank you for everything. In the office, one of those female ghosts comes to the office, “Ilse” (Nadia Babke): I knew his daughters in Bergen-Belson. I received this letter asking for information. I have information. As the office workers reminisce about the hiddens, “Miep” remembers the diary she put in a file cabinet, and brings it into “Otto”s office: I was saving this for her. You should have it. But he’s just been told his daughters’ demise and can’t look at it yet. She runs through the crowd of returnees at the station to tell her husband: They’re all gone! “Otto” comes in with the diary and asks “Miep” Did you read this? I had no idea. The things she writes about, the way she writes, thinks. I knew she was a quick and clever girl, but I feel like I didn’t know her. We were hiding as a family, but she was hiding too. She was hiding a part of herself that maybe she didn’t want me to see. I’m so glad I did. Thank you Miep. It was like getting to watch her grow up. You saved this. You gave it to me. Thank you. - hug. In the closing credits, the main cast is shown next to photographs of the actual people smiling. (updated 5/23/2023)

Vienna Blood – 3rd season (on PBS, based on the mystery novels by Frank Tannis that I haven’t read.) The series producer describes the Liebermanns as representative of “middle class Jews living in a city where they can enjoy citizenship and civil rights at the turn of the 20th century.” Director Robert Dornhelm notes this family “has their own rituals and sense of humor”, while the main character now in 1908 is “more mature”, the Jewish women in the life of the British Jewish “Max Liebermann” (Matthew Beard) are getting to be less ornamental and more independent of him, just as his success as a Freudian psychologist and writer on the criminal mind is bringing him more attention. In the season opener “Deadly Communion”, written by executive producer Steve Thompson, he bumps into his ex-fiancée “Clara Weiss” (played by Luise von Finckh) at the door of the couturier. She: I didn’t know you are interested in fashion. Max explains he’s there as part of his murder investigation, but then assumes: Are you here for a fitting? She retorts sarcastically: Of course, women only have one thing on their minds – looking glamorous. Actually, I’m here on business. He: What business is that? She: My business and none of yours. They manage to exchange pleasantries before they go their ways. Later to his crime-solving partner police inspector, he attributes her reaction: We had a flirtation, and next thing I know she called off her engagement…We’re like two stars colliding, then devastation. (The “previously on” intro had his father sternly complaining: She was seen entering your apartment late at night.) At a bar, the two investigative partners toast “To devastation!”
His sister “Leah” (Charlene McKenna) is fully involved in the family textile business; his father may not be joking: She’s in charge. (Producer Hilary Bevan Jones in a background interview noted: “By his sister joining the family business, she gets Max off the hook, and keeps her father in order.”) “Max” asks his sister’s opinion of the designer. She sniffs: No corset. Their father feels the caftans she specializes in disguise women’s femininity. “Leah” shrugs: It’s called ‘fashion’. Not that anybody around here would know about that. (The director in a background interview: “Leah is so funny. I enjoy her witty lines. It’s so enjoyable that we are not stereotyping the characters.”) “Leah” is still BFFs with “Clara”, who is excited when they meet at a café: I sold my first article to a newspaper! On the Vienna fashion industry - I got an interview with the designer “Max” is investigating. The two women toast to “Clara”s new career.
In Part 2, “Clara” gets bad news from the newspaper editor: We will not be able to print your article. You can keep the money. You write very well, but people want the crime story, not fashion. She immediately pitches that she knows the investigator, and can write up the crime story. But “Max” turns her down. She persists: He knows you talked to another paper. I think I can do this. I’m smart I can write. The only thing missing is good contacts. He makes it sadly personal: That’s what I’ve become is it? She returns to professionalism, and the victims: You don’t think I can be helpful to you? I know the fashion world, and you admit it’s completely alien to you. These women— it seems to me you need a woman’s perspective. How about we share information? I pass along what I’ve learned at the salon and you let me into your investigation? What do you think? He gets even more patronizing: I can’t be your passport to your new life. Clara. At dinner with his parents and sister, his mother toasts his success, and offers art and furniture for his new apartment - that she knows is not his modern, avant-garde taste. (The actress playing her notes in a background interview: “Rachel adores Max.”) His father teases: You got off with no mention of lacking a wife. “Max” has to literally come hat in hand to “Clara”: I need to know about masks as a fashion accessory. She insists: What is it you want from me? He: I want your help, Clara. She: I thought you washed your hands of me. He: You were right what you said to me. Fashion is not my world - you know more about it than I do. She, triumphantly: Exactly. He: I’m offering to let you in on an investigation. He pretends his sister’s role when he seeks information from a designer: My family is in the fabric business. I want to see your antique collection. Later, “Clara” comes to him with a big smile – and her published article. He congratulates her: I hope this is going to be the beginning of a partnership. She, all smiles, extends her black gloved hand, and they shake on it.
The opening of “God of Shadows”, Part 1 (same writer and director) emphasizes the Liebermann’s are Jewish, as the parents are happy to be going to a family bar mitzvah back in London. While his father expects “Leah” to stay to run the business, his mother is surprised that “Max” feels he can’t leave his patients. She wants him to stay with his sister so they won’t be alone. “Leah” and “Clara” come in, looking the happiest we’ve ever seen them, now that they are both on their ways professionally. “Mrs. Liebermann” exclaims she is proud of “Clara”s article on the (real) artist Richard Gerstl, calling it “brilliant”, though “Leah” mocks that she didn’t read it all. “Max” makes a point of leaving with “Clara”: So you interview famous artists now. She, coolly: I write what I’m assigned. But I would love to do another crime story. He: I’ll see what I can rustle up. She: Why did you want to walk out with me? But they are interrupted. However, that conversation leads his parents to confront “Max” later: His mother: What were you whispering about? She is upset that “Clara” was seen leaving his apartment at night -- by Frau Schmidt…I won’t forgive you if you lie to us. His father is even angrier: You turned your back on her once and ruined her happiness. Don’t trifle with her again. Mother threatens guilt: Don’t make it hard for us to be proud of you. “Max” is defensive: She’s a professional writer and she comes to me for information. His father warns: Be careful. We don’t want to see either of you get hurt.
In Part 2, “Max” meets “Clara” at a park café, and she eagerly anticipates: You have a story for me? But is disappointed at what it seems to be about: Is this why you invited me here? You invited me to write about trinkets? I thought you had a crime story for me! “Max”: Trust me. There is a crime story hidden in here somewhere. When he also involves his family in laying the trap for the culprit, “Leah” feels she has to take the lead: Papa, must you be so dense?, and she takes on more of their false bidding at the furniture auction, to “Max”s surprise: My family seems to be bidding against each other. “Clara” is there and tells “Max”: You attracted quite a crowd thanks to my article. Now you keep your side of the bargain - you told me there’s a story here. He pleads for her patience – and at the end he’s reading a newspaper inside a café when she joins him: Congratulations on becoming the best crime reporter in the city. She: Thanks to my secret source He: Not so secret. She: I wanted to thank you for your help, and gives him a gift, I think cuff links. But he wants to flirt: You could thank me by having dinner with me. She hesitates, then: We found a way to coexist. It’s better if we don’t spoil it. Don’t you agree? She orders champagne for two. In another background piece, the producers, writer, and actress are all proud to explain that “Clara”s burgeoning journalism career is inspired by a real Jewish woman in Austria at this time - Alice Schalek.
In “Death Is Now A Welcome Guest, Pt 1”, with the same writer and director of the season, “Max” had been invited to come to the premiere of a film by its star, and “Clara” tries to ask her questions. Instead, both witness her death.
Meanwhile, “Leah” is delighted for her parents to leave on their family visit. She complains: They treat me like I’m 12. “Max” jokes to them: She’s the youngest - she’ll be leading me astray. As soon as they’re out the door, she offers him a martini. Late at night, she announces a visitor – “Clara” pronounces she actually came to see “Max”, and “Leah” leaves them alone. “Clara”: What happened at the salon last night? “Max”: Who is asking - my friend or the editor? “Clara”: I went there to get an interview with the fraulein. “Max”: And you ended up with the story of her murder. “Clara”: So it’s true - it was murder? “Max”: There’ll be a statement from the police first thing in the morning. “Clara”: But you can save me all the bother and share it with me now. How did she die? “Clara” flirtatiously admires that he’s wearing her gift cuff links: They suit you…Come on Max just a little bit. All I get offered is trivial little pieces in the gossip columns. I really want the story. And trouble does seem to follow you around…What if I give something in return? They say she had a secret lover. Maybe, maybe not. Someone with influence. Someone important. “Max”: She was poisoned…But don’t use my name when you write it. In a supplemental interview, the actor notes that “Max” now sees “Clara” in a different light, as a professional, while the actress who plays “Clara” sees them as having “the close intimacy” of growing up together. The director hinted that he hopes they will “find each other”.
“Max”’s neurology department chair reads her article about the star’s death, and apologizes to him for treating the victim superficially as a patient at the hospital. The siblings host a dinner with him and other colleagues. “Leah” entertains them with their mother’s stories of her brother’s precocity at age 2 to be a doctor. “Max”s boss tells him: Your sister is nothing like you. “Max”: Tell her - that will make you enormously popular. “Leah”, who is a bit tipsy, flirts back: I thought all psychiatrists were supposed to be oddballs and cranks, and not so attractive. Meanwhile, nationalists are starting to march in the streets and rally. (updated 2/10/2023)

Hallmark’s Hanukkah on Rye - written by a Jewish regular of the channel’s Christmas and other romantic movies Julie Wolfe Sherman (and directed by Peter DeLuise), starring Yael Grobglas and Jeremy Jordan. (DVR’d, but not yet watched)
Hulu, that I sometimes get access to but don’t subscribe to, also had a 2002 Hanukkah rom com: Menorah in The Middle, starring Lucy DeVito and Jonah Platt.

Andor (on Disney+) Not since the infamous “Jar Jar Binks” character have I seen a Star Wars character reflect a negative ethnic stereotype. While Season 1 features a Masterpiece Theater display of British actors, in “Episode 5: The Axe Forgets”, directed by Susanna White and written by Dan Gilroy, “Eedy Karn” is played by Kathryn Hunter with her full native New York City accent when nagging her adult son “Syril” (played by Kyle Soller), who came home for solace after being shamed at his imperial assignment on Ferrix by The Rebels in the 3rd episode. She plots to get his uncle’s help to make up for him with the Empire. Sure looked to me like the way a stereotypical Jewish mother is portrayed! A fan site notes that ”Syril” was first introduced in a Leg-O set. (Thanks to Rachel Gostl for the reference!)
- (L-R): Eedy Karn (Kathryn Hunter) and Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) in Lucasfilm's ANDOR, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
She is back at their dining table in the 9th episode, written by Beau Willimon and directed by Toby Haynes, which contrasts how The Rebels and their mothers are supportive. But she sounds even more like a stereotyped Jewish mother. Her son resentfully returns to her quarters and her nagging. After commenting on his improved appearance, she continues: One worries. You’ve been so busy these days, perhaps you’re forgetting to eat. He: You’ve been searching my room again. She: It’s called cleaning. I like a tidy house. He: You’ve been in my private box. I have ways of knowing. She lists how she’s helped his career: I find you a job. I press your uniform. I prepare two meals a day. I move mountains to scrape you off the floor and put you back on your feet. And what do I reap? I just wanted a return on my investment…A shadow of a son - What if I let your neglect drive me insane? Imagine that. Look back to when you could easily ignore me. Imagine I cracked under the weight of your neglect and I wasn’t here to pick up the pieces! He counters that he has managed to wrangle a promotion and she switches to a smile: I knew they’d recognize your promise. Uncle will be so pleased! I could quote her similar maternal jabs in subsequent episodes as he does take the Uncle’s proffered civil service-type job – and manipulates it to suit his obsessed ambition. Some might say she is as much “Livia” in The Sopranos as a stereotyped Jewish mother. (updated 1/14/2023)
Star Wars: prequels/sequels/series

Miriam “Midge” Maisel etc. –in 5th season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (on Amazon, final season) I’m looking forward to streaming – and commenting on -- the first and subsequent seasons first. (3/17/2023)

All Creatures Great and Small (shown in the U.S. on PBS, re-make of the series based on the James Herriot books) In the Season 3 finale of this sweet family show, “Merry Bloody Christmas”, written by Ben Vanstone, set in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II, the veterinary household is hosting an urban evacuee child. Set in rural Darby, Yorkshire, “Eva Feldman” (played by the adorable Ella Bernstein) is evidently the first Jew any of them have ever met. While she explains Hanukkah to them and they are open to learning to light candles as she says the blessing, everyone in the household is eager to introduce her to all their Christmas traditions, including hanging “socks” (as she calls them), meeting “Father Christmas”, learning to correctly pronounce and play “The First Noel”, and apparently attend Christmas Mass. They seem to be oblivious to how religiously coercive they are. (3/8/2023)

Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge (on National Geographic, July 2022) Actress Natalie Portman guest starred in an episode traipsing through and up cliffs in Utah’s Escalante Desert. She was promoting her summer starring role return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in Thor: Love and Thunder as “Dr. Jane Foster – Woman of Science” aka “Mighty Thor”. While he repeatedly refers to her as a mother, and encourages her to talk about her two sons, he gives her several opportunities to say more about her background. But she demures to say only that she grew up in the New York suburbs. Did she not mention her Jewish/Israeli identity? Or was that edited out? (updated 1/6/2023, after seeing the awful movie)

Cobra 2: Cyberwar (Sky production on PBS) - As the cyber attacks on the United Kingdom pile up in this scarily realistic Ben Richards-written series, the prime minister “Robert Sutherland” (played against type by Robert Carlyle) can’t even find comfort from his lawyer wife “Rachel” (Lucy Cohu) who is being trolled, first for her private clients, then for being a Jewish lawyer to boot. The PM’s Chief of Staff “Anna Marshall” (Victoria Hamilton) responds strategically: Someone must be pulling the strings somewhere. But the wife is not comforted, as the criticisms have mounted since the first season’s nefarious activities: It’s everything about me, my address, the way I talk, my body,…that I had a Russian oligarch murdered! She bursts into tears: Some of the arsonists are wearing masks with my face on it with “Wicked Witch” T shirts. I have to go or I will go insane! In the next episode, she packs to leave, frustrating the stressed PM, who reacts angrily: The campaign of misinformation is extending to my own family! when his party’s right-wing candidate in a special election accuses the Home Secretary “of serving Soros and his like”. (8/22/2022))

Israeli TV Series in U.S.
The New Black (Shababnikim) - Season 2 on Chai Flicks (preview of first three episodes at 2022 Israel Film Center Festival) I had to catch up to figure out who’s who and what. This is a very funny sitcom about three slacker Haredi/Ultra Orthodox guys in Jerusalem and their devout accidental friend, variously looking to avoid military service, get rich, and/or married, with continuing matchmaking adventures. The women in general are heads and shoulders above them in smarts and ability to bridge the secular and religious worlds. While most of the articles I Googled about Season 1 focus on the guys, JHV and Times of Israel, among a few others, provided some background on the “strong” female characters: “Devorah” (played by Maya Wertheimer, who also happens to be married to Israel’s Consul General in NYC), a sister of “Dov Laser” (Omer Perelman Striks of The Swimmer (HaSahyan), who is dorm-living, smart, and studious, continues into Season 2 as the love interest of “Gedaliah” (Ori Laizerouvich) because she was impressed that he had no idea what is porn (such that he mispronounces the word), and whose roommates include an obsessively religious young woman; the secular architect/waitress “Shira” (Shira Naor), who was only in Season 1 as “Avinoam Lasri” (Daniel Gad)’s love interest; and “Ruth Gottlieb” (Shelly Ben-Yosef), the love interest of “Meir Sabag” (Israel Atias), though she is cruelly and quickly dispensed with in Season 2 in order to satirically comment on her parents who are ethnic and class snobs.


2021/2022 Season

At the end of the season, The Jewish Museum announced the opening of an installation: “It's wedding season, time to say “I do!” Bringing together excerpts from television programs from 1974 to 2020, “Breaking the Glass: Jewish Weddings on Television” illustrates the range of television depictions of this important event…such as Rhoda, Will & Grace, The Nanny, New Girl,, and Unorthodox, among others, that illustrate the depth and the range of television depictions of this important life-cycle event…A Jewish wedding shares many aspects with weddings of other cultures, but has elements that are uniquely Jewish. To signify that a wedding is Jewish certain practices are shown, including the ceremony taking place under a chuppah, or a wedding canopy, and the breaking of a glass after the rite concludes.”
The promotion is accompanied by a NBC photo from Will and Grace, duly noted as coming from Season 5, the 100th episode “Marry Me A Little, Marry Me A Little More”, that implies the titular characters are the bride and groom.


My Unorthodox Life - (“reality” series on Netflix; renewed for Season 2) Follows Julia Haart since she left the Ultra-Orthodox community in Monsey, NY.in Monsey, NY.

Grace and Frankie – in the 7th final season (shown in two parts on Netflix) – I need to catch up and watch the entire series.

Better Things – in the 5th season (on FX) Adlon accompanies this episode with an Apple podcast, that I haven’t had a chance to listen to. The first episode of the final season, “Fuck Anatoly’s Mom”, written and directed by star and creator Pamela Adlon, satirizes the Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates show that she participated in. (More on that when I get a chance.) Her brother “Marion” (played by Kevin Pollak) submitted his DNA for genealogical analysis. He is 50% Ashkenazi Jewish, as they expected, but they hadn’t known that their grandfather “Harry Fox” was originally from Ukraine. When the unctuous “Dr. Liddy Cables” (Carl W. Crudup) asks Do you think any of your family made it out from under Hitler’s rule?, she guesses no. But he triumphantly shows them a photo of “Clara and her two beautiful daughters” who did survive the executions of Jews in their town – only to be turned in later as Jews by her Ukrainian husband’s mother – a tale taken straight from the PBS series, where a gentile husband had brought his Jewish family to his mother in another town for presumed protection when he was called up to serve in the military. (Hence the episode’s title.) The siblings are particularly struck that even the little girls didn’t survive. The revelations about the non-Jewish British side of the family also satirize findings on the PBS series. In the next episode, “Rip Taylor’s Cell Phone”, written by Joe Hortua and Ryan Raimann, she references what she learned to panic about an upcoming film shoot in Belarus, throwing in a couple of Yiddish words that she repeats throughout the season (shpilkes and shonda) and repeating as justification for quitting the period piece, somewhat inaccurately, what she said at the conclusion of the first: My people come from hard-working laborers and survivors!
In “The World Is Mean Right Now”, written by Ariel Leve and Ryan Raimann, “Sam” (Adlon) labors mightily over making borscht – but the only hint throughout the episode that this has any ethnic heritage association within her family is when the older daughter asks: Is this Russian borscht or Ukrainian borscht?, with resonance more to contemporary politics. Her mother replies: It’s the delicious version. Tell me that’s not the best thing you’ve ever tasted? The middle daughter asks: Does borscht have a lot of calories? Mom rants: Do u know how many hours this took me to make?...Don’t freak out when you pee tomorrow- remember you had borscht/ But she has a flashback to her father being sarcastic to her, like her daughters. In “Jesus Saves”, written by R. Eric Thomas, Cree Summer and Joe Hortua, the family participates in a Zoom funeral for “Uncle Harold”, organized by “Cousin Estelle” (I can’t find the actress) and officiated by a heard-not-seen male rabbi, “Sam” describes it as “Jewish Hollywood Squares”. Her British mother (her family is about to get British citizenship) warns her granddaughters: All the women are so fat on your father’s side. Watch out girls., quite worrying them. Her brother has a neon Jewish star lit behind him, and makes a point of sharing his memories of Harold’s advice – that “Sam” hasn’t followed. He also calls to criticize her: Stop shouting! With all your pointing and your gesturing, I can tell you’re shouting even though you’re muted. You’re like all the others at the Hebrew Home for the Aged. “Sam” protests: No I’m not! Later she’s exhausted from preparing to go overseas: Packing shpilkes is real! (updated 4/24/2022)

Ridley Road (on PBS) – British import on Masterpiece Theatre - with the introduction “Inspired by True Events”, series creator, writer and executive producer Sarah Solemani adapted the novel by Jo Bloom. What makes this different from usually WW2-set comparable mini-series is that this takes place in 1962, “Vivian Epstein” (in a terrific debut performance by Agnes O'Casey) goes undercover on her own initiative with dyed blonde hair inside the headquarters of a dangerous British Fascist organization (a real one, yes in 1962 in London), first to follow her disappeared Jewish boyfriend “Jack Morris” (played by Tom Varey), who can “pass” with the group, and is mentored by her aunt “Nancy Malinovsky” (played by Tracy-Ann Oberman).
Having just read Bloom’s 2014 novel, I am even more impressed by Solemani’s achievement. Though the book was inspired by considerable research into the too-little now remembered anti-fascist “62 Group”, including a bibliography, the Jewish women are just girlfriends and wives, albeit a few working at a beauty salon. While Solemani’s “Vivian” goes a bit over-the-top as a Mata Hari spy with the fascists, Bloom’s (here) orphaned girlfriend has more Jewish identity, but she just keeps her undercover lover grounded, and inadvertently leads a spurned admirer to reveal his status. (updated 7/10/2022)

Vienna Blood – 2nd season (on PBS) Based on the mystery novels by Frank Tannis that I haven’t read, the British Jewish Liebermann family is adjusting to their Freudian son/brother “Max” (Matthew Beard) opening a controversial private practice in Vienna. But his mother “Rachel” (Amelia Bullmore) and sister “Leah” (Charlene McKenna) are very supportive. In “The Melancholy Countess”, written by Steve Thompson, his mother selects and hangs drapes for his new office, despite his father “Mendel”s (Conleth Hill) objections to the high rent. His sister brings a friend as a patient, and encourages him despite his titular patient dying and getting his name scandalously in the press: You’re a gifted doctor! You saved my son – remember that. They are leery, but still supportive when he brings a young girl home to recover, he thinks, from the shock of witnessing a brutal murder, and are kind to her.
His former fiancée “Clara Weiss” (played by German actress Luise von Finckh, I nher first English-language role) is still a friend of his family, who wish her “Mazel Tov” on her engagement to a Jewish banker: He adores me, has done for years. What happened between you and me is in the past now. You don’t have the right to ask if I’m happy. But I do want you to be happy and it would be so much easier for the rest of us. She visits him at his new office: I could have been the wife of a successful doctor. “Max”: Now you will be the wife of a successful banker. She: You say that like they are interchangeable. It must be uncomfortable for you to see me alone. “Max”: I hoped we could be friends. With the theme in the “Darkness” episodes of the rising antisemitism in Vienna, she asks him to help her future brother-in-law, who has been falsely arrested for the murder of a fanatically anti-Jewish priest, and the arrest is hurting the finances of their family bank. “Max”: I do owe you Clara, perhaps this is how I can atone. But both his mother and sister insist he needs to do more to help her. (2/8/2022)


Hallmark Channel’s holiday movie, as part if its popular annual “Countdown to Christmas” holiday movie schedule, was Eight Gifts of Hanukkah, written by Donald Martin and Karen Berger, from a story by Martin, and shown during the eight days. I thought I had lost my recording, so haven’t watch it yet, so here’s the press release description: “On the first night of Hanukkah, optometrist Sara Levin ([Israeli actress Inbar] Lavi) receives a gift from an anonymous suitor. The note offers clues to the giver’s identity and suggests that the coming week will reveal whether their relationship will bloom in time to celebrate the eighth night of Hanukkah together. Recently having re-entered the dating world, Sara must figure out which of her last few online and real-life dates is her admirer. A new gift arrives each day, offering more clues but even more questions. Rising to the challenge, Sara plays by the rules and is clever with her sleuthing. While planning the Hanukkah fundraiser ball, lighting the menorah, making latkes and spinning the dreidel, Sara discovers that her one true love could be someone she never expected.” (1/12/2022)

Gossip (On Showtime) – The now nonagenarian Cindy Adams (née Sugar, daughter of a single-minded mother who made her over) is the star of this 4-part docu-series on the highly competitive tabloid gossip writers in NYC. She is the focus in this surprisingly in-depth look at the fortuitous rise of her aggressive career and unique survival, especially within the Murdoch Media Empire of The New York Post, TV’s Current Affair, etc. (The tabloid-like newspaper look throughout the episodes earned the series an Emmy nominated for “Outstanding Graphic Design and Art Design”). Uniquely among the columnists interviewed, her interviews flaunt her New York Jewishness, throwing in plenty of Yiddishisms and pushy brassiness, let alone her catch phrase: “Only in New York, kids, only in New York." For example, when questioned about her friendships with the rich elite and authoritarians, including helping Trump’s image, like with the fallen Shah of Iran, she noted “It’s not like I’m invited to his Passover Seder.” Touchingly, she talks about her husband Joey Adams the same age as her mother, when they were both in frail health at the same time, who were her only family, and still resenting a woman at a party who disparaged her for “schlepping him around all the time". (8/2/2022)

Call The Midwife (On PBS) – In its 11th season, set in Summer 1967, in the 4th episode, written by Lena Rae, there is again a Jewish couple who are still living with the impact of the Holocaust – “Orli Rosen” (played by Alexis Peterman) is due to give birth, while her furrier husband “Samuel” (played by Alex Waldmann) has a lung condition and, in effect, is having PTSD from the physical and emotional harm he suffered in the concentration camp. He corrects his wife’s description: Extermination camp. No-one was meant to come out of Auschwitz alive…There was a... strange smell in the air when we arrived. A sickly, foul smell. We'd had a hideous journey. We were dirty and tired. The officer who met us off the train promised us showers. But... some were sent to the left... and some to the right. I was almost 13, but I looked older. I was sent to the right... with my father. My little brother and mother... sent to the left... to the showers. That were not showers. It was a gas chamber. And afterwards... I saw the smoke... and... smelt them... burning. That was day one.
Here's the WTTW recap, “Sam”: “bursts into the room while Orli is in labor, fearing that the nurses are hurting her with their tools. After the birth of his son, his chest clears up, but he can’t sleep and wears a winter coat everywhere despite the heat. He’s afraid he’ll have to leave in a hurry; his family was too slow to escape the concentration camps. His mother and brother were gassed upon arrival at the camp. He is so fearful that he objects to Orli’s suggestion that they give their son a Hebrew name, and doesn’t want people to know about the bris, or circumcision ceremony, for his son. He does ask Orli’s grandfather to hold his son during the ceremony, [sandek] an honor to him…Sister Hilda attends the gathering for the circumcision of the Rosen son. [“Orli”:I want to give him a Hebrew name, to honour Sammy's father. He was Eliyahu. That's Elijah in English. “Sam”: What is wrong with an English name? George? Henry? Does everybody need to know he is Jewish everywhere he goes?] Hilda finds Sammy avoiding the gathering in his fur workshop, and he admits that he feels he doesn’t belong there, cut off as he is from his heritage. He never had a bar mitzvah, although he learned his Torah portion in the concentration camp. The rabbi who taught him there was killed at the same time as his father. Because of his cough, he worries that he himself is ill, but he desperately wants to be there for his son as he grows up. Dr. Turner is still stumped by Sammy’s breathing problem, but a hospital specialist eventually discovers it is caused by his work with fur. The condition is treatable, but Sammy must stop working directly with fur. Luckily, Orli’s grandfather has always promised to make Sammy a manager, so he will still have a job…Sister Hilda suggests that he might also try to move forward by finally having the bar mitzvah he couldn’t complete. He happily agrees. After the ceremony, he gives Hilda a small square of fine fox fur.” (that she had admired). The bar mitzvah is held at a traditional Orthodox synagogue, with only the men downstairs with the Torah. (updated 4/24/2022)

Blue Bloods (On CBS) In this NYC-set series that rarely has Jewish characters, the season premiere “Hate is Hate”, written by Siobhan Byrne O'Connor, took a page from L & O, by re-visiting the terrible 1994 shooting that resulted in the death of Aaron Halberstam, whose name memorializes the site near the Brooklyn Bridge as “The Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp”. While in the episode this is an act of road rage by a man with multiple arrests and mental health problems, Ari’s mother “Devorah” lobbied for years to have the real murder by a Muslim declared an act of terrorism. In this fictionalized version of a man firing at teen boys in a yeshiva school bus, the wounded boy’s mother “Naomi Chesnick” (played by Jenn Gambatese), not looking like an Orthodox woman, is in the hospital waiting room with “Police Commissioner Frank Reagan” (Tom Selleck): Eli - just a boy. 15! A good boy. Just a boy riding the bus. The case becomes a political football with “Mayor Peter Chase” (played by Dylan Walsh) about hate crimes targeting Jews, one of many sore points between him and the Commissioner. The Commissioner returns to the hospital for an update, sees the mother deep in prayer, holding her son’s hand on his hospital bed; the Irish Catholic crosses himself and quietly backs out.
In “Old Friends”, written by Ian Biederman, the family dinner conversation turns to confessions of first kisses. and the youngest sibling, now-married “Jamie Reagan” (played by Will Estes) admits to “Laurie Kaplan”. His older sister “Erin” (Bridget Moynahan) reacts: Get out of town! You made out with the rabbi’s daughter? “Jamie” explains: When he found out I wasn’t Jewish he chased me out of the house with a baseball bat. The family all laughs. (updated 1/10/2022)


American Crime Story: Impeachment (On FX) Season 3 of executive producer Ryan Murphy’s anthology series adapts Jeffrey Toobin’s book A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President, that I haven’t read. Monica Lewinsky is played by Beanie Feldstein – both are Jewish and grew up in West Los Angeles, and consulted together on her portrayal; both are credited as producers. This background comes up in the 2nd episode “The President Kissed Me”, written by executive producer Sarah Burgess, as “Monica” gets chummier with “Linda Tripp” (played with substantial make-up and costuming to be unrecognizable by Sarah Paulson). “Monica” had mentioned that she was living in the Watergate Hotel temporarily with her mother, and then wanted her work chum to meet her. “Linda” protests that because Mrs. Lewinsky is from Beverly Hills: I’ll need to go shopping. And let me at least start Weight Watchers. “Monica” is supportive: She knows you’ve made my work here at the Pentagon bearable. Later, “President Bill Clinton” (as played by Clive Owen) flirts: What kind of name is Lewinsky anyway? Enraptured “Monica”: Jewish - and then they kiss. (Yuck) She’s all excited to be attending an inaugural ball and can’t wait to show “Linda” The dress- I could never afford it on my salary, but my mother bought it for me.
In the next episode “Not To Be Believed”, also written by Burgess, the 1997 Supreme Court decision in Clinton v. Jones comes down. “Susan Carpenter-McMillan” (the almost satirical Judith Light), the GOP “pro-life feminist” advisor/manipulator of assault accuser Paula Jones, exults over the unanimous decision that allows the case to proceed: We even got the little Jewish lady. President Clinton words his reaction more carefully: Even Ruth!
In “The Telephone Hour” episode, written by Flora Birnbaum, that starts in August 1997, “Tripp” calls her book agent “Lucianne Steinberger Goldberg” (played by Margo Martindale, with no Jewish identification I could decipher) to tell her about Monica, but claims she’s not like the other, lower class accusers against Clinton: Monica is different – she’s from Beverly Hills, a very privileged upbringing. She knew what she was getting into. She’s no victim. “Goldberg” advises her to tape her friend’s phone calls, claiming that’s legal – it was in NY where she lived, though not in Maryland where Linda did. When “Bill” himself finally calls “Monica” back, he chastises her for an angry call to his secretary Betty Currie: She didn’t come up here from the Jim Crowe South to be talked to like that…You said you were a good girl…I would never have gotten involved with you. “Monica” admits to “Linda: I owe Betty an apology- I was a nightmare! She invites “Linda” over to pick an outfit from her closet full of designer clothes she identifies by brand – and out comes the notorious dirty blue dress with semen stains, expressing surprise that women would take clothes to the cleaners frequently. As “Linda” is seen taping all their many and long phone conversations, “Monica” goes on in detail about her romantic and sexual experiences with older men since high school, including a married man: Every guy I liked didn’t like me back. Each one she got similarly obsessed with - a sad pattern I hadn’t been aware of from all the coverage then and since. But I was also taken aback that “The Big Creep” as “Monica” calls “Bill” when she’s upset, did get a job interview with “Vernon Jordan” (played by Blair Underwood), which leads to job interviews with Revlon and the United Nations in New York.
”Do You Hear What I Hear?”, written by Halley Feiffer and directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (known for her film work, including The Mustang), was one of the more startling evocations of “Jews vs. Gentiles” than usually seen in TV series. Set in December in 1997 Washington, D.C., the episode is set up by “Monica” at a bar telling young “Jake Tapper” (Chris Riggi), who in real life later derided her physical appearance, that she now feels like “A DC Zombie” and realizes she’s been “myopic” this year. At work, “Linda” is preparing for her Christmas party and is somewhat apologetic to “Monica”: I go crazy for Christmas. I know it may not be your thing. “Monica”: Please we’re L.A. Jews. I’ve been going to Christmas parties since before I was born. When “Linda” is pressured by her book agent to assure that “Monica” not clean the evidence on “The Blue Dress” in preparation for the Revlon job interview arranged by “Vernon Jordan”, she plays on “Monica”s insecurities: The truth is you look heavy in that dress. “Linda” finally consults her own lawyer and discovers that her “ literary agent Lucianne Goldberg” was in error about the legality of taping her conversations in Maryland and has made her subject to felony arrest. “Goldberg” is blithe about assuming everyone wants to be in NY. While “Linda” decorates her tree with her children and then goes on about her family roots in Germany and their traditional Christmas celebration, “Monica” is alone, especially in her darkened apartment. Meanwhile, a couple representing themselves as working for the attorneys of Paula Jones go to Van Buren, Arkansas to the house of “Juanita Broaddrick” (Ashlie Atkinson), ask if she is a Christian, like all the people helping Jones and that they’ve been praying for someone like her to help the case, really laying the religious stuff on thick in order to get her to confirm Bill Clinton’s behavior towards her, too. She doesn’t deny it.
”Man Handled”, written by Sarah Burgess, takes place on January 1998, has a series of insulting digs at “Monica”. The legal henchmen with the Office of Ken Starr’s Special Counsel, call their plan to isolate and manipulate her “Operation Prom Night – a half hour with a girl in a hotel room”. The hotel is adjacent to a mall; during her eleven+ hour ordeal she takes the agents (she thinks they are FBI, but that’s just part of their bamboozlement) into Crate & Barrel, and she’s randomly looking at items, but even shopping sets off her tears: My grandma has crap like this all over her house. My grandma’s gonna be so disappointed in me. Meanwhile, lawyers saying they represent Paula Jones, come to “Linda Tripp” for specifics about “Monica”. As her revenge comes to fruition, “Linda” rambles about her supposed friend and compares her with Clinton to all the Republicans she instead admires,a couple of whom gave her a job in the White House: She’s entitled- it’s how she was raised. I have to accept that…Bill Clinton got to the Oval Office, saw the first vulnerable girl. and made her suck his dick. The lawyers are startled, even as other GOP schemers (including Big Talker “Anne Coulter”, as played by Cobie Smulders) listening to copies of the tapes of the two women’s conversations are just bored. While the Starr crowd bullies “Monica” into not communicating with the lawyer “Vernon Jordan” referred for her, they’re not able to keep her from seeing her mother “Marcia Lewis” (played by Mira Sorvino) who has to get to D.C. from NYC, and is much more able to stand up to the horde of henchmen to call her ex-husband, “Monica”’s father, “Bernard” (played by Rob Brownstein), a successful radiation oncologist, who immediately contacts his lawyer, though his daughter questions: Your malpractice lawyer? (“William Ginsburg” played by Fred Melamed). But this family attorney does give her good legal advice to shut up and not agree to cooperate with their plan for her to place monitored calls to Clinton and his secretary “Betty” without written confirmation of immunity which they claim they can’t give, and more so, profanely rants against the prosecutors to get her and her mother out of that suffocating hotel room. Thus, the contrast between the loud, pushy, materialistic, and crude Jews vs. the Christians continues.
In “The Assassination of Monica Lewinsky” episode, written by Sarah Burgess and Flora Birnbaum, it’s January 1998, her lawyer explodes: They threatened to investigate your entire family!…They’re the fucking Gestapo in there! They’re crazy! At her mother’s apartment at the Watergate, “Monica” watches the horrible news coverage play out: They’ll believe - there am I waiting for him like a big fat fucking stalker! She cries as people from her past each get their 15 minutes of fame on TV, including “Linda Tripp”s tapes playing: I grew up in a house of lies. Her mother moves to turn off the TV: I can’t listen to these lies about my daughter. “Monica” stops her: It’s all true…The TV is my only source of news. Her mother puts “Monica”s make-up on for her meeting with the prosecutors, while regretting that she can’t accompany her daughter. Her lawyer negotiates a deal for immunity, that she signs. But he then goes on TV complaining about the prosecutors, and supposedly that’s why “Starr” (played by Dan Bakkedahl) rejects the deal. “Clinton” keeps labelling her “troubled” and “from a broken home”, in his deposition and to his staff.
Since 2014, in addition to magazine essays, TV appearances, and a “Ted Talk” related to cyber-bullying, Lewinsky produced a documentary 15 Minutes of Shame (on HBO Max, released while the fictionalized series was being broadcast) that builds off her excruciating experience from the infamous “Ken Starr report”, starting and ending with her warning: “Imagine waking up one morning with the whole world suddenly knowing your name, and talking about you. Not because you cured a disease, or saved your neighbor’s house from burning down. Everyone knows who you are, because your mistake, our secret, has now been made public. Trust me, I know a little something about this.” With clips of the press assault on her. Then segues into her talk, and a defense on Late Night with John Oliver, that she was only 22. As flashily directed by MTV’s Catfish co-creator Max Joseph, with fast insert montages of clips, drawings, paintings, headlines, tweets, and other social media posts, she narrates: “I was Patient Zero of having a reputation completely destroyed worldwide because of the Internet. And I would not be the last…I saw it become a breeding ground for outrage. And ridicule…Our culture was drowning in something.” Game of Thrones clip echoes the chant Shame!. Lewinsky continues: “And I wanted to understand why…Together we decided to get to the bottom of this Renaissance of Public Shaming.” But for all the talking head experts in psychology, media, activism, technology, and gender and racial intersectionality, not one cites anti-Semitism, not in how Lewinsky was treated and not in general. Even in the clip of the notorious 2017 “Unite the Right” Rally in Charlottesville, VA, the white supremacist chant heard by the Tiki Torch-holding Neo-Nazis is “You will not replace us!” though they actually were mostly saying “Jews. Will. Not. Replace. Us.” (updated 10/28/2021)


2020/2021 Season

Lenox Hill (Netflix) Though co-directed by Ruthie Shatz, this is yet another medical reality mini-series, let alone set in NYC, that doesn’t seem to find any Jewish women medical professionals.

Molly Tolsky, in Hey Alma, 12/18/2020, raises a good point in “I’m Begging You to Watch This Fran Drescher Christmas Movie”: should the Queens actress be presumed to be playing a Jewish character in Lifetime’s gay romance in the Midwest, written by Michael J. Murry, just because of her persona and drops one Yiddish word?

Younger – Lauren Heller and mother in the 7th season (on Paramount+, then TV Land) The viewer this final season would have no way to know that “Lauren” (played by Molly Bernard) is Jewish as there were no references. In the opening episode “A Decent Proposal”, written by executive producer Darren Star, her mother “Denise” (played by Kathy Najimy) plans her “Little Women in Space”-themed 30th birthday party and serves as the comic M.C., with a stand-up routine about her very difficult birth, that verges on Jewish mother stereotypes as she points to a her remembered pregnancy: I knew that my Lauren would be anything but normal…Wasn’t she worth all the pain? The old-fashioned stereotypes surprisingly continued through the series’ conclusion, in “Make No Mustique” written by producers Dottie Dartland Zicklin & Eric Zicklin, her father has a heart attack after a display of drunken exhibitionism at her friend’s housewarming. Her mother is tearful in the hospital waiting room: Your father is never going to get to be a grandfather, or walk you down the aisle. “Lauren”: Not every conversation can be about me not being umarried…I’m only 30! Mom: I just want you to have someone by your side for life, like I have with your father…Your life is like musical chairs…when the music stops I want you to have someone to put your butt with. Father is recovering: The doctor saved my life. I think he’s cute, others may be more picky. Turns out it’s “Dr. Max Horowitz” (played by Ben Rappaport) from Season 4. They exchange pleasantries about catching up, and he leaves. Mom: You didn’t thank him for saving your father. Dad suggests a date. “Lauren”: You know I’m not into guys at the moment? Mom: I thought you weren’t picking? “Lauren”: I know you both would like if I married a nice Jewish doctor but the bottom line is I’m just…I’m just not that attracted to Max. Mom: I wasn’t that attracted to your father when we first met, he kinda grew on me. “Lauren”: I told you we tried, Max and I tried. Mom: The universe wants you to try again. The man saved your father’s life. What kind of sign do you want? Dad: Listen to your mother/ Later, “Lauren” initiates quite an extensive array of sex all over his apartment with “Max” – turns out to be just her dream, though some recappers thought it was real.
The series finale “Older”, written by Darren Star, “Lauren” thinks this all adds up: to hearing what the universe is saying. What more signs do you need?...There are no accidents. She pulls off a company anniversary party: I’m so proud of us. This feels like my bat mitzvah all over again! Do you believe it’s been 100 years? She brings her mother as a date: I really wanted to invite Max, even though he doesn’t know we’re back together yet, even though astrally he gave me the most amazing head. Mother: Honey, get out of your head and call the man. “Lauren”: I first want to find the most romantic spot for a reunion…My generation’s. Mom suggests some place whose connection I didn’t get, but “Lauren” gets a text from “Max” to meet him in the hospital cafeteria. She worries about the company party, but her Mother assures her: Love can’t wait, Sweetheart. She runs out callig back: Mak sure the DJ keeps the energy up! She runs in as he has gotten her English Breakfast and two Splendas, right? I remember everything about our time together. She: Max, I have not stopped thinking about you since you saved my brother’s life. He: Nothing a first year resident couldn’t have done. She: I think it’s the universe’s way of bringing us together. He: Lauren, there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t thought about you. At first, because I was hurt. But then I thought about how authentically you live your life. And whenever I had an issue, I thought WWLD. She smiles: What Would Lauren Do? She nods and gets teary. He: Lauren would trust her real, honest feelings and would never question anything that stretched the capacity of the human heart. That’s why I’m so happy we found each other again. I have been dying to introduce you to my fiancé. And we see a Black man come up behind her, and he kisses “Max”: I’ve heard so much about you! But I never imagined petite. I thought you’d be a little more, you now. “Max”: Zaftig? They laugh. She: I’m Shelley Winters on the inside. More laughing. The new guy “Greg” (played by Glenn Fleary): I’ve had my eye no this guy for year. So I want to thank you for encouraging this guy to be exactly who he is. She: I’m kvelling! Gay men are really the only guys I can get behind. I would be more than open to get behind both of you. Are you open? I’m not kidding. WWLD- with a come hither look. She tells her girl friends about this new arrangement with two guys: I’m free and I’m happily non-hetereonormative.
This last season “Lauren” filled in for the honeymooning promotions chief, so comes to work in her version of power suits, albeit very short. In the episode “Risky Business”, written by Alison Brown, she comes home complaining: I went too big with my brooch and poked someone on the train and got called the C word! Her roommate/friend/editor co-worker “Kelsey Peters” (played by Hilary Duff) asks: Why are you dressed like a drag queen?, seems like an in-joke, what with this 5/20/2021 interview “Lauren was a role which helped Barnard to embrace her own queer identity:.. “I’ve always been in love with RuPaul’s Drag Race. The lip syncs often move me to tears. The passion, the celebration, the liberation. I love when we get to know some of the queens’ histories and their backgrounds, and what they’ve overcome and who they are. My favorite winners have always been the full fucking freaks! I love that it’s just like, let your freak flag fly, go forth and win girl! That show is the light. I love it. .. I’m also very proud of Younger—and when I say Younger I mean the writers’ room and creator Darren Star—for the way they showed her family. If you’ve noticed, Lauren is the only character with parents, and she’s a queer millennial, and her parents completely support her and her sexuality. They don’t care what she is, they’re proud of their daughter and they love her, and I think that’s intentional on the writers’ part. I actually think Younger is a bit sneaky in that it’s a teaching show as well as a wonderful, edible 22-minute comedy. I think we were ahead of the times in that way and may this be the new normal of queer representation. I’ve been so proud to play a queer person who is out and proud, and she’s not suffering, those stories obviously are extremely important also, but the fact that she is just herself and does not have consequences to deal with related to her sexuality is amazing. I think stories like that should be told more because Lauren is aspirational. I’ve been really lucky to play an aspirational queer person for seven years.” (updated 10/29/2021)


Riviera (on Ovation this season) – In the non-premium cable re-running of the 2nd season of the glossy soap opera with the cinematic pedigree and cast, art historian curator/presumed widow of wealthy older husband/and murderer of his younger, abusive son “Georgina Clios” (Julia Stiles) is asked a favor by her new lover pilot “Noah Lévy” (Grégory Fitoussi). In the episode “Renaissance”, written by Steve Bailie, he takes her to the house in Paris where he commissioned Stolpersteine in the sidewalk to commemorate his grandmother and grandfather:
She’s knowledgeable enough to say: I’ve never seen these outside of Berlin! He shows her a photograph of his grandmother and grandfather in their living room, in front of their missing Vermeer painting that he wants her to help find (a familiar trope of dead Jewish women on TV series), which she agrees to pursue. Easily solved in the next episode, “Sad Birthday”, by Bailie. “Georgina” finds the holder of a hidden collection of a Vichy-sympathizing art dealer (modeled on the real Hildebrand Gurlitt) – who just happens to have been the father of the wealthy woman who has kidnapped “Georgina”s thought-to-be-dead husband! In “On the Ruins of our Dreams”, written by Liz Lake, “Noah Lévy” admits he is a married imposter. But he was honoring the memory of his dead pal in the Israeli Army, whose female cousin in Canada will benefit from the find. And the Jews leave the season. (updated 7/17/2021)


The Alienist: Angel of Darkness – Bitsy Sussman (on TNT) I didn’t know that Caleb Carr had written a follow-up, that serves as the basis for Season 2 (or that he went on to develop Kreizler series of historical mystery novels), so I’ve only just downloaded it to see if intrepid ground-breaking “Sara Howard” (played by Dakota Fanning) has at least the new Jewish assistant “Bitsy Sussman” (played by Melanie Field). The press release does not describe her as Jewish: “an industrious young protege at the Sara Howard Detective Agency who looks to Sara for professional guidance but who brings her own warmth and New York street smarts to the job.” I re-watched the 1st 2 episodes to figure why I right away assumed she was. Besides her probably ahistorical broad NY accent, for the late 19th century, but there was only actually one line, in the 2nd episode “Something Wicked”, written by Stuart Carolan: There’s a saying in Yiddish. ‘Mother’s hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.’, as they deal with a gruesome series of baby murders. I thought there’s another assistant named “Ida”, but I don’t have more information on her. . (7/31/2020)

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (on PBS) In “Fashion’s Roots” (labeled S6 Ep11), Diane Von Fürstenberg (born Diane Simone Michelle Halfin) talks about her mother’s Holocaust experience, but Prof. Gates’s research team found what happened to her father’s mother, who had the foresight to advise her son not to come home to Kishinev, Bessarabia (now in Moldova).
Scarlett Johansson’s family story was originally included in “Immigrant Nation” (S4 Ep5), and was repeated this season in “Flight” (S6 Ep 14), when I paid more attention to her Jewish maternal ancestry. She identified more with her father’s Danish heritage, including taking on Danish citizenship, so she knew very little about her mother’s family, other than that her immigrant grandfather was a grocer on Ludlow St. on the Lower East Side. But the program traced that while he left a town in Russia that is now in Poland in 1910, his brother Moshe did not, and he and his 10 children were rounded up by the Nazis into the Warsaw Ghetto. A surviving cousin Miriam Schlotna (the family’s original Yiddish name) reported to Yad VaShem that two of her siblings died there, including Zlota, age 15. Scarlett cried: “This makes me feel more connected to that side of my family – I didn’t expect that.” I wonder if she was curious about finding her cousin Miriam? (updated 11/19/2020)


The Good Fight – Marissa Gold in the 3rd season (on BET preview; originally shown on CBS All Access premium service in March 2019) As I’m resisting subscribing to another streaming service, I haven’t seen the 2nd season, nor what’s happening up through the just completed 5th season in2020, so I’m only commenting on the “free” episodes. “In The One Inspired by Roy Cohn”, written by, Michael Sheen plays the outrageous litigator“Roland Blum”, who gives a salute to the titular mentor of him and the 45th President. “Marissa” (played by Sara Steele) is assigned to watch him after liberal, traditionally more African-American slaw firm partner “Diane Lockhart” (Christine Baranski) caught him stealing case files. So “Marissa” is very sarcastic to him, and he rebuts: What’s your story? She tells an extravagant lie that concluded that she’s a former Russian mail order bride. “Blum”: Ah humor of the American Jewess in full flower.
In "The One Where Luca Becomes Meme", written by Jacquelyn Reingold, she demonstrates the political acumen she learned from her political consultant “Eli Gold” (who was played in the earlier iteration of the series by Alan Cumming) in advising African-American “Managing Partner Julius Cain” (played by Michael Boatman) on how to handle a recommendation to apply for a federal judgeship by a group of GOP conservatives described as “The Federalist Society 2.0”. [Wiki incorrectly says it’s for the state.] He’s hesitant: Aren't you one of those liberals? She: Sure, but my dad poisoned me. He made politics chess, so it was more important to win than to make life better. “Julius”: You’re a funny bird. But there’s repercussions for both of them. Into the office strides “Democratic National Committee head Frank Landau” (played by Mike Pniewski), and she presumes he’s here to see her boss – but he’s there for her: I spoke to your dad the other day. She: How's he doing? I can never get him to call me back. He: Well, elections are tough in Albania. She: Eli Gold, living in the birthplace of Mother Teresa. Go figure. “Landau: He asked me to give you a message. She: Is it "happy birthday"? Because he missed the last two. They arrive at her office, he: Is this glass soundproof? She: It is. Why? He yells and the whole office swivels to watch: What the fuck are you doing?! She: Yep, that sounds like Dad. He: What the fuck are you doing, working for the Historical Law Society?! She: I'm not working...Is this Dad now or you? He: They are responsible for 90% of the destructive judges in this country. She: I am not working for them. I'm consulting for a friend. He: A Republican friend. She: Why is that so bad? He: You know, if you want to get back at your dad, just get a fucking tattoo! She: Dad thinks I'm doing this to get back at him? Talk about self-centered. She: What other motive could you have to help an anti-choice Trump voter get on the federal bench?! She: Tell "Dad" while he's off helping some corrupt Albanian billionaire, I am helping a decent man become a good judge. Yes, he's Republican. But, news flash, they're the only ones getting through. If I have to choose between creepy, drunk frat boys and Julius Cain, I'm picking Julius. he: How much is Cain paying you? She: None of your business. Why? He: I'll bet you we pay more at the DNC. In case you ever want to come work for the good guys. She: I learned from the best, so I know you're full of shit. Just tell Dad to call me next time. Next time you want to make a point, slam the door! To herself she adds: That was actually pretty bitchin'. But this is an issue for “Cain” too, at his next interview with the ironically named “Brock Peters” (played by David Christopher Wells): We gave you five résumés for consultants. You didn't like them?... You're a wonderful candidate, Julius, so I hope you take this in the right spirit. You won't make it with Eli Gold's daughter as your advisor. “Julius”: Well, she doesn't affect my beliefs. “Brock”: Her father's an assassin for the other side. “Julius”: But she isn't. “Brock”: Well, she's guaranteed to talk to him. I'm sorry, Julius, but you need to let her go. And if I don't? Well, our biggest fear is putting someone on the court and having them flip on us, so, this is not a small thing. Think about it. Let us know. “Julius” lies to “Marissa” – and while he makes a passionate case to “Brock” for “loyalty”, that we know the party and its presidentvalue, he is eliminated from consideration. Meanwhile the firm is in an uproar about apparent discrepancies between pay to black and white associates; a key complaint is that “Marissa” got a raise, with the justification that the associates are using her services more. But the Black associates claim that it’s the white lawyers going to her, while the Blacks go to “Jay Dipersia” (played by Nyambi Nyambi), who has been there several years more – and that the firm has been hiring more whites lately. (7/31/2020)


A Place To Call Home (2nd , 3rd and 4th seasons on PBS; 2nd & 3rd seasons also once a week daytime on Ovation) Created by Bevan Lee, this Australian series was began broadcasting on the 7 Network in 2013 and all 6 seasons are streaming via Acorn TV – if PBS/Ovation doesn’t carry them all, I may have to break down and subscribe. The first episode of the season, “No Secrets, Ever”, written by Trent Atkinson, is a surprise fast-forward 60 years, where “Sarah” is living in the big house, Ash Park, taken care of by the now recovered from TB “Leah Goldberg” (now played by Anna Volska). “George”s granddaughter interviews her about hidden family history. “Sarah” flashes back to the grim memory of efficiently disposing of the body of an abusive, bullying father-figure, killed by a young, protective son, and insisting to witness “Roy Briggs”: We saved more lives from being ruined.
After a nightmare flashback, in the 2nd episode “I Believe”, written by Tony Morphett, “Sarah” assures the boy now leaving town with his family: You were protecting your mum. You did nothing wrong. She assures “Roy” she’s as haunted as he is: It’s brought up things for me too . I was in the Resistance. I shot a wounded friend. It was that or leave her to be tortured by the Gestapo. before they killed her anyway. If the right outweighs the wrong, no matter how wrong... Surprisingly, and quite movingly, she recites Kaddish, and he prays along side her, at the spot where they sunk the body. However, “George”s scheming mother and sister-in-law “Regina” have hired investigators in London, Paris, and Berlin to check on her past: One thing you can say about the Nazis they kept good records.
In the 3rd episode, “A Kiss to Build A Dream On”, written by Rick Held, “Sarah” tells first her “Aunt Peg” (Judi Farr), the horrors she experienced – an aspect female survivors rarely admitted to and I’ve only seen in the autobiographical Czech film Colette: I did what I could, I killed who I had to, to shorten the war. Then I was caught. I was sent to a camp, Ravensbruck. You have to understand how deep my love was for Rene to understand what I did. All that mattered was to remain alive- to see him! Tearful “Aunt Peg”: No shame in surviving, love. “Sarah”, amidst visual flashbacks of a drunk Nazi on top of her on a cot under a swastika: But it’s how I survived. I used my body. They used it. “Aunt Peg” cries: You poor darling girl! “Sarah” determinedlycontinues: The women who resisted were shot. The rest of us were taken to a special barracks. Every day for over a year. “Aunt Peg”: Breaks my heart. I’m making it worse. I should be comforting you. You have nothing to be sorry for. There is no shame where there is no choice. “Sarah”: How can I marry without telling him? “Aunt Peg: What good would it do? You suffered so much. You deserve happiness and love , you both do. He’s a lovely man, but he is a man. Don’t spoil it.
But just as “Sarah” decides in the 4th episode not to tell “George”, in “What Your Heart Says”, written by Hamilton Budd, she gets thrust into a “Bligh” family crisis. When she learns his gay son is being subjected to electro-shock conversion therapy and confronts the stubborn doctor: I have every idea. I’ve had it done to me. I’ve survived barbarians like you. “George” is shocked and angry at her insistence: I will not be with a man who leaves his son to this... If you don’t take him out we’re finished. After the rescue, she takes “George” away outside to explain: You asked what happened during the war. It’s what came after that made me lose my mind. I survived but Rene ... when I did eventually make it home, no one knew if he was alive or dead. So I waited, for the phone to ring or on one of the trains that brought survivors back. The stations were full of people like me, searching faces, scarecrow faces. But he never came. The truth did finally, from a man who’d seen him die. And I heard their screams-- it was mine. I fell into this darkness. I woke in the hospital weeks later strapped to a bed with electricity burning through my brain, being tortured In the name of normalcy. I would have said anything to stop you leaving James to that. She tells him about her mother’s and his sister-in-law’s effort to expose her past: I’d hoped never to burden you with this, but they’ve forced my hand. My employment records were taken and with Nazs record keeping they’ll have the full story of what happened to me at Ravensbruck. To hear it from anyone else could be the end of us. It may be anyway. Meanwhile, his mother’s snooty friend “Prudence Swanson” (Heather Mitchell) joins in the conspiracy: You want my help in bringing down the Jewess. And nurse…She can be provoked to an outburst. The Jews can be so sensitive.
In 5th episode, “Ghosts of Christmas Past”, written by Brooke Wilson, “George” is trying to cope with her confession: I don't want to, but I keep seeing you. I can't keep these images out of my mind. “Sarah” protests: You can't imagine what it was like. “George”: I'm sure. But I see you... with all those men. “Sarah” piles on: There was no pleasure. There was only violence and horror. “George: I feel such anger. But I will come to terms with it. “Sarah” is quite concerned: But can you marry someone with that in their past? “George”: I can't let you go. “Sarah”: Don't come back until you're sure. This is too painful. She confidently confronts his mother, but she’s not prepared for more revelations.
In the next “Auld Lang Syne, written by series creator Bevan Lee, “George”s mother plots an upper class soiree for 1954 honors with hostess “Prudence”: I restore my social bona fides and you destroy the Jew's., because somehow they presume she’s “working class” because she works as a nurse. But “Sarah” again confronts his mother: Today is obviously designed to see me out of my depth…My husband was well connected in Parisian literary circles. Gide and Malraux were our friends. We mixed in all manner of society. If you spent less time fighting me and more time knowing me, you'd know there's nothing today that might throw me off kilter. “Sarah”, of course, is simply charming at the party, especially by fluently conversing with a Frenchmen, who could be some official. She even starts to win over her potential mother-in-law, who back home is very upset by what “Regina” has discovered, pronounding: You’ve won.
Next, in ”No Other Name” by Bevan Lee, “Regina” reveals that “Sarah”s husband Rene is alive; after being discovered brain damaged in a mental hospital, he’s now living with his sister in Paris. The news shocks everyone, but it’s clear the Australians have no idea about the difficulties and surprises in post-Holocaust losses and reunions.
In “Answer Me, My Love”, written by Trent Atkinson, “Sarah”s return to her old apartment brings back memories of their Gestapo arrest. Though she’d expressed distrust of her sister-in-law “Adele Duval” (Lucy Bell) to “Regina”, they greet with a shared hug of sadness. “Sarah” kneels in abject apology to her silent, blank-eyed husband “René Nordmann” (Benjamin Winspear): You must have thought I abandoned you. I looked for you a long time, but evidently not long enough. If you’re in there, my darling, I won’t give up on you again. As they cry and hold each other, her sister-in-law: It is now as I feared. You are tied to him...He is not as he was ....I give my permission for you to leave without him. But he wakes and says his wife’s name.
In the 3rd season, which was broadcast immediately after S2, “Sarah” brings her ailing husband to her rural Australian home, in “The Things We Do for Love”, written by David Hannam. Still with shrapnel in his head and confused by flashbacks to the war, “Regina” tells the local policeman he’s a Communist Jew – worse than the Nazis, some of them, and taunts “Sarah”: You’ve got your mad Jew back.
The 2nd episode is titled “L’Chaim, To Life”, written by Giula Sandler, “Regina” is sarcastic about “René”s suicide attempt: It would have been such symmetry if he finished what Hitler started.. Now pregnant by George, “Sarah” is beset by flashbacks of violent loss of a pregnancy in the camp brothel, with a Nazi kicking her and screaming “Jewish whore”, and nightmares of the future; she worries to the doctor that her pregnancy will fail because she is impure. How can anything good grow inside me? While she has flashbacks to the bare, secret candlelighting she shared with other women prisoners, she prepares her first Shabbat in their new home, with “Mrs. Goldberg”’s gift of challah, and “René” recalls his mother and her challah: I wanted it every day. She made it with raisins! Through the next several episodes of considering abortion, miscarriage, and stressful romantic triangle over the baby, there’s no Jewish references.
Surprise to me – PBS got the rights from Acorn TV for the 4th Season! In the opener “A Nagging Doubt”, written by Bevan Lee, “Police Sgt. Brian Taylor (played by Rohan Nichol), sneers at “Sarah” so she asks: Do you have a problem with me? He cites several suspicious behaviors, including: You’re a Communist.
In the season’s 2nd episode “Bad in A Good Way”, also written by Bevan Lee, “Sarah” confronts her nemesis “Regina”, now married to her ex-fiancee, who threatens her: In Europe I unearthed more than your darling René - quite the dossier. What you did to survive the camp. Then liberated by the Russians, that gave them a chance to recruit you. Then months in an asylum. All of which makes you a mad Commie whore. Which is exactly what I’ll tell the sergeant…I’ll tell how you survived the war by spreading your legs for the Wehrmacht! She does give him the file: It gives me leverage in silencing her. Then return it., and flames his anti-Communism and that “Sarah” is “mad”. “Sarah” fills in as a substitute teacher, after the death of “Regina”s accidental poisoning victim and little boy is pushed by his friends to ask her a question and she responds to each query: Is it true you are a Jew? I converted to marry a Jewish man. What does that mean? That I changed my religion. You can do that? Yes, you can. Wouldn’t that make God mad? I don’t think so. But the Jews killed Jesus right? The Romans did that. Not the Jews then? No. Then the Reverend was wrong? At night, she prays in Hebrew, explaining: Sometimes it helps me to feel He’s near. The segeant comes at night, and asks her about the guy, the abusive husband, who went “missing” last season: I’m betting on the Commie. “Sarah” stands up to him: I am .Jewish and I am left wing, and I’m proud of both. Get out and don’t come back unless you have an arrest warrant.
In “When You’re Smiling”, also by Lee, “Sarah” is told why she’s no longer allowed to teach, and responds to the other teacher: Reverend Graham said you favored conversion and said the Jews didn’t kill Jesus. They didn’t. The Romans preferred crucifixion. The Jews preferred stoning. The town gossip talks of her being accused of sacrilege. When the Doctor defends her, the Sergeant let’s her now she’s suspicious because You were with the Commies in Spain and spent time in an asylum.
Next in “Home to Roost” also written by Lee, “Regina” keeps trying to stir up antagonisms against “Sarah”: There are Reds amongst us and Jews have a long history as Communist sympathizers. She was let go by the school for blasphemy. When “George” strongly chastises her, she tearfully charges: You retreated into your infatuation with the Jew!
In “Happy Days Are Here Again”, again written by Bevan Lee, the Sergeant is still fuming: She told the kids they could turn Jew and how to convert. Half the Jew youth groups are Communist cells! Ask Reverend Green. “George” reprimands him: Rev. Green delivers a fine sermon, but his tolerance of other groups is another thing. Meanwhile, “Sarah” is plotting long-term against “George”s current wife, her nemesis, even as he’s renewed his request to marry afer his planned divorce: Three months isn’t that long - - takes me back to my Resistance days- never spring the ambush until it’s fully in place.
In “The Trouble With Harry”, also written by Bevan Lee, ”Regina” continues stoking up the policeman against “Sarah” with quite the description: The woman is a rabid Communist- the Petrov Commission has found proof of spy networks throughout the country....The creature has a history of mental illness, wartime connections to the Soviet military, she also fought for the Left in Spain...She’s not just a murderer, she’s an enemy of the nation.
In “You’re Just in Love”, also by Lee, “Sarah” wonders how far the suspicions have gone: Is it ASIO? [the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation]…I avoided the Gestapo all those years. I should be able to manage ASIO. Later she brings the doctor a wedding present with a card that notes: Sometimes at a Jewish wedding a plate is broken to show the seriousness of the commitment., and the box does contain a pretty, broken plate. In “There’ll be Some Changes Made”, written by Katherine Thompson, “Sarah” quotes the prohet Zachariah – but a Christian could do that, too.
In the inscrutably-named (at least to an American) “Where Will the Baby’s Dimple Be?”, written by Katherine Thompson, “Sarah” says a prayer, that I couldn’t distinguish, over her premature baby in an incubator. “Elizabeth Bligh” contravenes her wishes and lets the baby’s father “George” know of the birth of his illegitimate son, as both discuss that will be controversial, “George”: In some parts of the Jewish community as well. His mother: Must the child be Jewish? Her son: Apparently, yes, not that I have a say in that either. It’s all one-way street. Perhaps we should go our own ways.. Even as he compliments his anti-Semitic wife as invaluable to his legislative work in Canberra, “Sarah” is annoyed at his specifically unrequested hospital visit to her and the baby.
In “And the Blind Shall See”, written by Bevan Lee, she gives birth, names baby David Chaim, after her brother, and, oddly, lists her maiden name on his birth certificate and acknowledges “George Bligh”, not her late husband, as his father.
In “Catch The Tiger, written by Katherine Thomson, “Sarah” is very suspicious with a young stranger claiming to write for a Socialist newspaper and asks her about local party activities; she deflects him. “Regina” gets even more crazily anti-Semitic: The Blighs are all coo-cooing over the new Jew like the Three Wise Men without the myrrh! She insists to the policeman: All that matters is that the Jew killed the girl! Once “Regina” gets committed, “Sarah” says in Hebrew: This too is for the good. (updated 1/23/2021)


2019/2020 Season

Israeli TV series that I presume include Jewish women characters - Around January 2019, Netflix starting showing several popular Israeli TV series in the U.S., that I still haven’t yet caught up with: Fauda, When Heroes Fly, Shtisel, The Good Cop (Hashoter Hatov), Hostages (B’nei Arubah), and Mossad 101. I don’t subscribe to Hulu, though I wonder if I could get press access, which is carrying several Israeli TV series, including False Flag (Kfulim) and Juda. Amazon Prime is also streaming Israeli TV series in the U.S., though I haven’t watched them yet: The Beauty and the Baker (L’hiot Ita), Mekimi, Srugim, and A Touch Away. The Haredi-showcasing series Shababnikim is said to be available in the U.S. on less reliable sites, so far. (updated 12/23/2019)
Sara Stein – From Berlin to Tel Aviv - 4 German TV-movies in the series about a Jewish criminal investigator who emigrates to Israel, starring Katharina Lorenz, were released in the U.S. 6/4/2019 via Film Movement’s Omnibus Entertainment to iTunes, Amazon and Vudu, originally shown 2016 – 2017: Tod in Berlin (Shalom Berlin, Shalom Tel Aviv); Shiv’a (Jewels in the Grave); Masada; Alte Freunde (Old Friends), all directed by Matthias Tiefenbacher. I haven’t had a chance to watch them yet.
Muna- first two episodes, set in 2014, seen at 2019 Other Israel Film Festival - , produced through Yes Studios, though it wasn’t clear if the full season will be available in the U.S. on Netflix. Created by Mira Awad, the series features primarily Israeli Arab characters, centered around Muna Abud. Like Maysaloun Hamoud’s In Between (Bar Bahar) crossed with Tanya Saracho’s Latinas Vida The Jewish women characters seen so far are obnoxious: the titular character’s Jewish boyfriend’s ex-wife, a TV host who really rakes the titular photographer over the coals on her first guest appearance alongside a nasty religious Zionist woman, who are hypocritically nice off-camera. Kudos to the music! (11/17/2019)
Asylum City- tough, strong non-stereotyped Jewish Israeli women, surrounded by a range of men, figured prominently in the first two episodes, of the 12, produced through Yes Studios. Created by Eitan Tzur, Uzi Weil and Yad Shoham based on the novel by Liad Shoham, that I haven’t yet read, the tangled noir swirls around 32-year-old blonde “Michal Poleg” (Mali Levi), a determined refugee activist whose challenges against the government’s and organized crime’s authority doesn’t separate her personal and work livess, and “Chief Inspector Anat Seton” (Hani Furstenberg, of The Golem) on her first big case. Previeweds at 2019 Other Israel Film Festival, I look forward to seeing the rest of the series! (12/8/2019)
Israeli true crime docu-series streaming on Netflix: Shadow Of Truth, 4-episodes on the 2006 murder of Tair Rada, an Israeli high-school girl, and Coastal Road Killer, 4 episodes about murders from the 1970’s – 1980’s that began with the October 1974 murder of Rachel Heller, a female IDF solider. (Preview at 2019 DOC NYC Festival). Both series are by showrunners Yotam Guendelman, Mika Timor and Ari Pines.


Younger – Lauren Heller in the 6th season (on TV Land) The viewer this season would have no way to know that “Lauren” (played by Molly Bernard) is Jewish as there were no references. However, the redheaded PR/social media expert was visually fun! Kudos to costume designers Jacqueline Demeterio and Rosemary Lepre Forman!
From a 6/12/2019 interview Bernard “believes her character, Lauren, is one that TV has been needing for a long time. Lauren is a confident, successful, engaging woman who also happens to be pansexual. But her sexuality is not what defines her, Bernard says. Her storyline isn’t about a woman struggling with her sexuality, it’s simply a part of who she is. The reminders that Lauren is sexually fluid are intentionally very subtle because it’s only one aspect of her incredible person. Bernard says Lauren’s sexuality was something she and the writers discovered along the way. ‘It wasn’t something that I knew going into the pilot or even the first couple of episodes. Once it became clear that Lauren was this very vibrant pansexual being, it all dropped in and made sense. It’s not the story of a pansexual/bisexual woman who’s struggling. There are a few important scenes, well, one in particular with her mother, played by Kathy Najimy, where she’s just like, “Oh, yeah. She’s pan. She’s great. She’s my daughter.” It’s like Lauren’s community really loves her, so the focus is actually not on Lauren’s sexuality. It’s really on her boldness in the world, and her size, that she dominates.” Bernard went on to say that she’s received very positive responses to her character from the queer community. “It’s a real privilege that I get to play her.” Bernard went on to note her appearance on the show Lip Sync: “Dressed as Ruth Bader Ginsburg.’I just was like,‘This is what I have to do,' I think I must do “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, and it’s got to be RBG. Ruth is up against all of Washington, and she’s ready to sock it to them and become the star that she is, that she’s always been.” (9/15/2021)


Felicity Smoak in the final 8th season of Arrow (on CW) – In the barely watchable last season, that mostly flitted through time and alternative universes, “Felicity” showed up to be united with dead “Oliver” in the finale’s afterlife with no Jewish references. (1/31/2020)

Murdoch Mysteries (in the U.S. on Ovation) In a special “200th episode of this Canadian series set at the turn of the 20th century, (S13 Ep11), “Staring Blindly into the Future”, written by Paul Aitken, Noelle Girard, Mary Pedersen, and Dan Trotta, the gathering of historical figures for a conference in Toronto on the future including Emma Goldman (played by Lisa Norton). Identified only as a pro-labor anti-capitalist, she delights in punching Andrew Carnegie (Philip Craig) in the nose. In a series that enjoys intersecting with history, Goldman had appeared in two previous episodes: "War on Terror" (S5 Ep4, shown in 2012) and "The Spy Who Came Up to the Cold" (S7 Ep15, shown in 2014 in Canada). (3/8/2020)

Vienna Blood – 1st season (on PBS) Based on the mystery novels by Frank Tannis that I haven’t yet read, the Jewish family moved from England to Vienna is introduced in the first episode. While the story revolved around the son the doctor “Dr. Max Liebermann” (Matthew Beard) who is taking Dr. Freud’s classes while practicing at a hospital amidst anti-Semitic staff, his sister “Leah” (Charlene McKenna) is a lively secondary character, though his mother “Rachel” (Amelia Bullmore) is barely tertiary. His feisty blonde fiancée “Clara Weiss” (played by German actress Luise von Finckh) is so a part of Viennese society that I had to infer she’s Jewish as a friend of the sister and as warmly acceptable to his parents. (updated 3/6/2020)

Résistance (on PBS - “Walter’s Choice) – Commissioned to commemorate the 70th anniversary in 2014 of the liberation of Paris, this French six episode mini-series is based on true stories of the young people in their teens and early ‘20’s in the French underground, including friends and family of creator Dan Franck. But Jews are secondary charcters on screen here. In Paris, the idealistically Communist Jewish Kirschen family was real, and plunged into anti-Nazi activities right after the Occupation, per the final scroll: Bernard (played by Matila Malliarakis) and his father Joseph (Christian Charmetant) were shot for their activities, on August 11 1942 ; the other son André (played by Jérémie Petrus) returned from Germany in 1945. Wife/mother Marie (Sophie Le Tellier), who is seen being supportive and then disappeared at the Round-up, did not survive deportation. In the 3rd episode, set in 1941, Cristina Boïco (played by Romanian actress Cristina Flutur) joins a Kirschen Friday night dinner. She’s asked if she’s Jewish; her tart reply (in translation): I have been for 25 years. A real person born Bianca Marcusohn in Romania, she did work as a translator and intelligence spy for the underground; a dedicated Communist, she returned to Romania after the war, but came back to Paris after her disillusionment with the regime. She should be better known in the history of Jewish women. So the Jewish women are not shown as victims on screen, which is a rarity in a period series. I wonder if there is more information on them in Georges Brandstatter’s 2015 book Combattants Juifs dans les armées de Liberation, but it is not available in English. (updated 3/6/2020)

Earth’s Sacred Wonders (on PBS) In the “Closer to Divine” episode, Mia Jaretsky prepares to celebrate her bat mitzvah at Masada, along side her younger brother, for three generations of her family. The narrator explains: “This is one of the most popular bar/bat mitzvah sites in the world – over 400 per year.” While most such series feature Hasids, this American family has no knowledge of Hebrew and little about the services or ritual, and the siblings worked with a tutor for a year to memorize their readings. As the eldest, Mia has had to learn twice as much as her brother. Unlike his hesitant reading, “Mia sailed through.” Her mother tearfully explains that Mia suffered through a tumor on her neck and through treatment. (4/21/2020)

Unorthodox (on Netflix) (For background on Deborah Feldman, whose memoirs provide the basis for this fictionalized series, see #FemalePleasure) (4/14/2020)

Better Things – in the 4th season (on FX) (5/28/2020)

The Plot Against America (on HBO) - David Simon’s and Ed Burns’ adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2004 novel (much appreciated by our Fiction Book Club) is richly Jewish in a Jewish neighborhood of Weequahic, in Newark, NJ, and very sympathetic to the brunette women, as penned in by the time and place they are living. In the central Levin family, the wife and mother of two boys is “Elizabeth (Bess)” (played by Zoe Kazan), who blesses the Shabbat candles. She hosts Friday night dinners that include her sister “Evelyn Finkel” (played by Winona Ryder – she added photos from her father and grandfather to the apartment set), is a teacher working for the Newark Teachers Union, and, in the opening episode, set in 1940, is a discouraged spinster living with their mother whose non-Jewish lover just wanted her as a “fun” mistress, but is then charmed by a new, Southern rabbi in town “Lionel Bengelsdorf” (played by John Turturro). “Bess” reluctantly goes along with her husband “Herman” (played by Morgan Spector) to look at a house in Union, NJ that is down the block from a German-American beer garden, decorated with posters of “American Firster” Charles Lindbergh, where drunks mock them with anti-Semitic slurs. She is physically and emotionally shook by negative memories of her lonely childhood as the only Jew in her school and neighborhood in Elizabeth, NJ, and pleads that she does not want her sons to repeat that experience. He sympathizes.
In the recommended accompanying podcast interviews with Peter Sagal, David Simon explained how he expanded the two Jewish women’s roles into three-dimensional women, fleshed out even more by the two actresses, because the book was limited by the main character’s ten year old point of view. Emphasizing that he added in his experience of the role of women in his own Jewish family, he explained how the older, unobservant sister is attracted to the 60-year-old Lindbergh-supporting rabbi as her last chance at marriage, while the mother going out to get a job in order to save money to buy a house is the rock of the family.
The two sisters are at the heart of the 3rd episode. “Bess” goes into New York to the Canadian consulate to explore emigration, and is optimistic of this possibility because one of the limited admission criteria is “familial connection” – which her brother-in-law “Alvin” (played by Catholic Irish Anthon Boyle) service in the Candian Army (I’m here to kill Nazis!) would qualify. “Bess” tries to calm her husband’s histrionics about the increasingly tense political scene, as she sees it affecting their children’s health, first just in their home, then on a fraught trip to “see the monuments” in Washington, DC. “Evelyn” becomes the Rabbi’s assistant in his Jewish assimilation program in the Lindbergh administration, running the Newark office of his brainchild “Just Folks”, where she can get her nephew “Sandy” (Caleb Malis) onto a Kentucky farm for the summer. “Herman” thinks of her as the rabbi’s “mistress”; “Bess” quibbles that he’s a widower. While they become fond lovers, even when he can’t peform what with living in a house surrounded by reminders of his late wife, he does propose to her – at a fancy gathering of such anti-Semitic Lindergh supporters as Henry Ford. In the accompanying podcast interview with Peter Sagal, Simon appreciates what the actors brought beyond the script: “We were were able to deliver the characters outside of young Philip’s view [in the book]. They had interior lives. We see genuine affection Evelyn has for this man and him for her, against the politics of a damaged time. That makes them more interesting…that the book can’t give you. The Levin family sees them as political opportunists, that she got her hooks into a macher to marry. In the book, they look like they have shallow ambitions and doesn’t grant them the possibility of being tragic.” “Evelyn” is especially hurt that her mother has become senile so can’t appreciate her success, confusing her with her sister.
After the 4th episode, he posted on Twitter: “You may ask, how did I get Winona Ryder to play the villainess in a political miniseries. And if you listen to this podcast you will know the answer. I had to promise she would be able to tell someone to go shit in the ocean in Yiddish. Something Tim Burton never let her do.”
David Simon’s tweets on the finale: 5/26/2020: “I personally met with Roth for an hour and half to go over the project. He was explicit that the kidnapping horseshit from Evelyn & the rabbi is meant as conspiratorist nonsense & no one should take it seriously…He didn’t request changes save for the family surname. He urged us to maintain the family’s general status as assimilating, non-orthodox Jews and to regard Evelyn’s conspiracy claims as nonsense as intended. He also discussed similarities/differences between Lindbergh and Trump…The nonsense about Lindbergh’s son being kidnapped was written by Roth as the sort of conspiratorist tripe that idiots spit up whenever anything controversial happens. He never expected readers to take Evelyn’s crazed ranting seriously.”
On the historical aspects:
My colleague Lou Lumenick has been researching the lost histories of the movies. When he posted about a Manhattan theater that once specialized in showing Newsreels, I asked him if there was one in Newark in the earely 1940’s, where characters in this series get their war news, including what was happening to Jews in real life. He provided supporting documentation for Simon’s authenticity:

David Simon tweets: On May 22, 2020: “My father, age 7, took the tube train from Jersey City to sit on his father’s shoulders and cheer Lindbergh as he came down lower Broadway. Thirteen years later, as an NYU student, he would be protesting the same man as a fascist and anti-Semite.” 5/24/2020: “Thing about libel is you have to have a reputation of sufficient merit that it can be damaged. After the Des Moines speech and Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh had no such thing. Also descendants can’t sue for shit, only principals.” On May 15: “No actual point in debating where the America of 1940 can veer in Roth’s wholly alternate history. But what is embarrassing is the number of Jewish writers who rigorously avoid the allegory between a fictional construct of anti-Semitism and our current racist/xenophobic reality.”
Several scenes used locales in my neighborhood: Eddie’s Sweet Shoppe (on Metropolitan Avenue); on Continental down Metropolitan Ave; on 73rd Road (between Queens Blvd and Austin St; on Puritan Avenue between Beechknoll and Burns St; and several locals were extras. (According to my fellow Forest Hills Jewish Center members/witnesses) (updated 5/26/2021)


The Windermere Children (BBC production shown on PBS, accompanied by In Their Own Words documentary of interviews with Holocaust child survivors taken to England to recover and get adopted) Most of those interviewed are men. The docu-drama does make a point of focusing on one Jewish woman social worker who was a particular advocate for the children, as a student of Anna Freud. (6/21/2020; added to 7/31/2020)

World On Fire (1st season on PBS) For an epic series set at the start of World War II across Britain, France, Germany and Poland, it took until the 4th episode written by series creator Peter Bowker, for a Jewish woman to show up – two, in Paris. A pregnant refugee is hurt in an anti-Semitic attack, but is allowed into the hospital by one of the primary characters, gay American doctor “Webster O'Connor” (played by Brian J. Smith). To emphasize the risk he’s taking, his nurse “Henriette Guilbert” (played by Eugénie Derouand) comes out to him as Jewish, confessing that she’s been working with forged papers under the name “Gerbois”. But in the penultimate episode, she shares her thrill at successfully sneaking a British prisoner out of the hospital to escape via the Resistance by giving him a big kiss – she certainly is misreading his signals as much as she did the Germans’ in not fleeing with her family when she could. (updated 5/12/2020)

A Place To Call Home (1st season on PBS; 1 – 3 seasons are simultaneously, and confusingly for my DVR, running one morning a week on Ovation) Created by Bevan Lee, this Australian series was began broadcasting on the 7 Network in 2013 and all 6 seasons are streaming via Acorn TV – if PBS doesn’t carry them all, I may have to break down and subscribe. I didn’t expect a Jewish woman character in the first episode “Prodigal Daughter”, so I was surprised when blonde nurse “Sister Rachel Adams” (played by Marta Dusseldorp) is confronted at home in Sydney by her mother (actress to be determined): …abandoning your family? your church? Your God?... Are you going to be my daughter again? I suppose you want me to call you Sarah?... we'll go to the church, and you'll go on your knees and ask Him for forgiveness for what you've done…You'll repent, and I'll forgive you everything. Every wrong. You can do that now. Let Him into your heart again. Then I can love you…Then go. Take your Jew name and go…I have no daughter. There’s other clues about her from her resume when she applies to work at Inverness Hospital, in Queensland, almost 100 miles from Sydney: she left home to help in the Spanish Civil War, her resume leaves off 1939- 1945 because of “personal history”, and the doctor notices she’s left religion blank, and assume she’s an atheist: We have prayers twice a day here. She finally answers: I’m Jewish, by faith. He’s very surprised – and the TV audience too, as she’s a rarity: You converted? She: I’ll say my prayers while you say yours. Is that all right with you Doctor? Later when he tries to tell her how to deal with an obstreperous patient “Roy Briggs” (Frankie J. Holden): I’ve been told what to do before. I’ve been forced. I told myself never again.
In 3rd episode, “Truth Will Out”, written by Trent Atkinson, she protests to her hospital boss: I value my privacy...Sarah is the name I have lived and worked under for years…You picked the wrong woman to interrogate!, making him feel guilty enough to rebel against his benefactor/her nemesis. But she finally confesses her secret to the grizzled veteran “Roy” whose wounded leg she tends: The name on my passport is Bridget. That's my birth name. That's what caused all the trouble today. People wanting the truth behind it…Yeah, I changed it when I married. My husband was Jewish. When you convert, you're given a Jewish name. But I lost all proof of that identity during the war. René died. In Dachau. I-- lived., with tears.
In the 4th episode “The Mona Lisa Smile”, also written by Trent Atkinson, “Sarah” starts her first day making rounds. The Doctor introduces her to the tailors: The Goldbergs. Only ones of your lot around. Their niece Leah has TB…the things she went through as a little 'un...it's best she's treated at home. It's a grim story. I'm sure they'll tell it if they want to. They thought it was better for business to lose the 'berg'. “Aunt Miriam” (played by Lisa Peers) and “Uncle Itzaak” (played by Martin Sacks) have thick Eastern European accents, and after they offer “Sarah” a strudel, she shocks them: Grossen dank. I'm Jewish. They’re thrilled. Aunt: You must join us for Shabbos, yeah? Sarah: I would love to. Doctor: I reckon you made their day. “Sarah”: They made mine. She does return on Friday, the Aunt blesses the candles, and they wish each other “Good Shabbos”. After “Sarah” sneaks the niece a forbidden movie poster of her favorite movie star Marilyn Monroe, she tells them: Leah's very special. They concur, but note: For years, she seemed so frail. Then the X-ray man came. The TB in her lungs. From her time in the cellar. She was hidden from the Nazis for years. That suffering, and still so optimistic. “Sarah”: Her parents? They explain.: Taken. Gone. Who can find the words? “Sarah”: I know. Again she surprises them: But we assumed you -- you were here during the war, safe. Well, we don't mean to bring up any bad memories. “Sarah”: I was in Ravensbruck. Two years. They’re supportive: You survived. “Sarah”: A part of me did. As she’s leaving: It's taken me eight years to speak of the things I did tonight. They: And how do you explain to those who can't even imagine such things? She: I've had the opportunity before. Strange. I'm not sure why I finally felt able to. They suggest: Time. Bashert? She: Fate. Belonging somewhere again. Thank you.
The 5th episode “Day of Atonement”, written by Rick Held, has so much more about putting Yom Kippur in practice among a community of Christians that I’ll need to describe in detail when I get a chance. In subsequent episodes, “Sarah”, as well as “Mrs. Goldberg”, continue to face anti-Semitism in the town. Particularly as “Sarah” is romantically (and sexually) involved with rich patriarch widower “George Bligh” (played by Brett Climo), in episodes written by Atkinson, she is frequently insulted as “a Jew”.
By Episode 10, “Lest We Forget”, by the series creator, geo-politics is exposing lots of biases set off by war and varied efforts at possible forgiveness. While the doctor, as a former POW of the Japanese has to greet a Japanese trade delegation, the reasons for “George”s sister-in-law “Regina”, and competitor for his romantic attentions, deep antipathy to “Sarah The Jew” is revealed by “George”: She lived with her late diplomat husband in Jerusalem as part of the British Protectorate in the King David Hotel when it was bombed in 1946, and some of her friends were killed. This conflation with anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is strikingly similar to some elements of the BDS Movement now, and I suppose known to Australians in 2013. “George” confronts “Regina” who is sarcastic: Honestly, I know the Jews have suffered, but it does make them overly sensitive. Oh, dear. That seems to support her case, doesn't it?, and promises to apologize. Instead, she points out to a friend: A local nurse. A Jew. She converted. Oh, to be born one is unfortunate. But to become one? My dear, positively perverse. “Anna” confronts her as “The Gentile”. “Regina” retorts: A wise friend once said, "They should call it the Whining Wall, the amount they whine." “Anna”: That smile takes me right back to Germany. “Regina”: And yours me to Jerusalem. “Anna”: Israel's still there. Nazi Germany isn't. Meanwhile, several times now, “Anna” has shown her fighting skills, and revealed to more that she spent time in Ravensbruck concentration camp. (updated 6/11/2020)


- Still from Double Holiday on Hallmark Channel - Image by Allister Foster/2019 Crown Media United States, LLC.- and promotional poster
Hallmark Hanukkah Movies - In time for Hanukkah 2017 (or 5779), Crown Media, the owner of the Hallmark Channel, told Jonathan Berr of Forbes Magazine it was planning its first Hanukkah-themed movies in its popular holiday marathons since “2012’s Hitched for the Holidays starring Joey Lawrence of TV’s Blossom and Emily Hampshire as characters pretending to be a couple to get their meddling families off their backs, only to fall in love for real.” Sorry that I seem to have missed that one. “[T]wo movies with Hanukkah themes under development that it plans to air next year…are in their early stages. The script of one called Holiday Date is being written. According to a company spokeswoman, it will have ‘Hanukkah elements…which is a lot of fun as Hanukkah and Christmas overlap in 2019.’ Additional details on the other holiday movie weren't available.” The first two Hallmark movies built around Hanukkah-themed plots are Holiday Date story by Kraig Wenman, written by Karen Berger, and Double Holiday by Nina Weinman, both written by Hallmark holiday movie veterans. Britni de la Cretaz in The Washington Post 12/2/2019 makes good points: “Neither movie is a Hanukkah movie. They are Christmas movies with Jewish characters. And they rely on some of the oldest anti-Semitic tropes in the book… in the form of a Jewish character attempting to blend in among the wary members of a Christian family… [In Double Holiday] Hanukkah stands only in relation to Christmas, not on its own terms. Indeed, it functions as an obstacle to the rest of the characters getting to celebrate as usual. Rebecca [“Hoffman”, played by Carly Pope] even has to set aside her Hanukkah plans to organize the party with her male, Christian counterpart — which she does to further her professional ambition.” (updated 12/8/2019)


Elena of Avalor - Princess Rebekah - There was much advance excitement in the Jewish media that covers popular culture of a character hailed as “The First Jewish Disney Princess” (Vanellope notwithstanding). Shipwrecked from the kingdom of Galonia in Season 3, Episode 17 of the Disney Junior Channel daytime animated series. The “Festival of Lights” episode, written by Rachel Ruderman, was voiced by Jewish actress Jamie-Lynn Siegler, who also sang a possibly new Disney holiday song “This Hanukkah Night.”. In Remezcla, which noted that “Elena” was the only fictional figure on People en Español 2016’s “25 Mujeres Más Poderosas” list, Craig Gerber, the creator and executive producer, was proudly quoted: “It has always been important to us on Elena of Avalor to showcase the diversity of Latin and Hispanic cultures…We decided to focus on Hanukkah and a part of the culture that we hadn’t yet represented on the show.” However, the Jewish media interpreted Disney’s “Latino” kingdom as “Ladino”. So once the program aired, there was criticism that the apparently Sephardic kingdom’s royal family used Yiddish terms! While there was praise for including bimuelos as the holiday fried food, along with latkes as a Yiddishkeit “nosh”, her grandmother is “Bubbe” (voiced by Tovah Feldshuh) who talks of “dreidls” instead of “sevivon” to little brother “Ari”. (Reminds me of the parents’ dispute at my kids’ JCCA Day Care Center over teachers singing the Ashkenazi-preferred “I Have A Little Dreidl” instead of the Sephardic/Israeli-preferred “Sivivon Sov Sov Sov”.)
Lisa Dawn, on her Princess Blog was uncomfortable with the animation: “Her oddly shaped head and large nose make her look Jewish enough, but not cute and youthful like the other Disney Princesses. Her pudgy cheeks gave her wrinkles when she smiled that made her look more like a queen than a princess.”
Adam Eilath admirably went further with his criticism, albeit into a non-Disney comfort zone and unnecessarily in past tense: “Perhaps the greatest missed opportunity of the show was the failure to incorporate the Jewish tradition of female empowerment and leadership, something that was central to the Sephardic experience of Hanukkah. Jews in North Africa and the Middle East had a special holiday on Rosh Hodesh Tevet, which falls on the seventh night of Hanukkah this year, called Eid El Bnat (La Fete de Filles - “The Holiday of [Daughters]” in Arabic and French, respectively) [Chag HaBanot in Hebrew]. On this night, Jewish women in Sephardic and Mizrachi countries would celebrate the story of Judith, a hero who saved the Jewish people by seducing and killing an Assyrian general. Women in these countries would exchange gifts, bless one another and reconcile over any disagreement they may have had in the year. It was common to eat dairy food in memory of the cheese that Judith used to seduce the Assyrian general Holofernes.”
Rishe Groner in Hey Alma expanded on her 2017 Lilith Magazine piece with details on another heroine commemorated at this holiday - the daughter of the Hasmonean, Yohanan the High Priest, who lived in Judea during the time of the Maccabees, and plotted with her brothers by also feigning the king’s seduction. She describes Disney-esque commemorations: “Sweet traditional foods were prepared and gifted in baskets to mothers, daughters, or mothers-in-law, prayers were shared, and songs were sung. Overall, though, the key components always include lighting the Hanukkah candles, lots of music and dancing, and the opportunity to create intimacy and community with women…A song or piyyut often begins the night, followed by lighting the Hanukkah candles. Piyyutim are liturgical poems written in Hebrew that are sung with incredibly complicated and deeply moving Arabic maqam (a system of melodic modes)…One awesome tradition is the presentation of the bat mitzvah girls of the year — consider it our very own debutante ball, but this time, it’s up to the moms and aunts to cheer, bless, and generally love up these young girls as newcomers to the women’s circle. It’s also traditional to prepare foods together, like the North African favorite sfenj — think jelly doughnuts meet churros drizzled with honey — or honey cakes, cookies, or a potluck dinner. Mishloach manot — gifting packages of food and treats — is also part of the Eid Al Bnat tradition.”
Harvey’s Girls (Netflix) Hanukkah episode written by Sarah Nerboso in this animated series (Commentary forthcoming when I figure out if the Jewish girl is a regular character.)(updated 1/31/2020)


Suits (on USA) “Lewis Litt”s sister “Esther Litt Adelstein ” (Amy Acker) made returned for the final 9th season, for a “Me Too”-themed episode concerning an incident with her business mentor 15 years ago come back to interfere with a company merger, in “Prisoner’s Dilemma”, written by Ethan Drogin, who was promoted to Executive Producer. [Details forthcoming – there was no explicit mention of her Jewish identity, but lots of frank talk with her brother.] (11/2/2019)

The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park (on AMC/Sundance Channels) Docu-Series: Ep 1: “Woman Down In Central Park”; Ep 2: “Rough Sex”; Ep 3 “Who is Robert Chambers?”; Ep 4: “Blame the Victims”; Ep 5: “The Trial of the Decade”. (preview at 2019 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival) Directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg were interviewed in Hollywood Reporter by Marisa Guthrie, 11/13/2019 about the 1988 trial of Robert Chambers for the murder of Jennifer Levin: “Stern who grew up in New York City and frequented the same social circles as Chambers : ‘I said to Annie, if anyone’s going to make this series, it’s going to be us. We need to set the record straight.’ Sundberg. ‘And Jennifer Levin’s story was either misrepresented or not represented at all. This was an opportunity to go back and find out exactly why that happened.”’ Her mother Ellen Levin and sister Danielle, several times refer to the family being Jewish, in contrast to the Catholic Chambers (whose judge was impressed by an archbishop’s character reference letter) and the otherwise gentile crowd he hung out with, and their choice to have an open coffin funeral, against tradition. In a coda, her mother describes how for ten years after the trial she lobbied in Albany for victims’ rights legislation with Justice for All: “It wasn’t just me – it was me and Jen.” But it’s difficult to listen to Linda Fairstein, who was proud to be only the second woman in the Manhattan DA’s office to ever try a murder case, after how she was portrayed in Ava DuVernay’s docu-drama of the Central Park 5 case When They See Us. (12/21/2019)

NCIS – Ziva David in the 17th season - After dramatically appearing at the very end of last season’s finale, Cote de Pablo returns in the very complicated first two episodes, “Out of the Darkness” written by Gina Lucita Monreal, and “Into the Light” written by Steven D Binder, that had to do with her daughter “Talya” and the daughter’s father her lover/co-worker “Tony”, her brother, and various convolutedterrorist plots, as well as her father/daughter relationship with her American boss. She is scheduled to guest on two more ratings-period-significant episodes this season, in the fall (“The North Pole” also written by Monreal) and spring season finales. Due to torture and perhaps motherhood, she’s had considerable personality changes, let alone suffering from panic attacks. [Additional commentary forthcoming] (updated 12/22/2019)

The Good Fight – Marissa Gold in the first season (on CBS broadcast; originally shown on CBS All Access premium service in 2017) As played by Sarah Steele, she came over in this spin-off from The Good Wife from the episode “First Week”, written by Ryan Pederson & Joey Scavuzzo, on. Clever and enterprising, she got herself hired to be the assistant to the un-retired law partner “Diane Lockhart” (played by Christine Baranski). “Marissa” develops into quite a good investigator to want to get a professional license. “Self-Condemned”, written by Jim McKay, added in a sexy Israeli woman “Naftali Amato” (played by Katrina Lenk) as a comic relief dominatrix being a witness in court for a despicable returning character “Colin Sweeney” (played by Dylan Baker), in an otherwise serious episode. (updated 7/29/2019)

Fear the Walking Dead – Sarah in the 5th season (on AMC) The episode “Ner Tamid”, written by Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, introduced its first Jewish character in the The Walking Dead universe in the “Rabbi Jacob Kessner” (played by Peter Jacobson, who is a frequent portrayer of Jewish men on TV). Then at the end, bad-ass truck driver “Sarah” (played by comic turned actress Mo Collins) too suddenly revealed to him: Good to have you with us, Rabbi. Say, you wouldn't happen to know how far out we are from Yom Kippur, would ya? I got a few things to atone for. Rabbi: You've got some time yet. “Dwight” (a redeemed, cross-over character from the original series, played by Austin Amelio): You're Jewish? “Sarah”: Rabinowitz. Card-carrying Member of the Tribe. Rabbi: I was about to do the Ma'ariv. Care to join me? “Sarah”: You ever say kiddush with a Saison? Rabbi: No need. I make my own wine. “Sarah”: My kinda rabbi. Much as I appreciate the very non-stereotyped image of a Jewish woman on TV, let alone one who considers the black, wheelchair bound “Wendell” (played by Daryl Mitchell) her brother, this revelation is typical of older TV where Jewish heritage is just a punch line gimmick of one episode, or then maybe referred to within a holiday episode. (9/4/2019)

Preacher – Dany in the 4th Season (on AMC) Jewish crime boss “Dany” (played by Julie Dretzin) returned as the series apocalyptically barrels towards conclusion. “Tulip” (played by Ruth Negga) is tracking down “Jesse Custer” (Dominic Cooper), even returning to her previous occupation as an assassin. In the back of an active Orthodox shule, “Dany”: Is that why you've come, for my knowledge of traditional Jewish hats and headwear? “Tulip”: You know what we want, Dany. Who we want. “Dany”: But first you know what I want. She gets a call. You killed my husband! “Tulip”: Like you asked me to, Dany. Like you've been asking me for 10 years, Dany. Look. You got what you want, now we get what we want. “Dany” reluctantly keeps assenting: I know! I didn't think you'd do it! You always said no. 100 times I asked you and you always said no. Here's the thing. Jesse gave it to me for safekeeping. “Tulip”: There's no "thing," Dany. We had a deal. Where is he? “Dany”: You don't understand. What you are asking I can't do it. I can't take you to him. “Tulip” beats her up bloody. “Dany” finally leads her to the idiot clone of Jesus Christ: I hope he melts your faces off…When Jesse first sent him to me for safekeeping, I thought, ‘This is God's chosen one? He's raping blocks of cheese.’ But then Something happened. His power, his love changed me. It changed all of us. Do you understand now how special he really is? Why I could never let you take him. Ever. As “Tulip” grabs him, “Dany” screams: Stop them! They're taking our Messiah! As the male congregation screams Moshiach!, one guy comments: I didn't even know we had a Messiah. “Dany” snarls: Because we didn't tell you, Eli! Schmuck. (9/8/2019)

Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein in the 6th Season (on Netflix) Whoops – Season 6 begins streaming January 2020 before I even got a chance to watch S1 yet to comment on Lily Tomlin’s portrayal of the Jewish woman character. The series also got renewed for its 7th/final season, with 16 episodes in 2021. (updated 4/11/2020)

Will & Grace – Grace Adler in the 11th, final season (on NBC) (I’m still catching up) (11/24/2019)

The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 7th season (on ABC) (I detest this sit com so much that I couldn’t bring myself to finish watching even the 2nd season, so I’m not goint to waste my time watching the didn’t-deserve-to-be-renewed 5th season. While I could even now catch it more frequently in syndication, I’ll probably have to end up buying the complete series on DVD to do a complete review with episode-by-episode documentation of its clichés.) (11/24/2019)

Our Boys (on HBO) Controversial 10-part series created by Joseph Cedar (one of my favorite Israeli directors), Tawfik Abu Wael(writing and directed the Palestinian story line), and Hagai Levi, based on true story of a Palestinian teenager abducted and brutally murdered by Orthodox Jews in 2014, ostensibly in revenge for Palestinian militants killing of Israeli teens two days earlier. While I haven’t started watching the series, the Israeli mothers’ public profile is featured. (9/9/2019)

Hunters - Ruth Heidelbaum and Mindy Markowitz plus in Season 1 (11 episodes streaming on Amazon Prime, Season 2 began streaming January 2023) Seeing Austrian director Thomas Roth’s Schächten—A Retribution, at 2023 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film at Lincoln Center and The Jewish Museum/ courtesy of Menemsha Films, with the real, but meager prosecutions of Nazis, and fictionalized Simon Wiesenthal organizing attacking avengers vs. real organized Nazi protectors, I was curious to see this American series based on a similar idea (and, too, because a cousin posted that he acts in some episodes). Unlike the film, several Jewish women characters are featured. The series is a more exaggerated tale of Nazi hunters in the U.S. in the 1970’s amidst sadistic Nazis’ large-scale plans for the rise of a Fourth Reich. (See Mor Lushy & Daniel Sivan’s short animated documentary Camp Confidential: America's Secret Nazis (2021) on Netflix for background on Operation Paperclip.)

In the opening 2-part episode “In the Belly of the Whale” written by showrunner David Weil (inspired by his Polish grandmother’s experiences in the Holocaust), “Helen Hirsch” (above played by Izabello Miko) is the red-headed wife of a new Carter administration Commerce Dept. underling who freaks out at a suburban Maryland BBQ when she recognizes that his affable boss “Biff Simpson” (Dylan Baker) is really “The Butcher of Arlav”! He slaughtered my whole family! He killed them all! Nazi! When he snarls Leave it to the Jew to think only of its pathetic existence, she recovers to confront him in tight close-up: We survived and we’ll survive again. He shoots her last. The action shifts to its main location in Brooklyn, and we’re introduced to a central character “Jonah Heidelbaum” (Logan Lerman) and his safta “Ruth” (played by Jeannie Berlin); maybe Weil thought the Hebrew for Grandmother sounded more serious than the Yiddish Bubbe? After she is killed by a Nazi she’s been hunting while she screams You can’t hide!, her grandson finds her handwritten journal of her Holocaust experiences; her voice narrates this journal as flashbacks over several episodes where her 1940’s, Polish-speaking self is portrayed by Annie Hägg. Yiddish words and phrases that are not the typical ones are generously sprinkled throughout the series’ dialogue.
In Episode 3 “Mourner’s Kaddish”, also written by Weil, we find out more about “Ruth”s extensive activities, including setting up “The Arc”, a cross-indexed archive of survivors’ interviews connected with researched clues about Nazi criminals. In subsequent episodes, “Jonah” hallucinates her with him, either as his safta, or as the young woman prisoner in the Auschwitz garb. We meet the titular collective led by “Meyer Offerman” (Al Pacino), who had a long “complicated” relationship with “Ruth”. The team includes a survivor couple, the somewhat religious “Mindy Horowitz” (played by the inimitable Carol Kane) who married back “in the shtetl” atheist “Murray” (Saul Rubinek). A flashback shows that “Meyer” assembled the team with the aid of a wealthy Jewish matchmaker “Hilda Hoffman” (played by Kathryn Kates), whose office is in NYC’s Diamond District: I help you, it makes noise. In my line of work, noise is death. 31 years since liberation, I have made 345 matches that produced 957 Jewish souls - 7 more are pregnant this week. That should be enough for Hashem. This comes with responsibility to make the world better for these 957 lives…That’s 5,999,043 short, but we have time yet.
The 7th episode "Ruth 1:16”, written by Millicent Shelton, has some of the most intense Jewish references. We see that another woman in the unit has a hidden Jewish past as the young girl “Rebekah Kreutzer” on a Kinder Transport. The episode, and the Jewishness, centers around the wedding of the “Horowitz”s daughter “Amy” (played by Hannah Reid Rubinek, Saul’s real-life daughter), one of their five children (two are daughters). They share a blessing and “Mindy” tells him: I heard what you said. 30 years, I have not heard you say that word: "Amen." He shrugs: A person can't be thankful? We had heard earlier references to them mourning the death of their young son “Aaron” (Aaron Markowitz), and in a flashback to the concentration camp we see the boy executed by a Nazi commandante – the same hidden Nazi “Moritz” that the hidden Jewish member of the team brings to them as a “wedding present”.
”Jonah” is naturally upset by attacks on the group, but “Meyer” wants him to recite the Birkat Kohanim at the wedding: The Hunt is not only…about death, Jonah. No. It's about life, too. It is a great tragedy to me not to celebrate what it is we do have…for centuries we've been persecuted because of these rituals. These are the very things that define us. That make us us. Retreating from that... that's defeat. And I'm not ready to admit defeat. Are you? But “Jonah” stumbles over the unfamiliar Hebrew , and switches: There is this one prayer that I do know pretty well because my safta, she used to say it every night. Every night. She said it gave her courage and hope on her worst days. She said it was stronger than any weapon or armor. She said that this prayer, the “Birkhat HaGomel”, gave her superpowers and shit, sorry... stuff…I thought I would say it tonight for you, Amy and Ben. From me. And so, from her. A hallucination of “Ruth” appears and recites the prayer with him. “Jonah” also flashbacks to “Ruth” protesting when he tried to take a chai necklace out of her dresser: Give me that. It belonged to your grandfather. Just when “Meyer” confesses why he doesn’t wear his: Because I gave the necklace away to the woman I loved, and I've never worn one since. A clue! “Jonah” is choked up as the wedding guests dance the hora: My “safta” always wanted me to feel...part of our people. Part of our tribe. (1/28/2023)

Pose – Frederica Norman in the 2nd season (on FX) This Peabody Award-winning series so beautifully portrays the travails of trans and gay minority folks in NYC reeling from the AIDS crisis, with wonderful acting by people from those communities, that I kept looking for clues that in this 2nd season set in 1990 this stereotyped wealthy divorcée landlord is not Jewish, when she appeared from the 2nd episode “Worth It”, written by Janet Mock, in limo declaring: I don't normally rent to anyone darker than my Aunt Lily after a week's vacation in Palm Beach, but I've had good luck with Dominicans. Hard workers, for the most part. When she wants to kick out the manicure salon owner “Blanca Rodriguez” (played by MJ Rodriguez) because she is trans, “Blanca” stays by filing with the Human Rights Commission. As portrayed by Patti LuPone, by Episode 6 “Love’s In The Need of Love Today”, written by series co-creator Brad Falchuk and Our Lady J, will certainly be perceived as a putative Jewish woman. While she talks of the (stereotypical) gays in her life, like her hair stylist, she performs at the AIDS Cabaret fundraiser, even if it’s to distract the manicurist who is running the event from the eviction that’s going on simultaneously. She refers to growing up in Scarsdale, with music and dance lessons, and wanting to emulate in every way Elizabeth Taylor, whose conversion in 1959 was well-publicized. LuPone has said in interviews that her character is loosely based on Leona Helmsley, who was Jewish, neé Lena Mindy Rosenthal, though her final husband Harry was not.
In the next episode, “Blow” written by Jane Mock, the feud continues. “Blanca” reports about The New York Post: You know what she did?…She told Page Six that all of us protesting - left hypodermic needles and condoms laying around in a gutter in front of my nail salon. It was on the news this morning. And they didn't necessarily use the words HIV, but we already know what they were implying. The world is scared of us, and she's using that to beat me. “Pray Tell” (played by Billy Porter): Evil, but smart. “Blanca” announces to her house: ACT UP is looking to make a statement about safe sex, and they want to do something that's gonna get on the news. “Pray Tell”: So Blanca and I have come up with a little caper with flair. “Blanca”: The three of you are gonna head upstate and wrap one of those high society dames's country house in a giant condom…Whose house? Frederica Norman's. I thought I might kill two birds with one stone. It's an opportunity to highlight her bigotry and get the message out about condom use. While they’re inflating a huge balloon condom all around her house, with TV crew in tow, a middle-aged neighbor with hair in curlers and housecoat walking by contradicts an attempt to flatter her: She's the worst neighbor I've ever had. That bitch can die in a fire. But I'm still calling the cops. Somehow I didn’t catch how, “Blanca” has re-opened her nail salon, when “Fredericka” storms in and is told: You know what? I reserve the right to refuse services to anyone, especially a homophobic, racist witch who breaks contracts. “Fredericka”: I've been stiffed on payments, I've been double-crossed on deals. That all comes with the territory. But your assault on me, my home, my reputation! “Blanca”: Please, Frederica. You act like the world didn't already know you was a stone-cold bitch. You basically bragged about how hard you was the first day we met. “Fredericka” is surprisingly revealing: This is different. You humiliated me. Do you know how difficult it is for a woman in real estate? Now they're laughing at me. And those Upper West Side commies think I'm prejudiced. And all because of you. “Blanca”: Good. Now, can you please leave my establishment? “Fredericka”: Fine. I just came down here to say congratulations, Blanca, or whatever your real name is. You won. I'm not easy to get the best of. I almost admire you. Underestimate me at your peril. Do be careful at night when you leave here, though. This neighborhood isn't improving as fast as I thought it would. “Blanca”: Excuse me, is that a threat? You gonna send somebody to bust my kneecaps? I'm just saying that you should underestimate me at your peril, too, sweetheart. She reports back to her housemates: So, next thing I know, she up and left. I mean, she just hopped in her car and sped away.
In “Life’s A Beach”, written by Gwyneth Horder-Payton, “Frederica” saunters into the burned-out storefront in a lovely yellow outfit.: What happened to my building? This is devastating. How will I recover?…My name is on the deed, sweetheart. I was in the car heading to my summer cottage when I got the call that my property had burned down. Isn't that terrible? “Blanca”: I put all of my savings into this salon, and somehow, I didn't know that insurance was needed to cover the supplies and furniture and all of my stuff! It went up into smoke just like that. “Fredericka”: You live and you learn. “Blanca”: Going toe-to-toe with you, I learned what protecting yourself really looks like. You taught me that. And for that, I will be grateful. “Fredericka”: After our squabble, I raised the insurance coverage on this building. I just had a feeling something like this could happen. Come next spring, I'll triple the rent, attracting tenants that will breathe a breath of fresh air - into this ghetto enclave. Yeah, this place is right on track for a much-needed makeover. How I will miss our conversations. I will relish all summer the thought of you back home, in your grim little Bronx walk-up, filing acrylics in the sweltering 100-degree August heat.
“Fredericka” manages to persevere in the season finale “In My Heels”, written and directed by Janet Mock. “Blanca” reads aloud a newspaper article: A female real estate mogul was arrested Thursday morning in connection to a Harlem building fire - that erupted last August. Frederica Norman, 62, was charged with felony first-degree arson for the fire at 794 East 116th Street, where two firefighters were injured and a nail salon owner lost her business. Ms. Norman is believed to have set the blaze herself in order to profit by filing fraudulent insurance claims following the fire. At the conclusion, her lawyer meets with her in jail: When am I getting out, Asher? Lawyer: The judge revoked bail…He feels with your wealth, you're a flight risk. She laughs, then does a peroration worthy of the equally morally compromised Scarlett O’Hara: They are so goddamn predictable. It's because I'm a woman. Lawyer: You're in here because an eyewitness saw you leaving a building. She: Asher, because they want to make an example. To put me in my place. To put all women in their place. We are not allowed to have empires or emotions. We are expected to sit at home patiently waiting for our husbands, cook their meals, supply unpaid emotional and physical labor to aid in the fulfillment of their dreams. We are not supposed to have dreams of our own. The only thing I feel bad about, if I have anything to feel bad about at all, is that I ended another woman's dreams. For that, I will proudly serve time. But I will not be penalized for having a dream of my own and doing what I had to do to make it a reality. I refuse to be shamed for my ambition! She slams down the phone. The ill “Blanca” continues reading the article aloud, with a chuckle: Ms. Norman could face five years in prison, - according to state officials…1996 seems like a lifetime away. Frederica being locked up is further proof - that my work here is done. (updated 9/4/2019)


In The Terror (on AMC), brilliantly set during the horrific detention of Japanese-American citizens, in “All The Demons Are Still in Hell”, written by Tony Tost, the young man “Chester Nakayama” (Derek Mio) seeks out his photography “Professor Henkoff” (played by Geoff Gustafson) about the spooky image that keeps appearing in his photos: There's been a few funerals on Terminal Island lately, and some more of the pictures that I took turned out like this. What am I doing wrong? Teacher: Well, if you ask my old professor, he'd say it's a combination of a slow shutter and a shaky hand. If you ask my Jewish mother, she'd say you've been taking photos of things you shouldn't be. “Chester”: But I asked you. Teacher: Well, I say a picture captures a photographer's relationship to the world around him, and with everything that's been going on right now, it's no surprise that yours are coming out a little disturbed. It's a tough time, Chester. I can only imagine what this is like for you right now. (8/19/2019)

Miriam “Midge” Maisel etc. –in 3rd season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (on Amazon, coming December 2019) I’m looking forward to streaming – and commenting on -- the first season first. (8/19/2019)



2018/2019 Season

At the start of this season, Lisa Edelstein made her most Jewish appearance, and her most comic, in the PSA for Hillel’s ”Mitz Vote” campaign to get college students and other young Jews to register for vote in time for the midterm elections, an updated version of Sarah Silverman’s “The Great Schlep” to get out the vote for Obama in Florida.

Stockholm – 1st season - I am woefully behind on streaming the many Israeli TV series streaming on U.S.-available platforms, because reading subtitles and taking notes is work, or catching introductory episodes at film festivals (as I did with On The Spectrum). But the 2019 New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival promoted that at least three episodes of this dark comic mini-series would be shown; though only two were due to endless speeches for the awarding of the 2019 Ronit Elkabetz A*H Pomegranate Award to co-star Sasson Gabay and designer Oded Halahmy, plus politicians.
Based on the bestselling novel (not available in English) by award-winner female Israeli writer Noa Yedlin, who co-wrote the four episodes, one each about the long-time, 70-year-old friends dealing with the sudden death of one who was an eminent economist expected to win the Nobel Prize, two women and two men, all with fond memories of their hippie-like youths together. Recently retired from some sort of medical practice and already bored with helping out her children with grandmother duties is Nilli (Tikva Dayan), who is more earthy and practical than the silly randy bubbes in most comedies. Writer Zohara Zak(Liora Rivlin) does commissioned biographies, and lands in a widely publicized scandal due to loudly accusing a 90 year old subject, a Holocaust survivor, of sexual harassment at his birthday party that is caught on viral video and on gossip TV; she also confesses to her friends that she had a long-time open relationship affair with the deceased, and does seem to be the only one genuinely moved by his death. These are mature, intelligent, very appealing characters who are unusual for TV, and I hope to get to see the rest of this 1st season of episodes through the distributor Menemsha Films, as this has been playing at many festivals in North America, and there’s talk of a 2nd season. (The first 2 episodes also shown at 2019 Israel Film Center Festival) (updated 6/7/2019)


Poetry in America (on some PBS stations) – In Harvard Prof. Elisa New’s Episode 4 on Allen Ginsberg, the discussion on the “Hymmnn” section of Kaddish with brief explanations to the references to “Naomi”, his mentally ill mother, and comparative recitations, as Tablet Magazine noted: “Rabbi Claudia Kreiman davens Ginsberg texts with a melody generally used for traditional Jewish liturgy.” The series also featured the poem The New Colossus by Sephardic poet Emma Lazarus, and one of the immigrant commenters was singer/songwriter Regina Spektor, who I include on Jewish Women in Popular Music. (10/28/2019)

Portraits in Architecture – Nada Breitman-Jakov (on some PBS stations) – While Geoffrey Baer, out of Chicago public broadcasting station WTTW, has developed various architectural and city planning programs that have been picked up by PBS, I can’t think of women designers he has featured. So in this six episode, half-hour series, in affiliation with Notre Dame’s traditional School of Architecture, that champions non-modernist architects, I was surprised to see the only woman, a Jewish woman, though she, and her husband Marc, are only identified as Jewish in the accompanying blog. While Baer mentions Brussels-born and trained Breitman-Jakov’s mother in passing, she pays tribute to her father, a modernist architect who preferred American suburbia to her preservationist bent; she proudly shows a book she produced of his work, and laughs about their arguments. She met her husband and architectural practice partner during their unsuccessful effort to preserve a working-class Parisian neighborhood, and they have since successfully applied classical architecture forms to what’s called in Europe “social housing”; examples are shown of their work in northern France and Amsterdam. I could find almost no additional information on her, other than that the couple received the school’s Driehaus Prize in 2018, when the program was produced. I hope to submit Nada Breitman-Jakov for inclusion in the Jewish Women’s Archive’s Encyclopedia. (7/30/2019- 4/21/2020)

Deutschland 86 (on Sundance Channel) Amidst international skulduggery while East Germany’s and South Africa’s governments are falling, in creator Anna Winger’s follow-up to her Deutschland 83 mini-series, the first Jewish women characterse appeared half-way. Radical ANC rebel/terrorist “Rose” (Florence Kasumba) meets with a German-Jewish family who had fled the Nazis for safe haven in South Africa, where they reconstructed the same villa, and now have returned to reclaim their house in the GDR, complete with menorah on the mantle. As much as she and her GDR spy lover “Leonora Rauch” (Maria Schrader) mock the Rosenbergs, frau and daughter (Eleonore Weisgerber and Deborah Kaufmann) for being bourgeois, including managing to have a black maid in the Communist country like “Rose”s family was for them in S. Africa, “Rose” asks them to sponsor her daughter “Tandi” to be safe with them when South Africa (due to her activities) gets violent, ironically. (11/18/2018)

We Will Meet Again – 2nd season (on PBS) Ann Curry’s tearjerker series of people searching for the one person who has haunted them as most significant in their lives featured an explicitly Jewish woman as the object of the search in the episode of Holocaust survivors. Ben Alalouf seeks the little girl who was his first friend in the U.S. when his family was with the only refugee group allowed into the U.S., from a ship in Naples in 1944 to an old Army base in Oswego, NY (as documented in Ruth Gruber’s Haven). He played with a girl he remembered only as “Seca”. The Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum curator figures out where his family stayed, who was adjacent with a young girl, and makes contact. Because “Seca” turns out to just mean “Sister”, her brother helps him find a very surprised Flora Friedman. Through the USC Shoah Foundation, the other survivor, Ben Lesser, connects with his friend’s daughter Osnet, at the kibbutz his like-a-brother founded, and he now considers her his niece. (11/29/2018)

In this season of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (on PBS) – Jewish guests included in the episode “Dreaming of A New Land” Facebook’s Sheryl “Lean In” Sandberg (whose DNA was the highest percentage of Ashkenazi Gates’ had seen on this series). She already knew a lot about her immediate female successful ancestors of whom she is very proud, but learned of the struggles of a widowed, poverty-stricken immigrant great-grandmother whose difficulties explained the behavior of a grandfather her family had shunned. [More commentary forthcoming] (2/3/2019)

Better Things – in the 3rd season (on FX) While Pamela Adlon’s character was haunted this season by her very Jewish father “Murray Fox” (Adam Kulbersh), she continually insists that her mother and daughters are not Jewish, including make everyone celebrate Easter. [Details forthcoming] (5/22/2019)

The Bold Type (on Freeform) in the 2nd season continues to be offensive in its lack of Jewish women in New York publishing, let alone that these Bright Young Things are rising surprisingly fast. The episode “OMG”, written by Neel Shah, exemplifies how this series bothers me. “Jane Sloan” (Katie Stevens) is leery of dating a cute dedicated doctor who turns out to be: religious. Like he prayed before we ate. You don’t see that around New York. Roommate “Sutton Brady” (Meghann Fahey): But you’ve dated religious guys before, remember the one from Park Slope, made his own pickles, Jewish? Josh? “Jane”: Yeah but in New York Judaism is like a lifestyle choice. “Kat Edison” (Aisha Dee), their black/mixed race lesbian roommate dating a devout Muslim: Veganism is a lifestyle choice. Judaism is definitely still a religion. (6/27/2018)

The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 6th season (on ABC) (I detest this sit com so much that I couldn’t bring myself to finish watching even the 2nd season, so I’m not goint to waste my time watching the didn’t-deserve-to-be-renewed 5th season. While I could even now catch it more frequently in syndication, I’ll probably have to end up buying the complete series on DVD to do a complete review with episode-by-episode documentation of its clichés.) (10/18/2018)

Miriam “Midge” Maisel etc. –in 2nd season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (on Amazon) I’m looking forward to streaming – and commenting on -- the first season first. (12/5/2018)

Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein in the 5th Season (on Netflix) Whoops – Season 5 began streaming January 2018 before I even got a chance to watch S1 yet to comment on Lily Tomlin’s portrayal of the Jewish woman character. (12/5/2018)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Rebecca Bunch, her mother, and others in their 4th season (on CW) The 7th episode, “I Will Help You”, written by Aline Brosh McKenna was the big “Jewish” episode of this final season, revolving, as usual, around her mother (still played by Tovah Feldshuh), with a cameo surprise appearance by Elayne Boosler. (updated 2/2/2019)

Felicity Smoak in the 7th season of Arrow (on CW) – While the series has been renewed for and 8th and final season, Emily Bett Rickards announced this will be her last season as “Felicity”. Unfortunately, in the odd time-travel twists of the season, her daughter “Mia Smoak” aka “Blackstar” (played by Katherine McNamara) seems to have zero sense of any Jewish identity, but she dealing with an apocalypse at the least. (5/22/2019)

Will & Grace – Grace Adler in the 10th season (on NBC) (I’m still catching up) (10/18/2018)

High Maintenance (on HBO) On “Derech”, written by series creator and star Ben Sinclair, Shabbos dinner with ex or soon-to-be ex Hasids in Williamsburg included a lesbian couple, at least one who still lives with a husband and children at other times, as well as possibly another, now punk looking young woman. (12/7/2018)

Suits (on USA) “Lewis Litt”s sister “Esther Litt Adelstein ” (Amy Acker) made a brief return. [Discussion of Jewish identity in reference to possibly having a child in a mixed relationship to be described.] Then there’s his fiancee’s stereotyped comments about their Jewish mother to be added. (updated 9/22/2018)

Good Trouble - Emma Kurtzman (on Freeform) In this spin-off of the completed The Fosters that presumes the characters are now a couple of years past college graduation and living in L.A., this young Jewish woman will be guesting on at least one episode. (7/19/2018)

Claws (on TNT) In “Vaginalogist” episode, written by Emily Silver, “Dr. Ken Brickman” (Jason Antoon) introduces a surprise visitor his mother “Marilyn” (Jade Hykush), with a gravely voice, to “Polly” (Carrie Preston) and her newly Muslim daughter “Marnie” (Morgan Lily) with her Black Muslim boyfriend: I figured it was time we all sat for a Shabbat dinner so I get to know you and my new granddaughter. “Marilyn” finishes the kiddush and asks if anyone wants to add a blessing. “Polly” starts to do a Baptist one she claims her daddy did, but she knocks over the Shabbat candles. When mother and daughter can’t agree on anything, “Marilyn” pulls “Polly” aside who insisted they “just need girl time together”: The therapist in me is telling me that’s not what it’s really about. …It’s easy to lie to ourselves, isn’t it? Means we don’t have to face what’s really there. …If you want any chance of connecting with that child you need to figure it out. Theres something going on inside you, I can see it. (7/13/2018)

Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – Abigail McCarthy plus in the 5th Season (on Bravo) As “Abby” (Lisa Edelstein) got less and less Jewish each season, her friend “Jo” for “Josephine” (Alanna Ubach) was explicitly identified as Jewish in “Rule #149: Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow”, written by Ilene Rosenzweig, through her mother-in-law from hell “Meryl Frumpkis” (played by Taila Shire). By the last episode of the series, with its not particularly credible jump by four years, the only Jewish reference is to “Jo”. (Details forthcoming) (updated 7/22/2018)

The/Le Tunnel – Elise Wassermann in the 3rd season (on PBS/originally a Sky Atlantic/Canal + co-production) In this last season of the series titled “Vengeance”, she did not seem to remember she was Jewish, but she had more immediate crises. (updated 9/22/2018)

X Company – 2nd & 3rd seasons (Canadian series shown in U.S. on Ovation) In a series taking place in France during the round-up of Jews during World War II, Jewish women in both Seasons 1 and 2 have been barely visible, but a couple got to speak this season, while fleeing. But in “Last Man, Last Round”, written by Sandra Chwialkowska, I thought “Miri” (Sara Garcia) was really “Miriam”, a putative Jewish woman nuns were hiding in a convent. But, darn, I should have guessed that the season went on she was so freely passionate with hunk “Neil McKay” (Warren Brown) and as good a shot as she was from hunting with her dad, she explicitly described herself as Roma in “La verite Vous rendra libre”, written by Adam Barken, well, sarcastically as “a dirty Gypsy”, then describes the Nazis’ massacre of her family in detail, so I can’t be mad at her. (updated 10/18/2018)

Younger – Lauren Heller plus in the 5th season (on TV Land) “Lauren” (played by Molly Bernard)

Israeli TV series that I presume include Jewish women characters - Around January 2019, Netflix starting showing several popular Israeli TV series in the U.S., that I haven’t yet caught up with: Fauda, When Heroes Fly, Shtisel, Hashoter Hatov (The Good Cop), Hostages (B’nei Arubah), and Mossad 101. I don’t subscribe to Hulu, which is carrying several Israeli TV series, but I’ve read that Amazon Prime is also streaming Israeli TV series in the U.S., though I haven’t tried to watch them yet: , Mekimi, Srugim, and A Touch Away.



2017/2018 Season

Sheila Nevins, the outgoing head of HBO Documentaries, was all over TV late spring and summer promoting her memoir You Don’t Look Your Age…and Other Fairy Tales (Flatiron Books), each time saying the same story in every interview. That in college, she was dating a non-Jewish boyfriend. When she met his family, his mother asked: Aren't there Jewish boys in the law school for you?” She was particularly surprised because her Jewish identity consisted of a mother who was a Communist and a father who worked in the Post Office, so she said she really didn't really think about it, but she knew they were Jewish “and I hated her”. She’s always found that comment “inspiring”. (1/27/2018)

On The Spectrum at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (Indie Pilot of Israeli TV series pitched to several American networks that’s been winning awards at other festivals) (updated 7/4/2018)

In the excellent streaming bio-doc series Under Her Skin (previewed at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival): Linda Friedman-Schmidt is the only Jewish-identified woman artist (Episode 5). Directors/sisters Rémy Bennett and Kelsey Bennett smoothly integrate the horrific archival footage of the Holocaust and Displaced Persons camps, like the one where the artist was born as Lonia, with the artist describing her survivor parents, how her father physically and emotionally abused his wife and his daughter, and how her life has been dedicated to proving her worth against his criticisms. Mixed with family photographs, she proudly describes how she became Henri Bendel’s best shoe saleswoman, but then went on to own a fancy shoe store nearby she called “Lonia”, and bought the building above it, too. Her artistic medium is emotionally resonant discarded clothes that she sorts by color, then cuts into strips for weaving into empathetic portraits. Though the sisters’ camera focuses too much on a portrait of an ultra-Orthodox man (perhaps presuming he’s like her father), her work on trauma and celebration is revealed through diverse faces, including many self-portraits to counter her parents’ silence about their pasts. (5/25/2018)

Genius: Picasso – Gertrude Stein (on National Geographic Channel) As portrayed by Tracee Chimo, she shows up in the life of Pablo Picasso (at this age portrayed by Alex Rich), in Episode Five, written by Noah Pink, in the Paris of 1905, as an art collector in concert with her brother Leo (Iddo Goldberg). The extensive sequence of their interchange is delightful while he paints her portrait, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection. (Quotes forthcoming) (7/3/2018)

The Tale - In the autobiographical movie on HBO about child sexual abuse by a trusted coach, written and directed by Jennifer Fox (including confessional clips from her documentary Flying: Confessions Of A Free Woman), Laura Dern plays her as an adult, and Ellen Burstyn as her mother Hettie. [commentary forthcoming] (6/3/2018)

Scandal in the series finale “Over A Cliff”, written by executive producer Shonda Rimes, there was of course a crack about a Jewish woman, as is typical of her series that almost never feature a positive or unstereotyped Jewish woman character. As the “gladiators” face possible prison, “Abby Whelan” (Darby Stanchfield) cracks to the Jewish attorney general “David Rosen” (Joshua Malina): And one day, I'll read you married Jennifer, a nice Jewish girl your nana just loves. Later in bed, he assures as she looks forward to immediate arrest: I will wait for you. I will never marry a nice Jewish girl named Jennifer. I will wait as long as it takes. And then she mourns that the one good guy left is killed off. At least she put a stone on his headstone, if we’re supposed to think a year has gone by. (5/19/2018)

Artful Detective a.k.a. Murdoch’s Mysteries (Canadian series shown in U.S. on Ovation) In the episode “Murdoch Schmurdoch” (shown in Canada in February; in the U.S. in May), Jewish men are featured, and Jewish women appear very briefly, within a plot twist. [commentary forthcoming] (6/3/2018)

The Good Doctor, in the first season penultimate episode “Smile”, written by David Hoselton & Karen Struck, also had a gratuitious crack about a Jewish woman. The central Aspergers surgeon “Shaun Murphy” (Freddie Highmore) attempts to understand human relationships by cheering up his brain-turmor-facing mentor “Aaron Glassmore” (Richard Schiff), evidently the only Jewish doctor in San Jose, CA let alone in a series that promotes its diverse casting. “Shaun” gleefully pushes the mentor to meet the cafeteria’s barista “Debbie” (played by Sheila Kelley, reported to be Schiff’s real-life significant other) because he thinks their both Jewish. They sit down awkwardly together. She: Um, do anything exciting for Purim?. He: Uh, no. Purim. Yeah you know, the usual. Ate a little matzah, and celebrated our "Exodus from slavery" which I think is Passover and not Purim. The truth of the matter is, I'm only half Jewish, so only half the knowledge. She: The truth is I'm not Jewish at all. Yeah, my first husband was. -- though I can’t find what her last name is that’s supposed to sound Jewish. He: So I guess we have our lack of Jewishness in common. (5/22/2018)

Difficult People - I haven’t watched because I don’t pay for Hulu.

In Bold Type (on FreeForm), a summer series over-hyped as the best representation of millenials on TV but set in a New York City magazine world devoid of Jewish women, “The Breast Issue” episode, written by Matt McGuinness, admirably focused on how young women face testing for the BRCA gene if they have a family history of breast cancer, did not at all mention that Jewish women are more likely to have this gene and therefore are more likely to have to consider their options. (8/9/2017)

In the summer thriller series Salvation (on CBS) the penultimate episode “The Wormwood Prophecy”, written by Blake Taylor and Christina Walker, had a sudden, convenient reveal. After “President Pauline McKenzie” (played by Tovah Feldshuh) has a fatal cerebral hemorrhage during a nationally broadcast speech, her long-time personal physician “Dr. Michele Rasmussen” (played by Tara Nicodemo) tells suspicious “Secretary of Defense Harris Edwards” (played by Ian Anthony Dale) why there was no autopsy: President McKenzie’s maternal family were observant Jews. Jewish law forbids anything that desecrates the corpse. The body disappeared when he attempted to exhume it to check for poison anyway – because she’s ill but still alive! Doctor: I’m sorry, Mr. Secretary, I didn’t know who I could trust. ..Mercury…She’s not out of the woods yet. She recovers and beats back the coup! (10/4/2017)

On Brooklyn Nine-Nine (on Fox), the “Kicks” episode, written by Andrew Guest, Andy Samberg’s “Det. Jake Peralta” specifically referenced his Jewish mom, in selecting a Passover brisket as a food he was yearning for when he was undercover in prison “because I love my mom.” Maybe I’ve missed previous mentions. (11/13/2017)

In Season 3 of Playing House, the “Ride the Dragon” episode, written by Vera Santamaria, revealed that recurring character nicknamed “Bird Bones” (played by Lindsay Sloane) is really named “Tina Steigerman” and may be Jewish. When the old high school friends have a sleep-over high on medical marijuana, she enacts, with a pretend babushka, The year was 1941. The Nazis had just invaded Russia. My grandmother, Illyana Federovna, had to flee…She only took with her two possessions: the recipe for this fudge, and a batch that she had sewn into the lining of her tattered shawl. This pocket fudge is what kept her alive on her tumultuous journey to America. The girlfriends are open-mouthed impressed. She laughs: I'm just messing with you guys. I heard that story on Rachel Zoe's "Who Do You Think You Are?" I can’t find confirmation that the celebrity stylist née Rosenzweig was ever on that genealogy show. She ends up gaining from that night a boyfriend and partnership in their event-planning business, which she does well in the next episode. (7/27/2017)

A Christmas Story Live! What started as Jean Shepherd’s collection of his radio stories In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, became an evergreen 1983 TV movie, a Broadway musical, then adapted into this TV musical, with new songs. This new racially and ethnically expanded version of a 1950’s Indiana town adds the main character’s friend’s “Schwartz”s family, particularly his mother, played dazzlingly by auburn-haired Ana Gesteyer, who got a new, and the best, song “In the Market for a Miracle”, which brings in the extended Schwartz clan, and friends, singing and dancing; they are more spirited than the rest of the show. (Words and music by Jonathan Tolins and Benj Pasek garnered an Emmy nomination.) As quoted in Entertainment Weekly, “Writers Robert Cary and Tolins: ‘We watched the original movie and we saw that there was this issue that Ralphie blames his friend Schwartz for something and we wanted to know ‘Where does that go?’ He never dealt with his friend, and that led to us coming up with this Hanukkah song, so that’s exciting that we’re adding new things to the world of A Christmas Story.” Gasteyer: “Basically the telecast required one more number because of the way the commercials were paced, so they looked at the piece overall, and they decided there would be a really great moment for a Hanukkah number… The show didn’t have a Hanukkah number and so they called me up and said, ‘Hey listen, we’re thinking about writing a Hanukkah number and we’d like to write it for you, and can we do that?’ And I said, ‘Why yes, why thank you!’” The song was developed with her to emphasize her jazzy strengths as a belter. While she gets to sprinkle some Yiddish words throughout, the family has Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant, where she announces: Next we’re going to the movies! (1/27/2018; updated 7/12/2018)

Preacher – Dany in the 2nd Season (on AMC) – In the “Dallas” episode, written by Philip Buiser, crime boss “Dany” (played by Julie Dretzin) is identified as Jewish, though I don’t recall that implication in her one appearance in Season 1’s “Possibilities”. “Tulip” (played by Ruth Negga) has been trying to live a conventional life with “Jesse Custer” (played by Dominic Cooper), but considers resuming her career as a hitwoman, with some cross-over to the original graphic novels by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. “Dany” goes through possible jobs, sneaking in: There's a Jew bastard down in Houston--. “Tulip” immediately stops her: We are not killing your husband, Dany. “Tulip” tries serving a nice dinner, featuring peanut-butter pot roast. “Dany” declines to eat that and “Tulip” is a concerned hostess: Sorry is that a Jewish thing? “Dany”: No, it’s human thing. (7/19/2017)

Claws (on TNT) In a very Elmore Leonard/Carl Hiaisen-type Florida, “Dr. Ken Brickman” (played by Jason Antoon) at a clinic that’s just a cover for peddling drugs, had been grieving over his divorce. In “Fallout” written by Janine Sherman Barrois, it’s revealed that he and his re-marrying ex-wife are both Jewish: Shelley was the only Jewish girl I could find who was freaky. Cupping freaky. S & M kind of freaky. I can’t even come with anyone else. He talks to her photo: I'll just go on J-date and I'll find myself another freaky Jewish girl. You can't be the only one. He works himself into a frenzy: When I first met Shelly, we were with Habitat for Humanity, building a house for the underprivileged. And when I saw her next, I'd just finished a triathlon with a sprained ankle. But Shelly still let me buy her a drink, and at that moment, I knew she was special. He crashes her wedding and hears her new guy call her “special”: "Special"? If you thought she was special, why'd you take her bike-riding while wearing a fanny pack? What dignified man does that? “Shelly” (played by Brittany Wilkerson): Ken, don't you do this! “Ken”: I'm trying to save you, Shelly! “Shelly”: You're a loser and a fake. “Ken”: Huh? How could you give this up, Shelly? You don't want to live a life of missionary boredom. You're not that kind of Jew. You and I are freaks, baby! and you will see what I mean That Ken doll's never gonna make you squirt! It isn't a dream Never gonna make you squirt! I love you! He’s dragged away screaming. (7/9/2017)

Nazi Fugitives- The WW2-obsessed American Heroes Channel re-lives World War II constantly, usually re-edited international programs, but through all its fascination with docu-series re-enactments of Hitler and Nazis, (S1, Ep 3) “Erich Priebke” may have been the first where a Jewish woman was not seen as a victim. In re-telling the story of how ABC News in 1994 tracked down two Nazi war criminals hiding out in plain sight in Bariloche, Argentina, (a place fictionalized in The German Doctor (Wakolda)), Sam Donaldson was the on-air reporter, but News Producer Harry Phillips hired Dalila Herbst as a translator, fixer, and researcher, to follow-up on a tip from The Simon Wiesenthal Center. As she proudly describes how she found the clues to and identified the #2 Gestapo officer wanted for brutal atrocities in Rome, she emotionally adds: “As an Argentine Jew”, she felt we finally got one. (6/8/2017)

The Alienist (on TNT) While it’s been years since I read the Caleb Carr novel this series is based on for comparison, in the 2nd episode, “A Fruitful Partnership”, teleplay by Hossein Amini and E. Max Frye, is briefly seen the Lower East Side-living senile mother (played by Laurel Lefkow) of the Isaacson Detectives “Marcus” (played by Douglas Smith) and “Lucius” (played by Matthew Shear) on the NY police force, led in 1896 by Theodore Roosevelt. They, probably with foreshadowing, warn her to blow out the candles; she protests it’s Shabbat, though they gently correct her it is not. Later, “Marcus” attends a Socialist Workers meeting. A young woman taking notes eyes him – and next he’s shtupping her hot & heavy in a bed. After, he asks her name: “Esther” (played by Daisy Bevan). He: Nice to meet you. She grins as he leaves. (1/31/2018)

Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders (on NBC) In this limited series, the real-life lawyer Leslie Abramson (played as tough and aggressive, yet maternal, by Edie Falco) is a putative Jew until she gets to her estranged mother’s funeral in a Jewish cemetery, where her father and a neighbor critical of her defense of the patricidal/matricidal brothers are wearing yarmulkes. Not until Episode 7, written by Diana Son, is there another reference to her Jewish heritage. Abramson tells her new co-counsel for the re-trial, played by Harry Hamlin: Listen my grandmother was from Russia. When I was a little, she told me how the Nazis wiped out our people. My people! Just rolled over them! I don’t want to get rolled over! Not by anybody. I will find a way to pay for it…Tim and I talked about a second mortgage, I got a book offer… Then she gets a call from the judge about his reconsideration of her request: I am now the court-appointed attorney at half my normal rate. I am now the cheapest famous lawyer in the world. As she has to do more TV interviews challenging the D.A., her husband (played by Chris Bauer) assures her: I’m proud that now everybody can see what a smart woman I married. (updated 1/23/2018)

Knightfall (on History Channel) The first 14th century Jewish women on TV? At least in the first episode, “You’d Know What To Do”, written by Don Handfield and Richard Raynor, the Jews managed to survive an attack from the Crusaders, first in Acre in the Holy Land, then from thugs Paris, France sent by the King to get their money, thanks to the intervention of the Knights Templar, as led by the hunky “Landy” (played by Tom Cullen). The only identified Jewish girl was “Adelina” (played as a young child by Sofia Marangoni, as a teen by Sarah-Sofie Boussnina), who picks up a weapon and fights back against their attackers alongside the knights.
”Adelina” returned in the 3rd episode “The Black Wolf and the White Wolf”, written by Dominic Minghella, to outsmart Templars in training, particularly young “Parsifal” (played by Bobby Schofield), whose wife had been brutally murdered. He gets mad when distributing bread to the poor: Hey, one to a man! Hey! Stop that! You thieving little tinker. She, as her male disguise is revealed: No! I'm feeding the poor, just like you, monk.. He: I'm not a monk yet. She kicks him in the groin: You haven't taken your vows of chastity? That must mean you still have your balls. He chases her, but she disappears down a trap door. Later, she resists a warning: If the King's guards catch you, they'll cut off your hands and hang you. She: If they hang me, I'm not going to miss my hands, am I? “Parsifal” catches her robbery attempt: If you leave now, I won't tell. She: I'll be going then. He: Give back the purse. She: These coins could feed a family for a week. He: What family? She: I'm feeding the people the King expelled, Jews he forced to leave with nothing. You wouldn't understand. This is for them, not for me. I didn't know monks wore jewelry. It matches your eyes. She grabs his wife’s necklace. He: I told you I wasn't a monk yet. Give me the purse. She escapes back to her supervisor. You're late. She: There were complications. He: Sounds like you didn't do your job. She: I did my job. He: Then where's the boy Parsifal? She:You'll have him soon. He: What's that? It's worthless. She: Not to the boy. He'll be back for it. And when he comes, he's yours. (updated 1/27/2018)
A Jewish woman cameod in another historical series: Gunpowder, HBO mini-series set in the early 17th century, Robert Catesby (played by his descendant and executive producer Kit Harington) in the second episode, written by Ronan Bennett and Daniel West, meets with the Constable of Castile (Pedro Casablanc) to get Spain to protect the Catholics in England being persecuted by King James I. However, he asks about the burning of a screaming “heretic” (Yolanda Calzado): To protect the true faith. She’s a Jew. Those who do not confess die by fire. Spain protects the faithful in her own land. Wisely, the British conspirator seems to decide not to trust Spain. (updated 12/20/2017)


Veep – Shawnee Tanz in the 6th season (on HBO) The “Tanz”s are satires of the billionaire casino owner turned Israeli fawning to Bibi media mogul Sheldon Adelson and his younger second wife Miriam, portrayed here as his ambitious daughter (“Sherman” is played by Jonathan Hadary, “Shawnee” by Mary Holland,). Commentary forthcoming from years-later catching up with this work of my Emmy-awarded showrunner second cousin once removed David Mandel, who I’ve never met and he’s never responded to any of my Rosh ha Shanah cards or other family outreach. (10/27/2023)

Will & Grace – Grace Adler in the 9th season (on NBC) Almost picking up where it tiredly left off in May 2006, the gang is back with a few updates in their lives. However, there wasn’t even a reference to “Grace” (Debra Messing) being Jewish until the 6th episode, “Rosario's Quinceanera”, written by Tracy Poust and Jon Kinnaly, when “Will” (Eric McCormack) reminds her about another funeral: You sat shiva for Jerry Lewis. “Grace”: He was very important to my family Will! We named our dog Lady just so we could go ‘Laaaady!’ She was a very exaggerated Jewish woman in the next, satirical “A Gay Olde Christmas”, written by John Quaintance, when they run into a parody version of Lower East Side Tenement Museum so “Grace” can use the bathroom. They magically enter into “Olde New York” (that’s also a parody of Once Upon A Sesame Street Christmas). With a heavy New York accent, she turns into “Fanny”, the wife of the closeted landlord played by “Will”: No one likes a funny girl, Fanny. I have a family to evict. She: No you don’t! It’s Christmas, and Hanukkah. Husband: Fanny you converted, so stop mentioning Hanukkah. -- she corrects his lack of “kh”. She sympathizes with the Irish immigrant family, led by Megan Mullally: Look, I know it's tough being an immigrant. Irish, Italian, Jews. No picnic being women, either. But this country is built on letting more people enjoy its great freedoms, not keeping people down. It may take longer than it should, but we always get it right, eventually. When the group gets back to 2017, the curator, played by Brian Posehn, updates: Fanny was the first woman to vote in NY – and the first woman killed for voting in NY.
Surprisingly, on Variety: Actors on Acting, in the summer promotion for Emmy nominations, Sharon Stone compliments Debra Messing on her series’ return 11 years later: You’re more Jewish. -- at least in the last few episodes of the season - forthcoming. (updated 10/18/2018)


Madam Secretary – Nadine Tolliver in the 4th season (on CBS) Halfway through the series, actress Bebe Neuwirth asked the executive producer to leave the series; the story line in her last episode “The Essentials”, written by Matt Ward, had “Nadine” choosing to leave Foggy Bottom in order to spend time with her son “Roman” (Ethan Peck) and his Vietnamese girlfriend, because he Skyped her to tell her that they were expecting a baby, he loved his mother – and needed help to get the girlfriend expeditiously off the “no fly” list due to mistaken identity. This provided multiple opportunities to have Jewish references, but the series seemed to have forgotten she’s Jewish. (11/24/2017)

A French Village (Un Village Français) – 6th and 7th seasons (Shown in the U.S. on MHz Choice, Season 6 is 1945 on DVD, 6 episodes; Season 7 completes the series in 6 episodes on DVD – but I may be streaming if I get caught up.) (1/26/2018). (1/26/2018)

Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein in the 4th Season (on Netflix) Whoops – Season 4 began streaming January 2018 before I even got a chance to watch S1 yet to comment on Lily Tomlin’s portrayal of the Jewish woman character. (1/26/2018)

The Collection (originally on Amazon Prime and BBC, broadcast this season on PBS’s Masterpiece Theater) Amidst the many secrets the employees and others around a Parisian fashion house in 1947, halfway through the season in “The Weekend”, co-written by series creator Oliver Goldstick, new model “Nina” (Belgian-French actress Jenna Thiam, right below, played the same role in the French version) confesses to a smitten American photographer “Billy Novak” (Max Deacon) that she and her seamstress mother “Marianne” (played by French–Swiss actress Irène Jacob, left below) were protected during the war by the head of the house “Paul Sabine” (played by Richard Coyle) who is being investigated by a reporter for collaboration with the Germans: Have you ever missed a meal? Gone to bed not knowing if the person you said good night to may not be there in the morning?...Nothing's fair. If it weren't for Monsieur Sabine, my mother and I wouldn't even be here. The papers he bought for us kept us from going to a place where nobody came back. That's his crime, Billy. You'd be surprised how many laws you have to break just to survive. “Billy”: Nina, I I had no idea you and your mother were Jewish. “Nina”: Then it worked. You wear the mask long enough, it becomes your face. I'm sorry to disappoint you. “Billy”: I'm not disappointed. I want to know more. I want you to trust me enough to tell me everything. “Nina”: You can't capture it all in a picture, Billy.

A British critic/re-capper commented about this reveal when it was shown on BBC February 2017: “It wasn't until this moment I realized her mother was cast to look Jewish.” That’s odd because French TV and movies portray Jewish women as auburn-haired, like “Nina”, and Jacob is a renowned art-film legend not at all associated with portraying Jewish women.
In the next episode “The Betrayal”, written by Goldstick & Francesca Rollins, the mother tells “Billy” it’s time to stop telling secrets. She looks herself in the mirror and takes off her necklace cross. “Nina” also confesses to the only somewhat closeted gay brother, and the actual clothes designer for the house, “Claude Sabine” (Tom Ridley), who she naively is still in love with, resulted in a baby she had to give to nuns to put up for adoption, but needs his involvement to at least see the child. (11/13/2017)

Better Things (on FX) - In the 2nd season, 5th episode “Phil” (ostensibly written by Louis C.K., but his name was removed from the credits in November 2017), there was background information on how “Sam Fox” (co-creator Pamela Adlon) is Jewish. Her mother “Phyllis” (played by the British star Celia Imrie) is playing cards with diverse friends, in the house across the street, complaining about the daughter she loves: She’s a stuck up little pig. She’s got her fucking father’s Jewish features. If I had known I was going to have to stare into his face long after he died I would never have had her…How crude she is. . .She couldn’t even hold on to a husband, a sweet boy of Northern extraction. She claimed to be closest with her youngest granddaughter: Don’t repeat the mistakes of all the females in our family. . I’m going to tell you the worst of it., whispers in her ear to the girl’s shock. (11/20/2017)
The/Le Tunnel – Elise Wassermann in the 2nd season (on PBS/originally a Sky Atlantic/Canal + co-production) The series did not remember that she was Jewish in this season titled “Sabotage”. (updated 9/8/2017)

Apt JKL – Judy plus in the 1st season (on CBS) -- I detested even the first episode of this sit com so much that I couldn’t bring myself to bother watching any other episode, even though it was co-created by star Mark Feuerstein and Dana Klein, and co-stars Linda Lavin as his mother “Judy”. Other Jewish women characters doubtless appear in the series, but it’s just not even worth my time to criticize it. (11/13/2017)

The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 5th season (on ABC) (I detest this sit com so much that I couldn’t bring myself to finish watching even the 2nd season, so I’m not goint to waste my time watching the didn’t-deserve-to-be-renewed 5th season. While I could even now catch it more frequently in syndication, I’ll probably have to end up buying the complete series on DVD to do a complete review with episode-by-episode documentation of its clichés.) (10/5/2017)

In this season of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (on PBS) – the October episode “The Impression” with Larry David and Bernie Sanders included their reflections on their mothers and grandmothers with the great frustration that they had not told them of their pasts or family.
Just before this was broadcast in the U.S., the original BBC version of Who Do You Think You Are, two episodes featured celebrities seeking how Jewish women relative fared during the Holocaust, Jane Seymour (one aunt survived by fleeing from Berlin to Paris to Marseilles and finally illegally to Geneva, while the other joined her in 1946 after escaping the Warsaw Ghetto in the nick of time, but succumbed to suicidal despair from losing everyone else – and we’re not shown if Seymour tried to find her Swiss-based family members), and comedienne Ruby Wax seeks to find out if the Holocaust drove her mother crazy or if her own struggles with mental illness run in the family – and finds generations of “aggravation” among her women relatives.) (updated 12/30/2020)


Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Rebecca Bunch, her mother, and others in their 3rd season (on CW) Early episodes only mentioned being Jewish in passing: in the “Josh’s Ex-Girlfriend Wants Revenge” season opener “Rebecca” (Rachel Bloom, also the co-writer and lyricist) describes herself in a song as the Jewish chick who got dumped by the ripped Filipino. Next, in “To Josh With Love”: she sings “Strip Away My Conscience””, lyrics by Bloom, in lingerie and Fosse-like dance moves to her boss “Nathaniel Plimpton III” (Scott Michael Foster) Tear away my Jew-guilt… it’s worth the discomfort of my thong… Strip it all away.
”I Never Want to See Josh Again”, written by Stuart McDonald, is pretty vicious about a Jewish mother, even if attributable that “Rebecca” is suicidal and going through a mental breakdown. First her co-workers are missing her in their California office. “Darryl” (Pete Gardner) hopes her replacement will be: like Rebecca, all pretty and cheery and Jewy? You know what I mean. Smart, and a little sneaky. That did not come out right. I am not a bigot. I just I talk too much, like a Jew. Oh, no. I hope she's a strong, contemporary thigh-high feminist like me and Rebecca, you know what I mean. But she’s back home with her mother “Naomi” (Tovah Feldshuh) in Scarsdale, seemingly getting along fabulously, what with mom making her milkshakes and popcorn, such that “Rebecca” sings, a la The Ronettes lyrics by Bloom, “Maybe She's Not Such a Heinous Bitch After All”, with the first verse: I still hate her, don't get me wrong. Really hate her, genuinely hate her. But it's more like the way normal girls hate their moms. Every daughter kinda hates their mom. All I ever prayed for every day was to resent my mother in a regular way. 2nd verse includes: Maybe old age has tamed this witch And made her a doll. But like one of those evil, haunted dolls. She's being so nice, it fills my soul. For once I don't want her to have a cancerous mole. On to: When we're finding a mate. It's our parents we're thinking of. Thinking of my relationship with her was my first failed romance. And now finally the cute boy's asking me to dance. But her competitive friend “Audra Levine” (Rachel Grate) comes to pay a sick call with a taco casserole: Hear you haven't been doing so good. God, busted wedding, and now you're here with your awful mother ugh! You must just want to die. “Rebecca”, defensively: Because my mother and I are getting along very well. “Audra” scoffs: Getting along with Naomi? (scoffs) Where's her body? “Rebecca”: Audra, it's Twister. My mother and I are about to play a trust-building game of physical skill and fun. Everything's different now. My mother accepts me. “Audra”: Yeah, right. Of course. 'Cause what do opinionated Jewish mothers do when they turn 60? They change. Tell me, what did you do to earn this miraculous acceptance from your mother? I'm curious. “Rebecca”: Well, I got sad and came home, and refused to shower, and stayed up all night, and she felt sad for me, and now she's taking care of me. “Audra”: Yeah, you're a smart girl. That doesn't make any sense. “Naomi” comes in with air kissing greetings: Will you be staying for some board games and some ice cream, honey? “Audra”: Okay, I don't know what this is, but it's scary. And I'm not sticking around for the murder-Sui…Rebecca, she's up to something. And if you don't know what it is, then it's working., and she leaves. “Naomi”: What a bitch. Up to something? You know what I'm up to? I'm up to whuppin' your tuchus in that game. That's what I'm up to. And before we start, you need some fuel. How about another shake, stat? Rebecca starts feverishly doing an internet search, and looks through drawers – finding pills that are the same color as the shakes her mom has been blending in: You've been drugging me! Oh, this makes so much sense, of course. Of course you didn't change. The only reason I was feeling better is 'cause you gave me these drugs that blitzed me out and made my ears buzz. Mom: I had no choice. I saw all your websites. Your suicide websites. I had to do something. She: So you gave me medication without my consent? Mom: Lest you forget, young lady, we have been through this before. That suicide attempt in college, and then you tried to burn down someone's house. And each time, you refused help, so, yes, yes, I decided to give you some of the anxiety pills that the doctor gave me for the High Holidays. I just wanted to calm you down so we could talk and I could convince you to go away somewhere. She: Commit me? - (clicks tongue) I'm sorry, you wanted to commit me? That is such a dramatic word. You made me think that you loved me. You gave me hope when I had none. And now that hope is gone. Mom: I do love you. I'm just trying to help you. Mom: Help? You were never any help. She storms out, downs out the bottle of pills while on a plane to L.A., but is saved by asking the flight attendant for help. In the next episode “Josh Is Irrelevant”, written by Bloom, McKenna and Ilana Peña, she describes how having her stomach pumped feels: It was as if six months of college bulimia happened in one day. Her best friend “Paul Proctor” (Donna Lynne Champlin), who is being very mother-like: You’re still sassy!
(1/26/2018)

Miriam “Midge” Maisel etc. –in 1st season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (on Amazon) I’m looking forward to streaming – and commenting on -- the whole season! (1/26/2018)

Felicity Smoak in the 6th season of Arrow (on CW) This season not only remembered she was Jewish, amidst turning down a wedding proposal from “Oliver Queen”, in a 4-episode, “Sweeps Week”, “cross-over event” with the other DC Comics-based CW series (The Flash, SuperGirl, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) called: “Crisis On Earth-X”, story by Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg (since fired for sexual harassment in the #MeToo wave), with different writers for each show’s episode. All time travel/sci fi TV series have a Nazi episode, usually of a “what if?” theme, but not usually with a Jewish main character suffering. Here, the Nazis won in an alternate universe, and the Aryan-looking Super Heroes “Green Arrow” and “SuperGirl” (Melissa Benoist) have Nazi doppelgängers who are married (and torn between their love and devotion to The Fatherland). As Our Heroes try to save Earth-X, “Felicity”s doppelgänger (also Emily Bett Rickards) is imprisoned in a concentration camp: In Part 3, written by Flash’s showrunner Todd Helbing, the camp commander (who is Paul Blackthorne as also a doppelgänger) presents her to “Oliver” who is pretending to be his doppelgänger “Dark Arrow”: I know how much you enjoy executing rule breakers and this one has broke many of them. We discovered there’s a Jewess handing her rations to the work camp children, strictly against camp rules of course…I know this must be hard. I heard your doppelgänger on earth once loved a woman who looks just like this. “Felicity”s doppelgänger protests: Those children were starving! “Oliver” fights the commander and tells her to escape: It’s the strong’s duty to protect the weak…Go! In Part 4, written by Legends’ showrunner Phil Klemmer and Keto Shimizu, the real “Felicity” protects “OverGirl”, SuperGirl’s doppelgänger, from this world’s version of Dr. Mengele, fiercely albeit naively: My grandparents didn’t survive the Holocaust so that the world could be ruled by Nazis. So if you want Kara, you have to go through me. And even if you do, you won’t win, because we won’t back down, we’ll keep on fighting. So get the hell off our earth while you can. (I think I have all the doppelgängers right, as I was multitasking.) By the end, they are so grateful to be alive and back on Earth-1 that “Oliver” agrees they can be together without being married, as she said she wanted (out of fear of a terrible fate), but she proposes to him. He: I thought you didn’t believe in marriage. She: I believe in you. And I believe that no matter what life throws at us, our love can conquer it, married, not married, I love you. My greatest fear in life is losing you. They are married by their friend “John Diggle” (David Ramsey) as a civil officiant, in a double marriage with “The Flash” and his long-suffering girlfriend.
In “Irreconcilable Differences”, written by Beth Schwartz & Sarah Tarkoff, her mother “Donna” (Charlotte Ross) comes to the belated wedding reception to give “Oliver a hug. Welcome to the family…I have forgiven you both for running off and eloping and waiting to propose to my daughter until you were under indictment. “Oliver”: Actually Felicity proposed to me. Mom: She continues the tradition of Smoak women not having traditional weddings. Dad “Noah Kuttler” (Tom Amandes): What do you mean? We had a traditional wedding. Mom: No, getting married by a Tom Jones impersonating rabbi isn’t exactly traditonal. .. At least we had a Jewish wedding. Really you guys, would it have killed you to get a rabbi? Why not a chuppah? The couple manage to get away. Felicity: If you’re having second thoughts, too late for you! He: I wouldn’t hav it any other way. She: You really do love me. They kiss and all the guests cheer. Dad watches them dance: Thanks for letting me back in her life. Mom: I was wrong to tell you to stay away. And just for the record I think Tom Jones is pretty good. (1/26/2018)


Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – Abigail McCarthy in the 4th Season (on Bravo) In the 2nd episode of the season, “Rule #10: Just Survive”, written by Ilene Rosenzweig, she suddenly remembered she was Jewish, when she was startled at interrupting her daughter “Lily McCarthy Novak” (Connor Dwelly) about to have sex with her boyfriend (I haven’t identified the actor). Before she takes her to a woman ob/gyn for birth control counseling, she protests her girlfriends’ jokes: She’s not porking! She’s a nice Jewish girl! She swears she’s only doing other stuff.. . .she only said ‘We’re not doing anything stupid!’
There were more Jewish identity references in “Rule #49: Let It Shine”, written by Matt Shire, because it was her mother’s funeral (though in previous seasons I presumed her father was Jewish, but not her mother “Dina”, as played by Lesley Anne Warren). (9/8/2017)

The Fosters – Emma Kurtzman in the 5th season (on FreeForm) Will the writers remember this season that she’s Jewish?
That “Emma” (played by Amanda Leighton) had an abortion is said over and over and over again. But “Too Fast, Too Furious” episode, written by Cristian Martinez, at least let her state her position definitively, albeit with no mention of her religion. FreeForm’s official synopsis of her confrontation with “Jesus” (played by Noah Centineo) (until I get a chance to get the script transcription, because this leaves out some important points): “Jesus is worried that Emma didn't tell him about the baby because she knew he would have wanted to keep it. Emma tries to tell him that as it was her body, her choice, and that she wasn't ready to have a baby or give one up for adoption. She goes on to say that she can't be with Jesus if he feels angry or betrayed by what she did, and that he needs to stop tormenting Brandon as he was only trying to help him.”
In “Engagement”, written by Megan Lynn and Wade Solomon, “Emma” tearfully confesses to his mothers how “Jesus” is pressuring her now: I really want Jesus to get better and to go back to school, but I’m not ready to be engaged. (updated 9/8/2017)

Odd Mom Out– Jill Weber in the 3rd season (half-hour sitcom on Bravo) In the first episode “Frisky Business”, written by star and creator Jill Kargman and Lara Spotts, Visiting Day to see her daughter “Hazel” (played by Erin Gerasimovich) at summer camp is a nasty dig at obnoxiously rich Jewish parents. I think I’m correct that’s brassy comic Rachel Feinstein, wearing numbers, plays: I am Kara, Remi's mom! …Hazel's BFF! I've heard all about your daughter! How she taught the whole cabin the Badunkadunk Shake. So, what did you bring for Bunk Junk? …Oy, what didn't we bring? We've got Zabar's cold bags, we've got Baked by Melissa, Mr. Chows and Sushi of Gari 'cause they miss the ethnic so much up here… We've got ice packs, and we were wheels up about an hour ago, so…That's the tail number of our jet! It's like the license plate. “Jill” when she’s knocked down by the mob of parents: That was Pamplona – but with Jews. and describes the camp: This place is like John Galliano and Mel Gibson's worst nightmare. In the bunk, “Kara” urges: Hon, be sure to share with the less fortunate. - meaning “Hazel”. She’s proud of her daughter’s striptease routine: My Remi is a danceaholic. She's on a competitive team in Boca. [I haven’t yet ID’d the youg actress playing “Remi”.] “Jill” tries to reassure her husband “Andy” (Andy Buckley) that her friends weren’t sexually advanced at the same age: At my bat-mitzvah Jenn Linardos gave Trip Cullman a hand job on the putting green at our club. Everyone called her the 19th hole after that…Well, that's two years away, and she was the fastest one in our group. (7/19/2017)

Younger – Lauren Heller plus in the 4th season (on TV Land) “Lauren” (played by Molly Bernard) is now a social media expert, living with her medical resident Jewish boyfriend “Dr. Max Horowitz” (played by Ben Rappaport). (7/14/2017)

I Love Dick – Chris Kraus (streaming on Amazon) [I haven’t watched the full only season yet, nor yet read the book it was based on; it was not renewed.] (updated 1/26/2018)

Saving Hope – Dr. Sydney Katz (Canadian CTV series shown in U.S. a few months later on ION) She was back from Israel beginning in the 5th and final season episode “All Our Yesterdays”, written by Wr by Patrick Tarr and Thomas Pepper, but this time with her pregnant, ill with cancer sister “Rebecca (Becca) Friedman” (played by Sydney Meyer), with many Jewish references about her family and their negative reaction to her coming out, as well as another kiss with “Maggie”. In each subsequent episode, as her relationship with “Dr. Lin” develops further, she looks ever prettier, actually glowing, with no glasses and her hair down, and somehow she keeps mentioning she’s Jewish at least once per episodes. [Detailed episode dialogue descriptions forthcoming] (6/23/2017)



2016/2017 Season

Amazon posted two pilots in the fall streaming for adult audience reaction testing to develop into a full season, both with Jewish characters.
The Interestings – Julie Jacobson and others in the pilot: Based on Meg Wolitzer 2013 novel I haven’t yet read, the opening scene had the most Jewish implications, as written by Lynnie Greene and Richard Levine. “Lois Jacobson” (played by Jessica Hecht with a more exaggerated New York Jewish accent than usual) is “schlepping” her daughter “Julie” (played by Katie Balen, evidently with a curly auburn wig) up to arts camp in the 1975. While she fights with her brunette younger sister “Elle” (played by Sarah Cohen), we learn the father has recently died and she got a scholarship to attend. In the bunk bathroom, she gets invited to be with the in crowd because You’re funny! She quickly ripostes: My father was a clown! When she works up the nerve to enter their quick-witted conversation, a guy calls her out: The girl from Long Island speaks! As an adult on the Upper West Side, “Jules” is played by Lauren Ambrose, and I think I recall that she has occasionally played a Jewish woman, but not usually with her auburn hair. In 1976, she’s shocked at the arrest of the brother “Goodman” of her friend “Ash Wolf” (played by Jessica Paré), protesting the cops are like “The Gestapo!”, though I couldn’t tell if the Wolf family is Jewish. The show jumps back and forth to the '70's, failures of the '80's (“Jules” acting career), success for some in the '90's (she got a MSW from Columbia and is unhappily married with a daughter to an exaggeratedly unintellectual, sports-mad lab tech “Dennis” (played by Gabriel Ebert). At various times over these decades, she’s has a close friendship with “Ethan Figman” (played by David Krumholtz, who pretty much always is a Jewish character), who went on to marriage and children with “Ash” and commercial success with a network cartoon show. I have some curiosity as to what happened to them in the past and will happen to them. Amazon chose not to develop the series.
The Last Tycoon is a lush, large ensemble, originally produced for HBO, adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, which I haven’t read, nor have I have seen other adaptations. The pilot, written and directed by Billy Ray, puts heavy emphasis on the Jewish roots of the central Irving Thalberg-inspired character producer “Monroe Stahr” (played by Matt Bomer), particularly as the German consul insists on all the studio’s movies conform to Article 15 – not malign the government, offend its racial sensitivities or employ Jews in Germany, in order to be distributed in their 2nd biggest market, like the other studios have. [Detailed in a controversial book The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler written by Ben Urwand]. Let alone by his studio head boss “Pat Brady” (played by Kelsey Grammer) who takes credit for changing this “Israelite” from his Bronx circus roots as “Milton Sternberg”, and when head of security Tomas “Tommy” Szep (Koen De Bouw) complains about stingy Jews and money. . especially this Jew. But I couldn’t tell if any of the females in his orbit in the pilot were Jewish, though his dead immigrant wife known in Hollywood as “Mina Davis” was Irish Catholic, regardless of what was in the original novel. Amazon has picked up the series.

A third pilot posted in August, I Love Dick, centered on a putative Jewish woman, until I know more from reading the book by Chris Kraus. Directed by Jill Soloway, with a teleplay by Sarah Gubbins from her play, this version of “Chris Kraus” (Kathryn Hahn) is an Upper West Side filmmaker, whose film’s acceptance into the Venice Film Festival has been pulled due to her unauthorized use of “bossa nova klezmer shit”. She’s married to Holocaust scholar “Sylvere” (Griffin Dunne), whose specialty is its aesthetics. She jokes it’s like sleeping with a mortician, yet accompanies him to a retreat run by guru rancher “Dick” (Kevin Bacon). Over dinner, he insists there are no Great Women Filmmakers, and her mumbled name check protest includes Chantal Ackerman. But he fascinates her into a fantasy epistolary relationship. Is this too off-beat to get picked up for a season? (updated 8/19/2016)
A pilot posted in the spring featured a Jewish woman as the lead character: Miriam “Midge” Maisel –in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Amy Sherman-Palladino, beloved for many seasons of Gilmore Girls, which would have Jewish secondary and lesser characters (and I haven’t caught up with the sequel episodes on Netflix), has finally written the series she had talked about for years, about a Jewish woman stand-up comedian in the mode of Joan Rivers. But this is only the pilot for her proposed series, so that most of the episode consist of “Midge” (played by Rachel Brosnahan, not an actress known as a comedienne) as the most exaggerated stereotypes of the perfect Jewish daughter, bride, wife, and mother with her own extreme Jewish mother “Rose Weinberg” (played by Marin Hinkle). (Details to post when I get a chance). Finally at the end, in a drunken rage against her schlemiel husband wannabe comic, she takes The Gaslight stage and mocks her life, her audience, and even her body – to applause (and arrest after exposing her boobs with pride). She even manages to get advice from Lenny Bruce (played by Luke Kirby) in jail, and garner the career interest of a putatively Jewish lesbian manager “Suzie” (played by Alex Borstein).
Amazon not only picked up the series, but for the first time the streaming service committed to two seasons, quoted in Variety 4/10/2017: “’In her onstage debut, Mrs. Maisel killed and had audiences responding overwhelmingly with digital applause,’ said Joe Lewis, head of comedy, drama and VR for Amazon Studios. ‘Like any great young stand-up, we’re excited to see what she has to say next and for a long time to come. That made it an easy decision to order two seasons from Amy and her incredible cast. We can’t wait to bring it to customers soon.’” (updated 4/10/2017)


Too bad another pilot The New VIPS included a nasty Jewish joke (even though listed as “a consultant” is a young Jewish woman I know with Emmy-winning comedy writing credentials.)


Difficult People - I haven’t watched because I don’t pay for Hulu.

The Blacklist (on NBC) was once again ambiguous about the identity, in the 4th season’s “Lipet’s Seafood Company”, teleplay by Lukas Reiter and story by Dawn DeNoon & Dave Metzger, about the ex-Mossad agent “Samar Navabi” (played by Mozhan Marnò) when she’s identified as a Mossad spy – and she identifies Israel as “my country”. Details forthcoming on her relationships with the hunky Mossad agents and the FBI. (2/5/2017)

Sweet Vicious (on MTV) added the short satirical film “Too Legit”, written and directed by Frankie Shaw, as a special It’s On Us PSA addition to this fiction series on campus rape. At the end, smarmy date rapist “Matt” (played by NateCordrry) entertains his pool-playing frat buddies by vulgarly commenting on looking forward to a blowjob from “Jewesses or Ju-Ju’s or what d’ya call them?” (1/24/2017)

Quantico (on ABC), the ridiculously confused CIA/FBI training missions drama, last year killed off its only Jewish character, a right-wing guy. In the episode “Aquiline”, written by Jorge Zamacona, his colleagues snuck off to his grave to commemorate the unveiling at night. Somehow, one of the Muslims, “Nimah Amin” (played by Yasmine Al Massri), knows how to recite the kaddish (slowly), and the very blonde gentile “Shelby Wyatt” (played by Johanna Braddy), who had thought she had a Muslim half-sister, knows the Jewish tradition of putting a stone on the gravestone. Will they have explanations later in the season that have some connection to the Mossad? (11/7/2016)

Though there is no longer a regular Jewish female character heard, let alone seen, on Big Bang Theory (on CBS), I still watch for references around the family of “Howard Wolowitz” (played by Simon Helberg), a one-time guest astronaut-engineer. So in the 10th season, 2nd episode “The Military Miniaturization” (3 names listed for story, and 3 for teleplay), he video chats with his “cousin Marty the lawyer in Boca Raton” (portrayed by Josh Zuckerman), who is sarcastic before giving legal advice: Thanks for going to space, so whatever I do my mother will be disappointed in me.

Switched at Birth (on Free Form, formerly ABC Family) Ridiculously, in the 3rd episode of Season 5, “Surprise”, written by Terrence Coli and Colin Waite, “Lily Summers” (played by Rachel Shenton) returns from her hometown in England with her boyfriend “Toby Kennish” (played by Lucas Grabeel) to announce they’re getting married – that evening. “Toby” adds: We're gonna have a chuppah because Lily is Jewish, of course. Huh? - her character was first introduced in the 3rd season when she got pregnant and weeped about genetic birth defects in her family, such that the deaf-signing “sisters” sign I didn’t know she was Jewish. (One of them goes online to become a certified minister officiant.) “Lily” explains: What’s a chuppah? It's like a canopy that couples stand under. It symbolizes a home they're gonna make together. Or in our case, the home we've already made together. Before (and during) the wedding that her parents are watching via web-cam, they fight and he calls her “Momzilla” and “controlling”, and she tells her mother-in-law about all the training she does with their Downs syndrome son, and then weeps to “Toby” about how frustrated she is at home. Even more ridiculously, they decide to stay there in Kansas City with the family, she gets her old job back, and “Toby” toasts her “L’chayim” with a glass of wine.
The “Memory (the heart)” episode, written by Linda Gase, dealt with “Lily”’s Jewishness more extensively, as she objected to her husband’s family’s presumption of having her son baptized. [More detail forthcoming.] (updated 4/7/2017)


Fargo (on FX) Inspired by the Coen Brothers movie, Jews were explicitly and putatively identified in the 3rd season episode “The House of Special Purpose”, written by Bob DeLaurentis. Slimy organized crime liaison “V.M. Varga” (played by David Thewlis) turned out to be extremely anti-Semitic, with his nasty comments to accountant “Seymour/Sy Feltz” (played by Michael Stuhlberg, notably from the Coens’ most Jewish movie A Serious Man), and threats to his “fat” wife, who we haven’t seen. “Sy” goes running to try and sell off his endangered business to “The Widow (Ruby) Goldfarb” (played by Mary McDonnell), making her first appearance after earlier references. While stressing she’s from St. Louis, her only vague, and sarcastic, reference to being Jewish, was about “tearing her garments” after her husband’s death, but she is one shrewd businesswoman in seeking to expand her husband’s cemetery and self-storage company into parking lots. In previous episodes she was admiringly called “the so-called storage queen of The Great Lakes region.” While “Sy” is distracted by two sets of criminals, she warns him she’ll compete if he doesn’t sell, which he actually very much wants to: You don’t want a Goldfarb for an enemy. (updated 1/27/2018)

Hawaii Five-0 (on CBS) Yet another grandchild of a Holocaust survivor seeking revenge on a Nazi camp guard in another cop show in “Ka pa'ani nui” episode written by Helen Shang. Details forthcoming on “Leah Rosen” (played by Angela Galvan). (2/5/2017)

Doubt (on CBS) In this quickly cancelled (episodes burned off in the summer), painfully PC lawyer series, set in New York City, it is unclear if the star “Sadie Ellis” (played by blonde Katherine Heigl) is the biological daughter of the Kathy Boudin-like “Carolyn Rice” (played by Judith Light, who usually portrays Jewish women). The Leonard Boudin-like law firm is led by the apparently Jewish “Isaiah Roth” (played by Elliott Gould), who adopted her when her mother, who he fell in love with, was jailed. His jealous and bitter daughter with major daddy issues “Dylan Bookner” (played by Paula Marshall) appears in the episode “Where Do We Go From Here?”, written by Louisa Levy, to complete her divorce (which climactically centers around whether she wants children – she doesn’t). She talks extensively about her mother, the abandoned first wife, but it wasn’t clear if she was Jewish either. (7/28/2017)

Who Do You Think You Are? (on TLC), actress Jennifer Grey, known for her father actor Joel Grey, wants to explore her mother’s family, the Browers – her mother doesn’t even know her grandmother’s first name. She jokes that she’s “a bad Jew…I just know we’re Russian Jews.” because she doesn’t know her family, and wants to pursue this so that her daughter Stella will know her family. Her mother sends her a photo she never saw of her grandfather and her mother, so she can show Stella: “It’s Bubbe as a baby!” A Jewish woman historian from The Tenement Museum leads her to Census and ship records that show her grandfather and his sisters came alone as young children to join their Socialist father in Brooklyn as he was going from compositor to pharmacist. Another Jewish historian is able to get records from Ukraine that show her unknown great-grandmother was Shaindel, and died in childbirth at age 35 in 1897. Bursting into tears, she figures that because her children didn’t get to the U. S. until a decade later, that explains, she thinks, the sadness she always saw in her grandfather.
Actress Jessica Biel (aka Mrs. Justin Timberlake) starts out saying that the family lore about her paternal side of the family is their last name is German, probably the name of a German town. But as a genealogist traces her relatives first back to Chicago, her great-grandfather was Morris (originally Moritz) working in the garment trade, hmm, originally emigrated from the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1888; The Chicago Tribune even ran a photo of the couple on on their 50th wedding anniversary. But a key clue to their ethnic origin came from his unusually named wife Ottilia in the Census: she was a native Yiddish speaker from Russia. As Jessica jokes that her Los Angeles friends are joking about throwing her a “bar mitzvah” [sic], the Biels are traced back to a Jewish registry in a Hungarian town – and a DNA test finds Jessica is 8% Ashkenazi Jewish. Saying “I’m really interested into diving into this Jewish culture a little more”, she goes into The Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning. (updated 4/13/2017)


A French Village (Un Village Français) – 4th and 5th seasons (Shown in the U.S. on MHz Choice, Season 4 is 1943 on DVD, 12 episodes; Season 5 is 1944, 12 episodes on DVD) (1/26/2018)

Genius – Elsa and Pauline Einstein and others in the first season (on National Geographic Channel) Based on Walter Isaacson’s 700+ page plus biography Einstein: His Life and Universe (so it will be awhile until I read it for comparison), the first “Chapter”, story by Noah Pink and Ken Biller, teleplay by  Noah Pink, was so busy sexing up Albert Einstein (played for the 1940’s by Geoffrey Rush) that I lost track of the other women in his life if they were Jewish other than his second wife Elsa (played by Emily Watson) who reminds him as the Nazis rise We are Jewish!, his sister Maria aka Maja (played in her youth by Helen Monks), who in Chapter 2, written by Angelina Burnett, befriends his early (blonde so non-Jewish) girlfriend believing she’s his fiancée (the youthful Einstein is played by Johnny Flynn), and their mother Pauline Koch Einstein (played by Claire Rushbrook, and the cast listing for the 2nd episode seems to confuse his mother with her mahatunin), who mostly urges him to get married. I see a pattern of non-Jewish casting. (previewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
In the 3rd chapter, written by Mark Lafferty, his mother is shocked by his two liaisons. Albert points that neither women is Jewish, but she retorts about the pregnant Serbian: At least she’s Slavic! His sister just tries to be conciliatory between them. In the 4th Chapter, written by Noah Pink, his mother turns into the Jewish Mother From Hell!
The young version of Elsa Einstein (played by Gwendolyn Ellis) is introduced in Chapter 5, written by Raf Green, in 1912 Berlin, as his quite romantically aggressive divorced cousin with two daughters – and his mother is the matchmaker. In the World War I-set Chapter 7, written by Kelly Souders, Elsa can’t stand the gossip about their relationship any more, especially as he’s becoming famous: How long until they discover you are living in sin with a divorcee who is your first cousin? -- and as a condition of finally getting a divorce from his first wife, she has to stand up in court as his adulterer. While Elsa’s daughters appear briefly (one dying in Paris, one getting a visa to join them in the U.S. despite suspicions of his political leanings, I wasn’t sure if the women around him in the final two episodes, a secretary and a Russian spy lover, were Jewish; while I check the book source, there was no indications on screen of their heritage. [More commentary forthcoming.] (updated 6/23/2017)


Madiba – Ruth First and Helen Suzman in the mini-series (on BET) This is the first of several bio-pics of Nelson Mandela that include Jewish women anti-apartheid activists, even in the documentary Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and The New South Africa that focused on a male Jewish legal hero. Ruth First, prominent leader in the African National Congress, is played by Kate Liquorish, she’s not explicitly identified as Jewish, other than adjectives like “rich” and “white” and “Communist” (nor in her profession as a journalist), in Episode 1: “Troublemaker”, written by Avie Luthra and Jane Maggs, directed by Kevin Hooks. I’ll detail the dialogue when I get a chance, but she’s shown fully involved in tactical planning and in the year-long treason case, along with her lawyer husband Joe Slovo (played by Jason Kennett).
In the 2nd episodes “Spear of the Nation and Total Strategy”, story by Nigel Williams, Paul Webb & Avie Luthra, teleplay by Webb & Jane Maggs, the Prime Minister John Vorster specifically target her: The kaffir lover Ruth First will be leaving on an exit visa. Soon - into the arms of their Jew Slovo in London. . .These white communists are all the same - take away their creature comforts and they break. Another Jewish woman activist not always seen in Mandele bio-pics is the auburn, curly-haired Helen Suzman, solo member of the National Assembly for the Progressive Party, present at the September 1966 assasination of Verwoerd, and Vorster snarls at her: It’s all your fault. She, in tearful shock: We had nothing to do with this! He: You incite people! Her solo anti-apartheid position in the parliament is even known to Mandela in prison, because he sends a message to her via a sympathetic quitting prison guard, and she face to face gets his demands for prison improvements, to the fury of the wardens, who have to implement them. [Commentary on the 3rd episode forthcoming.] (updated 2/13/2017)

The Wizard of Lies – The Madoff Women and others in the mini-series (on HBO) [Commentary forthcoming on yet another fictionalized versoin of their story.] (5/19/2017)

Dirty Dancing – The Houseman Women and others (on ABC) “Baby/Frances” (played by Abigail Breslin, her mother “Marjorie” (played by Debra Messing), and her sister “Lisa” (played by Sarah Hyland). Is “Mrs. Vivian Pressman” (Katey Sagal) Jewish or just that her ex-husband was? [Detailed commentary forthcoming on the remake of the classic 1987 movie, set in Summer 1963, which pre-dates my reviews of films with Jewish women.] (5/24/2017)

Homeland (on Showtime) - In the Season 6 opener set mostly in NYC, “Fair Game”, written by Alex Gansa and Ted Mann, the female Mossad agent returned,“Tova” (played by Hadar Ratzon Rotem – who also starred in the Israeli series this is based on Prisoners of War (Hatufim)). Now the CIA Chief “Dar Adal” (played by F. Murray Abraham) is scheming against the female President-Elect (David Simon uses the acronym PEOTUS) when they meet up at the southern tip of Manhattan, and warns she is not a fan of the close relationship with Israel: Don't write up an incident report. Don't share this with Tel Aviv. She quickly concurs: What do you want me to tell Misha?
The Mossad agent returns in “The Covenant”, written by Ron Nyswaner, but for the first time in the series we meet the sister of “Saul” (played by Mandy Patinkin), who turns out to be an extremist West Bank settler because she married one years ago. She is “Dorit” (played by Jacqueline Antaramian) – though I doubt that is the name she was given when she grew up with him in Indiana, nor dressed with a (loose) head scarf and long skirt. One the phone: “Dar”: Saul, where the hell are you? “Saul”: About to cross into the West Bank, actually. “Dar”: What happened? Why the change of plan? “Saul”: Guilt happened. “Dar”: Your crazy sister, huh? “Saul”: I didn't make it to her husband's funeral last year. And I am in the neighborhood. “Dar”: How long you plan to stay? “Saul”: Couple days, or until we murder each other, whichever comes first. He drives up his sister’s house with a smile:- Been too long. She: I'll admit, I was surprised to hear from you. He: I should've come when Moshe died. She: Come. We'll have a meal, then we can talk. This way. He: I remember. A lot more houses since the last time I was here. She: We've grown. Almost tripled in size. He: View's the same. She: Moshe chose this spot so the Arabs could see us every day and know we're never leaving. He: I remember that, too. She: That's Daniel. His 7th birthday. That's Jacob, Dabi [?] and Rebecca's third son. He's 6 now. He: Looks like his father. She: He's always getting into trouble, so naturally, he's my favorite. He hears distant rapid gunfire: Doesn't that bother you? She: I don't hear it anymore. Now, Saul, Tell me about Mira. What happened?What happens between people. I made promises and didn't keep them. She did the same. She: I'm sorry. He: Seems like a million years ago. She: And there's been no one since? He: No. She: I wish you could stay for Shabbat. Both boys come with their wives and all the children. He: Maybe next time. She smiles: I tell them stories about Indiana, being one of eight Jewish families in the entire town. How you were my protector. He laughs: Hey, even when you didn't want my protection. She: We were so close. After I married Moshe, you practically disappeared from my life. He: I visited when I could. She: Afternoon now and then. Moshe and I saw things differently. She: He was my husband. You could've tried to understand his point of view. He: Did he try to understand mine? She: You could've bent a little for my sake. He: There's no bending with a fanatic. After you met him you changed. She: Moshe opened my eyes to the false life that mother and father had us living-- exchanging Christmas presents with the neighbors, doing everything we could not to offend anyone with our Jewishness. Moshe made me proud to be a Jew. He: He turned you against your family. He brought you to live in a place that's not yours, where you don't belong. She: Please, Saul, let's not do this. He: Haven't you driven enough people from their homes already? Bulldoze their villages, seized their property under laws they had no part in making? She: This land was promised to Abraham. He: Ah, yes. Promise. A covenant with God made thousands of years ago. Doesn't that strike you as a form of insanity? She: You don't understand, Saul. You never have. I love the life that God has given me. He: How can you love making enemies? How can you love knowing that your very presence here makes peace less possible? She: I have a family, a community, a life filled with faith and purpose. Saul what do you have?
In the following “A Flash of Light”, written by Patrick Harbinson, she sees his visit was an excuse, when she sees him come back from a secret meeting in the middle of the night: Where have you been? He: I went for a walk. Couldn't sleep. She: I was worried. He: Sorry. I just wanted some fresh air. She: Don't lie to me, Saul. I couldn't sleep either. I saw you from my window. You went down into the valley. You went across. He: What do you say I pack first? Then we can have some breakfast and talk, okay? She: So who were you meeting? He: You know I can't tell you that. She: I suppose he was an Arab. Why do you always take their side? He: I don't. (Actually, he met with an Iranian, who is Persian, not Arab.) She: I don't wanna argue. I'm just sad that the only time you come to see me in 12 years, it was a cover for your work. He: I did want to see you. She: I'm not an idiot, Saul. He: I've been meaning to. That's the honest truth. She: How do you think it makes me feel? He: You're right. I'm sorry. She: Stop saying sorry. Sorry doesn't help. Doorbell rings – she recognizes Mossad (or some such) agent “Etai Luskin” (played by Allan Corduner): Dorit. Nice to see you again. And what a treat, Saul coming to visit you at long last. But so sad he has to leave so soon. She: He's an important man, like you. “Etai”: And what did you do, may I ask, on your one night together? She: Talked, mostly. Lot of catching up to do. “Etai”: I bet.Must have been up late. Till 3:00, 3:30. Just the two of you, was it? No dinner guests, unexpected visitors? She: Just us. “Etai”: Saul didn't step out for a few hours, did he? Take a walk under the stars? At 4 in the morning? She: Why? What's going on? “Etai”: Oh, nothing to worry about. Some activity in the area. I thought you might have noticed something. She: No. “Saul”: You know, now I really am gonna be late for my flight. Etai has offered to drive me. She: Goodbye, Saul. He whispers: Goodbye. Thank you. Shalom. She: Shalom and kisses his cheek. (updated 2/7/2018)

Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein (on Netflix) Whoops – Season 3 began streaming Spring 2017 before I even got a chance to watch S1 yet to comment on Lily Tomlin’s portrayal of the Jewish woman character. (3/2/2017)

This Is Us– Sloane Sandburg in the 1st season (on NBC) I hadn’t realized that the playwright (played by Milana Vayntrub) was Jewish until I saw a preview of a Hanukkah episode. The play’s star-ex-TV-Manny “Kevin Pearson” (played by hunk Justin Hartley) just called her “Sandberg” in the couple of previous episodes where she had ancillary comic bits.
While I’ll retrospectively look at “Sloane” in the in-between episodes, she was explicitly revealed as Jewish in “Last Christmas”, written by Donald Todd, when she brings “Kevin” to her family Hanukkah party—and he feels he has to bring her to his family Christmas party because she’s asked him to pretend he’s her boyfriend. (She looks more adoringly at him by the crèche in this still, than when she tells the story of the Maccabees to her nieces):
”Kevin” continuously identifies her as Jewish (as well as “smart” and “intelligent”) in the few other episodes she’s in before their romance ends – details forthcoming. (updated 2/5/2017)

Code Black (on CBS) I watch most medical shows for the possibility of a Jewish doctor and/or patient. Jews didn’t show up until the 2nd season of this L.A. based show – and when they did they were Madoff-type Jewish stereotypes, albeit with a crooked doctor in “What Lies Beneath” episode written by Zachary Lutsky. “Hank Goldman” (Roger Bart) is in the patient with a bad skull fracture and head bandage because there was a prison riot. The senior African-American doctor “Dr. Rollie Guthrie“ (played by William Allen Young) introduces him: Here’s the doctor to the stars. .. He was my resident...who made a lucrative career out of over-prescribing narcotics, until someone died…The court referred to it as involuntary manslaughter. His wife “Ruth” – the same name as Mrs. Madoff-- (played by Olivia d'Abo) clutching papers: I didn't come to see you, Hank. I came to ask you again to sign these. “Hank”: This is low, even for you. “Ruth”, teary: Low? We lost our home. Our kids, they had to switch schools. We lost our friends. We lost everything. Now the least that you could do is sign these papers already. “Hank”: I didn't mean for any of this to happen. How many times can I apologize? “Ruth”: Not enough. I need you to do this for me. Please. I thought seeing him would be good from me. I thought it would bring me some closure, but it's just brought back every bad feeling that I've had for the last five years. “Dr. Guthrie”: He's dying, Ruth. “Ruth”: He made his bed. Doctor: I don't believe you feel that way. “Ruth”: You don't know me anymore, Rollie. Doctor: I know who you were. I know who you both were. Come on, Ruth. This is not you. “Ruth”: This is what he made me. She overhears him admit fault to the doctor and suddenly wells up to her husband: I wanted the fancy lifestyle, too. Maybe more than you did. She shows him an old photograph that he’s surprised she kept: We had nothing. She: We had everything. They hold hands, as the doctor looks on: You know, I introduced them. Man, they were just kids, starting their lives.

Berlin Station (On Epix) In a spy series that features middle-aged actors as intelligence agents with long, jaded experience, even the Mossad agent is not the usual young sexy stereotype – instead she intentionally plays on a Jewish mother cliché. In “By Way of Deception, written by Larry J. Cohen, the deputy “Robert Kirsch” (played by Leland Oser) has let his boss know that the Israelis have contacted him. But we don’t see by whom, until there’s a knock on the door late at night. She’s “Golda Friedman” (played by German actress Daniela Ziegler): I brought you soup. He: You made me soup? She: You’re looking thin. Now let's talk about what else you can do for us. Unfortunately, even more stereotypes followed in other episodes; I’ll post when I can. (updated 12/1/2016)

New Girl (on Fox) Schmidt’s mother (played by Nora Dunn) was featured early in the 6th season in “Homecoming”, written by Matt Fusfeld &Alex Cuthbertson, not only with a much broader New York Jewish accent than in the sweet wedding finale of last season, but with an excruciatingly suffocating stereotype beyond how she has even been portrayed previously in the series, what with her son being home for a high school reunion in Great Neck. We didn’t need a replacement “Mrs. Wolowitz”! [Details forthcoming] (10/21/2016)

On The Night Of (HBO “limited series”), the tough, career prosecutor “Helen Weiss” (as played by Jeannie Berlin, who is having a banner year also appearing in Café Soceity as a very Jewish mother) is probably being perceived as Jewish, but I haven’t noticed any explicit references. (8/17/2016)

In Suits (on USA) season 6 opener “To Trouble”, written by Aaron Korsh, “Louis Litt” (played by Rick Hoffman) talks again of his sister “Esther”, who appeared in an arc last season. When he and the remaining partners in the deteriorating law firm get high, he rants resentfully about her, something about her hiding that she went to fat camp. (exact quote forthcoming). But she did not return this season. (7/13/2016/9/22/2018)

In Aquarius (on NBC), “Revolution 9” episode, written by Rafael Yglesias, set during the California primary in 1968, “Detective Hodiak” (played by David Duchovny) is tracking down a blackmailer of an old war buddy about his frequenting prostitutes. The vice “Detective Blumenthal” (played by Matthew Akin) knows the two hookers, including one’s real name: Becky Stein – yeah, it’s a shonda for my people. Their pimp “Martin O’Reilly” (played by Ryan Caldwell) describes why he charges $100 for each: They’re fresh girls. . .They all think they’re actresses and happy to play any part you want. In photos, the two are seen posing in black lingerie. (7/9/2016)

In Royal Pains (on USA), the final two episodes of the summer series in the Hamptons continued its vague winking at the “Lawson Family” (father and two brothers) Jewish origins, with no Jewish women. At the wedding of the father “Eddie R.” (played by Henry Winkler) to the presumably gentile “Ms. Newberg” (played by Christine Ebersole) in the penultimate, musical episode, “The Good News Is. . .” directed by Michael Rauch, there’s a glass smashing and “Mazel Tov”s all around, but no other noticeable Jewish elements. In an early interview the actress developed a back story on the character from her first appearance in the first season, summer 2009, that cleared up her ambiguity: “I’m a dowager, I believe. In other words, I believe I’m a widow, and my husband was Jewish and had a lot of money. So we had agreed to raise all the children Jewish, and I guess the dogs are included... And I think money allows that sort of eccentricity because you can do things that other people normally can’t do, like have a bark mitzvah for your dog and have hundreds of people come over, and sit poolside, and have the rabbi read from the Torah.”
In the finale “Uninterrupted”, written by series creator Andrew Lenchewski, “Evan R.” (played by Paulo Costanzo) is discussing their expected child with his very gentile blonde wife “Paige Collins” (played by Brooke D'Orsay). As she worries if a gorgeous crib mobile would make the infant dizzy, he sits up: Wait – I thought I was the nervous Jewish mother around here! (7/9/2016)


Ray Donovan (on Showtime), opens the 4th season, with “The Girl with the Guitar”, written by David Hollander, the Israeli “Avi” (played by Steven Bauer) is talked about, but not seen. “Lena” (played by Katherine Moennig) comes in to the office in the morning complaining: Tell Avi this isn't kosher chicken and to clean up after himself. Or better tell his mother to come clean up after him. We don’t get to see his mother until the penultimate episode of the season “Chinese Algrebra”, written by Sean Conway and Chad Feehan. While “Avi” has been held hostage in L.A. by the Russian mob for two days and beaten to within an inch of his life, his oblivious mother “Mrs. Rudin” (played by Anoush NeVart) calls the titular fixer (played by Liev Schreiber): Avi still hasn't called! He always checks in with me! “Ray” lies: It’s my fault. I sent him him down to Nicaragua looking after a client. She: He won't like it - stray dogs and Communists. And no kosher food. Tell him I'm taping “So You Think You Can Dance in LA.” (updated 1/4/2017)

The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 4th season (on ABC) (I detest this sit com so much that I couldn’t bring myself to finish watching even the 2nd season, so I’m not goint to waste my time watching the didn’t-deserve-to-be-renewed 4th season. I’ll probably have to end up buying the complete series on DVD to do a complete review with episode-by-episode documentation of its clichés.) (9/23/2016)

Once Upon A Sesame Street Christmas (on PBS, and repeated annually in subsequent seasons) In this confusing mish-mash of holidays that transports the denizens back to 19th century New York on Christmas Eve, like in Christmas Carol, written by Geri Cole and Ken Scarborough, Zosia Mamet plays a mysterious “Bella”, who starts out explaining Hanukkah sort of in the Lower East Side, then ends up wishing them all “Merry Christmas” before moving on to the next community that needs some Christmas Spirit. (12/13/2017)

Documentary Now (on IFC) In the 2nd season of this hilarious satire of Docu-Series, the parody of Spalding Gray’s Swimming to Cambodia, as directed by Jonathan Demme, was called “Parker Gail’s Location is Everything”. While I suppose it’s possible that his first wife Renee Shafransky was Jewish, I was only aware of his 2nd wife Kathie Russo, so I was surprised when the parody suddenly inserted a (funny) Jewish girlfriend “Ramona” (played by comedienne Lennon Parham). (Details forthcoming)
In their parody of the Maysles’ Salesman, called Globesmen, written by Seth Meyers, the unsuccessful “Tom O'Halloran” (played by Fred Armisen) almost makes a sale of a globe at $49.95, until he brags that he doesn’t have to “Jew down” the middle-aged couple: Umm occurs to me, Rothstein may be a Jewish name. And he’s then seen throwing the globe into his car’s trunk in frustration. I actually can’t remember if there were ethnic slips in the 1968 original.
In the parody of The Kid’s Still in the Picture, Mr. Runner-Up: My Life as an Oscar Bridesmaid, Part 2, written by Bill Hader and John Mulaney, with Hader as Hollywood producer “Jerry Wallach” details how he made a movie about a woman Holocaust survivor. [Details forthcoming] (updated 2/8/2017)


In the finale of the real Docu-Series America Divided (on Epix), “Home Economics — Domestic Workers in California”, correspondent Amy Poehler interviews Rabbi Zoe Klein, posing with her daughters and sons and their nanny Sylvia from Honduras, though she demurs about policy issues regarding pay and domestic workers’ right.
In another fine such series, Hate Thy Neighbor (on Viceland), British comedian Jamali Maddix’s around the world tour of extreme racists stops at “Forbidden Love In Israel” to the group Lehava, which not only demonstrates against the Gay Pride Parade in Jeruslem, but the leader Ben-Zion Gopstein claims to help parents whose daughters have been seduced by Arabs. As he explains in broken English: “They go to the Arabs, very young daughters 14-16 years old because they give them money give them sex and pizza.” (The comedian in his stand-up act back home mocks the idea of young women today having sex in exchange for pizz.) The wife of 26 years, with her eight kids and many grandchildren, is seen supporting his racist activities. A 23-year-old woman in the organization is making signs protesting gays with her broken English explanation: “I love the Jewish people, I love my friends. My grandmother is a survivor so I can't accept that someone tries to threaten us, terrorists and trying to date Jewish girls.” (The comedian later mocks: “When did genocide get so sexy?”) (updated 2/24/2017)


Madam Secretary – Nadine Tolliver in the 3rd season (on CBS) Approaching the season finale, the series seems to have forgotten she’s Jewish. (updated 5/17/2017)

In Saving Hope, before “Dr. Sydney Katz” returned for a few episodes in the Rolling Stones-themed titles 4th season, her absence was noted. in“Beasts of Burden”, written by Patrick Tarr, (originally shown in Canada, October 2015; on ION in the U.S. a year later), there was an implicit Jewish woman “Dr Clara Levine” (played by Kate Lynch) is a bully broad, senior surgeon with short white hair, who was the mentor of the current woman head of surgery. She challenges the star “Dr. Alex Reid” (played by Eria Durance) who is just back from maternity leave: You just had a baby, didn't you? “Alex”: Yes. Luke. 11 months. Do you have kids? “Levine”, though there’s no hint that I could see she’s explicitly Jewish: No, no kids for me. It was all work. Besides, in those days, if you stepped away, they would never let you back in again.. . . You're married to Charlie Harris, right?. . .Charlie's a great surgeon. And according to, Dawn, so are you.. . .I trained Dawn when she was a resident. Such a nervous little thing. She used to follow me around like a puppy. …One day I'll tell you the story of how she accidentally sewed her finger onto a cadaver. But she misses something in the surgery, “Alex” and “Dawn” argue over her; “Dr. Levine” is defiant, then quickly crumbles: I would never have questioned a senior surgeon when I was coming up…You're a junior surgeon who thinks she knows everything.What do you have to explain to me?. . . How did I miss that?. . . Five years ago, this never would have happened…And it's gone on long enough. I need to walk away. I've been afraid to. I've been afraid of the nothing that is waiting for me. It's time. . .Oh, Dr. Hamza I will miss you and our chess games. . . I think after four decades here, I've earned the right to the last word. It's a very different world from when I was starting out. The snickering and the accidental gropings and the second-guessing of your work, although I think in that department, we've come full circle…That's my point. It is easier for you. But you still have to prove yourself more than any male surgeon. Every day you come to work, you have to be perfect. I hope you're up for that.
”Katz” returns in the 1940’s mode of a sexually fulfilled woman – no glasses and shiny bouncy hair, now that she’s accepted being lesbian and Orthodox. She not only comes to consult on pregnant patients, in “Emotional Rescue”, written by series creator Malcolm MacRury, but just in time for “Dr. Maggie Lin” (played by Julia Taylor Ross, who is Eurasian) to have been in the middle of Boston Marathon-type bombing and needs a serious operation. “Alex” watches how nervous she is waiting during the operation: You really love her don't you? In quick recuperation, “Maggie” comments: If you're here to kiss me, Alex already beat you to it. “Sydney”: You’re in the IC- how can you possibly make this half full? “Maggie”: You’re here. I’ll provide more detail on their interchanges in subsequent episodes, but key was “Sydney”s final appearance in “All Down the Line”, written by Jennifer Kassabian. At the changing room lockers, “Sydney”: You’re too skinny. “Maggie”: Are you Jewish mothering me or ex-girlfriending me right now? in a strained tone of voice. “Sydney”: I didn't know we were exs. “Maggie”: We're not really friends right now either. “Syndey”: Fair enough. . . I want to leave [my patient] with someone I trust before I go to Israel.…“Maggie”: Has your life been a flurry of hot dates and deliveries? “Sydney”: Not exactly. My father still won't speak to me, but my mom started sending me emails so that's progress. “Maggie”: I'm glad -- have yu talked to Herschel? “Sydney”: No, that's a burned bridge.…”Maggie”: So if this patient is that important to you why don't you postpone your move? “Sydney”: Because I’m moving to Tel Aviv to be with my girlfriend. She's expecting me next week. They end with a friendly kiss. (updated 6/23/2017)


Shoshanna Shapiro in the 6th season of Girls (2/6/2017)

Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – Abigail McCarthy in the 3rd Season (on Bravo and renewed for 2 more seasons) Not only did the entire season forget she was Jewish, but she seemed to get stupider. (updated 3/18/2017)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Rebecca Bunch, her mother, and others in their 2nd season (on the CW) Creator/star Rachel Bloom makes even more Jewish references on her Twitter posts, including before, during filming, and after announcing that Patti LuPone would be playing a rabbi and co-starring with Tovah Feldshuh (continuing as the mother) in the most Jewish episode of the series “Will Scarsdale Like Josh's Shayna Punim?”, written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, that I’ll eventually cover, but here’s a still, and a link to LuPone’s duet with Feldshuh “Remember That We Suffered”.
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Bloom guesting on the Naked American Songbook podcast was described as: “When she came to the studio over Passover, Rachel and host Julian Fleisher made a meal out of the Great American Songbook, as well as our Naked American offering: a box of gluten-free matzo and a blessed bottle of fermented concord grape juice. All in the name of songs and freedom.”
(updated 7/20/2017)

Felicity Smoak in the 5th season of Arrow (on CW) I presume during Sweeps Weeks she may cross-over into the 3rd season of The Flash and the 2nd season of SuperGirl (its 1st season on CW). With the traumatic break-up at the end of Season 4 (sob!), her role is even more about competence. Are the ratings going down because of the break-up? (updated 11/19/2016)

Younger – Lauren Heller plus in the 3rd season (on TV Land) Uncharacteristically, from the opening episode, “A Kiss Is Just A Kiss”, written by series creator Darren Star, “Lauren” (played by Molly Bernard) made a Jewish reference. She is determined to cheer up recent widow “Kelsey Peters” (played by Hilary Duff): I’ll get you through this. I’ll meet you after work. There’s a really hot grief group at my temple tonight. “Kelsey”: That’s wonderful. I’m not even Jewish! “Lauren”: Even better, really!
While “Lauren” continued to be sharp in contemporary business marketing, she was suddenly turned “basic” as she describes her new self to her consternation, in “Last Days of Books”, written by Alison Brown, by falling for cute, hetereo, Jewish doctor at Beth Israel Hospital “Max Horowitz” (played by Ben Rappaport, who was featured in the latest Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof). While I will go into them in detail when I get a chance, the recappers notably IDd them as “childhood friends” and missed the Jewish social context that they were originally camp friends -- “Color War” was a major clue and as seen in an old photo his (approving) mom found:
A surprising Brooklyn Jewish woman character appeared in “P is for Pancake”, written by Jessie Cantrell and stayed for several episodes -- as a love interest for lesbian artist “Maggie” (played by Debi Mazer), who explains to her roommate: She’s not my usual type. She’s got this all natural, kinfolky kind of vibe. Not a stitch of make-up. At the community garden where they first met, “Malkie” (played by Sally Pressman) on her hat: It’s actually from my boutique on Bedford. . .I’m lucky I have a loyal clientele. and invites her to an event for her spring collection:

As klezmer music plays, “Maggie” notes the mezuzah on the door frame and kosher wine as a refreshment. “Malkie” helps her cover up her sexy dress with a shawl: My store specializes in stylish clothing for the modest woman, mostly Orthodox Jewish women. “Maggie”: I must be off my game or something, because I kind of missed a few things. I thought you were gay, not Orthodox. “Malkie”: Why can’t I be both? I’m what you might call ‘Orthodyke’. She pulls “Maggie” into a dressing room for a hot make out session. Details on the other episodes forthcoming as I get a chance, such as this mikveh for lesbians and such hipsters:
(updated 1/3/2017)

Better Things (on FX) I always seem to be identifying Pamela Adlon as playing a “putative Jewish women character” in series – such as in Californication and Louis. In promoting her new auteur series, that she created and is writing, she did not reference herself or her character “Sam Fox”, a single mother of three daughters, as Jewish at all. In the pilot “Sam”, that she wrote with Louis C.K., the only hint is when she dreams about her hirsute father “Murray” (played by Adam Kulbersh), who also seems putatively Jewish. There may be more clarification with more scenes with her mother “Phyllis” (played by Celia Imre), who is only heard in her dream nagging like a putative Jewish mother.
In the 3rd episode “Brown”, written by co-creator Louis C.K., the family is in the middle of eating dinner hosting her guest, her African-American director “Mel Trueblood” (played by Lenny Kravitz, whose father is Jewish). After a commercial, she’s seen in the middle of eating and conversation, apparently answering his question: Oh yeah, we don’t have a mezuzah. “Mel”: What’s up with that? She: We’re not that--. She shakes her head, shrugs and gets busy chewing a mouthful of spaghetti. That’s the strongest indicator yet she is at least secular Jewishly identified, with self-deprecation. (updated 10/7/2016)

Deborah Gorn and Rachel Castello in the 4th and 5th seasons of Ripper Street (seen in the U.S. on BBC America) From the 1st episode of the season, “The Stranger’s Home” written by Richard Warlow, set in 1897 during preparation of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, “Deborah Goren” (played by Lucy Cohu) tracked down the retired “Det. Insp. Edmund Reid” (played by Matthew Macfadyen) at his seaside cottage to ask his help to challenge what she is sure is the wrongful capital conviction of a fellow Jew “Isaac Bloom” (played by Justin Avoth). When he first refuses to challenge the investigation by his former colleagues, she wanly smiles I gave thanks when I heard your daughter was returned to you. Then pleads again as they watch the sun set over the ocean. Her reaching out to him is popular neither with her Jewish community, nor with his ex-colleagues.
I didn’t realize until a few episodes in that another Jewish woman appeared this season – “Rachel Castello” (played by Anna Koval). “Deborah” describes her to the Inspector: She feels you police hide the truth of what is acted out on the people of her faith. He’s as surprised as me: She is Jewish? “Deborah”: Raised as an English woman. However, she discovers her heritage with a zeal, a zeal for truth, and that truth to be discovered however it may. They make an interesting contrast between recent Russian immigrant vs. assimilated Jew, as “Rachel” traced the murder victim’s story: A history of the frozen and famished journeys made by those of my faith, that they might find shelter in Whitechapel. “Rachel” is an active reporter in the 5th season, so I’ll keep looking for any reference to her Jewish background. (Details forthcoming.) (updated 3/18/2017)

Arranged (on FYI) – I’m making an exception for my usual avoidance of “reality” shows here, but since the satirical UnReal showed just how ridiculously manipulated they are, I was curious how an Orthodox Jewish couple would be presented in this second “docu-series” season of following American couples engaged as “arranged” couples. In addition to Texas Baptists and Californians of Indian heritage (East? South Asian? – I zap through the other couples) are Ben, 22, and Vicki Anderson, age 21. I was intrigued that unlike most TV assumptions of observant Jews as Hassids in Brooklyn, these two declare they are “Modern Orthodox” who met growing up in Seattle – so the “arranged” is very loosely applied in that she asked friends to fix them up now that both live in NYC – which is also common from The New York Times wedding stories.
In the first episode “Estranged Arrangement”, the term baal teshuvah wasn’t used, but Vickie explained she was raised in a fairly secular Jewish family and decided to take on the Orthodox commitment “to add meaning” to her life. He had noticed that she was now dressing modestly, so was interested. Ben’s mother Ellen, who doesn’t look Orthodox at all, explained the tradition of shiner negiah -- not touching until marriage – and laughs that’s why young people want to get married already by their early ‘20’s. Vicki lives on the Upper West Side (that she contextualizes for presumably older viewers is like living in Friends or Sex and the City where one of her friends jokes that it’s harder to get kosher there than when they were in Israel – which is youthfully naïve, as I have kosher friends there and there are many observant congregations. [Ben, who in a later episode calls Far Rockaway suburbs and Manhattan “the city”, seems to think it’s Harlem.] While Vicki goes on and on about her nervousness of taking on the role of “happy smiling wife, but that now seems out of my league”, the episode mostly focuses on the issue of whether she can take on the tradition of wearing a wig, sheitel. Her mom Susan: “I have trouble with the wig. The first time I see her with it, I might rip it off, and then go into therapy.” First Vicki visits a wig store with her camp friend Rebecca to help her choose because she feels big pressure from Ben’s family to do so (though his parents do not look that Orthodox). Next she goes with Ben and the woman seller puts on pressure too: “It’s for you, for the sanctity of your marriage, and the holiness of your home.” – but only offers long-haired options and there’s no discussion of shaving her head. He compliments her wig, and she agrees to do it, though she’s scared. While she loves her locks and considers her hair important to her sense of self, it’s only mentioned in passing that a hat would also be acceptable, like the jaunty berets many young Orthodox women in my neighborhood wear, and which other young women she meets in his neighborhood wear as well.
Through the next episodes, through the wedding, Victoria, as her mother calls her, seems fairly natural; Ben seems coached and rehearsed, with his real self only slipping out when he gets stubborn and mad. [Gosh, it takes me awhile to transcribe each episode!] (updated 8/7/2016)


Genealogy Roadshow (on PBS) hasn’t had Jewish women seeking their family histories much. In Providence, RI, was Deborah Rosenbaum, with a luxurious head of curly brown hair, seeking how her family escaped Nazi Germany. With a husband born in Russia and a son from Ehiopia, she was born in NYC, and wants to know how her father’s family made it to Shanghai, China, where he was born. She’s shown her family tree, through her grandparents, starting wih her grandmother Edith’s German passport with a Swastika and “J”, in what is now Poland. Her tailor grandfather was arrested from a department store amidst Kristallnacht and got out just as her grandmother was able to pay for a February 1939 exit stamp, to Italy briefly, and left just in time by ship through the Panama Canal to Shanghai, and stayed after liberation until passage to the U.S. in 1947 and became permanent residents in June 1949.
However, on the following week’s episode from Los Angeles, the family behind the famous Schwab’s Drugstore in Hollywood is never identified as Jewish – and it took me a bit of googling to confirm they were by finding that the eldest, founding brother Jacob is buried in a Jewish cemetery. The grandson of the youngest brother Leon came to the program with his wife and young daughter Catherine (with long, flowing, curly brunette locks) seeking confirmation of a clue they had found in family clippings that the business was also run by the brothers’ mother Lena. The genealogist tracked her back to her birth as Leibe in Grodno in 1877, in what is now Belarus, married to Abraham Svouv (the family’s original name spelling) in Philadelphia, moved on to L.A., widowed with 4 sons by 1922 (the other sons were known as Bernard and Martin). From probate court, they found her will stating she was: “equal owner and co-partner in the operation of drug stores and liquor stores.” The impressed wife calls her “a mogul!” A lost to history, and not fully credited here, Jewish mother entrepreneur! (updated 6/29/2016)


In Feed The Beast (on AMC), this gritty drama set in an oddly very fictionally mostly white contemporary Bronx (based on a Danish series Bankerot I haven’t seen) and starring David Schwimmer, who usually plays Jewish characters but is here “Tommy Moran”, explicitly identified a woman character as Jewish in “Secret Sauce”, written by Hilly Hicks, Jr. His estranged racist father “Aidan Moran” (played by John Moran)’s accountant “Ruth Klein” (played by Kathryn Kates) warns about the loan he’s given his son to start a risky new restaurant: You’re not worth as much as you think you are ‘Mr. Restauranteur’. “Aidan”: What am I paying you for? I thought you people were good with money. She: I'm a Jew, not a magician. .. You’re running out of money. This was the 4th episode, but I don’t think this was her first appearance in that office. The actress was hired, per AMC’s original announcement, as a recurring character: “a know-it-all, tough accountant”.
In the 7th episode “Tabula Rasa”, written by Becky Mode, her boss rolls his eyes when she comes into his office, after just hearing that his cancer his worse: How about some good news. She: My nephew graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Business School He: Cut to the chase. She: My grandson will be here soon. You're cash-poor. Time to pull the plug on your little money pit in the Bronx. I'm gonna have to find another $35,000 for your second trip down to Mexico for that alternative medicine you're so keen on. He: Forget it. I'm done drinking Mexican horse piss. Besides, it's not working. She: Glad to hear it. I'm not glad it's not working, of course. Glad 'cause you need the money. The series was cancelled after this one season. (updated 9/11/2016)


The/Le Tunnel – Elise Wassermann in the 1st season (on PBS/originally a Sky Atlantic/Canal + co-production) In this 3rd version of Bron/Broen and The Bridge, the borderline between Denmark/Sweden and Texas/Mexico, is now between England/France. The different background of the otherwise pretty-much-the-same rigid, unemotional, borderline Asperger’s French detective who picks up a hunk in a bar for anonymous sex, played by the blonde Clémence Poésy, came out in the 2nd episode, written by Ben Richards. In investigating the gruesome murder of “Député (MP) Marie Villeneuve”, she follows up on threatening mail from an organic farmer who had been sending her threatening mails to check out his abattoir: Somebody who produces and butchers their own meat because they hate the Zionist Occupied Government of France. But he catches her in the middle of the night, per the subtitles: Wassermann, that's a Jewish name. Detective: It’s just a name. My father was Jewish, my mother was Catholic. I don’t care. . . Villeneuve wasn’t Jewish. He: She works for the Zionist government. Meanwhile, the real serial killer is on the phone with his journalist liaison and dismisses the farmer: He’s just a cretinous Nazi. She assures the other cops: He just hates Jews. The British detective muses that the killer’s messages sound like he thinks he’s like an Old Testament God. (6/29/2016)

The Fosters – Emma Kurtzman in the 4th season (on FreeForm) was a surprise return in the season premiere “Potential Energy” written by Bradley Bredeweg and Peter Paige, especially with the same actress Amanda Leighton in atypical behavior of playing hooky with the new actor now playing “Jesus” (Noah Centineo). With zero references to her Jewish identity from past seasons, they bond while the school is in a shut-down panic over a potential school shooting, she laughs with him about “Harry” breaking up with her after a few months. [Maybe that was in episodes I missed last season.] Despite their hand holding during the tense moments, she clarifies: Today’s been kind of intense, and we had a lot of fun and you’ve been very sweet. But I don’t want you to think we’re starting something up again. His casual agreement wasn’t very convincing! Continuing as a recurring character in subsequent episodes, she’s making out more and more with him. In “Trust”, written by Anne Meredith, “Emma” is more eager and open about her sexual experience than Jewish teenage girls are usually portrayed on TV, but she also is the more mature one in insisting they go to a clinic and get tested for STDs (and she’s the one driving the car) before they agree to be exlusive friends with benefits who don’t have other friends with benefits.
In “Forty”, written by Megan Lynn and Wade Solomon, “Emma” is again a self-confident Smart Girl participating in the STEM Club and encouraging “Jesus”s sister “Mariana Adams Foster” (played by Cierra Ramirez), along with the only other girl in the club, to enter a competition with her to design a robot – and inspiring “Jesus” to help. The Fosters Tumblr account posted a GIF clip (scroll down because I can’t figure out how to post a GIF myself) of the girls high-five-ing each other when they beat out the boys when they insisted on the originality of their design.
So while “Emma” is continuously referred to by “Jesus” as “smart” (even “too smart” for him), in “Doors and Windows”, written by Constance M. Burge, she weeps to his foster brother “David Foster” (played by David Lambert) that while she was on the pill, a pregnancy test revealed she’s pregnant and she’s missed her period. Worse, she tearily shakes her head that she can’t talk to her parents, as he suggests, or tell his moms because they had just railed against secrets: I don’t want to be a 16 year old with a baby. Is it horrible if I don’t tell Jesus? You know with his condition, I’m afraid it’s jut going to be too much for him., because “Jesus” is recovering from a brain injury – though it’s more that he sees them together and is jealous. I’m furious that so many teen shows have girls get pregnant on The Pill! At least add in some dialogue that maybe she didn’t take it reliably, or missed a day or something, which would be the real reason women get pregnant while taking it.
Through the whole arc of her decision and the family fallout of an abortion through the season finale, there was no reference to her Jewish identity or beliefs, so that late-comers to the series would have no idea. (She would just shake her head no when over and over she and others would ask if she could or did tell her mother/parents.) The issues were framed as her freedom with her body, lack of readiness to care for a child vs. Jesus’s history as an adoptee. [Details of the season forthcoming.] (updated 4/12/2017)


Odd Mom Out– Jill Weber in the 2nd season (half-hour sitcom on Bravo) I didn’t get a chance to cover their advance “Time In” panel at Tribeca Film Festival, because I was busy covering so many women-crewed films, and I thought it would eventually stream or be reported online, but I’ll keep checking, though I wonder if anyone else would ask about the Jewish aspects.
Set before and during Yom Kippur, the 2nd episode, “Fasting and Furious” written by executive producers Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritzsky was not only the most Jewish episode of the series, but of just about any recent TV series. I was surprised to have confirmed, however, that though “Jill”s BFF “Dr. Vanessa” constantly lets loose with Yiddishims, she explicitly identified: I’m a lapsed Catholic. (and in the following episode joked she still felt guilty over not bothering to see a visiting Pope.) I’ll post all the relevant dialogue when I have a chance! (updated 6/27/2016)


UnReal– Rachel Goldberg and others in the 2nd season (on Lifetime) relevant spoilers were teased at the Vulture Festival panel 5/22/2016: “Quinn (Constance Zimmer) and Rachel (Shiri Appleby) get matching tattoos that say, Money Dick Power. ‘It’s supposed to be a list of priorities so they never forget their priorities again,” [the show’s co-creator Sarah Gertrude] Shapiro said. . . Rachel is Everlasting’s showrunner now. ‘After season one, Rachel really has nothing left to lose. ... I think that this is her Hail Mary pass to make her life mean something,’ Shapiro said. This newfound power also includes an improved wardrobe. ‘We’re really feeling her stand up and her look really goes along with that’, Appleby said. . . Rachel [has a] new love interest this season. Rachel’s is a new producer on Everlasting who seems like he could be perfect for her. ‘He comes from a documentary film background, he has a nice Jewish family, a house in Martha’s Vineyard,’ Appleby said.”
In addition to “Rachel” being constantly needled by her mother the shrink, who even sends her negative evaluations of her daughter’s mental state to her co-workers on the show, one of the new contestants on Bachelor-clone Everlasting is Jewish – “Yael” (played by Monica Barbaro) is immediately dubbed “Hot Rachel” by the crew. By the season’s second episode “Insurgent”, written by Stacy Ruykeyser, the very manipulative Sarah Lawrence grad “Yael” tries to play Jewish geography with her, then asks: Can we talk? with Vassar alum “Rachel”, who cuts her off: Like Heeb to Heeb? This after “Rachel” manipulated the African-American college student into being on the show because for the “revolutionary” first time she got a black bachelor as the bait. (A primary way other characters needle “Rachel” throughout the season is referencing her mother and her mother’s diagnosis that she is unstable.)
In the tumultuous “Ambush”, written by Ariana Jackson, she ends up in a fetal position and calls her mother for help. Mom puts her into a psychiatric facility and hands her a cup of pills: You know I love you, right? [More detailed commentary forthcoming] (updated 7/26/2016)



2015/2016 Season

My favorite Jewish women TV comediennes were seen welcoming the Jewish New Year with wit. Jenny Slate, this season of Married, tweeted: “Yom Kippur, a day of not eating&saying sorry for every possible thing AKA THE LIFE OF AN AMERICAN ACTRESS.” Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer posted the webisode Hack Into Broad City – Yom Kippur. Amy Schumer fan University of Michigan junior Becca Soverinsky compiled 10 Stages of the Yom Kippur Fast, as Told By Amy Schumer that went viral; though I follow Schumer on Twitter, I couldn’t find her reaction, but in December she did post her childhood Hanukkah video.

But will she be Jewish? Deborah Schoeneman, a putative Jewish woman newspaper, magazine, book and TV writer, announced, 9/1/2015, a deal with CBS Television Studios for a dramatic TV series inspired by a prominent Jewish feminist defense attorney. She told Variety: “When I was finished working on the last season of The Newsroom, I was trying to figure out what kind of show I wanted to develop. . .Gloria Allred was in the center of the stories in the news that most interested me, particularly about women seeking justice. I was thrilled that she was receptive . . . She was a lot of fun to pitch with …I feel lucky to have the opportunity to work with Gloria Allred to create a dynamic, passionate and polarizing character based on her. Gloria’s an amazing storyteller with a deep well of perfect material for television.”

Difficult People - I haven’t watched because I don’t pay for Hulu.

While cousins from both mine and my husband’s families are two of the people in charge at HBO’s Veep, and the Emmy-nominated “Mother” episode, written by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyk, has been the most acclaimed of this season, I’m not sure if newspaper reporter “Wendy Keegan” (played by Kathy Najimy) the wife of “White House Press Secretary Mike McLintock” (Matt Walsh) is Jewish. So I wasn’t quite sure to make of her quick claim when interviewing a potential evangelical surrogate mother “Deborah Lee” (Meredith Hagner) who proclaims: Praise Jesus! Are y'all Christians?, she quickly replies: Yes! I mean, a lot of people think that I'm Jewish. But no! (with a gesture across her neck) and she makes up “The Church of the Holy Womb” that they attend. (9/17/2016)

I stopped watching NCIS for Ziva David’s last season, though I never got around to formally documenting her last episodes in Fall 2013 here. There was much fan anticipation if she would return in the final Sweeps Week episode of Michael Weatherly who played “Tony DiNozzo” (before he went on to another CBS season). In “Family First” (Season 13 Ep 24, broadcast May 17, 2016), written by Gary Glasberg & Scott Williams, she is talked about constantly throughout the episode, including by a (presumed Jewish) woman director of Mossad, whose couple of previous episodes I had missed, “Orli Elbaz” (played by Star Trek fave Marina Sirtis). But more importantly it is revealed that not only did “Ziva” die in a terrorist revenge attack against her father, but that she had a daughter fathered by “Tony”, she named “Tali” as the namesake of her sister, who also died in a terrorist bomb (and played here by two adorable toddler twins). In a climactic scene, the girl points to a photo of her parents together and says “Ima” and “Abba”, which “Tony” figures out is Hebrew for “Mom” and “Dad”. As usual for this series, the closest any mention is made of “Ziva” being Jewish is when he gives to his daughter her mother’s necklace that he kept in his pocket close to his heart – but only loyal viewers would know it was a Jewish star, because there was not the usual sentimental close-up. [More commentary forthcoming.]
Executive producer Gary Glasberg posted on the CBS website under “11 Things You Didn’t Know About the NCIS Season 13 Finale” [Of course there’s no reference to “Ziva” even being Israeli]: "Hours, days, we sat in the writers room talking. Being a field agent is dangerous. And, if you're suddenly a single parent, do you continue to take that risk every day? Or, does having a child change everything? Based on all of our research, talking to actual federal agents and law enforcement officers, it certainly does change things. And, now Tony would do anything for that little girl. Anything. . .Ziva would have introduced DiNozzo to Tali eventually. The real question is, why didn't Ziva tell him sooner? Because, like Orli says, Ziva always wanted Tony to live his life. You all know Ziva as a fiercely independent character. We truly believe she was planning to introduce him to his daughter when the time was right. Should that frustrate and anger Tony? Of course, it should. But, he also knew Ziva well enough to understand. And, at the end of the day, look what she's given him. A new sense of purpose. A new chapter. A new beginning. A new love. We knew it would take something enormous to make Tony put down his badge. Tali is that very special something. . . Tony finding the photo of he and Ziva in the go bag and showing it to Tali is one of my favorite scenes in the episode. This is where all the puzzle pieces really fit together. This is where Tony realizes how much Ziva truly cared for him and that she wanted him to be in Tali's life. It's also where Tony acknowledges (off screen after this revelation) to join his team and confront Kort. Go back and watch this scene again. It really covers a wide range of story and emotion."
But “Ziva” fans kept pressing the actress with questions, so she gradually provided more explanation of why she left the popular series. First saying: “Unfortunately, because of political things and the scripts not being good enough, I chose not to [stay]. I love this character. I worked eight years in crafting this character and loving her, so when I felt or I perceived the character was not being treated with the respect that she deserved, all the money in the world couldn't buy [me].” At Babson College, Cote de Pablo added: “They were going to send her back to Israel and make her an unfortunate, miserable woman. I said well what do I leave all the women who have watched and followed the show? I didn't think it was fair. And so I said, 'Until someone can really write something fantastic for her, I won't come back.'” (updated 8/19/2016)

On Law & Order: SVU episode “Collateral Damages”, written by Samantha Corbin-Miller, featured an obnoxious until he’s brought down Jewish-implied (with a Yiddish word here and there) “Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Hank Abraham” (played by Josh Pais) revealed as an addicted consumer of child pornography. But his attorney wife, counsel for child social services and distraught mother of a boy and girl, “Pippa Cox” (played by red-headed Jessica Phillips,) is nowhere implied as Jewish, what with her parents “living in Pennsylvania”, and the police don’t pass any Jewish ritual objects in the apartment that I could see while they were thoroughly searching for the sordid evidence. Defending the informant, Susie Essman was also playing an attorney “Arlene Heller” who also wasn’t specifically identified as Jewish. While they didn’t meet my threshold for at least “putative”, did the audience assume both were Jewish women anyway? (4/6/2016)

The second season of The Blacklist (on NBC) definitely confirmed that the ex-Mossad agent “Samar Navabi” (played by Mozhan Marnò) is a Muslim Iranian. But in “Alistair Pitt”, teleplay by Nicole Phillips, “Agent Elizabeth Keen” (played by Megan Boone) is sarcastically surprised when “Samar” keeps nagging for input into her baby shower planning: Who are you? “Samar”: A Jewish mother. Part of my Mossad training. (3/17/2016)

Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein (on Netflix) Whoops – Season 2 began streaming Spring 2016 before I even got a chance to watch S1 yet to comment on Lily Tomlin’s portrayal of the Jewish woman character. (5/22/2016)

New Girl (on Fox) Schmidt’s Jewish mother, played by Nora Dunn, returned for the season ending 2-part wedding episodes. (Description forthcoming) (9/11/2016)

On Chasing Life (ABC Family) “Ready or Not” episode, written by Joni Lefkowitz, had an odd exchange, especially for a show which has no Jewish women characters this season. The mother’s know-it-all gay BFF “William” (played by Gregg German) espies a new dress by insecure neophyte Brit black dresss designer: So what’s it for? Like a bat mitzvah? “Beth” (played by Aisha Dee) has an odd reference: Yeah, maybe Sarah Jessica Parker's bat mitzvah. “William”: I'm just saying, 'cause it looks so buttoned up. But maybe that's the style these days. She snipes back about his track suit; he’s defends his running outfit with a parting Okay, well shabbat shalom. But when he leaves, she bemoans to the supportive younger daughter “Brenna Carver” (played by Haley Ramm) wearing it: He's right. You look like you're going to a bat mitzvah. (9/25/2015)

This first season of Shades of Blue (on NBC), “Detective David Sapirstein” (played by Santino Fontana) is first seen caring for his mother (played by Kathryn Kates) in “Fall of Man” episode, story by Marta Gené Camps , teleplay by Mike Daniels &Wolfe Coleman. He is arrested by the FBI and he gets them to bring him home, but Mom’s not there yet: She’s got book club today. She should be back. Both speaking with heavy New York City accents: David, who are these people? He: They're friends, Ma. She’s suspicious: I know your friends. He: I got some new ones. Sit down , Ma. She: Who is that man, telling you to hurry with your own mother? He: Listen to me. I'm gonna have to go away for a while. She: What are you saying? David, are you in trouble? He: No, it's work. It's a big case. I'm the guy they want on it. She, with some sarcasm: You don't do big cases. You're a neighborhood policeman. You come home after your shift. He: Listen. Look at me, Mom. You'll be fine. I need you to know that, okay? She: I don't like this, David. You’re acting strange. While he uses getting her heart meds as a distraction to escape, things do get stranger – his corrupt captain tries to kill him. (3/28/2016)

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Artemis (on FX) I’ve been watching this funny, frequently outrageous satire of political correctness since the first season in 2005, but don’t remember if “Artemis” (played by Artemis Pebdani) was portrayed as Jewish before “Being Frank”, written by Scott Marder. In an atypical gimmick of being inside “Frank” (played by Danny DeVito)’s crazed, amnesiac, usually more scheming, head, he goes to her apartment seeking a rug. She greets him: We’re sitting shiva for my Aunt Joyce. He’s thinking that he’s horrified to be around a roomful of so many Jews, though his eye is caught by young “Lisa” in a short black dress walking across the room. “Artemis” introduces him: Mom and Dad, this is my part-time lover Frank Reynolds. His head is bursting (literally in the mirror), and she offers him drugs from the medicine cabinet, before he runs back, grabs the rug from under the food buffet, and runs out of her apartment, all the time mumbling against Jews. (3/26/2016)

Amy Schumer (on Comedy Central) Not only was this 4th season the weakest, despite a pointedly funny episode about gun control (in activism spurred by the TrainWreck shooting), most were too much about fame – with none of the kind of Jewish references in earlier seasons. The closest she came was in “Psychopath Test”, where author Jon Ronson interviews about telling an ISIS leader he was Jewish as better than being an atheist – and she has no comment. (6/25/2016)

Saving Hope – Dr. Sydney Katz (Canadian CTV series shown in U.S. on ION) My hypothesis that if I barely watch even a mediocre hospital show with supremely attractive people, let alone taking place at “Hope Zion” in Toronto, a Jewish woman may eventually show up – one did, starting in the 2nd episode of the 3rd season, shown in Canada in the season beginning September 2014, and in the U.S. from April 2016. So now I’ll have to catch up, at least with her episodes.
She was introduced in “Kiss Me Goodbye” (Season 3 Episode 2) written by Adam Pettle, “Dr. Maggie Lin” (played by Julia Taylor Ross, who is Eurasian though her character’s ethnicity hasn’t been mentioned in the episodes I’ve seen) walks in to see a new young, bespectacled woman in a white coat: Where 's the real doctor? “Dr. Sydney Katz” (played by Stacey Farber): I am the real doctor. “Lin”: Are you Dr. Katz? “Katz” shoots off a staccato of questions that “Lin” barely has a chance to answer monosyllabically in between: Are you Jewish? Because you answer a question with a question. . .I have an Israeli disposition. I keep a kosher home and leave early on Fridays and when I get married I will probably wear a wig. Do you have a problem with any of that? Good. Later they are faced with a brain-damaged pregnant patient. “Lin”: Have you ever seen a case like this? “Katz”, using terminology an Orthodox Jew wouldn’t, let alone with drawn out emphasis: No, thank God. “Lin”: It's bad luck. “Katz”: I don't believe in luck. “Lin”: What do you believe in? “Katz”: God and medicine- in that order! “Lin”: What if she doesn't recover? “Katz”: We work hard and pray that she does. She’s shocked that the husband, a reluctant father-to-be, does not care about saving the baby and will not get permission for an emergency C-Section. “Katz” argues with him vehemently: Rail at us, God, or the baby but it needs to come out! Your son will die! To her medical colleagues: Is everyone just throwing in the towel? “Dr. Melanda Tolliver” (played by the apparently African-North American Glenda Braganza): He's next of kin and the baby's father. It’s his decision. While they’re calm, “Kaz” is apoplectic: There's a life in there! Is no one willing to fight for that? A male doctor: It's not our fight. “Katz” keeps arguing: yes it is! We're doctors! I don't accept that --Sorry. “Lin”s ex, a psychologist, “Dr. Gavin Murphy” (played by Kristopher Turner) observes: That's the new staff ob-gyn? She seems. . “Lin”: Young? Shrink: Passionate. “Lin”: That's one word for it. Her ex’s reply is in conext of their break-up: Better than being unfeeling I guess. The spirits that haunt this coma-patient-spirits-wandering hospital convince the husband to permit the C-section.
Subsequent episodes show her to be the most humorless Jewish woman on TV since the “Lilith” on Cheers for whom I named this page. [Examples forthcoming]
“The Parent Trap” (Season 3, Episode 11), written by John Krizanc & Amanda Fahey, briefly showed “Katz” after she is engaged to “Herschel Hoffman” (played by Jonathan Silver, though not seen in this episode). In the doctor’s lounge, “Dr. Charlie Harris” (Michael Shanks, a primary reason I watch the show) asks her: So are you and Herschel planning a honeymoon? She still doesn’t look Orthodox enough to reply, even so unenthusiastically: Honeymoon isn't really Jewish tradition. We have “Sheva Berakhot Week” instead. What it lacks in scattered rose petals it makes up for in dinners with people you don 't know. She asks if “Dr. Dawn Bell” (played by Michelle Nolden) will let her take the week off. “Charlie”: See that's the thing - Dawn never took time off for a honeymoon. “Sydney”: You mean your honeymoon? [Commentary on “Sydney” in the rest of the season forthcoming] (updated 5/22/2016)

This season of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (on PBS) included an interchange that’s typical of this series’ uneasy way to deal with its celebrities’ Jewish roots. Bi-racial comedienne/actress Maya Rudolph participated in this show to learn more about her father’s Jewish roots, as well as her African-American mother’s. She knew her paternal grandfather eschewed Judaism, but she learned that her great-grandfather, originally from Vilna (accompanied by a description of Russia’s Pale of Settlement) founded a successful synagogue in Pittsburgh. Though there was no discussion of their wives and I didn’t catch her grandmother’s name on her animated family tree to presume if she was Jewish, Rudolph’s reaction just indicated her ignorance: “Why wasn’t I bat mitzvahed?” Two elderly men, nonogenerian New Haven-born TV producer Norman Lear and Canadian-born octogenarian architect Frank Gehry (né Golberg), considerably teared up at seeing photographs and immigration information on their “bubbe”s, who both left the anti-Semitism of the Pale of Settlement, and both cited their love and support for encouraging their creativity, especially over criticism from their fathers.
In “The Long Way Home” episode, Julianna Margulies, of all participants ever in this series, was the most enthusiastically Jewish-identified, proudly describing her return to Jewish ritual at her wedding “to a Jewish man” when she was seven months pregnant, and in how they are raising their son in the tradition. She punctuated every finding about her family’s history with exclamations such as“That’s so Jewish!”, including “Jewish scholars” finding that her family, who came to the U.S. after expulsion from Romania, had basically the same last name for 500 years, heading back to Rabbi in Bavaria. While her family myth was that they had previously been expelled from Spain as Sephardic Jews, she was thrilled that the DNA tests showed she is virtually 100% Ashkenazi Jew. But unusual for this series, the tracing of her maternal side touched her more emotionally, when an eyewitness account confirmed her grandmother’s oft-repeated recollection of being saved from a sinking boat and being gifted the sustenance of milk by rescuers.
In “Maps of Stars”, Dustin Hoffman, who at almost 80 years old knew nothing of his family background, is overcome to find out out his great-grandmother Libba Hoffman’s heroic efforts in Russia to find out the fate of her husband and son, who were each murdered by the cheka during the Russian Revolution, and then survive her own imprisonment in a labor camp to emigrate first to Argentina, and finally to join her family in Chicago. (And that his grandmother Esther sued the USSR for compensation for the executions.) Her story not only brings him to tears (“That’s a movie!”), but to passionately declare “I’m a Jew!” over how their sacrifices, her heroism in particular, made his existence and success possible, and emphasized to him his heritage and identity. He repeats “I am a Jew. I’ll wear that on my sleeve.”
In "The Pioneers", Gloria Steinem learned about her Jewish feminist paternal grandmother, as I detail in my commentary on the bio-pic The Glorias (updated 3/9/2016/ 12/30/2020)


In Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll (New York-set sitcom on FXX) episode “Hard Out Here for A Pimp, written by series creator and star Denis Leary, band manager “Ira Feinbaum” (played by Josh Pais) advises the boomer rocker about influencing the dating of his daughter “Gigi” who is now lead singer for their re-tooled band: This is basic parenting 101, John. I mean, Steve the monkey could Google this shit. I wanted my daughter to marry a Jewish guy. You know what I told her? “Johnny Rock” (played by Leary): Don't marry a Jew? Manager: Now I have a son-in-law named Noah. But when “Johnny” and his daughter get upset that the hipster rocker he manipulated into dating is too much like himself, the manager admonishes: This is what happens when you interfere. (9/5/2015)

On Playing House, “Cashmere Burkha” episode, written by Gavin Steckler, “Emma Crawford” (played by Jessica St. Clair) is at her suburban JCC when she bumps into an old high school classmate [OK, that describes everyone in the town] – “Bread Man Dan” is now a rabbi (played by cute Kyle Bornheimer). They start dating, but he explains: One of the complications of dating a rabbi is that I have 300 people in my congregation who want to get all up in my business. “WASP” (as she describes herself) “Emma”, who said all she knows about Judaism is a community theater production of Fiddler on the Roof: So you want to keep it quiet? . . Music to my ears. I don’t need a bunch of Jewish moms kubutzing about my business. He corrects: It’s kibbitzing. And they go back to kissing. By the next episode, he agrees to go public that he’s dating “a shiksa”, as he describes her. (8/23/2015)

The Walking Dead There was zero indication over two seasons that the Mayor of Alexandria “Deanna Monroe” was Jewish, but the brilliant actress Tovah Feldshuh is so Jewishly identified that her friend actor Jason Alexander made the putative perception explicit when he guested on the mid-season finale of Talking Dead in describing her character’s loud (though pantomimed) final heroic self-sacrifice: “Classic Jewish mother scream! Out of bullets – so what do you do? Yell Go to bed!" Andrew Lincoln (who plays “Sheriff Rick Grimes”) described her character as: “a smart, adaptable, tenacious, and authentic person.” The dedication of the “In Memoriam” was “You taught them how to live.” Feldshuh said she drew on her experience playing Golda Meir (in her long-running one-woman show of William Gibson’s play Golda’s Balcony and in O Jerusalem) and talking to Meir’s children in reflecting on a leader as a woman and parent – though she didn’t cite Meir specifically in the interview, which probably went past most fans. Demonstrating the push-ups they quietly did before each take and noting that the town’s unprepared constituents “were not idiots - we were innocents”, Feldshuh proudly described that her character became “a samurai” – a word I have never heard applied before to a Jewish mother! I was reminded of Moses’s concluding blessings as “Deanna” gave final, humane, and encouraging advice to both “Rick” and the other female samurai “Michonne” (played by Danai Gurira). (11/30/2015)

Banshee (on Cinemax) was very racially and ethnically diverse in its criminals and victims within Pennsylvania’s Amish Country, but a Jewish woman didn’t appear until the final season, and then only very briefly, in “Bloodletting”, written by Chad Feehan. “Parole Commissioner Sheryl Golden” (played by Amy Marsalis) is identified as Jewish by taunting backwoods White Supremacist leader “Randall Watts” (played by Chance Kelly), who threatens her daughter “Shoshanna” – and then suddenly gets paroled. (9/11/2016)

On Belief, Oprah Winfrey’s docu-series on her OWN Channel, featured 3 young and somewhat naïve but at least diverse, Jewish women. In the 2nd episode “Love’s Story” the official description in the press notes is: “We meet Rena Greenberg and Yermi Udkoff of Brooklyn, New York as they prepare to marry in the Hasidic faith [sic], which believes every person is born with one half of a soul, and only through marriage can the two souls reunite with each other.” With no distinction made between folkloric tradition and theology, she seems so unquestioning conventional. During her wedding preparations, Rina glows about only knowing her future partner for two months in order to share love and the continuation of a Jewish family. As she goes on about “soul mates” like out of the most puerile romance novels, she insists this will not just be a wedding party, but the start of something new. As they reach over the barrier between the men and women at their reception, Oprah intones about “It’s the most important day of her life; now she is complete. . .As the Torah commands they will be fruitful and multiply.” In the 4th episode “A Change Is Gonna Come”, the press notes identify Shane Fallon only as “secular”, but the narration presents a more complicated background. While her father Howard is described as “raised Episcopalian. Like her mother, Shane was raised Jewish.” Which is particularly significant for when she says: “I was very much my mother's child.” Both are still grieving from the mother Julie’s death from cancer 5 years ago, and the sister Kendra’s death in a plane crash in Nepal a year ago. Oprah’s narration: “Neither is observant, but decided to try something radical to get on with their lives.” – they go to the Burning Man Festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. They post pictures of their 2 loved ones in the temporary “temple” and ritually mourn through its burning. In the penultimate episode “The Practice”, the Polyphony Orchestra in Jerusalem features two apparently secular teenagers -- 18 year old Jewish cellist Hagit, who looks like Mayim Bialik, and 17 year old Muslim flutist Mais, who, ironically, looks like the TV stereotype of a Jewish woman with her long, dark, curly hair. Hagit: “When you get comfortable with the music, you make jokes, and you become friends, and it just comes together. . .People are afraid of each other and don't want to know the other. I hope hearing the concert they will change their minds a little.” Mais: “We forget all that and work together as humans and musicians. She's really great and I really love her.” When I realized the writing credits are oddly not in the press notes, I only noted one episode’s, but probably applies to the whole series: Supervising writers - James Bernanke and Sheri Salata, writers Michael Davie, Danielle Anastasion, Courtney Hutchens and Erica Sashin.
The orchestra members’ experience seems outdated compared to documentarian Danae Elon’s witnessing of increasing estrangement in P.S. Jerusalem (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (previewed at 2015 Doc NYC Festival) (updated 11/5/2015)


On Who Do You Think You Are? (on TLC), actress Ginnifer Goodwin, traced her non-Jewish father’s family. At the grave of her newly discovered great-grandmother, she respectfully put a stone on her headstone: Well you aren't Jewish, but I am, and she explained the tradition. The penultimate episode of the season may have both surprised and reinforced stereotypes about actress/singer Lea Michele. Usually perceived as Jewish, including by Jewish media watchers, she introduces her genealogical search by emphatically explaining that she was raised Catholic by her Italian mother and was always close with her Bronx family, but doesn’t know much about her Jewish father’s family, except that they were Sephardic via Greece or Turkey. At the Center for Jewish History, a scholar of Sephardic history explains her family came from the large Jewish community in Salonika, which after World War I was shifted from Turkish to Greek control. At Ellis Island, she finds the transcript of the 1918 deportation hearting her great-grandmother Bonita (Bessie) was subjected to because she was illiterate, a recent Congressional mandate, and her papers probably claimed to be heading to Montreal to get around that restriction. The testimony also reveals that she was a widow, and the man who was testifying that he intended to marry her that day (he’s listed as Moishe – a name Lea doesn’t understand, knowing him as Morris) was the brother of her late husband. The narrator then intones that this was a "long held Jewish tradition known as Yibban" – but only Wikipedia says so, and that is even quizzical in the Israeli haredi sect fiction Fill the Void (Lemale et ha'halal) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women). But in learning about her great-great-grandmother Miriam, she is not only told of the Great Fire of Salonika in 1917 that decimated the Jewish community, but how in March 1943 the entire community of about 50,000 was transported in 18 trainfuls to Auschwitz. In a surprise visit, an Israeli cousin who she had only vaguely heard about meets her at a Lower East Side synagogue with the information that only one member of her family survived – this woman’s father, sibling of her great-grandmother, and that he had registered Miriam, with a photograph, and the rest of their family with the Yad Vashem Memorial. Her father remembers last meeting this woman in 1984, two years before Lea was born. The star beams at the end: “Now I feel Italian and Jewish!” and assures her father: “You are very Jewish!” (updated 5/5/2016)

Madam Secretary – Nadine Tolliver in the 2nd season (on CBS) has only hint of her personal life, as played by Bebe Neuwirth. The closest to any possible remembrance that she’s Jewish was in the holiday episode “The Greater Good”, where the “Secretary of State Teresa McCord” (played by Téa Leoni) was carefully filmed talking in front of her office’s holiday decoration of a menorah with candles, after she went by the many Christmas trees. “Nadine” had a frisson of a personal life, in “Unity Node”, written by Matt Ward. She’s surprised that “NASA Administrator Glenn” (there is confusion as to whether that is his first or last name, as played by John Pankow, who is frequently perceived by audiences as Jewish and plays Jewish characters) has been contacting her : You know that I would never trade on our personal relationship unless it was an emergency, right? She: Glenn, we don't exactly have a personal relationship anymore. He”: I know. She: We had three lovely months, followed by a sudden, painful lunch. . . You know I was coming out of a very long and very difficult relationship. I’m sorry. It turns out he actually does have a crisis that needs the Secretary’s attention – an emergency situation aboard the International Space Station. After a successful intervention, they toast each other on a video link. He: You got to admit, we make a pretty good team. She: We do. He, flirtatiously: So lunch? (updated 1/29/2016)

In the 3rd season of Masters of Sex (on Showtime), there was finally a Jewish patient in St. Louis in the 10th episode “Through A Glass Darkly”, written by Steven Levenson and Esta Spaulding, set soon after the publication of Human Sexual Response in 1966. “Lois Weiland” (played by Sascha Alexander) is used for some comic relief, albeit as a typical female patient, when “Dr. Masters” (played by Michael Sheen) has recklessly proceeded with dysfunctional sexuality research, here using male surrogate “Lester Linden” (played by Kevin Christy). The disapproving “Johnson” (played by Lizzy Kaplan) observes the session in the lab’s “bedroom”: Has there been any improvement in the dyspareunia?. . . But intercourse is still painful? “Lester” is following protocol for “manual manipulation”, but “Lois” keeps talking about getting to know him: Maybe if we could spend more time together outside of the lab? It's my nephew's bar mitzvah on Saturday. Why don't you come with me?. . My parents will be there, and my nephew, Gene. He's worked so hard on his Torah portion. He has the voice of an angel. “Lester” make an ineffectual excuse: I actually have another bar mitzvah to go to, unfortunately. It's my, um -- my grandmother's. “Masters” stops the session. “Johnson”: Obviously, something is not working, aside from Lester's complete ignorance of world religions. “Lester”: I was raised around Catholics. . . It's not the first time I've been asked about my scar or where I'm from or how soon I can meet their parents. (1/18/2016)

On Legends (on TNT), based on Robert Littell’s novel that I haven’t read, the flashback to Sean Bean’s central undercover spy character in 1981 reveals he was then “Alex” (played by Ross Anderson), with the same rich northern England accent. In “The Legend of Tamir Zakayev”, written by Chris Levinson, he’s helped by mysterious recruiters to get into the University of Leeds, where the sexy “Rachel” (played, I think, by Amy Wren) flirts with him outrageously at a noisy party: Where the hell have you been?. . You’re a boarding school wanker -- admit it! He: Guilty as charged. She: Well, today's your lucky day. Seeing as you're a fellow fresher, I've decided to take on your sorry cause. Introduce you to the ways of the world. He: Well, where do we start? She: With a jump in the canal. Minus our clothes. He evidently gets arrested, and has to be bailed out by his benefactors. After he’s spent considerable time naked in bed with her making love, such that he’s late to read for his Russian literature tutor, he’s asked to join the Secret Service. But his handler [I lose track of who is who with all the time-shifting flashbacks] warns: Your girl Rachel. You know her parents are members of the Communist Party. You had your fun, now break it off. “Alex” bristles: You can’t tell me how to run my life! I won’t leave her. I love her! Says the agent, bitterly, who is being blackmailed for his gay affairs: You take it from me, my boy, there is no room in this business for love. In the next episode, “The Second Legend of Dmitry Petrovich”, written by Raf Green, in the flashback to “Dockray, Northeast England – 1985”, “Alex” is driving her to a house in the country that comes with his new teaching job and shows her the rooms, amidst a lot of kissing: Perfect for a nursery. But her concern that it’s “a bit isolated”, is borne out when she’s driving on an empty, winding road and her brakes stop working – crash! Next, the camera focuses on a big Jewish star on a coffin in a funeral led by a rabbi intoning kaddish, which I’m pretty sure was the first we even knew she was Jewish, let alone having no last name, and the orphan “Alex” is wearing a kippah with her family. His handler shows up: The Service is still willing to take you on. “Alex” walks away angrily: Now that my Commie wife is dead!. . .You decided she was getting in the way, cocking up your plans for me, so you murdered her! (I must not have noticed their wedding rings on the house tour.) His handler, earnestly lies: It’s a tragedy. I came because I wanted you to know I’m here for you. The irony is revealed at the end of the season – he was actually Russian. (updated 1/8/2016)

On The Enfield Haunting (British mini-series, shown in the U.S. on A & E) While I wasn’t paying close attention, it wasn’t until the concluding 3rd episode brought the poltergeist hunter “Morris/Maurice Grosse” (played by Timothy Spall), based on a real person from a true 1970’s story and book This House Is Haunted to the grave of his daughter “Janet”, and he explains the Jewish symbols and ritual to the “haunted” girl he thought he had been helping. I did not pick up any clues that his grieving wife “Betty” (played by Juliet Stevenson) was Jewish when she constantly nags him to give up his efforts to contact their daughter in the decidedly not Jewish afterlife. (10/31/2015)

In Royal Pains (on USA) 7th season, that the central family of two brothers in the Hamptons are Jewish is barely ever considered, so it was oddly stuck in “The Prince of Nucleotides”, written by Carol Flint. The younger brother “Evan R. Lawson” (played by Paulo Costanzo), dejected that he has a low sperm count, brightens up when his blonde shiksa wife “Brooke” (played by Paige Collins), announces that as part of her effort to find her biological parents’ roots she has had a genetic test that shows she’s “10 -12 percent Jewish.” He’s so thrilled he not only wants to keep trying to get her pregnant, but wants to let his brother and father know. But she’s already gone in a different direction. In exploring her own adoption, she’s now interested in adoption – and has scheduled a prospective parent meeting with a very pregnant African-American teenager, who proclaims to them that she’s very religious, so the Jewish references disappear. (6/11/2015)

Grantchester Set in 1950’s Cambridge, in Season 2, Episode 4, written by Joshua St Johnston, featured a story line not apparently taken from the source material of the mystery short stories by James Runcie, but combines two stereotypes of Jewish women common to British series of the period that migrate to PBS – rich and/or a Holocaust survivor: “Anna Herzl Lawson” was an Auschwitz survivor and inexplicably somehow got her family’s fortune out of Hungary afterwards. Dead now of an apparent suicide, she is now apparently haunting her husband. [Details to follow] (4/26/2016)

Chicago P. D. (on NBC) comes out of the same production team as the Law & Orders, but it’s taken three seasons for their trademark dreadful Jewish mother stereotype to show up in any of the newer Chicago triptychs. “In a Duffel Bag”, written by Jamie Pachino, not only had a vicious one-dimensionally cruel witch as “Deborah Meyer” (played by Kate Hodge), henpecking her husband “Ben” (Steven Skybell), but she horribly dominates her just-turned-18 daughter “Tana” ( played by auburn-haired Julia Rose Duray – I wonder if they meant to name the character “Tanya”). “Detective Erin Lindsey” (played by Sophia Bush) makes the impression worse with nasty, revengeful comments about her. [Details forthcoming] (8/12/2016)

The Good Wife (on CBS) the savvy daughter “Marissa Gold” (played by Sarah Steele) of political insider “Eli Gold” (played by Alan Cumming) returned from Israel into a recurring presence. First on the episode “Payback”, written by Stephanie Sengupta, she focused on helping her dad. [Details forthcoming] (updated 4/26/2016)

Homeland (on Showtime) The first female Mossad agent didn’t show up until the 5th season of this spy series, “All About Allison”, written by Ron Nyswaner. She was a tough administrator with her dark hair in a tight bun,“Tova” (played by Hadar Ratzon Rotem – who also starred in the Israeli series this is based on Prisoners of War (Hatufim), though I’ll have to figure out how her roles compare). [Sole scene description forthcoming.] (8/6/2016)

Mistresses– Ariella Greenburg in the 3rd season (on ABC) (summer soap opera) Just discovered “Ari” (played by Carmel Amit) minutes before the 4th season started. Commentary forthcoming. (5/30/2016)

On the Aquarius (on NBC, on DVD) penultimate episode of S1 “(Please Let Me Love You and) It Won’t”, written by Alexandra Cunningham and Sara Gamble, featured an unusual Jewish woman character in 1968 San Francisco, “Rachel” (played by Jade Tailor, whose father is Israeli) is first seen in handcuffs being hauled into the police station, demanding to see “Detective Hodiak” (played by David Duchovny), who, as catnip to every woman in the series, flashes back to seeing her dance onstage in a strip club. [Details forthcoming] (updated 9/25/2015)

Madoff – Ruth Madoff and others (on ABC) Richard Dreyfuss dominated with his powerful, but surprisingly not charming enough contrast with his cackling voice-over, performance over the 4-hr mini-series (Part 1 – “Millions to Billions”; Part 2 – “Catch Me If You Cancer”; Part 3 – “Redemptions” and Part 4 – “”Fallout”), based on The Madoff Chronicles: Inside the Secret World of Bernie and Ruth (2009) by Brian Ross of ABC. After so many Madoff imitation scoundrels in TV fiction that avoided any Jewish identity, writer Ben Robbins and director Frank De Felitta particularly use the Jewish women coterie around him to look like a clannish Jewishness (probably to emphasize his betrayal), though Blythe Danner is miscast as his up-from-Queens wife Ruth. The perception of his wife follows the secretary’s impressions of her In God We Trust. (The whistleblower in Chasing Madoff is also featured prominently.) The last three episodes frequently and extensively, repeat this bridal image of his niece/legal compliance officer Shana (played by Jamie Carroll), daughter of his guilt-ridden brother who is seen asking his rabbi for ethical advice, being raised in a chair at her wedding to an SEC attorney over the loud strains of an unseen band singing and playing Hava Nagila (and I’m trying to ID the excellent version): The “After the Fall” news report broadcast the same night on where are they now included contrasting clips from Mark Madoff & Stephanie Mikesell’s 2004 wedding video – with not a single Jewish image; Dreyfuss’s character derisively calls the blonde 2nd wife of Mark (played in the telefilm by Tom Lipinski) “the shiksa” (as played by Annie Heise). (He dismisses Andrew’s fiancée Catherine Hooper (played by Lyne Renee) as “the Barbie Doll”, but that could also have been in reaction to this son being estranged from his presumably Jewish 1st wife Deborah West.) Now a widow and mother of his two young children after Mark’s suicide, she has out a memoir The End of Normal, where she doubtless continues to excoriate her mother-in-law for favoring her husband over her sons. (Details forthcoming about the Jewish women extended family members/clients and Hadassah CFO lover.) (updated 2/7/2016)

Marvel’s Agent Carter – Ana Jarvis in the 2nd season (on ABC) As first announced at a NY Comic Con panel, British butler-of-all-trades “Edwin Jarvis”s unseen, Jewish refugee wife “Ana” was cast by Dutch actress Lotte Verbeek; producer Jeph Loeb on the panel described: “Lotte brings ease, sincerity and warmth to the role that's just perfect." But I was surprised that she is now a regular character. (The showrunner is going with the comics spelling as the more European “Ana”, so I will too.) Executive Producer Michele Fazekas explained in a Marvel interview for fans: “It was something we went back and forth on in the first season of whether or not to show her. But we thought if Peggy [Carter]’s going to be moving to L.A. and staying [with Jarvis], you can’t not show her. It gave us a great opportunity to [find out], who does Jarvis marry? Who is that person? It was really fun to develop that relationship more.” Now living in Los Angeles in 1947, “Ana”, in the European tradition for portraying Jewish women, is a redhead, who faces every spy adventure her husband (played by James D’Arcy) is involved with for his employer “Mr. Stark” with complete equanimity – and very open affection for her husband. He praises her to “Agent Peggy Carter” (played by Hayley Atwell) before we meet her: My wife, Anna, has a very modern sense of style. I'm certain she'll have picked out the perfect outfit for you for a covert operation at the races. He introduces them – “Anna”, he narrates: She hugs. As to “Carter: She does not hug. “Anna” crooks her finger at him before he leaves them: “Jarvis”: She’s an embarrassing creature.. “Anna” chuckles: He’s too easy. “Carter”: I suppose I was expecting someone more . . “Ana”: Like Mr. Jarvis? In a girdle?. . .I've selected a few potential ensembles for the racetrack, but I've also sewed you this. A garter. That's also a holster. “Carter” chuckles: You are fantastic! When “Jarvis” and “Carter” are caught in a gun battle, his first thought is his wife: I'm worried about the aesthetic. Ana's absolutely mad about my profile.
For anyone who missed hearing her husband’s tale of her back story in the 1st season, she summarized at the end of Part 2 of the sseason premiere “A View in the Dark”, written by Eric Pearson and Lindsey Allen, though just implying she’s Jewish: Edwin only knew me a few weeks before he had forged papers, gone AWOL, stolen a plane, and helped me escape the Third Reich. It doesn't take long to realize you've met someone special. That’s after their affectionate exchange after fencing together in the opening. He: Anna's been my sparring partner for the past 12 months. She knows all my strengths and weaknesses. “Anna”, with a kiss: Thank you, darling. He's never more lethal than when he's flat on his back.Tea's on. (updated 1/21/2016)


Shoshanna Shapiro in the 5th season of Girls (on HBO) The season promotion showed Shosh Abroad, with commentary by her creator Lena Dunham and her portrayer Zosia Mamet on her ambition and how the world perceives her, and, by extension, a contemporary young Jewish woman. Until I do an overview of “Shosh” this season, she had a couple of pointed exchanges that reflected what this series considers her Jewish characteristics. Dunham said in a post-episode analysis that co-creator Jenni Konner visited Japan and exclaimed it as “a country full of Shoshs” so was determined to send her there for that comparison. The girlishness? The squeakiness? The crazy styles? (At one point “Shosh” with dyed blonde hair ponders: Did I create this country in my mind?) In the key episode of the season for her “Japan”, after she was shocked to be laid off she confronted the Japanese co-workers she thought were her girlfriends: I don't want to go back to America. And I don't know Ashley Tisdale. I saw her once at a gynecologist appointment and I tried to explain that to you guys, but you misunderstood and so I just let it go. Co-worker: Then why don't you stay? “Shosh”: Because I can't afford to, okay? My parents aren't rich. They didn't invent Chūhai Co-worker: Oh, really? You seem very wealthy because of your spoiled attitude. “Shosh”: Yeah. That's just how Americans act. We're kind of assholes.
Back in Brooklyn in “Homeward Bound”, written by Murray Miller, she rages at her ex-boyfriend “Scott” (Jason Ritter) where she’s hanging around in his favorite sushi restuarant: I kind of just got back and all these questions are, like, seriously stressing me out, and I'm currently reading about how to get on welfare, so I don't really have time for this. “Scott: You're going on welfare? She: I don't know. I'm thinking about it, okay? There aren't exactly, like, a wealth of options for an NYU graduate with experience in many aspects of brand management. “Scott”: You can't just take government resources that are for actually needy families just because you didn't like your job in Japan. “She” very sarcastic: Okay, so now I don't deserve food stamps because I'm Jewish. In the penultimate season episode “Love Stories”, which also included Jenny Slate as a guest star former dorm mate of Lena Dunham’s “Hannah”, “Shosh” visits her ex’s coffee shop: Shosh, is that really you? Oh, Shosh. Look at you. I can't believe it's you. You're a full-grown woman now. . .We've been outpaced, outshined, outmaneuvered, out everything by those Neo-hippie gender-neutral monsters. It's very bleak, Shosh. Hermie says that if business doesn't pick up in here, he's gonna turn this place into a billiards store. “Shosh”: Okay, you have to fight this, Ray. You have to have a wartime attitude. Maybe ask for some help, something I know you're fucking terrible at, but ask for it anyways. “Ray”: Who's gonna help me, Shosh? Who? … “She”: Okay, I'm gonna help you. Seriously, what do you think I was doing in Japan? I mean, other than learning origami and eating candy that tastes like other candy. I do marketing, Ray. It is my area of expertise. I went to motherfucking college for it, so, you know, at least let me have a crack at that. “Ray”: We do make a pretty good team. She then goes across the street in somewhat of disguise to do market research.
In the finale “I Love You Baby”, written by Dunham, Konner, and Judd Apatow, she presents her proposal to the coffe shop owner “Hermie” (played by Colin Quinn), who first complains: The city's no place for people like us any more. “Shosh”: Okay, Hermie, I know it feels that way, but, no. Those hipsters are a very specific subculture, a vocal minority, if you will, like the Westboro Baptist Church. But they may all be related for all we know. This is what I propose. Ray's as a destination for the anti-hipster. “Hermie”: You're talking about rebranding? “Shosh”: Oh, a heavy rebranding. Like when Kentucky Fried Chicken just became KFC so people would forget that they were, you know, eating Kentucky food? “Hermie”: Gentlemen, it is high time we start selling coffee to people with jobs. Her successful anti-hipster marketing plan includes signs such as: “Trust the Government”. “No man buns”, and “Chemicals keep you alive”. “Shosh”: Okay, I have some news that is going to rock your Mephistos right off your socks. “The New York Times” Thursday Style section wants to come here and do a piece on us next week. They love the hipster-hate angle. They want to do a whole profile on our transformation, so I bought a few shirts and I put them in your office and I hung them in like descending - order of preference… “Hermie”: I know I told you to lean in. But you've gone too far. Now I want you to lean out. “Shosh”: Oh, my God, are you firing me? “Hermie”: No, no. We've made more money this week than the past five months. It's just you're a very intense person. You've got a powerful energy and it's too much. I need you to take it down a notch. A guy walks in with a top bun: Bye, sir. Your kind are not welcome here. Read the sign. Out. “Shosh: Hermie, we cannot actually turn people away. That's discrimination. We just have to, like, you know, glare at them and make them super uncomfortable and bully them until they leave of their own volition. “Hermie”: Listen to me, muffin. From now on, anybody who walks through that door with a bun on top of their head or tattoos that were not acquired during a naval adventure on the South Pacific, we treat 'em like a hippie at Disneyland in '68. This is a haven for normal people working men and ladies. Free refills, everybody. This week only. We're taking back the night. You're either with me or you're against me. “Shosh”: I am so with you, Hermie. Please save me all of those magical quotes for “The New York Times”. In the closing montage they dance, and Dunham in the post-show analysis cites how “Shosh” is now maturing and growing up.
Also in the finale, a putatively Jewish woman character returned from the first season in the finale “Hannah”s college dorm-mate “Tally Schifrin” (played by Jenny Slate, with full-on Jewish curly hair). “Hannah”: I've been so fucking jealous of you. “Tally”: What? You're are you kidding? “Hannah: You're like the bar against which I've measured everything, you know? It's like, we graduated from college four years ago, and so I calculate, "Oh, it's been four years. Tally's published two books of essays and a novel." “Hannah”: And I did a book of poetry as well. “Hannah”: And what have I done? You know? What have I done with my life besides get not one but two strains of HPV and gain and lose a total of 33 pounds? “Tally”: Oh, man.That's so - crazy to be jealous of me. Cut the shit, seriously. Yeah, I guess everyone is jealous of me. Do you know I Google myself every day? It's so gross, but I do, and I just wanna see if, like, Gawker or whoever they are has written some snarky thing about how much of a hack I am or if even there's just, like, a pretty picture of me in the "Financial Times" roundup of books of the year. I need to see how other people see me because it's the only way that I can see myself. “Hannah”: I wake up every morning and I think, "Well, okay, what would Tally Schifrin do? “Tally”: Tally Schifrin is not even me now. She's just, like, this thing that I've created. She's a monster that I've made and I have to feed, and she feeds on praise and controversy. And it's exhausting and boring at once. And I'm too smart to be exhausted and bored. And now I have a book of essays due, and not to be, like, boo-hoo about it, but it's like what the fuck am I gonna write an essay on? All I do is Google myself and smoke weed and, um, masturbate with an electric toothbrush. “Hannah: You could afford a vibrator. “Tally”: I know. I really don't want one and that makes me feel mentally ill. Today's, like, the most fun I've had in like 17 months. “Hannah”: I just thought you woke up in the morning in, like, a ray of sunshine and, like, - birds dressed you and you just, like, came in your pants from all the accolades, and then people handed you awards on your way to, like, a fancy dinner.…”Tally”: Look at you. You've had all these, like, boyfriends and jobs and moments. And you've lived all this truth. It didn't feel like very much while it was happening. But it is much. And you have so much to say. Then they both get stoned on weed. (updated 2/14/2017)

The Fosters – Emma Kurtzman in her 3rd season (on the renamed FreeForm) was a surprise return – to teach another liberal lesson without a direct reference to her being Jewish. As played by Amanda Leighton, she was not seen in the first half of the season, but showed up in “First Impressions”, written by Bradley Bredeweg and Peter Paige, as the campaign manager for “Mariana Adams Foster” (played by Cierra Ramirez) for college-application-purpose junior class president. But in walks “Lexi Rivera” (played by Bianca Santos), who had left due to visa problems, and they hug in excitement. The candidate tries to involve both of her friends in selecting the photo for her poster. “Emma”: The left one, definitely. You like someone who can really get things done. “Lexi”: Yeah, like put people to sleep. I say right. You look super hot. But I'm not your campaign manager, so.. “Emma”: That's right. You're not. “Mariana”: But, you know, Lexi's just trying to help, and I think she kind of does have a point. We can't be boring. “Emma”, sharply: I don't think smart is boring. I don't think that caring about what matters is boring. I don't think that you need to be silly and stupid to be sexy. But if that's the kind of campaign that you want to run, then maybe I'm not the girl for the job. I should probably get home anyway. Talk to you later. “Lexi”: Wow! She’s intense! “Mariana”: But she's right. I think I should stick with Emma as my campaign manager... Just Emma. . . I'm so happy you're back, but I think it's best if I just have one vision, you know? . . . Sorry. No hard feelings? [I only watched episodes she was listed as appearing in.] (updated 5/2/2016)

Younger – Lauren Heller in the 2nd season (on TV Land) – returned, as played by Molly Bernard, showed up in the 2nd episode of the season “The Mao Function”, written by married couple Dottie Dartland Zicklin and Eric Zicklin – but not in the office. She was in the apartment, scantily clad and smooching with “Liza Miller”s (Sutton Foster) lesbian roommate “Maggie”, played by Debi Mazar, who just about always plays a Jewish character, but there’s been no explicit references. “Lauren”: I'd throw on my dress, but your roommate tore it in half like a phone book. “Liz” is afraid she’ll tattle on her lie about her age at work. “Maggie” shrugs: She's so self-focused. She's barely aware of her surroundings. “Lauren” breezily offers “Liz” sex advice to help her much younger boyfriend performance in bed – in a very rapid fire patter, in a very sweet tone: I also date guys. . . Josh is really edgy, you know? And you're, like, the nice girl. I know that opposites attract, but, no offense, he's probably bored. . . Of course he's bored. All of these guys have been watching porn since they guessed their parents' password. It's hard to keep their attention. You've got to work at it. . . Like, be a boss. Like, you got to get aggro with him. . . Do you have a leather hood?. . A penis cage?. . .Fishnets and a finger up the butt? She continued to be both obsessed with lesbian sex and entrepreneurial business the rest of the season. (updated 5/2/2016)

A French Village (Un Village Français) – 2nd and 3rd seasons (shown in France as the 3rd season, this 2nd U.S. season on (Shown in the U.S. on MHz Choice began premiering the end of 2015, continuing episodes through January, and then released on DVD, which is when I’ll get to see what happens to the Jewish women characters from September 28, 1941, 12 episodes; 3rd Season – 1942, 12 episodes (updated 4/13/2016)

Just in time to take over after the death of Mrs. Wolowitz in The Big Bang Theory, David Krumholtz’s drag impression of his grandmother in Boca Raton on his web series Weather From is being expanded into Gigi’s Bucket List on IFC. From the press release announcement: ‘Gertrude Rotblum’, aka ‘Gigi’, just lost her beloved husband Harold, but has gained a new lease on life with the help of an unknown bank account discovered in his will. Eight half-hour episodes start shooting this June in Los Angeles. The show will premiere later in 2015 on IFC. With her dead husband’s secret millions, this 76-year-old yenta with a heart of gold and a razor-sharp tongue sets out to experience everything she deprived herself of in her younger years. Gigi (Krumholtz) will live life to its fullest and fastest while ignoring doctor’s orders and turning the stigmas of aging on their head. She will travel to rock festivals and explore new technologies like online dating, with her trusty male nurse sidekick played by Ricky Mabe along for the ride. . . ‘David has done an incredible job of inhabiting this relatable bubbe character. I hope to emulate Gigi’s unfiltered honesty and wreckless ambition when conquering my own bucket list some day,’ said Jennifer Caserta, IFC’s president.” (updated 5/3/2015)

Felicity Smoak in the 4th season of Arrow and 2nd season of The Flash (on CW) The fans were teased lots of romantic images to follow up on the season finale of them riding off into the sunset on vacation together. The season premiere “The Green Arrow”, story by Greg Berlanti & Beth Schwartz, teleplay by Marc Guggenheim & Wendy Mericle, was a charming role-reversal, with “Oliver Queen” (Stephen Amell) being all domestic and relaxed, trying to find the right moment to propose with an engagement ring, and “Felicity” (Emily Bett Rickards) all bored with domesticity and revealing she’s been secretly helping their friends back in their threatened home city, even as they were romantically vacationing in remote places around the globe. (more romantic specifics coming)
In “The Candidate”, written by Marc Guggenheim & Keto Shimizu, she takes on the Board of Directors in her inheritance as CEO of Palmer Technologies. (“Ollie” likes the way she looks in her pink business suit.) But about-to-be-laid-off black woman delivers good/bad news: When we heard you were coming back we thought things were going to get a lot better. Guess we were wrong. At the tired end, she’s rueful to “Ollie”: When we decided to stay . . I thought it meant a new beginning. He’s thoughtful: If you think we made a mistake, we didn’t. Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy.. . .We said we’re going to do things differently. We just need time to figure out how. When he next comes home from battling what she calls “Madman Du Jour” in her plea for a code name to hide her identity, he’s startled: You look happy. Don’t tell me now you enjoy firing people? She grins: No more firing. . .I figured out another way. And they kiss.
I’m way behind on posting episode by episode – but “Lost Souls”, written by Beth Schwartz [yes, she’s Jewish – she tweeted “Happy Hanukkah to me” when she “finally got” a movie screener] and Emilio Ortega Aldrich, is worth detailing on several levels for the image of a Jewish woman on TV: with “Felicity”s brains, her hard work (her colleagues are snarky: She’s really taking this CEO thing seriously, while “Oliver” defends her: Well, one of us has to have a job that actually makes money.), successfully dealing with her mother, saving her ex-boyfriend like a superhero, getting her current boyfriend to both open up emotionally and accept her as she is – and ending up in a very sexy clinch where he’s the shirtless eye candy and she rolls over him on top: At the opening, “Felicity” is atypically frazzled, working around the clock to save “Ray”. Sure, her mom, who made a point of noting that “Felicity” isn’t a natural blonde, whispers to her to finish her “fight” with “Oliver” to have great make-up sex, but their resolution to her frantic effort to save the kidnapped and shrunk “Ray” is a heartfelt, feminist interchange before the exchange of body fluids: She: I think we should clear the air. I wanted to thank you. For helping save Ray, and for being so understanding in the midst of my mini-- gargantuan freak out. He: Well, I'm sorry that I'm not the best listener. But all of this is just, it-- it's kind of new to me. She, while seductively playing with her hair: And to me. I didn't exactly grow up with the best example of a normal, healthy relationship. He: Line forms behind me. It's kind of amazing that we've made it this far. She: We're going to be fine. He: How can you be so sure? She: Cause we found ourselves in each other.
Until I fully document the romantic and Jewish recognition Midseason Finale/December holiday episode “Dark Waters”, written by Wendy Mericle and Ben Sokolowski, a few images will show the references to what “Mama Smoak” (played by Charlotte Ross) describes: It's for Oliver's campaign holiday party. I wanted to make sure your Jewish heritage was represented. I was alerted by a Tweet from “ARROW writers’ room” that executive producer Beth Schwartz “has dibs on that amazing Hanukkah sweater”. Schwartz also enjoys posting “#LiveTweetWithMom” during each episode, who tweeted: "Hooray for PC holiday party", as “Felicity” insists it not be called a “Christmas party”, with Hanukkah banner, menorah, and holding out her dreidl, that my screen capture doesn’t capture what “Oliver” called That is a whole lot of Hanukkah!, to “Felicity”s rejoinder You better believe that my faith is going to be well represented.: Maybe that’s why in The Flash holiday episode “Running to Stand Still”, written by Andrew Kreisberg, just after the Sweeps Week Cross-Over that included “Felicity”, “The Trickster” (played by a delightfully demonic Mark Hamill) switches from being Santa: We can’t let Christmas have all the fun! Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made you out of C-4! Put that in your pipe and smoke it! -- unleashing a scary storm of spinning dreidels to an increasily sped-up and high-pitched chanting of the children’s song like I’ve never seen on a TV sci fi show before.
While “Mama Smoak”s excitement about “Oliver”s marriage proposal-- I know he loved you, but I didn’t know he loved you that much. -- was old-fashioned, her daughter has a more complex view of the relationship, as shared by co-showrunner Wendy Mericle in an IMDb interview when the season continued: “Felicity’s life may be hanging in the balance, but the hope is that her impact on Oliver is very much alive. "What's intriguing about this storyline is, for as much as he has grown — and I definitely think he has — this season, it's been all about how he and Felicity made a decision to try to do this in a new way and to stay 'in the light,' which was the way we phrased it in the writers' room. But Felicity was the one who was keeping that flame alive for him.”
Until I update my commentary on the season, Emily Bett Rickards quotes reported on social media at the “Emily & Willa Panel” ‪SuperHeroes‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Convention 2 in Paris, June 11, 2016: “The main reason why she [Felicity] stayed in Star City is Palmer Tech. It’s her home and she doesn’t want to be anywhere else. She also stayed because her bond with Oliver goes beyond any romantic or friendship history. They’ve build a lot of things together.They've grown together. They've built something whether or not it's a romantic partnership or friendship or just a work partnership. That's home. . .Felicity needs to grow by herself before getting back with Oliver. . . Whatever may happen, [she] hopes they keep it true between Oliver and Felicit‪y. . .[She] ‬would tell Felicity not to hide behind her computer and go look for emotional connections." (updated 6/12/2016)


‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ The Knick – Genevieve Everidge in the 2nd season (on Cinemax) In “The Best With the Best to Get the Best”, written by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, now that the Presbyterian “Dr. Bertie Chickering Jr.” (played by Michael Angarano) is exiled from WASP colleagues to be at “Mt. Sinai Jewish Hospital”, he has to get used to meeting Jews – including that intriguing “girl writer” (as his colleague calls her) who he admires from her investigation of a mental institution. (She seems to be modeled on the crusading likes of Nelly Bly and Ida Tarbell.) But she (played by Arielle Goldman) lets him know on their first date that her “finishing school girl” name is a pseudonym -- she’s Jewish: Yeah, from head to toe. But don't worry, it's not catching. She flirtatiously lets him know her real name is “Esther Kohn”: a shirtmaker’s daughter from Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

[More details from this and her other episodes forthcoming.] (12/21/2015)

Manhattan – Abigail Isaacs in the 2nd season (on WGN – not streaming nor On Demand) This season is much more about motivating the Jewish scientists to build a weapon against Hitler -- and in competition against their former physicist colleagues in Germany. In the season premiere “Damnatio Memoriae”, written by Sam Shaw, the opening montage makes the death vs life point in a visual montage. “Charlie Isaacs” (played by Ashley Zukerman) is reading Mein Kampf while his naked lover/fellow physicist “Helen Prins” (played by Dutch actress Katja Herbers) languidly strokes his arm. Meantime, his wife “Abigail Isaacs” (played by Rachel Brosnahan) is undergoing a painful pelvic exam by a cigarette-smoking doctor. Surprise – “Abby” surprises“Helen”s at her front door: He's not here. You want to check under the bed? “Abby”, nervously: I'm not here to see Charlie. . . Is it true that you were going to have a baby and then you didn't? “Helen”: Charlie told you that? “Abby”: Did you take care of it?. . .Trust me, Helen, if I had any friends here to turn to, any friends here at all I need to know how you went about doing it. “Helen” is sarcastic: Why would you want to do a thing like that, Mrs. Ladies' Home Journal? “Abby”: It's private. . . Charlie wasn't the only one who cheated. And he found out. “Helen”: You had an affair? Who's the guy? “Abby”, avoiding the subject that the affair was with the wife of another scientist who she helped incriminate to be removed from “The Hill”: You don't know him. “Helen”: But he got you pregnant. “Abby”: It's Charlie's. . .Yes, I'm sure. “Helen”: I had an abortion two years ago in New Jersey. Doctor's probably practicing medicine in a jail cell.. “Abby”: But if you needed one now, you must have some idea of where you'd go. “Helen”: You know it's a felony. Some of the girls in the dorm have been to a clinic in Santa Fe near the bus stop on Junction. You're supposed to say you have obstructed menses. “Abby”: Did it hurt? “Helen”: Listen, Abby, I don't regret it. But you will. “Abby”: Do you love Charlie? Then you won't tell him. Will she when he’s next seen in her bed and starts asking him about his wife: Do you sleep closer to the door when you sleep with Abby?. .Your marriage is an old habit too, You’ll fall back into it. When was the last tme you saw Abby? But he’s consumed with personnel crises at work, and she switches to how she will be affected physics-wise. The mysterious Federal intelligence agent, who reveals he is “Avram Fisher” (played by Richard Schiff), calls “Charlie” in for a long lecture on the impact of Eastern European history on his family from hundreds of years in the past to the present under the Nazis and will probably be under the Russians: 20 years I've lived in this country, yet still I keep a packed suitcase by the front door. . . The ones who survive are the ones who adapt.. . .Where are my manners? Congratulations. “Charlie”: For surviving or adapting? “Fisher”: For the baby. Mazel tov to you and your wife. So “Charlie” is waiting for his wife to go home – we too wonder where she’s been when he asks and she vaguelyreplies: Out. “Charlie”: Is there something that you need to tell me? She’s referring to how they tattled on her lesbian lover: You know, Charlie, I think we dug up all the skeletons the last time you stopped by. I'm sure the neighbors can give you a transcript. He: Are you pregnant? She’s surprised: She told you. But she’s confused by his explanation: I had to hear it from the Angel of Death. . . You were going to sign the divorce papers and sneak out the back door with Joey? This is a sign. “Abby” is dismissive: I don't believe in signs, Charlie. He: Fine, it's better than a sign. It's a chance. She: It's too late. He:There's a lunatic in Europe making orphans out of a thousand Jewish kids a day. You want two more to grow up without their father? She: You think I don't know about Europe? Honestly? He, in a reference that must be some kind of plot foreshadowing: You remember that first doctor at Mass General? The one who looked like Calvin Coolidge? A medical improbability. That's what he called it. And I told you we could raise Siamese cats for all I care. But you wanted a daughter so badly. She smiles: We both did. He: And you proved the doctors wrong. Right out of the gates, you said it felt like a boy, and you were right about that, too. She: Thought I'd never see you again. I mean, for all I knew, you were dead. And then you came in the door and you said that I poisoned our marriage. He, urgently: Listen. Whatever happened between me and you or me and her - or you and-- It's not us. It's this place. I treated you like every other jerk on this hill treats his wife. I underestimated you. I forgot what I had. But there's a kid in there. He doesn't know his father screwed up. His world doesn't even exist yet. We can do better. I can be better. She smiles: It feels like a girl.
In the next episode “Fatherland”, written by Scott Brown, “Charlie” rebuffs the lover and even comes home for lunch to be with his wife, so now she’s more interested in his work: You said no more secrets. He: It’s not my secret. I took a vow. She wheedles: We’ve broken other vows. . .You said this baby was a new beginning. . .Helen knows. I’m not going back to the way it was, pretending you’re a teacher or a salesman and like I’m Betty Crocker. And he tells her about the atom bomb. Later, he worries to her about his assignment to help find his Nazi counterparts, who were originally friends of Oppenheimer’s. She: They’re trying to get rid of us. . .If the Nazi gadget goes off, will they spare our friends? You must have photos of the German scientists, their homes, addresses, names of their wives and children. Give those to the Army. [More commentary forthcoming – as “Abby” becomes more aggressively ambitious for her husband’s career – like her mother did for her father – and a miscarriage affects her.]
Not only does the series minimize the Jewish presence at Los Alamos, but this season a scarily dominant figure is “Col. Emmett Darrow” (played by William Peterson) as a seriously evangelical Christian, of the kind that “Abby” had never seen before. He manipulates her stresses by pushing her into more religious observance, albeit with a Christian interpretation. She keeps Shabbat, emphasized in this image from the “Behold the Lord High Executioner” episode, written by Lila Byock and Vinnie Wilhelm, though the lit menorah and additional candles around the room are particularly confusing as this episode takes place very soon after FDR’s death in April 1945 and Hanukkah was coming later, in the first week of December. It’s possible that she’s supposed to be just maximizing her use of any handy ritual object to indicate how distraught she was. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthoming.) (updated 12/5/2015)


Man Seeking Woman - Liz and Patti Greenberg plus in the 2nd season (on FXX; N.B. I didn’t know until half-way through this season that the series’ creator is a distant relative) returned from the start, in “Wings”, written by series creator Simon Rich and Sofia Alvarez. In the series exaggerated fantasy style, everyone in the life of “Josh Greenberg” (played by Jay Baruchel) meets to organize a protest that he now has a girlfriend and is neglecting them. His sister “Liz” (played by Britt Lower) makes the first demand: I would like my brother Josh to accompany me to Nana's house so that I have someone to nudge when she says all that racist stuff.! After a few friends, his mother “Patti” (played by Robin Duke) gets hysterical: I've been working as Josh's mom for 28 years, and I want him to honor our original agreement. I want to feed him every four hours and give him a bath before bedtime. I want to wash his tushy and his dinky and his bobos! Amidst a funny horror movie satire, the new girlfriend earnestly breaks up with him for being the kind of person who doesn’t spend time with her friends.
”Feather”, written by Robert Padnick, featured a bespectacled girlfriend “Claire” who seemed like a putsative Jewish woman, as played by Liane Balaban (the actress’s father is Jewish). “Josh”, on his way to meet up with her at a sci fi movie fest tells his best friend why he likes her: Stuff has been going really well between us. We jell. We read the same comics. We like the same video games. I don't want to ruin it by rushing sex into it too soon. When they do have sex, he realizes she’s not orgasming, so he takes her to a sex shop, where she buys a human sex toy (who turns out to be an Aussie hunk. But “Josh” tries to delay using him: Maybe we save the Kyle for, like, a special occasion, like, uh, Hanukkah. Needless to say, this relationship doesn’t last!
In “Scythe”, written by Dan Mirk and Robert Padnick, “Liz” is an unusually sane voice of rationality and reason amidst a fantasy of a bar scene played out like cops investigating a crime scene. Like a reporter next to the yellow tape, she plaintively demands: Why does an attractive woman have to be hit on? It doesn’t make sense. “Josh” as a detective: Someone get her out of here.
”Tinsel”, written by Sofia Alvarez, was a hilarious episode focusing just on sister “Liz”. But oddly, her very funny affair with the married “Santa Claus” (played by Peter Giles) has no reference to her being Jewish, though he came to her apartment initially by mistake: “Santa”: Are you Elizabeth Greenberg from Evanston? “Liz”: Yes, I am. How did you know that? “Santa”: You requested a graphing calculator. You don't often forget a gift like that. Not in a sea of My Little Ponies. Let alone from a Jew? She: I can't believe you remember that. I was just a little girl. He: Well, you're not a little girl any more. More when I get a chance, but the unusual holiday comedy episode attracted interviewers and the opportunity for the actress to talk about “Liz” – but still no Jewish references, at least in the quotes: Bustle: “It’s about stepping outside of her comfort zone ... The pursuit of a fantasy. . .Prior to this experience, she’s never had an affair at this level, certainly not with a married man ... She goes against her better instincts and the advice of her mother and against all of the things that make Liz so calculated and she’s got it all figured out and this time, she does not have it figured out.” TV Insider: “She’s like the flipside of Jay’s character, Josh. He’s not at all concerned about his career path; more concerned about his social life I’d say, and Liz is the opposite. She’s put all her eggs in the lawyer basket. She has very little time to think about socializing or finding love, and I think when it literally falls into her apartment, she decides to play the devil-may-care card for a little bit, which isn’t her M.O.”
The next episode “Card”, teleplay by Robert Padnick, story by Dan Mirk, was an unusually funny satire of the Jewish mother version of the coddling parents of millenials. Disappointed that he’s accepted an office manager promotion, she literally preaches her gospel of Josh to the choir: I believe Josh is destined for greatness!, as seen in the opening of this clip. This is certainly a unique image for a Jewish mother on TV: (updated 3/18/2016)


Broad City – 3rd season (on Comedy Central) Variety named Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer #29 out of The Gotham 60: Influential New Yorkers in Entertainment and Media: “The creators and stars of Broad City are thoroughly enjoying the whirlwind they’ve been caught up in since the Brooklyn-set buddy comedy bowed on Comedy Central last year. The buzz and critical embrace of the show grew significantly in Season Two, which made it that much more real to the pair. Cementing their arrival as creatives to be reckoned with, Jacobson and Glazer are working on a feature for 20th Century Fox with red-hot comedy helmer Paul Feig. “The first season I think we were nervous that this was gonna go away very quickly, and now I think we can really build on it,” says Jacobson. Glazer assures: “Season three is gonna be so good.” In “11 Things We Learned at the New Yorker Festival’s Broad City Panel”, as reported in Vulture by Jenni Miller, 10/3/2015, not counted in the total was that Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer “plumbed the depths of modern Jewish identity: Glazer ID’d as the type of Jewess who gets Bat Mitzvah’d and then becomes a ‘cultural’ Jew (scare quotes and everything), while Jacobson is the kind who celebrates Christmas.”
Their updating Hack Into Broad City webisodes are also accessible via YouTube. In their Halloween webisode, they dressed up as two Jewish women icons – “The Notorious RBG”, i.e. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Judge Judy Blum Sheindlin. Their Jewishness was the joke in sharing a promotion for Sisters with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. (updated 12/15/2015)


Transparent – Sarah, Ali, family and friends in the 2nd season (on Amazon Instant Video)

Suits (on USA) has been very problematic in how it presented Jewish attorney “Louis Litt” (played by Rick Hoffman), pretty much all negative, including his relationship with his mother. No matter his success, his parents nagged that his sister “Esther Litt Adelstein ” has children. A preview of this 5th season revealed she is played by a sexed-up Amy Acker, and she’s a businesswoman, who created a company like Martha Stewart’s. Formally introduced in “No Puedo Hacerlo”, written by Genevieve Sparling, she needs a divorce from her cheating husband “Jeffrey”, who was a house-husband. She ends up romantically (well, sexually) involved with the lead attorney character “Harvey Spector” (played by Gabriel Macht), angering her brother, as the episode is otherwise about their intense sibling rivalry, which continues throughout the season, with so explicit Jewish references. [More commentary on “Esther”, both when she’s on the show and what’s said about her when she’s not on.] (updated 8/14/2015)

The Strain – 2nd season - In the 1st episode of the season “BK, NY”, teleplay by Carlton Cuse and Chuck Hogan, the enemies of vampire hunter “Abraham Setrakian”(played by David Bradley) sneeringly refer to him as “The Jew”, so I’ll presume his “bubbeh” (played by Kathleen Chalfant) is Jewish, seen in a prologue flashback to in his Romanian village 1932, when she repeats the scary story of the giant nobleman Jusef Sardu: Finish your soup, Abraham, and I'll finish my tale. . . Evil lurks in the world, Abraham, in many forms. Some familiar, some not. You must stop it. We all must. In the next episode, “By Any Means”, teleplay by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, his immortal enemy from his grandmother’s tale “Eldritch Palmer” (played by Jonathan Hyde) mocks him about his wife: Your god also turned down Miriam's cry for help. She wasn't worthy either, I suppose. By the way, I have her heart. I keep it on a shelf over my desk. I'll place yours beside it once the Master has dispatched you. (updated 7/25/2015)

On Devious Maids (on Lifetime), there’s only hints that the one of the more obnoxious rich women “Gail Fleming” (played by Julie Claire) is Jewish when she drops a “Mazel tov” in the episode “The Turning Piont”, written by Charise Castro Smith, and has a frank explanation of relationships based on financial rewards. (Details forthcoming.) (8/9/2015)

The Goldbergs – Beverly and Erica plus in the 3rd season (on ABC) (I detest this sit com so much that I couldn’t bring myself to finish watching the 2nd season, so I doubt I’ll bring myself to watch the didn’t-deserve-to-be-renewed 3rd season. I’ll probably have to end up buying the complete series on DVD to do a complete review with episode-by-episode documentation of its clichés.) (9/12/2015)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Rebecca Bunch, her mother, and others in their 1st season (on the CW) Declared by all the critics (and the Golden Globes) as one of the new series hits of the season, Rachel Bloom produced, wrote, and stars in this funny musical, so it’s a good thing I won’t be too constrained that she’s the daughter-in-law of the executive director of my synagogue. The Harvard and Yale educated New York real estate lawyer doesn’t explicitly declare she is Jewish until halfway through the first episode “Josh Just Happens To Live Here!”, when her new boss in California makes an oddly old-fashioned negative comment about Jewish lawyers. In one of the lengthiest profiles on her, Susan Dominus in The New York Times Magazine, posted 1/19/2016, noted in her detailed biography: “A high-strung only child, she was raised by what she describes as ‘neurotic Jewish parents’”. So it’s interesting that she compares her to two particular women TV auteurs, Lena Dunham of Girls and Ilana Glazer of Broad City -- without mentioning that they, too, are Jewish.
While co-creator Rachel Bloom as the star is usually the show’s public face, Emmy-nominated co-creator Aline Brosh Mckenna participated in the Hollywood Reporter’s “Comedy Showrunner Roundtable”, 6/9/2016, very up-front about being Jewish (more so than my cousin David Mandel of Veep): “It's an interesting thing because you want your differences to be acknowledged. It's very important to me that I'm a woman, that my parents are immigrants, that I'm Jewish, that my mother was a Holocaust survivor. But I don't want to be defined by them, and that's the road you walk. . . You want to be able to make that contribution because you have a unique point of view, but on the other hand, you want to feel like it's not important when I say it's not important. . . I remember the first time that my brother described me as a know-it-all, and I was so shocked and appalled. It took me so many years to figure out that that was right.” In the version shown on Sundance Channel, she added: “Last week at my son's bar mitzvah the rabbi from the bima said ‘That's the thing about Aline - she'll tell it like it is.’ Then yesterday on a panel I was introduced "Aline is going to tell you what to do, what to wear, where to sit.’ I was like so it turns out my brother at age 7 had it right.” Television Editor Lacey Rose asked: “Are there characters on TV now or historically that you identified with?” She quickly responded: “Rhoda Morganstern was a big deal for me. Just that she existed and that they had a sassy Jewish broad on TV made a huge impression on me. Definitely!” [of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda]
The naggingly ambitious mother’s voice on her answering machine is Tovah Feldshuh, though she wasn’t revealed for several episodes. The negative comments this mother has generated in reviews and online comments make an interesting contrast to how people thought the similar Mrs. Wolowitz on Big Bang Theory was funny for 8 seasons. My detailed commentary forthcoming, but Feldshuh’s guest starring on the mid-season finale, winter holiday episode, “My Mom, Greg’s Mom and Josh’s Sweet Dance Moves!”, written by Rachel Specter and Audrey Wauchope, epitomizes how she’s portrayed, when she arrives from New York in the musical number, written by Rachel Bloom, Adam Schlesinger & Jack Dolgen: “Where’s The Bathroom?”. “Rachel” also lets drop, I think for the first time, that her father wasn’t Jewish.
The episode “Josh and I Go To Los Angeles!”, written by Aline Brush McKenna, caused quite a flurry in the Jewish media for the redefinition of a stereotype into a strong woman as she competed with her long-time nemesis “Audra Levine” (played by Rachel Grate as an adult, and by Ava Acres as a girl), in court, and in a “JAP Battle” rap in law offices, written by Zach Sherwin, Adam Schlesinger & Rachel Bloom, with a lot of Jewish references:
. “Rachel Bloom Tells the Stories Behind 8 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Songs” to Devon Ivie in Vulture, 4/15/2016: “This was definitely a collaborative writers room song. . .We’re big fans of Hamilton and the idea of Rebecca having a rap battle was really funny to all of us. Originally it was going to be more legalese and a really legal-centric rap battle with her nemesis, but it evolved to a more general life battle. . .Aline said, ‘Oh, it’s a JAP-off!’ and that stuck. I came up with a couple of the ideas, like the bridge being who’s more cool with black people. Like ‘I Give Good Parent,’ I sent a few ideas to Zach and he knocked it out of the park, as always.” (updated 4/27/2016)


Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – Abigail McCarthy in the 2nd Season (on Bravo) The 2nd season opened with no explicit Jewish references, but “Rule No 58: Avoid the Douchemobile”, written by producer Marti Noxon, included an interchange fraught with class and cultural differences. “Abby McCarthy” (still played by Lisa Goldstein in ridiculous meant-to-be-sexy outfits), is pitching a new writing deal to the “SheShe” website: I can be the new face - of divorce if I nail it.. . . I think I'm here because I have been trying to take a really positive approach to a really hard topic. You know, lean into the idea that divorce can be fun…Yes, it is divorce. It is awful, and all the media around it is so glum, it feels like it needs a warning label on it like, "May cause anxiety or anal leakage”. . .What I am saying is that whatever our circumstances, we choose our attitude, and we can help make that attitude more positive. How about a weekly column on post-divorce style? "A new look for a new you?" And then, of course, I'll be writing every week about getting out there again, and the crazy, sexy dating stories and all the things that sort of go along with that. The male editor (played by David Lewis) pronounces: You’re “The Sexy Face of Divorce”! But “Barbara” (played by Retta), her African-American managing editor, later heatedly explains why she walked out of her presentation, that the rest of the staff approved – and touched a chord with a lot of viewers: Excuse me, if I insulted you in any way. Listen, Abby McCarthy, if you're what the boss wants, I will make my peace with that. I'm sure the rest of the team is thrilled about your shiny, new life and your happy, life-affirming divorce. I'm sure they're thrilled about your Pilates and your facials and your new look. Here's what my post-divorce life looks like: shit. Four years ago, my husband left me for my sister. . .He doesn't give me a dime. He doesn't see his kids because he's too busy banging my younger sister. I have a special needs kid. My mother has Alzheimer's, so I have no help. You know the last time I had a night out? Never. You want the section to be all positivity? You want to be the new face of divorce? Knock yourself out. But this is what the real face of divorce looks like. It's stressed out, it's old before its damn time, and it's scared to death.
The next episode continued to have no Jewish references, in “Rule No 77: Don't Blow the Bubble”, written by Carol Barbee, but continued the racial/class conflict with her managing editor. “Abby” is ineffectual in trying to cross the barrier with “Barbara”, but makes things worse: Hold on, are we talking about your housekeeper? “Abby”: No, Brittany's. “Barbara”: The housekeeper's name is Brittany? “Abby”: No, sorry, the Brittany is my friend. Marta is her housekeeper. Marta got married in Guatemala, but she broke up in the U.S., and she's been trying to get a divorce, but she needs her ex to sign the papers, and she has no idea where he is. “Barbara”: Okay, Abby, what we want from you is your unique angle. . . Lifestyle, aspirational, sexy. “Abby”: I just want to be more sensitive to our readers, many of whom are going through very difficult divorces. “Barbara”: Their Guatemalan husbands are missing? “Abby”: Some of them, and I just thought it would be good if we could mix in some earthy, grounded stories with the fun. “Barbara”: But you're “the sexy face of divorce”, okay? You're not here to write about the sad, upsetting side. . .So we want to see you out there at gallery openings and fashion shows, artisanal food fairs. . .Call and get a list of escorts. No, not escort-escorts. “Abby”: I actually know one of those. “Barbara”: I'll bet you do, but we're actually looking for someone who's gonna look good in the photo. Ooh, get some buzzworthy men, or women, hey, whatever, right? Okay, so 1,000 words twice a week plus some glam photos of Abby's adventures. Ladies, let's sell some divorce! Later, “Abby” tries again to win over “Barbara”, this time with flattery: Idea. I think you should go on the dates instead of me. I can tag along with a photographer and write all the pieces, but then you get to be glam. “Barbara” not only shuts her down again, but plays the role reversal card: First of all, I am glam. Secondly, you're “the sexy face”. I'm the brains. . . I'm good at what I do. I will set this thing up, and then we'll see if you're any good at what you do. “Barbara” calls her back to the office for an update: There's a fashion show downtown at the new Broad Saturday night. Several top designers are premiering new pieces. You'll be wearing one of them. “Abby”: These are for me? “Barbara”: Take them.Try them on. More are coming. The stylist will decide. “Abby”: I have a stylist? “Barbara”: We want “Sexy Face” to look as good as possible. “Abby”: Well, who are the designers so I can look them up? “Barbara”: Why? You don't need to know! “Abby”: Well, how am I going to cover the fashion shows if I don't know who the designers are? “Barbara”: Calm down, Katie Couric. You won't be reporting. You'll sit in the front row with your date, who is TBD. We'll take pretty pictures. You will write about being you, and now I have a meeting. In front of a hotel, “Abby” is secretly meeting up with her ex “Jake”, but when she’s kissing him, she panics when someone takes a photo, convinced she’s been recognized. After she runs away in a panic, he realizes a “reality housewife” (probably one starring on some cross-promoting Bravo show) was the focus. He’s annoyed, so she explains: It's a little embarrassing, because of my job. I can't have somebody Instagram a picture of me at a hotel with my ex-husband. He: We haven't actually filed the papers. She: Please keep your voice down. . . I'm not hiding either. We've talked about this. I literally just scraped my career out of the toilet, Jake. But he continues in a sarcastic vein: Fine, so how long do we have to [hide] this? Because if we are gonna work, you have to ditch the doyenne of divorce thing. She counters: It's not that simple. Come on, would you change your career? Would you quit your movie if I asked you to? He, who is keeping a big secret from her, actually: It's not the same thing. I don't have to lie to do my movie. She: I'm not lying! . . .I'm trying to figure things out. I'm trying to figure out us, me, my voice. He presses: I don't want you to go on stupid dates. I want to come home. She: I'm just not ready to live together again. . . I just feel like I've started something, and I need to see it through. I've got the book. I've got SheShe. . . I mean, we might be together for the rest of our lives, and I might not be the face of divorce after all, but I really do need something different. He continues to not tell her that his ex-girlfriend is pregnant, and she goes off to a ridiculous, nearly nude fashion show with a hired dude, while “Barbara” supervises a photographer. The Bravo “add-ons” gave different impressions. The “Lookbook” fashionista picked the most conservative dress, worn to work by the lawyer partner, as the best outfit, while the after-show celebrated the 3rd night of Hanukkah.
Rule No 8 - Timing is Everything”, written by Marti Noxon and Lisa Edelstein, continued to have no Jewishishness but there’s similar conflicts. Her online-savvy daughter is impressed: Hey, how do you know Dr. Harris? . . No, this guy's on TV. He's, like, an Oprah doctor. Look, he's responding to your tweets.. .It is [funny], and here's what you should say back. “Barbara” is impressed too: That was an annoyingly clever little Twitter chat you had with Dr. Harris this morning. . . but he wants to go out with you. . . he's got 275,000 followers, and they're already calling you two #Habby. It spiked this A. M. with 59% positive emotional content, which is crazy high, and then it dropped 30%. . . Because you didn't respond. . .We have our algorithms. You get that many mentions and you're not even a couple? You two need to go out.. “Abby”: Look, I was fine with all the photo-op dates, but this is feeling silly. I can come up with my own dates. “Barbara”: Hey, “Face”. This doctor guy is a very social media savvy semi-celeb, and you're trying to drive traffic to your blog and the new vertical. So if I were you, I'd start figuring out a way how to make that thing happen. Try something new! Door! So on her date with “the sexy CNN doctor” (played by Mark Valley), she tries to explain her image vs. reality: On the internet, I am the black widow. You know I wanted my husband dead? He’s charmingly self-depracating: According to the internet, I'm a womanizer. . .Yeah, well, I was kind of a slut for a while. I mean, after the marriage was over with She has frank ripostes, having just learned about her husband’s ex: But a safe slut. . .Well, no one wants their sperm running around town willy nilly. . .Sorry, nothing. . .It's ex-husband stuff. He: Listen, you don't edit much at all, do you? I hope you don't mind my saying, - but you're stunning. . .It is such a relief for me to meet a woman my age who's not trying to look like she's 25. She: That's a losing battle, isn't it? I mean, it can be hard here. He: People view aging as a preventable disease. . .There's some patients, they say, "What am I doing wrong? I just have lines in my face.” She: You should get credit for being alive and functional. . . Look, I like you, and I know this is a fake date, but I feel like I should explain what the -- He: Fake for you maybe. This is a real date for me. She: You do know that I'm I am writing? He: You're writing, and I'm reading what you're writing. So write whatever you want., and he makes a nervous penis joke. I just really want to get to know you, so give me all you have. They exchange basic facts about the lengths of their marriages and their kids, and she babbles honestly: Well, not quite divorced yet, but paper-worked. Crazy part is paperwork is done, we turned a corner, and we're getting along, like, a lot, and then today, I find out - bang that he knocked up his ex-girlfriend. They joke about it, but then she’s very surprised that she starts crying: My ex and I, we are exploring being together again, so it's just a confusing time. Basically it means I'm living a lie again, and my dates have to be fake, which means involving nice, great people like you, which isn't fair, - and now the whole baby thing. He’s just as surprisingly sympathetic: A not-actually-divorced woman has to make a living somehow. “Barbara” certainly sees it that way: Paparazzi pictures of your date are on the site. . .You both look very rich and well-groomed. We're using them as click bait, so we need you to tease your column. So get tweeting. “Abby” tries to be honest: Seriously, it was a disaster. I blew it. But “Barbara” cynically spins: That's fantastic. . .As a twist. The pictures make it look like a love match. “Abby”: Really? My fail fills you with glee. Admit it. “Barbara”: It does, but it's also good for your story. “Abby”: Fine, I will write about my epic meltdown in 140 character or less. “Barbara”: #Datefail. And thousands of angry women's days just got a little brighter. “Abby”: Aw. So it's like a public service. She finds out the truth from her brother-in-law: I can't do this anymore, Jake. I can't keep letting you "yes" me to death while you sidestep feelings. . .That's what killed us. (When “Jake” protests, I kind of agree with him.) And the doctor has sent her flowers asking for another date when she’s ready. In contrast, her Iranian BFF “Delia” (played by Necar Zadegan) is having many issues with her upcoming nuptials to a rich guy, including her future mother-in-law’s eagerness to relate to her Persian heritage. Her boss at her law firm “Albert” (played by Brian Markinson) offers ethnically fraught advice: I hated my in-laws at first. They were too pushy, too loud, but after my parents died, they saved my bacon. And they're kosher. Keep an open mind. “The LookBook” choice is again the one outfit that’s both mature and glam, and the after show is still marking Hanukkah.
In “Rule No 65: You Can Go Home Again”, written by producer Paul Adelstein, who also plays “Jake” the ex, there’s again no Jewish references, but some redolent phrasing as they spend a weekend together, she mostly in sexy lingerie. He: Soon you have to abdicate your role as the face of the divorce industrial complex, right? She: Not necessarily. I am writing a book. . .My parents read the press release. "I mean, your marriage failed. Do you have to announce it to the world?" Ugh, that's a good alternate title for the book. He: I'm sure your parents are glad that you finally ditched the dead beat husband, right? She: I'm sorry. They never gave you a real chance. And the truth is they have barely mentioned our split at all. He: Oh yeah, it's not about them. She: Why would they? Don't be mean. He: I'm not being mean, I'm being realistic. I mean, you and Max are their props. They want the image of the perfectly happy family until something gets messy then whoosh! They're ghosts! They're gone! She: That is not true. They raised us to be independent. He: Come on, they raised you to raise yourself. I mean, my mom may call three times a day, but she would anything for me. That means she's a parent! They set aside this argument, and the next morning she wakes to find him working a repair: This dryer vent's been busted, and I'm just feeling handy, and I miss being the man around the house. She: You missed attacking various inanimate objects and screaming? He: Maybe let's try the new version of that. Where I'm calm and capable and you're supportive. She: Except it's not fixed. . .I'm gonna YouTube it. Open my laptop. He’s mad: Are you kidding? She: I'm not being overbearing. If you need help and I'm helping. It's just help. He: Well, that was quite a sentence. You're a writer, right? She retorts: And you're a dryer repairman, right? He very reluctantly agrees she should google a solution, but he: You checking emails right now? She: I saw something from Barbara about an assignment and I was ignoring it so that we can have our weekend. He, sarcastic: Is trying to save your marriage getting in the way of your divorce job?. . . Would you please stop micromanaging me? She, intending to check Google images: I haven't even started! He, starting to yell: Really? You're any further up my ass - I could see out of my mouth! And the accusations fly back and forth, and the shouting increases-- She: You can't handle honesty, Jake! He: They were work emails, or they were [Dr.] Harris emails - would you even know the difference anymore?. . .She: Fine, yes. I corresponded with Harris. . .But only because all weekend, you've been picking on me . . .And making me feel like shit. He: First of all, I've not been picking on you, I've been trying to have a sense of fun, which I understand is not exactly in your wheelhouse. . . You know what? If I do anything that's remotely corrected or remotely suggested, maybe you should just try to relax, you go to Defcon One. . . It's my fault. Everything. All the time. . .True. I'm just a monkey. I just fling my poo and make bad decisions and make messes and you're the put upon adult who has to come in and save the day. And poor you, because you’re stuck with your monkey husband, you have to go find solace in other men! Harris replaced Will! Replaced Nate! Who replaced your monkey husband! She: Because you make me feel like shit! . . Come on, Jake. Face it! Who I am, my neatness, my control, my ambition. You don't like me! He: Don't put it back on me! She: You resent that I provide for this family! He: Money time! You have no respect for my career!. . . And you just can't get over the fact that I'm getting a movie made! Your loser monkey husband is getting something done! She: You know what? I have been nothing but supportive, even you have admitted that! He: Yeah, well that was love goggles, because you are not supportive and you remind me on a daily basis how much more functional and reasonable you are than me. Because I am. She: No reasonable, functional adult would have knocked up his 26-year-old actress rebound. He: I pulled out. . .It was an accident. She: Oh, my God! You pulled out?. . .Spoken like a true monkey! Do you have any idea what you've done to our lives? He: Spare me your self-righteous bullshit! She: Monkey, monkey! The next morning, they are teary into weeping: We gave it a good second go, right?. . .Jake I think my heart is breaking. And they hug, big time.
”Rule No. 72: It 's Never To Late to be a Mean Girl”, written by Adam Milch, had a veiled Jewish reference in “Abby”s conflict with her besties. “Phoebe” the blonde model (played by Beau Garrett) very proudly reveals she passed her GED. “Abby” is her version of supportive: I would be happy to write about something other than my dating life, but what do you think, Phoebe? If I can inspire women to graduate high school and get a free open bar, why not? It's a SheShe win-win, right? To Phoebe! A SheShe win-win! But “Abby”s editor nemesis thinks “Phoebe” should write a column about her experience. “Abby” reaction: You didn't have to say yes. “Phoebe”: I don't want to step on your toes with the column or anything. “Abby”: No, honey, no, you're not stepping on my toes, and besides, my toes are tough. They're like little rocks. “Phoebe”: I just wrote that one piece for the school newsletter, and now I'm writing for SheShe? “Abby”: Well, you know, you don't have to write it if you don't feel comfortable. It's completely understandable. “Phoebe”: I thought Barbara seemed pretty sold on the idea. “Abby”: Barbara's not exactly my number one fan. “Phoebe”: So you think she only offered me the column just to piss you off? “Abby”: I mean, of course not that, but I just... you just don't have to feel any pressure, right, to write anything. This is your prom. If I write it, you get to just enjoy it. Back and forth, until “Phoebe” agrees to let “Abby” do the writing – until “Barbara” finds out: I wanted to read your story. “Phoebe”: Oh, we agreed she's the pro. “Barbara”: Yeah, but I like that you're not a pro. You know, you're fresh and smart and unique. “Phoebe”: So you offering me the piece had nothing to do with Abby? Later, “Phoebe” is angry: And then you totally hijacked it. . . you and SheShe, you and your column! . . .That is exactly what this about. I am so sorry your huge ego couldn't handle someone wanting me to talk about my experience for once. “Abby” fires back: You can talk about your experience all you want, Phoebe, but I'm sorry. This is my column, and I have worked very hard for it. “Phoebe”: I worked hard too. I worked my ass off, and I finally accomplished something that I'm proud of. “Abby”: You passed the GED! That doesn't make you a writer! “Abby” complains to their other friends: Phoebe said a lot of awful things to me too.-- but they don’t side with her. “Delia”: Wow. Are you serious right now? This whole thing was supposed to be about Phoebe. Was it ever a question that you were gonna graduate from college, much less high school? I'm pretty sure everybody's been telling you your whole life how smart you are. Phoebe's never had that, and you just shit all over it.
The following episode “Rule No 25: Beware the Second Chance”, written by Ilene Rosenzweig, had an odd twist. The obnoxious, bossy friend “Jo” with no last name (played by Alanna Ubach) who moved from NYC to open a gourmet bakery in L.A., suddenly reveals to “Abby”s ex: You know, when I grew up in the Bronx, we didn't have all these, "Oh, no, I dropped my FroYo" problems. We had real problems like no medical and and government cheese, but my mother, she always pointed out the bright side. So are we supposed to assume that she’s Jewish? Or did that draw on the actress’s Puerto Rican background? (updated 2/1/2016)


Married – Jess in her 2nd season (FX summer sitcom) Though there’s no explicit Jewish reference in the 1st episode, “Thanksgiving”, written by Daisy Gardner, there’s resonances in “Jess” (Jenny Slate) determination to get her son into pre-school, but she’s already frustrated with the application process: Every time we walk into a pre-school, I know what these bitches are thnking. “Successful man, dumb trophy wife.” Her old friend “Russ Bowman” (played by Nat Faxon) teases: You’re a smart trophy wife. The newly sober “A.J.” (played by Brett Gelman): I don’t need booze to enjoy your insecurity. . . My kid went to Hillside. Use my name She’s reluctant due to his various disastrous personal problems last season. At the Hillside interview, her husband “Shep” (played by Paul Reiser) is calm, she’s anxious: I’m the first wife, and I’m the only wife. And I went to Cornell, so you know so I’m not dumb. Did I mention Harrison can already count to tres in Spanish? “Shep” mumbles: It’s even more surprising because our nanny is Polish. She’s even more anxious at home, exasperating her husband: I’m the one whose raised the kid -- why should that matter? I don’t think he needs tutoring. . .Boys don’t talk as much. Turns out “A.J.” is a school donor, and he did put in a good word for them: No matter how bad it is, I‘m always there for my kid. . .I am not a bad parent. “Jess” hugs him: That makes one of us. Shep is a great parent. I don’t even know if I’m cut out for it.
Until I detail her limited episodes, and references to her, this season, I’m fascinated that the series has chosen to puncture the images perpetuated by Woody Allen and adaptations of Philip Roth novels where the older man goes to live happily ever after with the much younger woman. Instead, “Jess” is deeply unhappy, making “Shep” unhappy as well, albeit most viewers will probably just think she’s a bitch because Reiser is typecast as a nice guy. It takes guts to play an unlikeable character on a TV comedy! (More forthcoming) (updated 10/2/2015)


UnReal– Rachel Goldberg and others in the 1st season (biting, dark comic summer satire on Lifetime of its own kind of shows; out on DVD) Inspired by former The Bachelor producer Sarah Gertrude Shapiro’s short film Sequin Raze, it’s very funny and caustic targeting of such “reality” TV shows. She’s taken to describing the show as “Breaking Bad for women.” Unlike most others, I waited for at least explicit hints that“Rachel” (played by Shiri Appleby in her best TV role -- a Jewish actress who hasn’t played a Jewish character in a lead role before; I saw no credible evidence that her “Liz Parker” in Roswell years ago was Jewish, but thanks for asking Eric Ruth!). Let alone her smothering psychiatrist mother “Olive” (played by Mimi Kuzyk), were Jewish women.
But I was a bit surprised by this interchange to Kate Aurthur in BuzzFeed, posted 7/20/2015, between Appleby and Shapiro: “SA: [Y]ou said at my audition, ‘But you’re so pretty!”’And I was like, ‘But I don’t feel pretty. SGS: And I was like, ‘OK, as long as you don’t feel pretty, we can work with that.’ And Shiri has actually brought so much to the role that I couldn’t have even imagined. There’s so much vulnerability. I call it the JAPpy girl next door. You’d totally bring her home to meet your mom, she’s great with grandmas. It’s disarming.” To Megan Angelo in Glamour, posted 7/27/2015, Appleby connected to “Rachel” in a way to challenge the usual stereotype of a Jewish professional woman on TV: “I'm an ambitious woman, but I've had some men call me too driven or too ambitious. I've had them tell me to ‘calm down’. When you're trying to find yourself, it does sort of squash you. Now that I'm happily married and my partner [chef and entrepreneur Jon Shook] is successful, I always try to think, ‘How would he handle this? Would a guy feel guilty for asking for this?’ No. A guy doesn't feel like he's out of line for asking for what he wants. It's crazy that we filter ourselves that way. So now the way I go about my business is to be sweet and feminine, but when it comes to negotiating, be a man. I hope to raise my daughter in a way that she can communicate what she feels without having to put herself in a man's head.”
So this description is interesting in avoiding any explicit Jewish reference, but maybe manipulative bitch is a new connotation: From 8/3/2015 - ”When speaking with Vanity Fair’s Julie Miller, Appleby described the real-life reality-show producer she used as an inspiration for her character: ‘I asked her every question I could possibly think of about her job and what it meant to her and you could see that she really got off on it. Even though it was something that made her feel ugly at times and made her feel bad about what she was doing. I think she got a high off the fact that she could make all of these people do what she wanted to do. You could feel that it was almost like a hunger inside of her.’”
The episode “Mother”, written by David Weinstein, is the key set-up for why “Rachel” is devastatingly good at her job – we see that how her mother talks and does to her is what she then applies to the contestants. “Rachel” has reluctantly gone home and is greeted by her mother: One of my students wrote a paper on you’re show. Abssolutely fascinating…It examines the pscholgoical effects of bully tv and viewing women as chattle. “Rachel”: Not my show. Mom: You feel judged. “Rachel”: Don’t shrink me! Save it for you’re patients, OK? Mom: Your roomate Bethany called – you’re three months behind in rent? What do you need? $20,000? “Rachel”: Yeah, I’ve had some legal issues. It was just a misunderstanding. But a loan, just a loan, would be really great that would really help me. It would relieve a lot of pressure, at work, to be a better me. Mom: You know your father and I can help you. But not if you’re are not willing to help yourself. You and I need to resume our sessions. [So this is who she gets her slippery ethics from.] “Rachel”: Well I already have a therapist. And bonus she’s not my mother. She works on the show. Mom chuckles: She’s probably not even a doctor. “Rachel”: I’m doing fine and she’s helping me out. Mom: Really? You don’t look fine. You’re very thin. You’re drinking too much. “Rachel”: I’m doing better. And what are you doing right now? This is unethical! You treating me? It’s not ethical. Mom: Those rules are arbitrary, OK? Are you taking your meds? “Rachel”: Which ones? What am I prescribed for right now? When we started it was for ADHA, then we moved on to bi-polar, then what came next? Was it borderline or narcissitic personality disorder, because I always have a hard time with those two. I’m constatntly getting those confused. Mom: Well it was very hard to pin down. You are a very tricky girl. Ok, considering all you’re recent troubles, I think you should move back home for awhile. Our work would progress much faster if you weren’t under so much stress. “Rachel”, sarcastic: In patient huh? Mom affirms. “Rachel”: Just like you’re doing with Dad? What do you have him on? Because the guy is kind of seeming like a zombie. Mom: Oh that is so not fair. Your father is feeling so much better since he’s on whatever. Rachel, these disorders run in families. What I have learned from treating your father coild really help u now . . .I know you! I see what you’re trying to hide and how exhausted it makes you. It really breaks my heart. There’s no shame in it. DPD is not yr fault. “Rachel”: Dr .Wagner says I don’t present with DPD, or any of the other things you say that I have! She says that there’s nothing wrong with me. Mom:Oh! Really! And I suppose she is more quaifiedl than your own mother! “Rachel”: I am just asking for some money! Mom: And you can have it, but we have to resume our sessions. I am willing to do it over the phone. “Rachel” starts yelling: I am not your subject any more. And I know you don’t approve, but I am damned good at what I do! Mom: And the reason you are so good at what you do. The manipulation, the atunement, that is the disease! “Rachel” starts crying. Mom: Rachel, look at me. Please look at me. Rachel, are you happy a the way you feel? “Rachel” weeps and Mom takes her in her arms: Oh baby, you have to admit you’re sick before you can get better. “Rachel” storms out of the house -- with a check for $20,000. Then she rips it up in little bits: Screw you! Screw you! and throws the pieces out the carwindow. Later, “Rachel” plays a contestant exactly like her mother played her, including taking her into her arms: All that anger you’re directing at yourself? Point it at the bitch who’s ruining your future. And she gets the catfight on camera she wanted, and impresses her cunning boss “Quinn King” (played ferociously by Constance Zimmer, and I think she’s a putative Jew, too, though the actress comes from German heritage): I heard that you went home. “Rachel”: Yeah, my mom thinks I’m seriously ill. “Quinn”: There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re a genius. “Rachel”: I’m never getting out of here. “Quinn”: Why would you want to? You’re home. They share a cigarette and watch the catfight. “Quinn”: That’s good television.
Some would consider this description a putative Jewish reference about mother and daughter in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, 6/15/2015, co-creator Marti Noxon described: “When we were talking about creating a real antihero in Rachel — and Quinn — it was really important we start early-ish in the season to understand that this person was raised in a home that was so highly manipulative and emotionally manipulative. By the time that scene with her mom is over, she’s wrecked, she’s destroyed and she tears the check up because she’s trying so hard not to believe that she’s incapable of functioning in the world. But, that’s where her magic powers come from.” Shapiro expanded in the BuzzFeed interview: “It was really meant to show that Rachel has nowhere else to go. And to give us a lot of empathy for why she is the way she is, and why she does what she does. And that she’s really doing her best, given where she came from. But really, most of all, to show she can’t go home. . .I just feel like a lot of the stuff she’s struggling with is stuff that I’ve struggled with in my life. Again, it’s fiction. My mom’s not a psychiatrist, I have beautiful, loving parents. My life is so, so different.” Lisa Rosen, in The Los Angeles Times, 11/24/2015, had an interpretation that seemed to avoid the Jewish resonance: “Rachel's character suffers from being raised by a psychologist mother who constantly treated her for problems she didn't have. That background gave Appleby an understanding of Rachel's own manipulative nature, as well as her search for a mother figure in Quinn.”
In “Truth”, written by series co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, “Rachel” is praising the bachelor to a contestant’s Mississippi grandmother: Sure, Alex is a nice boy. A real mensch, like my mother would say. But what’s made much more online commentary than her Jewish reference was the opening scene of “Rachel” starting her morning in the van by masturbating. But for all the feminist crowing by Emma Gray, Senior Women’s Editor in Huffington Post, 7/6/2015, and re-touted by Alice Lawton in Bust, both presume she’s watching porn on her mobile phone. No, she’s not. She’s getting off on watching an old video of her with her ex-boyfriend, for whom she is still holding a torch, as their affectionate voices can be clearly heard.
”Fly”, written by Alex Metcalf, had the very gentile British bachelor “Adam Cromwell” (payed by Freddie Stroma) flirt with “Rachel” by oddly using a comparison phrase more common to Jews. Playing down how he protected a contestant by (ineffectually) punching her violent ex-husband (“Rachel”s ex “Jeremy”, played by Josh Kelly, was more effective, whose current fiancée had just objected to the kind of rough sex he had just refrained from following through in a rekindling with “Rachel”): It’s not like I saved a family from being pillaged by Russian Cossacks. “Rachel”, admiringly: Same difference.
She’s the ironically titular “Savior”, as written by co-executive producer Jordan Hawley. She’s a wreck in the opening, after a contestant had leapt to her death from the roof, even as “Rachel” was trying to talk her out of it: She had her hand out! A distraught contestant “Maya” (played by Natasha Wilson) is just one of the people making her consumed with guilt: Nobody cares about anyone. . . Mary killed herself because of this place. I mean, what is wrong with you people? How bad does it have to get for you to wake up?. . You can tell your bosses I’m quitting the show. But her boss “Quinn” rejects her effort to be the conscience of the show: We are so supremely screwed right now. I need you to stay strong. . . So before you go all Jiminy Cricket on everyone, think about that. But “Rachel” is still reeling -- This is on me. -- when production assistant “Shia” (played by Aline Elasmar) comes in and confesses to messing with the contestant’s anti-depression meds: I only did what you would have done. . . to make her come alive on camera! “Rachel”: I didn’t kill her - you did. She vents to her ex comes to her trailer: You know the network's sort of pointing their finger at us for bringing Kirk here and kind of accusing me of killing Mary, but other than that, I'm doing really great. He: Rach, you really shouldn't be alone right now. They can't pin this on you. She: I mean, they're not totally wrong . . .I just let Mary down, you know. I was supposed to be protecting those girls. He: When it comes to you, I see more than you think. I see a lot. As they fall into what “Rachel” in the morning disparages as “grief sex”, she: Those lawyers are out for me. He: Yeah, well, they're like that with everybody. That's what they do. They turn up the heat, sweat the truth out of you. She: No, they are looking for a scapegoat. I'm in the cross hairs, and you know it. He: You got to tell them everything. You did, right? The morning after she’s back to worrying: I barely have a job right now. He’s supportive, that she’ll find a way to blame the woman’s violent ex-husband from getting paid off: You’re like a force of nature. If anyone can deliver Kirk’s head on a stick it’s you. “Brad” the network rep (played by Martin Cummins) is surprised to see her: Isn't she the one who lost it last season and crashed the Ferrari? . . And you rehired her after that? “Quinn” re-hired her after what she did in the past. “Quinn”: She has been through a lot today. . . She had some issues, but she's a great producer. . .She's worth five crashed Ferraris. The suit warns: You're in charge. She reports to you. “Rachel” convinces “Quinn”: If we're not gonna tell the truth . . .let's at least do one good thing here. Against network instructions to stop production, she conducts tearful interviews with the contestants about what the dead woman had told them about her abusive husband, all good stuff to leak to sites such as Jezebel, Media Girl, Bitch Magazine: Once it goes viral, there's no way that the network can pay him off.. But angry “Adam” won’t play along in this blame game: Not you? Not the show? That’s what you want me to say? Awkwardly, her ex is manning the camera when “Adam” storms off: Screw him. He’s a prick. “Rachel” goes after him, but “Adam” persists: How is this not your fault? She: It’s not my fault. I can’t tell you everything. “Adam” really stings: You’re a monster! “Quinn” suggests she find a “Plan B”, but “Rachel” isn’t optimistic: You kinda took away all my Plan B’s. Remember? Indefinitely forced servitude. But “Rachel” goes to the late-contestant’s room and sees a teddy bear. Next we see her with the woman’s sister, who is distraught over custody issues, and manipulates her into reading a suicide note on camera, with its blame on the ex. “Rachel” hugs her and the sister sweetly whispers into her ear: I almost believed it was real. . .Whatever it takes to keep [her niece] away from that monster. “Shia” still thinks she should “feel guilty” – and “Quinn” pretty much banishes her and hugs “Rachel”: If you ever need to to talk. . .You know we're never talking about this again. “Jerome”, her ex, gives “Rachel” a sympathetic look – until his current fiancée takes his arm. “Rachel” is so miserable, let alone homeless, that she crawls into bed with the contrite “Adam”: I’m sorry. You’re not a monster. “Rachel”: Yeah I am. He spoons with her and holds her in his arms as they fall asleep. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming) (updated 1/1/2016)


Murder In The First - Raffaella “Raffi” Veracruz (on TNT summers) As played by Emmanuelle Chriqui, this new cop in the 2nd summer season was a bit confusing from the outset. Very beautiful and very tough drug detective, she wasn’t too credible. Until in the 4th episode, “My Suger Walls” written by Jonathan Abrahams, it’s revealed that she is – of course!—ex-Israeli Army! Wouldn’t want a season to go by without a stereotyped image like a Mossad agent in some series. (Did I miss any earlier references?) A large African-American dealer sizes up the petite woman, first confused if she’s Latino (me too!), then decides: So you was in the military.And your little medical card, that's legit, huh? PTSD? You're a little PTSD case, huh? You a soldier, and I respect that. Her suspicious cop lover “Terry English” (played by Taye Diggs) trailed her -- to a synagogue, where he is surprised to see her rise for the mourners’ kaddish: Who was the person that you were standing up for at the synagogue? She: That’s personal. He: So is sex. She, ruefully: We've been doing that a lot, so, look, I lost somebody, too, all right? I know how it feels. He was I.D.F. Special Forces, and he was killed by a Hamas sniper five years ago. So, every year, on this day, I come and I say a kaddish for him, which is something I promised his mother I'd do. . . Look, I forgot, okay? This year, I almost forgot.
The Moroccan Jewish actress explained to Kyle Downing the character’s background in M Star News, posted 6/7/2015: “She's tough; she's had a tough life. She's somebody who fought in the Israeli army and was very, very good at her job. She's half Israeli, she's half Mexican, she's super street and she's got a lot of demons that she's never dealt with. And it's dark; it's gritty.” [Sorry, I had to suppress a chuckle.] But that did explain an interchange I didn’t understand in the 2nd episode “Schizofrenzy”, written by Robert Munic. The cops are searching a tunnel and she shows she’s familiar with how they’re engineered. “Terry” asks her admiringly: So, where did you learn tunnels? She, tersely: Gaza. He, thinking she’s Arab: I didn't know they had tunnels in Palestine. She, quickly: Israel He, realizing now she’s Jewish, which I didn’t get then: Mazel tov. The episode ends with their first quickie.
In “Oh Mexico”, written by Daniele Nathanson, she continues to have a bit confused background. She asks to ride along with the tough, old school “Marty Mulligan” (played by A.J. Buckley). He’s surprised: Things that slow over in Gang Unit, or you just miss my winning personality? She retorts: Yeah, I miss the smell of whiskey and Old Spice in the morning. Reminds me of the guys I dated in high school. He keeps trying to one-up her, like first “dead body” – and she wins: My first DB? Four-year-old girl, Palestinian, shelling tore her into five pieces. Still had a teddy bear clutched in one hand. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming) (updated 7/13/2015)


The Last Ship – Lt. Ravit Bivas in the 2nd Season (on TNT, out on DVD) The summer’s 2nd Israeli woman soldier character came on board the surviving U.S. Navy destroyer after a global pandemic (based on the novel by William Brinkley) in the 4th episode, “Solace”, written by Steven Kane – and no wonder her accent was right – she’s played by the Israeli actress Inbar Lavi, who I liked a lot in MTV’s Underemployed: I want to introduce you to two of our new team members. Both of these sailors were part of the Navy's special warfare joint operation training program in Norfolk when shit hit the rotors about three months ago. They volunteered to join us on our mission south. . .And this is Lieutenant Ravit Bivas. Israeli Defense Forces - Expert diver and intelligence operator. Another comments about adding her and a hunky Aussie: We are a regular coalition of the living . The male crew all eyes the new pretty, petite crew mate. One starts flirting: You know, when I was deployed in the Gulf, I spent some time outside Tel Aviv, a town called. . She shuts him down by correcting his pronounciation of the name. Later in the gym, the hunky Aussie (“Wolf Taplor” played by Ben Foster) helps her with boxing practice with a tease: Come on! You punch like a girl. Then compliments how she kicks the punching bag. Other sailors gossip that the two are just friends: He says she's like a sister to him. . .Just don't break her heart. You don't wanna tangle with the big brother. She’s immediately put on the “Tiger Team” to board another ship, then are warned: Hostiles may still be on board. Just when the team is looking for her, she does something really smart (for this kind of show). She dons a labcoat, walks into the lab under siege, and pretends to be a doctor to the pirates: What are you doing here? Looking for the cure? I'll give it to you. -- then pulls out a gun and kills the 3 of them in short order close up – bang! bang! bang! Later, she’s even a bomb defusion expert, though she keeps mumbling to herself in Hebrew as she tries to figure out this very complicated one. Just as she realizes it’s more complicated than she can handle, the admiring “Tex” (played by Aussie actor John Pyper-Ferguson as a long-haired Texan hero, unlike his more recent psycho and villainous roles) grabs the entire bomb unit she got disconnected and gets it just about overboard before the pirate sets it off. She earns a compliment: You did real good out there today. I'm glad to have you on the team. She grins: I like you guys. You're crazy.
While I catch up with her various demonstrations of military prowess and smarts, “Uneasy Lies the Head” episode, written by Nic Van Zeebroeck, had one of her rare Israeli references. After threatening one fellow soldier: You call me "sweetheart" again, I'll make you eat that pathetic pair of 9s you're holding. . . So what do you think? Do I have the goods?, they exchange “worst” war stories: I was stationed in the West Bank for three years, another two in Gaza. Thought I'd seen everything. Then this pandemic broke out. And I thought, you know, maybe now we have this common enemy. We even have this cure that we want to give to people. Maybe, just maybe, we'll stop killing each other. But nothing's changed. It's all the same. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming) (updated 5/6/2016)


Odd Mom Out– Jill Weber in the 1st season (half-hour sitcom on Bravo) A couple of interviews with show creator Jill Kargman claimed her character “Jill Weber” is also Jewish, as she is, living among the pretentious, obnoxious WASP Top 1% on NYC’s Upper East Side. (I haven’t yet read any of her books, including her 2014 novel Momzillas that inspired the series.) But there were only vague hints in the first 3 episodes (nor in the webisode discussions with the executive producers), except she’s brunette to her “blonde bitches” in-laws. Otherwise she seems just as thin and wealthy, let alone with three kids, as the the Other Moms.
In the 1st episode, “Wheels Up”, written by Kargman, Julie Rottenberg & Elisa Zuritsky, her mother-in-law “Candace” (played by Joanna Cassidy) doesn’t think she’ll join with the so thin you can’t notice she’s pregnant sister-in-law “Brooke” (played by Abby Elliott) in exercising: Jill’s people aren’t exactly known for their athletic prowess. She doesn’t make it explicit even in the 2nd episode “Vons Have More Fun”, written by Rottenberg & Zuritsky, when her in-laws announce why they went to Austria for the weekend to explore our roots. . .We are Austrian aristocracy. . .We’re all changing our name to Von Webber. . .We’re not changing our name – we’re restoring our name. “Jill” politely asks: I’m curious -- during your research, did you happen to stumble on where this Von Webber clan was during the ‘30’s and ‘40’s? Her younger brother-in-law “Lex” (played by Sean Kleier), who just sold his company for $675 million that brings bagels to China: The family tree does get a little fuzzy during that time period, but a branch of the family did resurface in Argentina in the ‘60’s. It’s cool. She later explodes at home: They’re Nazis! It explains everything. We are not changing our name! Nyet! Her husband “Andy” (played by Andy Buckley): I’m pretty sure that’s Russian, not German. After she complains to her best friend: I feel like I’m joining the Aryan Nation, the couple defies his family and decides to not add the “Von”.
There’s a hint that her long-time, wise-cracking (of course) best friend “Vanessa” (played by K.K. Glick), a down-to-earth E.R. doctor (with no last name?), is also Jewish, when she mentions that the new guy she’s dating is an orphan. “Jill” is excited: Marry him!. . .Crack out the ketubah!. . .Lock that orphan down! You wouldn’t have in-laws! In the next episode “Dying to Get In”, written by the star, “Vanessa” announces she’s doing something that would probably be common to a Christian: going to her first wake of a patient. “Jill”: Mazel tov!-- but that’s as common in NYC as her frequently saying “schlepping”.
In “Brooklandia”, written by Julie Rottenberg & Elisa Zuritsky, much as “Jill” appreciated the “frizzy-haired moms” in Brooklyn (oddly, none of whom are explicitly Jewish), she and her daughter celebrated their return to the Upper East Side with a song and dance number through their neighborhood: Hazel, honey, we might be different from some of the uptight people here, but this is our home. Our family is here. And you know what? We might not tell them as often as we should that we love them.
The 6th episode “Midwife Crisis”, written by Julie Rottenberg & Elisa Zuritsky, sealed the deal of her Jewish identity to me, as we finally learned her birth name. She ran into a college boyfriend in the drug store and reminds him: I’m Jill Kaplan. We dated. we backpacked in Greece and Turkey. She’s just dealt with her sister-in-law’s labor, though, and looks a mess while buying adult diapers. Flashback to the birth (Dr. “Vanessa” isn’t checking her phone because she’s having multi-orgasmic sex with a realtor, though not as many orgasms as he thinks)– and “Jill” is declaiming the first Hebrew prayer that comes to mind: Baruch atai adonai. . . The sister-in-law’s first concern is that her new daughter looks “too ethnic”.
In “Sip ‘n’ See”, written by Julie Kraut, features the sister-in-law’s new-found devotion to “Jill”, albeit she apologizes to her for finding “Langley”s brown hair distasteful. The Jewish perception comes through “Vanessa”, who for the first time identifies herself in answering the phone as “Dr. Wrigley”, but that might have been a joke I didn’t get. The mother-in-law ends up in her “York Hospital” E.R.: Mrs. Von Weber -- it’s me, Jill’s friend Vanessa. We met at the wedding. And Mile’s bris. And all of their birthday parties. But the society dame assumes something else about a professional woman who is a brunette: Victoria, what are you doing here dressed as a doctor?. . Valerie – times have changed. Your kind can get married now. “Vanessa”: I’m just wearing this [ring] here lately because drunk dudes facing their own mortality find me irresistible. Later, when the mother-in-law is sober: About that wedding ring. Plenty of eligible concussed men must come through that door. I just hate to see you cut yourself off from true love. And she goes on about her own lover. “Vanessa”: I’m alost 40 and I think I’ve aged out of that true love fantasy. She finally accepts being called “Veronique”. The sister-in-law’s effusive gratitude to “Jill” even extends: I hope you’ll be Langley’s godmother, though of course you believe in the wrong god. She also invites her onto the benefit committee of her charity “N.A.C.H.O. (New Yorkers Against Childhood Obesity)”: Welcome to the head table!
The finale focused on the enduring friendship between the two Jewish women, unusual on TV vs. the Blondes of the Upper East Side, over bagels.
(Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming)) (updated 8/12/2015)




2014/2015 Season

The increased visibility of Jewish women comediennes on TV, led Jewcy to offer Sukkot decorations of ushpizot all from TV as “Ushpizienne: Class of 5775”: Lena Dunham [as the auteur of Girls], Amy Schumer [Inside Amy Schumer, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer [Broad City], Jenny Slate [Married], Sarah Silverman [guesting everywhere], and Yael Stone [though her character “Lorna Morello” in Orange Is the New Black (on Netflix) is not Jewish]: (10/12/2014)

Inside Amy Schumer – 3rd season (on Comedy Central, out on DVD) While her feminist satires, using TV, movies, and music videos, have been brilliant, her Jewish persona helped her, in her “Fight Like A Girl” episode, pull off a funny sketch “The Museum of Boyfriend Wardrobe Atrocities” that satirized both Holocaust museums and the exaggerated significance of gendered fashion arguments, with audio guide and detailed curatorial descriptions that parody museum captions with donor credits (but hard to read even on freeze-frame so I couldn’t tell if there were other Holocaust references than what I could make out about other disasters -- Pompeii in one and Charlie Sheen in another) – though most recappers didn’t get all the touchstones. The first display is from “Ironic Pseudo-Hipster Josh”: Tragically, this is what he wore to meet her parents. The relationship perished soon after. The next exhibit plays on Anne Frank: Heather dated Mark and his bowling shirt for two years. And despite her protests, he insisted on wearing calf-high tube socks. She tried her best to hide them, stashing them for weeks in their attic. But sadly they were soon discovered and forced back into regular rotation. The audioguide intones a warning that one display of male casual wear What you see before you may not look so bad, until you know that it was worn by Simon, age 55. A middle-aged woman gasps and cries, and her adult daughter comforts her: It’s over., recalling how many of our parents would react more emotionally about the era they lived through. Accompanying a belt in a glass case: You are now in the accessories wing. One survivor recorded the following words: “First he wore a braided belt and I said nothing. Then came that hat and I said nothing. Then he wore that fucking hemp necklace and I was like, peace.”, spoofing Martin Niemöller’s regretful quote about the lack of resistance to the rise of Naziism. When Past walls full of boyfriend with girlfriend photographs: You are now entering the Hall of Sighs. You will hear actual recordings of real girlfriends the moment they first bore witness to the horror of their boyfriend’s mistakes. . . There’s even a denier, as a man sneers: I don’t think this many guys wore this stuff. These numbers are exaggerated. A pile of shoes like at Auschwitz elicits sobs from a woman: There are 5,200 pairs of Crocs in front of you, each one represents a relationship that was real and tangible until poor judgment tore it apart. A little girl asks her mother: Did this really happen? Mom: It did Gabby. It did. Close-up on the girl, as her image fades to black-and-white – except for her red coat, like the girl in Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, with similarly somber music.
In all the ecstatic spraise for her and her series this season, from the likes of such late-appreciating critics as in Variety, The New Yorker, Tilda Swinton, three Emmy nominations including as writer, director and actress, and the Television Critics Association Awards for Individual Achievement in Comedy and Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, there’s usually some off-hand acknowledgement of Sarah Silverman as a stylistic foremother, but none mention Joan Rivers as as influence, let alone a Jewish model, despite her eulogy tribute at the 2014 Glamour Woman of the Year Awards. She won for “Best Variety Sketch Series”
Schumer was the only Jewish woman comedian interviewed in Kevin Pollak’s highly edited documentary collection of interviews Misery Loves Comedy (previewed at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival), but, uncharacteristically, isn’t seen referencing anything Jewish about herself or her family. Only Richard Lewis infers a Jewish woman at all, telling a funny story of being embarrassed by his mother coming to his first show, introducing herself to everyone in the audience and heckling his exaggerated descriptions of family members.
Her frank acceptance speech for Trailblazer at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards, with no Jewish references, went viral.
Lindsay Zoladz’s review of her Beacon Theater performance in Vulture, “Amy Schumer’s Cultural Significance Is Manifest in the Trainwreck Comedy Tour” incidentally mentioned a significant Jewish woman in her family: “A man who worked with Schumer’s great-grandmother— a bootlegger who was the recipient of New York’s seventh liquor license after Prohibition — presented her with an old Schumer’s Wine & Liquors jacket. She regaled us with some impromptu asides about her great-grandmother: ‘Tennessee Williams bought the bottle of wine from her … that he died from’." So then I found her 6/25/2013 radio interview: "My great-grandma, who was a bootlegger in old New York, Estelle Schumer, she passed away a couple years ago, but her liquor store is still up on 54th Street. ... She was 94 when she died, or 95, and she would ... just say a word. ... She would call black people 'colored,' and it would just make all the blood rush to my head like, 'No, that's not OK.' But then you think, 'Well, she's so old,' and then, you know, I would mention that to my friends and then ... I realized ... most people I know have older relatives that will just say something that's just so unacceptable. And then I just thought, 'Well, what's the age? What's the cutoff?' Because if one of my parents said something inappropriate I would stop them."
While I’m always surprised that people aren’t aware she’s Jewish, what with all her references to being “half-Jewish”, I hadn’t realized she was raised Jewish until I read this piece by her childhood Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, inThe Jewish Week, 7/21/2015, where he notes “Her mother was on the temple board, and chaired the education committee. . . I officiated at the bar mitzvah ceremony of her older brother, Jason Stein. . . I remember Amy as a sweet, funny kid, who often asked probing and humorous questions in religious school.” In fondly calling her “a religious school cutup”, he declares her a “badkhan. . .the Jewish comedic tradition — social criticism, iconoclasm, anti-authoritarianism”, supported by the Talmud. (updated 11/21/2015)


Once Upon A Time (on ABC), “Darkness at the Edge of Town” episode, written by series creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, unnecessarily had its first Jewish implication. “Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin” (played by Robert Carlyle) is collecting villains to get them their happy endings. A la 101 Dalmations, he greets: Cruella de Vil! As played by Victoria Smurfit, she snarls: No one calls me that here. “Gold”: Well, I'm sorry, dearie, but Cruella Feinberg doesn't have quite the same ring. Her husband is being led away in cuffs to a police car, a la Bernie Madoff, while she grabs her fur coat and limousine from the hands of repo men and revs the engine to escape with the other villains in tow. (3/6/2015)

On Elementary (on CBS), “Hemlock” episode, written by Arika Lisanne Mittman, opens with blonde emphatic “Jill Horowitz” (played by Amy Hargreaves) knocking on the updated “Sherlock Holmes”s door: An acquaintance of mine says you're the best P. I. in the city. My husband Steven is an attorney at Dorchester-Reid. . . It's one of the top law firms in the city. Steven has been, um, distant lately. Works odd hours, makes ridiculous excuses. . . They work long hours, but lately it's been worse than usual. . . Steven has pulled plenty of all-nighters, but I haven't seen him in two days. . . All Steven does is work. He left me. I want you to do the P.I. thing. Find where he is, who he's with. Get me some pictures that I can use in court. Turns out he was let go, and his secretary has been fielding her calls, for a fee: Steven and Jill are not the most connected couple. . . She does a lot of charity work, he works long hours. I guess she would have found out eventually, but I'm not surprised he fooled her. . . Steven and Jill live in a co-op building, they belong to the Braebury Club. I guess he just wanted to keep up appearances. Turns out the guy (who “Sherlock” keeps pronouncing as “Horo-vitz”) was doing debt collections – which at first horrified me as the Shylock stereotype, thought there was no Jewish clues other than the name, but it turns out he was something of a Robin Hood trying to help out the accounts instead of dunning them, which is why an investor killed him. “Sherlock” meets with the wife at the end: You're Steven Horowitz's next of kin, so you rightfully inherit ownership of the debt he was collecting in order to maintain the family lifestyle. She’s teary: Steven could have told me he was fired. My God. What happened to us? “Sherlock”: I can tell you that that package, worked properly, will make you very, very wealthy. Steven decided he had other ideas for it. Whether or not you decide to honor those ideas is entirely up to you. Crying, she walks away without the files, and he shreds them. (7/31/2015)

In Forever (on ABC), from the first episode, the immortal “Dr. Henry Morgan” (played by Ioan Gruffudd, who I first saw in the movies as the Welsh-Yiddish speaking lover in the sweet Solomon and Gaenor) comes out of the smoky ruins of World War II to meet a beautiful Red Cross nurse “Abigail” (played by the very blonde Mackenzie Mauzy), his future wife: This baby was just recovered from one of the camps. He appears to be in perfect health. Close-up, improbably, onto the infant’s tattooed number that morphs into the one on “Abraham” (played by Judd Hirsch). It was over a dozen episodes until there was hint of a Jewish mother, in “Hitler on the Half Shell” written by Sarah Nicole Jones, when another immortal “Adam” (played by Burn Gorman), a survivor of Mengele’s gruesome experiments, sees the tattoo: The triangle underneath the numbers were only used in select camps, and each camp had a different placement for the tattoo on the body depending on which year it was. You were there in 1945, I suspect. He leaves “Abe” an Auschwitz ledger: I’m reading about Herman and Reba Weinraub – my parents. I know, I know – I could hardly believe it myself. It’s all in here. All the names, tattoo numbers, all lost records of Auschwitz. From that, they go to a “Jewish Heritage” archive and ask for any records. A box is produced with his parents’ wedding photograph, in close-up – which is the only reference to a Jewish woman. But when he’s excitedly tracking distant relatives in the next episode, somehow he only finds males, let alone a lot of non-Jewish ones, including as improbably as anything else in this enjoyable series, a common ancestor with his adopted father. (3/6/2015)

Breaking Borders (on Travel Channel) visited Jerusalem and the West Bank in “Mother of All Conflicts” with a chef for a sit down that included two Jewish women settlers, a teenager and a young wife of a kosher vintner. The editing didn’t include them getting to say much amidst the blowhard men around them, even as they nervously admitted it was the first time they’d sitten down to a meal with Palestinians, but both said they appreciated the effort at dialogue. (3/20/2015)

Kosher Soul (on Lifetime) is a typical over-produced, over-edited, over-stereotyped “reality” TV series (the network calls it “a docu-sitcom”) following the relationship of white Jewish Miriam Sternoff from Seattle, a “Los Angeles stylist” who describes herself as looking very “Jewey”, and her African-American fiancé O’Neal McKnight, a stand-up comic who uses her as fodder for his routine, let alone this show for his career. In the 1st episode “Black & Jewish”, the emphasis was more on black vs. white differences, though her mother Miriam insisted she would prefer that her daughter not marry a non-Jew. So her future son-in-law is converting, while he rues that growing up in the south: My family don’t know anything about Judaism. I couldn’t stand watching more of the 12 episodes, complete with wedding plans, any more than I can any other such reality shows with Jewish women. (3/8/2015)

I sporadically watch Blue Bloods (on CBS, out on DVD) because it’s filmed in and set in NYC, but the central multi-generation Irish Catholic family in law enforcement rarely interact with Jewish women. So this one was implicitly an odd twist on the stereotypes of Jews and money. As a putative Jewish woman, Tovah Feldshuh was noteworthy for showing up in “Bad Company” episode written by Bryan Goluboff as the love interest of the retired patriarch “Henry Reagan” (played by Len Carious). But his divorced granddaughter prosecutor “Erin Reagan-Boyle” (played by Bridget Moynahan) is suspicious and has her African-American investigator do some background checking: Well, it's kind of interesting, actually. Seems that Sylvia Hayden didn't exist, at least under that name, until 2007. But there are plenty of innocent explanations. . . That's all I can get from a cursory look. How far do you want me to take this? . I don't have a grandfather, but my grandmother raised me, and if I thought someone was messing with her, I'd turn over every stone until I knew damn sure she was safe. But the woman in question first pre-empts her by scheduling a lunch together and offers an explanatory monologue: A mystery woman suddenly starts dating your grandfather? (chuckles) I'd want to know everything I might just be a little curious. Here I am, Sylvia Hayden, in, uh, 30 seconds or less. Ready? Set your watch. I was born in the Bronx-- well, Riverdale-- and I had a quickie marriage at 19. He was so boring, I was a little crazy, and it lasted about 90 minutes. And then I was single for a long time. I had a lot of fun. And then, much later in life, I fell in love, and I got married again. For real this time. And that was my Max. And, uh, unfortunately, he he passed away about ten years ago. . .But I wound up reinventing myself as, of all things, a romance novelist. Well, Sylvia Attenberg wasn't a catchy enough name, so Sylvia Hayden was born. Here I am. “Erin”: So Sylvia Hayden is your nom de plume? “Sylvia”: Yes. But please don't bother with those books. They're trashy. It's just that I feel, uh, a little less lonely when I write them., she whispers conspiratorially. “Erin” is frosty: Well, hopefully Henry is making you feel a little less lonely, too. “Sylvia”: Let me be clear about my intentions, Erin.I don't plan to marry again, but I think, your grandpa and I, we can be great pals. I hope that sounds okay….So let's order. And I insist that it be my treat. . .Henry won't let me pay for anything. “Erin’s response is to sneak off with silverware to get her fingerprints, and she reports back to her grandfather: I had her checked out … Sylvia Hayden is not her real name. In fact, she's had many identities. And she has a history with older men. “Henry”: You think I don't know that? Erin, I'm an ex-cop.You think I didn't do my own digging? Of course she's got a past.Who doesn't?. . . I don't want to make you angry. I'm just enjoying the woman's company, and I don't see any reason to stop. “Erin”: There's an active warrant for Sylvia's arrest in Palm Springs for grand larceny. What do you want me to do? You want me to drop it, I will. [Wait, wouldn’t the book publisher have known?) “Henry”: A warrant they'll extradite on? . . . We're supposed to have a drink tonight later at the Hotel. We can have her arrested there. “Erin”: But are you sure that's what you want to do? “Henry”: No. At the hotel restaurant: “Henry”: This place was the scene of one of the biggest robberies in the city's history. Well, in the Hotel above us. “Sylvia”: A robbery here? Did you catch them? “Henry”: Oh, yeah. That's what you have to understand, Sylvia.We get everyone in the end. . . I think you know what I mean. Dating a Reagan maybe wasn't the smartest move on your part. “Sylvia” protests: That's because it wasn't a move, Henry. You think I didn't expect an ex-police commissioner to check me out? Or that I didn't notice your granddaughter putting a teaspoon with my fingerprints in her purse? Then why did you stay? I haven't done anything wrong. “Henry”: The DA in Palm Springs says different. “Sylvia” bitterly: What a joke. We were both adults who knew exactly what we were getting into. A man can't give a gift, and then expect it back when things go sour. “Henry” retorts: Sounds like it was a pretty big gift. “Sylvia”: Well, I'm a pretty great gal. Henry, breaking someone's heart is painful, but it doesn't make you a criminal. “Henry”: You'll have to tell that to the grand jury. “Sylvia”: What? Henry, please. I really like you. I hope you believe that. “Henry”: I choose to, Sylvia. “Erin” shows up as she’s taken away: I'm sorry I ruined this for you, Grandpa. “Henry”: You were just looking out for me. (updated 9/25/2015)

In the 2nd episode of The Book of Negroes (BET’s first mini-series, based on Canadian writer Lawrence Hill’s novel originally released in the U.S. as Someone Knows My Name, that I haven’t read yet), written by Clement Virgo, the main character, African slave “Aminata” (played by Aunjanue Ellis) is sold by her evil plantation owner to a yarmulke-wearing Jewish indigo trader “Solomon Lindo” (played by Allan Hawco) and his sweet wife “Rosa” (played by Amy Louise Wilson) in colonial Charles Town, who say/does nothing Jewish. The pregnant wife not only wants her midwifery and reading skills, but does try to help her track down the infant who was sold away from her, including daring to ask a slave trader for information and taking her to Hilton Head Island to follow up on his (false) lead. After her death from smallpox, the slave narrates: Losing Mrs. Lindo was painful. I had trusted Mrs. Lindo more than any other white person. But I was not allowed to attend the shivah or speak to any visitors about how much I had loved her. While the husband hypocritically claims she’s being treated like a servant, the slave finds out he arranged for the baby-selling. (Though he is so guilt-ridden that he arranges a reunion in the finale.) (updated 3/7/2015)

Dig (on USA) is set and filmed in Jerusalem and co-produced by Gideon Raff, one of the creators of Prisoners of War (Hatufim). But there was only a glimpse of presumably Jewish Israeli women in the background of a scene or two, a waitress who offers the hero soup to feel better, an oblivious police officer and mention of the wife of another, and a partially head-scarfed tour guide at the “Jerusalem Heritage Center” that is apparently at the center of a religious fanatic conspiracy. Even the performer “Julie” is in drag at a gay bar. Even the “Sisters of Dinah” episode is about an order of nuns. (updated 5/1/2015)

In Mad Men’s premiere episode of the final season, “Severance” by series executive producer Matthew Weiner, brought back “Rachel Menken Katz” (played by Maggie Siff). Aging roué “Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is thinking about her during a sexist casting call for fur coat models, so vividly the audience thinks at first it’s real when she provocatively flirts -- I’m supposed to tell you you missed your flight.-- I even though that could be her sensually waking with him in bed the next morning and not yet another bimbo one-night stand. So we’re as surprised as he when an appointment with her family’s department store to shill pantyhose has to be set up with her father, not her, and his secretary reports the reason is she just died. His sympathy visit is not only awkward, but her sister “Barbara Zax” (played by Rebecca Creskoff) realizes who this gentile lover is, and is definitely not welcoming to the shiva that she explains to him, while pointing to her young kids and that she died of leukemia: I’m sorry. I don’t know what you’re looking for here. . .She lived the life she wanted to live. She had everything. (More details forthcoming.)
”Q&A: Mad Men Creator Matthew Weiner Talks LA Jews and the American Dream”, including Rachel Menken, with David Samuels, 4/3/2015, before the last episodes were shown: “It was a big deal to have that character, that’s all I can say. . . She reminds me of women in my family, honestly. I’m a big fan of powerful women, and also of powerful Jewish women in particular. It’s funny because orthodoxy is extremely sexist. Orthodox Judaism. And at the same time, the ultimate goal for a man to study all day long requires that his wife have industry. So, you look at the leaders of the women’s movement, there are Jewish women who are cutting-edge in almost every field, especially in the 20th century. There’s a nice lineage.” (4/6/2015)


On Parks and Recreation (on NBC), Jenny Slate’s “Mona Lisa Sapirstein” returned, along with many other guest stars, as the series began to bid farewell. With an exaggerated baby-voice similar to her Marcel the Shell web series she makes with her husband Dean Fleischer-Camp, in “Two Funerals”, written by Jen Statsky, her father “Dr. Sapirstein” (played by Henry Winkler) is asked to the temporary mayor: You know, I've got my hands full with my practice, my other businesses, my two terrible children. I don't think I have time to be mayor., she interrupts: I will do John Mayer. Again. Daddy, someone set a fire in your car because you took too long and I got bored. She holds her hand out and threatens with a laugh: Money, please. That's fine. I'll just destroy this office. Money, please! Money, please. My money, please? Her father advises: Give her some money. It's easier.
In the “One Last Ride” finale, written by Amy Poehler and Michael Schur, her brother’s fake Jewish funeral is seen in 2023, as they plan to use the scammed life insurance money to build a casino in Tajikistan. In the extended producer’s cut, “Mona” high-5’s her bro “Jean-Ralphio” (played by Ben Schwartz): This is the best idea you’ve ever had! They both dance away, loudly, as they sing: Don’t be suspicious! -- of course attracting the surprised attention of the mourners. (5/3/2015)


Downton Abbey (on PBS, out on DVD), created and written by Julian Fellowes, introduced that the Jewish themes, and genteel anti-Semitism of the upper classes, by first reminding viewers, like me, about the American-born “Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham” (played by Elizabeth McGovern), who had forgotten her maiden name of “Levinson”, when she confessed to flattering art historian “Simon Bricker” (played by Richard E. Grant) about her social debut in London: My father was Jewish, and the money was new. But there was a lot of it, and I was pretty. As her husband’s empty-headed, bauble of a niece “Lady Rose MacClare” (played by Lily James) met and fell for handsome banker “(Ephraim) Atticus Aldridge” (played by Matt Barber), his Russian Jewish family background, including fleeing Odessa’s 1850’s pogroms and in England changing their (unknown?) name, got filled out, and his parents, now “Lord Daniel” (played by James Faulkner) and “Lady Rachel Sinderby” (played by Penny Downie), come for dinner, who are surprisingly reassuring about the couple: Lord Grantham, we both know what we're up against. Happily, we're used to it. You won't have any trouble with us. “Lord Robert Grantham” (played by Hugh Bonneville) does the aristrocratic equivalent of “best friends” line: Lady Grantham's father was Jewish. “Lady Sinderby” shoots back: That isn't a guarantee of tolerance. So it's a relief to hear you say it. Atticus seems to be very taken with your niece. And I must say, I find her quite charming. “Lord Grantham” to the mother: Does Lord Sinderby approve? “Lady Sinderby”: Well, you know, he needs time to settle into things. She turns to “Lady Grantham”: Your mother never considered converting? “Lady Grantham”: I don't believe so. “Lady Sinderby”, who knew what I didn’t: Was it difficult? Having a different religion from your father's? “Lady Grantham”, who evidently was raised Anglican: Not that I recall. “Lord Sinderby”: Hm. And you're not ashamed of him? “Lady Grantham”, who in last week’s episode was uncertain if Jews want potential spouses to convert like Catholics do, is pointed: Lord Sinderby, I would point out that we never changed our name. “Lord Sinderby”: It was my grandfather's decision. I thought of changing it back but the family felt they were English now and they wanted to stay English. Watching them, “Rose” reports to her about-to be-fiancé: Your mother and Robert are hitting it off. “Atticus” warns: She's not the problem. My father's the tough nut. She muses: My father's the darling; my mother's the nut. He’s gallant: Then we shall crack them against each other. But “Lord Grantham” warns his niece about her prospective father-in-law: He doesn't want Atticus to marry out of the faith. . .Why shouldn't he mind? He's an important figure in that community. At a formal dinner of the extended families, “Rose” naively assures her dowager aunt: I promise you we know difference in religion is a big thing. But the obnoxious “Larry Grey” (played by Charlie Anson), son of another affianced widower, sees an opening to ominously warn of future problems and rankled them all: How would you bring up any children, for example?. . .The fact is, most marriages that fail, founder for precisely this kind of reason. . . An irreconcilable difference. . . It might be different beliefs, or different nationalities or a huge age gap. . . I know the choice of in-laws is eccentric in this family. You already boast a chauffeur and soon you can claim a Jew.
In the wedding preparations in the U.S. season’s penultimate episode, “Rose” is still very naïve about Judaism, even as family members comment snidely about the family’s name change, but that’s why she wants to get married in London: And I want a blessing in a synagogue., and expresses she will try to win over her future father-in-law for her husband’s sake. “Lady Grantham” advises her that [Lady Sinderby]'s your ally. . . not because she thinks it's all unimportant, just that she thinks her son's happiness is more important. At the pre-wedding dinner hosted by the in-laws, “Rose”s mother “Lady Susan Flintshire” (played by Phoebe Nicholls) has arrived from India just-in-time to be appalled by the match, so she goads the future mother-in-law: Do you have any English blood? “Lord Sinderby” snaps back: We only date from the 1850s, but Lady Sinderby's family arrived in the reign of King Richard III. “Susan” continues: I think of you as nomads, drifting around the world. “Atticus” surprises her by dropping some name they’ll be visiting: Lady Melford is Mother's cousin. “Susan” keeps trying to foment problems: You wanted a synagogue blessing? “Rose” is cheerful: I'd like to respect both sides. Which infuriates “Lord Sinderby”: You don't understand our customs. Then again, why should you? “Rose” is crestfallen: So it won't be possible? Her father-in-law: No. He should have told you. “Lady Sinderby” invites the extended family to a dinner, leading “Susan”: Tell me, do you find it difficult these days to get staff? “Lady Sinderby”: Not very, but then we’re Jewish, so we pay well. “Lady Susan” rants to her estranged husband later about his “pseudo-tolerance”: I hated it. Having to play act in front of those people is so degrading. . . Did you know that Anne Melford was Jewish?. . . I don't feel as you do about it. She defends her scheme to split up the young couple: We have lost our position that we have lost everything the children have grown up expecting as their right. And now you want Rose to be an outcast? Later, in his study that has the obligatory TV symbol of Jewish identity with a menorah on his shelf, “Atticus” goads his father into making his objections clear: Let us be honest. I am against it. Our family has achieved a great deal since we came to this country and not just for ourselves, for our people. We have a proud history and we've taken our place among the leaders in this land. And now, you want to throw all that away for this little shiksa. [Much discussion online if an upper class, assimilated Russian Jew would use that phrase, but it so applies to the blonde bubblehead.) He continues to rant: I'm sorry. I don't mean to insult the girl. She seems decent enough. But she is English and Anglican and so will her children be. “Atticus”, uselessly: She’s Scottish. His father steams on, and I include this as I think there’s clues for tensions next season: The second Lord Sinderby may be Jewish, but the third will not. Soon our family will be one more British dynasty with all the same prejudices as everyone else who shops at Harrods! Any children will be brought up to know both sides of their heritage. Your children will not be Jewish! Don't you understand that? Their mother will not be Jewish and neither will they! “Atticus” turns out to be as naïve as his new wife: They may choose to convert. Or are you implacably opposed to giving anyone a free choice? His father warns: How easy you make it sound, and how little you've had to fight. Meanwhile, “Rose” has already told her cousins about future children: I intend to leave it all to Nanny. “Lady Mary” has been making various snide remarks, and turns to the dowager expecting her to be shocked by the wedding: I dare say this is a first for you, Granny, to sample the joys of a registry office. As played by Dame Maggie Smith: You'd be quite wrong, no, in 1878 I attended the wedding of Lord Rosebery and Hannah Rothschild held in the Board of Guardians, very much the same. “Lady Mary”, who has been more unsympathetic than usual this season: It seems almost sad in a way. Her grandmother: But in marrying a Rothschild, there are certain compensations. “Lady Susan” keeps trying to shock her mishpuchah, by announcing her impending divorce. But “Lady Sindrey” steps in: Thank you, Lady Flintshire. Or may I call you Susan? We are forewarned and so now we will be forearmed. And turns, along with her son, to hiss at her husband: Do anything to stop this marriage, anything at all, I will leave you, and then you will have a scandal worthy of the name! Oh, I doubt you expected to take your beloved child through the portals of Caxton Hall Registry Office. He caves: There are lots of things in my life I never anticipated, but if you're sure, I'm sure. There’s various mutterings about whether this is a “real wedding”, what with no veil, and going for a blessing at the Savoy Chapel, but “Rose” insists: You do realize this is my real wedding? . . This is where I become his wife. One of the lady guests comes up to “Cora”: It must be very trying, but I so admire you for putting on a good face. “Cora” sweetly retorts: I wonder if you remember that my father was Jewish? (updated 3/1/2015)


In New Girl (on Fox) “Schmidt” (played by Max Greenfield) once again comically remembers a Jewish woman from his past, in “Teachers”, written by Kim Rosenstock: Born not knowing how to do laundry? Yes, like everyone else. It wasn’t until after birth that the trouble really began. Nana wouldn’t let me in the laundry room. I think it was because my hands were always covered in butter,, as his fat younger self is seen eating bagels while the curly-haired grandmother (I can’t ID the actress) takes away his dirty clothes. In “LAXmas”, written by Max Fusfeld and Alex Cuthbertson, “Schmidt” throws off a lot of lines about his New York suburban Jewish origins, but the only one that even indirectly referenced women, oddly, was the quizzical: I'm going back home to Long Island, the birthplace of the female crew cut.
Michael Ausiello, now of TV Line, used stereotyped description in announcing, on 1/23/2015, that “Nora Dunn to guest-star as Schmidt’s never-before-seen mother. . .Dunn’s straight-outta-Long-Island, controlling matriarch, Louise, is always ready with unsolicited advice or a piece of chocolate.” The episode itself “The Right Thing”, was so offensive that it defensively pro-actively inserted “Max” saying it could be seen as anti-Semitic. Guess they figured they was a vacancy after the late Mrs. Wolowitz on Big Bang Theory (On CBS, out on DVD) (Detailed commentary forthcoming – even after her death, there were a lot of references to her through the end of the season) (updated 9/25/2015)


In “Time and Tide” episode of spies in NYC 1946-set Marvel’s Agent Carter (on ABC, on DVD), written by Andi Bushell and Eric Pearson, had the first Jewish reference in the mini-series, which is always ironic in these comic-book inspired off-shoots, as so many were originally created by Jews to fantasize battling Hitler and anti-Semites. Inventor/businessman “Howard Stark”s very British butler “Edwin Jarvis” (played by James D'Arcy), who was very devoted to and touchy about threats against his heard-but-unseen wife “Ana”, explained the backstory of his difficulties: Would it satisfy you to know that the charge of treason was dropped almost immediately? . . . Before the war, I served under a general. We traveled a great deal. We were in Budapest when I met Ana. She worked in a hotel tailor shop. Sold me the most beautiful tie. And then the war broke out, and things became difficult. “Peggy Carter” (played by Hayley Atwell ) interrupts: She was Jewish. “Jarvis”: Still is, I'm happy to say. The general carried several letters of transit in his safe, any one of which would have ensured her safety, but he refused to sign. “Carter”: You forged his name. “Jarvis”: Hence the dishonorable discharge. It was filing the papers that sunk me. I was arrested in the middle of Whitehall. On a Tuesday. “Carter”: How did Anna get out? “Jarvis”: The same way I avoided the noose. “Carter”: Howard? “Jarvis”: Mr. Stark had unfinished business with the general, and he and I had always got along. When he heard of my predicament, he used his influence. (updated 9/25/2015)

The Dovekeepers (CBS 2-part mini-series) Mea culpa: for comparison, I haven’t yet read the book by Alice Hoffman, who is the older sister of a long-time friend of my husband’s, and I watched while tired and multi-tasking. I appreciated the focus on the difficult role of kind of (confusingly) diverse Jewish women in Judea and that the men are indistinguishably bland beefcakes, out of old swords & sandals epics like women are usually used. But I can’t forget Masada (1981), back when mini-series weren’t mini, with Peter O’Toole as the conflicted Roman general and Barbara Carrera as his sultry Jewish slave, who choose her freedom over his love (sigh). I do find it odd that “Shira” (played by Cote de Pablo, who the CBS audience still thinks of as Ziva David, the much-missed Mossad agent in NCIS, used “The Sh’ma” as a lullabye. I like that “Yael” is played by red-headed Rachel Brosnahan, who eagerly teases her Teutonic Roman slave lover that her hair reminds him of his women back home. Nice touch when the two women, as survivors, insist to Jewish historian Josephus (Sam Neill) that their eyewitness accounts are intended as “kaddish” for their community. (More commentary forthcoming.) (4/5/2015)

Red Tent (on Lifetime) not only turned Anita Diament’s romantic midrash into, well, a Lifetime movie, there was little sense of its Jewish Biblical roots. Even worse, the lead-in Women of the Bible was almost all evangelical Christian interpretations, with women ministers glowing with faith in Jesus and seizing upon Christian iconography everywhere in the Torah amidst the admirably interracial but not, well, faithful reenactments. The “Old Testment” was dispensed with in the first 42 minutes, before going on to Mary, with Sarah, Rahav (who was included because she’s considered an ancestor of Jesus), and Samson’s mother, plus Delilah, though a “Bible teacher” did proudly note that Eve was initially created equal to Adam. Hagar (and her role as the mother of Muslims) was dealt with by Rabbi Laura Geller. Interestingly, she was not listed in producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s press release announcing the TV special. Even Jewish publications didn’t pick up that all the listed “experts” were Christian – perhaps fooled by the inclusion of a Joyce Meyer, whose affiliations weren’t listed but who turns out to be as evangelical as the rest. So it’s amusing that in Hollywood they turned to Temple Emmanuel of Beverly Hills for a token, albeit prominent, representative. (12/8/2014)

On Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (on PBS), Canadian-born, bi-racial actress Gloria Reuben [the transcript is not completely accurate] got confirmation that her father, who died when she was very young, was Jewish, but from Jamaica in the post-expulsion diaspora from Spain. Prof. Gates notes: On December 19th, 1831, just months before your great-grandparents’ wedding, the Jewish people in Jamaica were finally granted full rights under the law. . . Too late to have a bat mitzvah,, he joked. She laughs: So basically, I’m a Jewish girl in a black body. That was so not PC! -- and her DNA is 59% European. Basketball player Rebecca Lobo discovers that the unknown father of her grandmother, a domestic servant photographed dressed in fur, was an Ashkenazi Jew – with no further commentary. In his “Decoding the Past” episode that focused on what DNA can reveal, Jessica Alba’s Mexican roots revealed a great-great-whatever-grandmother who was probably a Sephardic “crypto-Jew” (and he claims Alan Dershowitz is her genetic cousin). Dershowitz did a funny take about taking credit on whether she, or any of such mixed background, can say they’re Jewish.
The “Our People Our Traditions” episode of Jewish celebrities featured Carole King Klein, as she announced she has now legally changed her name to after having adopted her several husbands’ names. Describing herself as “a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn”, she’s surprisingly gobsmacked to learn that her grandmother’s Yiddish name was Shaina, while Prof. Gates seemed to think she adopted the “English” name Sarah without understanding that was probably her Hebrew name. In identifying her hometown of Orsha, Russia (and Carole was ignorant of the Pale of Settlement), he uncovers documentation of a pogrom Shaina would have witnessed at age 15, before emigrating at age 21. On her paternal side, he found their namesake patron at Ellis Island, and traced her family in Russia back through 18th century marriage records.
The American Masters Me-Generation episode “The Boomer List” only indirectly referenced Jewish women, by including Eve Ensler, who talked about feminisn not her paternal ethnic identity, and Rosie O’Donnell, who quoted the maternal Yiddish endearments -- includingshaina maidel-- of a school friend’s mother for providing her first warmth and affection. (updated 11/26/2014)


On Scorpion, yet another CBS crime-of-the-week drama that I quickly stopped watching, in the “True Colors” episode by Rob Pearlstein, yet another elderly, heavily accented daughter of a Holocaust victim sought the return of her father's Nazi-seized $100 million-worth painting from a German museum by the fictional Franz Bierman, his only one to survive the war, as “the rightful owner”, whose family bought it from the artist in 1937. When it’s finally recovered by all kinds of skullduggery to end up faking its destruction, , she (played by Gisela Kovach) bestows a heartfelt “Danke”, the based-on-the-real genius “Walter O’Brien” (played by Elyes Gabel) cautions her: Don’t put it near your window Mrs. Mueller. All to teach him a lesson in a painting’s ineffable meaning beyond the aesthetic or financial. (11/30/2014)

On Brooklyn Nine-Nine (on Fox), the “Halloween II” episode, written by Prentice Penny, Andy Samberg’s “Det. Jake Peralta” let loose with one of his few references to even knowing any Jewish women, when he protested in a scrum: Hey- I need this jacket for my cousin’s bat mitzvah next week! (updated 11/10/2014)

On The Mindy Project (on Fox), which prides itself on diversity, a Jewish woman character was only revealed to be Jewish in a December Dilemma context. In “Christmas”, written by Charlie Grandy, “Dr. Peter Prentice” (played by Adam Palley, who is usually perceived as playing Jewish characters) approaches ex-girlfriend neurosurgeon “Lauren” (played by Tracey Wigfield) at the end of the doctors’ office Christmas party: Before you go. . . Merry Christmas. She: Well, technically, it’s Happy Hanukkah. He: Oh, that’s right, I forget that you’re a fellow soldier. . . Together: In the war on Christmas. He: And you hate Christmas. She: Well, Happy New Year., with a quick kiss on his cheek. I can’t find confirmation that her character is Jewish -- or even has a last name yet. (2/4/2015)

Grimm (on NBC) followed the tradition of just about every supernatural series by having a golem episode. But where the opening quote usually is from the Grimms’ Tales, “Livin’ On A Prayer”, written by Sean Calder, specifically referenced “The Golem of Prague”: “Oh, remember that you fashioned me from clay! Will you then bring me down to dust?” With a supernatural creature outside the show’s mythology of “vessens”, the episode was unusually faithful to the Jewish folk tale in having the golem generated by a Jew as a protector against a violent non-Jew and was controlled by a Jew. Until we see the brother is a kabbalist rabbi, “Ben Fisher” (played by David Julian Hirsh), there wasn’t any indication that his sister, “Sarah” (played by auburn-haired Brigid Brannagh) and her son “David” (played by blond Jakob Salvati) were Jewish, when she defends them from the blows, and they flee from, an abusive “vessen” ex-husband/step-father to treatment at the hospital. With considerable resonance, the brother whispers to her: That son-of-a-bitch! If he ever touches you again. . .Never again Sara. In his temple, he calls up the golem from fragments of the original that had disappeared from Prague and the clay monster clay-bombs the ex. The rabbi confesses: I prayed – this man was destroying my family! Though the cops say they can’t arrest a guy for praying, he confesses to his insistently skeptical sister: You did not kill [him] and neither did a golem. Whatever happened to [him] he deserved. When her “vessen” brother-in-law pursues them, she protects her son and calls the police, who realize the golem is reappearing whenever her son feels threatened. The rabbi figures out that a written “Shem prayer” is needed to stop the monster, but: It’s my sister I’m worried about. She doesn’t believe any of this. (Maybe she’s learned the symbolic lesson against intermarriage, though an ongoing secondary theme is negative reaction to an inter-vessen marriage between two sweet regular characters.) Because the golem is not their usual supernatural prey, the cops have to scare the boy to generate the golem, to her considerable consternation, but she gives him a big, proud hug when he screws up the courage to use the writing himself to drive the golem back into the earth. The central cop learns a lesson, too: I’m never yelling at a kid again. (11/15/2014)

Annie Edison in the 6th Season of Community (on Yahoo Screen) In a binge viewing of what looked to be the final season, and now completely under the creative control of creator Dan Harmon, only one episode had even a slight reference that she was Jewish (in “Basic Email Security” written by Matt Roller, when she defends the right of a stand-up comic whose offensive routine includes Jewish slurs and stereotypes), though others mentioned in passing her past pill addiction and her personality traits that have Jewish inferences. (updated 9/12/2015)

In The Blacklist (on NBC, on DVD), the convoluted conspiracy spy thriller series, in the season opening “Lord Baltimore” episode, written by Jon Bokenkamp and John Eisendrath, a mysterious beautiful woman, “Samar Navabi” (played by Iranian-American Mozhan Marnò, of The Stoning of Soraya M.), rescues the master criminal/FBI informant “Raymond 'Red' Reddington” (played by James Spader). She talks on the phone in something like Hebrew as he tries to figure out who she is and how she found him through a very complicated and ingenious tracking of his preferences for earth tone color clothes: Lord Baltimore? Aren’t you a surprisingly sexy minx. She smirks: Who is it exactly do you think I am? He: You’re Mossad. Please don’t tell me this is about that little dust-up in Haifa? She: That “little dust-up in Haifa” claimed the lives of two agents and a Turkish diplomat. They taunt each other – but he figures out that her falcon tattoo is a tribute to her brother killed in a terrorist attack, whose name meant “falcon” in Farsi – so she could be Jewish and/or Iranian and/or Israeli. She showed up again for a nick-of-time rescue in “Monarch Douglas Bank”, written by Kristen Reidel, Amanda Kate Shuman, and Daniel Knauf, and was filmed in my neighborhood standing in for a Polish city:I’m Samar Navabi, I’m Mossad. You’re outgunned – go I’ll cover you – go! And she lets loose with a machine gun volley. The FBI is surprised: Who the hell is Samar Navabi? Both sides figure out her usefulness, because she hands over a file to the FBI, evidently to get on the team—then slyly assures “Red” “I’m in.”
In “Dr. James Covington”, written by Lukas Reiter and J.R. Orci, “Samar” is introduced to the team. One guy is taken aback: You’re tall. But “Agent Elizabeth Keen” (played by Megan Boone) is suspicious when “Samar” calmly notes: Met in Warsaw. Glad you made it out. Are those live NSA feeds? They’d kill for those in Teheran. “Keen” asks what I was thinking: How does an Iranian end up working for Mossad?, but only gets a parry: How does the FBI end up working for Reddington? “Keen” persists: How did you find you us in Warsaw? Who told you we were there? When their boss interrupts, she fumes to her partner: How do we know we can trust her? Partner “Donald Ressler” (played by Diego Klattenhoff): We don’t, but she did save our lives. So that deserves some good will. She persists: You know Reddington sent her to Warsaw. There has to be something going on there. Her partner teases: Sounds like someone is getting a little jealous of a new crush. “Samar” shows up at the conclusion: A victory! You guys don’t celebrate when you close up a big case? Let me buy you a drink?. . .All you know about me is that I found Reddington and whatever you might have read in a slim dossier. But now we’re working together with all that implies. I’m sure you don’t know what to think. . . I’m not wrong. You’re right not to trust me. “Keen”: Oh you’re right about that. You’re wrong if you think you found Reddington. If he was found it was because he wanted to be. And he wanted you to find him. “Samar”: Maybe I’m just good at what I do. Is that so difficult to believe? “Keen”: If he wanted you here he had a good reason. That’s why I don’t trust you. Because I don’t know what the reason is. And I’m guessing, neither do you.-- and storms out. Heck, me too!
”The Front”, story by Adam Sussman, teleplay by Sussman and Jim Campolongo, confused even more her identity and her role vis a vis “Keen”, evidently to humanize her. While she at first is efficiently doing background research, she unexpectedly turns on “Keen” at her failure on a mission that let plague specimens get away – we haven’t seen her that emotional before: You had it! Did you hesitate or not? “Keen”: He threatened to release it! “Samar” heatedly: Now a madman is out there with the ability to start a pandemic!. . .For a strain that’s 700 yrs old. We have to assume there is no cure for whatever [he] got his hands on. . .Unbelieveable! Their boss cuts her off: That’s enough!-- implied is that the Mossad has higher standards for accomplishment. But the two women bond in the field, after “Samar” runs after the suspect and not only gets shot: I’m infected. If you come here you will be too. But “Keen” not only comes in to comfort her, but confides about her upside down personal life. “Samar” warns her that their co-workers are all gossiping about “Keen”s relationship with “Reddington”. (I would have thought it would be the mysterious “Samar” they’d be talking about.) “Samar” wakes in her hospital bed just long enough to take the hand of “Aram Mojtabai” (played by Amir Arison), who looked as surprised as I was.
“The Scimitar”, written by J.R. Orci and Lukas Reiter, makes clear she’s still working for Mossad. In the opening episode, speaking Farsi, she sets up a sexy honeypot for an Iranian who ends up flying out of his high hotel room in Dubai onto a car. Later, she protests he was an Iranian businessman who committed suicide, but “Reddington” taunts her: He wasn't a mere businessman. He was one of Iran's top nuclear scientists in Dubai to supervise purchase of several borehole gamma something-or-others. And he didn't commit suicide. He was assassinated in a joint C. I. A./Mossad venture to undermine Iran's nuclear program, but, then, you know this already. My understanding is, she took a little detour to Dubai for a rendezvous with Mr. Nouri so she could toss him off a building. “Keen” is shocked, but “Samar” is cool: If you're asking me to comment on a Mossad operation, you know I can't do that. He warns that the Iranians plan revenge, and she is very familiar with the murders the hired killer has committed in the Middle East. She follows a lead who has beenthe target of a major Mossad initiative . . . Mossad has been tracking his movements for months. . .My superiors believe he's the key to unraveling a dozen covert Iranian ops. “Red” warns her about blowing their operation to help the F.B.I.: Mossad has no tolerance for any agenda except Mossad's. You'll be sanctioned for this indiscretion. She defends her new loyalties: I can't work with this task force unless my partners are my highest priority. “Red” taunts her more: So this has become quite personal. . . But you may have an even more personal stake in this case - than perhaps you realize. . . Because one of The Scimitar's little-known aliases is Walid Abu Sitta. She’s shocked: Walid Abu Sitta is the man who ordered the bombing that killed my brother. She gets the guy and threatens him: You've been very careless, Ali. My unit has been surveilling you for months, and the intelligence we've gathered has been very helpful so helpful that I fully expect to be disciplined for coming here without authorization. Just by being here, I have everything and, therefore, nothing to lose. “Red” adds a distinctive threat: Imagine your future, the rest of your life spent in a dismal Israeli prison, some dark hole they put you in, bending your fingers and pulling your toes until they forget you ever existed. Gosh, that was easy confession to next get to The Scimitar! “Red” leaves her with him to exact her own revenge, but the guy taunts her, and chuckles about the murdered scientist in Dubai, as they switch from Farsi to English and he blames a suicide bomber—implying the brother killed himself: I spoke to him the day he died. . . If you think your beloved brother was just another faceless young man in that crowd you know nothing. She slaps him hard: What do you know about my brother? He: There’s no country insisting you do your duty. If you kill me it will be cold-blooded murder. So call Mossad or call the CIA or wheover’s coming and be done with it. In the conclusion, there’s word that a guy who looks like The Scimitar has been fished out of the Potomac. [I may have mixed up the bad guys a bit.] In the season finale, when conspirators try to take over, she’s threatened with being turned over to Iran to be tried for murdering their nuclear scientist.
In a promotional feature before the SuperBowl episode, shown on Oxygen, Mozhan Marnò, admitted that “Samar” “through some mysterious way [she] came to work for the Mossad. . .What’s so interesting about the character is that you don’t know exactly where she stands.” Or if she’s Jewish, though she seems to murmur Islamic prayers at critical moments.
But it wasn’t until Season 3’s 7th episode “Zal Bin Hasaan - No 31”, written by Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier, that it was explicitly clear – to my exacting satisfaction -- that she is Muslim, not Jewish. There were flashbacks to show she went over to the Mossasd due to her family’s conflicts with the Iranian Revolutionary regime, though she’s even seen to have had an affair with an Israeli colleague, played, as usual, by Oded Fehr, of course. (updated 1/23/2016)


Though Makers: Women Who Make America – Women in Comedy (on PBS) featured many Jewish women comics and writers, including Bea Arthur, Roseanne Barr, Joy Behar, Susie Essman, Chelsea Handler, Laraine Newman, Gail Parent, Totie Fields, and “in loving memory” the late Joan Rivers, only the clips and interviews with and about Sarah Silverman specifically referred to her as Jewish and in a Jewish context, that somehow in their minds were linked to her sweetness and prettiness, in contrast to the earlier comics making fun of themselves.
Silverman herself did a fondly funny tribute to Rivers in her return as guest host on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, sans Jewish references.
Silverman was key over the past year in promoting on Twitter the efforts of Women of the Wall for gender equality in access to and prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, particularly when her activist sister sister and niece, who had made aliyah several years ago, were arrested during a protest. She went further at Hanukkah, when her family was in Jerusalem to attend her nephew’s bar mitzvah, by lighting a menorah forbidden in the women’s section. (updated 12/21/2014)


In the 5th/final season of Boardwalk Empire, set in 1932, there was finally more than a cameo appearance by a wife of one of the Jewish Prohibition-era gangsters . In the “What Jesus Said” episode, written by Cristine Chambers and Howard Korder, the widow of Arnold Rothstein has the real name of “Carolyn Rothstein” (neé Green) (played by Shae D'lyn) is shrewdly demanding back embezzled profits from inside trader stock trades, through blackmail of the central gangster’s wife, and out of bitterness about her philandering, milk-drinking husband -- I don't keep milk in the house anymore, it turns my stomach. . .And when he died? . . Do you know what I have to show for it? This tea set, that hideous chair, this ring. Oh, and humiliation. Arnold left me buckets of that. Everything else I've had to sell. . .Let’s see how you like seeing your name in the paper next to the words “notorious husband”.
In the penultimate episode “Friendless Child”, written by Cristine Chambers, Riccardo DiLoreto and Howard Korder, NYC gangster ”Benny ‘Bugsy’ Siegel” (played by Michael Zegen) touches the mezuzah on an apartment door frame before a sexy woman in a red dress (played by Leighton Bryan) opens up: If it ain’t the macher of Willett Street. “Benny”: Is your husband around? She: He went to Aqueduct for the morning. He: Then I’ll just grab what I came for. That would be her, and she just gets to slam the door shut before they’re having sex. They finish up in bed and she puts on a slinky robe: Next time get here earlier you won’t have to work so hard. He: Then I would have to talk to you. She teases in Yiddish what blogger say was mayn kleyne farbrekher --“My little criminal”-- but I couldn’t catch, before they kiss goodbye. He: Talia, I think I left my tongue down there. She chuckles and gently pushes him out, after checking the coast is clear. He touches the mezuzah again, but her husband “Morris Bindleman” (actor not yet ID’d) comes up the stairs: Benny Siegel! What brings you to the neighborhood? “Benny” jokingly makes up a story: I don’t name names. “Morris”: John Hancock for my wife? Everybody knows who you are. “Benny”: Sure thing. Clara, right? “Morris”: Talia. “Benny”: I was thinking of my aunt. “Morris” recalls how their fathers were in the same minyan at the Bialystoker synagogue (on Willett Street). “Benny”: They were praying for both of us. “Talia” comes out. “Morris”, objecting that she’s not dressed: Look who it is! Benny Siegel! She: Talk about bad pennies. “Morris”: Why you got to be like that for? With you it’s always crepe-hanging. This is an important person! “Benny” then uses “Morris” as a shield when he’s attacked, but wishes “Morris” Abi Gezunt!. Once “Benny” is kidnapped and tied up in Atlantic City: You gonna use that phone? I gotta call Esther. It’s Lag B’Omer tonight and I said I’d be there. “Mickey Doyle” (Paul Sparks): Somebody married you? “Siegel”: Now you’re talking shit about my wife? It so happens I’m gonna be a father in a couple of weeks. I take that very seriously. Sure I cat around. But that woman is waiting for me I don’t forget. So any of you momsers rats me out I was being at that apartment, I’ll slam a slug so far up your asses your back teeth will. . . He’s knocked out into silence, until he starts singing a dirty ditty, and he does not go back to his wife right away when he celebrates his brutally negotiated release.
Plus here’s my commentary on the references to real dental history in the final season, in tribute to my father. (updated 10/28/2014)


In Red Band Society (on Fox) the blonde rich Mean Girl cheerleader “Kara Souders” (played by Zoe Levin) with a scheming need to move up on the heart transplant list suddenly inserted a completely out of context Jewish reference in her snappy dialogue in “So Tell Me What You Want What You Really, Really Want” with You understand me? And why is today different from all other days? Ma nishtana-zee? -- but in watching the entire season I didn’t pick up any other Jewish clues, nor from her parents in family therapy in the concluding episodes, and fan sites aren’t describing her as Jewish. (updated 4/8/2015)

On Episodes (4th season on Showtime) I caught most of this season in a binge replay, so I first saw the William Morris Endeavor agent “Eileen Jaffee” (played by Andrea Rosen) from the 2nd episode on, so I only picked up that she may be meant to be a satire of a putative Jewish woman, with her highly exaggerated flat, nasal voice when she told her clients the British “Lincolns” couple (played by Tamsin Grieg and Stephen Mangan) who have successfully pitched their new sitcom in Hollywood: Mazel tov, as you probably don't say. Or does she just think that’s an Americanism? (1/7/2016)

In Royal Pains (on USA), episode “Oh, M. G.” written by Aubrey Karr, ill nail artist “Lauren” (played by Tracee Chimo) is told to rest. But she protests: I’ve been hired to do nails at the Mendelsohn bat mitzvah tonight, and posting cool nails on Instagram is everything to a 12 year old girl! The physician’s assistant warns her if she doesn’t rest, she’ll miss more than one bat mitzvah. (8/23/2014)

In The Mysteries of Laura (NBC series based on a telenovela transplanted to New York City) in “The Mystery of the Terminal Tenant”, written by Jeff Rake and Amanda Green, a little old lady with a thick New York accent sprinkles Yiddish. She identifies herself to the detectives: Lillian as in Gish. Greenberg as in Hank (played by Sondra James) – so “Det. Laura Diamond” (played by Debra Messing, who frequently plays Jewish characters, so I’m trying to tell if she is here) retorts: Your references are older than mine. But first she’s seen calling out to her upstairs neighbor: Mark something up here is leaking shmutz through my ceiling!, and faints when she finds the remains of a body in the bathtub. As the murderer flees with her credit card, they track that it was used to buy tickets to Boca Raton. She declares: I certainly did not! There’s such yentas in Boca! (11/6/2014)

In The Knick (on Cinemax), set in 1900 at a downtown New York City hospital The Knickerbocker where medical doctors are pioneering risky surgical and experimental procedures and treatments, but have retrograde social and racial ethnic and class biases, the episode “Where’s The Dignity”, written by series creators Jack Amiel & Michael Begler, the surgeon “Dr. Bertram 'Bertie' Chickering Jr.” (played by Michael Angarano) says a few words in her language as he examines a coughing, middle-aged woman with a babushka. To his disapproving uptown doctor father, he shows off his quick diagnosis : I’m starting to pick some of it up. They said Latin and Greek are the most important languages for a physician to learn. It’s actually something called Yiddish. . .Lungs are full. Fever. Looks like pneumonia. Not likely tuberculosis. She’s a secondary emergency. and chalks her with a #2.
Jenny Slate noticed this, too, when she caught up on the series and tweeted: “Is anyone writing an ep of The Knick where all of the Drs give a Jewish woman a loving breast exam&let her smoke opium&eat lamb?. . .It's just like if The Knick wants to be accurate they shld do an ep in which Im a Jewess dressed in velvet&the Drs inspect my bunz w kissies.” (updated 9/25/2015)


In The League (sports sitcom on FX), Lizzy Caplan returned as the Orthodox Jew “Rebecca Ruxin”, sister of League member “Rodney”, in the episode “When Rafi Met Randy”, written by Jason Mantzoukas and Seth Rogen. In what is a fantasy flashback, she runs in to find her true love “Rafi” (played by Mantzoukas) fallen at the bottom of the stairs, and tearily revives him by putting his hand on her breast. He awakes: It’s a mitzvah. She agrees, and they are about to be married when shirtless “Dirty Randy” (Rogen) interrupts to be the best man: Now go make an honest Jew out of her. Their big kiss returns them all to reality. (Thanks to Eliav Levy for the citation).
I don’t know if an earlier appearance by her in the series was being referenced in the 6th season opener when “Jenny MacArthur” (played by Katie Aselton) in the “Sitting Shiva” episode, written by Jeff Schaffer and Jackie Marcus Schaffer, claimed at a Jewish funeral of a league member to know the difference between “shiva” and “Shiva” because I was Jewish for a brief time last year, though that has been a running joke in the series the few times I’ve watched it. (updated 10/15/2014)


Grace and Frankie – Frankie Bergstein (on Netflix; out on DVD) Whoops – I only found out that Lily Tomlin is playing a Jewish woman in this sitcom in Summer 2015 after all the episodes were put up online – so commentary forthcoming. Season 2 began streaming Spring 2016 before I even got a chance to watch S1 yet. (updated 5/6/2016)

Younger – Lauren and mother in the 1st season (half-hour sitcom on TV Land, based on a book I haven’t read by Pamela Redmond Satran) Not only is there no explicit indication that Debi Mazar’s lesbian artist in Brooklyn “Maggie” is Jewish, though I wonder if the audience perceived Miriam Schor’s “Diana Trout” as Jewish, a bitchy publishing boss like the women in fashion on Ugly Betty who bragged about an affair with Philip Roth. I didn’t get any hint that “Lauren” (played by Molly Bernard) is Jewish until near the end of the 1st season in “The Boy With The Dragon Tattoo”, written by Rick Young. (It’s a repeating pattern that executive producer Darren Star uses male writers to write shows about women.) The marketing assistant “Kelsey Peters” (played by Hilary Duff) explains why she and her co-worker at the book publisher “Lauren” are living with “Lauren”s parents for the past two years: It started out we were just going to stay until we found a place, and then we realized we were never going to be able to live in Manhattan on our salaries. Rosa does all of our laundry. Denise is like the Jewish mother I never had. And the alternative is bed bugs. “Denise” (played by Kathy Najimy) welcomes “Liza” (played by Sutton Foster) for a sleep-over: I love being a den mother! Yours are the pink towels, all right? Don't use the wrong color. Rosa gets furious. She can’t help dropping that she has a friend on Real Housewives of New York, who could promote their company’s book, though she doesn’t read since her last eye tuck. But this revelation made me a bit uncomfortable that the biggest scene “Lauren” had before was in “ Broke and Pantyless”, written by Star, where “Kelsey” admires her for her money-making expertise: She’s the Queen of the Second Shift.. She explains the options in her files: cater waiter, hair fairy, comedy club barker, um Oh, dancing taco? Uh, hand model? ”Kelsey”: Tell her about the other thing you did for money, you know, when your parents cut you off for a month. “Lauren”: For, like, a hot minute, I had a nice little side biz selling my panties on Craigslist. It's so much better than the other skeezy stuff guys will pay for. $200 a pair. And they must be used. Yep, like, wear them for three days, work out in them, never take them off used. “Liza”: And you did this? “Lauren”: Yeah, quite successfully. I got to tell you, there's definitely a market there.
Simiarly close to stereotypes was “Hot Mitzvah”, written by married couple Dottie Dartland Zicklin and Eric Zicklin. “Lauren” sends out an animated “13 + 13 = 26” e-vite with a klezmer score and avatars of first her 13 year old self: At my bat mitzvah, I hated how I looked.That's why 13 years later, I am throwing a Hot Mitzvah. and her now avatar is in a busty bikini decorated with Stars of David: I crocheted it out of two yarmulkes. She makes a point of inviting “Maggie” as an OWL – “Older Wise Lesbian” . In the synagogue, her parents are on the bima, next to a woman rabbi, to a klezmer background. Mom, echoed by dad: The other thing we love about our Laura is that she never gives up. Never. She is the master of the encore. Her 2nd try at the SAT’s. Dad (played by Josh Pais): Her 2nd time she went to college. Mom: Her 2nd nose job. “Lauren” peeks out annoyed from behind a curtain decorated with Jewish stars and memorahs. Mom tries to add a joke: As plain as the nose on her face. We’d like to bring to the bimah the star of all of our lives Lauren Tovah Heller! “Lauren” in a bare-shouldered, very short dress: Who’s ready to worship? My torah portion is about Jacob, son of Isaac and Rachel. Jacob lied to his father, pretending to be his brother in order to unfairly win their father's blessing. . . Today, I am the older, serving my younger self, bearing my honest feelings with all of you. Because being honest with the people we love is what today is really all about. Yes, at my first bat mitzvah, I didn't have the nerve to kiss the person that I wanted. But tonight, I'm hot, and I'm kissing who I want. Mom calls out: Shabbat shalom. At the following party, “Lauren”s delighted that the rapper jumps down from the stage to chant: I'm adoring Lauren Heller. She's hella hot. But at 13, she was mos def not. Skinny with pimples, getting dissed by the cutie. Now look who's got a good job and a small booty. She drags her work friends, with their friends, across the floor: Okay, since you are all my closest friends, I wanted to make a special toast. Thank you for coming tonight. I know that I can be kind of out there sometimes, but all of you guys accept me and support me, and that just it means everything. To my friends. L'chaim, bitches! . . That's my special Hot Mitzvah shooter, Manischewitz and Molly. (as in ecstasy) Then she gives “Maggie” a big kiss: There I got to kiss the person I wanted to! She leads them all to do the hora around chair raisings.
In the finale, “The Old Ma’am and the C”, written by Alison Brown and Eliot Grazer, “Lauren” confronts “Liza”s boyfriend over their break-up: Something happened between you and Liza at my hot mitzvah, whch was meant as a celebration of love, not destruction. I come in the spirit of tikkun olam which in the Jewish faith means repair the world. He: The next time you think about drugging your friends -- don’t do it. So uncool! She retorts to his departure: Shalom to you too brother! (6/13/2015)


In Man Seeking Woman (on FXX; N.B. I didn’t know until half-way through the 2nd season that the series’ creator is a distant relative), “Josh Greenberg” (played by Jay Baruchel) announces he’s Jewish in the first episode “Lizard”, written by sitcom series creator Simon Rich (author of The Last Girlfriend on Earth: And Other Love Stories that the series is based on, that I haven’t read yet) when he expresses concern at meeting his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend – Adolf Hitler. His older sister “Liz” (played by Brit Lower) sets him up with a literal Scandinavian forest troll “Gorbachaka” – after listing his lack of qualifications for dating: Joshua, want to have a little look-at-yourself moment?. . .Do you go to the gym?. . .Do you have a job?. . .I just really like her, okay? I think you guys would be cool together. . .You're such a good guy. I love you. so he thanks her: This is a mitzvah you've done. He Skypes with his mother “Patti” (played by Robin Duke), who complains he hasn’t come to visit and offers her Discover card to pay for his plane ticket: Everyone is struggling in this economy. But your sister's a special case. His step-dad “Tom” (played by Mark McKinney) adds praise about her: Promotion after promotion. It’s insane. He adds about the mother: met on a blind date. To different people. His mother adds: We were sitting next to each other. . .
In “Pitbull”, written by Dan Mirk and Rich, “Liz”, looking more TV-Jewish as a brunette with glasses, is all brightly full of helpful suggestions to distract her brother from his current sexless life, and texting friend: You don't need that guy to help you get a girlfriend. . .Like, you're gonna find someone super wonderful, it's just a matter of time. “Josh”: Thank you, Liz. I appreciate that. “Liz”: You know, and in the meantime, you can just focus on you. The path to love self-love. . .Just maybe taking a yoga class. Or just go over to the gym. . .Meditate five minutes a day. . .These are just tiny little seeds that we're planting here, and it's maybe not gonna take a day. Maybe not gonna take a week. A couple months. Little tiny plant growing."Oh, look at this plant." That's you. Beautiful woman's gonna walk by. She's gonna be like "I want that. "I want this in my face.” And you're gonna be like, "Damn. So glad I watered myself." Whoa, why don't you go running with me tomorrow? You could be my running partner. You know, it's really good for your endorphins and cardiovascular system. Do you want to? . . Is 7:00 a. m. too early? New and improved Josh.! . .See you tomorrow morning! I love you! After his wild night with a willing woman but minus a penis, she calls: Hey, Josh, are you lost? I'm on the south side of the park. I'm just gonna be running loops. . .I'm so proud of you! [More commentary forthcoming] (updated 2/9/2016)


In Houdini (on History), mini-series written by Nicholas Meyer (based on the out-of-print Houdini: A Mind in Chains: A Psychoanalytic Portrait by Bernard C. Meyer M.D., his mother Cecilia Weiss (played by Hungarian actress Eszter Ónodi) is a more talked-about influence than active presence. Says Houdini (played by Adrien Brody): If not for my mother, I would have gone nowhere. She always believed in me. -- and I wasn’t sure if she was speaking Yiddish or Hungarian when she did get to mostly say Erich, my hero!” when he brings home coins like magic to his poor childhood in Appleton, Wisconsin. (He’s described as “a German-speaking Hungarian Jew”.) He bring her: Welcome to Brooklyn. This is the home you’ve always deserved. She replies, in Hungarian or whatever: Now we can all be together. He: Ma deserved the best, because the best is what she inspired me to become. And I was finally given the chance to thank her for it. His wife “Bess” (played by Kristen Connolly) explains the ceremony where he places her on a throne-like chair at a reception: Queen for a Day. People thought she married beneath her, marrying a rabbi. To her, Harry is magic. He beams at his mother: Didn’t I promise you gold one day? She, per the subtitles: Erich, You are my gold.
Part 2 focused on her unusual impact on his career. After performing a new trick on stage, where he visualized her, he chortles at the family breakfast: I told everyone I saw you, Ma. You’ve been guiding me back forever. He shows off a headline: “Houdini Guided by Mother’s Voice to Safety”. She talks to him and his brother in Hungarian. He translates: She called me a liar. His brother “Dash” (played by Tom Benedict Knight) translates: She thinks I’ve been fighting with my brother. It’s just for publicity! (Meanwhile his wife makes a nasty crack about being married to a Jew and goes off to church for comfort.) When the government pushes him to tour Europe again, his mother cries at his farewell: Perhaps when you return I will not be here anymore., according to the subtitles. She gives him quite a big kiss goodbye. His wife, of course, is overly optimistic: She’ll be fine. In Europe, he gets a telegram from his brother: “Sorry to inform you of mother’s death last night in NJ. Sudden and peaceful.” He collapsesDon’t let them bury her until I’m home. He weeps into his wife’s arms. Back in Brooklyn NY 1914, during the funeral at a Jewish cemetery, his brother says her last words were “forgive”. He asks: Forgive who? For what? . . .My mother’s death was a sucker punch that I wasn’t near ready for and hit me harder than anything ever had. He weeps at her grave, and repeats her words. ’My hero.’ You always believed in me, Ma. Who’s going to believe in me now? His assistant “Jim Collins” (played by Evan Jones) assumes he can do something supernatural: Can’t you contact her? Though he flashes back to his own fake medium shows with his wife, in 1896 Kansas, where he first learned that can hurt people’s feelings, he desperately sets off to find spiritualists: If anyone could contact Ma in the hereafter it was me. When none of them can, he sets off on a campaign against them and issues a challenge, which is met by Sir Conan Doyle and his wife. He’s teary listening to her at their session and watching her supposed automatic writing. But he later realizes: Ma never would have forgot my birthday. Lady Doyle is a fraud! Your wife is a fake! Her whole life my mother never spoke one word of English! Doyle claims she translated, but Houdini continues to rant: A mother not mentioning her son’s birthday? She never missed, not once! Your wife is a fake! You hear me - Lady Doyle – you’re a fake! He attacks them in a radio rant and doubles his challenge prize: Until now I have tried in good faith to contact my beloved mother. But I now declare total war on the spiritualists. I will devote my whole life to challenge their exploitation of a gullible public. He confesses to his assistant: They didn’t get it. I wanted to be proven wrong – to reach the other side., as we see images of his mother. He goes to Boston to meet with a noted medium, asks her to contact his mother, then confronts her and her team, who put a curse on him. When he refuses to be seduced by her, she sends an attacker, which leads to his death. The closing irony is that his wife then uses a medium to try to reach him. (updated 9/3/2014)




The Strain (horror series on FX, produced by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, based on their graphic novel), True Blood also featured flashbacks to vampires fitting right in as Nazis. “Runaways”, teleplay by Gennifer Hutchison, vampire hunter “Abraham Setrakian” (played by David Bradley) tells the CDC doctor about the threat he first knew by the Romanian term “strigoi”: When I was a little boy, my grandmother, my bubbe, told me fairy stories about the strigoi and The Master. I thought they were only stories, until I saw the devil with my own eyes. Flashback to a train and a crowded cattle car in 1944 Poland. He’s a young man (played by Jim Watson) huddled with his “bubbe” (played by Kathleen Chalfant): The train will stop soon and you’ll be able to stretch your legs, bubbe. She warns: This train I don’t wish to go any faster. Where this train is going I don’t think we will be happy to arrive at our destination. . .Abraham, remember the stories I told you. Evil lurks in this world, and I fear we are soon to meet it. They are shouted off with dogs at a concentration camp (fans say the book specified Treblinka 1943), where the commandante is the same “Thomas Eichhorst” (played by Richard Sammel) who we’ve seen in today’s Manhattan, announces: You will work here for the welfare of a new Europe. Together we will work for a better world for future generations. This is a place of honor and discipline. Do your work and you shall be treated accordingly. The grandmother is pulled away as he tries to stop the beating officer: Abraham no! Leave him alone! His friend (who some recappers assume is his brother): Let her go! “Abraham” cries: I have to protect her! She takes a last look back at him from her line of women, while he and his friend claim they’re carpenters, and smoke rises over the background. The camp is full of yellow-starred Jews who are being beaten, and at night in the barracks at night the bloodsucker attacks one by one. “Abraham” whispers to his friend: I saw a creature. It was feeding. . It was real. My bubbe told me stories as a child, stories of a monster who feed on the blood of men and was drawn by human misery. What place is more miserable than this?. . .She told me the only way to kill it was with silver. If we can get into the metal shop? Friend: Stop looking for monsters! We’re already surrounded by them. “Abraham”: We’re already surrounded by them. (He witnesses close-up his friend become another victim.) His name seems Armenian, so his Yiddishe grandmother’s stories seemed to be more Roma and his triangle badge could be the Roma’s brown, or the inverted red of political prisoners, so it’s a bit confusing, and misperceived by fans, if she is Jewish.
”For Services Rendered”, teleplay by David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, was clearer that “Abraham”s family is Jewish. He explained his weapons: Silver burns them. I learned of these creatures from my bubbe, my grandmother, when I was eight. She was the one who told me silver bullets can harm them. Flashbacks to the concentration camp in 1944 Poland. The commandante holds up a carved wooden hamsa : Inspection in the barracks made a surprise discovery - a Jewish talisman. I believe you people refer to it as “The Hand of Miriam”. It’s carved in oak that is the property of the Third Reich. Who is responsible for this fine craftsmanship? He shoots two men in the carpentry workshop until young “Abraham” confesses. The Nazi pleasantly explains: The talisman is named for the sister of Moses and Aaron and is supposed to protect from evil. After the Nazi puts him to work impressively carving a large map model, he asks “Abraham” about his roots: Where I come from everyone worked hard. We knew no other way. . .I was born in Armenia. After the Great War, my family settled in a small town in Romania. (So his family could have been Sephardic, but then he’d have called his grandmother “nona” in Ladino.) When the Nazi drunkenly recalls passing through that town in 1941, he shrugs: You take all this too personally. “Abraham”: After the murder of my family, I suppose I do. The Nazi: Ah, the nobility of the victim. Back to the present day, “Eichhorst” keeps demanding to find him again: Where is the Jew? He is here, I can smell him!
In the penultimate, “Last Rites”, teleplay by Carlton Cuse, Weddle and Thompson, the flashback is to Shkoder, Albania, 1967, “Abraham” comes home with exciting news: We’re so close this time, so close. “Miriam” (played by Adina Verson) is implied to be Jewish: Abraham, you have said these words before. He: He’s here, I know it. Victory here would validate our life’s work. And shame those who have denounced us. She takes up her crutches: Promise me, if you see signs of nesting you will get away. You should not do this alone. He: I’m never alone Miriam, you’ve been with me every step. She: Please, Abraham, do not let vengeance cloud your vision. He: I know your heart, and I now the toll my obsessions have taken on our lives and the sacrifices you have made. When we’re finished, we’ll adopt, a boy and girl, just like you’ve always wanted. She: Until sundown then. No later They kiss goodbye. But he’s delayed due to a difficult escape, so that back home, he ominously sees her crutch has been discarded, and she staggers in the door with two infected vampiric children. Praying Forgive me God for what I must do so that Miriam and all the others will not have died in vain, he not only beheads them all, but it’s her heart, pulled out of her chest, that he’s been keeping beside him all these years - Give me strength and says: Abandoning the jar, he barely escapes in time, impressing “Eichhorst”, hot on his heels, that “the Jew” abandoned all that you love. But it will not be enough. (updated 10/5/2014)


On Chasing Life (ABC Family), “Death Becomes Her” episode, written by Jeanne Leitenberg, “April” (played by Italia Ricci), the young woman just diagnosed with leukemia, shows her grandmother’s friends a photo of her out-of-town boyfriend. “Gertie” (played by Bryna Weiss): He reminds me of Willie my late husband “April”: Oh, I’m sorry. “Gertie”: Thank you bubbela. but he was old, it happens. “April”: You guys are so casual, just talking about death. “Gertie”: Oh honey, when you get to be our age you just used to it. You’ve said goodbye to so many people, it’s just part of the mishugas of life. In “What to Expect When You're Expecting Chemo” episode, written by Lisa Melamed, the grandmother “Emma” (played by Rebecca Schull) revealed that “Gertie” has a supply of marijuana for her glaucoma, that they used to bake brownies to help her granddaughter through her treatments. (I won’t know if “Gertie” references return until TWC returns to carrying episodes on demand I didn’t bother to pay $1.99 extra for it on Amazon.) (updated 8/29/2014)

Taxi Brooklyn (summer series on NBC, based on Luc Besson’s film Taxi) had TV’s favorite Jewish woman – a Jew who died in the Holocaust in the “Cherchez Les Femmes” episode, story by Franck Ollivier and Stephen Tolkin, teleplay by Ollivier, Tolkin and Gary Scott Thompson. Auschwitz survivor “Josef Wiesel” (Tom Morrissey) is beaten to death in Brooklyn. He had regularly paid women to reenact his lost love “Eva” from Hungary who died, by having them dress up in period clothes to the tune of old music, most recently with “Nadia” (Elizabeth A. Davis), who is clearly a victim of sex trafficking. His artist friend from the museum “Margarie” (Nikkie James) explained: When he told me what happened to [Eva] – such a sacrifice. . .The day Josef was going to marry Eva, the Nazis shipped all the Jews in Budapest to Auschwitz. Somehow Josef and Eva found a way to talk. They planned their escape for months. But then Eva fell and broke her leg when they tried to flee the camp. So then she acted as a decoy. She told Josef that if he really loved her he would run and live life for both of them. The last thing Josef saw when he looked back was a guard shooting Eva. The detective star of the show (Chyler Leigh) solves the mystery of the million dollars he’d finagled from the mob for a copy of Monet’s ”Camille on Her Death Bed”: Josef sacrificed his life to save his new Eva – Nadia. He sent the money to Nadia.

Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – Abigail McCarthy in the 1st Season (Bravo’s first scripted series, on DVD) Suddenly in the 2nd episode “Rule #174: Never Trust Anyone Who Charges By The Hour”, written by series creator Marti Noxon, “Abby” (played by Lisa Edelstein) was not only revealed to be Jewish, but it was emphasized, starting with the exclamation that her middle name is “Shoshanna”, with no explanation for her last name, then more so when she and her soon-to-be ex-husband first attend a mediation to negotiate their divorce, and they start filling out preference forms. “Abby” protests: all that stuff has to be in our agreement? The Mediator (actress to be identified): The more you have stuff figured out now, the less you have to fight about later. “Abby” persists: Yeah, but it just seems a little extreme. Like the religion thing, I mean, do we really have to know now who the kids are gonna be with on the High Holidays? Mediator: Well, you can always revisit, but yes. “Abby”: I mean it is important to me that the kids continue to be raised Jewish. “Jake” was taken aback: Why wouldn't they be? “Abby” smiles: Well, you know. . .It would be really great for us to have Shabbat together every week. “Jake”: Okay. “Abby”: I just feel like the traditions weren't always that important to you. “Jake”: We've never done Shabbat every week, but -- what do you mean by 'you know’? She clarifies to the mediator: His mother's not Jewish. He: Here we go. I don't have -- I didn't get the magic blood. I'm not a real Jew. She: I didn't say you weren't a real Jew. I said you weren't a full Jew. He’s annoyed: Maybe I should convert, even though I was bar mitzvahed. The mediator tries to intervene: Let me stop you. “Abby”: I'm just saying I would like it in writing. He: Maybe you could tell us something from the Torah, maybe about fidelity or being a . . . [didn’t catch the Hebrew word for accuracy]. She explains to the mediator: That's a slut, by the way, and I was faithful. He: And I'm not the one who's shtupping an actress who thinks “27 Dresses” is a classic. The mediator tries to get them to take a break. “Jake”: I'm not feeling particularly reasonable, but maybe it's because I'm a fake Jew? Later, back at home, she: You're a full Jew, sorry. He: Thank you. My parents will be so relieved. She: I just really want this mediation thing to work, to be as good as something awful can be. He: And Shabbat is a good idea. She: Thank you. He: It's a good. It's a good tradition for the kids. She: That’s great. . . I’ll be home for Shabbat. But later they renew arguing about her shakey finances and his girlfriend – and they forsake mediation for lawyers. Regardless, he comes back in the nick of time to participate in their Shabbat ritual. As she lights the candles she mutters: It’s been awhile. and her daughter smiles as she recites the blessing. He: Now the prayer over the children. As the camera backs off to a schmaltzy pop song, it’s a quite touching moment. (Their daughter “Lily McCarthy Novak” is played by 16-year-old Conor Dwelly.):
In the next episode, he joked to his starlet girlfriend: You do know that I’m a full Jew? Were they made more Jewish to defuse claims that her character was based on producer/self-help book writer and prominent divorcee Vicki Iovine? This despite that “Abby”s gay brother “Max” is played by the so goyish looking blond Patrick Heusinger that it seemed like a joke when he declared their parents would “plotz” at news of her divorce. Her ex-husband “Jake Novak” is played by Paul Adelstein, who portrayed the rare Jewish character in Shondaland, on Private Practice, whose chemistry with Edelstein she explained to The Wrap, 12/2/2014: “We come from very similar cultural backgrounds and there's some weight to that, which is a great experience, just professionally to have. And I think that really informed the storytellers and they really dug deeper into that story even more than they had expected in the beginning.”
But the closest the rest of the first season got to any further Jewish reference was oblique, in the penultimate Rule #92: Don't Do the Crime If You Can't Do the Time”, written by Ilene Rosenzweig. After “Jake” has agreed to all her terms in the divorce settlement, she suddenly wants to add summer camp, albeit her alma mater doesn’t sound like a specificially Jewish camp – any more than were the ones I attended: Well, that's a deal breaker for me. My experiences at camp were very formative. They made me who I am. . . I went to Camp Pontiac for eight years. I was Color War General. But “Jake” doesn’t seem to have the same context, and she objects to his “crude” understanding: So they have to go because it's the place where you learned to make lanyards and get finger-banged on the ski dock? . . . I don't want the kids going away in the summer. It cuts into my already-limited time with them. He even tries to compromise: How about they go to sleep-away camp for four weeks? But she insists: Camp Pontiac is eight weeks. Her sudden demand make no sense because their older daughter “Lily” is a teenager, so why hasn’t she sent her to camp already?updated 10/23/2015)


In Madam Secretary – Nadine Tolliver (on CBS), as played by Bebe Neuwirth, the hold-over Chief of Staff in the Department of State, didn’t reveal her Jewish roots until the genocide-prevention themed 6th episode of the 1st season “The Call”, written by Matt Ward. After the Secretary (played by Téa Leoni) has bucked everyone to block an African genocide, “Nadine” toasts her: Cheers. To Julius Grossman. My mother’s father. He was killed at Auschwitz. This was a good day at the office ma’am. There was zero reference to her identity through the rest of the season, even when Middle East issues are discussed, though other aspects of her personal life were revealed, including her adulterous affair with the previous secretary and a new sweet relationship with “the NASA guy” “Glenn” (played by John Pankow, who I often see at Film Forum), plus she frequently chastised the Secretary’s surprisingly young staff to stop gossiping. (updated 5/13/2015)

In the 6th season of The Good Wife (on CBS), “Marissa Gold” was upgraded to recurring character. The daughter of political consultant “Eli Gold (played by Alan Cumming) returned in the season opener “The Line”, written by series’ producers Robert & Michelle King, “Marissa” (played by Sharon Steele) is the usual brunette, curly-haired, wise-cracking Jewish female sidekick. She’s first idly making conversation with him: I liked your old office better. This is more like a dentist’s office. . .I thought Chicago was corrupt can’t you just steal more. . . I told you I was fired. . .From the juice bar. She does funny, sexy commentary about a pretty young intern, then he introduces her to his boss “Governor Peter Florrick” (played by Chris Noth): I voted for you – absentee ballot in Israel. “Eli”: She spent two years in the IDF. Governor: That’s impressive. She confronts the intern that her father is too nervous to ask about the rumor that she’s not wearing panties, and announces: I want to learn your job. I think I’d be good at it. “Eli”: No you don’t.
In “Old Spice”, written by Leonard Dick, she showed up when “Alicia Florrick” (played by Juliana Margulies) has decided to run for State’s Attorney. In the middle of a meeting with her campaign manager “Johnny Elfman” (played by Steven Pasquale), there’s a knock on the door: I’m your bodywoman. . .I didn’t know what that was either. It’s like your personal assistant. I stick to you. Make sure you’re on time, get on calls, and make sure your food isn’t poisoned. . I’m Marissa – Eli’s daughter? “Alicia” protests, the manager insists. “Marissa”: Dad would be upset if you said no - -because I’m supposed to spy for him. But I’m not a very good spy, so don’t worry. “Alicia”: You don't need to bring me coffee, Marissa. “Marissa”: Dad says you should use the courthouse shooting. It made you decide to change your life. “Marissa” shrugs at “Why milk?”, then keeps criticizing the manager’s word choices in dealing with the religious right: Why not? . . .”realized”? She just “realized”? What is she – 8?. . . Oh I get it. So I’m not supposed to have an opinion. …They don’t want to hear about epiphanies. They’re like Orthodox Jews. They want to know if you’re in their column. She reassures the manager about the TV interview: That’s’s fine! She’s doing fine! You’re making me nervous. I have to go get her. In the car she follows up with “Alicia”: That went well! I was in Israel a couple of years? Everyone there talks about God like he’s some uncle hiding in the attic. Drives you crazy. “Alicia” asks: Do you believe in God? “Marissa”: Yeah, but even I don’t like talking about it. “Alicia”: I don’t like pretending to be someone I’m not when I’m being interviews. “Marissa”: Really? You’re good at it.
In “Sticky Content”, written by the Kings, she’s again a wisecracker, now during meeting with the campaign manager and ad consultant, like her reaction: Uch, it’s so crass - it’s awful! “Josh Mariner” (played by David Krumholtz) explodes at her: Excuse me - who are you again? She’s frank: I’m the bodywoman. He: Then what are you doing talking? But she interrupts later about an ad: It’s so corny wih the boo hoo hoo music. He: How many campaigns have you run? But she keeps mocking his work: How abou the music from “Titanic”? You could even cut to shots of the Titanic. He’s mad: I’m losing it here! When he shows the exaggerated ad he’s generated against the opponent, she laughs, which he sarcastically appreciates: Great, the bodywoman is entertained. She shares a skeptical look with the candidates, but shrugs: What do I know? I’m the bodywoman., and concurs with him the negative ad should be released. He mocks back: Even the nutty lady thinks you should strike back. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming) (updated 12/29/2014)


The Goldbergs – Beverly, Erica plus (on ABC, out on DVD) I feel obligated to stream each episode and comment on it – but my forthcoming commentaries will be long rants about insufferable stereotypes of a ridiculously smothering mother, while the daughter is inconsistent. I missed a lot of episodes anyway because I really don’t like watching this show just for the sake of criticizing it, when I can stream just about anything else. Maybe I’ll shell out for the DVDs for future reference instead. (updated 9/25/2015)

Mrs. Wolowitz in the 8th and her final season of Big Bang Theory (on CBS) I keep transcribing the nasty comments about her, but after trying to keep up with the transcriptions I don’t care about repeating my criticisms of the smothering stereotype, let alone all the fat jokes. But at least in the season opener, “The First Pitch Insufficiency”, teleplay by Steven Molaro, Steve Holland & Maria Ferrari, story by Chuck Lorre, Jim Reynolds, and Anthony Del Broccolo, “Stuart Bloom” (played by Kevin Sussman”, is still having a positive, if ambiguous, relationship with her, to her jealous and revolted son’s fury and disgust. But it’s just about the only times anyone has ever said anything nice about her.
”The Prom Equivalency”, teleplay by Steven Molaro, Eric Kaplan and Maria Ferrari, story by Jim Reynolds, Steve Holland, and Jeremy Howe, continued mocking “Stuart” with “Mrs. W” (he insists: There’s nothing going on between me and your mother!, but he runs to her when she seductively yells: Stuie your bath is getting cold!) -- but added the series’ first attractive, articulate, non-stereotyped Jewish woman character - “Howard”s cousin “Jeannie” (played by Kara Luiz), who “Howard”, with much embarrassment admits was his first sexual experience. Inside a limo, she and “Stuart” are dates to the fake prom, and explains to the fuming “Howard” how that came about: So I met Jeannie at your Aunt Glady’s. She passed me the Manishewitz, I took one look at this punim and almost plotzed on the kugel. She challenges “Howard”: Why would your mother have a problem with me and Stuart? “Howard”: Because they have a weirdly inappropriate relationship. She, tartly: Weireder than what you and I did in my dad’s Corolla? He: Why did you even come to this? Didn’t you know I’d be here? She: It was a long time ago Howard! “Stuart” interjects: And you’re only 2nd cousins. Who cares? “Howard”s wife “Bernadette” follows suit: So you knew and you broughtt her anyway? “Stuart”: So she’s good enough for Howard but not for me? “Howard” concurs as “Bernadette” retorts: Have relations with your own mother and cousin! This is his turf! “Howard” won’t stop strangling him: Not until he stops pumping his way up my family tree! Yet at the prom, “Stuart” gets a call and assures: Debbie, we’re just friends. And he immediately leaves “Jeannie” to have a startled solo picture.
Sadly, on 11/12/2014, after “Stuart”s compliments about “Mrs Wolowitz”, including her intention to invest in his re-opened comic book store, continued through the fall episodes (which I am transcribing), the executive producers released a eulogy: “The Big Bang Theory family has lost a beloved member today with the passing of Carol Ann Susi, who hilariously and memorably voiced the role of Mrs. Wolowitz. Unseen by viewers, the Mrs. Wolowitz character became a bit of a mystery throughout the show’s eight seasons. What was not a mystery, however, was Carol Ann’s immense talent and comedic timing, which were on display during each unforgettable appearance.” At the closing credits of“The Septum Deviation” episode, first shown 11/13/2014, the producers showed her photograph with: “In loving memory of Carol Ann Susi. 'Mrs. Wolowitz.' Every time you spoke, we laughed. You're in our hearts forever”.
Her death was incorporated into the series with surprisingly little in Jewish references. “The Comic Book Store Regeneration” (teleplay by Steven Molaro, Eric Kaplan & Steve Holland, story by Jim Reynolds, Maria Ferrari & Jeremy Howe) opens up with “Howard” excoriating “Stuart” for “mooching” off his mother by taking the den furniture she offered into his re-built store for which she gave him the money. But “Stuart” defends her and their arrangement: I'm glad it worked out the way it did because I got to know this wonderful person. “Raj Koothrappali” (played by Kunal Nayyar) also defends her: Mrs. Wolowitz was pretty special. When I first moved to America, Howard was my only friend. She made me feel so welcome in her home. Which says a lot, because, those first few years, she thought I was the gardener. Whenever I saw her, she'd say I was too skinny and try and feed me. Even “Sheldon” (played by Jim Parsons) tries to be nice: I didn’t care for her yelling, but now tha I’m not going to hear it again, I’m sad. “Leonard” (played by Johnny Galecki) has the final remembrance: Let's have a toast. To Mrs. Wolowitz. A loving mother to all of us. We'll miss you.
“The Intimacy Acceleration” (teleplay by Steven Molaro, Jim Reynolds & Steve Holland, story by Dave Goetsch, Eric Kaplan & Tara Hernandez), laid on a final guilt trip as “Howard” chased after her cremains: Where did you misroute the only woman who ever loved me? The first well, first, I meant first. . . There's a red ribbon tied to the handle -- “The world's greatest mom”-- is in the shoe compartment?. . So, some stranger has my mom? Is that what you're telling me? My poor mother can be anywhere in Los Angeles right now? . . . I'm not leaving without her. . .I could've driven her. The day she left for Florida. She asked me to drive her to the airport. I was too busy. And I made her take a cab. I was too busy His wife “Bernadette” is finally sympathetic: There's no way you could've known. . .You better find my husband's mother 'cause one way or another, we're walking out of this airport with a dead woman!
In ”The Clean Room Infiltration”, one of its many writers, credited as story by Maria Ferrari, Tara Hernandez and Jeremy Howe, teleplay by Eric Kaplan, Jim Reynolds, and Steve Holland, played on actress Mayim Bialik’s well-known religious identity for “Sheldon Cooper” (played by Jim Parsons) to triumphantly tease her as “Amy Farrah Fowler” about the sentimental gift he thought he trumped her: How are you feeling now? Wishing you were Jewish? (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming) (updated 5/3/2015)


Shoshanna Shapiro in the 4th season of Girls (on HBO, out on DVD)
Lena Dunham, in a 6/5/3015 Hollywood Reporter roundtable with comic women on TV this season: “There was a lot of dialogue about race when Girls started. I'd been thinking so much about representing weirdo, chubby girls and strange half-Jews that I had forgotten that there was an entire world of women being underserved.”
The 1st episode of the season, “Iowa” by Dunham and Judd Apatow, was the first time we met “Shoshanna”s divorced mother – “Melanie ‘Mel’ Shaprio” (played by Ana Gasteyer), argumentative dialogue forthcoming. (Commentary on the season forthcoming – when I catch up on the season) (updated 2/18/2016)


Broad City – 2nd season (Comedy Central is also posting ”uncensored” scenes) - in preparation, they are releasing webisodes. Their Christmas party tips segment of the network’s ”All-Star Non-Denominational Holiday Special” was devoid of Jewish comments.
”Wisdom Teeth”, written by the two stars, had each with a funny Jewish reference. In response to their African-American dentist friend’s sarcastic comment of racial solidarity, “Ilana Wexler” is serious: Wow, I don’t do anything for My People. After “Abbi Abrams” recovers from her surgery, and medicated calling of the cute guy down the hall she likes, she nervously avoids him by faking a follow-up phone call from her dry cleaners about stains: Hello? No, why would I throw-up on my clothes? I'm not crazy! Yeah, I am Jewish. It has nothing to do with it. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming) (updated 3/14/2015)


Married – Jess in her 1st season (FX summer sitcom) – I made it through the whole dreadfully nasty season just to see if, per usual, Jenny Slate’s “Jess” was Jewish, what with her “old” husband “Shep” being played by Paul Reiser. (Ironically, FX’s paired sitcom You’re The Worst whose non-Jewish characters are supposed to be anti-social were actually far more appealing and amusingly worth watching than this series.) Until the finale, the only explicitly Jewish woman was in “The Old Date” episode that Slate wasn’t in, written by Daisy Gardner, the dead “Esther”. The alcoholic druggie “A.J.” (played by Brett Gelman”) gives the excuse that he’s there because: I heard Esther was a really cool lady. . .She died of titty cancer. . .I am walking for the cure this year. His friend (played by John Hodgman) points out that he was really there to see his ex-wife, because the deceased was the mother of the guy who is boning your ex-wife. I thought “A.J.” said “aunt”.
Though I didn’t transcribe her lines, or lines about her, during the season, because I wasn’t sure of even categorizing her as a putative Jewish sarcastic, coke-snorting, weed-toking, bar-flirting, working wife and mother of a toddler, when suddenly in the finale “Family Day”, teleplay by Daisy Gardner, story by Gardner and Andrew Gurland, one of her usual negative cracks against her unemployed, music manager husband at a barbecue (her father’s old friend, he told of his fantasy of death by eating brisket) had her first explicit Jewish reference: He’s just trying to eat himself out of this marriage. . .Just try not to die before the bar mitzvah. Which added Jewish resonance to first-time family references earlier in the episode, where she was the butt of remarks about her addiction to visiting people in rehab as therapy, including: Last time you came and talked for an hour complaining about how your mother makes you feel guilty because you’re not religious. Even her husband noted: She comes here because she likes the damaged men. They remind her of her father. But she closes the episode defiant to the accusatory friend: Yes, we’re trying for a second. So now when you try to make me feel bad that I’m not a good mother, you can try to make me feel twice as guilty. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming) (updated 9/24/2014)


Ray Donovan (on Showtime) In the 2nd season opener, “Yo Soy Capitan” written by series creator Ann Biderman, we again hear about one putative Jewish woman’s legacy, and we see another one we only heard about last season. Hollywood big wig “Ezra Goodman” (played by Elliot Gould) is continuing to plotz: Tikkun olam. . ."To repair the world." We must repair the world, Raymond. The Ruth Goldman Cancer Center is the most important thing in my life. While I was ill last year, a lot of people took advantage. They stopped digging at the site, Raymond. We're at least $50 million short. You're gonna have to help me make good on these pledges. It's gonna be the toughest thing we've ever had to do. I need your help. “Ray”s Israeli enforcer “Avi” (played by Steven Bauer) has brought his elderly “ima” (played by Anoush Nevart) to live with him. They are sitting around with another of “Ray”s fixers “Lena” (played by Katherine Moennig) watching an American Idol-type show with a contestant that she “helped” earlier in the day from an entanglement with a client. The mother is curious about “Tiffany”: Is that her real hair? “Lena”: Yeah, I think so. Ima: What about her breasts? “Lena”: Hard to tell. With reminders in “S U C K”, written by David Hollander, as “Ezra” keeps insisting on fulfilled pledges for the RGCC: Ruth was everything to me. The head FBI agent “Ed Cochran” (played by Hank Azaria) mocks “Ray”’s staff: You have an ex-Mossad agent who spends his nights watching television with his mother. (6/3/2015)



A French Village (Un Village Français) - 1st season (originally broadcast in France as 2 seasons, Season 1 shown beginning June 2009 (Episodes 1 – 12), and Season 2 (Episodes 1 – 12) in October 2009; in the U.S. on MHz Networks/Choice; DVD released 10/2015) (and is somewhat comparable and parallel to the German mini-series that I reviewed in its edited interational theatrical release Generation War (Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter)), this lengthy top-notch and involving series follows the fictional town of Villeneuve, on the eastern border, next to the Vichy Line of Demarcation, from the start of World War 2 through the aftermath of liberation, with each season roughly a year in the life of a large, complex ensemble. The TV series format allows for playing out of changes in relationships and society, particularly in attitudes towards Jews under German (called at worst “Boche” --“Krauts” in the subtitles -- not Nazis) occupation. More subtly shown than in other period TV and films is how intrinsic casual anti-Semitism intermingles with personal grudges, priorities, or jealousies to get Jews harassed, arrested, or worse. The series carefully distinguishes between the regular army Wehrmacht, who are seen as cultured and uncomfortable with the depraved but wily S.A. intelligence agent (the most stereotyped character “Heinrich Müller”, played by Richard Sammel, who then became an even more sinister Nazi vampire in The Strain,) and such anti-Semitic ideologues as “The Aryanization Department” and a “doctor” who uses anthropometric facial measurements to uncover Jews. Well-shown is how the manipulative S.A. agent gets the local officials and police to collaborate, whether by blackmail, incentives, or pressure. Created primarily by showrunner Frédéric Krivine, the writing credits for each episode are just listed as the six writers in the “atelier d'ecriture” in the French sources I had to consult mostly without translation for this very popular series, while trying to avoid spoilers; so for episodes I focus on for the refreshingly unstereotyped Jewish women characters, I took the credits from what’s on the screen in the DVD.
Season 1 - 1940, Vivre c'est choisir starts at the Germans’ invasion on June 4 and is put under Vichy administration. Beautifully showing just how assimilated and integrated Jews were even in rural France, explicitly Jewish characters didn’t start to be differentiated until the 3rd episode “Crossing the line (Passer la ligne)”, September 30, 1940, scenario by Frédéric Krivine, Frédéric Azémar and Cédric Salmon, “adaptation et dialogues” by Krivine. The mature, auburn-haired director of the school “Judith Morhange” (played by Nathalie Cerda) has suspect credibility to the collaborating education department investigator because she’s Jewish, when she defends her young teacher whose unauthorized field trip with the students in the opening episode resulted in several getting killed from German air fire. (French movies usually portray Jewish women with auburn hair, unlike American TV and movies that almost always represent us as brunettes.) The next episode, “On Earth as it is in heaven (Sur la terre comme au ciel)”, October 15, 1940, scenario adaptation and dialogues by Krivine and Marine Francou with additional dialogues by Christiane Lebrima, opens with an obviously outsider Orthodox family (who I think spoke Yiddish among themselves) paying all their money to a lurking army deserter (who in the previous episode let a Polish refugee speaking broken French – a “foreigner” say the police -- take the fall for his theft of food supplies) to help them flee for the border so they can take a train to Marseille – and he deserts them to try and help a fallen English airman. Back at the school, the teacher is cleared to stay, but “Judith” gets a notice of dismissal from her job, due to the Jewish status laws passed earlier in October that declared Jews of lower status and forbidden from civil service jobs. Left not only unemployed but unable to pay her rent, she is about to get on a bus to Paris to stay with distant relatives, when police inspector “Henri De Kervern” (played by Patrick Descamps, the most familiar face in the series) offers her an apartment that’s empty due to legal problems after a death there – because what worse could happen to her if she stayed? In the 5th episode “Black Market (Marchés noirs)”, on November 7, 1940, scenario adaptation and dialogues by Krivine and Benjamin Dupas, in the household of the rich “Schwartz” family, who I had assumed were Jewish, the surprising status of their young blonde maid “Sarah Meyer” (played by Laura Staincrycer) is casually revealed during a police investigation. An old man remembers seeing her with the young man, the son of the head of the Chamber of Commerce, who controversially shouted boo’s against Marshal Pétain shaking hands with Hitler in a newsreel at a cinema: I wouldn’t want to get her in trouble. She’s very nice for a Jew. (“Mr. Schwartz” later catches her in bed with her boyfriend.) Ironically, while “Sarah” was covering up for catching the husband with his married lover at the movies, his wife “Jeannine” (played by Emmanuelle Bach) is furiously convinced it’s the maid with whom he’s having an affair. (By the end of the season we learn that their wealth is from the wife’s family and her father still owns the family sawmill business that is humming with German business, so I wondered about her background.) By the end of (I think this) episode, when “Sarah” anxiously asks her for advice about registering as a Jew by that day’s deadline, the wife drunkenly refuses to give her time off to do so. “Judith” is discouraged that her dressmaking skills are not as good as her competitors in order to support herself, and the policeman hires her as his assistant.
At the start of what was the 2nd season “1941, “Vivre ses choix”, on French TV as “The Lottery (La loterie)”, January 10, (Season 1, Episode 7 in the U.S.) scenario by Krivine and Frédéric Azémar, adaptations and dialogues by Krivine, “Judith” is comfortably staying in bed with the chief police inspector “Henri”. He is determined to carry on resistance espionage that he discovers his old friend was doing before he died. But as they cuddle in bed, she is skeptical that there is such a thing as the resistance, or that Charles deGaulle cares about them: The war is over. . .I lost my career, Henri. I'm almost shunned by society. Some peope won't even say hello anymore because I’m Jewish. .. I’m afraid for you - you made me want to live again. You give me work. You give me love. And you put all that at risk for something childish. For reassurance, he fondly tickles her and they start making love. Her nervousness was right – even across the border “in the south”, his contact is gunned down in public by German intelligence just before they can meet up.
By “February 5, 1941 - Commitment (L'engagement)”, scenario and dialogues Krivine and Benjamin Dupas, the Mayor’s Communist brother is released from jail to see that his young son is playing with a used toy bought at a fundraiser marked “Roland” – which he realizes the original owner will get no benefits: Maybe Roland's a Jewish boy whose parents lost their jobs like Mrs. Morhange! Or maybe his daddy is a Communist in jail like me and his mommy has to sell his toys to earn money! He pulls his son out of the Mayor’s car and angrily stalks home. “Mrs. Morhange”, meanwhile, is cooking lunch for her police inspector. When he compliments her vegetable soup, she's sarcastically self-depracating: I’m the perfect woman. He reassures that her replacement: won't last forever. There’ll be aeace treaty that will get the Krauts off our backs and you’ll get your job back. He confides in her his espionage work, and she’s very nervous: What I'd give for you to stop! In the next episode “The Lesson (La leçon de choses)”, scenario by Krivine and Marine Francou, “adaptation et dialogues” by Krivine, the young schoolteacher has the chutzpah to come to her old boss help to get her replacement out of jail for hiding a family rifle! “Judith” is sarcastic about how to pay for an expensive lawyer, and “Henri” pushes her out with: So now the biter is bitten!, making “Judith” feel guilty: Your manners! But “Henri” just piles on the insults against her replacement, and confides in her about a danger to his spy network – such a beautiful, mature relationship.
By “March 4, 1941 - Your Name Is A Little Jewish (Votre nom fait un peu juif)”, scenario, adaptation et dialogues by Krivine and Sylvie Chanteux, “Mrs. Schwartz” is more on edge because the sawmill is the target of graffiti accusing them of being Jewish, so she’s even harder on “Sarah”: She's getting worse. If I were Jewish, I'd be more careful! The husband looks at “Sarah” when he assures his wife he erased it. He tries to re-assure his German contractorsthat he’s not Jewish despite a lack of grandparents’ birth certificates, but his wife claims her father the majority owner recommends making her the manager and firing “the Jewish maid” to look better. She yells at “Sarah” that ration coupons are missing: Only you and I know where I put them. Can you explain it? Stealing ration coupons from your bosses ! You’re dismissed! You should have thought about that before you stole ! One week then it's back to your parents! “Sarah” keeps insisting she’s innocent, but: I won't wait a week-- I have dignity, and stalks out with her suitcase. The camera pulls back to reveal that the son took the coupons for a game of grocer. But “Sarah” is quickly brought to the police station: I found her on the street. She hangs around with suspicious people -- remember the heckler at the cinema? I called Mrs Schwartz - she said she stole ration cards. “Sarah” vehemently denies that, and explains to “Henri” how she’s being scapegoated: She wanted to get rid of me. He has a lot of problems now. Her family is in the south, in Marseille – though her letters have been returned for two months. “Henri” suggests she leave right away. After“Mr. Schwartz” refused to fire her - even though he (suspiciously) walked out on the “doctor”s increasingly bizarre “examination”, he’s surprised to come home with his son and friend to find his wife is serving the dinner: Sarah 's not here? Wife: I fired her—for being insolent and Jewish is bad enough but she stole ration coupons! The kids look guilty. “Mr. Schwartz”: Where did she go? Wife, with a common attitutde: It’s none of my business. I could have lodged a complaint when the police called! He: She was picked up somewhere? “Mrs.Schwartz”: She violated the law somehow. He: You said she stole something! Wife: Yes, but I didn't file a complaint! She notices her son isn’t eating, and her husband confesses to leaving the exam: I'm really upset about Sarah. - because she knows about his adultery? Wife, worried: If you left the exam, the doctor must think your Jewish! Son, worried: Where will Sarah go? His mother: Don't worry about her. “Judith” makes life more complicated for her police inspector, when she picks up a family of Belgian refugees (parents with a boy and girl) from wandering the streets: Their appearance would give them away. . . I didn't have time to think. Your place was closer than mine...They need a boat to get across the line. “Henri”: Is it because they're Jewish like you? She snaps back: Don’t be petty! He shrugs: I'm not looking for runaway Jews. But he pressures the farmer’s wife to help them, and she pressures her husband to smuggle them as “a good cause” across the river, like he’s been smuggling produce: It’s hard to get Jews across. Waiting until night for him to come, “Marie” nervously tells the mother to stop singing. . . People could pass by., and the hungry boy asks for food. “Sarah” joins them to “Marie”s surprise: Who fired you- Mr. or Mrs. Schwartz? “Sarah”: Mrs. Schwartz. Mr. Schwartz is a nice man -- but I think you’re well aware of that? “Marie”: He let her fire you? “Sarah”: He wasn't home. He has a lot of problems now. But “Marie”s husband’s jealousy makes him abandon the escapees – so the next time “Mr. Schwartz” sees “Sarah” she’s being led into the police station, along with the body of the dead boy. But the German commander comes to his defense against the rabidly anti-Semitic Aryanization officer who is ready to take over the sawmill, when he challenges that: There are plenty of Schwartz’s in the Rohr. My uncle is Nicholas Schwartz. Do you think I have a Jewish cousin?, though he makes a side deal with “Mr. Schwartz” for some extra wood.
“March 10, 1941 - Risk of Death (Danger de mort)”, scenario adaptation and dialogues by Krivine and Brigitte Bémol, the distraught Belgian fathers is being interrogated, with promises he can pray over his son’s body if he reveals the smuggler’s name: You have another child. I'll give you a pass to the Southern Zone. See we’re not monsters! At the “Schwartz” household, the son asks: Where's Sarah? His father is upset: She’s in prison! I can't stand it. I'll talk to Ritter. His wife is naïve: She'll be released. She's not a bad girl. It’s the disheveled “Sarah”s turn for interrogation, and she’s pressured to confirm the the identity of the smuggler who abandoned them, and she’s rewarded with a cigarette. “Mr. Schwartz” gets to “Ritter” to plead for “Sarah”. He asks: Is she French?. . I’ll try. At the police station “Judith” is worried: The dead child haunts me. I didn't even know his name. “Henri”: Eli. . .Pack for both of us -- things are happening quickly. “Judith”: I'm scared! Back at the “Schwartz”s, the mother is drinking too much wine, and didn't prepare a meal, so her son steals ration coupons again, but this time is caught and taken to the police. “Henri” as the police inspector: Do you realize a girl is in jail because of you? But the son has picked up what’s really going on: No, it’s because she’s Jewish! Henri puts the boy and his friend in a cell to teach them a lesson, infuriating “Mrs. Schwartz”: Are you insane? Henri: Explain your son he shouldn’t accuse innocent people, especially now. The son confesses to his mother, who pleads: It was just a childish prank! “Henri”: Miss Meyer is rotting in prison because of that! “Mrs. Schwartz” then accuses the other boy as the son of “the Communist” for being the thief and, adds, to the effect: The police shouldn’t be handing France to Jews and Reds. “Ritter” does make the call for “Sarah”, but this penultimate episode of the season ends as a cliffhanger.
In the season finale “March 11, 1941 – Deathblow (Le coup de grace)”, credited to Krivine, “Judith” has fallen asleep working on translating coded documents. “Henri” warns her to run for the train, but she stays, and helps his wounded contact – “Ritter”s favorite prostitute. “Ritter” lets “Mr. Schwartz” know: The SD bastards got me. Ah, women are our downfall… Your maid is free, my last act as commander. -- and he’s off to serve in Bohemia. (We’ll see next season if this act was obeyed.) “Henri” yells at “Marie”, the adulterous farmer’s wife: Your husband abandoned a Jewish family! A boy died! . .They could find my lady who is Jewish. . .He could sell us out! -- and tells the women he’s prepared to kill him. At the conclusion, “Henri” et “Marie” have barely escaped, and “Judith” is left alone.
The DVD includes useful historical background, by series consultant Jean-Pierre Azéma, who introduces testimonies on different themes by people who were from children to teens in this period, each with different experiences, including “The Fate of Jews”, noting that most of the population were indifferent to the 300,000 Jews under Vichy rule. (updated 1/14/2016)


The Fosters – Emma Kurtzman in her 2nd season (on ABC Family) is being more talked about than talking for herself, particularly in “Truth Be Told”, written by Kelly Fullerton, by her ex-boyfriend “Jesus” (played by Jake T. Austin), by his sneering new girlfriend“Hayley Heinz” (played by Caitlin Carver) , and his sister “Mariana” (played by Cierra Ramirez), While the last vociferously speaks up for her, what with “Emma” relaying messages through her, not until “The Longest Day”, written by Marissa Jo Cerar, does she get to spunkily speak up for herself. Finishing up at wrestling practice, Emma (played by Amanda Leighton) gets constructive criticism from their coach: Nice, but you lost focus. “Jesus” comes over: I just want us to be cool. A seething “Emma”: I was stupid enough to think the first words out of your mouth would be I’m sorry. “Jesus”: You broke up with me! “Emma”: And you waited 5 minutes. “Jesus”: How was I supposed to know you wanted to get back together? “Emma”, strongly implying sex, but also with resonance for a Jewish teen: I’m not doing this any more! Everything’s cool. . . We both know Hayley is everything I’m not and everything I don’t want to be. I think it’s time for you to find a new tutor. He walks off with “Hayley” as “Emma” glares at them, but “Hayley” is jealous that “Emma” will be attending the team dinner too, so she manipulates “Jesus” into not going to by claiming to be really upset about her parents getting divorced. His sister later hotly lets him know she’s known about the separation for months. In the next episode, he angrily acknowledged that his sister and mother preferred “Emma” as his girlfriend.
”Emma” turned up again in “Stay”, written by Marissa Jo Cerar, sitting next to “Jesus” sister “Mariana” (played by Cierra Ramirez), who has just gotten accepted into the advanced STEM [as in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math] program math class: Wow, I never would have suspected that Jesus’s sister turned out to be a math whiz. “Mariana”: Please tell me you know that I’m nothing like my brother. “Emma”: No, I do. “Marian”: I’m sorry how all of that went down. Hayley and everything. “Emma”: It’s cool. Don’t worry about it. “Mariana”: If it helps, I like you way better than her. “Emma”: It does help, a little. But I don’t think Hayley was even the problem. I think we were done as soon as I became his math tutor. He just couldn’t deal with me being smarter than him. And I am glad that you’re here. Between this and wrestling, I was starting to think that I was the only person in the world without a penis. But the lesson “Mariana” takes from this confession is to downplay her smarts with her boyfriend – until he straightens her out.
In ”Justify the Means”, written by Joanna Johnson, changes perceptions of “Emma”. When “Mariana” is bemoaning putting together an alternative dance team to the one the snobs kicked her off, “Jesus” makes a surprise suggestion: You know what? You should ask Emma to be on the dance team. “Mariana” (and me): Yeah, right. “Jesus” gives us new information: serious. She used to be a cheerleader, in junior high. “Mariana” has to pursue her: You were a cheerleader?! “Emma”: That was a long time ago. “Mariana”: Two years is not a long time. Look, please try out for my dance team. “Emma”, sounding very feminist: Look, I quit cheerleading and I started wrestling because I didn't want to be the silly girl on the sidelines. I wanted to be in the game. “Mariana” pitches: We are the game. We're not cheering anybody else on. We're a competitive dance team. And you're very competitive. “Emma”: I just don't feel comfortable exploiting my sexuality. “Mariana”: I'm asking you to dance, not to strip. Look, if you're not gonna do it for me, do it to avenge all the victims of mean girls everywhere. And I know you're one of them. Surprise at the audition! “Mariana” and her co-captain’s reaction: So Emma's awesome! She rocked it!
While this season made no reference to “Emma” as Jewish, in “Not That Kind of A Girl”, story by Kris Q. Rehl, teleplay by Bradley Bredeweg & Peter Paige, she clearly is different than the other girls. “Emma” has a great time at the dance team rehearsel, but she’s considerably nonplussed overhearing a conversation between watching wrestlers. “Jack”: She really is a girl, who knew? “Jesus” responds sarcastically: And you really are an idiot, Jack, who knew? Oh, wait, everybody. In the STEM Club, the teacher announces: So the Coder's Challenge is only a few weeks away and they just released this year's rules, the project is to design, produce, and market an app to a team of real investors. . . So we need to divvy up the workload and come up with a concept. A black guy in the class suggests: Why don't me and Mark and Javi do the coding?. . .Jay and me can do any engineering - or building or whatever. And why don't Mariana and Emma do all the marketing and stuff? Mariana's . . .like a social media monster. The teacher asks for objections, but “Emma” just steams with her frustration. At the next dance rehearsal, “Mariana” criticizes: OK, Emma, a little bit more hips. Gotta do it like this. “Emma”, annoyed: Does it have to be so sexual? The other girls, who are mostly minorities, say yeah. “Emma”: Well, it's kinda degrading. Another girl: What's with you? “Emma”: It's just I'm not sure that this is for me. “Mariana”: Why? You've been having so much fun. “Emma”: I guess I just wanna be taken seriously and I don't think anyone is gonna do that if we're out there, shaking our asses. “Mariana”: Is this because of the wrestlers? “Emma”: Is this because of the wrestlers? “Emma”: It's not just them, it's everybody. I mean, look what happened today in STEM. . . They put us in charge of marketing and social media. “Mariana”: Yeah, and? We got put in charge. It's not like they asked us to be secretaries or whatever. “Emma”: Yeah, they put us in charge of the girl thing. We might as well be spokesmodels. Black girl, testily: What's wrong with being a spokesmodel? “Emma”: I'm like the best coder in there, but suddenly I'm a joke. Another black girl: Oh, and you think that's because you're on the dance team now? “Emma”: It doesn't help. The 2nd black girl insists: We’re athletes! “Mariana”: Look, I'm sorry, I just I really don't get it. It's not like you suddenly became stupider, because you joined the dance team. What's wrong with being sexy? “Emma”: Nothing. I just don't wanna be perceived that way. I have more to offer than just my ass, you know. “Mariana”: Who said you didn't? But why can't you be both smart and sexy? Why do you have to choose? “Emma”: 'Cause that's just the way it is., and she storms out leaving the team one short. Later, “Emma” comes to the house to tutor “Jesus” and explains to “Mariana”: Look, I know that I'm leaving you hanging, and I'm really sorry, but I just don't think that dance team is for me. “Mariana” is vehement: OK, but why not? You love dancing, it's completely obvious. You smile just as big when you nail a turn as when you solve one of Craig's unsolvable coding problems. So why are you letting a bunch of boys decide what kind of girl you wanna be? “Emma”, taken aback: I’m not! “Mariana” is on a roll: You say, "That's just the way things are," but, no, I don't accept that. If things aren't the way they're supposed to be, then you have to change them, right? What if I told you I had an idea, a way that you can stay on dance team and prove that you are without a doubt the best coder in STEM Club?
Too bad this is “Emma”s last appearance on the show because -- Surprise – they pull off smart and sexy without T & A, lit up dancing in the dark, as “Mariana” explains in the season finale “The End of the Beginning”, written by Joanna Johnson, Bradley Bredeweg, and Peter Paige: We used the motion sensors from the video game console, and then we hacked it so we could record Emma doing the choreography in front of it, and then we just applied that to one of the avatars we made to look like one of the dancers.
(updated 7/14/2015)


Transparent (on Amazon Instant Video) As the full 1st season is released, there is more focus on the transgender central character than on their Jewishness. From Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s 8/29/2014 New York Times Magazine interview: “Can Jill Soloway Do Justice to the Trans Movement?” In 2011 her short “film got into Sundance. A week later, Soloway’s father called her to come out as transgender. . . Transparent is not overtly autobiographical. The show is at least an equal product of Soloway’s own creative struggle with gender identity as it is of actual family history.” be considering a Jewish father becoming a Jewish mother. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming) (8/29/2014)

Manhattan – Abigail Isaacs in the 1st season (on WGN and Hulu) The first episode, “You Always Hurt the One You Love” written by Sam Shaw, set in 1942 “766 days before Hiroshima”, established that for the husband scientists working to develop the top secret atom bomb: This is Shangri-La. The highest combined IQ of any town in the country and we have more Jews than Babylon, reminding me of the anecdotes in the autobiography Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, as in Richard. But where are the other Jews? None of the wives seemed Jewish at first, until it was gradually made clear that “Abigail Isaacs” (played by Rachel Brosnahan) was Jewish because we first saw her on the long dry, dusty road to New Mexico, with their young son, nagging her husband “Charlie” (played by Ashley Zukerman) to stay east and work for her well-to-do father. She gave more of an implication, in the 2nd episode “Prisoner’s Dilemma” by Shaw, while she was outside scrubbing, with her hair in rollers, and explains to her neighbor why she’s tearfully trying so hard to clean up:My grandmother tatted these curtains. They survived all the way from Russia. . . I put a pot of coffee on and the next thing I know the house is on fire. (While folks online are pointing out dialog anachronisms, I had to look up the old-fashioned word tatting.) Her husband is surprising her by getting as frisky as on their honeymoon, outside -- There’s no grass stains in the desert. -- and inside, where she’s nervous about the thin dorm walls barely separating from her neighbors, who I’m not sure yet if any of those other wives or female scientists are Jewish.
The series’ website describes her background: “Abby Isaacs grew up in a secular Jewish household in the suburban bubble of Brookline, Massachusetts. When Charlie declined his father-in-law’s offer of a sales job with the family business, he caused a rift with Abby’s family that remains unrepaired. Abby remains loyal to Charlie and takes pride in the idea that he is special. She and Charlie share almost no interests other than their son, but they have fun together. Abby is a good, if indulgent, mother to her child. Cultured and naturally social, Abby is still a newcomer, discovering by trial-and-error the very strange rules and taboos that govern life at Los Alamos.”

In “The Hive” written by Nathaniel Halpern and Lisa Melamed stuck in some awkward Jewish references, to both Isaacs’s. Sitting around with the other women admiring hunky enlisted men washing their dusty cars, “Abby” is asked if she got her work credential yet. She: Running after a 6 year old is enough work of me. . .I don’t know how to do anything. An older woman insists: Gladys is expecting a visit from the stork. You can take over her job. You seem like a very good listener. Later her husband’s reaction: I just never thought we’d be a 2 income family. She: At 40 cents an hour? It’s more like 1 income and some pocket change. If Daddy found out I was getting a job he’d keel over. He: We should call him and tell him! You’re a modern woman, I think it’s sexy! -- and slaps her on the butt. She: They haven’t hired me yet. I have to pass an exam and you know I don’t test well. [Another woman] failed it and she has a PhD. I heard that’s why she doesn’t work. He mutters that it’s not that kind of exam and it’s her husband who failed. To her: If I didn’t know better Mrs. Isaacs, I’d think you actually want this job. She: I don’t want the job, I want them to want me for the job. Turns out her job interview for a phone operator is a lie detector test. Among the questions and answers: How many alcoholic beverages do you consume in a week? A little Manishewitz at Passover. What are your assets? $900 in bank, a car. And there’s a separate trust in my name, about $200,000. The polygraph operator is more surprised at that answer than the next ones about ever having been arrested and charged with a crime or felony: Yes. I borrowed my piano teacher’s Studebaker. It was a misunderstanding. She dropped the charges. Have you ever had relations with a man outside your marriage? No. She gets to report to woman supervisor: You passed with flying colors! It’s just like Harvard -- getting in is the hardest part. . . You get to learn all your neighbors’ dirty laundry She’s all enthusiastic to her distracted husband while serving dinner: What did you do at work today? Trick question! You’re not allowed to answer!
In “Last Reasoning of Kings”, written by Scott Brown, “Abby” has gotten daring and frisky. An announcement comes over the public address system for her husband – it was her daring for what would later be called afternoon delight on her lunch hour: Charlie Isaacs report to me. She pushes him up against the wall over his protests all he needs to do She: Tell me about [Niels] Bohr and your work. She pulls down his pants, then him down into the corner. She gets all excited on top of him during sex on the floor as he talks on about electrons. Later, she’s excited to get all dolled up for the reception for Bohr, but he’s depressed from a conflict with Oppenheimer doesn’t want to go. She: Stick to physics. You have no future in comedy. . .My father wanted me to marry someone from East Egg, not East St. Louis, I told him ‘Charlie is a genius’. The truth is I didn’t think you were a genius. I didn’t know what you were until we got here and I saw the way people who everyone else calls a genius looks at you. . .We’re going to that party and we’re going to fix everything with that man who may be running everything. And a kiss of encouragement.
“A New Approach to Nuclear Cosmology”, written by Mark Lafferty and Noelle Valdivia, the Isaacs are now both turned on by their work and are having a lusty round of sex in bed in the opening scene, with her on top, as the radio plays a romantic song. In a post-coital cuddle, she teases about his secret, and he teases her about “technique”. She thinks the project is winding down; he warns It’s just getting started. She jokes she’s a switchboard girl who’s going to get a Nobel Peace Prize, to which he grins into more sex. But at work, her sneeze gives away that she’s listening in a call by a top scientist “Frank Winter” (played by John Benjamin Hickey), who sardonically tells her “Gezunheit” when they pass in the hall. Later, he tricks her with a misleading call to his father that upsets her so much she leaves work early to confront her husband: You would never steal something would you? He jokes: Just stealing you away from the most eligible Jewish bachelors in Brookline. She: You would never cheat? and she tells him “Winter” claimed he plagiarized his scientific research and he reassures her that he didn’t: I would never even cheat on my taxes. When he confronts “Winter” not to talk to him through his wife again, it turns out there was a debatable borrowing of a concept in one paragraph: My wife wouldn’t even look me in the eye last night. But after this blackmail to lie to an investigator (and his being Jewish was frequently referred to in their suspicions), they share a sleepless night.
In “Acceptable Limits”, written by producer Dustin Thomason, the couple is full of insinuations. “Charlie” is getting checked by a doctor with an alarmingly noisy Geiger counter: Thought we only got poked and prodded once a month. I see more of you than I do my wife these days. By the time he comes home after work, the electricity has gone out and, to his consternation, she’s reading by candlelight,: I lied. I told you I read your paper. I picked it up 10 times last year, but I never got past the first paragraph. I want to finish. . .This part about bending light waves – is that like a prism? We had one in school. He: Abby put it away. You’re never going to let it go? She: I just wanted to read it. He: Is this about Winter? Ever since you got that call you haven’t looked at me the same. She: That’s ridiculous. He: I’m not like your father. I don’t have a trust fund. I guess that means I cheated my way in, right? She: You’re the only person I know who thinks a decent upbringing is something to be ashamed of. He: I’m going on a trip. I don’t know when I’m coming back. You’ll have plenty of time to catch up on your reading. When she cleverly investigates that he’s traveling with a female physicist, she is curt at work to his lonely phone call from his Oak Ridge, TN hotel.
In “The New World”, written by Lilya Byock and Dustin Thomason, they are both experimenting. She reveals her jealousy to co-worker “Elodie” (played by Carole Weyers), who is earthily supportive: If your husband prefers hamburger to filet, he deserves an empty stomach. While “Abby” also confesses to overhearing her noisy sex through their thin party walls, she jokes about faking orgasms: I only get to the top of that hill climbing alone. “Abby” reluctantly agrees go to a noisy bar on the other side of town in a sexy dress and be slyly introduced as a WAC from the base. The co-worker teases her hesitation: They don’t have Negro music at the Brooklyn Country Club? She corrects to: Brookline. She at first demurs Prohibition-era 80% proof alcohol, but a soldier teases her into drinking it: Oh I thought you were an Army girl? They jitterbug and he gets very handsy. When she gets pretty drunk, he leads her off the dance floor and against the wall for a whole lot more necking than she’s ready for. “Elodie” rescues her just in time to take her home to bed– and then kisses her. And “Abby” kisses her back. They make out quite a bit on the bed. She wakes at noon naked and hung over – and, along with her maid, sees that the other side of the bed was slept in. Meanwhile, he too is getting a bit drunk and confesses to his colleague that his father is really in the state pen: Why am I telling you that? My wife doesn’t even know. He comes home from his frustrating nuclear experiment with a big I love you Abby. She hugs him right where she conducted her sexual experiment, but he has to go back to the office.

“The Second Coming”, written by Sam Shaw and David Thomason, dealt with American Jews and the Holocaust from a sensitive, creative perspective I haven’t seen on TV before. “Charlie” is surprised to catch “Abby” leaving work from the early shift. He wants her to “punch back in”, but she’s excited to be sneaking off for a day trip to Santa Fe. He insists on an important favor for her to do: You can shop tomorrow. Santa Fe can wait. She sputters: I’m not shopping. I know you won’t approve, but I’m going to go see Mother and Daddy. He’s sarcastic: Your parents live in Massachusetts. She: I got a letter. They’re going to a millinery convention in Los Angeles on the California Limited and it stops in Santa Fe. I’m going to surprise them. He’s taken back by her initiative: Jesus Abby. She’s determined: I’m going to ride one stop, 72 minutes, I’ll get off the train and I’ll take the bus back. I know it’s against the Army rules, and I know we can get in trouble. He: Fine, but before you go I need for you to arrange an out-going telephone call. She agrees, but he insists on conditions: With no one listening – not even you. But she does listen in and is a bit suspicious. On the train, she surprised her parents with a knock on their compartment, but she’s just as surprised that her mother “Miriam Rubins” (played by Jessica Hecht) weeps over her grandson. Her father “Maxwell Rubins” (played by Robin Thomas Grossman) shows her the letters from the old country that first begged for food and help, and have now stopped coming altogether. “Abby” is confused, and resentful: So this is Aunt Esther’s family? Father, with an Eastern European accent: Esther is on my side, sweetheart. The Pearlmans are your mother’s cousins, back in Minsk. She’s still confused: With the textile factory? Father: We thought they’d all made it out, but that letter arrived just before we left home -- Malka and her little girl, got left behind. Mother is very upset: The postmark was from June. Now the whole ghetto has been “liquidated”. What kind of word is that? It’s like a sale at Filene’s. “Abby”: What are they doing in the ghetto to begin with? Aren’ t they very well to do? Father: We have half of Washington trying to get information. “Abby”: You’re always warning me about jumping to conclusions. I’m sure your cousins will turn up sooner or later. Mother, bitterly: Probably in a shallow grave! “Abby” is shocked, looking at her son: Little children have big ears. Mother: I hope he’s listening! Children need to know what kind of world we’re living in that treats good Jews like poultry! Your father sheltered you too much! Father: Let it go Miriam. Mother sneers at “Abby”: You could never stand any ugliness. “Abby” retorts: Forgive me if I’m not interested in gloomy gossip about people I never even met. You haven’t seen Joey in six months and this is how you want to spend our time together? Mother: Is it our fault that we haven’t seen you? Angry silence and glares all around, and dad guzzles a drink. “Abby” tries changing the subject: Joey’s going to be in a holiday pageant. He’s playing the little lamb in the manger. Father: He’s Jewish. “Abby”: Well, so was Jesus. And I know you won’t believe it, Daddy, but Charlie has been an absolute star at work. Father: And what is his work exactly? “Abby”: You know I can’t talk about it. But a lot of very smart and important people seem to think that Charlie’s going to help end the war. Mother: Maybe Charlie can help us, he’s got such an important government job. Maybe he can find out where they’ve got Malka, arrange some kind of special visa. I don’t know what, we’ll pay whatever it costs! Father: My love, there is nothing that Charlie can do. “Abby” notes she has to get off in 18 minutes, at Albuquerque. Father protests: You’re getting off? We have a suite in Pasadena. “Abby”: If they even knew that I was here. And there’s a knock on the door from a soldier: Mrs. Isaacs would you please come with me -- now. She’s brought in for questioning by a Colonel: Mrs. Isaacs, this is a serious infraction. I would think a switchboard operator would know security regulations chapter and verse. She’s nervous: Absolutely sir. I do. He admonishes her: A day pass to Santa Fe is not a ticket to California. She: I wasn’t going to California, just to Albuquerque. He: Mrs. Isaacs, you and your husband are having a marital dispute? She thinks fast and starts crying: Sir, it’s nothing like that. There has been a terrible tragedy. I don’t know if you heard what’s happened in Minsk? I have family there, my cousin Malka, she’s really more like a sister to me.. She weeps into his proffered handkerchief: I know it was wrong to sneak off like that, but I was trying to help my family through a difficult time and I’m prepared to accept my punishment. He: There have to be consequences. She sniffles, as we see the private play with her toddler just outside the office: My poor cousin Malka. I used to send her hand-me-downs every year. I guess there’s no need for those dresses wherever the Nazis have taken her! It’s just so hard not knowing! If only we had some answers! He: All right, given the circumstantces, we can let bygones be bygones. Go home and get some rest Mrs. Isaacs. But there’s a knock on her door at home and she’s sarcastic to the private: So much for bygones - are you here to arrest me? My son is asleep and I don’t have a sitter. Instead, the private, with an Irish-sounding name, asks to come in and tells a long story about a Jewish man from his hometown who was helpful to his father: I know how important family is in the Hebrew faith. I file the intelligence reports – here’s everything we know about the situation in the area where your people are. You said not knowing was the hardest part. The Bible says the Lord rained fire on Sodom and Gomorroh. I don’t know what’s going to rain on Berlin. She opens the file, and is still sitting in shock when her husband walks in expecting dinner. She says matter of factly: My cousins are dead. . .The Pearlmans on my mother’s side. He: Were you close? She: No, I never met them. If I’d seen them on the street I would have walked right past them. He: Were they in an accident or? She tears up: No, they live in Europe. I don’t see how they could have escaped with a toddler. Did you know that in Minsk the Germans allow each Jew one and half square meters of living space, the adults I mean. The children were marched into the forest and buried alive. He: Where did you hear that? She: There’s more than a million people missing. Like they just vanished off the face of the earth. I don’t even know how to think of a number like that. He: You shouldn’t be thinking about that stuff. Her weeping turns to anger: Why? Because I’m too fragile to stomach the truth? He: No, because there’s no point getting worked up when there’s nothing you can do about it. She asks about his suspicious phone call she had listened to: You’re right, I can’t do anything about what’s happening over there – but you can. She hands him the file, and he pulls out the photographs of women and children being rounded up at the points of guns. He overcomes his paranoid nightmare of his boss mocking him as a Jew, and barges in to tell him of the problem with the bomb design. (In the meantime, “Abby” got a package of the return of her bra from her female lover.)
In “Spooky Action at a Distance”, written by Mark Lafferty, “Abby” is again being seduced by her neighbor “Elodie” (Carole Weyers), while they sunbathe. “Abby”: Was it normal? What happened between us the other night? “Elodie”: You Americans, always looking for explanations, for penance, What do you think happened? You fell asleep. “Abby”: Yes, but before I fell asleep. “Elodie” goes on about her first man she made love to – then strokes “Abby”s hand: Secrets, Cherie, without them we would just be normal. While it’s not clear where her son has gotten off to, “Abby” is getting drunk in “Elodie”s Christmas-tree-filled living room. “Elodie” leans in for a kiss: You think too much about should. -- but they’re interrupted by the husband “Tom Lansfield” (Josh Cooke), who insists “Abby” stay for dinner, and takes off his wife’s Josephine Baker record for an upbeat American pop song. They all get drunker, then while the wife goes for another bottle, he pushes “Abby” down in her chair and feels up her breast: I want to know you better. I do know you. You can keep a secret. He sticks his hand up her skirt and leers: As soon as Charlie slips up I’ll be waiting. She reports on what he said to her angry husband: What do you mean he touched you? She: You know what I mean. He groped me. He said something about he sees what you’re doing and he’s waiting for you to slip up and --. But he just walks away silently. She: You have to do something! He: Like what? She:I don’t know. He shrugs: Men will be men. The best thing you can do is stay out of his way. Taken aback, she goes off to smoke a cigarette in their bedroom.
“The Understudy”, written by Tom Spezialy, paralleled “Abby” and “Elodie”s relationship with their husbands’ work, as it opened with them lolling on a picnic blanket, oblivious to the radiation that another of the wives is increasingly paranoid about. But then “Abby” is pulling herself together after enjoying oral sex. “Elodie”: How long has it been since your husband did that?. . .You don’t have to wear so much make-up. You’re beautiful withou it. “Abby”: My mother always said a girl should never leave the house without lipstick unless it’s in a coffin. “Elodie”: Love affairs are the rewards for putting up with our husbands. “Abby”: We’re not having an affair. “Elodie”: You don’t have to feel guilty for taking pleasure in life. “Annie” demurs from her dinner invitation: Not much pleasure the last time I had dinner at your house. Your husband put his hands all over me. . .Practically assaulted me. “Elodie” tries to kiss her: I’ll kill him! I’ll poison his dinner! “Annie” lies to her: If I wanted to make a production out of it I would have told Charlie. I don’t know what he would have done. Later they meet up at a bar, smoking together. “Elodie”: This is awfully public. “Annie”: Yes that’s why I wanted to meet here, so there’s no misunderstanding my intentions. . You have been a wonderful friend at a time when I really needed one. But whatever you think is happening between us, it needs to end. I’m sorry. “Elodie”: Is this about what Tom did? “Annie”: No, this is about you and me. They’re interrupted by a drunk couple they know from work. The guy leers to “Abby”: Does your husband know you’re out on the town with this minx? The woman returns to “Elodie” her copy of Albert Camus’s L’Etranger (The Stranger) because she’s disappointed: I thought it would be racier. “Elodie” starts in: Oh, he certainly set Europe on fire. “Abby” interrupts: I thought that was Hitler.What's the book about? “Elodie” interrupts the plot description: It's about the fact that our lives are absurd. There's no God. There's no morality. And society invents rules to keep us from happiness. But every minute of every day you're free to decide who to be and how to live. “Abby”: Sounds like the author never lived in this town where you can’t leave. “Elodie”: He lives in occupied Paris. . .You’re free to walk away. . .Just because there’s a consequence doesn’t mean you have no choice. “Abby” is confused and shocked by the “bon vivant” couple’s invitation for a threesome. “Elodie” defends everyone having a secret life, especially here: Abby, you've been on the switchboard long enough to know that everybody inside these fences has a secret life. You're no exception. The difference is you’re keeping your’s secret even from yourself. . .Why shouldn’t we enjoy ourselves while we can? Life is short and it’s getting shorter all the time. . .That’s why we’re here. So our husbands can invent the end of the world. In the morning, “Abby” surprises her husband by sitting and reading the book in her pajamas: You woke up early. She retorts, after all he had been flirting with another scientist: You got home late. He: What's for breakfast? She: Nothing. He: Nothing? She: I'm not hungry. Why would I eat? He: Because that's what people do in the morning. He notices the book and tries to sound out the title, which she corrects: I took four years of high school French. He’s sarcastic: You buy gossip magazines for the photo spreads. Suddenly you're reading Baudelaire? She challenges him: You're not building a radar system, are you?. . .That's what you told me when we first got here. Is it true? He: Abby, it's complicated. She: Lying to your wife? He: I can't tell you any more. I'm not allowed. She: Of course you can. In every single moment, we have a choice. He: I'm protecting you. She: By building some machine that could wipe us all off the face of the earth? He stalks off to the kitchen: I'll make my own breakfast. She returns the book to “Elodie”: Already finished? “Abby”: Do you know why I learned French? Because it was important to my mother. Every August Charlie and I spent our vacation in Chatham, the same place that I've been summering since I was a little girl. It never occurred to me to go someplace new. “Elodie”: Well, you deserve to see the world. “Abby”: My whole life I have been exactly the person everyone expected me to be. I don't even know what I want. “Elodie: What do you want right now? “Abby” smiles seductively, leads her into the bedroom, and “Elodie” closes the door behind them.
In “Tangier” written by Scott Brown, their secrets get entwined. “Elodie” is lounging in her robe while “Abby” dresses. They play a game of “Escape” - where to travel for $100. “Abby” first jokingly chooses Albuquerque, then Paris. But “Elodie” is mournful: Paris was real for me, before the war. I do not think there will be much Paris left. Before the war, before Tom, ladies lived there like the two of us. Together. Like this. Only without the lies. So she picks out Tangier from a map for their fantasy trip: “Abby”: It sounds better than Albuquerque. They kiss. “Abby”s husband “Charlie” is losing at poker, to taunts by Elodie’s husband “Tom” as he bets half a year’s salary and then more a valuable microwave patent: What would your pretty little wife say? . . .Dr. Isaacs wants to win his lady a new mink tonight!. . .What is it – the deed to Palestine?. . .Look at the Prince of Israel bluffing his way to the Promised Land. “Charlie” wins and socks him: You touch my wife. You brag to your Ivy League circle about it, jerkoff? You even look at her again I’ll break your neck. “Tom” keeps taunting: A man with nothing to hide would have clocked me the moment I touched his wife. . .You’re playing a longer game. “Charlie”: You’re the longest winded rapist on record. “Tom”: I know about your side project. You’re going where there’s no Jewish quotas to hold you back. Ambitious kid like you, nothing to hold you back. I can afford to lose a hand here and there. “Charlie” reports to his boss who recommends firing The man who attacked my wife. But first he asks his co-worker “Helen Prins” (played by Katja Herbers) who he’s almost been having an affair with, to plant incriminating evidence on him: Why don’t you ask your wife to do it? He: I need you to do something. That French woman Elodie?. . .I know you’ve been close, you’ve been spending time with her. . . I need you to put something into their house. Some papers. To make it look like Lancefield hid them. . .I can’ tell you any more. “Abby”: I’m so sick of this, of only hearing half the story. He: Your husband’s half. The half that matters. She: So you’re framing them for something. He: Lancefield is trying to ruin me, to ruin us. She: Charlie, people go to jail for having things they’re not supposed to have! He: He’s not going to jail. His father practically runs US Steel. He’ll land on his feet. What do you care after what he did to you? She: Is that what this is? You’re avenging my honor? You’re a little late Charlie. Do you really think I would do something like that to my friend, to anyone? He: Wars have casualties Abby! She: I don’t even know who I’m talking to. She stalks out, and later at night, knocks on “Elodie”s door: Was it a joke? About leaving? “Elodie”: You’re scaring me cherie. “Abby”: I want to play this game out., and comes inside. “Elodie”: It’s cheap, if we saved our paychecks for a month or two, it’s enough for a start. “Abby”: I have money. I have an account that Charlie doesn’t know about. “Elodie”: What happened between you two? “Abby”: Everything. He asked me to trust him. He moved us 2,000 miles into the middle of nowhere. He’s been lying to me since the day we got here. He stole another scientist’s work. And he made me feel like I was betraying him because I wanted to understand why. He asked me to do things no one every should. “Elodie” kisses her hand: I don’t know who Charlie is any more. And I’m not sure he ever knew who I am. “Elodie” Who are you? They kiss, and are later in their underwear together. “Elodie”: He’s off playing cards again. He won’t be back until the crack of doom. “Abby” gets up to get water for herself and wine for her lover, but she looks out the window at a happy family walking by silhouetted in the light on from her house across the way, gets teary, and looks down at the kitchen trapdoor where her husband wanted her to plant the files. She goes home to find him lying on their bed in his clothes, waiting for her: Where have you been? “Abby”, upset: Walking. He: All night? I should never have involved you in this. It got complicated. I should have listened to my conscience instead of. . . But they are interrupted by sounds of the military police dragging “Tom” and “Elodie” out into separate cars. Both look up and glare at the Issacs before they’re taken away. “Abby” goes into their bedroom and locks the door. He: Can you let me in?
In “The Gun Model”, written by Lila Byock, “Abby” is haunted by “Elodie” even while doing the laundry. She goes into her vacant house across the way – and is so upset at meeting the new tenant that she slap her! She sits and sulks at home, while her husband is stressed from intra-office turmoil. (I’ve resorted to Wikipedia to try and follow the scientific politics about “Thin Man” and plutonium.): I made a mistake. I listened to the wrong man. . .I betrayed a trust. He’s given me a second chance. A clean slate. But she’s bitter: There’s no such thing as a clean slate, for any of us. He: I lost my bearings for a little while is all. She: There’s no difference. . . One tried to destroy our marriage, the other dragged us into this trap. I don’t know which is worse. You are a pawn in some kind of a political game and you made me a pawn too. I framed a man and his wife ,my friend too. And for what! He: I listened to the wrong man. I told you I’m fixing it! She: The man I married had his own mind. What happened to him? He: What happened to you? When was the last time you told me you loved me? You’ve barely touched me in months. She’s teary: I’m going home Charlie. He: You can’t. The Army won’t allow it. She: I looked into it. There’s one way they will. . .If we’re divorced. Upset, he goes to boss and tries to quit, but won’t let him. He confides in his co-worker scientist, who invites him to stay over, and they finally passionately tumble into each other’s arms.
The season finale “Perestroika”, written by Sam Shaw, brought together all the complexities around “Abby”. From an opening with refugees in a crowded waiting room, a curly-haired brunette girl wanders away from her mother to a window looking out at the Statue of Liberty. Scarily, she’s offered a lollipop – from the spy hunter, who Robert Oppenheimer will later call, “Mr. Fisher” (played by Richard Schiff, who usually plays Jewish characters, and I sat next to when he got CCNY’s Townsend Harris Alumni Award along with my father). He brings her back to her mother to confirm that they are being sponsored by “Charles Isaacs” and he asks her in Russian: What are your ties to Charles Isaacs? The relieved mother: Ah, he’s a very important man! Back at the Issacs’ house in Los Alamos, “Charlie” walks in to “Abby”s sarcasm: Nice of you to drop in. . .You can’t just hibernate in your office or wherever you’ve been the past two nights. Just as he tells her about the suicide of a colleague, Military Police burst in and take him away! She tries to defend their son’s bedroom, but can only in tears grab him from his bed as they tear through the place. In the brig, “Fisher” accuses “Charlie”: When did you become aware of an allied spy in the Nazis’ bomb project? “Charlie” is perplexed: I wouldn’t have told a soul – least of all the Nazis. I have family in Europe! “Fisher”: In Minsk. Not a particularly hospitable corner of the map for Jews. “Charlie”: Why would I talk to the Russians? “Fisher”: Because famly is everything. And you had family in Minsk. Yuri the husband is still there, and probably dead. But Malka and the little girl? They’re in NYC. And they’re very eager to meet you, their American benefactor. “Charlie”s relieved: They made it out? “Fisher” goes on about the Soviets: They keep their promises. .They get their inside line on the Manhattan project and you – you got your wife’s family out of Europe! They go back and forth about the null hypothesis of whether it can be proved – and that “Charlie”s father is in jail as a Socialist; “So I’m your unified theory? “Fisher”: The Pearlmans? They’re your wife’s cousins? What role did Abby play in all this? “Abby” is brought in tears: They said you needed to see me! “Charlie”: Abby, you shouldn’t even be here. She: They wouldn’t even let me clean myself up! What is going on? He: He brought you in here to spook me. He thinks I’ll crack under the pressure. She: Who? Are you in over your head? Because I’ll call my father and he’ll-- He: Oh Abby! Trust me this is outside the hat king’s jurisdiction! She: Yes, well my father may be in Massachusetts but he’s on a first name basis with half of Washington . Senator Weeks was at our wedding! He: You need to go. She: Well MPs are tearing the place apart! It’s a miracle the walls are still standing! He: I mean home – Massachusetts. She’s shocked – Is this about the Lansfields? He: Your family’s safe. She: What? He: Your cousins in Europe. The Pearlmans. She: they’re dead. He: No no. They’re in NY. She’s teary. He: They’re probably in some fleabag hotel, but they’re fine. Safer than we are. Now some men from the government are asking questions. She: They think that you’re a spy? He: That I traded military secrets. She: But you didn’t. He: No I didn’t, of course not. She shivers: Whatever they think you did, whatever made you do it. You tell them that! He: Abby – you’ll be implicated too. [His boss] knows you helped me make it. . .He knows you put the papers in Lansfields’ apartment. He knows. You can have the divorce. You and Joey need to get as far away from this place as you can. She tearfully strokes his face and he murmurs her name: I’m so sorry. Maybe if we never came here. Maybe if we’d stayed in Brookline things would be different. But he’s grabbed by MPs as she screams: Please don’t hurt him! and he’s taken away. “Fisher” resumes interrogating him: She told me everything. He: Where’s Abby? “Fisher”: Your wife is sitting in the next room. She told me everything you did and why! He: That’s bull shit. “Fisher: No one can blame a man for trying to save his wife's family from the Nazis and his marriage all in one fell swoop. He: Abby would not have told you anything. “Fisher”: Betrayal gets easier and easier and easier. After all, she has been betraying you for months with your neighbor. Making love in Lansefield’s bed, in your bed. He: Well now I know that you’re lying. She hated Lansefield. She wouldn’t go anywhere near him. “Fisher” hands him a pile of photos: Of course you’re right. But you see that foreign wife of his, she had an interesting story too. One about romancing your wife while you were at work. Your wife is a complicated woman Dr Isaacs. As soon as she realized that she might very well lose her son, getting her to admit what you have done is simple. He whispers: I don’t believe you. “Fisher”: But you do. You're thinking back to every bridge game, every martini. Every time your wife told you she was going over there to borrow another cup of flour from that woman. So you might as well start admitting what I already know fact by fact! He throws the photos at the wall: We’re done here asshole! “Fisher” threatens torture. Back home, listening to FDR on the radio, “Abby” vomits – uh oh, that’s TV for pregnant, let alone that she does it again and holds her belly before the closing montage. “Charlie’s co-worker/lover comes to the door saying they’ve looking for him at work. “Abby” is suspicious: We? Business or pleasure? “Helen” sees the place is wreck, as well as how happily she greets her son when the Indian babysitter brings him back: I think you should leave. “Helen”: I really need to see him. “Abby”: You’re too late. The MPs came for him this morning. Because they think a Jew from East St. Louis is passing secrets to the ones who want to exterminate us and you are not the only one on this hill who is trying to take my husband away from his family. “Helen” reports back to their boss, who into a wiretap takes the fall for everything, so that Oppenheimer can introduce the suddenly released “Charlie” to the Secretary of Defense as: The director of the implosion group is one of the brightest lights on this hill. He solved the physics almost singlehandedly. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming) (updated 11/9/2014)


In the Face of Crime (Im Angesicht des Verbrechens) (2010 German mini-series released on DVD in the U.S. in 2014 by MHZ Networks, in their “International Mystery Series”) Director Dominik Graf’s (of Beloved Sisters (Die geliebten Schwestern), who evidently uses ménage a trois as a signature) 10-episode noir set looks at the necessarily complicated loyalties of the contemporary Russian-Jewish community in Berlin – not quite German, not quite Russian, and not quite out as Jews. The matriarch of the Gorsky family (played by Aviva Joel) hosts traditional religious gatherings at home, such as Shabbat dinners that she expects her son “Marek” (played by Max Riemelt) to attend, and a yahrzheit observance for her elder son, whose murder inspired the brother to be a cop. I think she was speaking Yiddish to her adult children. (Ah, so all these years I could be calling my sons “Shaine yingel” and will immediately start with my grandson.) Though he is sometimes teased to date a Jewish woman, it looks like the community is so small that all the prospects he grew up with and treats as friends. (I was surprised that the Ukrainian lover, who prominently wears a cross, who he rescues from the sex trade, let alone her grandmother who, ironically, had similarly massaged German soldiers during the war, didn’t seem to notice he was a circumcised Jew.) His earthy partner warns him that he’ll probably start to look down on her for her past with a question he avoids answering: So when are you going to introduce her to your perfect mother and sister? as he sees that by the last couple of episodes they were sweetly in love. His passionately volatile older sister “Stella” (played by Marie Bäumer) lives like a wealthy Mafia wife, who first ignores the criminal activities of her hunky husband “Mischa” (played by Misel Maticevic), only lashing out at his infidelities, then, scarily, ending up totally integrated as she takes over, into the very Russian Christian gangster culture,. She’s devoted to her brother – until the police raid her Odessa Restaurant. (updated 1/10/2015)

Hindsight – Lolly Levine (on VH-1, their first fiction series) A NYC-set retread of the Canadian series Being Erica (that I watched all 3 seasons of but haven’t gotten around to posting here full about the Jewish titular character), I wasn’t sure until the penultimate episode that the sweet, warm and a bit ditzy video store clerk best friend “Lolly Levine” (played by Sarah Goldberg) of the time traveling “Becca Brady” (played by Laura Ramsey) was Jewish (partly because I’m not sure I saw all the episodes and the characters were confusing) until, of course, the December Dilemma episode. In “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, written by Mike Herro & Davis Strauss, “Lolly” keeps suggesting to her crush “Kevin” (played by Steve Talley) meals they could go out to: Let’s get dinner at Foo’s Palace. It’s Sunday and I’m half-Jewish so Chinese restaurants are my family’s house of worship. You don’t want to anger God in two religions. But he just wants to be friends – because he likes “Becca”, who doesn’t want to hurt “Lolly”, who went back to 1995 to repair their busted friendship (and the excuse to play oldies appropriate for VH-1): I was trying to protect Lolly. “Kevin”: She’s lucky to have you. “Becca”:. I’m the lucky one -- there’s no one else like her. But “Lolly” sees them kissing. In the season finale “Auld Lang Syne”, written by series creator Emily Fox (who in a video extra said their friendship is the central theme of the show), she leaves many phone messages for “Lolly”, including a fervent “Happy Hanukkah”. (5/28/2015)

House of Lies - Sarah Guggenheim in the 4th season (on Showtime) I was surprised to see the ever wonderful Jenny Slate show up again, in “I'm a Motherf**King Scorpion, That's Why”, written by David Walpert, because I thought her character had divorced her husband “Doug Guggenheim” (played by Josh Lawson). Her sole raison d’etre, unfortunately, seems to be such a crazy bitch that the scheming “Jeannie Van Der Hooven” (played by a very pregnant in real life Kristen Bell) seem more sympathetic. But there’s a different explanation. “Doug” to “Sarah”: I just don't think that. . .Do we really want to do this? “Sarah”: Are you fucking kidding me? We already talked about this. “Doug”: I just think we may have more perspective when you get back from your sister's, don't you? “Sarah”: No, Doug, please, just ask her. “Doug”: So, Jeannie, listen, uh do you remember, uh, how Sarah lost her job eight months ago? I know, fuck Obamacare, right?. . . But regardless, um, having her around more. Boy, oh, boy, it's been great. Just so great, lo, these these many, many months. And it gave her a chance to nest. Filling the nest, however, well, that has proved elusive. Fertility treatments, countless specialists, and still you can hear a big old echo in that uterus of hers, huh? “Sarah” impatiently interrupts with: Also, you know, his little men are not exactly Michael Phelps. “Doug”: Anyway, we were wondering if, um and we totally understand i-if you don't want to, but if there was any chance that you didn't want, or were thinking about? “Jeannie”: Are you asking me for my baby? Co-worker “Clyde Oberholt” (played by Ben Schwartz): Oh my God, I think he is. No, he couldn't possibly? “Doug” references the guy in NYC she has said impregnated her: No offense to you and Edwin. “Sarah” interrupts: Mother and father on opposite coasts. Yeah, it's not good. That's sad to me. You know, I think a baby needs stability. “Jeannie” incredulous: Which the baby would get with you and Doug? “Sarah”: I think that that's actually a very attractive offer. . . Maybe you don't know this, but babies come with many hassles. “Doug”: Oh, and you could come visit at any time you wanted. No? Okay. Scheduled visits. . . What we would love for you to do is take time and think about it. “Jeannie”: I'm not giving you my baby! “Sarah”: You are so fucking selfish! “Jeannie”: And you are so batshit crazy! “Marty” (Don Cheadle): Oh Jeannie. What's the big deal? Just give them the baby! It's not like it's a baby. Sarah: We all know that you are bound to be a terrible mother. . .Doug, back me up. Doug, back me up. . .Pick a side, Doug. “Doug”: I don't know if you'll be great. . . “Sarah”: Terrible! Terrible. So, maybe be wise and think of us as like preemptive Child Protective Services. “Jeannie” tries to walk away, and “Sarah” complains to “Doug”: She doesn't even want it. . . Look, I mean, you probably don't even want the baby. I want the baby, Doug. To “Jeannie”: Okay, well, I know you have to say that in front of people, but between you and me I want the baby. . . You've left a path of shattered lives. What's one more, right? “Jeannie” is still fuming about “Sarah”s gaul on a business trip plane: We will find Doug's body chopped up in a freezer one day, yeah? “Sarah” video calls “Doug” as his co-workers can hear her – and pantomime retching: I finished organizing the closet And made a pile for Goodwill. Oh, and I need you home by 7:00 because I'm making lamb chops. But I got them at the store that sells food past the sell-by date. #IKnowMyHusband! Well I'll see you at 7:00. #IGotPlansForYouAfterDinner. . . Ooh! #NotOvulating. #FinishWhereverYouWant. “Doug”: I love you, Sarah. “Sarah”: I love you, too. Later, “Jeannie” asks: Things seem to be good with you and Sarah, huh, Doug? “Doug”: Things seem to be good with you and Sarah, huh, Doug? “Doug”: Yeah, yeah, you know, Sarah losing her job has actually been a blessing in disguise. She's been around and attentive and relaxed. It's nice. But then he confides in “Ben”: I don't know, I It would just be so much easier if if she were dead, you know? . . No, I mean I don't mean I wish she were dead. . . I love Sarah. You know that. I've always loved Sarah. “Clyde”: But if she was dead, man, think about all that widower pussy you would get. “Doug”: What? Pardon me? God, you make you make it sound sick. “Clyde”: Doug you know, in Judaism, there's this thing called the Chamesh Godol. It loosely translates to "Shiva House blow job." Now, it's considered a mitzvah when a woman provides oral sex to a man whose wife just passed away. “Doug”: Really? “Clyde”: What the fuck is wrong with you? Really? You were thinking about it. . . I'm not the one asking for a co-worker's baby on behalf of a wife who I wish were dead, so I feel fucking amazing right now. [Forthcoming - I’ll post the full details of the nasty next episode “Entropy is Contagious” written by series creator Matthew Carnahan, where she goes crazy – at least there’s no explicit mention this season that she’s Jewish.] The negativity continued about her even after she left, such as in the penultimate episode a forensic accountant from the CIA demonstrates his investigative skills by showing “Doug” a shirtless photo of the hunky guy his wife is now having sex with. “Doug” quickly corrects: “Ex-wife.”
Maybe a couple of sympathetic comments by “Clyde” about his mother were supposed to balance out this negative view of Jewish women compared to his horribly obnoxious father, as played by Fred Melamed, who names his cat companion “Natalie Portman” and is constantly mentioning the Holocaust apropos of nothing relevant, before dropping dead. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming) (updated 7/3/2015)


The Honourable Woman – Nessa Stein and more (in U.K. on BBC2; in U.S. on Sundance Channel) The mini-series premiere first in the U.K. led to advance commentary about a character that the press is calling “Anglo-Israeli”. Quoted in The New York Times, “Adding Fiction to the Fray Making Dramas About Mideast Can Be Complicated”, by Dave Itzkoff, 7/28/2014: “Sarah Barnett, the president and general manager of Sundance TV, said that her network had signed onto the series on the basis of [Hugo] Blick’s scripts, even before [Maggie]. Gyllenhaal had agreed to star. “Nessa Stein was someone we just hadn’t seen represented in a scripted drama before. She was this extraordinarily compelling character, and her life of privilege was such a double-edged sword — such a prison, in a way.” First noting that the actress’s mother is Jewish, Andrew Anthony in the U.K. The Observer, 7/5/2014, elicited this discussion: “Her one doubt about the UK is the way she says that Jewishness is treated here. ‘It was a culture shock for me. In America, we don't expect there to be any social difference [between Jews and non-Jews]. I don't seem Jewish, I don't have a Jewish name. [She since revealed on a U.S. chat show that she had recently learned the name on her birth certificate is “Margalit”.] No one would ever know. But when I came here people started talking in a different way about what it meant to be Jewish. People would talk about specific areas of London being Jewish, about Jewish ways of behaving.’ Nessa does have a Jewish name, but otherwise no one would ever know. Who she really is and what she really wants remain for the time being a mystery. Over the rest of the summer, all eyes will be on the enigmatic Gyllenhaal as the truth is slowly and no doubt perplexingly revealed.” In promotions around her Emmy nomination for the role, she has made no acknowledgment of her character as Jewish, or her connection to Jewish identity. On public radio’s Studio 360 , 8/8/2014, Blick noted the differences in British and American audiences’ perceptions.
While I’ll eventually get to an episode-by-episode commentary, “Nessa” seems to have much less sense of Jewish identity, other than bearing her assassinated father’s legacy as a Holocaust refugee, than her brother “Ephra” (played by Andrew Buchan, one of my Brit TV favorites, since Party Animals, so I had to adjust to perceiving him as a Jewish character), who says a Hebrew prayer upon rising and has a joyous naming celebration for his daughter, a namesake for their mother, with a klezmer band. In a flashback, she’s sarcastic to him about her accomplishments as “a little Jewish girl”. Otherwise she works diligently for Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, even as she’s warned that sitting on a fence will only get her stabbed, that is not as bad as the personal trauma she has suffered that leads her to sleep each night in a panic room. For all the strengths she seems to have, in running a company and a philanthropy dedicated to negotiating a highly visible Middle Eastern business and educational opportunities,“Nessa” turns out to be just an abused pawn of history and Jewish symbolism, let alone in desperate need of a warm father figure, provided by her father’s old Israeli friend “Shlomo Zahary” (played by Igal Naor).
Unfortunately, her presumably Jewish auburn-haired sister-in-law “Rachel” (played by Katherine Parkinson) is a fairly one-dimensional, fertile bitch (though, oddly, in “Behind the Scenes” interview on the DVD the actress goes on about what a rich character she is) who pretty much drives her husband into the arms of their (scheming and complicated) Palestinian nanny (a mesmerizing Lubna Azaba, of Incendies), which makes her even more of a harridan. (updated 8/19/2015)


Rachel Berry etc. in the 6th/final season of Glee (on Fox) Before the premiere, it’s worth noting the context in this interview with her idol: “Barbra Streisand: A Voice to Be Reckoned With”, by Jared Bernstein, in The New York Times, 9/14/2014: “She believes many of the journalists who have swiped her over the years are anti-Semitic or anti-female, even when (or especially when) those critics are Jewish or female — or both. Mike Wallace once did a tough interview with her for CBS. ‘He had this very powerful Jewish mother, and I thought ‘Whoa!’” she said. ‘After Yentl, Ms. Streisand continued, ‘the most vitriolic reviews I got were from women, who never discussed what I was saying in the movie in terms of a celebration of womanhood and the fact that they could have babies and be smart and study and be scholars, that they could do the whole thing. It was all about the costumes, the lighting, the lip-syncing. Things that are trivial.’ Recently, she has been using a spiral notebook to write down her thoughts on Israel, some of which may go into a memoir she’s writing. A paragraph in it began as follows: ‘The world envies success.’”
In the season opener “Loser Like Me”, written by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk & Ian Brennan, the TV network exec “Lee Paulblatt” (played by Jim Rash) manages to vaguely include a Jewish reference in reactions to the disastrous pilot episode of her “That’s So Rachel” TV show: If we were to do another episode, there would be protestors from UNICEF, the ADL, the NAACP, PETA I mean, my BlackBerry is buzzing with angry e-mails from NAMBLA. I think that you actually found a way to offend every special interest group in this country. And I don't want to point fingers, but I have to. At you, because you're the face of it. And things get worse, when her father “LeRoy” (played by Brian Stokes Mitchell) (is he or “Hiram” Jewish?) announces her fathers are breaking up and selling the house. She, of course, triumphs at the finale by belting out Idina Menzel’s (who played her biological mother in Season 1) signature anthem from Frozen “Let It Go”.
I’n general when reference was made to her Jewish heritage in any way it was while it was poking fun at her or being nasty to her, while the praise and compliments were without that context.
On July 11, 2022, when it was announced that Michele would be replacing Beanie Feldstein in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl in September, Playbill compiled her renditions of the musical’s songs on Glee. Tovah Feldshuh is replacingD her Glee co-star Jane Lynch, as her mother. (updated 3/23/2015 and 7/11/2022)


Felicity Smoak in the 3rd season of Arrow (on CW, out on DVD) An “Olicity” date was teased in advance to “shipper” fans on FaceBook between “Felicity” (played by Emily Bett Rickards) and “Oliver Queen” (played by Stephen Amell) (in comparison, fan art makes her more exaggeratedly sexy or submissive as they don’t see a strong brainiac as romantic enough):
I let the fansite webmaster (webmistress?) know how unusual “Felicity” is as an unstereotypical Jewish woman character and she let me know on 10/30/2014: “As far as I'm aware no one else has really focused on Felicity's character being Jewish, though it has definitely been noted and mentioned in various posts/articles and I do recall recent tweets from fans and Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim, stating that Felicity's menorah would be making an appearance in a future episode. (Photos were posted by various media outlets after a recent set visit in Vancouver.) Marc has also mentioned that they (Arrow Powers That Be) were pleased to be able to come back and refer to Felicity's Jewish heritage in episodes this season.” Let’s see if she remembers or there’s resonances that she’s Jewish more often than around the December holidays.
The website alerted me to Green Arrow #36, released November 2014, to see how “Felicity” in print compares to “Felicity” on TV, to purchase my first comic book in some 50 years. (I first had to overhear a little Asian kid to discover there’s an up-upstairs comic book store in my neighborhood, with a helpful young Asian woman clerk.) “Oliver” notes: You talk a lot. She confesses why: Because I”ve done some. . .Many. . Questionable things in my life. Leading a hero to his Death isn’t one of them. . .Think you can put that Bow down now? . . .My Fees are rather Large. So whoever my employer is, he must have Mucho Dinero. . .I know everything about you. . .I want to help you Save the city. . . I also happen to be going through a bit of a Quarter-Life-Crisis. . .I’m incredibly good at what I do, which is Hacking-for-Hire. This version of “Diggle” is suspicious: It took you fifteen months to trust me with your secret. One look at Blondie and she’s part of the team? She retorts with a new aspect: Actually, I dye my hair. And this isn’t much of a team.
Just as “Felicity” was being respected for her brains as a hacker, beauty, and boyfriend-potential, Samantha Nelson in The AV Club, 11/20/2014, protested in “TV’s geek girls need to rise above being tech support” that I thought was ironic, unfair and inaccurate about a unique, non-bullying yet still aggressive, Jewish woman character as she was lumped into “an entirely new stereotype: women who are smart and competent but in an entirely nonthreatening way. They’re more plot devices than characters, with little development and few goals beyond helping the real heroes thrive.”
“Felicity” was the first Jewish woman character to go on a date with a handsome, sexy super-hero, in the season opener “The Calm”, story by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, teleplay by Marc Guggenheim and Jake Coburn. First she’s dressed in sexy orange, she’s quite satisfied with their anti-criminal activities, and surprises“Oliver” with a feminine touch to their lair: [That’s] a fern. It thrives in low light. Now that you’re living here I thought the place could do with a little spruce. They joke about him buying a bed, but she has to get off to her day job at an electronics store. He’s a bit wistful: We’re still on for tomorrow night? (Double entendre – whether for business training or romance.) She puts his face between her hands reassuringly: Absolutely. I’m going to turn you into a corporate master of the universe. Those board members are going to be begging to sell Queens Consolidated back to you and your backers. He watches her walk off, but confesses his girlfriend problems I’m not exactly a catch at the moment. to “John Diggle” (played by David Ramsey) who suggests: Maybe Felicity will change all that. “Oliver” demurs with the thematic warning: It’s not the right time. But “Diggle” insists: Things are as good as they ever will be Oliver. And you love her. You even told her so. “Oliver”: I was trying to fool Slade. “Diggle”: Yes, except now the only person you’re fooling is yourself. “Felicity” rants over “Oliver” as he asks her about the day job she’s had to take on since “Oliver” lost his fortune: It is not work. It is a soul-crushing exercise in misery that offers health and dental. Suffice it to say that I am highly motivated to convince the board to sell you back the company. Unfortunately, you don’t have the qualifications to run Queen Consolidated – but what you do have is passion. You care about the company and the people that work there. That’s what you have to get across to them. Speak from the heart. He interrupts: Felicity, would you like to go out to dinner with me? She: I’m beingserious here Oliver. He: So am I. She: I don’t want to read too much into this, but are you asking me out on a date? Like an actual date? Like a date date? He: The implication being with dinner that. She: Usually I don’t like talking in sentence fragments. He smiles and takes a deep breath: Would you like to go to dinner with me? She smiles big time: Yes! He continues when they’re sharing a motorcycle: So you like Italian?. . . For tonight. You like Italian, right? Everyone likes Italian. (Well, not so much for a celiac like me.) Later, she: Oliver, you're in the middle of a high speed chase! He: I'm multitasking. Into the store walks a new guy in the series – and in her life, “Ray Palmer” (played by oh so handsome Brandon Routh), as she confidently and quickly explains in detail what equipment he can use for highly technical use of wifi, though I wondered why she was surprised he knew her name given that she was wearing a name tag – except that he knew she used to work for Queen Consolidated: I know a guy who might be interested in hiring someone with your expertise. She, firmly: I’m not actually looking for a new job right now. But I can help you buy this. Unless I can’t, I mean I shouldn’t. You shouldn’t buy this. He: OK clearly you don’t understand how this whole sales things works. But she’s all enthusiastic about a next-gen model as “pure bliss” and recommends an administrative tool: and recommends an admininstrative tool: Here’s the URL. Happy hacking! “Oliver” is late for their date, and no wonder he stops for an eyeful, because she’s all dressed up in red and isn’t wearing glasses, a disappointingly cliché touch, but then the original comics were from the 1940’s. They hug hello and she teases: Nervous? He: Yes. She grins: Line forms behind me. He orders a grown-up Scotch, she water. He’s surprised: Are you sure? Because the booze might sorta help with the whole- She confesses: The alcohol is not going to mix well with the three Benzo’s I took. He: Am I being crazy? I mean, what do we have to be nervous about? She: Well, we’ve already exhausted every topic that one would normally talk about on a first date. And a second date. And a third date. And every date, actually, and I’ve already seen you shirtless. Multiple times. Shirtless all the time., she mumbles at the end. He earnestly explains why, as the romantic music builds: I could never completely trust someone. . .Then I walked into your office. You were the first person I could see as a… person. There was just something about you. She teases: Yeah, I was chewing on a pen. He surprises her: It was red. . . Do you remember when I told you that because of what we do, I didn’t think that I could be with someone that I could really care about? . .Maybe I was wrong. She’s knocked unconscious in an attack! He hurries her to the lair and reassures she’s safe when she jolts awake to quip: Believe it or not, I have had worse first dates. She jokes about him wanting to talk: About our dinner? Or our dinner getting blown up?. . . It’s okay. We’ll talk about it after we catch this guy. Onto the company board meeting – where “Oliver” is surprised that she’s already met the new guy in charge, who is still lobbying for her to work for him. “Oliver” loses the vote and decides to go back to focusing on being “The Arrow”. She challenges: Last night at the restaurant you didn’t feel that way. . . The explosion wasn’t your fault. He, conveniently: I think I’m scared of what would happen if I let myself be Oliver Queen. She’s frantically doing her computer research thing as fast as she can, and figure out how to track the bad guys’ GPSs. And then “Palmer” tracks her down and again asks her to work for him with your skill set. . . All my data’s been replaced by audio of porcupine flatulance. So I was hoping whoever did it would be willing to undo it if I apologized for misleading them in any way. She’s defiant: That would probably work, unless of course you did all that to steal that person’s friend’s company in which case I would suggest you get used to the sound. . . If you don’t mind, my friends just had a baby so there’s another slimey little human that needs my attention. She greets the new parents with one of her few implications of Jewishness as she talks to proud dad “Diggle”: She’s scrumptious! Mazel tov guys, seriously! . .She’s beautiful! “Oliver” still wants to talk, but she: I don’t want to talk. Which, for me, I know is a little unprecedented. But as soon as we talk, it’s over. He earnestly signals her romantic fate: I’m so sorry. I thought that I could be me and The Arrow. But I can’t. Not now. Maybe not ever. She: Then say never. Stop dangling maybes. Say it’s never going to work out between us. Say you never loved me. Say-- And he kisses her! And she even had her glasses on. He: Don’t ask me to say that I don’t love you. She’s resigned, unlike the “Olicity” fans: I told you as soon as we talked it would be over., and walks away.
In “Corto Maltese”, written by Erik Oleson and Beth Schwartz, she’s hiding from the crew that her job as “Tech City” has changed, but she straight away announces to her new new, handsome boss “Ray Palmer”: I told myself I would stand firm on a few points - No late night emails. No personal errands and no coffees, definitely, there will no expressos brought to you by me. The end. Very firm. He: I admire your conviction. Here’s Jerry your executive assistant and I would like to know if you want him to get you a coffee or are you just anti latte in general? She just as surprised when it turns out the large office they’re meeting in is hers. So when he admires the work she did: You know how many techs said this data was unrecoverable? All of them., she immediately asks for some time off to go help out her friends.
“The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak”, written by Ben Sokolowski and Brian Ford Sullivan, was unsual for focusing on her, including her very blonde mother “Donna” (played by Charlotte Ross) and flashbacks to her in college, where she’s a not very credible looking Goth. Her morning starts with intensive sit-ups and teeth brushing, before she’s interrupted by her new boss knocking at the door to discuss co-generation potential. Another knock – it’s mom in a sexy, low-cut dress, eyeing the handsome guy: Oh, my beautiful girl! Very friendly with your neighbors, I see. “Felicity” is really taken aback: Mom? What are you doing here? Mom: Honey, I came to see you. For a visit. Didn't you get my text? “Felicity”: Mom, to send a text, you actually have to press "send" on the text. Which Mom does – and her daughter’s phone buzzes. The boss is staring: Are you adopted? Mom ogles: Oh! I'm so sorry. I didn't know you had somebody staying over. “Felicity” is nonplussed: Oh, no, he's not staying over. He's not, like, we're not-- this is my boss. Mom recognizes him as “the watch guy”: I bought one of your watches! Look! See? Felicity here thinks I don't pay attention to all of her tech-y things. He promptly takes off his prototype next- gen “smart wearable” computer and gives it to her. He politely looks forward to meeting again, as “Felicity” exits him, muttering: She'll probably be really busy Planning my funeral after I die of embarrassment. Flashback to 5 years ago: she’s in a dorm room with 2 guys, sitting on the lap and making out with her boyfriend “Cooper Seldon” (played by Nolan Gerard Funk), until the other guy complains: Why can't you just quietly have sex under a comforter like most college students? “Cooper” is distracted by computer signals: Now I just need your super computer virus to crack the firewall. While she tries to object, while being excited to post her accomplishment on a hacker forum: I really wish you wouldn't call my x-axis bi-numeric algorithm a "super-virus., she realizes that he has gone futher and is deleting student loans from the Dept. of Education website: You can't wipe out all the loans, they'll never think it's a glitch. They're going to track us down and find us! She literally unplugs: I'm not going to jail for you, Cooper, and you shouldn't, either. He vociferiously objects: Ever heard of hacktivisim? Instead of posting to web forums, we could be doing some real good in the world. She: And going to prison in the process. He: It's all about what you want to be when you grow up, babe-- A hacker, or a hero? Back to the present – she has to deal with the “Big Eye Group”s computer virus crisis, so brings Mom to the nightclub, that’s the upstairs cover for the lair, and conveniently assigns her to babysit “Diggle”s baby: My mother loves babies. (Though we don’t actually see her with “Sara” during the episode.) Flashback: She’s on her phone with her mom: No, for the last time, I am not interested in buying a fake ID. I am hanging up now. She passes on “Hi!” from Mom to “Cooper”, but he’s still mad at her: Think of how many accounts you could go to prison for if I hadn't stopped you. . . By accessing the accounts, you set off a packets feedback that anyone could trace back to. He chuckles: You are gorgeous when you're being a chicken. Next thing they are surrounded by FBI – and he’s under arrest whie she’s weeping: Let go of him, let him go! Back to the present “Feliciy” is madly working on a solution to the city’s electronic shut down, when she has a horrible realization: The trace led me to the virus they're using. It is a mile past complex. I'm combing through now. No, no, no, no, no, no!. . .The virus I can't stop it! . . .Because it's mine. I wrote it five years ago. . . Ok, ok, before you say anything, just know that I never imagined the virus being used for something like this. I mean, sure, I could have imagined it. I actually have a very vivid imagination.Like cronuts! I had a vision of them before. “Oliver” stops her: Relax. Take a deep breath. Now start at the beginning. She: I was in this, I guess you could call it a group, in college. We were "hacktivists." For lack of a better word. Civil disobedience via the World Wide Web. I created this. This super virus. That could give us root access to any infected server. We could expose government fraud and start virtual sit-ins and digitally deface criminals. I guess you could say it was my first attempt at being a hero. “Oliver” is on a short fuse in the crisi: Why didn't you tell me about any of this? She retorts in kind: Do we even know a fraction of what happened to you the five years that you were away? She thinks the roommate could be to blame. Flashback – she’s visiting “Cooper” in prison, in tears, wearing a huge ankh, not a star. She wants to confess: I can't let you rot in prison, Coop. He: You can't tell them you wrote that virus because I already told them I did. I always said I'd protect you. . .I wiped out those loans. There's no reason both of us should be in prison. They exchange I love you. Back to the present, the former roommate is proven innocent. “Oliver” presses her: What about your ex? She: I already told you, he didn't do it. He’s angrier: Why? Because he's your ex-boyfriend? [I interrupt to point out that I’ve been having trouble keeping track of his ex-girlfriends.] She’s upset: Because my senior year of college, Cooper and I did a stupid thing. He got arrested and he went to prison. “Oliver” is impatient: So he went to prison. Maybe he got out. She: He didn't. . . Because he's dead. He hung himself before sentencing. . . I just really need to be alone right now. and she runs off in tears, and ends up in her new office, where her boss finds her: My mother -- I didn't have anywhere else to go. . . You're an inventor. Did you ever create anything that you didn't think was important, turns out, it's very important? “Ray”: Of course. Those turn out to be the best inventions. Before they can much follow-up, Mom storms in: I'm sorry; I've already waited two hours for you at your apartment, and before that, it was two hours in the club. Is there any way that you could be anywhere else but here? “Felicity” is bitter: Thanks, Mom. That wasn't the least bit mortifying. Only half as bad as parents' week in freshman year. Mom’s back at her: I'm sorry I've been reduced to stalking my own daughter. “Felicity”: Because you can't seem to comprehend that I can't make the whole world stop because you decided to show up on my doorstep. I have responsibilities! Mom is sarcastic: Yes, I know, Felicity. You have work. You have work, work, work, work. “Felicity” argues: No, no, no, you don't understand. It is so much more than work. But all you care about it my love life or how much cleavage I don't show. Mom: That is not true! “Felicity”: That is completely true! And I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I'm terminally single. I'm sorry I have an actual job. I'm sorry that I don't dress like a porn star! Which I realize is a compliment to you. So I'm so sorry that I am such a disappointment to you! Mom, sadly ironic (so are we supposed to assume that it’s her father who was Jewish?): I'm not as smart as you, Felicity, or your father. I know that. Even when you were only six years old, I could barely keep up with you two. And maybe I wasn't always the mother you wanted, but I was always there. I stayed and I tried. He left me. He left us. But when I look at you, all I see is what he gave you. There is nothing of me in you. You know, it's so funny. I was always so afraid that one day, you were going to leave me, too. But now I finally realize you already did. “Felicity” goes back to tackling her computer problem, but is teary and distracted: The super virus has 3,407 traceable access notes. Hopefully I didn't put a firewall in every one. Though, of course I did, because I'm smarter than that. Seriously, if I had two less IQ points, we never would have gotten in this mess. “Oliver” is worried about her and her mom: Are you all right? Where's your mom? She: I don't know. Probably back at my place, wishing she had a different daughter. It's a long story. . . The city is under attack! “Oliver” keeps insisting she leave and go see mom, drawing on his own family experience: Go talk to your mom. . .You're our best chance of stopping it, but not like this, Felicity. Your head's not in the game. . . You know, earlier today, [my sister] told me that she literally has to put up with me because family is precious. And that it's love, in spite of everything, that makes it precious. Go. Go talk to your mom. She insists: I will get it together. . . I do not have anything to say to her. He makes her take an hour off while her tracer hack is running. At home to mom, Felicity: I'm glad you're still here. Mom: You are a terrible liar, Felicity. Might be the only thing we have in common. “Felicity”: I have blonde hair. Mom confirms: You dye it. “Felicity” admits: You're right. We're different, and it's always going to be that way. And it's not easy-- Mom: No, you know what, it's-- it's totally my fault for just showing up here uninvited. Seriously. I think I just got so excited about this free flight. “Felicity”: Mom. Someone wanted you to be here! and then they’re kidnapped by --- mask off -- her ex-boyfriend “Cooper”! You really don't know? I thought you'd never forget your first love. She gasps: You died! . . . When I found out you died, I was devastated. I loved you! He, too, but he took a deal to fake his death and work all this time for the NSA. (That’s actually almost credible.): After I finished my time with the NSA, I was going to find you. To let you in on this. And then I discovered you'd become this corporate lap dog. Broke my heart. You changed. She protests against his terrorism: If you ever thought I was capable of doing something like this, you never really knew me at all. He: When you wrote this virus, Felicity, you knew exactly what it was capable of. All I'm doing is unleashing the true potential of what you made. She: This isn't who you are! He got on how the NSA not only made him cynical, but now he’s targeting banks, and orders her: But you're going to hack into the system and direct the cash to come here. She: It was about money, and I'm the sell-out? He: No, babe. You're the one who's going to help me. See, breaking into the treasury's asymmetric encryption is beyond even my capabilities. She: I'm going to politely decline. He threatens her mother for motivation. Meanwhile, “Oliver” is suspicious that she hasn’t answered her phone for over an hour: Felicity's never more than five feet from her phone. . . Something's wrong. Mom, facing death: Now's not really the best time, ok? But it might be the last time, hon, and I want you to know that all I've ever wanted is for you to be happy. “Felicity” in a hurry: It's done! It's done. . . There's a reason you wanted me, right? Her ex grabs her face: Stay put, OK? Just because we used to screw doesn't mean I won't use this gun. But she figures out she can ask for help via Ray Palmer’s watch even as mom doesn’t know what she means. But the ex returns to her protests: I did what you wanted! You don't have to kill us. Mom: Hey.You want to wave that gun at me, fine, but don't you dare threaten my daughter! “Coop”: Here I thought you were all nails and hair. Mom: Try single mom working 60 hour weeks in heels for tips in order to raise that genius child you see right there. I may not understand all this cyber or whatever, but I know without that gun, you wouldn't last 10 seconds against my girl! “Coop”: Too bad she doesn’t have 10 seconds. And “The Arrow” comes to their rescue! “Coop” grabs her but she wrestles free. Tearfully, then turns to “Oliver”, but he can relate: Mom! Mom, are you ok? Are you ok?. . . Before, you were right to keep pressing on Cooper. Turns out he's not as dead as I thought. He’s sympathetic: Old lovers have a way of opening old wounds. She: Lovers sounds creepy no matter how you say it. He; Felicity I want you to know that whatever experiences you had to go through, I'm glad that you did.They shaped the person you are today. She: You were right. We have to love our families. No matter what. Back at her apartment: My flight doesn't leave till tonight, but I figured you'd be working, so we can-- we can just say good-bye now. “Felicity”: You were right. . . I haven't always been appreciative of you. You were always there for me every day, and night. So if I haven't said thank you enough, thank you. But you were wrong, too. . . When you said all you saw in me was dad; there was nothing of you in me. Well, I can't really explain it, but over the past two years, I have been through a lot. And I have learned that I am a lot tougher than I thought. That I get from you. When “Palmer” comes in for work, she announces she’s taking a sick day, and mother/daughter go off with their arms around each other. Flashback to the college dorm where the roommate does a double take: What happened to you? She: This is me now.
After a back to business episode, “Draw Back Your Bow” was a too-conventional romantic episode for the fans (even if it was unusual for a sci fi show to be written by two women, Wendy Mericle and Beth Schwartz, but, heck, it was enjoyable to see “Felicity’ at the center of a triangle. She walks in on her handsome boss doing pull-ups shirtless, muscles bulging: Oh God, I have a type! . . Please I can’t hear a word you’re saying when you’re doing – that. They discuss his planned press conference, then he adds: Are you free for dinner tomorrow night? . . I have a dinner with the CEO of a Nevada mining concern. She: Oh, and I fit into this how? “Ray”: Ahh, the CEO is boring. His wife, even more boring. If I'm forced to go solo on this, I'll end up slicing my wrists open with a butter knife. They quip back and forth, then she: Well, I'm sure you have a dozen other employees that would be better suited as your anti-boring wing woman. He: Hundreds, actually. . . But you are the one I bought this dress for. She: This dress costs more than my apartment. He: Yeah, it's couture. She: Which I'm pretty sure is French for expensive. She strokes and sniffs the material. He: So, dinner? Purely platonic. She: There is nothing platonic about couture. . . No, all right, I'll go! I'll go. But only so I can wear this dress. She whispers to the blue dress: You and I are going to be best friends. She applauds him at his press conference as he announces worthy goals and a corporate name change. Meanwhile, “Oliver” is getting more and more annoyed that she’s not around when he needs technical assistance: I would like Felicity to do a work-up on all of this ASAP. “Diggle” runs interference: Felicity's a little busy right now. . . I know this can't be easy, with Felicity spending so much time with Palmer. Later “Oliver” barks an assignment to her: I need 100% of your focus! She: I can definitely find out. . . I can crack it, but it's going to take some time. . . And I will work round the clock on it, except for tonight. . . Ray Palmer invited me to dinner. . . Not dinner-dinner, like a date. It's a work dinner, but since dinner is a meal you can technically only eat at night, I need the night off. “Diggle” comes to her new office: Wow, that's a nice dress. She: Yeah, it's really, really, really nice. Ray lent it to me for a work dinner. He, sarcastic: Yeah, some work dinner. You and Ray. Doesn't seem that platonic. Actually, it has Oliver twisted up in knots. She: Well, Oliver made his choice. He: We both know that was the wrong choice. She: And did Oliver say that? Oh, yeah, because Oliver's just great at expressing his emotions! He would rather go ten rounds with the League of Assassins than ever say that. He: But this thing with you and Palmer, it's messing with his head, Felicity, and that's really dangerous. She: I told you, there is no me and Palmer. But if there were, and if Oliver had a problem with it, then Oliver should be the one to say something. She goes into Palmer’s office and gets quite the response: Wow. You are ridiculous. Which I mean in a good way. That's not creepy. You look beautiful. She credits the dress. He: The dress is actually missing something. She’s flustered: Oh, no, I forgot to do up the zipper again? I always do that. But he’s holding out quite the diamond necklace. She: Oh, no, I can't wear that. I'm not even sure I'm supposed to be looking at it. (Or maybe she can’t see it clearly without her glasses on.) He: Well, I had to put down a $10,000 security deposit just to borrow it for the evening, so one of us should wear it. And diamonds aren't really my thing, so. She: I appreciate it, but I think I would feel strange wearing a million dollar necklace. He: Oh, don't worry. It's not worth a million dollars. I think it was actually appraised for $10 million. He puts it around her neck and, boy, is she impressed! Back at the lair, “Oliver” is impatient: We need Felicity here! “Diggle” tries to explain: Oliver, she's still at dinner with-- “Oliver”: I don't care where she is! We need her here. “Diggle”: You mean, you need her to be any place where Ray Palmer isn't. “Oliver”: It's not the time, Diggle. “Diggle”: Oliver, you're in the field without your head on straight. I think this is exactly the time. “Oliver”: I've got it handled. “Diggle”: Doesn't look that way to me. “Oliver”: What do you want me to say? Yes, it bothers me that she is out to dinner with Palmer. Yes, it bothers me that apparently she is just moving on with her life, but I made a decision! She did, too. And-- I just want her to be happy. “Diggle”: If that were true You'd be with her, man. Meanwhile, she is so charming to the CEO and his wife, convincing them to contract with Palmer’s company: The thing about Ray is, he's not businessman. Businessmen make deals. They make money. What Ray is, is something else entirely. . . He inspires. Ray isn't interested in making money. He's interested in making the world a better place. So if Ray wants your mine, believe me, it's because he's going to put it to the kind of use that's going to make you proud. Afterwards, “Felicity” listens tearfully as “The Arrow” negotiates with a crazed fan who imagines she’s his lover, even as she tries to kill them both: I can't be with you. I can't be with anyone. I have to be alone. “Diggle” follows up: If [Felicity’s] reaction was any indication, she does not want to be. You got to tell her how you feel before it's too late. She’s back at work: I thought I'd get a jump on that server encryption you asked for. Trying to, you know, make up for ruining the deal tonight. But “Palmer” credits her with the deal’s success. She: But really, I should be thanking you. I mean, not just for the new job, but for this amazing, expensive necklace. You have to take it back, don't you? He leans in to undo the necklace: You know, Felicity Smoak, you're different from anyone I've ever met. And you deserve all those things, and more. With a big kiss! Note: both of her big kisses where with her glasses on! But of course that’s the moment that “Oliver” choose to come back! He sees them and leaves, unnoticed. “Palmer”: I'm sorry, I, um I meant to keep tonight platonic. He leaves, she’s left alone – and “Oliver” goes back to the lair furiously throwing things around, before he finally goes to “Diggle”s house for a family dinner.
“Felicity” also got to cross-over to the first season of The Flash (out on DVD). In “Flash vs. Arrow” episode, teleplay by Ben Sokolowski and Brooke Eikmeier, story by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, stuck in a couple of Jewish and personal lines about her. The very goyishe “Oliver” teases her: You’re going to hock me until I take this case aren’t you? She must have taught him that word: I’m a hocker. When The Flash’s crime-fighting team is surprised they suddenly have a fancy facial recognition software on their computer system, she grins: Happy Hanukkah!, appropriate for a December broadcast. Her entrance to the lab makes a joke of her usual fashion sense after flying in with him at super speed: I think my shirt's on fire! Oh, I'm sorry! I'm glad I decided not to go braless. as she changes into a Star Labs T-shirt. She bristles at condescension from the head of the lab: Remember – I went to MIT. He sneers back: Yes I know you’re smart. By the end of the episode, of course, he has to ask for her technical assistance.
Aw shucks! In “Midnight City”, written by Wendy Mericle and Ben Sokolowski, “Oliver”s declaration of love and big kiss with “Felicity” are a dream (though I suppose the image is important for me to post) – but at least it’s his. (Much more to post from subsequent episodes this season when I get a chance.)
I’m many episodes behind in my commentary, but in “Nanda Parbat”, she initiates a big kiss with “Ray Palmer”, and then they’re seen in a post-coital, sleepy cuddle. (Commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming, including her mother’s surprise that she has not one but two hunks in love with her and her passionate nights with each.) (Updated 9/25/2015)


Dr. Zoe Hart in the 4th Season of Hart of Dixie (the CW) As she reunites with “Wade”, first in bed, then finding out she’s pregnant, then they declare their love-of-their-lives to each other, the closest to any Jewish reference wasn’t until the 3rd episode, “The Very Good Bagel”, written by Kendall Sand, when the only thing she loves about her return to New York City to confide in her mother is the bagels. Interestingly, none of the snobs or intellectuals or money-grubbers her mother invited to her welcome party were even implicitly Jewish. So asks for: Will you get me two? And another dozen for the road?. . .Bluebelle is my home, no matter how complicated it gets. Her mother’s reaction to the coupling: I know this is a diffficult time, but I want you to know from the bottom of my heart, that I will never, ever be called grandma. . . Don’t do it alone. I’ll hire the best people to help you. But she accepts “Wade”s declaration of new-found maturity and love.
Though I missed a couple of episodes (and I didn’t care enough to pay Amazon $1.99 to stream them), the lack of Jewish references continued through most of the final season. The closest was her plaint in “61 Candles”,written by April Blair and Tamar Laddy: It's just that rocking chair made me realize that I have nothing to pass down to my child. “Wade”: Can't you ask your mom for something? She: Oh, yeah, sure. Here, son, cuddle with these stock certificates or this Birkin bag. My mom says sentimentality is for the bridge and tunnel crowd. And I didn't know Harley, so our son's gonna have no sense of family or tradition. . . And I really need family right now. I moved here for a sense of belonging, because my father started a practice here. I never knew Harley, and not a day goes by where I don't think how he came to my graduation and I just I blew him off. And now I'll never be able to tell my son what he was like, and I don't have a single thing of his to pass down!
In the finale “Bluebell”, by series creator Leila Gerstein, she Skypes her mother in New York, while she’s in labor to tell her not only is she about to give birth, but they’ve decided to get married: That is so sweet that you think you can call me grandma. . .You cannot get married in a hospital. . .You’re half-Jewish! How about a rabbi? As her contractions increase: Mom I don’t think we’ll be able to find a rabbi in Alabama on such notice! “Wade”: I’m on it. Mom tries to be supportive, in her way: You look so radiant! Except for your hair. A trainee stylist quickly gives her a ridiculous big hairdo: I was nervous with your mama yelling at me all the time. Mom: I heard that! “Wade” rushes in: I found an honest to goodness rabbi! He was about to go into kidney surgery, but he said he’d wait. Just don’t look at him from the back. “Rabbi Paymer” (played by Steve Paymer – though I thought the character was “Kramer”): Matters of the heart take precedence over matters of the kidney. The ob/gyn: You don’t have 5 minutes! The reverend and the rabbi take turns saying Do you take. . . We now pronounce you husband and wife! Mazel tov! as she’s wheeled down the hall into the labor and delivery room. (updated 5/14/2015)




2013/2014 Season

I’m relieved that none of the idiot rich women employers on the satirical Devious Maids (on Lifetime) are Jewish, but the “Minding the Baby” episode, written by Gloria Calderon Kellett, stuck in a bitchy comment when two housewives bumped into each other: “Joan”: Not since the Stein bat mitzvah. Such an unfortunate looking girl. What a pretty venue. (8/12/2013)

On Maron, a semi-autobiographical comedy on IFC, comic/podcaster Marc Maron constantly whines about being Jewish. But when we’ve seen his mother “Toni” (played by Sally Kellerman), as in “The Mom Situation”, written by Luke Methany, there’s no reference nor evidence that she’s Jewish, though last season Judd Hirsch played his father “Larry”, just as he frequently on TV plays a Jewish father not married to a Jewish woman. (6/15/2014)

In Murdoch Mysteries (The Artful Detective) (Canadian series, set in 1890’s Toronto, shown a couple of years later in the U.S. on Ovation channel), “War on Terror” episode by Peter Mitchell, originally from 2012, featured a visit from the anarchist “Emma Goldman”. But while she was stressing she was against violence amidst the bombing investigation, there was not only zero reference to her ethnic background, Lisa Norton played her with a muddled accent that was closer to Irish than Yiddish. (5/12/2014)

Brookly Nine-Nine (on Fox) is yet another New York set sit com with a male Jewish character, “Detective Jake Peralta” (played by Andy Samberg), yet it took until the 17th episode for even a sort of mention of a Jewish woman, in “Full Boyle” written by Norm Hiscock and Gil Ozeri. As wing man on a double date, “Jake” is surprised by how much he has in common with “Bernice” (Amanda Lund), the woman he’s supposed to ignore in order to help his colleague with her friend: And this beautiful basketball-loving, Die Hard fan is tearing down my wall of my defenses! If we find out she is also half-Jewish, we’re doomed! All season, not even his memories of his bar mitzvah included any Jewish girls. (updated 5/1/2014)

In The League (sitcom on FX) Lizzy Caplan first appeared as the Orthodox Jew “Rebecca Ruxin” in the episodes “The 8 Defensive Points of Hanukkah” and “Baby Geoffrey Jesus”, both written by Jeff Schaffer and Jackie Marcus Schaffer, that I haven’t viewed yet. (Thanks to Eliav Levy for the citation) (10/5/2014)

On Awkward (MTV), “Karmic Relief”, written by Erin Ehrlich, the central character “Jenna Hamilton” (Ashley Rickards) is trying to convince her dad the $750 prom dress she wants will be re-worn on other occasions as well: And bar-mitzvahs. He’s quizzical. Her mother (played by Nikki Deloach) tries to be helpful: The girl kind of bar mitzvahs? Dad walks away. Later, when she can’t unzip her new dress, she claims to the guy she thinks will be inviting her to prom that she is on her way to a bar mitzvah at 10 pm: It’s at midnight. That crazy kid turns 13 and just couldn’t wait. (12/16/2013)

On Bad Teacher (quickly cancelled CBS sitcom, based on the movie I haven’t seen), “The Bottle”, written by Jamie Rhonheimer, “Meredith Davis” (played by Ari Graynor) reunites with her old Mean Girl friends for her 30th birthday. The Queen Bee is reminded that she already used the excuse of an implant rupturing to get out of going to a bat mitzvah. But watching the last two episodes weren’t enough to figure out if either the titular divorcee or her old or her country club friends were Jewish. (8/16/2014)

On The Good Wife, “A Few Words” episode, written by Leonard Dick, the quirky recurring defense attorney “Elsbeth Tascioni” (played by Carrie Preston) is upset by a costumed furry bear in Times Square who agrees to a hug but keeps repeating: Dirty stinking Jew.. She warns other pedestrians Watch out for that bear – he’s anti-Semitic! and muttering I’m not a dirty stinking Jew. We certainly have never had any hint she’s even Jewish. (3/24/2014)

Elementary, the CBS version of “Sherlock Holmes”, had a gratuitous reference to a Jewish woman on the “All in the Family” episode written by Jason Tracey. This version of “Watson”, “Dr. Joan” (played by Queens native Lucy Liu), figures out, based on zero evidence, that the victim’s nickname of “Mutt” is the Italian gangster’s reference to his mixed parentage: His mother was from Israel. In the Jewish faith, the dead are supposed to be buried as quickly as possible. “Sherlock” (played by Jonny Lee Miller) muses that the killer was an avenging angel.
In the “Hound of the Cancer Cells” episode written by Bob Goodman, “Dalit Zirin” (played by Shiri Appleby) admits she was lying to “Sherlock Holmes” queries: I’m not a travel agent. I’m Mossad. . . .The part about me and Barry [Granger, played by Jason Danieley] meeting in college was true, Columbia. Barry was pre-med. I was computer science.. “Holmes” for some reason asks: Your citizenship? She: Dual. I was raised here, but my parents are Israeli. . I’m here because I care about Barry. He was my friend and because you left me very little choice. . . Barry and I were in a relationship when I was first recruited, but I told him no, he was asking me to break multiple laws. When I heard what happened to Barry I felt terrible about turning him away. So after his death, she breaks those laws to get the information to “Holmes”, though “Watson” is suspicious. (4/15/2014)


On The Mindy Project (on NBC), in the “An Officer and a Gynecologist” episode written by Jack Burditt and Lang Fisher, who I think are the sitcom’s first Jewish women are briefly seen at a shabbos dinner looking quizzically at “Dr. Danny Castellano” (played by Chris Messina) awkwardly pretending to be the Jewish “Dr. Schulman”. The rebbitzen “Dora Adler” (played by Suzanne Ford), flanked by her adult daughters, asks Is there a Mrs. Shulman?. “Peter Prentice” (played by Adam Pally) distracts her by pretending to be more observant than his secular upbringing by pouring on compliments about her cooking and good looks. She kvells: What a charmer! They are all shocked when the lies are exposed, but the father “Rabbi David Adler” (played by Peter MacNichol with a beard so fake that, as “Mindy” says makes him look like a Civil War general) later shrugs: My family will be telling the story for years of the goy and the Jew with the baggy shmekel. (5/18/2014)

On Black Box (ABC), the “Jerusalem” episode, written by Oanh Ly and series creator Amy Holden-Jones, seemed to reflect the attitudes towards Jews of co-producer Ilene Chaiken from her other works. A rich Jewish board member of the psychiatric facility “Jacob Myers” (played by Michael Kostroff) is brought in from his penthouse for evaluation by his wife “Tracey” (played by Susan Pourfar), complaining he’s been spouting Biblical verses: This morning he gave away millions and our house. . .He’s bonkers! We’ve always been bad Jews. I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve been to temple. All of a sudden. . . .Ever since we came back from vacation. Her husband interrupts: It was not a vacation.! It was aliyah to Israel. She continues: We went shopping in Tel Aviv, swam in the Dead Sea, spa treatment. It was wonderful. Then we went to the Wailing Wall. . .he was on his knees. . It was very scary actually. He smiles beatifically: The closest to heaven I ever felt. The diagnoses “Jerusalem Syndrome”, but the wife is unconvinced: Something is wrong. It makes no sense. Jacob always rebelled against his parents’ religion. Doctor: Are his parents Orthodox? Wife: Oh yes, hard core. The doctor claims there’s a specific gene for religiosity. Maybe your trip to Jerusalem triggered something in him that was already there. The wife: I always knew his parents wld ruin our marriage. She challenges the diagnosis that everyting is fine and gets really angry as he keeps davenning: That’s awful! There’s nthing you can fix? Look at him! Is that man sane? I have nowhere to go! He gave away our house! This is not what I signed up for! You were supposed to take care of me! Not me you! I gave up my career because of you! I can’t even get groceries! How is that sane! Jacob, if you ever loved me, stop! Stop! Stop! The doctor finally recognizes his condition as correctable epileptic psychosis, and the wife tearfully convinces him to take the medication, though it means he will no longer hear God. Later in his hospital room, she kisses his head as he’s busy texting and fighting a hostile take-over. The happy wife: Hear that? I have my baby back! As it turns out, we still have a home. Our lawyer says if you’re psychotic and you give away everything you own, it doesn’t count!. . .We’re thinking what this place needs is a donor wall. . . “For more details see your local priest or rabbi.” The doctor promotes that he should go forth and make money for charity: If you wander the world with a begging bowl, who would that benefit? The wife blows a kiss to the hunky doctor with a grin: Nobody! (6/23/2014)

On Call the Midwife (on PBS, out on DVD) had the familiar Masterpiece Theatre Jewish women as Holocaust survivors in 1950’s London, in Season 3, Episode 4, written by Gabbie Asher and Heidi Thomas. While the Jewish characters are not recalled in the memoirs by Jennifer Worth, subtitled A True Story of the East End in the 1950s, that are the primary basis for the series, the producers have also drawn on interviews with other midwives from that period.
Pregnant ”Leah Moss” (played by Orion Ben) comes in for a check-up with a midwives, but leaves quickly to return to care for her mother despite symptoms that portend a difficult birth. Her mother “Mrs. Sarahla Rubin” (played by Beverley Klein) is down on the floor: I’m sorry I was so long. I was waiting and waiting. Not again! We’ll wait until it passes. Her husband “Charlie” (played by Ilan Goodman) comes home with: herring and schmaltz and cream cheese I know you’ve been craving these. And news about the deli manager: is moving to Israel and the deli has an apartment and a garden for the little one. It’s our chance to get out of the East End. “Leah”: What about my mother? “Charlie”: Take her to a doctor, Leah! She: I won’t even discuss it, Charlie! He: It’s 12 years since she left this flat! “Leah”: You think I don’t feel as trapped as she is? Do you think I want to be stuck here? Imprisoned in this house of ghosts? He: Talk to her Leah, talk to her. The midwife and nun come to check up on “Leah”: Sorry, I had to come home. My mother doesn’t like being left alone for too long. Mother: That’s my fault. I make work for her. “Leah” She has attacks. . .Dizzy spells. Mama assures she won’t fall: It’s gornishe, nothing. . .I don’t go outside, so that will not happen. . . The attacks they come and they go. . . As mother and daughter hold hands, “Leah”: There’s no need for doctor. She just needs peace and quiet. Mother: Peace and quiet I get at home.. She sets the the Shabbat dinner table and assures the midwife: Don’t worry Sister, I do all the housework today. Not only is it our Shabbos soon, it is also the Festival of Shavuot. . . .The day I make cheesecake! . . A recipe from. . . (I couldn’t catch the reference.) As the nun prattles on about the Book of Ruth, the mother has an attack and falls to the floor. “Leah” warns against calling a doctor, but the nun insists: I’m going to call the doctor, for your mother’s sake and for your baby’s. The doctor asks for descriptions of her physical symptoms, but “Leah” finally describes her other history: She hasn’t set foot outside this flat for 12 years. . . .Please don’t take her away. I know she’s lost her mind, but I know I can look after her. . . During the war, Mother and I were in a Nazi ghetto. A miracle happened, and we escaped. We lived in a cellar until it was safe. When we returned home, our families and friends were gone. Soon after we moved to London and these attacks start. You see now? But the doctor takes an unusual approach to a survivor: I’m not going to take your mother anywhere. You’ve lost enough. She’s lost enough. But we need to get to the bottom of what ails her. “Leah”: I told you it’s her mind that ails her. Doctor: Not necessarily. It’s possible that we may be looking at a form of vertigo, something called Ménière's Disease. It’s a problem with the inner ear. . . And there are medications we can try. A fear of leaving home is common with Ménière's sufferers. It may be that everyting’s related. “Leah”: So if you treat her ear she’ll be able to go outside? Doctor: There’s every reason for optimism. “Leah”: After 12 years I can hardly believe it. Her mother, too, is quite surprised: A problem with my ear? And it can be mended? “Leah”: The doctor believes so. It means you can leave the house, Mama. It means you don’t need to be scared anymore. As they sit down to Shabbat dinner, the couple tells mama the news about the shop. “Leah”: We’ve been talking of leaving for the north west London. . .There’s a shop in Golders Green. “Charlie”: And there’s a flat, with room for all of us! Nervous mother: I see, so much news you give me, and all in one evening. Today is Shabbos. On Sunday we start packing. The women cover their heads and “Leah” lights the Shabbat candles. Mama lies awake at night, as the couple happily discuss their plans for the future. The next day the nun comes to help get Mama out of the house, with a long-winded farm story. Mama: You think I’m an altacatcher. You think I don’t know what you’re doing? Coming into my house and calling me a horse! The nun changes tactics: How about this story? It’s about heroine called Sarahla Rubin who fought and beat the most evil humans in human history and who saved her daughter’s life. Mother: Who left her family and friends behind? Some heroine! Nun: Listen to me - you are a warrior, Mrs. Rubin! You can fight this! Take my arm! Take it! They get to the door but the mother panics and staggers back. But “Leah” goes into her difficult labor, and mother and nun have to manage on their own to birth a baby girl. “Leah” coos: Hello, I’m your mummy! Her mother: She looks like you! They all bond, and the mother later proudly tells the nun: They named her yesterday at the synsagouge – Elizabeth. She touches an old family photo, opens the door, touches the mezuzah, goes out on the balcony, calls down to “Leah”: What you want to bring the baby out in that thin shmatta? She’ll catch pneumonia. She goes down the stairs and out into the street, with “Leah” in tears at seeing her outside. Her mother grins and looks all around, first at the baby and Leah, breathes deeply, and goes up to the midwife whose boyfriend just died: Just the person I was coming to see. I heard about your loss. We wish you long life. . . You know, this bit of London doesn’t smell so good. In Golders Green I think it will be better. “Leah: We’re moving next week, all of us. Mama: You will think I’m mishgunnah, but I have a thing about goodbyes. I didn’t have a chance with so many of my own, but now I like to make sure it’s done proper. So I say goodbye. The mourning midwife weeps: I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. “Leah”: You’ve said enough. Run along and leave her in peace. The Grandmother has an unusual perspective: What peace can she know now? You will feel better than this, bubbelah. Maybe not yet, but you will. . .Yes, you just keep living until you are alive again. (updated 6/23/2014)


In Fargo, the prequel to the Coen brothers’ movie (on FX) that is a pitch-perfect very dark comedy with way off-kilter characters, a Jewish woman first appears in “The Rooster King”, written by Noah Hawley. Parked in front of the apartment building of Duluth deputy “Gus Grimly” (played by Colin Hanks) is an RV of “Chabad Lubavitch of Minnesota – Mitzvah Tank – Your Resource for Anything Jewish – Sharing Faith”, decorated with a portrait of some Rebbe, Shabbat candles, a torah and a menorah. (I’m amused that recappers don’t realize there really are several such chapters, including Chabad Lubavitch of Northern Minnesota, and I have cousins working in such distant outreach.) Across the courtyard, he is teased by an Orthodox woman (“Rachel Ziskind” played by Leah Cairns) who tantalizingly undresses by the open window, starting by taking off her wig, and opens her dress to brazenly show him lacy lingerie before joining her kippah-wearing husband and daughter at their dining room table. In “The Six Ungraspables”, written by Hawley, the husband “Ari” (played by Byron Noble) is awake in the middle of the night and comes over to tell the equally insomniac “Grimly” he can’t sleep because My wife thinks out loud. (an impart a very Coen-esque parable.) (updated 5/16/2014)

The Fosters – Emma Kurtzman in her 1st season (on ABC Family) is a multi-ethnic, multi-problem, multi-orientation large (California, I think) family of choice and complications. The girl on “Jesus”s (played by Jake T. Austin) wrestling team, “Emma” (played by Amanda Leighton) and potential romantic interest, was suddenly and surprisingly, revealed to be Jewish in “Padre”, story by Tamara P. Creator and teleplay by series co-ceator Peter Paige. She appears at the door post-funeral: I know this is kind of. . I told my mother about your grandfather and she told me to bring food. We’re Jews, that’s what we do. It’s noodle kugel. It’s totally delicious and vegetarian so totally organic and diet free. “Jesus”: You didn’t have to do this. “Emma”: Try telling my mother that. His sister and video chat friend are quite surprised at seeing her; the sister calls her: So you’re the crazy girl! Crazy only because you’re the only girl on with all those boys on the wrestling team. “Emma” cheerfully responds: People think that to be a wrestler you need to be built like a Mack truck or something! As she leaves: “Jesus”: Thanks for the ku--- or whatever. “Emma”: Kugel! And you didn’t even try it. “Jesus”: I promise when I go back in side I’m going to try it. “Emma”: It was nice meeting all your family. . .Thanks for letting me crash. [I’ll catch up with “Emma”, but there weren’t other explicitly Jewish references in the season.] (updated 4/15/2014)

In House of Lies - Sarah’s 2nd season (on Showtime) began in the 2nd episode “Power(less)”, written by Matthew Carnahan, when “Sarah” (Jenny Slate) showed up for lunch with her husband “Doug Guggenheim” (played by Josh Lawson). She prattles on as they walk back to his office: A lot of people do the same things in self defense: Kick him in the crotch! Kick him in the crotch! But I said to the teacher, “Why don’t you grab for both? The thingy and the stuff!”. . . I’m just blabbing and blabbing because I’m nervous. I don’t know how to say it. . .I pulled the goalie! He: What does that mean? She: You know how in sports there’s the goalie, like in hockey and soccer, there’s the goalie? And when the goalie is not on the field?. . . He: And there’s no one to stop the players shooting at the goal? She: Or maybe to shoot 60 million shots into the goal? He: Wait, you stopped using birth control? She: I did! He: Why? Why? Why would you do that? She: Because I want us to have a baby? He: That’s great! She: Doug, if you’re not sure about this you need to say something to me right now. He: Hold on a second. You didn’t even tell me! I mean. Which is fine. How long, I mean, have you been, have we done it since? Doesn’t matter, that’s fine. hey, it’s great! I have no problem with it. What’s not to love about fucking babies? I love them. She: Then why are you acting so weird: You are. Just say if you don’t want to do it, say no. Say yes or no. He: I think it’s more complicated than that. I think, if I’m being honest, that if you’re projecting this on to me that I don’t want to have a baby which is ridiculous. I’m clearly thrilled about it. You need to have a look at your own feelings. I mean really look at them, Sarah. Because if you’re feeling fear or insecurity around this, then that’s a problem. She: Forget it. We’ll talk about this later. She storms off. He complains to his uninterested colleagues: She’s already trying! God, I love her. But a baby? That is just so absolute! What do I do?. . .If you put Plan B in a smoothie or something?
In “Soldiers”, written by Jessika Borsiczky, “Sarah” is on top (in full bra and panties) for sex keeping up a stream of fast fertility talk: I'm ready now. Yeah, yeah. Put your baby juice in me. I can feel a life starting with every thrust. Do it! Can you see our adorable child? Uh yeah He's being made right now, babe. And he has your eyes. And he's got a cute little penis, Oh, God, just like his father. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That was felt so good. Mmm. Honey? Mm-hmm? Did you come? What? Because it totally didn't seem like you did. Husband: What are you talking about? No, I made the noise and everything. Of course I came. But he immediately confesses to his uninterested co-workers: I didn't come. I've been withholding orgasm since she decided, we decided to, uh, get pregnant. . .Because I want to want a baby. Just it's odd, and it's all happening so fast. But in the next episode “Middlegame”, written by Wesley S. Nickerson III, he’s able to fantasize during sex enough to declare: I think I just put a baby in you!
In “Pushback”, by Taii K. Austin, the big guy in the hip hop style mogul’s entourage “Foxx” (played by Antonio D. Charity) [I think it was him, not “Vernon played by Aflamu Johnson] sneers at management consultant“Clyde Obherholt” (played by Ben Schwartz): Man, you brought this Ivy League Ashkenazi all the way over here, and that's the best financial advice he got? Man, the Jews is fallin' off. But “Lucas Frye” (played byT. I. Harris) explains the source of his “inappropriate” remarks: Rachel Cohen broke his heart in middle school, and he’s still bitter. Don’t take hat Jewish shit personal. But back to the “Rachel”/”Doug” baby drama in “Brinksmanship”, written by Theo Travers, as he has to go to Chicago on a business trip, and looks forward to quality time with a new junior analyst “Caitlin Hobart” (played by Genevieve Angelson). But at lunch, “Rachel” is all about her gyn-OB: There was a line! Ugh! It's, like, don't make more appointments than you have time for. If you can only see five vaginas in an hour, don't schedule ten vaginas!. . . Dr. Caplan saw a surge in my L-H levels, and I'm at peak fertility for the next two days. “Doug” tries all kinds of excuses, but she persists: Well, that's really interesting, Dr. Guggenheim. I booked myself a ticket to Chicago. . .Please don't worry. I'm not gonna get in the way of your work. I'm gonna be quiet as a church mouse. You know, I'm just there for the nookie. He tries another tack: So how 'bout this? How about you and me slip into the bathroom and have a quickie right now? She: Oh, horrible offer. I don't want to conceive my baby in a restaurant bathroom! Are you crazy? He: I just think it'd make a funny story. . .I've got Purell on me. I'll wipe you down. I just I think that we could take care of business before I leave. He goes on to argue for a refund on her plane ticket. She: Oh, my God, Doug! You are such a cheap bastard! That's what this is about? My God, our baby isn't even worth $1,200 to you? . . . I'm coming to Chicago. End of story. He exaggerates with a “ch”: L’chaim. In Chicago, she first says she’s too tired to come with “Caitlin” to an art exhibit, then jealously joins them – but proves she is intellectual and the two women bond: I just don't find it all that fascinating. . . A friend and I saw these really cool interactive proto-pop collages at MOCA a few weeks ago. . .They were very physical, and -- “Caitlin” agrees with her enthusiasm, to “Doug”s discomfort. At the airport, the couple argues in front of their colleagues. He: Sarah, there is nothing going on between me and Caitlin. She: Yeah, like you could even get her. Senior colleague “Jeannie Van Der Hooven” (played by Kristin Bell): I'm sorry to interject. But you think Caitlin's too good for Doug, and you thought I had a thing for Doug? “Sarah”: No offense, Jeannie, but you do like to pass it around. . . I came here, Oh, God, to make a baby with you and to connect, and you just treated me like shit. Actually, Doug, I don't want to whisper because I'm fucking angry with you! “Doug”: I don't care that you don't understand abstract postmodernism. “Sarah”: Oh, my God. You know what? This isn't about last night. This has been going on for weeks. . .You're acting weird. . .You're pulling away. . .And you know what? I know that you're not coming every time that we have sex. Like I don't know what a hot load feels like? He makes excuses to “Caitlin”: That’s just Sarah stuff. That’ll blow over. But when “Caitlin” thoughtfully switches seats so “Sarah” can move into business class to sit next to him in business class, “Sarah” tears up: Do you not want to be with me?. . .If you're not happy, then, um, let's just end this. “Doug”: It-It's just a lot of new all at once, right? The speedy marriage, the trying to have a baby, the things at work. It's -- it's confusing. “Sarah”: Either you're in it or you're not. Which is it? “Doug”: It's only two options? “Sarah”: One of us needs to make a decision. And until you can get your shit together. And she quickly goes back to coach.
In the penultimate episode of the season “Together”, written by David Walpert, “Sarah” took him back on her distinctive terms. She greets him at her front door: Hey, asshole. He: And we're right back into it with the witty banter. . .Please. I'm sorry. . . I don't know what I can say to make things right or what I can do. I just know that I need you in my life. . . .Look, I'm not the kind of guy women ever went for. I wish I was, but I'm-I'm not. Hell, I took a cousin to my prom. And not even a pretty cousin, either. . . .But anyway, you came along, and you were so beautiful and so cool, and-and you made the insane choice of actually wanting me. And not just wanting me, going so far as to trick me into marriage. She: I would have tricked a lot of men into marriage, actually, so don't flatter yourself. He: I'm trying to say that I didn't appreciate how fucking amazing you are. She: Well, not as amazing as Caitleen, right? He, correcting her mispronunciation: I held Caitlin up as this ideal. But then I realized- She: That she's a boring little bitch? He: I was gonna say that I realized that she's not you. She: And that she's a boring little bitch. He: Okay. But compared to you, compared to anyone. She: I kind of need you to say it. He: Um yeah, she's a boring little bitch. I know, right? She: Yeah. That's what I've been trying to tell you. You can come in now. . . Lot of memories on that couch. It's where I first gave you a blow job. . .We were watching “Chicago Fire”, and you said, ‘This show is so stupid.’ Do you remember what I said? ‘Do you want a blow job?’ - You were just like, ‘Yes, please’ He: Because I did. I did want. She: You hurt me, Doug. He: Jesus! I'm sorry, Sarah. I'm so sorry. I'm such an idiot. If I could go back and if I could take it all back Hey, look at me I love you so much. She, as they start passionately making out and exchanging verbal and oral endearments: I wouldn't have tricked anybody else into marrying me. I was just lashing out. Oh, come here. . . I think this is great. I just wish that we had figured that out last week. Also, I had an abortion last Friday. . .I don't know, there was a baby, and then there wasn't one. He: You had an abortion? Are you serious? Hey. Why didn't you tell me? I mean, I know we'd broken up, but it was mine, too. Was that a shrug? Did you just shrug? That's a shrug. Yeah, that's a weird shrug. She: You know what, Doug? I wasn't completely sure that it was yours, okay? I went on a bit of a spree. He: But you used protection. She: You know how I feel about condoms, Doug. He:Oh, my God! She: Well I'm gonna go get some Fresca. Do you want a Fresca? (updated 9/20/2014)


Transparent (a half-hour dramedy pilot on Amazon Instant Video), written and directed by Jill Soloway, features a Jewish Los Angeles family, with Jeffrey Tambor as the father. His three adult children include two sisters. The first clue they are Jewish is about half-way through, when on the way to a family dinner Dad initiated, the siblings joke about all the “Marcy’s” he’s dated since their parents’ divorce when the youngest, the son, was 15, by riffing on their very Jewish last names, with many fictional ones, including: Kaplan, Goldberg, Rubinstein,. . . or Kristallnacht, Belsenburger. When the brother “Josh” (played by Jay Duplass) jokes: You guys never did teach us how to eat, you realize that?, Dad rejoins: Because we come from shtetl people. Your grandma Rose actually ate lettuce with her bare hands. The eldest is “Sarah” (played by Amy Landecker), a suburban wife and mother of two girls. At what is apparently a similar Jewish school to the one featured in Soloway’s Afternoon Delight, she bumps into an old friend (played by blonde Gillian Vigman) dropping her daughter off, after finishing an assignment in Bahrain, who is serving on the fundraising committee: If you don’t raise $5,000 for Tu B’Shevat, then Dana Goodman just implodes. Her younger sister “Ali” (played by Gaby Hoffman) later reacts at the mention of her: Tammy mother-fuckin’ Cashman! Does Len know your kids go to the same school? “Sarah”: Why would Len care? “Ali”: The woman who you spent your entire college years lezzing it up together? “Sarah”: Who doesn’t experiment in college “Ali”: Experiment? You two were talking about adopting a kid together. That’s not experimenting. “Sarah”: That did not happen. “Ali”: OMG I distinctly remember you calling up and saying you were going to adopt two Mexican boys. “Sarah”: Salvadoran. While she doesn’t tell her husband “Len” (played by Rob Huebel) that her father has offered her his house, as his big announcement at the dinner, she does refer to wanting to plan a play date for the kids-- with that lesbian I went to Madison with (“Len”: I like lesbians.), who she then has an amorous play date with herself, and explains she hasn’t told husband that dad offered her the house, with apparent references to Jewish neighborhoods in L.A.: Len hates living on the east side. He calls it the g-hetto. I don’t know if I’m ready to live on the west side., and makes jokes about goint to the Farmer’s Market. “Sarah” treats her dad exactly like her apparently Jewish, gray-haired mother (played by Judith Light) treats her apparently stroke-recovering husband “Ed” (played by Laurence Pressman), as she rails against her condo association board members, and to “Ali” mocks her ex for dating younger women, so wants nothing to do with him: I wouldn’t believe a word your father says, ninka, neyn, necht! “Ali” is apparently on a losing streak as a writer, even as she’s talks to a friend about a new satirical-sounding project, but Dad writes her a check: What happened to the Price Is Right money? “Ali”: It’s gone. That was like 6 yrs ago. . . Dad: I’m always happy to help you out when you’re in trouble. “Ali”: I’m not in trouble, I’m just. . Dad: You more than all of all my kids, you’re the one who can see me most clearly. Probably because we share the depressive gene. “Ali” I’m not depressed! Dad: It is so hard when someone sees something you do not want them to see. At home, “Ali” examines herself naked in the mirror, then meets with a hunky black personal trainer “Derek” (played by Henry Simmons): I hate my body. . I hate it. I want to change it. . . I want those sculpted arms. . .sinewy instead of this, nice tailored waist, rounded ass. I want to feel rooted. Like a fucking tree trunk, just planted, so not like I’m gonna fall over. He asks what she eats, and she babbles about food, and they concur against deprivation. He: I believe in discipline. She: I could use some discipline. He pushes her through push ups until she can’t do any more -- and motivates her to do more with an ass slap she quite likes.
Amazon announced it was picked up for a season just in time for me to miss to miss the cheaper price for Amazon Prime to watch it – or will it come out on DVD or some other cheaper option? And maybe we’ll learn their last name? Soloway stated: “It’s honestly a dream come true to make nine more episodes of Transparent, I feel so lucky to be working in this moment when innovation in distribution allows for the most free flow of creativity I’ve ever experienced professionally. These characters are bursting in my mind waiting for the palette of the set and the flesh and blood and voices and comedy of the actors. More to come....” Carrie Brownstein has been added to the cast as “Ali” (Gaby Hoffman)'s best friend “Syd”. Will the Portlandia star/creator play a Jewish woman? (updated 7/3/2014)


In the New Girl (on Fox) “The Box” episode, by Rob Rosell, “Schmidt” the womanizer (played by Max Greenfield) is lying on the couch as if at a shrink’s: So yes, I was dating two girls at the same time. After he lists his physical complaints from the break-ups, an exasperated voice, recognizable as Jon Lovitz, says: Were the girls Jewish? Schmidt: One Indian, one regular. Do you want to see a picture? The camera turns to Lovitz: I don’t even know why you’re here. You said do you have a minute. . . Schmidt: I’m sorry, Rabbi. It’s simple, how can I be a better person? After “Schmidt” spends the episode throwing around that he’s selfishly trying to do mitzvahs and tsedakah, he interrupts the rabbi’s male-only bar mitzvah class seeking more sympathy: Did you ever date two women at the same time? The rabbi can’t help but brag, again to the detriment of Jewish females: : I went to camp. They used to call me the octopus.
But in the next episode “Keaton”, as written by Dave Finkel and Brett Baer, directed by David Katzenberg, his very stereotyped Jewish mother appears in a flashback narrated by his friend/roommate since college “Nick Miller” (played by Jake Johnson) to explain his behavior: When Schmidt was 7, daddy divorced mommy. He didn’t take it well. . . .Endless cycle of chocolate and stars. . .Desperate, Mrs Schmidt looked to the stars. Movie stars. Mrs. Schmidt wrote that little fat loser a letter of support from the star of his favorite movie Batman. But not the confusing new one, the good one with Michael Keaton. . . His life changed forever. . . Schmidt wrote back and kept writing back. . .For every letter he sent, Michel Keaton sent one back. . .Schmidt went off to college and Mrs. Schmidt unloaded her secret onto his only friend, and that friend was me. Chubby “Mrs. Schmidt” (played by Barbara Kerford, repeating her role I missed in the 2011 “Naked” episode) is portrayed with dark, curly hair from behind at the typewriter turning out letters from Keaton. When “Nick” finally confesses the truth, “Schmidt” is appalled at the realization: My mom? You're going to tell me that my mom helped me with my public erections? I drew pictures!
In “Birthday”, written by Kim Rosenstock, “Schmidt” is trying to comfort his model ex-girlfriend over her employment prospects: A lot of people never graduated high school. Einstein, Bill Gates, Anne Frank. OK, I’m going to take back that last one.
I think the “Sister” episode, written by Matt Fusfeld and Alex Cuthbertson, was intended to sarcastically answer criticism of “Schmidt” not being seen dating Jewish women. He asks “Nick” to be his wing man at a party: Jewish girl – sensible nose – high level target. . .Imagine me next door with a nice Jewish girl? Turns out he meant a bar mitzvah and immediately sticks on a yarmulke: The target is Rachel. She’s a Hebrew school teacher. “Nick”: And . . crashing some random kid’s bar mitzvah is the best way to get to her? “Schmidt”: Get her on a dance floor - “A little bit softer now. A little bit louder now.” Sweep her off her feet. Get married. Have a son, tell him the story of how I met his mom at this bar mitzvah. Not a dry eye in the house. Jewish continuity, etc. etc. Get a piece of hamentashen. The problem is her dad is my rabbi and he hates me. So I just need to charm Rachel before he tells her horrible/true things about me. “Nick”: I distract the rabbi while you hit on his daughter. “Schmidt”: Action! Go! He puts on an Israeli accent to her: Rochel baruch ata what a nice dress! “Rachel” (played by Allyn Rachel): Shabbat a hello. He: Not as good as mine. How’s Hebrew school? “Rachel”, guzzling wine: Not bad. The only place that would hire me when I got out of rehab. Rabbi interrupts: No no no! Rachel, you will not speak to this man! This man is a nut ball! “Schmidt”: A nutball! How dare you – I’m a goofball! Rabbi: Sammy Davis Jr. was a goofball and you, sir, are no Sammy Davis Jr! As her father pulls her away “Rachel” yells: I want sex! He wants to have sex with me! Let him! I love sex! Sex! Later, “Nick” gets punched out for kissing a flattered old Jewish lady, and the Rabbi is impressed: Nice shot Dr. Nussbaum! Would you like to date my daughter? She’s available! “Rachel”: Oh great, tell the whole room I’m available! Rabbi: I’m not telling the whole room, I’m telling Dr. Nussbaum – a doctor! “Rachel” mumbles: Oh I got that. (updated 2/28/2014)


On Episodes (3rd season on Showtime) I missed most of this season, so I didn’t see (when I was paying attention) the William Morris Endeavor agent “Eileen Jaffee” (played by Andrea Rosen), so I only picked up later that she was a putative Jewish woman, with her highly exaggerated flat, nasal voice. I have been surprised that in a satirical show about the television industry in Hollywood there hadn’t been other clearly Jewish women. (1/7/2016)

Ray Donovan (on Showtime) opened up with a dead, putative Jewish woman, in “The Bag or the Bat”, by series creator Ann Biderman. “Ezra Goodman” (played by Elliot Gould) is so distratught at his wife “Ruthie”s funeral, that he kicks out his gentile mistress “Debra” (Denise Crosby), who is surprised he’s hurling Yiddish words at her. After sitting shiva for her, in “Twerk” by Ron Nyswaner, he plans a groundbreaking for “The Ruth Goldman Ovarian Cancer Center” with a symbolic shovel: It should be golden, it’s what she deserved. . .She was a wonderful woman. . I often said that she was an angel. The drunken mistress, who mocked his “shrine”, starts muttering at the fundraising kick-off, then gets disruptively louder: Ruth the saint. . Ruth. . .was no angel, believe me. . .She was sleeping with her shrink for years! He speechifies: There was nothing she wouldn’t do for anyone. . .I see this center as my legacy. Ruthie wanted that, a legacy is important, especially when you’ve done terrible things not to be spoken of. There’s a price to be paid. Separately, both the haunted husband and the yelling mistress have to be pulled away from the scene. In “The Golem”, written by Sean Conway, he is suffering from a brain tumor, but laments Ruth was my one true love. The only one I ever really loved, much to the consternation of his mistress entering the room behind him. On the verge of brain surgery, he regrets that while he’s given “Ruth” a foundation and hospital, he hasn’t given anything to “Debra”, so considers getting her a dog – which two episodes later, in “New Birthday” written by David Hollander, she laughs he named “Ruth”, but This Ruth has a big dick! In “Road Trip”, by Brett Johnson, “Ezra” sadly sacrifices “Ruth”s legacy by draining the Foundation’s account to help “Ray” pay off a hit man.
“Ray”s tough, burly henchman “Avi” (played by Steven Bauer with an accent that I’d been wondering was Russian or Israeli) reveals he has a Jewish mother. He’s on the phone outside Las Vegas while transporting an old Irish-American hit man cross-country: Did you take your medicine?. . .So send Joey to the CVS. Yes, today, the blood thinner. Me too. Bye bye. Hit man: Your mother? “Avi” shrugs: I’m usually there on Fridays. Shabbat. Hit man: How old? “Avi”: 85. She’s starting to lose it. She sideswiped two cars last week. I had to take her keys away. The hit man’s moll snorts about how FBI’s Most Wanted (clearly modeled on Whitey Bolger) is even more devoted to his mother.
In “Bucky Fucking Dent”, written by Ron Nyswaner, ”Avi” revealed more while protecting the family while “Ray” is involved in various violent problems. He explains to the wife’s queries about his social life that he’s busy with his mother on weekends: From Friday to Saturday she can’t do anything, like turn on the lights or cook. . .Shabbat. The son is curious: Why? . . .What? The mother translates: The Sabbath. The son: Like Black Sabbath? The daughter snorts: That’s a band, stupid! “Avi” continues: My mother is Orthodox. She keeps kosher. She can’t do anything on the Sabbath. It’s a holy day, a day of rest. The son is intrigued: Why don’t we do that? Mom: We’re not Jewish. Daughter: We’re not anything. He’s later biographical with the son while they play violent video games that “Avi” excels at, explaining why he was formerly in the Mossad: I’d do anything to get off the kibbutz. My parents split up and I went with my father. I hated it. You had to ask permission to kiss a girl. . . Not really. For added irony, “Ray” buries the priest he killed in the concrete foundation of “The Ruth Goldman Ovarian Cancer Center”.
These Jewish women were ironically referred to in the season finale “Same Exactly” written by Ann Biderman. “Ezra” announces he’s asked “Deb” to marry him (it’s complicated, but there’s a client’s baby involved): Ruth would want me to be happy. You know they met once - -but Ruth didn’t know she was my mistress. “Ari” accompanies “Ray” to confrontation with the old hit man, who conversationally asks: How’s your mother? Just as “Avi” is (literally) disarmingly answering Fine, the hit man shoots him point black in the chest, though not dead by the end. (updated 9/29/2013)


As part of the BBC’s 50th anniversary of Dr. Who, the docu-drama An Adventure in Time and Space, written by Mark Gatiss, briefly acknowledged in passing that the founding producer of the franchise Verity Lambert (played by Jessica Raine) was Jewish. After the head of the BBC Drama Department Sydney Newman (played by Brian Cox) notes that: This place needs a person with piss and vinegar in their veins in promoting her to a new job as the first female producer there, she asserts herself to sexist older staffers, aggressively orders drinks from a bartender, then toasts: To the pushy Jewish broad. Her colleague Waris Hussein (played by Sacha Dhawan) responds: L’chaim! The postscript scroll, accompanied by her photograph, identifies that she went on to be “a legend in British broadcasting”. I was left wanting to know more about her! (11/23/2013)

Foyle’s War continued the British Masterpiece Theater (on PBS) tradition of Jewish women characters as Holocaust victims, in “The Cage” episode, written by David Kane. (Commentary forthcoming - it took me long enough to figure out that the Auschwitz survivor “Mrs. Ross” was listed in the credits as “Katrin” played by Katherine Kanter.) (9/23/2013)

On Drop Dead Diva (on Lifetime: Television for Women summer Sundays), the “The Real Jane” episode, by Josh Berman, had a Jewish woman murder victim for a plot reason new to me. The lawyer, too, is surprised: Tracey Rivlin was buried in the shirt she was wearing when she was killed? Another lawyer is helpfully informative: Yes, remember, Tracey is Jewish, and under Jewish law the victim of a murder is buried in their clothing, over which. . And the relevant Maimonondes citation is provided about internment procedures, that I was found supported in details about Taharah ritual requirements: “This is intended to waken G-d’s anger; to ‘prompt’ Him to exact vengeance for the terrible crime.” This excerpt from Dignity Beyond Death: The Jewish Preparation for Burial by Rochel U. Berman clarifies: “The Code of Jewish Law states, ‘One who was assassinated by a non-Jew, although he did not bleed at all, should, nevertheless, be buried in the clothes which he wore at the time as a demonstration of wrath.’” [Thanks to David Zucker for the references.] Later, “Mrs. Rivlin” (played by Frances Mitchell) storms in: Four years ago you convinced me to dig up my daughter’s body. Then you didn’t show up at the cemetery. . .I almost did it, because of you, and now you ask me to come to your office just before the execution? She slaps the lawyer. My baby is dead and you can go to hell! While the mother is convinced her daughter’s classmate is guilty because he was convicted, the lawyers are sure the shirt will have the DNA of the real killer in a bite mark: What would your daughter want to do here? Mother: You really think he’s innocent? Lawyer: I really think it’s worth finding out. The mother tearfully agrees, and the client is exonerated, in her presence in court. (7/9/2013)

On Who Do You Think You Are (in the 1st season onTLC, after the NBC version of the Brit series) Chelsea Handler tearfully declared: I’m proud to be a Jewish-American! after she traced her German grandfather’s history with the Nazis. On the “Austin” episode of the similar Genealogy Roadshow (on PBS), a Tejano woman, who can trace her family’s Texas roots to the early 19th century, brought to TV a history rarely mentioned when she got DNA confirmation of her family’s Sephardic crypto-Jewish heritage in presumed flight from the Spanish Inquisition. (episodes commentaries coming) (updated 10/20/2013)

Generation Cryo (on MTV) is a twist on the Docu-Series seeking your roots genealogy series, with young people seeking half-siblings from the same sperm donor. Episode 1 – “Who’s Your Daddy” led 17-year-old Breeanna from Reno, NV to a 17-year-old half-brother and half-sister raised in the Jacobsons’ Jewish home in Atlanta, GA. Over home movies of the dad Eric playing with his kids growing up, the mother Terri frankly explains: “We’ve been married 22 years. It took us five years to conceive Hillit and Jonah. My husband was sterile, not a single sperm in sight, and I wanted to be pregnant. So we went the donor sperm route and five years later conceived these amazing kids.” Jonah: “Being Jewish is a big part of our life.” They warmly introduce their half-sibling to making Shabbat in their nice suburban house, explain the ritual, the Hebrew, and traditional Friday night dinner. (Bree confides to the camera that the mother she lives with was curious for reports on “How those Jews do.” She later confides to the camera “That was my first Hebrew, or Jewish dinner.”) The gay Bree is nervous to do the girly thing of getting a manicure together, and, she later confides, her first ever pedicure. Bree tells her camera diary: “She seems like a sweet girl who has her shit together. Hopefully she’ll open up.” Hillit, like her brother, has no interest in meeting their sperm donor, just to see a photo, “because of the way my mom and dad raised me. . . I have no connection to him at all.” But Terri turns out to be very curious to know a lot of details about the donor, and reveals that the couple argued for years about whether to tell the kids. Her husband emotionally explains how difficult the process was for him to accept his sterility and be secure. Bree is quite taken aback that a family dinner can result in an intense conversation and later confides to her camera diary: “I’ve never been around people who talk so openly. . I saw a new concern for family.” The next morning, Terri follows up with her husband: “In the past you’ve been freaked out about the donor, about the donor showing up and our kids’ involvement with the donor. . . That is a possibility . . .I just want to know who he is because he’s provided half of our kids’ DNA. I love meeting these siblings because it helps me understand Hillit and Jonah a little bit better.” But he’s even more upset “about my definition of what my family is. . .an attack on me”, weeping: “You’ve never understood that.” But he agrees to sign the consent form out of sympathy for Jonah compassionately offering to help Bree “on her journey”. Hugs all around as she sets out to meet a dozen other half-siblings, helped by Jonah’s DNA sample, and starts scrapbooking their photos.
In the 2nd episode “Come To Grips”, I paid attention to her looking through the sperm donor’s profile questionnaire where he marked “Jewish”. So more of the sibling families, and half-sisters, turned out to be Jewish. Later, another clue to finding the sperm donor is that he listed Hillel membership on another questionnaire for another family, though “Bree” is ignorant what that means. While my additional commentary on the rest of the series is forthcoming, references to many of the half-sibs and their families being Jewish seemed to be edited out of the later episodes. (updated 1/15/2014)


Inside Amy Schumer – 2nd season (out on DVD) (on Comedy Central) Though there were fewer Jewish references in the 2nd season episodes I’ve been catching since my DVR ate most of the season I was saving for review, the Peabody Awards declared: “Schumer’s wholesome, disarming Brady Bunch looks belie and enhance a comic intelligence that’s smart, distinctively female and amiably profane, whether she’s applying it to sketch comedy, stand-up, or person-on-the-street interviews.”
In a sketch in “A Chick Who Can Hang”, she returns to work in a fast food restaurant with her manager “JJ” (played by Josh Charles) to inspire him: I worked my way up to being a GM of a Sbarro in Tel Aviv. Then one day, I'm stuffing couscous into a calzone and I realized a woman's life is worth nothing unless she's making a great man greater.
In a sketch in “Tyler Perry’s Episode”, she’s a local TV newscaster along side Josh Charles when a cold-day-couple-on-the-street interview reveals her boyfriend with an Asian woman. As she freaks out yelling messages into her cell phone, he tries to continue the news including a “Hate Crimes” report of local teens caught spray painting swastikas. As he moves in front of the camera reporting that the local high school will be instituting tolerance classes, he pushes her away and yells Can no one control this cunt? (updated 5/14/2015)


Joan Rivers - everywhere has become a media icon of Jewish women, along with her daughter Melissa, so I followed her TV appearances more regularly, whether their own Jewish ethnic identity is referenced or not, but particularly if they reference Jewish women. I haven’t yet caught up with the dozens of episodes of her web/podcast series In Bed with Joan Rivers.

”Still Life” photograph by Benjamin Bouchet, described to Christopher Ross in The Wall Street Journal Magazine, 2/7/2014 (fair use excerpt): “"Only when you love dogs very much do you let them sit on $300-per-yard French fabric. Samantha is the little black-haired one and Teegan is my newest rescue. I've never been one of those Fifth Avenue ladies that have to have dogs that match. I am the Angelina Jolie of barkers. The Al Hirschfeld drawing is beyond meaningful to me: It's from when I was doing the show Broadway Bound. This was right after I was fired from Fox and my husband committed suicide. I went into the show, got amazing reviews, and it re-kick-started my career. So I look at that and it says to me, life goes on. In the photo of my daughter, Melissa, and my grandson, Cooper, you are looking at a very cold Jewess at a Jets game on Thanksgiving. It was a great game, but I was thinking, Could the cheerleaders here do a Sondheim number? The monkey figurine Cooper made when he was about 6 or 7. I hate when you go in a house and you have to comment, Oh, look what your stupid child did, but in this case it happens to be a work of art! He's a very precocious talent. The other photo of Melissa and me is in a Fabergé frame that my husband and I bought in England—our first piece of Fabergé."
In their participation in the June edition of Celebrity Wife Swap (on ABC), which was really “Celebrity Mother Swap”, with Sarah Palin’s daughters Bristol and Willow, their interactions continued a recent pattern for the image of Jewish women on TV as ambitious. Both Rivers are shocked that the sisters are not interested in following up on the “lean in”, as it were, career opportunities they offer each young woman in what I considered as typically helpful Jewish mothers. (More detailed commentary forthcoming.)
Natalie Portman’s dress was awarded Best Dressed by Joan Rivers' Fashion Police (on E!) for the Oscars where she was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress to the delight of her “Joan Rangers”. Portman linked the on and off screen issues of Jews and fashion: From Racked: "As the face of Miss Dior Cherie [perfume, she] was widely expected to wear a Dior Couture gown on the red carpet at the Oscars Sunday night. Portman chose, instead, to wear Rodarte—designed by the Mulleavy sisters who made several of the actress's costumes in Black Swan. Today [3/1/2011], Portman issued a strong statement officially condemning [chief designer] John Galliano for the pro-Hitler statements he [was seen making in]. . .'I am deeply shocked and disgusted by the video of John Galliano’s comments that surfaced today. In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr. Galliano in any way. I hope at the very least, these terrible comments remind us to reflect and act upon combating these still-existing prejudices that are the opposite of all that is beautiful.'"
Rivers has also made pointed comments about gay designers and stylists (a significant share of her audience) being clueless about women’s bodies they dress and set beauty standards. On the SAG Awards 2013 show (I only watched the special editions), she wryly explained to the confused stylist George Kotsiopoulos the pencil measurement technique for how a girl is fitted for her first bra.
On the Emmy Special (I tried not to feel guilty about watching while Joan was still disputing with the Writers’ Guild - ironically, the show’s striking writers used her catch phrases to press for union representation), Giuliana Rancic flamboyantly introduced Mayim Bialik’s dress as by designer Oliver Tolentino (Mayim described her selection on her blog), and Joan made a point of unusually commenting on Mayim, who was nominated for Big Bang Theory: I know her very well, And just so you all understand why she’s wearing this dress – she’s a vegan, she’s a spokesperson for the Holistic Women’s Network [sic], and she’s a devout Orthodox Jew – so everybody take a good look at this dress becaue this is about as pretty as it’s ever going to get. The “Joan Ranger” audience guffawed, then stylist George Kotsiopoulos: I understand for religious reasons she has to be covered up. I understand that. But this is really not cute. It’s wrinkled and the fabric looks cheap this is one of my Worst-Dressed Nominees. But the women on the panel challenged him. Kelly Osbourne: I agree that it’s not the best dress in the world, but it is a vast improvement to what’s she’s worn before. I think it’s pretty for her. I’m happy that she didn’t wear what she used to wear. A triptych of her past appearances is put up on the screen, like Mayim herself put up on her blog. Giuliana: I’m with Miss Kelly. I think this is the best she’s ever looked. I think this dress fits perfectly. I think she looks fantastic. What do you want her to wear? George makes a sour face. Joan, putting on a Yiddish accent: I think she’s a terrific comedienne. So for those who don’t know, Mayim is a Hebrew word for “So here’s what’s happened to Blossom, Not that I care, but here’s what happened.” Later, they all criticized Zosia Mamet of the Emmy-nominated Girls, for her dress such that she wins “Worst Dressed”, but without any Jewish references to her or the character she plays.
4th season of Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? (onWEtv – commentary forthcoming) She was even welcomed back on The Tonight Show, to promote the series, now that it has a new host, Jimmy Fallon, with no ties to past feuds. Jordan Zakarin, in The Wrap, 3/28/2014, cited: “There were jokes about the Holocaust — within 20 seconds of appearing! — as well as plenty of cracks about her vagina… all of which made a laughing Fallon a bit uncomfortable.” While it will be awhile until I catch up on the series, I happened to hear one exchange in 2nd episode “Extreme Make Under”: Melissa: Aren’t you concerned about your reputation? Joan: The only thing that would hurt my reputation in this town would be having Mel Gibson at my Passover dinner. In the preview to the season’s penultimate episode “Blue Balls”, she’s unpacking family mementoes, including her grandmother’s matzoh ball soup recipe, all laden with Jewish references. (More commentary forthcoming.)
Her defense of Israel on TMZ during the summer war in Gaza went viral as “a rant”, with her proclamation “I’ve been there!” I’m overwhelmed with all the tributes and memorials to her, including ones emphasizing her Jewishness; at some point I’ll try to link to “best of”s, as the entertainment world, from L.A. to NYC, did a rousing version of sitting shiva. For example, ABC’s 20/20 – Joan Rivers: A Comedy Legend, whose host called her “the ultimate Jewish mother”, replayed an old, really frank, interview with Barbara Walters, back when Rivers was still the guest host for NBC’s The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where she, ironically, was asked if she’ll ever be considered as the permanent host: “No– I’m a woman. I’m acerbic. I’m a New Yorker. I’m Jewish. . .A certain roughness, a certain edge to a New Yorker. Anyone who has a creative zap to them turns people off. I say ‘I’m just trying to make you laugh. It’s all a joke, folks.’” Which resonanted particularly when she was shown walking off a summer 2014 book promotion on CNN by a host who just didn’t get how her Red Carpet barbs were more a Jewish take on the style biz as the updated shmata trade than personal nastiness: “You are not the one to interview about humor.”
While I gave a 12/2014 Shabbaton presentation on “Can We Talk?: Impressions of the Jewish Legacy of Joan Rivers”, about my late coming to appreciate her, to fans at the Forest Hills Jewish Center, I’m surprised at the continuing backlash against her and negative accusations of her as “anti-feminist” and nasty to women from women I know. (updated 5/10/2015)


Princesses: Long Island (on Bravo) (I erratically saved this 1st and hopefully one-season “reality” series on my DVR, had to download and copy the summer episodes to make room for better shows, butI just may yet watch whatever ones, if the copy works, out of perverse curiosity, because some of the episode titles veered to curiously offensive: such as “You Had Me at Shalom”, “Shabbocalypse Now”, “Intermenschion”, “Sunrise, Sunset”) (10/25/2013)

On Parks and Recreation (on NBC), “Mona Lisa Sapirstein” (played broadly but yet sweetly by Jenny Slate) was back, now with her doting, rich, doctor father played by Henry Winkler, in the season opener “London” written by Michael Schur. (commentary forthcoming on this episode). “The Sapirsteins” returned in the season finale “Moving Up, Part 2” written by by Alan Yang and Aisha Muharrar, where the father has become the nemesis of “Tom Haverford” (played by Aziz Ansari), whose latest entrepreneurial effort is a restaurant. He brings in the siblings as party planners for the opening. She misunderstands the planning meeting to get all excited that she thinks it’s “a four-way”, starts undressing, and sulks when told it’s not. As she promised, she brings in a V.I.P.: My daddy is the V I P-est I know. I love you Daddy! Dad responds: I love you too, Angel. She: Money please! He hands it over to her delighted Thank you! (updated 5/24/2014)

Annie Edison in the 5th Season of Community (on NBC) Perhaps because the original showrunner Dan Harmon is back there was surprisingly revealing moments about her family, in the “Maintenance and Educational Publishing” episode by Don Diego, that fans of the show had no interest in. Her visiting brother “Anthony” (played by Spencer Crittenden, a regular on Harmon’s podcast) is huge, hulking, hirsute and monosyllabic – the opposite of her. “Annie” (played by Alison Brie) bubbles on So nice to have the Edison kids under one roof again! Remember when we used to cut carrots for mom? She enthusiastically hugs him for fixing the refrigerator door, and proposes him as a new roommate: He has money and he’s handy. . .He’s a good guy! But “Abed” (played by Danny Pudi) calls him “a Viking. . .who does’n know whether to poop or keep cutting carrots. She: When we were kids, Anthony and I would play time machine. We would go “Oh no! We’re in barbarian times! Quick let’s go back to the time machine! Then we would run back to the time machine. . .I bet that's why Abed is like a brother to me. You guys are so alike! “Abed” (played by Danny Pudi): I can't accept that based on one time machine story. It turns out “Anthony” doesn’t want to be her roommate to share her rent: I think we have some unresolved issues here. She takes him seriously: Yeah, I’m so hurt about mom turning her back on me when I went into rehab. And I guess part of me was mad at you for siding with her, so I thought you moving in here was some kind of moral victory? But he was actually talking about the absence of “Abed”: And screw you! I was 13! and he storms out. (4/16/2014)

Felicity Smoak in the 2nd season of Arrow (on CW, out on DVD) She’s a bit blonder this season as she and “Oliver Queen” (played by Stephen Amell) seemed to grow closer (a.k.a. to online “shippers” as “Olicity”). Halfway through the season the CW posted a promotional photo on FaceBook of the actress Emily Bett Rickards, sans “Felicity”s glasses, with the caption: “Brains and beauty ... what more could one want?”
She finally remembered her Jewish identity (as usual in TV series) in the December “Three Ghosts” episode (get the Dickens reference?), story by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, teleplay by Geoff Johns. The geeky “Barry Allen” (played by Grant Gustin) tries to flirtatiously distract her from “Ollie”s billionaire by day and saves the city at night derring-do with: So any plans for Christmas?, she shuts him down with: Lighting my menorah. “Barry”, however, leaves “Queen” a Christmas present – his signature mask.
While I’m behind posting how her character has developed over the season, “Heir to the Demon”, written by Jake Coburn, had insights. “Oliver”s mother “Moira Queen” (played by Susanna Thompson) confronted her about what her computer research uncovered: If you won’t keep my secret for Oliver’s sake, you should keep it for your own. I see the way you look at him. . .You tell him this and you will rip his world apart. A part of him will always blame you. Oh, he’ll hate me for sure, but a part of him will hate you always. We all have to keep secrets, Ms. Smoak. But she tells him anyway, in tears, as he insists on the truth: You notice that I talk a lot. “Oliver”: It has not escaped my attention. She: You may have noticed I don’t talk a lot about my family. My mother is my mother. I don’t really know what my father is becuase he abandoned us. I barely remember him, but I do remember how much hurt when he left. So I don’t want that hurt again. “Oliver”: You’re not going to lose me. Is this about your family? “Felicity”: It’s about yours. She wins and loses: while he breaks off with his mother, he passionately falls into the arms of his ex-lover at the end.
In “Suicide Squad”, written by Keto Shimizu and Bryan Q. Miller, we learned just a bit more about her. She brings a cup of cocoa out to “John Diggle” (played by David Ramsey) who has assigned himself as her security: So I get you outside my house just like a lacrosse player my freshman year of college. . .Yeah, I had a life before you and Oliver. [Thanks to “King_Lemur” for clarification.]
In “City of Blood”, written by Holly Harold, we learned some surprising more about her. First she’s upset after the sacrificial suicide of “Oliver”s mother: I don't even know why I'm crying. I didn't even like Moira. Terrible thing to say about someone after they've just died. In my defense, she was not nice. She was diabolical. Not a word you often hear at someone's funeral. “Diggle”: You’re not crying for her, Felicity, you’re crying for Oliver. She begs “Oliver” not to give himself up to his nemesis, and tearfully reveals more about herself: I don't accept that. You shouldn't either. You can't just accept things, Oliver. If I had accepted my life, I would be a cocktail waitress in Vegas like my mother, and I never would have gone to college, and I never would have moved a thousand miles away to work at Queen Consolidated, and I never would have believed some crazy guy in a hood when he told me I could be more than just some IT girl. Please don’t do this. . . There has to be another way. “Oliver”: There isn’t. But she helps find another way, using her skills over a kidnapped bad guy: Oh, look at this. You have a bank account in the Cayman Islands. Wow. $2 million, quite the little nest egg. But... looks like you just approved a wire transfer of $1 million to a charity here in Starling City. Very generous. What should I do with the rest? . . .[ Greenpeace] Great cause! And they really appreciate your support. Bad guy snarls: You bitch! Triumphant “Felicity”: A bitch with Wi-Fi! “Oliver” recognizes her important role, along with “Diggle”, before the key battle: This started with the three of us. It's time we got back to that. I will comment more on the season finale “Unthinkable”, story by Greg Berlanti, teleplay by Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim, where they “pretend” to be a couple to fool their enemy: She: It was really smart the way you outsmarted him. But unthinkable, you and me I mean. When you told me you loved me, you had me fooled that you might have meant it, what you said. . You really sold it. He smiles: We both did. She: Let’s go home. The conclusion was promoted to fans on FaceBook: (updated 10/1/2014)


Broad City As Stephanie Butnick noted in Tablet Magazine 1/23/2014, “On Comedy Central’s Broad City, Two Jewesses Just Want To Have Fun”, with comedians Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer playing versions of themselves, We’re just two Jewesses trying to make a buck (from the first episode “What A Wonderful World”, where “Abbi” the gym locker room attendant and “Ilana” the mouthy temp end up cleaning in their underwear for a crazy character played by comedien Fred Armisen) “Glazer writes in a Craigslist ad, with the hopes of securing the funds they need ($200)” to see a show in H. Allen Scott’s Thought Catalog interview with the two, 3/26/2014: “IG: [O]n a positive note, Girls is such a successful, beautiful, well-made show. And the people who actually watch the show see that our show is very different. Women are always put against each other. . . I do think it is reductive and because we’re women and perceived as Jewish white girls from New York City in their early 20’s. As much as I’m like, ‘Sorry, I don’t produce that show,’ we know what TV is about, it’s not like it’s the most well rounded medium.”
On “The Lockout”, written by the creators, they have to evacuate their Brooklyn apartment for a bug bomb. “Ilana” to her handsome neighbor “Jeremy” (played by Stephen Schneider): It’s like the insect Holocaust in here. That would make us Mr. and Mrs. Hit – Hitler. He: Like Nazis? He makes a quick exit.
On “Fastest Asses”, also by the creators, a joke that in most TV shows would just refer to evangelicals took on broader significance. Fleeing annoying double dates who were full of excuses, “Abbi”: Ilana, he swore to God! “Ilana”: What are you – Christian, dude? “Abbi”: No, I’m not Christian but I respect swearing to a higher --. . .Maybe I should just do JDate or something.
On “Apartment Hunters”, written by Tami Sagher, “Abbi” is excited that one of her graphic designs has sold – until she sees the commercial that it appears in, just as she’s interviewing to be rent with an apartment of black roommates. Turns out her design was used for a white Christian dating website that promotes itself as: The Final Solution to your dating problems. She tries to insist: I just did an illustration - - like happy couples!
On the season finale “The Last Supper”, written by the curators, they are going over their old bucket list, that needs updating, but it does include: Mak your own Passover seder., various sexual goals, then “Ilana” reads out: to be Asian. . .I’d love to be Asian! If technology could figure out how to do it, I’d do it! “Abbi” adds that to their list.
To promote the first season’s release on DVD, Jacobson drew a city sites map -- but I don’t see any Jewish references. (updated 12/28/2014)


Dr. Zoe Hart in the 3rd Season of Hart of Dixie (the CW, streams free a week later on Hulu) It took until the November “Family Tradition” episode, written by Dan Steele, for her very New Yorker writer boyfriend, bespectacled “Joel Stephens” (played by Josh Cooke) to be explicitly identified as also Jewish. I’m behind on commenting on the “Miracles” episode, written by series creator Leila Gerstein, that featured his “Grandma Sylvie” (played by Patty McCormack) visiting for a Hanukkah party.
In “Act Naturally”, written by Dan Steele, “Candice Hart” (played by JoBeth Williams) re-appeared. Despite “Zoe”s positive opening position: My mother and I just managed to put the past behind us, to build a relationship out of trust and honesty. But she turned into a stereotyped controlling Jewish mother than she was before: I waited for an invitation to Christmas, Hanukkah, and it never came, so I thought I’d come for my only daughter’s birthday. . . I promise small, no fuss, no candles that don’t blow out. She complains when they’re out to dinner: The house, Joel, forgotten holiday invites, you’re setting down roots here, building a future here, and I can’t believe there isn’t a place for me. You’reshutting me out. “Joel” tries to keep her happy –and away from her birthday party with her biological father’s family- but he complains to “Zoe”: If judgment had a face, it would be your mother’s.-- and that was before she really gave it to him using code words: I’m disappointed in what’s going on here, and I can’t belive you allowed it to happen.. . .You allowed her to move to Bluebelle, to buy a house, to set down roots a thousand miles from me! I had a very happy summer in NY with my daughter. Even happier when she found a New York boyfriend. Yet somehow we’re back here. I blame you. “Zoe” joins her mother for breakfast on her last day in Bluebelle. Mother: Did you have a secret first breakfast with your other family? “Zoe”: I deserved that, I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you. I was worried you would feel hurt. But now that it’s all out in the open I realize there was nothing to worry about to begin with. I’m so glad that you came and met them. Mom: You’re right. The Wilkes are terrific, loyal caring, a great family. “Zoe”: It’s great to have them here. Mom: And that’s why I cant let them win. . . You Zoe. If Bluebelle is where you’re going to have you life, a house, a family, eventually grandbabies, well if this is where it’s going to be, then this is where I’m going to be. In Bluebelle.
But the “Here You Come Again” episode, written by producer Sheila Lawrence, escalated further into a freshly annoying level of TV’s image of the materialistic, pushy, controlling Jewish mother, even without a single explicit Jewish reference. It turns out that her mother is a hard-charging celebrity publicist, and she takes “Zoe” on as a client to get back her medical practice, before condoning her adoption by Bluebelle. [Commentary and transcription forthcoming.]
The season finale, “Second Chance”, written by Leila Gerstein, closed with something of a Jewish-style wedding, as “Joel’s Grandma Sylvie” (Patty McCormack) married “Zoe”s cousin “Vernon 'Brando' Wilkes” (played by Lawrence Pressman). There’s two officiants, the one in a white robe an implied rabbi, but the widow and widower exchange their own personal vows. The groom steps on a glass to conclude the ceremony, the guests shout Mazel Tov!, klezmer-style music plays at the party, and Grandma pulls “Zoe” in to join her to dance to a simple clarinet version of “Hava Nagilah”. (updated 6/13/2014)


The Goldbergs – Beverly, Erica plus (on ABC) How did this dreadful, more Jewish re-take of The Wonder Years, let alone repeating almost every negataive Jewish female stereotype from early Philip Roth, get on the broadcast schedule? Blonde “Beverly” (played by Wendi McLendon-Covey) is a monstrously smothering mother, and the older sister “Erica” (played by Hayley Orrantia) is pretty much a bitch. Oy, it got renewed for a second season. [Commentary on transcriptions forthcoming.] (updated 6/6/2014)

Rachel Berry etc. in the 5th season of Glee (on Fox, available on DVD) (More detailed commentary forthcoming as “Rachel” is cast in a Broadway revival of Funny Girl.)
In “The Quarterback” the tearful tribute to the death of Cory Monteith, who played “Rachel”s boyfriend “Finn Hudson (and Lea Michele’s real-life on/off again boyfriend according to the tabloids), written by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, she confides to the glee club teacher with both her characteristic Jewish reference and selfish touch: I was going to make it big on Broadway, maybe do a Woody Allen movie, then when we were ready I would come back, and he’d be teaching here. I would just walk through those doors and I would just say I’m home and we would live happily ever after. . .He was my person. . .I didn’t know if I would be able to sing again, and now I know I can. I got much more choked up at the acoustic cover of Springsteen’s “No Retreat, No Surrender” by the other Jewish character “Noah 'Puck' Puckerman” (sung by Mark Salling) than I did by her cover of Bob Dylan's "To Make You Feel My Love."
A brief preliminary note on the fraught episode “Frenemies” written by Ned Martel, that features bitter and revealing arguments between now NYC roommates “Rachel” and “Santana” when the latter successfully auditions to be her understudy in Funny Girl, by singing her signature “Don’t Rain on My Parade” no less: Fumes “Rachel”: That song is Miss Streisand’s as long as she’s on this planet. But let me tell you something. When she goes, it’s going to be my responsibility to sing it! “Kurt”: Do you know how insane you sound? “Rachel”: It was completely inappropriate for her to audition without telling me. . .Fanny Brice is a New York Jew. You playing her is like me being the Grand Marshal of the Puerto Rican Day Parade! . . .I’m arguing on principle. This is not personal!
A brief preliminary note on the fraught episode “Trio” written by Rivka Sophia Rossi, that opens with: Here’s what you missed on ‘Glee’: Santana landed the job as Rachel’s understudy in ‘Funny Girl’ even though Santana is Latin and Fanny Brice is clearly Jewish. Amidst an episode where “Rachel” is obnoxious and condescending to her replacement gay roommate “Elliott ‘Starchild’ Gilbert” (I’m so ignorant of American Idol that I didn’t realize he’s played by Adam Lambert, though I have been impressed that he’s getting “Rachel” to rock out ), “Santana” continues to rail against “Rachel” with Jewish references, and warns him: It’s all a part of my master plan so I can psych out Berry and get to play Fanny Brice. First comes big hair, then comes incredibly sexy rehearsal clothes that she could never pull off. Then I’m going to sneak into the theater and tack up yearbook photos of her from sophomore year when she was a chunky little butter ball. Just a reminder, once a fatty, always a fatty. As God is my witness, I will bring her down. . . Life is very high school, just with bigger stakes. And if you knew Berry the way that all of us did you would be applauding me. In the beginning it’s all sunshine and giggles and stickers and then the second that you want the same thing as her a dark cloud comes over her whiskery little chin and she will chew you up and spit you out, like a Jewish Hilary Clinton.
A brief preliminary note on the episode “100” that has “Rachel” being obnoxiously competitive, written by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, this time it’s the African-American “Mercedes” (played by Amber Riley) putting her putdowns of “Rachel” in a Jewish context, as she ruminates: So what, she got cast in a play as an annoying Jewish girl. What a surprise. And sweetly sarcastic: Hello Rachel, I am so happy to hear about all your success. . . .If you’ll excuse me, I’ll make my way to the back of the bus. . . It all comes down to how cool you are. Rachel Berry represents Broadway, the past. I represent the future. . .and songs you actually hear on the radio.
”New Directions”, written and directed by Brad Falchuk, found a new way to be stereotypical in its depiction of Jewish women in the guise of being satirical, when “Tina Cohen-Chang” suddenly discovers her Jewish identity for the first time in five seasons, with some reference to the actress Jenna Ushiwitz’s bio as having been adopted from Korea, as she narrates: I got rejected by my back-up school, Ohio State, and Brown still hasn’t told me if I got in yet, so at this point, I’m taking desperate measures. I get it, I was adopted and have never been to temple, but all of my friends are going to be in New York and Mitzvah Unvieristy is the only school that’s still accepting for the fall semester. So I wrote an essay about the reason I am applying so late is because I was on a kibbutz, whatever that is. So here we go, fingers crossed. I just got to get to New York someway. She fills in the application with her name just as “Tina Cohen”. She walks into Glee Club very upset: I’m going to spend my lifetime in Lima because I’m not Jewish enough. We see the unctuous admissions director, with an Israeli flag on his desk, talking his letter: ”Mitzvah University was delighted to receive your application, albeit it was five weeks late. However, we know the truth-- your name is not Tina Cohen, you are Tina Cohen-Chang. You are a big fat liar.” So not getting into Mitzvah U, I’m the ony one not going to college. . I just feel like a loser. Without any explanation, this reinforced clannish definitions and was a sadly missed opportunity to show the inclusiveness and diversity of the American Jewish community. Instead she announces she got into Brown. Before “Santana” eventually apologizes and drops out of the show after reuniting with her lesbian girlfriend, she sticks in a last dig to “Rachel”: You’ve been dreaming about this role since you were in gay utero, and you’ve been working your tiny butt off to get it. . . I don’t want to be a Broadway star.
In a switch, a Jewish reference was in a complimentary context, in “New New York” by Murphy. Showing she’s contrite after quite a bout of diva-ness after her producer lends her a limo that she insists is only a town car, “Rachel” offers to help wheel-chair bound “Artie Abrans” (played by Kevin McHale) on the subway after his mugging experience: Trust me, I took krav maga as a child at the JCC and I can protect you.. After she squawks ferociously for a taxi, the episode concludes with her rehearsal singing of “People”, smiling at all her friends, and walking on a crowded sidewalk with all the real New Yorkers.
While the nastiness about her ambitions, even after achieving her Broadway success, continued through the end of the season, at least in the season finale, “The Untitled Rachel Berry Project” written by Matthew Hodgson, there were no Jewish insinuations and had a veiled reference that she’s moving on from her Jewish roots, even as she convinced TV writer “Mary Halloran” (played hilariously by comedienne Kristen Schaal) to base a new series on her, somehow revealed by her singing Pink’s “Glitter in the Air”: I always thought that Fanny Brice was the role I was born to play, but when I read this, this is it. This is my dream role! . . They like my script! I’m going to L.A.! OMG! OMG!
Yet series creator Ryan Murphy, who was honored this year with the Louis XIII Genius Award at the Critics’ Choice Television Awards, seems oblivious to how this nastiness to “Rachel” comes across. In a Vulture interview with Denise Martin, Ryan Murphy on Glee’s Final Season: New Location and Smaller Cast”, 4/15/2014, “Maybe because it’s been a tough year, but I feel like the word we keep talking about is kindness,’ Murphy said. Since the show’s move to New York, no villain, antagonist, or bully has turned up. That may not last — both Santana and Sue will be back sooner rather than later — but ‘the heart, humor and warmth [of this stretch of episodes] feels like the Glee I remember loving in seasons one and two. . . and that I think is because we’re really concentrating on the characters.’” The tabloids had a field day believing that the on-screen tensions between “Santana” and “Rachel” were reflected in the off-screen between Naya Rivera and Lea Michele. (updated 1/10/2015)


Mrs. Wolowitz in the 7th season of Big Bang Theory (on CBS, out on DVD) (As heard and referred) Until I get around to posting my transcriptions, that I can vouch for, of all the nasty comments by and about “Mrs. Wolowitz”, fan episode transcripts are eventually posted.
Though her character “Amy Farrah Fowler” isn’t Jewish, the actress Mayim Bialik is probably the most prominent observant Jewish actress working in TV, so I follow how she’s treated by the media each year. In her 2/17/2014 blog post she reviewed her participation on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher as “the only nighttime talk show that has booked me in the [sic] phase of my acting career, save for my appearance on the Craig Ferguson show last year. I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to get booked on shows, but I loved being on Bill Maher’s show as an author, a scientist, and a woman with a brain.” [She has been on several daytime talk shows, and she was las season on TBS’s Conan, but she may have meant in the context of promoting her books, including the new Mayim's Vegan Table: More than 100 Great-Tasting and Healthy Recipes from My Family to Yours.] As to the host quizzing her on “Jews. Defending religion is hard in 30 seconds. Defending my choices as a person who both lives in the secular and scientific world and appreciates the ancient and mystical world is not easy to do off camera, much less on camera. I tried to be honest. I tried to demonstrate that I am not perfect nor am I a representative of ‘The Jews’. I don’t know if all of humanity should turn to atheism. I don’t know that the true sign of cultural evolution is to do away with religion. And I don’t think the Torah is wicked, as Bill Maher insinuated. I honestly didn’t know how to respond to that! The Torah is not wicked; it’s people who can be wicked, and it’s people who can pervert Truth. That’s hard to address in 30 seconds.”
I’ve been logging all the Jewish-themed nasty comments about “Mrs. Wolowitz” to post eventually. “The Mommy Observation”, teleplay by Steven Molaro, Eric Kaplan & Anthony Del Broccolo, story by Jim Reynolds, Steve Holland & Maria Ferrari, started with the usual sarcastic cracks in an episode dealing with mothers’ sexuality. “Sheldon” (Jim Parsons): Do you have any idea what it’s like to see your mother ravaging someone? “Howard” (Simon Helberg): Does a brisket count? “Sheldon”: We’ve all seen your mother naked. That woman needs to learn how to tie a robe. But then “Howard” turned surprisingly sympathetic: I’m talking about when my mom started seeing someone a couple of years after my dad left. . .She was dating this guy and I was kind of a jerk to her about it. . .Let’s just say it was the most vicious bar mitzvah speech in the history of Temple Beth El. Anyway, she broke up with him and she’s basically been alone ever since. She never said but I always felt I was the reason why. “Sheldon”: Sorry, but based on your story, you absolutely were the reason why. “Howard”: All I’m saying is you might not want to get in the way of your mother’s happiness.
Noting a surprise, even shocking, conclusion to the season finale that piles on her image as a nightmare, “The Status Quo Combustion”, teleplay by Steven Molaro, Steve Holland & Tara Hernandez, story by Eric Kaplan, Jim Reynolds & Jeremy Howe, morose, hapless, destitute, literally burned-out comic book store owner “Stuart Bloom” (played by Kevin Sussman) jumps at the job of home health aide to the bedridden “Mrs. Wolowitz”, after it was described by her son as: I know a place you can stay and earn some money. It’ll involve degradation, humiliation and verbal abuse. At her house, “Stuart” is wearing medical scrubs when he cheerfully joins “Howard” and his wife “Bernadette” (Melissa Rauch) in the living room, who were at their wits’ ends caring for her after several aides, including “Penny”, rapidly quit: Hey what are you guys still doing here? I got this. Go – go home. “Howard”: You sure? “Stuart”: Sure, she’s fed, she took her pills, she’s all tucked in, and she’s watching TV. “Bernadette”: So she’s not too much for you? “Stuart”: You kidding? I love her – she’s great! “Mrs. Wolowiz” calls out sweetly: Stuey! You going to watch “Wheel of Fortune” with me? “Stuart”: Coming Debbie! “Howard”: You call her Debbie? “Stuart”: She insisted. So hey, thank you guys. This job is a dream come true! And he skips off to her room. “Howard”: Is that weird? “Bernadette”: I don’t know why, but something about it feels unnatural. “Howard”: So let’s go? “Bernadette” chortles Yeah! and they leave fast. updated 9/9/2014)


Shoshanna Shapiro in the 3rd season of Girls (on HBO, available on DVD) was used to promote the upcoming 2014 episodes in a very Jewish context on FaceBook in September 2013 with the heading
“To the Girls celebrating, may your #RoshHashanah New Year be as sweet as Shosh”:
Fans followed up with unofficial “Shoshana”-related sukkah decorations: one set of seven characters to represent the seven ushpizin (guests) and an Aussie-made pun “Happy Shoshanna Rabba” meme for the end of Sukkoth:
On the season opener “Inside the Episode” for “Females Only”, writer Dunham announced the theme for this season would be each girl going “outside her comfort zone”. Hence “Shoshanna”s declaration: Basically it’s been a very sexually adventurous time for me. I’m alternating nights of freedom with nights of academic focus. So at the end of my senior year I will have had both experiences while also still being super well prepared for the professional world. “Hannah” is guardedly positive: Sounds like a really good plan. It sounds, smart and cool and feminist.
In Truth or Dare”, written by Jenni Konner, she’s the symbol of optimistic youth while her friends are feeling old, even though they can’t yet rent a car. She’s thrilled to be included on a rescue road trip: We’re being models of female friendship! and is never at a loss for games or words, like criticizing the driver for arbitrarily picking fork as his favorite utensil: Why would you want cold metal prongs stabbing you in the tongue when you can have food delivered into your mouth on like a cool, soft, pillowy cloud? But then she can also claim: I will never be bored as long as there is Halloween.though her context is all NYC: Well, they don't list their calories here, so, A, I'm not eating, and, B, that is illegal. Not only is she always referring to other, school friends for comparison and competition, like when she announces why she bought a rocking chair at a rest stop: It's a rustic souvenir. It was, like, $14. My friend Ziva has always wanted one. She is going to freak when she sees that I have one! And claims to understand lying addicts: Oh, my God, that's so true. They totally lie. My friend Rachel is fully addicted to blueberry Red Bull, and she always tells me that she hasn't had one, but she tells me, like, with a blue tongue., and goes on a hike with the driver despite, or because: My friend Rachel saw a guy giving a girl full-on cunnilingus on a hike just like this on a day just like this. But she also thinks rehab is like, a rite of passage for celebrities. Her self-centeredness ranges from myopic -- I'm like really happy that [Jessa]s gonna be home for graduation, because I like totally want her in my photos -- to the frankly honest about “Hannah” applying to grad school each year: Honestly, the only people that I ever hear say that are people who don't make any money. So it was odd that she seemed to agree with “Hannah”s sarcasm about the women and menstruation stereotype: But they shouldn’t be president because it could -- their judgment. UB a deleted scene, posted by Vulture, “Hannah” explained to her annoyed boyfriend why she wanted “Shoshanna” along: Because she’s Jessa’s family and everybody needs family.
In “She Said OK”, written by Dunham and Konner, two guys are mooning over break-ups with her – but from very different perspectives. The new guy relates their spontaneous relationship since they met: On the street, actually. . . .This girl is crazy. I mean, she was drunk and she just screams, "Hey, hottie. You know where I can find some dank weed?" So I'm telling her, and then her and her friends pull me into a cab with them. She smugly lays quite the zinger on the girlfriends at “Hannah”s 25th birthday party celebration: It's really amazing that all three of you have accomplished so little in the four years since college. I mean, think about it. Four years.
In “Dead Inside”, “Shoshanna” seems more superficial, as she notes: I feel my bandanna collection is my most developed collection. I mean my bandanna collection is insane! When “Jessa” asks if any friend she knew died, she is taken aback by “Shosh”s reply: My friend Kelly, in a car accident. . .Sad, but then I took over her place in the fun group and we were always meant to be a 5-some, not a 6-some and we didn’t have room for two practical yet goofy confidantes. But I miss her though. But she is sort of helpful towards another girl: You should visit her mom or write on her Facebook memorial page. . .You need to process it or grieve it out. When Kelly died I wrote a book of poems about her.
In “Only Child”, written by Murray Miller, she is trying to study amidst “Jessa” noise: My recent hijinks have really taken a toll on my GPA. . .It is really important for my 15 year plan that I get into a good business school, because I don’t want to become like all my friends and family, yourself included, no offense. “Jemma”: What happens after the 15 year plan? “Shoshanna”: It would be insane to think about that.
In the after episode commentary, Dunham explained “Shosh” in “Free Snacks”, written by Paul Simms, “Ray’s success makes her feel like possibly she made a mistake and now she’s missing out on the coolest, sexiest businessman in Brooklyn. That little stalking moment was really fun to shoot. She’s like really trying to keep it undercover, but obviously her espionage outfit is a bright blue trench coat and Prada sunglasses and her same hair style so it’s probably not the best way to lay low. “Shoshanna” confesses to watching “Ray” play basketball, but “Jessa” has an odd sardonic reaction: Because it’s really hard for a Jew to gain respect in sports. “Shosh” claims: He’s not a Jew though. “Jessa” clearly thinks he is. “Shosh” reads aloud the cute review of his coffe shop in Time Out New York: Ray is being written about in popular publications and my life is a mess and I know that was a personal choice but maybe it is time for me to unchoose that choice. Like, Step 1, I need to be in a solid committed relationship with someone who understands my goals and value, like Parker. But he’s just so stupid that I worry that our children wouldn’t get into pre-school. She sits across from him (played by Evan Jonigkeit) in the library with an earnest challenge: I don’t regret a single moment of my wild months, but my wild oats have been sowed and now it’s time to get back to reality. . But it’s like I have a history, Parker. I have been there and I have done that. I’m not regretting and lying about it, but is that something you think you can handle? But he reports on the gossip he’s heard from others: said that you think I’m the dumbest person you ever met. . . And that I couldn’t find the library. Which is now obviously not true. Though that’s not so different from what she did say, she plows on: You’re getting off topic. And does that sound like something I would say? No, that sounds like one of Caitlin’s stupid jokes because she thinks she’s so provocative. . .But you don’t think you’re ready for a serious girlfriend/boyfriend, tell me now because I do not have any more time to waste on friviolities. He, eagerly: I’m down for whatever. She corrects: I totally think you can tie you’re shoes by the way. I was disappointed in their next scene, because it was such a cliché visual joke. He bends her over the couch for quick thrusting rear sex while she prattles on: OK, now that we’re an official couple I think we should have no less than 4 hang nights a week. Activities to include non-sports TV watching, um, light reading, board games, comparing playlists. He: Could we talk about this later? She goes on about: Open communication. . . .mutual needs as the cornerstone of any relationshp. I mean if you’re not ready for intimacy than maybe you’renot ready for this. He: Do you want me to stop? She: No reason to discontinue sex just because we’re not meant for each other. A little harder? We could also snuggle.
In “Beach House”, written by Dunham and Judd Apatow, host “Marnie” (played by Allison Williams) complains: Shosh has gone totally insane. But “Shosh” stands her ground, such that “Hannah” concedes she has a point: You people never listen to me or treat me seriously! You treat me like a fucking cab driver. Seriously, you have entire conversations like I’m invisible. And sometimes I wonder if my social life anxiety is holding me back from the people who would actually be right for me instead of the people who are a bunch of fucking nothings as friends!
In “Incidentals”, written by Dunham and Sarah Heyward, “Shosh” starts out as a silly pop culture fan, then gets startled into serious responsibility. When “Hannah”s boyfriend gets cast in a Broadway play, she piles onto her jealous anxiety: Oh God, are you afraid he’s going to leave you for A NAME=angry>Sutton Foster? She recognizes, and is impressed, that one of the actors (played Ebon Moss-Bachrach) in Major Barbara was (fictionally) on One Tree Hill. She gets pulled into a room with “Jessa”s drug rehab friend “Jasper” (Richard E. Grant) who rants on about: Higher education is elitist horseshit. “Shosh” is excited at first: I know, I know. But, like, I am out of there in three weeks. Like, I am done, I am graduating, I am done with that. He: They say they're teaching you to think, but really they're teaching you to think like everybody else. She: I know! I know! It's like, literally, I swear to God, sometimes I feel like I am in "The Truman Show”, but it's, like, really just a walking American Apparel ad and I don't even know it. He seizes on her seeming congruence: Have you got any cocaine? She’s taken aback, after all, she gets high on life: No, I don't do cocaine. He: But you're clearly on cocaine. She: Oh, no, everybody thinks that, but I just have really chronic congestion and, like, a terribly fast mouth. She’s horrified that he and “Jemma” go crazy off in the search of cocaine – and in a subsequent episode, “Role Play”, written by Dunham and Apatow, she’s the responsible party to force an intervention by bringing in “Jasper”s impressive daughter (played by Felicity Jones): She’s like an incredibly inspiring person., and assures her cousin in the next episode “I Saw You” -- I love you.
The season finale “Two Plane Rides”, written by Dunham, is quite traumatic for her. She goes to pick up her graduation gown: S as in Sam, H as in Hank A as in Apple, P as in Paltrow -- I ordered your cap and gown in the tradional violet. I also ordered the protective plastic poncho just in case of inclement weather and I will be carrying my aunt Eileen’s NYU flag from like 1922. But she’s peremptorily told her name has been “flagged”. She misunderstands: Yeah I said I’m carrying my aunt’s flag. Nope, that’s not what was meant. She reacts to “Marnie” trying to cheer her up: Thank you. It really makes me feel better to know that you are a fuck up too. So “Marnie” figures it’s a good bonding moment to confess she slept with “Ray” (let alone much more than once), but “Shosh” tackles her and screams: I hate you! At the theater premiere, she’s still fuming as she sits alongside “Marnie” – but it’s a bit silly that she would be so ignorant that George Bernard Shaw is British: Why are they talking like that? It’s not Shakespeare. . .But it’s called “Major Barbara” (The implication is she had connected the title with Streisand.) At intermission, she tearily trades charges with “Ray”, who thinks she’s just jealous, then declares: I want you back. I decided that I want you back. I miss you. I made a mistake. This whole entire year freedom was just fucking stupid and I want to be with you again. . . Because you make me a more stable human. And you mke me want to be the best verison of myself and I just want to be your girlfriend again and pretend there was never not your girlfriend before. I love you! I love you! “Ray” is forthright: Shosh I’m eternally gratgeful to you. I have a real job now, with real responsibilities. I have my own first credit card, I have a credenza, I have a cactus plant, that’s because of you. Understand? You pushed me forward in a lot of ways and I’m eternally appreciative of that. OK but right now we’re in different places. And we have very very very different goals. She cries and begs, to no avail. Dunham summed up in the after-the-episode: “Shosh started with this perfect master plan that of course couldn’t be successful because life isn’t made up of compartmetns so she couldn’t be promiscuous some nights and study perfectly the others. So it all caught up with her. The challenge is of adulthood and the way that we have to make certain compromises to get what we want. Actions have consequences. So Ray won’t be available to her and she’s learning those big adult lessons and becoming a little more weighed down and a little less sort of the quippy girl we’ve always known.”
After the season aired, blonde Jemima Kirke, the actress who plays the British cousin “Jessa Johannsson” gained visibility for being Jewish, as in “granddaughter of Jewish-British-Iraqi real estate developer Jack Dellal”, per Jewcy, 3/14/2014, where Elissa Goldstein gushes: “Ah, Jemima Kirke and Michael Mosberg! Glam-Jewy-indie couple extraordinaire!” Kvelled over are photos of her 2009 “Orthodox” (i.e. she was apparently Jewish enough for the bearded rabbi) wedding on the fashion/lifestyle Refinery 29, that she self-describes as “non-traditional”, and her day in the life in New York Magazine, 3/10/2014, that included a Shabbat dinner.
“Shoshanna” has struck a universal chord with young women, even, surprisingly, the very gentile, mega-music starTaylor Swift, per an interview with Josh Eells in Rolling Stone, 9/8/2014: “As a recent New York transplant in her mid-twenties, Swift says Girls is like her Sex and the City. ‘I could label all my girlfriends as Shoshannas, Jessas, Marnies or Hannahs,’ she says. And which would she be? ‘I've thought about this a lot,’ she says. A pause. ’I'm Shoshanna.’ She seems resigned to this. ”Shoshanna gets excited about things, she's really girly. And when she was in a relationship that was very comfortable, she made the decision to get out and go experience new things on her own. And now she's becoming more sure of herself and taking life head-on, in a way that I can relate to. Even though I've never accidentally smoked crack at a warehouse party and run pantsless through Brooklyn.’ (Dunham, meanwhile, thinks Swift is more like ‘Hannah, minus the horrid sexual behavior. Or Marnie, if she wasn't an asshole.’)” Mamet’s reaction: "I'm honored," she told Huff Post Live's Ricky Camilleri. "That's great. [And] Shoshanna would be over the moon. Oh, she would be thrilled." (updated 1/10/2015)


”Rebecca Levy” on Strike Back in her 2nd season (on British Sky and U.S. Cinemax) surprised “Sgt. Damien Scott” and the audience by showing up in Colombia on the opening episode of the 4th season, written by Simon Burke, director Michael J. Bassett, and Tim Vaugham, as the arm candy “Celine”, with the distractingly curvaceous derrière, of Lebanese narcoterrorist “Leo Kamali” who just killed a Section 20 agent: What the fuck do you think I’m doing here? “Damien”: You said no more Mossad! No more killing! I gave you that out! She: Did you really believe it was going to be that easy?. . .This is what we do! Kamali is mine! Do you have any idea what I had to do to get close to this guy? He snickers: Yeah, I got a pretty fair idea. She: Do you even know who he is? Do you know why I’m here? He: So Mossad can disappear him? Fuck that! He killed one of ours. He’s mine! She: Do not fuck this up! I am thisclose to getting something. “Damien”s British partner charges in: Is this a fucking family reunion? “Damien” orders the bikini-clad “Rebecca” to get dressed, but he rolls his eyes as she puts on a sexy dress, so she retorts: You think I brought my fatigues? “Damian” snorts: Unless you have a bunch of Mossads disguised as tree frogs, he’s ours. The trussed up “Kamali” is listening to all these revelations with considerable surprise, and “Damian” grins at him: Yeah, she’s an Israeli agent. She drags him out into the jungle, to a hijacked river boat amidst constant gunfire, and it’s blown up. As it sinks, “Damian” looks alive – but her? Oh no – is this why the actress isn’t listed in the opening credits?
Yeah, that was why, per the 2nd episode with the same writers. “Damian” just barely manages to rescue her – with the surprising assistance of “Kamali”. On land, “Damian” frantically does CPR: Come on! After a suspenseful delay, she chokes up a lot of water – but her first thought is: Where’s Kamali? They look around and he’s gone. Back in Bogota, they are having a passionately naked reunion in bed, with her mostly on top. In a post-coital cuddle, he tells her about “Kamali”: Y’know that fucking asshole came back to the boat to get you out? If he hadn’t, you wouldn’t be here. Who fucking does that? For a Mossad agent? If it was me. . . She: You’d have let me die. Yeah, me too. He chuckles: See, that’s why we’re made for each other. She’s up and out of bed: I have to go. He: Fuck, really? How long ‘til they get here? That Mossad team you’ve been waiting for? That’s why you’ve been here with me. She: Maybe I want to be here with you. . This is a Mossad mission. You crashed my party, remember. He: When do they get here? She: 24 hours. She advises on a vault with key information. He grins: We’ll get to rob a bank! When they kidnap the brother of the dealer she’d been undercover with, he recognizes her: You lying, fucking whore! She remember the dealer liked the name “Esther” and it works for a password. The partner is sarcastic: What – you two were together long enough to pick baby names? There’s a huge shoot-out after they rob the dealer’s box and she takes a hit! “Damian” shouts: No! and holds her in his arms as the shooting continues. She begs him for water –and does something that really surprised me: she recited the Sh’ma into Viddui, her dying prayer. [Thanks to David Zucker for the reference.] And she does die! Couldn’t they have left it more ambiguous so that she could be brought back later in the season? He closes her eyes, and his partner offers to bring her with them. But he kisses her farewell and proceeds with a carjacking escape. In the getaway ride he keeps flashing back to her smiling at him in bed. But “Kamali” and his cohorts capture, taunt, and torture them: If you stay here you die for nothing, like Rebecca. He then reveals he’s really an undercover CIA agent!: I’m the only hope you have. I wish she hadn’t died. But she knew the risks – we all do! Just when it seems he’s lied again, he helps them escape, again. RIP Rebecca!
While “Damian” doesn’t mention her again while he’s screwing other women who have ulterior motives, this interchange in “Episode 25” written by John Simpson, about the roots of the Middle East’s problems was intriguing. “Lt. Philip Locke” (played by an unsually gritty Robson Greene) is interrogating one tough extremeist IRA broad “Mairead McKenna” (played by Catherine Walker): What were you doing in Beirut? Meeting up with like-minded jihadists? You were going to bring Sharia law to the nine counties and turn the North into some kind of Muslim caliphate? She snarls: Better the Muslims than the British. . .I get to see the look on your face when every fuck you ever trod on for the past thousand years has clubbed together and is coming back to get you.? (updated 9/15/2013)


Magic City – Evans family, etc. in the 2nd, last season (on Starz, available on DVD) By the final episode “The Sins of the Fathers”, by Mitch Glazer, the Jewish females are almost forgotten amidst the violent fall of Jewish gangsters. Only when “Ike” sympathizes with the prosecutor because they both have daughters, and he wouldn’t have wanted his daughter drugged and raped at his hotel as happened to the lawyer’s: I’m truly sorry.(More commentary forthcoming.) (updated 5/19/2014)

Prisoners of War (Hatufim) – Wives, Daughter, Sister, Intelligent Agent, and more women in the 2nd season (Israeli 2012 series streaming in the U.S. as of June 2013 on Hulu, week by week, whole season bingeable on Hulu Plus, available in US-format DVD)

Ziva David on NCIS in her 9th season (The 11th season on CBS, streaming full episodes) was announced as her final season on 7/10/2013 in “NCIS Scoop: Cote de Pablo to Exit This Fall, Producers Promise 'Appropriate Closure' for Ziva”, quoting her statement after her contract expired: “I look forward to finishing Ziva’s story.” Which led USA cable channel, which reruns episodes to great ratings success, to feature “Ziva Appreciation Day” September 7, 2013, in a marathon of “Ziva”-centered episodes, with tweets from her fans. While my commentary on her last episodes is forthcoming, it was suprising that the only Jewish thing about “Ziva” in the last few seasons as she became more Americanized– her Jewish star – came to represent her. (updated 10/6/2013)



2012/2013 Season

Pioneers of Television (PBS) season finale “The Mini-Series” left out the 1978 Holocaust, which was egregious to not even be mentioned alongside the discussion of Roots, Rich Man, Poor Man, and The Thorn Birds. The significant series had a tremendous influence in the U.S. and abroad to generate many subsequent documentaries and features, particularly about women. (3/31/2013)

Family Tree (on HBO), a satirical mockumentary of genealogy research programs, written by Christopher Guest and Jim Piddock, managed to stick in Jews into the roots of“Tom Chadwick” (played by the Irish Chris O’Dowd) when he followed clues to California. In “Indian”, he discovered that the “Rebecca” he’d been searching for from a horseback riding photograph as a presumed member of the Mojave tribe was in fact a different MOT – a Jew from the Barstow “Schmelffs”. In the finale “Cowboy”, it was a bit nasty that the only Jewish women “Schmelff” descendants were off recuperating from cosmetic surgery when he went to visit. (7/23/2013)

MTV’s Awkward is usually a refreshing comedy about parents and teens, but the Season 3, 2nd episode “Responsibly Irresponsible”, written by series creator Lauren Iungerich, was kind of nasty. Joking about standing around while sitting shiva for unpopular “Ricky Schwartz” with silent female relatives, the narrating “Jenna Hamilton” (played by Ashley Rickards) wryly notes his paintings of women spilling out of their dresses: Ricky’s obsession with breasts was evidently home-grown., as she looks over at his big-bosomed, grieving, mother. Her boyfriend “Matty McKibben” (played by Beau Mirchoff): Want to hear something creepy? Ricky’s grandma just told me Ricky was breastfed until he was eight. Their friend “Jake Rosati” (played by Brett Davern) chokes on his drink: It’s insane how much we didn’t know about that kid. (updated 6/1/2013)

Esther Blanco (plus) on Shameless (U.K.) (final seasons streaming this year on Hulu) In the last couple of seasons of this raucously, raunchy take on working class life in a government housing project in Manchester, England, the scam artists, drunks, and petty criminals and their children had more contact with middle class folk, usually on the way down in the recession, so there was now interaction with Jews. In Season 9, the 3rd episode, written by Ed McCardie, had its first Jewish woman character – well, a dead one, from when two scamming old ladies crashed “Irene”s funeral for the refreshments. Pretending to have known the deceased, “Patty Croker” (played deliciously obnoxious by Valerie Lilley) in the ‘60’s, even at Woodstock, starts blathering niceties about her being church-going, before realizing the attendees are wearing yarmulkes, and she has to switch stories:Jewish, of course. That is still a religion, even as it comes out this Jewish mother deserted her 2-year-old son and went off to Australia. She elaborates on their fictional friendship to reassure the now adult “Alan” (played by Marcus Garvey) – and in order to benefit from him spending his inheritance. But he gets creepily obsessed with her as a substitute mother: I should be very fucked up for all that she done to me. I need to know why she left. To get rid of him, she spins a tale of his mother’s true non-Jewish identity, unhappy marriage, and lesbian affair. And then she recognizes her in an old photograph.
In the last, 11th season, the series’ distinctive, and hilariously complicated, “sex degrees of separation” brought in the Palestinian “Kassi Blanco” (played by Jalaal Hartley) married to the Jewish “Esther Blanco” (played by Isy Suttie), and their three kids, including daughter “Talya” (frequently incorrectly spelled as “Thalia”, as played by Jade Kidruff). Interestingly, fans seem to have completely misunderstood that she represents a hippie, less materialistic, anti-establishment middle-class ethos that has similarities, yet counters, to how these working class rogues work the system. (commentary forthcoming) (updated 7/17/2013)


Royal Pains in “Off-Season Greetings”, written by Constance M. Burge and Michael Rauch, finally with this special winter wedding episode of the 4th season of the summer series, at least dealt a bit with the “Lawson” family’s Jewish heritage – but only at the provocation of the new blonde bride, with zero reference to any Jewish woman like a big blank in their lives, implying that tradition doesn’t go on without one. The bride, “Paige Collins” (played by Brooke D’Orsay), excitedly gathers the father and two adult sons together: It’s almost time! The groom “Evan” (played by Paulo Costanzo): Time for what? She: Hello? Sundown? We do it by a window? Stop messing with the shiksa! I know you know it’s the first night of Hanukkah. The guys all act surprised. She: You didn’t know it was the first night of Hanukkah? The father “Eddie” (played by Henry Winkler): I had a feeling that this night was different from other nights. The doctor, “Hank” (played by Mark Feuerstein): Yeah, Hanukkah’s not like Christmas, it’s hard to keep track of, it’s 8 nights, gelt. . The groom: How did you know it’s the first night? Bride: Because tradition matters to me, and I want to respect your tradition the way you respect mine. So I’ve been studying up on Judaism. I wanted to surprise you. Groom: Sorry, but I completely forgot. Bride: OK, where’s your menorah? The guys hesitate. She: you don’t have a menorah? Doctor: We moved a while ago, and I don’t think I brought. . . Bride: Guys, this is a great holiday, your great holiday. These things are important. They have meaning. They should matter. Doctor: They do matter. He takes his phone calls as his dad ribs him: Seriously, Hank, on Hanukkah? Doctor: Excuse me Rabbi Lawson, Happy Hanukkah. Dad: We can make a menorah—all we need is an egg carton and some tin foil! The bride is perturbed: No! No! No! It also pokes at TV’s tendency to falsely make the December holidays equal, which the shiksa doesn’t understand. (12/21/2012)

Happy Endings managed to have an entire episode set at bar mitzvah parties, “Boys II Menorah” by Dan Rubin & Lon Zimmet, without any Jewish females. Instead, one of the shicksas among the clueless friends seemed to be as irresistible as crack cocaine, as she said, to the Jewish 13-year-old boys, though her girlfriend speculates it’s because: You’re a goy with vaguely Semitic looks who looks like she knows her way around a Handrew Jackson. (11/14/2012)

The season premiere, part 2, of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, “Above Suspicion” written by Warren Leight and Julie Martin, was so confusing and convulted that a casual comment could have been misunderstood by many viewers. With Peter Jacobson as the obnoxiously Jewish pimp “Bart Ganzel”, who tosses off Yiddish insults of his African-American lawyer and intends to flee to Israel as “our homeland”, one of the women detectives explains that the threatening “Sergeant Ted Koundak” (I’m not sure this is his accurate name as only one fan site cited this identification and I couldn’t ID the actor) was for another female cop, “Alana Gonzales”, “her rabbi” who she was sleeping with -- and I think there’s viewers who took her literally. Oddly, the slang phrase got repeated the following week, in “Twenty-Five Acts”. teleplay by John Paul Roche, when “Det. Benson”s interim captain hands her his business card before he moves up to another position: If you ever need a rabbi. . . (10/12/2012)

On Hawaii Five-0 (CBS) in the “Ohuna” episode by Mike Schaub, the detective’s sister’s elderly patient “Morty” (played by Shelley Berman), visiting Honolulu for his bucket list, advises her: I need you to go see your mother. . .You get a second chance. Not everybody does. I’d give everything I’d own for one. I’d give anything to see Zoe Ann Sapirstein. . . My only daughter. . .We got into a fight, over this boy she was seeing. Her mother and I disapproved. She left college and took off for San Francisco, with the guy, we didn’t speak for years. One day the phone rang, it was the highway patrol. A carpet salesman from Oakland had too much to drink and hit my daughter’s car, killed her instantly. Not a day goes by I don’t wish I’d picked up the phone and called her. I missed the privilege to know her because I was a stubborn SOB. Go see your mother. You only have one family.
In contrast, “Kapu”, written by David Wolkove, threw in an even more gratuitous comic relief comment about a Jewish female. When the homicide detective seeks his hacker helper, known as “Toast” (played by Martin Starr) who I cannot recall ever revealed any Jewish identity, his roommate “Bullwinkle” says he went home, home to Baltimore, for his sister’s bat mitzvah. I know it’s crazy, right? Twelve years old and already a woman by the Laws of Moses. A little young, no? Mazel tov. Which is an excuse for him to light up his pineapple bong, and offer it to the cop. (updated 1/17/2013)


On New Girl, the “Katie” episode by series creator Elizabeth Meriwether, the roommate “Schmidt” (played by Max Greenfield) goes on one of his bragging jags about his past sexual escapades. This time he reminisces about when he was at his most irresistible to the opposite sex: For me, it was the 3rd night of Hanukkah, or as I call it, ‘The Night of the Shoshanas’. (10/9/2012)

On Parks and Recreation (on NBC), fans assumed that when “Mona Lisa Sapirstein” (played by Jenny Slate) was introduced this season as the hilariously obnoxious, irresponsible, and sex-obsessed sister of “Jean-Ralphio” (played by Ben Schwartz) she was Jewish, which I didn’t presume at first because I hadn’t realize they shared the last name “Saperstein”. While these two funny actors usually play Jewish characters, I didn’t pick up a single explicitly Jewish reference in the three episodes she guested on. Per TV Line, 2/23/2013, by Michael “Ausiello: Her character, Mona Lisa Saperstein, is being brought on primarily to terrorize Ben. ‘One of my favorite things to do in the world is take awful people — like Jean Ralphio or Mona Lisa — and just put Adam Scott in scenes with them,’ says exec producer Mike Schur with a laugh. ‘I have them act so horrifying and then have Adam just basically be the conscience of the show, and be absolutely blown away by how horrifying they are.’” (6/25/2013)

The sixth season of Mad Men, set in 1968, has been notable for showing Madison Avenue’s increasing hiring of Jewish men, as Rachel Shukert noted in “Mad Mensches”, 4/12/2013 in The Tablet. But until “The Flood”, written by series creator Matthew Weiner and Tom Smuts, with its Biblical references, there hadn’t been a Jewish woman character in awhile, until here when Michael Ginsberg (played by Ben Feldman) was set up by his father for a date with a presumably Jewish school teacher “Beverly Farber” (played by Nicole Hayden). (Commentary forthcoming)
In the penultimate episode of the season, “In Care Of”, written by Carly Wray and Matthew Weiner, “Peggy Olson” (played by Elisabeth Moss) goes over budget with a Rosemary’s Baby-satire TV ad for St. Joseph’s Aspirin by using too many actors – including a Jewish mother-type character who is surprised to recommend it over chicken soup – as amusingly enacted with a Yiddish accent in a run-through for the client by the very goyish red-haired “Joan Harris” (played by Christina Hendricks), and described in this interchange with Alan Sepinwall, posted on 6/5/2013, “Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner on Don's confession, Bob Benson's origin and more from season 6”: Q “And Christina Hendricks' old Jewish neighbor lady? I don't know how long you've been sitting on that, but that was gold. Matthew Weiner: ‘That was a shock to me. We had written it, but I didn't know it would be that good. Christina is so funny. These people are really funny. There is a lot of stuff in the show that we want people to laugh at. That was a huge welcome surprise; I was not there the day they shot that, and I just saw it in the dailies and am still laughing about it.’” (updated 6/25/2013)


Spies of Warsaw, an internationally produced mini-series shown on BBC America’s DramaVille, based on the Alan Furst novel I haven’t read (yet) that he co-adapted with Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais, is set on the eve of World War II, and at least the Jewish woman was a different victim than usual. The least attractive and blandest woman in the series, “Malka Rosen” (played by Linda Bassett), is a middle-aged Bolshevik who, with her husband, agrees to tell Russian secrets to the French embassy liaison in exchange for asylum, though that doesn’t provide safety from assassination attempts, even hiding on a luxurious estate outside Paris. When war breaks out, it appears that the couple give up into suicide. (4/11/2013)

On Southland, the “Babel” ”Babel” episode by Aaron Rahsaan Thomas about how the diversity of languages leads to violent miscommunications on the streets of Los Angeles, the cops come upon a little old lady (Bunny Levine) yelling at a group of African-American skateboarders who complain she assaulted them: I defended myself! I’d do it again if I had to!. . .These young men! They play in the street! They hit me, so I hit him! The young black guy, who explains how he accidentally bumped into her: Tell him what you called me! She: What – a schvartze? Bleep. I didn’t survive Hitler to be run over by a skateboarder. . .I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 60 years! My father built the baker, my husband ran the deli! The young man challenges where she’s pointing: That’s BS! That buiding’s been abandoned! She: At the end of the day, that’s all we had. One cop mutters something like: Gentrification’s a bitch. The Latino “Officer Hank Lucero” (played by Anthony Ruivivar) teases the teens: So how did Grandma hit you – with a haymaker or an uppercut?, then smiles a Yiddish phrase to the old lady as he leaves. [In trying to find anyone else who might have understood what he said, on the IMDb Forum “AxemanLOTRDT, 4/13/13: I watched it with a friend who speaks Yiddish and he said that it sounded like (translated literally), ‘pretty clothes’ or (more loosely), ‘nice dress.’ We both agreed that it still didn't make a whole lot of sense.” (updated 4/15/2013)

In The Bible (History Channel), you would barely know there were Jewish women in the Old Testament (what with Jesus’s 33 years getting a lot more hours of air time than millennia of Jewish history). In Part 1, “The Beginnings”, the few seen are querulous nags – Lot’s Wife gets seen (sparing viewers the sexual conspiracy of her daughters), but not the matriarchs Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. Curiously, Sarah is even deprived the authority of naming her son, instead that is attributed to the male angel. She survives discovering her son was nearly sacrificed, unlike the more meaningful midrash that explained her immediate funeral in Genesis as from dropping dead at the news Isaac brings her about The Akeda. In Part 2, “Homeland”, Aaron’s wife is seen, but no Miriam. While I appreciate the racial diversity shown among the ancient Israelites, Samson’s dark-skinned mother gets more attention than the briefly seen Michal, Saul’s daughter/David’s first wife, or even the glimpses of the adulterous Bathsheba. In “Part 3 – Hope”, evidently the only Jewish woman in over 500 years from Judea to Babylon and back to Jerusalem is Mary, who was flirting with a young, virile Joseph in synagogue before she got virginally pregnant with “The King of the Jews”. I stopped watching once Jesus met John doing baptisms. (updated 3/29/2013)

Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? - Joan and Melissa Rivers – 3rd season (on WE) I kept meaning to watch the rest of the 2nd season and all the 3rd season of their “reality series” but I downloaded them to make room on my DVR, so I just may yet watch them eventually, if the copy works.
Joan also appeared on the TV Land sitcom Hot In Cleveland as “Anka” in the episode “Bye George, I Think He's Got It!”, written by Rachel Sweet, but I neglected to watch it, either originally or rerun in memorial tribute, to see if she played an explicit Jewish character. (updated 10/5/2014)


On Raising Hope (on Fox), I still have to catch satirical episode “Burt Mitzvah: The Musical”, written by Paul A. Kaplan and Mark Torgove, to comment on this family of scammers taking advantage of matriarch guest star Shirley Jones claiming to have Jewish roots, including the musical number "Rock the Torah” set in a deli. (1/2/2014)

On Children’s Hospital (Cartoon Channel’s Adult Swim), the deliciously hilarious satire of Grey's Anatomy and other such hospital soaps, in the “Wisedocs” episode, written by series creator Rob Corddry, David Krumholtz, who pretty much always plays a smart Jewish character, is here “Dookie”, a Mafioso’s dim-witten son who is flirting with “Dr. Cat Black” (played by Lake Bell): My dad says I should ask you out. She fends him off with a revelation near end of the 4th season that contradicts her declaring herself not Jewish in another episode as a reason she was breaking up with the Jewish doctor, but then her character has also died and had amnesia a couple of times: Really? You’re sure your family wouldn’t mind if we dated? Because I’m Jewish and I’m terrible at keeping a secret. He: Why would they care about that? They kiss in the corridor. He: Wow, I can’t wait to tell my dad I’m in love with a blabbermouth Jewish broad who kisses like a black chick! She defends him as he’s arrested by the deaf cop that he’s not like the rest of his family, but he admits he is: Goodbye human Kat. Or in your people’s language - ‘Meow’. (updated 3/1/2013)

I mostly watch a Lifetime movie for seasonal December dilemma promotion of interfaith relationships, so I didn’t expect to see one for Black History Month, let alone just a week after one celebrating CoBarbara Scott King and Betty Shabazz’s friendship: Twist of Faith, teleplay by Joyce Gittlin, Janet Fattal & Stephen Tolkin, story by Gittlin and Fattal. An Orthodox cantor in Brooklyn “Yaakov Fischer” (played by David Julian Hirsh) is happily and lovingly married to “Ruth” (played by Kyra Zagorsky), with 3 kids, including 2 daughters, “Miriam” and “Sarah”. (While he teaches a male class at a yeshiva, he teaches his daughter a secular song on the piano – “Itsy Bitsy Spider”.) He spends Shabbat with his mother (played by Paula Shaw) and sister “Naomi” (played by Gina Leon). His wife complains that he has to work on furniture because he isn’t paid full-time as a synagogue cantor – see, he’s a Jewish carpenter. He walks his family to the bus stop on a Sunday, when he’s going to stay home to watch sports, but one of the daughters is quickly accosted by a punk teen, the wife calls over the busdriver, but the volatile (white) kid pulls out a gun, and shoots dead first the driver, then the family. (Gosh, that’s quite a mass killing in a quiet Brooklyn neighborhood.) At the shiva, the sister expects him to be already getting over it all, so no wonder he escapes in shock and roams the countryside anonymously – until he ends up at a gospel church choir in Alabama with singer Toni Braxton’s single mom “Nina”. His worried female relatives contact the police, and he finally sends them a card just to let them know he’s alive. Starting to fall for “Nina”, he kisses her, but flees home, explaining his behavior to his mother: I couldn’t breathe without them. Mom: Baruch hashem, you’re back. He weeps over his wife’s headstone (dated 1979-2012), so presumably this is 11 months after her murder. Mom can tell he’s depressed: Where did you go Yaakov? Did you leave your heart there? You can tell me. Evidently he told her the whole story, and who he’s now in love with doesn’t bother him, but rather the timing: With Ruth barely cold!. . I shouldn’t have let it happen. . .Too soon. . .Not fair to Ruth or the children. Mom is surprisingly encouraging: It is not right for a man to have his heart in two places. He argues he has his work in Brooklyn.: It’s over. Mom quotes a rabbi who would doubtless object to know his words from A Narrow Bridge, a tribute to Chedva of Shemiras Ha-lashon, were being used to justify an interfaith relationship: Always be happy. He objects: There’s other ways to happiness than running away. Mom: Maybe that’s what you were doing when you came home. Just when the African-American family is about to leave to find him in Brooklyn, as they have just figured out he’s Jewish from some Hebrew scrawls he left behind, he shows up at their front door for a big hug and kiss finale in front of the church that fills the screen. (2/10/2013)

On Upstairs Downstairs (shown in the U.S. on PBS), the “The Love That Pays the Price” episode by series 2 creator Heidi Thomas, continued the story line of the German-Jewish refugee girl “Lotte” into Autumn 1938, who is now under the guardianship of the upstairs family, building up to the organization of the first Kindertransport (more commentary forthcoming). (10/17/2012)

In the 2nd season of Episodes (on Showtime), in “Episode Three” written by series creators David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik, the first explicitly Jewish woman was at least glimpsed around slimey studio executive “Merc Lapidus” (played by John Pankow) – his weeping mother at his father’s Jewish funeral. (9/8/2012)

In Amy Sherman-Palladino’s new small town California dance studio show Bunheads (ABC Family), writer/director Daniel Palladino stuck in a Jewish woman wisecrack in the “Blank up, It’s Time” episode. Amidst an Astaire/Rogers tribute rehearsal, short “Carl Cramer” (played by Casey J. Adler) in tuxedo asks his much taller blonde dance partner: Tonight you should come over to my house and watch “This Entertainment”. I’d loan it to you but it’s my mom’s and she’s not in to loaning. I’ll whip us up a lasagna for dinner. . . .From scratch. . .My grandmother taught me. How a lifelong Jew learned to make a killer lasagna I don’t know, but she taught me and it’s the best. But her BFFs make her reluctantly turn down the tempting request with a lame diet excuse.
In the episode “Channing Tatum is A Fine Actor”, written by Daniel Palladino, “Carl” insists that the girlfriend “Boo Jordan” (played by Kaitlyn Jenkins) meet his parents. But she gets unfortunate advice from her dance teacher, who obviously has never met a Jewish mother: Be whoever the parents want you to be, and say whatever you think they want you to say. “Boo” thought she was going to say “be yourself” but is hopeful: Good, because I don’t exactly know who I am. The ensuing dialogue at the “Hunan Garden” restaurant would be an offensive portrayal of an annoying Jewish mother if, well, “”Mrs. Cramer” didn’t sound more natural than a caricature, as played by Gilmore Girls aluma Alex Borstein. As his parents argue about ordering too little vs. having left-overs and the mother insists on more string beans, “Carl” whispers to “Boo”: It’s a Cramer family tradition. We never order enough food. . . Then we order too much. Mom addresses “Boo”: You’ll eat more food, right?. . Please call me Sweetie, everyone calls me Sweetie. . . Do you like pork? “Boo”: Yes! Mom, quickly: Ugh, because I do not. “Boo” just as quickly: Neither do I. Mom zings: So which is it-- you like pork or you don’t? The girl goes into a tortured cover-up explanation. “Carl” interrupts: Just order the pork, Mom. Dad speaks up: This is why the whole world hates us. Mom: Nobody hates us., and keeps ordering and arguing with her husband. Mom turns to the girl and motions around her own face: So what’s going on here? Are you Jewish? Girl stalls carefully: I could be. “Carl” interrupts quickly: She isn’t Jewish, Mom. Mom pursues: So what is this? I’m seeing a lot of Eastern Europe. Poland, maybe Hungary. The girl parries: Do you like eastern Europe? Mom muses: Depends on the era. (Or did she say area?) Carl tries to change the subject with an anecdote, but Mom interrupts: I do not need to hear this story again, and neither does your little girlfriend. Now I am here to get to know her, not you. So, Boo, does your famiy ski? To “Carl”s surprise she says yes. Mom: God I hate skiers. “Boo” quickly: I mean no. Mom even quicker: Really, because I was going to say that I hate them because they get to ski. I would love to ski but I never learned how. . . Maybe you could teach me. Mom and Dad get distracted over the string beans order. Mom: But Boo wanted those string beans, didn’t you Boo? “Carl” again tries to change the topic, to Boo’s dancing. Mom: Carl raves about your dancing. The girl is modest. But Mom sees a topic of conversation: Who’s your favorite ballerina? Carl tries to help with a list,but Mom waves him away: Is your name Boo? So, who do you like? Gelsey Kirkland? “Boo” quickly affirms. “Mom” stage whispers: Terrible cocaine problem. The girl switches to No. Mom hones in: No? She didn’t have a terrible cocaine problem? . . .She wrote a book, a whole book about snorting cocaine, about quitting cocaine. . .You’re a ballerina, surely you have a favorite? Who’s your favorite? But the girl had followed the teacher’s advice to set an alarm for relief at 90 minutes and jumps up saying she has to go to the bathroom. Mom is confused: You set an alarm to remind you to go to the bathroom? As the girl walks away, she listens in on the family’s continued conversation. Mom: What kind of person sets an alarm to tell her to go to the bathroom. “Carl”: Mom, will you back off? You’re making her nervous! Mom: Please, she showed up nervous. Carl, this girl -- she’s like a loaf of unbaked bread. “Carl”: Mom don’t do this! Mom: This one has no opinions. She’s skiis, she doesn’t. “Carl”: Stop! Mom: She’s from Poland, she’s not from Poland. “Carl”: She never said she was from Poland. And you don’t know her. But you better get to know her because she’s the one that I like. I could marry this girl. Mom: You talk about marrying this girl – you’re in high school! All of which panics “Boo” even more, and she later confronts “Carl” with an hysterical plan for their young married future, but “Carl” tamps her down: I didn’t mean it literally. My mother, I love her, but she yaps, and she doesn’t listen. The only way I can get her to shut up is to be ridiculously dramatic. “Boo”: So I’m not just a loaf of unbaked bread? “Carl”: No, you’re fully baked. And they kiss. So, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new perspective on The Eternal Appeal of the Shiksa: Compared to Mom, she’s not only blonde, she’s bland. (updated 1/16/2013)


In the premiere of the 8th, and final, season of Weeds (on Showtime), “Messy”, series creator Jenji Kohan finally dealt with a subject she’s avoided about ”Nancy Botwin” (Mary Louise Parker). As she lies in a coma from a gunshot, her family gathers in the hospital waiting room. Her older son “Silas” (Hunter Parrish): Will we bury her next to Dad? His Jewish uncle “Andy” (Justin Kirk): Can’t. He’s buried in a Jewish cemetery. “Nancy”s sister “Jill” (Jennifer Jason-Leigh): She took conversion classes before “Silas” was born. “Andy”: She never actually finished them, didn’t she? “Jill”: I don’t know. She took the classes. “Silas”: Mom eats cheeseburgers and shrimp. We’ve had Christmas trees every year. “Andy”: Like most Jews. Maybe she did convert. . .I can pull the plug for her. She did that for Bubbe. But she seemed to have forgotten what she learned in the episode “Threshold”, by Brendan Kelly, when she offered her new rabbi (younger) lover a lunch of ham and cheese. But he anyway invited her to Shabbos dinner with his “old, close friends”, two couples, both with presumably Jewish women, with one married to an African-American. One of the curly-haired, brunette wives, played by Meredith Scott Lynn, a bit coarsely feels out this new girlfriend on the benefits of pomegranate juice, then makes a joke about a new sushi place: Torah Sushi -- where half the selections are for people with faith, so chef’s choice, and half are for those who don’t have faith – with directions to the nearest McDonald’s. That drives “Nancy” into the kitchen, where she sees a photo on the fridge of the rabbi with his late wife. The jokester follows her in and apologizes: Did we come on too strong?. . .We just want to see Dave happy, and he seems happy lately. . That was taken at the seder two years ago. It’s only been 15 months. She listens in avidly from the dining room as “Nancy” still in the kitchen confesses her pot dealing to the rabbi and breaks up with him. “Nancy”s description of the break-up leads her brother-in-law to Google photos of his rabbinical school lover Yael Hoffman, from an earlier season, and repeating her first name over and over. In “God Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise” episode by Stephen Falk, he’s back in California ruminating about her: Yael of rabbinical school. Yael of sharp tongue and eyebrows like throwing blades at the Mossad. His nephew is disgusted: You came to bone her? His uncle: Back to her. But when he goes to the college she doesn’t recognize him, though she’s barely recognizable with long dyed blonde hair and bangs. The series finale “It’s Time – Part 1”, by Jenji Kohan, was set several years hence, when “Nancy” had married “Rabbi Bloom” and been widowed, again. He had adopted her son “Stevie” by the drug kingpin, so that as her extended family gathers for his bar mitzvah, he is described as “half-Mexican, half-Jewish”, but, in Part 1, there was no indication that she had converted, let alone there were no other Jewish girls or women around.
”Part 2”, by Kohan, finally fills in clarifications. “Stevie”, having just found out about his biological father, makes announcements in his bar mitzvah speech: David Bloom adopted me and I love him very much. . . My mother is Methodist. She converted for Dave, but seriously, once a Methodist, always a Methodist. The man I called ‘Dad” all my life was Jewish. I’m not Jewish. My brothers are half-Jewish. I’m not chosen. I don’t choose to be. . .I call bullshit on this whole show for family and friends to feel good about. I don’t know who I am. He declares that he rejects all religion, and an Asian girl sitting next to him on the bimah named “China” (played by Catherine Chan) speaks up that she, too, is adopted and therefore she’s not Jewish. Her lesbian mothers in the congregation call out: You are Jewish and we love you! “Nancy” explains to “Stevie” why she’s going ahead with the party: Technically, you are Jewish. You had a bris, you entered into the covenant. Andy insisted on it. If anyone is your real father, it’s him. Son: Just what I need is more fathers. . .Your history is very confusing to me. At least the family joins in for one last toke in the snow at the end. (updated 11/25/2012)


On The Mentalist (CBS), the “Devil’s Charry” episode by Daniel Cerone, had a murdered diamond cutter, so, of course, he was Jewish. His tearful daughter “Madeline Mendelssohn” (played by Charlene Amoia), who lived with him but was at her remote cabin in Big Sur for solitude on the night of his death, describes him: He was raised not to trust security services. His father was a German Jew. He survived the Holocaust. Banks stole the family money. So she’s just a freighted set-up to explain why he had the big diamond with him. (10/8/2012)

Happily Divorced (on TV Land) managed a second season for Fran Drescher’s sitcom à clef, but I didn’t want to spend the time watching what last year seemed like a dreadfully unfunny comedy no matter that here character “Fran Lovett”, along with family and friends, were explicitly identified as Jewish. (10/5/2014)

In The L.A. Complex (Canadian series showing/streaming in the U.S. as a summer show on The CW), the penultimate episode of the 2nd season, “Xs and Os”, written by Brendan Gall, the struggling comic “Nick” (played by Joe Dinicol) had a gig at a network executive’s party. But it turned out to be the bat mitzvah of the guy’s daughter, and he had to dress as a rabbit. As his hyper girlfriend jealously commented in a call: Great, there must be dozens of celebrity parents there, the party planner scolded him for talking on the phone in costume and trying to take the head off, and resorted to cliché: No, no no, Chuck never breaks character! Do you see that girl right there? Today is the most important day of her life. Today she leaves childhood behind and becomes a woman. . . You take the head off, you don’t get paid., when the comic protested (I didn’t take down his whole rant): If she’s a woman she knows there’s a man inside sweating. A magician advised him: See that clown? He’s on the way out. We’re the future – mitzvah wise. When the comic quickly cleaned up his act to perform next to a huge pink-framed photo of the bat mitzvah girl, the 12 year old girls cheered at his Justin Bieber and vampire references that substituted for his usual sex talk, and they called him back for a standing ovation encore. He was happily surprised to make $500, but was not happy to be invited into “the mitzvah circuit” as a “bunny comedian”. (9/30/2012)

American Horror Story: Asylum (on FX, out on DVD) found a new excuse for the sadism on excruciating display all this season in “I Am Anne Frank”, Part 1 episode written by Jessica Sharzer. Set in 1964, a woman, played by Franka Potente, who was unfortunately underused in the first season of Copper, explains why she’s been sent there in an involuntary psychiatric hold after her violent response to an anti-Semitic incident at a bar. She heard a guy say: ’Don’t let them Jew you down.’ I stabbed him with a beer bottle. They’ll live, but they will never forget. The crazy nun who runs the place (played by Jessica Lange) is unusually sympathetic, for her: I’m not unmoved to the atrocities your people suffered in the war. Did you lose people in the war? The patient just whistles (which could be a reference to the killer’s signature tune in Fritz Lang’s M but neither me nor my husband thought it sounds like "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt suite by Edvard Grieg). She’s next seen writing to “Kitty”, as in the diary: The walls are closing in. I can hardly breathe. It’s Amsterdam all over again. But there are eyes everywhere. The eyes of madness and disease. These people here are resigned to die here. We were never resigned. We always hung onto a shred of hope. She freaks out at seeing the sadistic “Dr. Arthur Arden” (played by James Cromwell) and identifies herself: You were there! Auschwitz! Nazi! Nazi swine! Don’t you remember me Doctor? I’m Anne. Anne Frank! The nun wryly confronts her: What a relief it will be to school children to know you survived. “Anne”: You think I’m crazy. Nun: Anne Frank died in Bergen Belsen in 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated. Anne: There were so many bodies when the Allies arrived, thousands buried in mass graves. But I wasn’t one of them. I was too sick to tell anyone my name, even if someone asked my name and no one asked. The Brits nursed us back to some semblance of health. Afterwards, I kept to the streets in Germany, a pickpocket, a thief. And then I met a soldier, Pvt. William Snow of Rutherford, NJ. He saved me. He brought me to America. . .I’m a widow. He was called back to service in Korea. He was killed there in 1952, the same year my diary was published in America. And I realized then that my father had survived the war. Nun: And you made no attempt to contact your father? “Anne”: I wanted to at first. But he had a new family, a new life. But because of the diary, people finally started to pay attention to us, what they had done to us. All because of a martyred 15-year-old. She had to stay 15 and a martyr. I could do more good dead than alive. Nun: Your story is indecent. “Anne”, whose monologue is illustrated with black-and-white flashbacks to the Auschwitz barracks: No, you’re indecent! You have a Nazi war criminal working here. . .He was Hans Gruber then. I saw him the night we arrived in Auschwitz. He seemed kind, gentle. He said he couldn't treat us all, so he'd flip a coin to decide who to take. I remember thinking they were lucky. But no one was lucky in Auschwitz. . . He would visit us regularly in the women’s barracks, bringing chocolates and sweets. When they came back, if they came back, they were changed. She shows the skeptical nun her number tattoo. (I’ve seen one poster claim the number is inaccurate.) After the cop who brought “Anne” to the asylum questions the doctor, the doctor attacks her: You don’t know you who are! Anne Frank – she died! Or didn’t you bother to read the book? Your lies have caused me a great deal of embarrassment. He insists he’s from Scottsdale, Az. But she pulls out a gun she had lifted from the cop and demands he confess: Are you going to do to me what you did to those girls at Auschwitz? Confess! She shoots him in one leg and threatens the other, until she gets the key to his locked door – behind which she finds the woman he’s been subjecting to hideous surgery.
I’m surprised that other commenters have found this episode offensive, though this is an endlessly over-the-top series anyway. Maybe non-Jews have turned Anne Frank into more of a sacrosanct icon than Jews with relatives who died in the Holocaust (I’m named for a great-uncle who died at Auschwitz) who can already personalize the six million. I had no interest in joining the l-o-n-g lines visiting her hiding place; I instead stood outside the apartment in Amsterdam where my friend’s mother and grandmother were successfully hidden, and the store of her uncle who was taken -- and did not live to return. At least AfterEllen’s Jeff Jensen added some useful references for the episode. Joan Rivers, in the version of her one-woman act shown on Showtime this year as Don’t Start With Me, even included an Anne Frank joke: I flew on Lufthansa Airlines. I opened the overhead and Anne Frank fell out: “I’m an orphan!” She wrote one book! There was no ending! When audience members reacted with discomfort, Rivers retorted, as she did throughout the show: Grow up! She continued on with Auschwitz jokes, particularly about the gift shop. However, Rivers was castigated by the Anti-Defamation League for making a comparable joke on the 2013 Oscars Special Edition of Fashion Police. Checking out what German-American supermodel Heidi Klum was wearing: “The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens.” But it’s not the first time the ADL has been shocked, shocked by how she pokes at the sacrosanct. Wilfred, a few months later in June (3rd season on FX in the U.S. adaptation of the Australian comedy), in the “Uncertainty” episode by Reed Agnew and Eli Jorné, continued mordantly making Anne Frank jokes, as the obnoxious dog (played by Jason Gann in both versions) claimed he was not a hallucination of his mentally ill neighbor, but a magic dog, a mythical being: I’m remembering certain things from my past. Yes, it’s 1945. There was a little girl, Anne, Anne Frank. . .Anne and her rules. No walks, no trips to the groomers. In the end, I just snapped. I just screamed at her – ‘Anne! I’m dying here! How come we never leave the house!’ Thank God those well-dressed German men heard my barking and broke into the attic. Those brave heroes rescued me. (updated 9/17/2013)

At the opening of “Part 2”, by Brad Falchuk, “Anne Frank” is holding a gun on the doctor: This man is a monster! You should see what he has in his office! . . .I’ve waited so many years for this! I can wait a few more minutes. But she’s grabbed, and is next seen in a straightjacket on a bed, still protesting about the doctor: He would have killed me! Gruber – I told you! I hope he dies! A man comes in identifying her as his wife “Charlotte Brown” – but her maiden name was “Cohen” (though her real Jewish identity is never referred to again in the episode as adding to her identification with Frank). He explains that she was always “high-strung”, that after they saw the play in Boston when she was pregnant, she read the book, went to the library, and read up about Auschwitz, but it got worse after their baby was born: She went on about babies who were gassed and tortured. There’s flashbacks to her room full of clippings and research, where she ignores her crying son “David”: He’s not the one who needs me! The shrink stops by, who we find out later in the episode is a serial killer, and immediately diagnoses “post partum psychosis”. Her husband notes: She’s a very emotional person. In the asylum, she rejects him and goes on about Gruber, but she has a visceral reaction to a family photo with him and the baby, and agrees to return home. But next she’s being dragged back screaming as the perplexed husband pleads: Charlotte’s not normal. She’s worse. You have to take her. I can’t handle her. She’s locked in a padded room and into the treatment of the evil doctor who gets her husband to agree to a lobotomy. (PBS’s American Experience episode on ”The Lobotomist” sadly shows this was a realistic element in this episode.) She’s next seen as a perfect Stepford wife and mother: I have never been happier., while her husband throws out her Holocaust research, and the camera closes in on a photograph of a Nazi who looks like a younger version of the doctor.
The Nazi doctor had a gruesome memory of a Jewish woman inmate to taunt the demonically possessed nun in the “Unholy Night” episode by James Wong, oddly playing on the legends of Jews hiding jewels in the camps rather than the truth of stolen gold fillings. He presents “Sister Mary Eunice” (played by Lily Rabe) with a Christmas present of improbably big ruby chandelier style earrings and explains their awful provenance as she admires them and preens in a mirror: They belonged to a Jewess in the camp. She was always reminding people that she was a woman of considerable means and that her husband was an influential and wealthy doctor in Berlin. She was always complaining to me about her stomach problems and as a doctor I thought I should do something about it. I followed her one day, thinking I might dignose her condition and take a stool sample. She was on her hands and knees picking through her own feces to retrieve those earrings. She confessed to me that she swallowed them every day, day after day, carrying them around inside her as if she might return to her former grandeur. Ridiculous woman. She died from internal bleeding. The earrings were very hard on her intestines. Obviously, I retrieved them. I knew that some day I would meet someone who was worthy of their exceptional beauty. The smiling nun: You were very clever to retrieve them. Look how beautiful they are on me. They bring out the rose in my cheeks!. The doctor: I so dearly hoped you’d throw them back in my face, that you couldn’t stand to touch those shit-stained earrings. I was hoping there’d be a glimmer of horror. (updated 12/15/2012)


In Covert Affairs (on USA, available on DVD) “This Is Not America” episode by Julia Ruchman, the secret agent went to Israel – but she only encountered a faux Jewish woman, an Iranian agent with long curly, dark hair going by the name “Ilana Ben Ashkol” (played by Sarah Podemski), who convinced American scientist “Isaac Reiss” he “found love” and he even wants to learn how to say sweetheart in Hebrew for her: We met at a farmers’ market, buying organic pomegranates. She’s a scientist, too. She’s the first person I’ve been with who understands what I do. Meanwhile, the returning Mossad agent “Eyal Lavine” (played by Oded Fehr), returning in the 3rd season watches from afar his son, to whom he years ago gave up custody to his ex-wife.
”Eyal” saved “Agent Annie Walker” from a Russian prison in the “Rock 'n' Roll Suicide”, setting up their relationship in the next “Wishful Beginnings” episode, also by Julia Ruchman. He walks into CIA Headquarters at Langley with a character rarely seen on TV – a mature female Mossad boss, “Rivka Singer”, played by Tovah Feldshuh, in her full Golda’s Balcony mode (the William Gibson play she toured extensively). She’s a tough negotiator with her female CIA counterpart over sharing intelligence about a compromised informant against the Saudis, is sarcastic about their following laws - American rules – so baffling!-- and thinks “Agent Annie Walker” is reckless, though her subordinate “Eyal” defends her. (Nice touch to have the two Mossad agents speak Hebrew together when they’re alone.) “Rivka” teases if he's sleeping with her. He says no, but she smirks: Why not? It might speed things along. After he protectively sets up “Annie” in his own D.C. apartment, he joins “Rivka” in her car to hand over the intel “Annie” gave him against her boss’s instructions: So, you are the right man for this job., and gets him to agree to the next steps in her plan, but he lies to her about where “Annie” is staying.
”Rivka” was back in “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)”, by Tamara Becher, admitting that the CIA had proven intel she had passed on to them was faked: I’m afraid I owe you an apology on behalf of me and my agency. . . .We were not the only ones who were duped. She confesses that the agency has a “black eye” – that “Eyal” has gone rogue, which he admits to “Annie” and tells her about a woman in Amsterdam he turned into an asset (and fell for) who was discovered and killed. But at the end of the episode, he reports back to “Rivka”, who slips in and out of Hebrew with him: You had a role to play here, for Mossad and Eretz Israel. But he’s distraught at losing “Annie”s trust. “Rivka” promises him a desk job in Tel Aviv, but he quits. “Rivka”: What is happening here is much larger than you know. We’ve all had to play our parts. We’ve all had to pay the price. “Eyal” is bitter: What you lost in this grandiose scheme? “Rivka”: You. He walks out. (updated 11/12/2012)


In the 2nd U.S. season of Strike Back (on Cinemax, out on DVD), in Episodes 15 and 16 written by Richard Zajdlic, a very sexy assassin turns out to be a Mossad agent ”Rebecca Levy”. (While she makes no explicitly Jewish reference, she does comment about being Israeli, so I figure she’s not a putative Jewish woman.) The 2006 source book by Chris Ryan was set in Lebanon rather than the “prequel” storyline in Iraq. “Rebecca” (played by tall, dark, and beautiful Belgian actress Lyn Renée) is first seen as a flight attendant at the Cape Town Airport trailing a retired nuclear scientist. She flirts her way past Section 20 agent “Sgt. Damien Scott” (Aussie Sullivan Stapleton playing an American working for the Brits) into the closed circuit security TV center with a sly I’m going to see my boyfriend., murders the security guard, and gives efficient directions to her team. She’s next seen in a package delivery disguise, point blank shoots another old nuclear scientist living on a fancy estate, and strides past the dead body of his security guard. She does look thoughtfully pensive as a colleague drives their getaway car. Meanwhile, the British intelligence service has identified an explosive used against Section 20 in the chase as an Israeli weapon previously deployed against an Iranian nuclear scientist. It’s explained that Israel helped South Africa develop their nuclear program in the 1980’s, and have since “made sure they do nothing against them”. “Rebecca” next appears chatting up “Scott” at a bar as if he had been a passenger on her plane. Next they’re having brutal sex, with she on top strangling him and he squeezing her breasts hard. He protests the condom broke (with his regular couplings even in the most dangerous situations around the world, I don’t recall he ever stopped for a condom before, and maybe this will come back to haunt him later in the series), and she purrs: I want you to come in me. As she dresses, he turns coy: Was that even sex? I’ve had easier cage fights than that. She mocks: Men never admit about physical fighting with each other – how intimate it is. He: You know, you fuck like I used to. She: How’s that? He: Like you stopped believing. Later at the safe house, the scientist notes that that the Israelis had insisted everything be destroyed, but then the house immediately comes under attack. Next we see “Rebecca” shooting a machine gun at “Scott”s car. They point guns at each other and he mutters: Fuckin’ bitch. She doesn’t shoot him - - because she had placed a tracker on him. He finally figures that out and jumps into a water tank to disable it. At the cliff hanger, they’re again pointing guns at each other. At the next episode, she backs off: You’re not my target. He turns uncharacteristically insightful: I know what you’re doing. I was trained to do the same thing. You depersonalize at all times, that they’re not real people. But he’s here to save his family, not threaten Israel., in reference to the scientist. She: What do you know? He: I know you don’t have to kill him, just rescue some hostages. She: No. He: It might help you sleep better at night. She: I sleep fine. But she next appears at his apartment door at night. He: Trouble sleeping? She talks about the case. He: So what are you doing here? They make love, with missionary position counting as more romantic than his usual rigorous doggy style quickies in this premium cable display of female nudity and male behinds. He even kisses her afterwards, and, whoa, they spoon. She: You still think I’m only using you? He: I don’t care if you are. . . They discuss the case and who she’ll be assigned to target. She: Maybe they will. There’s always one more person to kill. He: You could just walk away, disappear. They can’t hand you the next file if they can’t find you. She: Did you ever put your gun in your own mouth? He: That’s the day you should quit. She: It’s our mess. We helped build those weapons. He: Walk away. She: To where? He: Promise you’ll try. Shocker – they cuddle! Back at headquarters, his female boss shows surveillance photos of the two together. He: You missed the ones of us fucking. Boss explicitly warns: She’s Mossad. She’s an assassin. He: Yeah, and she wants to quit. Just as the Section 20 agents secure the scientist and his family, she shoots him, and “Scott” instinctively shoots at her. He reaches out to her bloody body: What the fuck did you do that for? She: This is my way out. I needed you to kill me. He: You’re not going to die from these wounds. You’ve got your out. Promise me. Hold on tight. You’re going to get out. She: I promise. (Very operatic.) Later, his boss reports not finding her: She’s a ghost. In the following episode, by John Simposon, the blonde CIA agent he’s been banging is jealous :I heard about the Mossad agent – Rebecca Levy. . .Is it true you couldn’t kill her? He: Not I couldn’t, I wouldn’t. She sneers: Redemption in a bullet? He: She was looking for a way out. (updated 8/7/2013)

In Major Crimes (on TNT, available on DVD), the re-boot continuation of The Closer, which never had any Jewish women in its Los Angeles, “The Ecstasy and the Agony” episode, by Adam Belanoff, had an exaggerated Beverly Hills-type Israeli mob wife. “Roma Strauss” (played by Necar Zadegan) wore a Jewish star as she shrieked about her Israeli-born, American-naturalized husband being gunned down at her front door, who was about to go into witness protection for ratting out his close cousin/business partner in importing ecstasy and laundering money through B-movie productions: They wanted to send us to Oklahoma. To Tulsa! As if anyone would believe we are the McDougalls! FBI agent: Ma’am, that was just one option. In her interrogations, she answers every question with a resentful question, such as: You think you have to know everything? She yells at the cousin: Don’t threaten me! I know things! Why would I murder Elon when you were going to do it for me?. . .Want to know what we were planning? Divorce! She nags her 14-year-old son “Avi”: So it would kill you to have a glass of water?. . .That’s enough water!. . .Don’t worry, I’m going to get you a better dad. It turns out she told everything to her life coach, who turned it into a movie treatment: He gave me a reason to get up in the morning. He’s helping me find myself. Neither of us wants to be in Tulsa. She’s more upset that her “intuitive life strategist” was sleeping with the other Israeli mob wives too: Some of them were fairly attractive, and they were paying me. (The delicious irony was intended that he was played by Michael Weatherly, whose law enforcement character on NCIS has considerable “shipper” tension with an Israeli agent.) When her son confesses to the murder because he, too, didn’t want to move to Tulsa, the cops offer her a plea deal for her information so he’ll be treated as a juvenile: He was protecting his mother. You can’t blame a son for doing that, can you? (9/5/2012)

In the 2nd season Alphas (on SyFy) “Gaslight” episode, written by Terri Hughes Burton and Ron Milbauer, “Anna Levy” (played by Liane Balaban), the autistic, or whatever, leader of last season’s Red Flag rebellion of People With Special Abilities, came back as an apparition, after a surprisingly specific Jewish headstone unveiling at her grave. Though I don’t recall her having a Jewish identity, the year-later memorial was a convenient story-line. Her somewhat more talkative autistic, government agent boyfriend “Gary” interrupts the rabbi to talk about her: She’s not with us. She doesn’t live on – that’s the problem! Why does he get to talk? He’s lying! Anna wasn’t peaceful – she was a rebel! Now she’s a dead rebel. . . I didn’t get any catharsis. . .Where do I put my stone? When she appears to him, through another Alpha’s electromagnetic Special Ability, they can now talk to each other: You’re not real, but I like seeing you. The doctor gets him to give her up to save another’s life, and she kisses him goodbye. But he found another way to honor Anna, as he Tweets The revolt is coming. “@Annalives”, which SyFy is using for their social media promotions of the series. (8/25/2012)

In the second season opener of the New York-set Suits (on USA, summers), “She Knows”, written by series creator Aaron Korsh, the whole law firm turns out for the Jewish funeral of “Alicia Hardman” the wife, dead of breast cancer, of senior partner “Daniel” (David Costabile). When his competitor in the firm had found out he was taking money from client escrow accounts, he had taken time off over the last five years ostensibly to care for her, though later in the season an affair is revealed. He’s pleased that he also used the time get to know better his daughter “Sarah” (played by Natalie Krill). He’s proud she just graduated high school and is on her way to Harvard. The competing partner’s ally pays a shiva call, not that it’s called that but he does bring food) and finds “Sarah” grief-stricken. He threatens her father with exposure to his daughter in order not to get him to return to the firm. But he’s outfoxed when the father not only confesses to the staff about the funds he “borrowed” but tells the negotiator I told my daughter everything. In the “Asterisk” episode, written by Justin Peacock, “Louis Litt” (played by Rick Hoffman) says he’ll first tell his rabbi about his promotion in the law firm, then he’s skyping with his kvetchy parents. Mom: Partner? Senior partner? It all sounds the same to me. . . .Louie, I don’t want to die before I see my grandchildren. He protests that his sister “Esther” has children, but his father challenges that they’re not “Litts”. Mom perks up at an interruption: Is that Harvey Spector? It’s about time I met your best friend. . . and “Louis” quickly closes his lap top to cover up his lie about this relationship to her. (updated 9/15/2012)

Inside Amy Schumer (out on DVD) Comedy Central promoted her new sketch series in advance with Amy Schumer: Mostly Sex Stuff, a filmed, bleeped version of her stand-up routine. The comedienne makes one comment to establish her ethnic identity when she runs through a bit about how long it takes women to get ready for a night out compared to men as she holds out her straight blonde hair: This Jew-denial took like 50 minutes. Her sister Kim Caramele, who Schumer frequently cites as the funniest person she knows, is also a writer on the show, and co-executive producer and head writer is Jewish comedienne Jessi Klein In the first episode, “Bad Decisions”, she starts what will become a regular feature of man-on-the-street interviews, in what looks like NYC, and asks a black man his ethnicity. She’s a bit surprised when he answers: “West African.”and even more when he rejoins: “What’s yours?”She: “I’m kind of a Jew.” He: “I’m Muslim.”She: “As-salam alaykum.” In the “Gang Bang” episode, she’s at a bridal shower where the diverse women are competitively gifting dildoes, claiming increasingly outlandish benefits of each. Amy adds her distinctive spin: Mine also functions as a mezuzah, for when you and Josh get a place. Oh, a mezuzah's just what Jewish people hang outside their door to feel safe. . .I'm your best friend and I just want you to know that I care about your vagina more than I care about my own and that's like the most possible you can care, if that makes sense.
In “A Porn Star Is Born”, she interviewed a woman plastic surgeon, who I can’t identify (another indication that her series was playing under the radar at this time). The doctor starts explaining labiaplasty, popular in Los Angeles, as a procedure on the labia minora, but Schumer interrupts: “I’m Jewish.” The doctor is nonplussed: “What has that got to do with it?” Schumer: “I thought you said menorah.” (Further commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming since the DVR ate them.)
In It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s September 2013 satire of her act, in “The Gang Broke Dee”, written by Charlie Day, Glenn Hoverton & Rob McElhenery, made only scatological references, not Jewish.
Interviewer Julie Seabaugh in “Variety’s 2014 Breakthrough in Comedy Winner: Amy Schumer”, posted 1/6/2014, just barely avoids saying she “doesn’t look Jewish” much less frankly than Schumer does in her act: “Bookers and producers quickly took notice of her long, blonde hair and all-American look. Schumer is forthright about the circumstances of her early breaks. ‘I was funny enough,’ she says in hindsight. ‘But I was probably marketable, and I was given opportunities that forced me to get stronger (as a comic).’”
Promotionally playing “Not My Job” on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, on 4/5/2014, she made an incorrect presumption when told the quiz questions would be about the baseball team House of David: “I’m half-Jewish, so I’m half-confident.” (updated 5/13/2015)


Annie Edison in the 4th Season of Community (on NBC) The new showrunner for the last season, who took over from the series’ creator, conveniently remembered she’s Jewish in the 4th episode “Alternative Version of the German Invasion”, written by Ben Wexler. The study group is in the midst of a historically pun-filled conflict for space with the German students (who lost their foosball scholarship), and have captured the study room. Another nemesis, senior citizen “Leonard” (played by Richard Erdman accuses them: You’re like those guys on “Hogan’s Heroes” - Nazis! “Annie” challenges: You take that back! Then looks around and whispers: I’m Jewish. “Shirley Bennett” (played by African-American actress Yvette Nicole Brown): Don’t call us that! He cites: You’re wearing SS T-shirts! They are shocked that their promotional T-shirts for her business “Shirley’s Subs” with “SS” on the sleeves supports his contention. Later they figure the whole situation was really a lesson their new history teacher (played by Malcolm McDowell) set them up to learn (which it wasn’t). But they decide to give reparations by cleaning up the study room.
”Intro to Knots”, written by Andy Bobrow, is one of the few “Annie”-centric episodes, treating satirically aspects of her personality that are usually portrayed more negatively as Jewish characteristic. She enthusiastically takes over at “Jeff”s apartment: Our group's first grown-up Christmas party! Thanks for hosting. I hope you don't mind. I brought a few things just to make the place look a little less short-term corporate housing. She pulls out curtains, pillows and other decorations, while “Jeff” is sarcastic: Oh, well, mi casa es su art project. . . Do we have to have another talk about you wanting to play house with me? She: Sha-Sha-na-not. I'm just decorating for a party. . . Oh, I saw these curtains, and I couldn't resist. Let's just live with them for a night. We can totally return them. “Jeff” sarcastically: Oh, let's totally return them. Bubbling, she pulls out gifts over “Jeff”s vociferous objections to “obligations” - I know we said no gifts, but I couldn’t resist! -- which becomes a running joke for each. “Shirley” notices immediately: Oh, Annie, I love what you did with the place. “Annie” modestly: It’s a work in progress. She makes an announcement: I have some good news and some bad news. . . It's about our history paper. I heard through back channels we got a failing grade. They are all upset and debate how to get a C minus. I haven't told you the good news. I invited the Professor to our party tonight. . . Who knows? Maybe even an A. (That’s “Professor Cornwallis” played by Malcolm McDowell in full arrogant Brit parody mode.) But the whole group turns on her when the Professor reveals they did get a C minus and insists that’s not failing. She defends: To me, it is. I'm on a valedictorian track, and a "c-minus" means I fail to get valedictorian. “Jeff”: You ruined our Christmas dinner so you could be crowned the smartest person at the dumbest school? He goes on to insult the prof, who promptly changes their grade. “Annie”: You're "F" -ing us? The professor offers a deal to make them turn on each other for the sake of an upgrade: Let's hear it from the one person who needs that "a" the most and can't possibly abide by an "f," the one person on pace to become class Valedictorian. “Annie”: I would never turn against the group! The prof trumps her: I'm not talking about you, miss Edison. “Annie” horrified: Oh, my God, Shirley! Why didn't you ever tell me about it? “Shirley” tartly: I didn't think it was a competition. “Annie”: Oh, of course you'd play it that way so I wouldn't be expecting-- “Shirley” hits the nail on a competing stereotype: A church-going mother of three to be smart, huh? The prof taunts: So, Miss Edison, it's decision time, isn't it? . . .You know you can't make valedictorian with an "F," and you can eliminate your competition in one easy step. What else do you have to lose, my dear? I mean, these people, they're not here to support you. I mean, they already hate you for this disaster of a party. They find out that “Jeff” was the culprit: You cost me valedictorian! They negotiate for a “C”. “Annie” celebrates Christmas as they all open the presents she suggested they bring: Stupid, a gift doesn't create an obligation. It's the obligation that's a gift. But then “Abed” imagines their lives in a “dark time line”, where “Annie” is “Hannibel Lecter”-looking criminal, being defended by her lawyer “Jeff”: My client Miss Edison did rob several drug stores, and, yes, she did stab several pharmacists, but let's talk about the bigger crime, that someone so beautiful has been removed from society! Judge: Miss Edison, you are hereby released from Greendale Insane Asylum. “Annie” shakes off her straight jacket and leaps into “Jeff”s arms: Are you sure you don't have a problem with our age difference? “Jeff” grins: Yeah, I wish you were even younger. Now, come on, the others are waiting. We've got a prime timeline to destroy! (updated 11/1/2014)


Deborah Gorn in the 1st season of Ripper Street (seen in the U.S. on BBC America) was introduced in the 2nd episode, “In My Protection”, by Richard Warlow. In 1889 London, an escaped, “Fagin”-led urchin falsely convicted of murder is identified as a “Christ-killer” who was “cut”, so “Det. Insp. Edmund Reid” (played by Matthew Macfadyen) tracks him down to “The Jewish Orphanage” run by “Deborah Goren” (played by Lucy Cohu, with flowing, brunette locks). Under the decorations of a large Jewish star and menorah, she’s not only caring and maternal to her charges, particularly the fugitive, but is feisty – she saves the Detective’s life when the killer is strangling him with a well-placed and timed blow to his head. She’s contrasted to the Detective’s cold wife who has retreated into strict Christianity and her church after the death of their daughter.
She re-appeared a couple of episodes later in “For The Good of This City”, written by Julie Rutterford & Richard Warlow, pleased to see the detective return: We are friends now. But he’s there for business – bringing her 2 children of a traumatized witness to a murder: It’s men who are the ruin of this family. She, ruefully: This family – and many like them. He: My wife would say the same. She’s regretful he brings up his wife, as she lingers over his handshake. Later that night, she’s attacked and the children stolen. He’s apologetic: All I bring you is violence and stress., but her concern is only for the kids. She’s also a bit disappointed to hand the recovered kids over to his wife at the Christian charity she runs.
In “Tournament of Shadows”, by Toby Finlay, she and Russian Jews in London are unusually portrayed not as helpless victims of pogroms, but as intellectuals and political refugees. “Deborah” comes to the Inspector to claim the body of the brother of the man she fled Kiev with, who the London police believe was an anarchist fomenting labor strife during a strike: The man I know was no bombmaker. . .I’ve seen enough of Russian soldiers to last me a lifetime. . .Why do you imagine so many have fled Russia?, and she fervently tells the Inspector about her belief in the dignity of the working man. When the police repress the strikers in a complicated scheme, she lets him know which side she is on: If this is civilization, count me curious to witness barbarism.. She strongly defends the dead man and challenges the inspector: He was unafraid to pursue the truth! When the police drive us from our homes, when they tortured with impunity, Joshua saved me! We come here because we thought we would be safe! Get out! Out! She pushes him against the wall, but that reveals scars on his neck, and he pours out the truth about the ship accident that sank his daughter, with his secret belief that somehow she’s still alive –and he kisses “Deborah” big time, and she responds, too. But they are interrupted by his shocked Sergeant with one of her orphans. He guiltily goes home to his wife to plead for her attention from her Christian activities: I need you! Before your shelter and your church! But not only does the wife walk out, she’s no longer wearing mourning weeds and is determined to clean out their daughter’s room.
In the season finale, “What Use Our Work” written by Richard Warlow, the Inspector turns to her for consolation after the death of a young police officer on his case. Incongruously, naked in bed together she speaks fervently of moral principles. With the scars from his ship accident visible as she holds him, she admonishes him about his thoughts that his daughter is still alive: The secret dream you have now that takes life. It’s not for you to share with me. Your daughter had a mother. I can not be the sounding board for your guilt. You seek forgiveness. I hope that your life will return to what it once was. I cannot provide these things to you. Please, you should go home. Even more incongruously, at the conclusion, he brings for her care the rescued orphan he’d hoped was his daughter – accompanied by his wife. updated 3/10/2013)


Felicity Smoak in the 1st season of Arrow (on CW, out on DVD) , in “Year’s End” episode, story by Greg Berlanti & Marc Guggenheim and teleplay by Andrew Kreisberg & Guggenheim, “Oliver Queen”s indispensable, shy, socially awkward, bespectacled IT employee/crack web searcher “Felicity Smoak” (played by attractive Emily Bett Rickards) surprisingly reacts I’m Jewish. when he wishes her “Merry Christmas”, so he quickly responds with “Happy Hanukkah”. The original DC Comic character in Green Arrow, from the “Firestorm” series, is a businesswoman who manages a computer software company, but I don’t see any fan documentation that she’s Jewish, which is particularly ironic in that the DC Comics universe, and its ilk, were largely created in the 1940’s by Jews and she may be unique adaptation tribute.
In “Trust but Verify”, written by Gabrielle Stanton, he induces her help to break a computer code with a fake story of a scavenger hunt for bottles of rare Lafite-Rothschild wine. When she uncovers the real robbery plans, she ruefully realizes: So no wine, then.
Too bad there was no sense of her Jewish identity as she got a bigger role. In “The Odyssey”, story by Greg Berlanti & Andrew Kreisberg and teleplay by Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim, “Oliver Queen” trust her enough to collapse on her door, letting her in on his secret identity so she can save his life. She admits she was suspicious about the research he had asked her to do, like checking out a bullet-ridden laptop: I may be blonde, but I’m not that blonde. She figures out how to fix the defibrillator paddles: I’ve been building computers since I was seven. Wires are wires. “Oliver”: Does that mean you’re in?. . .You’re practically an honorary member of the team. . . .Then why did you update my system? “Felicity” who had helped him further by hacking his blood sample out of the crime lab’s computers, noted Your system was from the ‘80’s, and not the good part of the ‘80’s, like Madonna and legwarmers. . .I’ll help you rescue [your stepfather]. He was nice to me. Then I’ll go back to my boring work as an IT Girl. And is there a bathroom because I’ve had to pee since I got here. (Further commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming.) (updated 10/28/2014)


Shoshanna Shapiro in the 2nd season of Girls (on HBO, out on DVD) In David Rensin’s interview with Lena Dunham, 3/14/2013, in Playboy: “One of the louder criticisms of Girls is that it takes place in a narrow world of young, urban, middle-class white women and is thus not suitably diverse and representative of your generation. Dunham: I think that’s a valid criticism, but we can’t let that erase someone’s ability to tell a personal story. While being racist and promoting inequality are crimes that should be punished, the sin of writing two Jewish girl characters and two Waspy characters feels less egregious to me. I’ve tried to be elegant about it and receive the criticism, and I understand what’s hard about it. At the same time I’m like, Really?”
In a pre-season interview on Charlie Rose, 1/11/2013, creator Lena Dunham corrects his description of the main characters as “two WASPs and two Jews”: “Well, I play a half-Jew. I’m a half-Jew in real life so I decided that on the show I would represent the bi-religious. But ‘Shoshanna Shapiro’ is full Jew. She was initially supposed to be the kind of character who bopped in to illuminate the difference between the Sex and the City New York and our New York, and then popped off to drink another Cosmo. She was not supposed to be a recurring character, but Zosia played her so beautifully that she became one. She’s a bit younger than the other girls, she’s a bit more innocent, she’s more outwardly ambitious. She’s fun to write because she talks so fast.”
”In Praise of the Sane TV Heroine” by Erin Coulehan, 3/14/2013 in Slate: “Shoshanna entered this season freshly de-virginized but was neither clingy or blasé about the experience. Throughout the season, she’s been the girl with the most guts and the most wit: It’s not easy to live with an over-30 and under-employed boyfriend while also putting up a friend in need, going to classes, and figuring out those funky hairstyles. But her character is equal parts compassionate and assertive, and that’s not crazy at all.”
In anticipation of the 2nd season, a profile of “Zosia Mamet Is Still Getting Used to Being Your New Best Friend” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner in The New York Times, posted 1/2/2013, mentioned the actress’s sense of identity, but not her character’s (though comparisons were the theme of the article): In “Los Angeles, where she went to an Episcopal school — just because it was a good school, not for religious reasons; neither of her parents is Episcopalian, and she identifies as Jewish, like her father. ‘The only WASPy part of me is that I like gin. . .Oh, and I ride horses.’”
So while the first episode of the season, “It’s About Time”, by Dunham and Jennj Konner, doesn’t specifically give “Shoshanna” a Jewish reference, the positives about her characteristics as a Jewish woman outweigh the negatives, unlike most shows that are more grudging. She is first seen performing a spiritual cleansing ritual in her room, including the incantation: I thank the higher powers for all of the gifts that I have already received, like a keen mathematical mind and relatively fast-growing hair. She holds her head up high (with an adorably old-fashioned hat) when she comes to a party where she’s nervous that “Ray” will also be attending: I may be deflowered, but I am not devalued., though her then quoting Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” song from 1971 seemed age inappropriate. “Ray” corners her as she’s searching for her purse, rueful that: My computer tells me you’ve unfriended me on FaceBook. She: I didn’t feel like seeing you in my feed every morning. He: When I’m not around you, when you just send me a text of emojis, it’s so easy to dismiss you. She’s indignantly defensive: What’s wrong with emojis? He: A panda next to a gun next to a wrapped gift? It makes no sense! She, very fast: You weren’t very nice. You hurt me. OK, you hurt my feelings. But I can deal with it because I have my girl pants on. . . You don’t want to date me? That’s fine, because I don’t want to date you either, because I only want to date people who want to date me because that is called self-respect. But I do not have to like you, OK? You were never my friend, you were only my lover, and that is now over.. . .You rejected me and you are now insulting me so you do not get to have me like you now. He: Let me finish. When I’m around you, I remember, OK. I remember your charm, your innocence, your strength, this beautiful, fresh, vibrant sincerity. I wish Rachel on Glee will talk back like this at her age: I’m really tired of being insulted, even when it comes before a compliment, so I’m going to leave. And he grabs her for a big, romantic kiss.
In “It’s A Shame About Ray”, written by Dunham, “Shoshanna” starts out as flustered and embarrassed when she and “Ray” arrive late to “Hannah”s dinner party, until he, more than a bit smugly, announces: We're all adults, you can tell them we had sex. That's why we're late, because we had sex. She’s perturbed when the discussion turns to butt plugs, and she insecurely asks him: Do you want that? But she shifts from naïve to a growing realization about their relationship when living arrangements are discussed: He stays with me a lot – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and the weekend – Oh My God! Do you live with me? Where do you live when you’re not living in my house seven days a week?. . .If I had been informed of this fact. . . I could have bought some new sheets, or called my aunt!. . . I’m not okay, but we can talk about it when we get back to our shared home. She is still fuming about proprieties as they wait for the subway: You're older than me, you should have your own place. You can’t pay for anything. “Ray” is embarrassed at being called out by her, with the loveliest declaration to a young Jewish woman on TV (though fan sites have only posted the deprecating comments about himself): Just say it. I'm a huge fucking loser. You don't think I wasn’t counting down the days until you figured it out? Maybe I wasn’t that excited to tell my beautiful, smart, 21-year-old girlfriend that I’m a 35-year-old homeless guy whose one valuable possession . . .I’m a fucking loser in a lot of ways. What makes me worth dating? What makes me worth fucking anything? She: That I’m falling in love with you. He: It’s way too early to say something like that. As the subway rumbles into the station, she: I’m sorry. He: I love you so fucking much. Dunham’s commentary after the episode was quite revealing: “Shoshanna in many ways to me is the voice of wisdom in the show. She has a real moral content with real ability to be sort of intuitive about other people’s feelings that the other girls totally lack. That’s one of the reasons she can fall in love with “Ray”, whose kind of a complicated person. He’s a real curmudgeon, but she’s really coming to care about him.” Talking about the two characters telling each other they love each other for the first time, she admired what the actors brought to the subway scene: “It could have been really cartoony but you could really feel that these two people had a magnetic pull and it was really lovely to watch. . .We spent a lot of time waiting for the subway, but it was worth it. I was crying as much as The English Patient.”
”Boys”, written by Murray Miller (and directed by early feminist filmmaker Claudia Weill), illustrated the current image of pushy Jewish women on TV, as being more ambitious for their non-Jewish boyfriends than they are, in addition to more complicated, braided hair-do’s. “Shoshanna” wants “Ray” to take an entrepreneurship semimar at the Learning Annex that includes a lecture by Donald Trump: The $139 fee seems like a lot, but its totally a bargain consider they teach you how to be a millionaire. . .Yeah, obviously there’s a lot of bad stuff there, like he totally shouldn’t have hired his daughter Ivanka as a judge on “The Apprentice”. . . It says here that it gives people the tolls they need to be happy every single day of their lives! “Ray” rolls his eyes while he mops the floor of Grumpy’s: Why would I want that? She: Don’t you want to own your own coffee shop one day? He: No. But he does want to get back a present from his godmother (I thought he said grandmother, and I’ve seen recaps that think he said his aunt), a personally annotated copy of Little Women: How exactly does she think Little Women relates to your shit? Like does she think you're a Marmie or an Amy?, and vigorously nods at “Hannah”s acerbic comment that he’s more like the flu-killed off father. So she’s firm that he should get his book back from “Adam”: It’s like really your duty as a man to go. In contrast, she’s impressed by “Hannah”s e-book deal: It’s so adult and intriguing! She’s also impressed that “Marnie” is dressing up for a party she’s hosting with her boss (who she is now sleeping with): OMyG You're like Bella Swan from Twilight, and I'm like her weird friend who doesn't understand how fabulous her life is because her boyfriend won't spend, like, $4 on tacos. Who goes to get tacos on a date?. . There should be like a mood for dating. It’s a huge deal. He must totally like you. Can I come? “Shoshanna” is also a subject of discussion between “Ray” and “Adam” as they venture together into the real world of Staten Island. “Ray” appreciates “Adam”s laugh at a guy joke, though the conversation takes a surprising turn: If I made a joke that to Shoshanna, she would just stare at me and give me that slow blink. . . [It’s going] good. Considering that she knows I haven’t done more with my life, considering my age. But how do you tell someone so young that things don’t always turn out the way you think they will? Maybe it’s weird I’m dating someone so young. “Adam” is supportive, and they discuss sex with young vs. older women, until “Ray” points out: Shoshanna is the longest relationship I’ve ever had. “Adam”: You guys have been together like a week -how is that possible? Aren’t you like 40! “Ray”, very defensively: I’m 33, and that’s hurtful. And we’ve been together 4 weeks, 7 weeks since the first time we made love. I took her virginity. It’s a big deal. I kind of feel like her fucking father now. “Adam” later really unloads on “Ray” after he criticizes “Hannah”: You don’t know shit about love! . . .What are you doing with Shoshanna is not real! She’s just some kid you feel safe with because you know it won’t work out! You’re just babies holding hands! She clearly doesn’t like you! Combined with a verbal lashing from a trash-talking local (who misattributes him as “a kike” – does anyone even use that slur anymore, even on Staten Island?), “Ray” ends up weeping. (more commentary on the season coming) (updated 8/7/2013)


Sarah’s 1st season on House of Lies (on Showtime) About halfway through the 2nd season, in “Sincerity Is an Easy Disguise in This Business”, written by Karen Gist, the very WASPy blond, socially inept numbers guy “Doug Guggenheim” (played by Josh Lawson) tried out a client’s San Diego online dating service: Sarah and I have kind of really hit if off and she was glimpsed lying naked on his hotel room bed after noisy sex. His co-worker “Jeannie” (played by Kristen Bell) is quite surprised: That’s your match? My match sucked balls. “Doug” knowingly: Yeah, so did mine. But it wasn’t until three episodes later, in “Wonders of the World”, written by David Walpert, that he revealed she was Jewish as he plans to buy her a gag gift for their one-month anniversary – a Jesus light switch plate: She’s Jewish, but so she’d open it and be like what? In addition to the surprise that guest star Lisa Edelstein did not play a Jewish character earlier in the season, it was that much more ironic when “Doug”s very Jewish co-worker “Clyde Oberholt” (played by Ben Schwartz) annoyingly came on to “Sarah” (played by Jenny Slate) pool side at a corporate retreat, in “Family Values”, written by Wesley S. Nickerson III. (more commentary on the rest of the season coming) (updated 5/31/2013)

Dr. Zoe Hart in the 2nd Season of Hart of Dixie (the CW, streams free a week later on Hulu; out on DVD). She (played by Rachel Bilson) and the series seemed to forget she was Jewish until December, in the “Sparks Fly” episode by Jamie Gorenberg. Her hunky Southern good ole boy lover “Wade Kinsella” (played by Wilson Bethel) lists just about everyone in Bluebell she’ll probably ask before going on a real date with him, and adds: I know you want to consult the Pope or whatever. She protests: Jews don’t really have a pope. This seems mostly a set-up to emphasize why their date gets uncomfortable, which she forlornly analyzes at the end with implicit reference to her background as she complains she wants everyone to stay the same: Maybe some people can overcome differences, but Wade and I? We shouldn’t have [dated]. Why does everybody have to change? I changed my whole life to come here. Isn’t that enough?
The “Blue Christmas” episode, written by series creator Leila Gerstein, continued the identity contrast theme with more Jewish references than were in the series the whole season, let alone in a negative context. The African-American mayor tries to cheer “Zoe” up after her break up: It’s hard being alone on the holidays. . .Your mother arrives today. “Zoe”, with little irony: Why did I agree to this visit? This is going to be the worst Christmas ever! Mayor: Come on, the holidays are a time for joy and. . . She: In my family they are a time of judgment and fear. My mother once spent an entire Rosh ha Shanah dinner criticizing my eyebrows. Which will she go after first-- that I’m still in Alabama or that I’m not a practicing surgeon? Carolers sing about “five golden rings” in the background. Let alone that I don’t have a golden ring. She suggests help for the cookie contest: My mother the born judger will fill in for you. The she warns hunky “Wade” her mother is coming: Just so you know how difficult she is. The last thing I need is for her to know that you and I were. . . Her mother “Candice Hart” (again played by JoBeth Williams) keeps resisting her plans to keep busy, then confronts her about her excuses: I have come all this way to be with my baby girl and I’m not going to let her out of my sight. I want to hear all about your life in Bluebell, but let’s stop by a drug store and buy you a tweezer first. . . .Let’s go get a manicure and discuss that hair cut. . .The lies aren’t even well-executed. . .You didn’t even bother to make the lies good. “Zoe”: I didn’t want you to judge me like you always do. Mother: If you had spent any time with me, you might have noticed I haven’t judged you at all. Well, not on any important things. Significantly, “Zoe”s heart-to-heart with her mother takes place in front of a large menorah in her living room, in contrast to every other scene in the rest of the town that’s been smothered in Christmas decorations, and she starts with a joke before getting serious: You didn’t judge me, I did. I made some big mistakes and I didn’t want to see them through your eyes. . . Being a GP suits me. . .I like my life here. I’m even getting a taste for catfish. It’s my romantic life that’s been a disaster. . . I got scared so I pushed him away. Mother: I don’t really see you two having a future, but I don’t want to judge you anymore. Besides, what do I know? The only real risk I ever took was having an affair with a small town GP on a Greek cruise years ago and that got me you. You’ve made some decisions in your life that I absolutely question. Beginning with your choice to live so far away from me. But don’t let my irrational fears or worse your irrational fears stop you from being happy. So “Zoe” apologizes to hunky “Wade”, since she had gotten insights into his family during the episode: You really put yourself out there. I was so scared it wouldn’t work because we have nothing in common so I kind of sabotaged it. But the thing that I realized was that I like you Wade Kinsella. It turns out I like you, Wade, I really like you. Who knows maybe there’s a chance you and I could be happy together. But we’ll never know unless we try. “Wade”: What are you saying? She makes the usual case for an interfaith romance, complete with Jewish woman stereotypes, seem quite victoriously adorable and sexy: Would you maybe consider being my for real out in public everyone knows about actual boyfriend? It’s OK. You can think about it. I know I’m a handful, I’m neurotic, I know I’m too bossy, and sometimes I do. . . And he grabs her for a big kiss and carries her inside: It’s Christmas Eve. Crazier things have happened between a doctor and a bartender. and chases away the carolers: I’m kind of busy in here.

In “Take Me Home Country Roads”, written by Carter Covington, on the plus refers to her professional work helping the whole town through a flu epidemic in the previous “Lovesick Blues”, at the cost of her personal life, before a surprising synthesis for a Jewish woman on TV (minus any reminders she’s Jewish, of course). She walks home to “Wade” all muddy after falling down a hill: I was looking for cell service and it wasn’t zany like in the movies., i.e. like in a rom com. He teases her: Face it Doc, the whole town’s been treating you like Princess Leia at a Star Wars convention. And you love it. She: Oh, so what if I do. He: I’m just trying to spend some quality time with you and you’re so desperate for your fans’ attention. . . She: There’s nothing wrong with enjoying it when people appreciate your work. He: It’s a fine line between enjoying it and being addicted to it. She: It’s called career satisfaction and you’d understand that if you. . . . .That came out wrong., as he walks out. Yet he grudgingly gives her a ride and she apologizes again: I’ll just check [on a patient] then I’ll meet you back at your place? He stiffly: Take your time. She walks in on her patients gathered at the other doctor’s office: I can’t believe you people! I worked my butt off getting you people through the flu. I stayed up three nights in a row making house calls. I even neglected my own relationship. Why? Because I felt needed. I felt appreciated. Then you tossed me aside like last season’s sweater. Shame on you Bluebell! Shame on you! But shame on her, because it turns out they were all gathered for the other doctor’s surprise birthday party. She sits outside alone. His doctor son, in from out-of-town, comes out and tells her about the local blogger: He’s always mentioning this mythical Zoe Hart. . .All I’ve heard since you arrived is how amazing you are, how much you’ve done for this town. You can relax, you’re beloved. . . Maybe I should come back. It’s rewarding. She : We have more than enough doctors. She returns to “Wade”: I come in peace. . .You were right. I have been putting work before our relationship. So she booked a weekend away for them: Have you ever done it on a 4-poster bed?. . .I feel really bad about what I said. But she had inspired him to think about making plans for his bar. He: I came back to give you another shot. They kiss! She announces she’s turned off her phone and they kiss again. But there’s a knock on the door from the unlucky-in-love Mayor seeking commiseration. She and “Wade” hold hands behind his back. (Further commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming.) (updated 10/8/2013)


Raviva on Underemployed (on MTV, full episodes streaming free on MTV.com, though usually only for a week at a time) In Chicago, when the lapsed boyfriend “Lou” (played by Jared Kusnitz) complained: You’re hard to read sometimes., the very pregnant “Raviva” retorted English is not my second language., I wondered about her ethnicity, as her blondish mother had no accent. (I’ll keep checking who plays the mother.) I even thought she might be Russian because her mother complained about her behavior at home: She is like a set of Russian dolls right now, and every one of them is a total bitch. “Raviva” had returned from Los Angeles 9 months after their break-up sex just before college graduation and announced at the ex’s door: Who turned out to be pro-life?. . .I kept thinking I wasn’t going to have it, and then I ended up keeping it.. She tells her girl friends: I didn’t want to disapoint you guys. I said I was going to get a record deal and conquer the world. Instead, I got pregnant and worked at a club. When her friend reassures: You can still conquer the world., she’s rueful: I know. But now I have to do it with a baby strapped to me. She reports on telling her mother, who then, surprisingly, affectionately welcomed “Lou”: She cried a lot and said she raised me wrong. I had to make her feel better. But, when after giving birth to her daughter “Rosemary”, she closed the pilot episode, written by series creator Craig Wright, with Next year in Jerusalem! (which “Lou” ripostes with Next year in Chicago!), I discovered the character is played by the lovely Israeli actress Inbar Lavi, in her first lead role. I asked on her FaceBook page if “Raviva” is also Israeli: She only responded: "yeah she is : ) )) )) ) ) )", and just joked about the actress playing her mother isn’t.
In the 3rd episode “The Roommate”, written by Emily Whitesell, one of the friends is worried about their just out lesbian friend spending so much time with her new lover and asks “Raviva”: Can’t you get the Israelis to copter in on a zip line and grab her? She jokes back: I’ll put a call into my people. Though her mother is unseen in this episode, she’s evidently taken a break from yoga for some babysitting: She turned my old room in some kind of baby brain learning lab. It’s kind of cool.
While the show is a ratings-failure with episodes appearing erratically on the network, there has been zero reference to her background since the early ones. But the 9th, “The Confession” by Emily Whitesell, wallowed in one of TV’s most blatantly familiar stereotypes of a young Jewish woman -- as a bully broad. Her Asian friend “Sophia Swanson” has been writing a roman a clef on her computer. “Raviva” spills breast milk on it, so takes the computer to a repair shop, worrying the author, who explains why to their friend “Daphne”: When Raviva sees what I was writing when she broke it, she’ll kill me. . . A passage about her. . . sort of, a version of her, I called her Ravina. . .I thought it was poetic. . .It just has a character describe her as being sure of herself, and opinionated and pushy and ultimately kinda oblivious to how her way of being affects other people. “Daphne”: Wow, accurate. “Sophia”: Yeah, affectionately accurate though. “Raviva” picks up the computer and tartly comments to “Sophia” about “her imagination” to write about what’s not right in front of her: People who are just so annoying and unbearable.. . I’m just saying, I’m impressed. She’s sarcastic in describing their college days apartment-sharing experience: But I just take up so much space with my attitude. You’re such a good observer of people. . . Sure you are Soph, you just sit at your computer all day long drawing conclusions about everyone! . . .Course I read what you wrote! “Sophia”: Raviva, it wasn’t about you. “Raviva”: Really? Who was it about? Ravina? Ravina! “Sophia”: Yes. “Raviva”: Who is named Ravina? “Sophia”: Someone I made up. “Raviva”: Really, who just happens to have a baby and happens to write songs and just happens to be a royal pain in the ass. Give me a break. Is there anything about me that you like? Anything that you admire at all? “Sophia”: Yes of course! “Raviva”: Then why did you only choose to write about all the stuff about me that sucks! “Sophia”: Those parts of you don’t suck. Those parts of you are flaws, yeah, but flaws that make you interesting. “Raviva”: You are really interesting. You are really, really interesting. “Sophia” slams the door into her bedroom. “Lou” comes along after putting the baby to sleep and blames her: What did you do now? “Raviva”: Me? Nothing! She pissed me off. . . She wrote a story about me, or some crazy weird version of me named Ravina, and all she talks about is how she’s this pushy opinionated bitch. “Lou” smiles. She: What you agree with her? “Lou”: You do have opinions. “Raviva”: Everyone has opinions. You have opinions. “Lou”, referencing interactions with him, their friends and dates seen in the opening scenes: But yours are strong and you just come out with them. She: You asked me for my opinion. You just want me to lie. . .You and she just want me to lie all the time. “Lou”: Sometimes people just want to talk, not asking for your opinion, but trying to figure things out. Then she finds out that “Lou” had sex with a co-worker and kicks him out. “Lou”: Fine I’ll go! . . You’re obviously the one in charge!. . .She makes me feel good, OK. She likes me and she doesn’t judge me. “Raviva”: Maybe you ought be judged. From the minute I showed up pregnant you came up with this brilliant idea. . .to come up with this huge sacrifice that nobody asked you to do. . Going to work doesn’t make you a hero. . .Going after your dreams makes you a hero. He: I can’t live with someone who’s so perfect and right all the time. It’s driving me crazy. She: Then maybe you should go. . . We’ll have to figure out something about Rosemary. Amidst the crying baby, “Sophia”: I’m sorry that what I wrote hurt your feelings. “Raviva”: I apologize for being a bitch. “Sophia”: I don’t think you’re a bitch. I think you’re doing all you can under pressure. It’s hard. “Raviva”: I didn’t mean for being a bitch my entire life, I meant being a bitch last night. . . .Keep writing, we’re fine. Don’t get a job! That story is great, for what it’s worth. “Sophia”: I’m an idiot for pretending Ravina wasn’t you. “Raviva”: Do me a favor, call her Raviva. Ravina sounds like a European soda., and “Sophia” agrees. When “Raviva” compromises by following-up an offer of a bartending job where she had hoped to gig, the boss warns, as he happens to be playing her “not bad” demo CD, but still won’t let her perform: I’m kind of a pain in the ass. She smiles: Yeah, apparently I am also. He: Then you’re hired. At least in the series finale, the comopromises she made in her personal and professional lives were on her terms. (updated 1/25/2013)


Mrs. Wolowitz in the 6th season of Big Bang Theory (on CBS and out on DVD) (As heard and referred) Until I get around to posting my transcriptions, that I can vouch for, of all the nasty comments by and about “Mrs. Wolowitz”, fan episode transcripts are eventually posted. The top-rated comedy was the cover story by Lynette Rice, in Entertainment Weekly 9/28/2012: “Burning Question: Will we ever meet Mrs. Wolowitz in the flesh: ‘Technically, we saw her in the season 5 finale. When the satellite shot of Bernadette’s rooftop wedding to Howard was pulled wide, there was a speck in the corner. That was supposed to be Howard’s mom,’ explains [Steven] Molaro [the showrunner]. Otherwise there are no plans to have Carol Ann Susi – who voices the role of Howard’s mom—step in front of the camera’.” The writing staff is described as including “Eric Kaplan, a yarmulke-wearing Harvard grad who’s considered the smartest guy in the room.” Executive Producer Chuck Lorre is admired for managing three CBS sitcoms “without sounding as crazy as Howard Wolowitz’s mom.”
Executive producer Steve Molaro mostly reiterated these comments on “Mrs. Wolowitz” in The Vulture interview with Kimberly Potts, 6/7/2013: “Q: Will we finally get to see Howard Wolowitz's mom? A: Are you aware that there was a glimpse of her this season? More than a glimpse of her; we had a little fun having her cross back and forth in the background, almost like Bigfoot or a yeti. Does that not count as seeing her? Or do you mean seeing her on camera, speaking? We kind of got a little bit of a glimpse of her, this season in the kitchen. And she was on the roof at Howard's wedding. But there are no immediate plans to have her actually speaking on camera. It's more fun to keep the mystery alive.”
Posting about I Went to Work on Sukkot on her blog on 10/17/2012, Mayim Bialik gave a Jewish perspective to being on this series: “One day, I hope to be in a position to set my taping schedule around the 8,000 Jewish holidays that I want to observe according to halacha, but for now, I remain a Jew in exile, a soul yearning for its way home, and a happily employed actress on The Big Bang Theory.” (And on 3/4/2013 wrestling with Orthodox dressing strictures.) Maybe next she’ll comment about the portrayal of the Jewish mother. But she did, on 3/8/2013, comment about her casting: “I understand the appeal of ‘beautiful,’ but in terms of what I want to be like and aim for, I like to stick with the complicated and unusual, rather than the mainstream, I guess. (When you’re labeled a “character actress” from the age of 11 because of your “ethnic” nose and chin, it’s a good thing to embrace it!)” (Further commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming.)


Ziva David on NCIS in her 8th season (The 10th season on CBS, streaming full episodes):
In the season premiere “Extreme Prejudice”, written by Gary Glasberg, “Ziva” and “Tony” are stuck in an elevator for hours after a bombing of their headquarters – and her father calls: My father says it’s all over the news in Israel. Tony nags her to ask “the Great Eli David” to help find the terrorist, and she assures him he has already offered. (Translation of Cote de Pablo’s Hebrew conversation with “Ziva”s father – with the show’s popularity, this fan-produced support material is easier to find on the web these days.) She responds in English to his continuing chatter: No Abba, Tony’s never going to change. “Tony” is both sarcastic and admiring: That’s sweet your dad called.
In “Recovery”, written by Scott Williams, there’s, surprisingly, two references to “Ziva”s unique identity within the squad. First, as ex-Mossad. “Dr. Wolf”, a crisis counselor, identifies her as The spirited warrior would be Agent David, from the bullet points he was given for their mandatory psych evaluations. She pronounces on her own evaluation: I’m perfect! Then, as Jewish. A suspect rants sex discrimination for not being hired by the murder victim, and calls “Ziva” a “Femi-Nazi” for supporting her decision, making “Tony” unusually uncomfortable: You may not have noticed, but that’s not a swastika hanging around my partner’s neck.
After weeks of no references to “Ziva”s background, could the “Shell Shock Part 1” episode, written by Nicole Mirante-Matthews, have a resonance to the People of the Book? “Tony” is opening up to her about his late mother and the last movie she took him to The Little Prince. “Ziva” says a line, surprising film fanatic “Tony”: Ziva David, did you just quote a movie? She, very gently: No, I quoted a book, that was made into a movie. In the follow-up episode “Shell Shock – Part 2”, written by Gina Lucita Monreal, “Ziva” is on the phone insisting that she has to have tickets for the opera on Saturday night. “Tony” overhears and teases if he’s someone special she's going to the opera with, because it’s one of the big 3 dates: #1 - Beach. #2 - Picnic with impromptu dancing in the rain. #3. Opera. She: He’s no one. Tony: You serious about this guy? Later on a stakeout, he keeps teasing her, until she gets exasperated: You are only being nice to me until I tell you what you want to know. . .You wonder why I cannot talk to you. Why do you care? I thought we were past caring about such things. He: I thought we were telling each other about things, you know, the things that matter. She: There is no one, only Tali. He: Your sister. She: I think about her every day, but this week is the most difficult. He, evidently oblivious that would be marked by a yahrzheit: Is this when you lost her? She: Her birthday actually. Tali used to sing Puccini. Even my father’s eyes would get filled with tears. Her dream was to be on stage. So every year on her birthday, I go to the opera in honor of her. This year, this year. . . He: It was sold out. She: I know it’s silly, but I feel like I’m letting her down. The love of a sibling is. . .I’m lucky to have known it. (She didn’t feel that about her brother.) At the end, Tony puts on an opera CD for her: Maybe you’re at the opera and it’s like Tali’s there with you. She thanks him, and sits and listens to Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sing "O mio babbino caro" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi while the rest go off to Thanksgiving Day dinner.
“Gone” episode, written by Reed Steiner and Scott Williams, included inaccurate references to “Ziva”s Israeli heritage amidst a ludicrous plot of a white suburban adolescent girl sex trafficking to order, that she compares to her life: At her age, I was about to go into the military. “Ziva” first explained a happy telephone conversation: A very good friend called from Israel. He forgot the time difference. . .Yes, Tony. I have male friends. . .’Shmeel’ has layover on the way to a conference in Seattle. She claims it’s a common name in Israel, but Tony mocks it. She protests: He’s a very wise and influential man, and I happen to share things with him that I wouldn’t dream of sharing with other people. . Do not try to compete with my Shmeel. He jokes: There is no getting in the way of Ziva and her Shmeel. “Tony” asks an outside consultant: Ever know anybody name Shmeel? What kind of name is it? The British agent, played by Alex Kingston, passed on incorrect information, oblivious to the story of Hagar’s son as the progenitor of the Arab people who no Israeli Jew would be named for: It’s a respected Hebrew name, actually derived from the Biblical Ishmael, meaning his name is God. He’s impressed: She did say he was influential. “Ziva” comes in: Who is influential? Yes he is, and I love him dearly for it. She dresses up to go out with ‘Shmeel’ (played by the elderly Jack Axelrod): He’s just a man. Shmeel Pincus, poet, philosopher, Middle Eastern historian., who jokes that she’s kvelling about him: I’ve known my Ziva since she was 3 yrs old. Trust me, we’ll be talking ‘til dawn. “Tony” drily: Let’s party! In “You Better Watch Out” episode, written by George Schenck and Frank Cardea, she continues to assimilate but still has vestiges of her Jewish identity: Even though I do not celebrate Christmas, I love the holiday season.

A multi-episode arc dealt again with “Ziva”s feelings towards her father, which is heavily symbolic about her identity as an Israeli and Jew. “Shabbat Shalom”, written by Christopher J. Waild, first had the team joking as they go through items from old cases. They find her undercover disguises –a green evening gown, sexy lingerie, and a “Bun in the Oven” T-shirt, for when she infiltrated a pregnancy group with a belly prosthesis. While “Tony” comments how happy she looked in a photo faking pregnancy, she’s practical about keeping the shirt for exercise: I make time outside of work. What I learned from my time in the Mossad – never sweat where you eat. Her father surprises her after her work-out: You are the director of the Mossad, Abba, nothing is impossible. He: My daughter has made no effort to visit me in the last 2 years. . . .I didn’t want to be refused. . . .My intentions are honorable. No one will know I am here. After she corrects his mis-use of an American idiom (Not my first radio to rodeo) to show how Americanized she’s become, he says something in Hebrew (not even identified on fan sites) and she gives him a hug. But she tattles to, her in effect American father, “Gibbs” why he says he’s in town: To spend time with me, or so he says. I know it sounds silly when I say it out loud. “Gibbs” being paternal: Not silly. . .Spend time with your father. . .And keep me updated. She: Of course. Until we find out what he's up to. Catching up with Dad again, he’s surprised she’s seen “Schmiel”, who is not a fan of his. Seeing the photo when she was posing as a pregnant woman: Now this is what retirement should look like! He talks about the world changing, though my sins might be too great for them to get past. She: I think you might be confusing retiring with repenting. Only the latter makes any difference to me. He: Then let this visit be a first step to my redemption. . . Was it a boy or a girl? She: It was not real. He: I know. But what did you tell people when they asked you? She looks more vulnerable than usual: I said it was a girl. He smiles. Later, as she leaves work she has to explain because “Tony” notes she has changed clothes: I have a dinner date. He exaggerates the Hebrew pronunciation: Shabbat dinner? She: It is Friday night. But I have no idea what or who you’re talking about. He: Tell him Meatball says hello. She chuckles: He would not mock you if he didn’t like you. She meets up with Dad, who’d explained he was in D.C. to secretly discuss peace feelers, with an Iranian intelligence agent who, in a bit of confusing geography, were cross-border orchard neighbors as children. But she challenges him about “the truth” as it relates to their murder investigation: Did you lie about when you arrived in the country? He: Ziva, the truth has many faces. . .I wanted to put an end to your perpetual suspicion. . .I want you to look at me like you did when you were a child. With pride. I saw that earlier today. . .I came to show you the good. I needed to protect that. She: An innocent man is dead. And you disposed of his body. He: Yes, I did. But why is that the only part of this that you can see? Why can’t you see the good? She cries: Because you were right. Your sins are too great. Dad: So be it. But will you please sit across from me at the dinner table one last time? Sitting down to dinner at the African-American NCIS director’s house, Dad compliments the wife: You have gone out of your way welcoming me. The candles and the meal, you have gone all out. Truly a Shabbat feast. Wife, sardonically: The magic of internet research. Dad: Even the challah. Wife: Store-bought, last minute. He stops the awkward-feeling director -- It's hard to keep it all straight.-- from drinking the wine by asking for the blessing first: Ziva used to say the same thing when she was young. But the purpose of these traditions is to always remind us of what God has given. Life, freedom, and family. That’s too much for “Ziva” to take. She stalks out, followed outside by her father and hosts, and calls “Gibbs” to tell him that her (Israeli) father is the murderer. Then the house is strafed by gunshots! Gun drawn and shooting, she chases down the assassin, who is surprised she’s followed him: I did not expect you to come after me. I thought you’d care for your father first. He dies by suicide, and she kicks his body, restrained by “Gibbs”. She goes back to the murder scene, screams Abba, weeps, and holds him in her arms while mumbling Hebrew.
The impact of his death, and the presentation of Israelis, if not Jews in general, as tribal, continued in the next, high-rated, episode “Shiva”, teleplay by Scott Williams, story by Christopher J. Waild and Gary Glasberg, opening with “Ziva”s childhood memory of lighting the Shabbat candles and saying the prayer, and young “Hollywood Kid” Gabi Coccio did the blessing quite nicely. That morphs into her now with her eyes covered, praying in a synagogue, as movies and TV usually misrepresent Jews using synagogues like Christians praying alone in churches, while she would have, instead, sought out a morning or evening minyan, discomfited at having to sit and whisper kaddish because his death has to be kept secret. But, instead, she speaks out to God: Why? Why should I not be angry? With all that has been taken? Why should I have faith in you? Show me a sign! Shown me a sign that I should not lose hope? She hears someone behind her and grabs her gun – but it’s “Tony”, who tracked down her GPS: What do you want? He: I want whatever you want, whatever you need. A friend to talk to, a shoulder to cry on. She: I'm done crying. He: Ziva. I am sorry. She: I appreciate that. But sympathy's the last thing I want right now. He: OK, then. Tell me. What can I do? What do you need? She: Revenge. Meeting with “Gibbs”, the Iranian insists he only approached the dad to discuss peace and is innocent of the murders. Eli had to many enemies. And they brought us together. The usual stereotype is needlessly thrown in for comic relief when “McGee” video calls their sexy Mossad contact in Israel “Gavriela Adel” (played by Georgia Hatzis) to find out they’ve heard rumors where the father went. But “Tony” is more focused on the flirtation: So help me, McBlivious, if you don't pounce on that hot Israeli action, I will never forgive you. “McGee”: Gabby's a spy, Tony. Flirting's just another weapon in her arsenal. “Tony” leers: And what an arsenal, huh? That wasn't just flirting, Tim, that was ‘flirting’. But for whatever reason, she's caught the McFever and you're the only cure. Down in the morgue, the forensic pathologist compares the assassin who killed himself with a cyanide pill to Goebbels, Goering, and other Nazi murderers who committed suicide. “Ziva” discusses with the pathologist her arrangements to bury her dad in Israel ASAP. “Tony” insists she stay at his place for her safety, and even brings back the oddly-named, elderly “Shmeal” from NYC to comfort her. At night, “Ziva” is crying out as she tosses and turns, so “Tony” wakes her up to let her know she’s having bad dreams, but she’s still upset and awake: Leave me alone, Tony. I’m fine. Really. An angry Deputy Director of Mossad “Elon Bodnar” (played by Oded Fehr) shows up because he’s heard the rumor that the father is in town to visit his daughter, and he gets the run-around to not find her. But he cannot be shunted aside in the investigation, even as he tends to talk in stereotyped phrases while he’s being very rude and insulting to the NCIS staff (thus alienating fans), especially compared to the more sophisticated Mossad agent the handsome, talented actor gets to play on Covert Affairs: Eli David was my dear friend, my leader, my mentor. . .Surely, Palestinians or Iranians were involved. . . You do what you must, but we’ll do what we have to do. Eli David may have died on U.S. soil, but the blood in his veins pumped through a heart that belonged to Israel. I make no promises. Back at “Tony”s, “Ziva” is emailing on his computer, to his chagrin as warns he’s protecting her: Who are you emailing? She: Old friends. They do not know. But that’s how she’s found out the Deputy is in D.C.: Apparently, my father’s protégé is in Washington, looking for me. Does he know what happened? Tony: He does now. She: And you did not think to tell me? He, with a double entendre: I think a lot of stuff all the time. I’ve been thinking of how to keep you away from all of this, but clearly that’s not working. She, sounding like her old warrior self: Why must I be kept away? I have known Elon since we were children. He always fancied himself, a part of our family, a son to Eli, which he is not. I am blood. And I’m not allowed the same access? “Tony”: He’s Mossad. She: I was Mossad. He: And now you’re the daughter of a dead man. Why don’t you let yourself act like one? Back at the office, “Elon” is furious about some ridiculous pipe dream of peace, insults the NCIS guys some more, and Skypes her: How did you find me? He: We both learned things from your father. We are both Mossad. She: Speak for yourself. He, with a surprising lack of irony: I need to see you, to mourn the loss of a great man. I loved him like a father. Mine was always too busy to spend time, but not yours. Never Eli. “Ziva” wryly: He was always fond of you. “Elon: And of you. So proud – always boasting about his American daughter. We should meet, talk face to face. She: There are rules, I can’t. He: Your father is dead, you shouldn’t be alone. You know I can find you and I will. As the team tracks down a clue to who was behind the killings, “Ziva” translates the code word they’ve found: “virtue” in Hebrew, “tohar”, is “Elon”’s middle name. She: He’s on his way here! The team is convinced he’s coming to kill her, but he’s disappeared. Back at headquarters, the Iranian eulogizes: One can only hope that Eli David will be remembered for dying in the name of peace., and “Gibbs” adds his praise: That was brave, what you and Eli tried to do. The Iranian: Our worlds are different, Gibbs. Our goals the same., and then his car blows up while he’s talking to his wife on his phone. At the airport, “Shmeal” joins “Ziva” with her father’s body, with a little joke. “Tony” assures that they’re all looking for “Elon” the killer: Shmeal’s got your back. You can do this. She: I’m going to a funeral. I’m delivering his eulogy. “Tony”: How’s this for an opening line – He did it his way. She: My father was not an easy man to understand. He: Complicated runs in the family. She gives him and big hug and he whispers in her ear (here’s the phonetic Hebrew and translation): Aht lo leh-vahd (You are not alone). She whispers back: I know. In Israel, we see her in an amber glow, praying at the Western Wall (on the women’s side, with a head covering) and sticking a written prayer in a crack. (Not that she’s joining the egalitarian protests of Women of the Wall). Outside, somewhere, she plants a tree (well, it looks more like a bush) and determinedly pulls out what looks like a machete!
But in the next episode, “Hit and Run” by Gary Glasberg, there’s only brief recognition of what she’s been through. “McGee”: She told me her stay in Israel was therapeutic. “Tony”: In a good way or a bad way? “McGee”: You think she’s OK? Which is left unanswered. (Further commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming.) (updated 2/1/2013)

Rachel Berry and Sugar Motta in the 4th season of Glee (on Fox, out on DVD) In the season premiere, “The New Rachel” by series creator Ryan Murphy, she is now a freshman at NYADA (the New York Academy for the Dramatic Arts). Her bully of a dance teacher “Cassandra July” (played by Kate Hudson) sneeringly nicknames her “Little Miss David Schwimmer”, shortened to to “Miss Schwimmer”, presumably an odd Jewish reference, even as she wears a name necklace. When “Rachel” is finally provoked to stand up to her, the teacher compliments: You’re mouthy and you’ve got guts. That will make it more fun for me when I make your every working hour hell on earth. Back at high school, “Kurt” has graduated, but can’t help still making a snide comment about her: Even when Rachel was her most controlling, she still made sure everyone felt included. But when she is teary and homesick, he ends up joining her as her new roommate in NYC , who she welcomes with a big hug.
While continuing to be conflicted about the bossy stereotype of Jewish women, “Britney 2.0”, written by Brad Falchuk, faced the not-sexy shibboleth. The mean dance teacher rejects “Rachel”s request to learn the tango: You don’t have enough sex appeal to pull off a credible tango. You’re awkward and tentative in your body, and you move like you’re ashamed of it. “Rachel” sets out to prove her wrong and shows up at class, in a black, skirted, low-cut teddy, to the teacher’s sneer that she was dressed like a Walgreen’s underwear model. “Rachel” pulls herself up: The reason I’m dressed all Bob Fosse chic is to show you that I have what it takes to be sexy, a la Roxy in “Sweet Charity”, and proceeds to have the whole dance class back her up for Britney Spears’ “Oops! I Did It Again”, where she mostly got carried around on tables and manhandled on her arms and thighs. The teacher is not impressed: You can memorize a routine, so what. . .She was OK. . .You want the truth, fine – Maria Von Trapp, Willie Loman, Shrek – those are the roles that are appropriate for your level of sex appeal. “Rachel” explodes: You’re just jealous of me, of all of us, because we have our futures ahead of us. We’re the future and you’re just some YouTube joke. The teacher kicks her out of class, but when “Rachel” comes back later to apologize, the teacher notes that school rules require that she can only be on probation, and warns her: All it took for you to snap was a little feedback, in dance class, and you expect to make it on Broadway? The upperclassman “Brody”, who’s been flirting and dancing with her, brings flowers to her work-in-progress Brooklyn apartment and declares: I think you’re very sexy. . .Whatever we’re doing I’m thinking of kissing you. While she’s thinking of her boyfriend in the Army, “Brody” watches her dance the tango in class.
While I’m behind transcribing a kind of pitiful episode about “Rachel” changing her Jewish image in NYC, “The Break-Up”, written by Ryan Murphy, had implied, related Jewish resonances, as she pours her heart out to “Finn” back from the Army, both visiting high school: This place is kind of like our Jerusalem. All roads seem to just lead us back here. . . Don't you get it? No matter how rich, or famous, or successful I become, when it comes to you, I'm always going to be that moon-eyed girl who freaked you out at a first Glee rehearsal. You are the first boy who made me feel loved, and sexy, and visible. You are my first love. And I want more than anything for you to be my last. But I can't do this any more. At least not now. We're done.
“Glease”, by Roberto Aguirre Sacasa, continued the series’ odd treatment of “Rachel”, doling out compliments then grinding her down by a Mean Girl that lasts longer as an impression. At school in NYC, the hunky upperclassman “Brody” reacts to her news that she’ll be auditioning for a role in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie: You’re too hot to play Laura. She lets her nasty teacher know about it, who revenges on “Rachel” by picking up “Brody”s phone and claiming they’ve been together: You blew off your play date with the hottest piece of ass in NYADA to go to your loser ex-boyfriend. Said hot ass was lonely, distraught, didn’t know what to do with himself. I was more than happy to have him help choreograph a new routine, then another, next thing you know, he’s at my place. “Rachel” listens teary-eyed and jealous: You and Brody? Why? “Cassandra July” (played by Kate Hudson) continues her venom, with Jewish insinuations: Why don’t we consider this one of those little nasty life lessons. Auditioning for an off-Broadway play, throwing yourself at an upperclassman and telling me that I need to get back in the game? I need to get back in the game? I think you were overreaching and needed a little bit of a reminder: I am the game, Schwimmer. You are what you’ve always been – a privileged, self-indulgent, dime-a-. . “Rachel” hangs up in tears, and “Finn” catches up with her in the high school hallway after his directing debut of Grease. She: I shouldn’t have come here – it’s just too weird. I came for “Kurt” and for you. I just have a couple of notes, and they’re little ones. “Finn” jokes a bit: The whole time I was directing I was basically just thinking what would Rachel do? You’re kind of my moose. She corrects his pronounciation of “muse”. “Finn”: Were you crying about me? “Rachel”: I wasn't crying about you. “Finn”: Oh. I know you and I know you have four different kinds of crying. You’ve got the fake crying when you want something, which always involves a tissue. You’ve got the sing crying which this can’t be. The disappointed crying, which involves sobbing. And the crying over a guy which I know very well, because it used to be reserved for me. . . Now we have no contact, not even in song. “Rachel”: You know, I don't really know what's going to happen between us, but I know that you used to be the guy that would make me feel like the most special girl in the whole world, and it doesn't feel that way anymore. Now it just feels sad and confusing. And the worst part is that it doesn't even feel that bad any more. “Finn”: For two years, I was the guy you came to with every little problem. Are we just gonna pretend we're not even friends any more? . . .And what happened with this Brody guy made you cry, and this doesn’t? “Rachel”: I just - I shouldn't have come here. It's just too weird. She joins “Kurt”: I just want to go home. “Kurt” about their hometown high school: I thought this was home. Her reply: Not any more.
The portrayal of “Sugar Motta” (played by Vanessa Lengies, a Canadian who reportedly comes from a half-Egyptian, half-German background) is getting very close to being a new face for an anti-Semitic stereotype, unleavened by the grudging admiration “Rachel” gets for her talent. In the “Dynamic Duets” episode, written by Ian Brennan, the chorus members are taking the roll in their new “Super Heroes Club”, introducing their alternative persona and super-power. Costumed in rhinestones and gold, she grins: Sweet and Spicy, here. My super power is money. Oy, a line could have at least been added about, say, philanthropy.
“Swan Song”, the first episode written by Stacy Traub, was perceived by fans as a triumph for “Rachel”, but I thought it was still an uneasy mix. It opened with praise for her in comparison to a current member, as if a high schooler would know about a line from the 1988 VP debate: “Tina: This is all Marley's fault. New Rachel, my butt. I knew Rachel Berry. I was friends with Rachel Berry. And you, Marley, are not Rachel Berry. Back at NYADA, “Rachel” gets one of the ten prestigious “Golden Ticket” invitation from “Carmen Tibideaux” (played by Whoopi Goldberg) to perform in the “Winter Showcase”. But dance teacher “Cassandra” (Kate Hudson) keeps calling her as Schwirmer as she gives her instructions and mocks her when she asks to stop for water: Of course, yeah, everybody stop, because that’s what t happens when you’re thirsty on Broadway . They stop the show so mommy can hand you a sippie cup. “Rachel” protests: I’m not being a diva, I’m just dehydrated. I’ve been working my butt off in this class and I have gotten better. “Cassie” is relentless: Three months in you still have no stamina and no precision. . .You won’t even be able to keep up. “Rachel” continues to talk back to her: I’ve kept up with you. I’ve been able to keep up with everything you’ve thrown at me.. “Cassie” pulls rank: I don’t throw things, I teach. Nothing I do here is random or unintentional. You don’t understand my methods. “Rachel” sounds a bit whiney: It’s not my fault that you don’t see how good I’ve become. “Cassie”: OK show me I’m not wasting my time. Anybody else can join in, but this is between me and the platypus. They proceed to have a dance-off with the opening song from Chicago, “All That Jazz”. “Cassie”: Now do you see what I’m saying Schwirmer? You’re not good enough yet. “Rachel”: Maybe you’re right, I’m not as good a dancer as you are. “Cassie”: Oh, you’re finally learning something in here! “Rachel”: But I’m just as good as a singer. Maybe even better. “Cassie”: Do you think anyone in here believes that? Because there’s a big difference between self-confidence and delusion. “Rachel”: No one else has to believe it, no but me. But thank you, you actually did teach me something. If I’m going to win this showcase, the only way I’m going to do it is with my voice. Beyond the support of hunky “Brody” (played by Dean Geyer, who in the previous episode had admitted to sleeping with “Cassie”) --Remember what I said when we first met. You're here because you're the best of the best.--“Rachel” has gained inner strength, in a speech widely cited by fans online: I know I may not be a typical beauty, and no one's ever gonna pay me to walk the runway on Fashion Week, or I'm not gonna cure cancer, or write the great American novel, but if you give me a stage to sing on, I know in my gut, that no one can beat me. . .I know who I am and I know what I’m gonna do. I’m just going to go out there and sing my heart out like I’m never going to sing again. She impulsively kisses him: I’m just going to start doing things like I’m never going to get another chance. Wearing a sexy white gown on stage: Hi, I’m Rachel Berry and I’m just going to sing for you., she channels her idol Barbra Streisand with “Being Good Isn’t Good Enough” (an old track from the show Hallelujah Baby, newly heard on Release Me). Great, a standing ovation, a “Superb” from “Tibideaux” and she is pronounced one of the first freshman winners in many years. But then she announces her encore number as My favorite holiday song. Would it be about Hanukkah or about lights at solstice? Nondenominational about the winter season? No -- she picks an ultra-religious hymn “O Holy Night”, with its explicit references to the Savior. OK, so it’s from the Season 2′s Christmas album, but what a blown opportunity to put her victory over slurs in the context of her identity. Yet, in the next episode, “Glee Actually”, written by Matthew Hodgson, half-brothers by a Jewish father “Jake” and “Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman” bond by singing "Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah" together. They bring together “Jake”s African-American mother and “Puck”s Jewish mother (played on a recurring basis by Gina Hecht) to meet for the first time. Reacting to her husband’s former mistress with the nasty insults “Puck” has frequently commented on as characteristic of his mother, he gets them to commiserate over what an ass the father was. (Further commentary on the rest of the season forthcoming.) (updated 9/30/2013)

Prisoners of War (Hatufim) -- Wives, Daughter, Sister, Intelligent Agent, and more women in 1st season (Israeli 2009 series streaming in the U.S. as of Summer 2012 on Hulu; available on Region 1 DVD). While it is the basis for Homeland, there are more women featured in addition to the spy in the American adaptation – a sister, a girlfriend, a wife, and a daughter. In Tim Molloy’s interview with the series’ originator: “Gideon Raff on Creating Homeland, His Hopes for Peace and 'No Nuclear Iran'”, posted 9/28/2012, on The Wrap discussed his Israeli series, whose 2nd season debuts about the same time as Homeland’s: “It's almost a taboo. The lives of prisoners of war after they are returned is almost never discussed, never explored. That's part of why I wanted to make this show. I realized there is a world of drama no one's tapped into. And we are so obsessed in Israeli society with bringing back the boys. We go out to the streets for it. We campaign for it. We demand our leaders pay a high price for it. We pay a high price for it. But once they're back, that's the happy ending we need, and we don't want to hear about their post-traumatic stress disorder. We don't want to hear about what they have to face. For some of them, it's just the beginning of the journey and harder than captivity itself. I wanted to make a show about coming back and having to deal with all that… But the heart of the Israeli show is the re-integration into Israeli society. Meeting the family. Meeting the wife that has been waiting for so long. And have you dated anybody?” As to the role of the female spy, he noted: “In the Israeli version, the investigation is from the Israeli [counterpart of] the CIA. We kind of exposed how the system did the surveillance and followed these prisoners of war after they came back and spied on them and that became a very controversial topic in Israel. People just didn't know about it.” (My commentary on the Jewish women forthcoming.) (updated 7/9/2014)


2011/2012 Season

In series creator Richard Price’s failed NYC 22 cop show, that CBS burned off in summer Saturday night broadcasts, Jewish reporter turned cop Ray 'Lazarus' Harper (played by Adam Goldberg) finally mentioned a female in his life in a Jewish context in “Jumpers”, written by Ken Sanzel. Upset by vandalism of a synagogue, he rants against hate crimes even as he admits that he hasn’t been to temple since my daughter’s bat mitzvah. The brick thrower turns out to be the rabbi’s son who includes his mother in his angry justification for his behavior: We did -- me and mom and Richie – we let go and surrendered to God and God killed him., referring to his brother who died of leukemia. In a subsequent episodes, his daughter “Ruby” was played by Lizzy DeClement, looking straight out of Gossip Girl, because her step-father the endocrinologicst is paying tuition at private school. (updated 8/9/2012)

In the first episode of The L.A. Complex (a Canadian series shown on the CW), “Down in L.A.” written by Martin Gero, Mary Lynn Rajskub cameo’s as a version of herself at an improv comedy club. She excoriates a new guy for confusing her with Sarah Silverman because she’s Jewish. The joke is on him as he stutters surprise that she is Jewish – which she’s not. Another Canadian series had an odd reference, in Endgame (streaming in the U.S. on Hulu) episode “Turkish Hold Em”, by series creator Avrum Jacobson, Russian chess master “Arkady Balagan”(played by Shawn Doyle) is interviewing a robbed, stereotyped movie producer who throws around some Yiddish and talks of old Hollywood. He mispronounces “Balagan”, but praises him: You must be Jewish. He responds: I’m one-quarter, my mother’s mother. The rich guy approves: Ah, the right quarter. ((updated 6/14/2012))

In MTV’s hipster Brooklyn-set I Just Want My Pants Back, the lead guy “Jason Strider” (played by Peter Vack) announced in the first episode he’s Jewish, but in the second, “Baby Monkeys”, written by series creator David J. Rosen, he put dating Jewish women in a negative context, if he doesn’t find the “Jane” who took his pants after a one-night stand: At least then I can start Plan B: becoming religious and finding a nice girl via an arranged marriage. But his blonde best friend “Tina” is even more so: I don’t know. Religious girls aren’t really into personal grooming. I had gym with Tikla Rubinstein – huge bush. While her comment is taken directly from his book, it was surrounded by a more positive context, where “Jason” is Jewish, and he did sleep with the sexually aggressive Orthodox girl her comment referenced, who he met at a synagogue class in marriage officiating because he is presiding over the wedding of his law student friend “Stacey”, who is also not Jewish on MTV. (updated 5/23/2012)

In “Time Machines”, the first episode of Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook, which I hadn’t realized is in its 2nd season on PBS’s Great Performances, his mother is interviewed, and her son puts her in a Jewish context. While she kvells he was always “special” (just because he was interested in older popular culture or because he was gay?) so that she treated him differently than his older brothers; he brags that he convinced her to let him avoid being bar mitzvah. (I seem to be more and more commenting on real Jewish women seen on TV.) (2/7/2012)

In Homeland about terrorists at home and abroad in relation to fighting in the Middle East, there’s no reference to Israel, or the Mossad, though this is based on the Israeli TV series Prisoners of War (Hatufim), and only one odd, passing mention of Jews at all. In the 4th episode, Semper I”, written by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, when the returned POW’s best friend explains his divorce and what happened to his ex-wife Victoria: She married a Jewish orthodontist in Fort Lauderdale, and she and the kids converted last year. (1/22/2012)

While almost all the episodes of The Sarah Silverman Program are still on my DVR because of my procrastination to transcribe and comment on them, I try to catch shows she guest stars on because she usually plays a Jewish character. But, oddly, in the “Thanksiving” episode of The League, a raunchy FX sitcom I haven’t yet been monitoring, she inexplicably was the sexually know-it-all sibling of one of the gentile guys – maybe so she could end up being happily boinked in the rear by the one Jewish father “Ruxin” (played by Jeff Goldblum). (12/9/2011)

On Lost Girl, on the episode “Dead Lucky”, written by Emily Andras (broadcast in Canada in 2010, but shown on SyFy in the U.S. in February 2012), the supernatural bookie, a “Dark Fae”, named “Mayer” (played with thick Yiddishisms by Aron Trager) has a nephew named “Seymour”, so presumably his teenage niece “Cassie” the Oracle (played by Vanessa Matsui), is also Jewish, but there’s more reference to the mythological Cassandra than to her being Jewish. (2/18/2012)

In the 4th season finale of In Plain Sight (on USA), there was finally definitive confirmation that the marshall’s sister’s rich fiancé “Peter Alpert” (played by Joshua Malina), who had met her at AA, was Jewish, as he was wearing a yarmulke and waiting by the rabbi under the chuppah for her at their planned wedding. His mother “Dora” (played by Randee Heller) was only portrayed in 3 episodes as snooty, nothing particularly Jewish, but that was enough to make her potential daughter-in-law a nervous wreck. (8/11/2011)

In HBO’s How To Make It In America (out on DVD), Jewish men are specifically identified as such in the financing and manufacturing end of today’s garment district, so a viewer can only infer that the influential, aggressive and verbally pointed fashion talent agent representative “Nancy Frankenburg” (played by the ever sexy Gina Gershon) is Jewish. Though she sends her kids to a St. Maximilian's middle school, she’s married to an Israeli and beds her client “Ben Epstein” (Bryan Greenberg). (3/22/2012)

In the “An Emo and A Mensch” episode of Mulher de Fases, the 2010-2011 Brazilian comedy series (executive produced by Nora Goulart, but I couldn’t figure out the specific writer) carried this year on HBO Latino (and On Demand), the protean central character “Graça” (played by Elisa Volpatto), a real estate agent, becomes fascinated by her Orthodox Jewish client “Moises” (played by Sergio Wilkin), as she does by every man she meets, and tries on conversion, in her fashion. She dresses modestly, avoids pork, buys books, reads up on Judaism to try an follow mitzvot, throws some Yiddish words into conversations, and tries out adopting a Hebrew name. But when she pursues him to synagogue on Rosh ha Shanah, he accuses her of trying to seduce him, and he walks away from her, despite that most online synopses say they dated. (6/8/2012)

In the 3rd episode of Pan Am (on ABC, available on DVD), “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” by Yahlin Chang, the French stewardess “Colette Valois” (played by French-Canadian Karine Vanasse) revealed bad childhood memories of the German occupation of Paris. Given how little American audiences know about this history, many viewers assumed she was Jewish. In Berlin during President Kennedy’s visit on June 26, 1963, she bristles at an East German courier’s memories of delivering bread from her parents’ bakery to the then Luftwaffe headquarters, has frightened flashbacks at hearing German, emotionally sings the first stanza of "Deutschland über alles" as she remembers being forced to learn it (a bit awkward at a cocktail reception for its Third Reich resonance), and tells her co-workers how her parents left her with neighbors, promising to return for her, and they never did. It could be just as probable that her parents were Socialists, Communists, union organizers, or other anti-Nazi activists, as she explains: I came to Germany to forgive, but I still hate them, and I don’t want to stop. In the “1964” episode, the season, possibly series finale by Nick Thiel, “Colette” is being investigated by the aides of the Middle Eastern Prince “Omar” who is courting her (yeah, it became that kind of soap), and she explains that her parents were in the French Resistance, so that’s why they were killed by the Nazis and she was raised in an orphange. But the prince’s people do more investigating to discover that her last name doesn’t match her parents’: The nuns changed your name to protect you and themselves. They changed your name from Halevi. (Or maybe he said Levy?) She: My parents were Jewish? My parents were not in the Resistance? How did they die? Prince: That’s not important. She repeats her question. He: Dachau. I stayed up all night wondering how I would tell you. She: My whole life I’ve only known lies. Even my own name. He: It doesn’t change who you are now. She: No, but it changes us now. He shows her a photograph: It was taken by the friends who brought you to the orphanage. It’s of her and her parents -- with a baby boy. The Prince explains they found out he was adopted a few days later. (Highly unlikely as circumcised boys were riskier to pass off for a gentile adoption.): As far as we know he survived. While she’s shocked at all the news, which derails the courtship, she smiles that she has a brother. Later at the New Year’s Eve party, another stewardess reacts: You lost a prince, but gained a brother. She tells the handsome, cheating pilot she had earlier broken up with: Tomorrow I start looking for him. But he wants her back and begs to help her look. (updated 1/29/2013)

I watch secret agent shows for the appearance of the inevitably stereotyped, usually sexy Mossad agent. In Covert Affairs (on USA), “Eyal Lavine” (played by Oded Fehr) returned in the second season to reference Jewish women in absentia in different TV stereotypes, on the kibbutz and in the Holocaust, in “A Girl Like You”, by Normal Morrill. He explained the 2002 incident that drove him to quit medical school and drives him to revenge on a specific terrorist: He assassinated an IDF guard and six kibbutzniks. He was hoping to poison the peace talks. One of the civilians was my sister. I love my country and I would do anything for it, but it was the reason I became a Mossad agent. 9 years, 2 months, 8 days ago. Her name was Sarah, after our grandmother who died in Treblinka. The perky blonde American CIA star argues: Don’t do it! It’s not what your sister would want. But he chuckles in response: You didn’t know my sister. It’s exactly what she’d want. (11/25/2011)

In the New Girl (on Fox) “Kryptonite” episode, by series creator Elizabeth Meriwether, “Schmidt” the womanizer (played by Max Greenfield) helpfully delves into his “Lost and Found” from the women he’s slept with at the apartment. When an unraveled wig is pulled out, he sighs: Ah, Rosh ha Shanah ’06. Nothing Orthodox about what we did that night. None of the many fansites I checked got the joke. (The Jewish references could be courtesy of a co-producer from Queens I’ve known since she was in primary school with my sons.) Later in the season, he commented about his bar mitzvah, which his best friend mocks as having been too expensive. In the episode “Fancyman-Part 2”, written by Berkley Johnson & Kim Rosenstock, he warns the super-model he’s sleeping with who is trying to distract him from work by putting on various outfits: If you want to seduce me, don’t dress like my Aunt Frieda at seder. It seems that every sit com with a Jewish man has such negative mentions of Jewish women in their family. (updated 4/8/2012)

Two genealogical discovery Docu-Series featured women with Jewish ancestors.
On PBS’s Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (available on DVD), Barbara Walters learned that her Polish Jewish immigrant ancestors also changed their name (from the Anglicized “Warmwater”) when they went to San Francisco (after stopping in London, as I’ve learned my father’s family also did). But with Gates’s emphasis on tracking the Y chromosome, there’s no mention of her Jewish female relatives (she recalls her mother lighting Friday night candles as her only religious observance), even though an enterprising researcher finds her grandparents’ NJ graves with informative headstones. Worse, when her DNA reveals 8.1 % European make-up, in comparison to the rest what the geneticists identify as Middle-Eastern, Gates chuckles about “creepin’ and crawlin’ at night” in her family tree, instead of considering conversion, intermarriage, or raping pogroms, even though he specifically shows historical illustrations of Jews “fleeing violent anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe”. He continued to be insensitive, creeping into offensive, when dealing with Kyra Sedgwick. Because her father’s family is so eminent in American history from colonial days on, he expected her to be oblivious to her mother Patricia Rosenwald, who he describes as being from “prosperous Jewish immigrants . . . from another kind of royalty, a princess, a Jewish American Princess from New York City”. While it’s only mentioned in passing that her parents divorced when she was young so that she was apparently raised by her mother, Kyra repeatedly emphasizes to him: “I do describe myself as Jewish. I embrace my Jewish side. . .I want to be half-Jewish. I’m proud of my Jewish heritage.” So why is Gates so surprised when her genetic test confirms that she is 50% Ashkenazi? He did a bit of a mea culpa with Maggie Gyllenhaal - commentary forthcoming.
The episode on celebrities with Latino roots included the discovery that conservative Catholic commentator Linda Chavez’s ancestor who first came to the New World from Spain returned with his wife in 1567, because she had been charged by the Inquisition as a converso, an expediently converted Jew. Chavez’s genetic test of 20+ percent “Middle Eastern” markers indicated a continuing pattern of marriage among the “crypto-Jews” of New Mexico in her ancestry.
On Who Do You Think You Are (the NBC version of the Brit series),
Helen Hunt confirmed that her father’s grandmother, who he knew with the last name of “Roberts” in Pasadena, was born into the NYC “Rothenberg” family, which led to a historical discussion, with photos and political cartoons, of anti-Semitism and assimilation. All Hunt had known about this ancestor was that she was wealthy enough to live in a residential hotel; a Jewish woman genealogist shows her they are related through Bavarian Jewish immigrant brothers who made it big selling clothes amidst the California Gold Rush to become financial partners of Levi Strauss, in what became Wells Fargo Bank.
Rashida Jones, who expresses her sense of Jewish identity firmly, participated in the project to learn more about her matrilineal line through her mother, the actress Peggy Lipton. They are surprised to discover that when her grandmother Rita Rosenberg, a NYC taxi dancer, changed her name to Benson she was adopting her family’s patronymic traced back to 18th century Lithuania when Jews were required to adopt surnames, and that only her emigrant branch survived the Holocaust. (detailed commentary forthcoming) (updated 8/11/2012)


Castle is yet another crime series (filmed in L.A.) set in a NYC with few Jews. So maybe writer David Grae intended the Jewish woman in “Til Death Do Us Part” to be tongue in cheek. A witness reports seeing a woman flee the scene of the crime wearing a Star of David: I’m pretty sure that’s a symbol of El Al. The cops track down El Al flight attendant “Collette Roth” (played by Parisa Fakhri) and accuse her of being a member of Mossad because the victim was poisoned. With a heavy accent and rolled rrrr’s that series fans didn’t realize was typical of Hebrew-speakers, she insists she’s not a spy: We were soul mates., even as she describes staking out his apartment to find clues as to his claimed enemies: I was looking out for him. . . There were r-r-r-ruffians in ski masks! I fought with all my strength but it was in vain. She’s sure they killed him, but it turns out his pick-up artists friends staged it to get rid of “the crazy stalker chick”. (1/22/2012)

In Prime Suspect, “A Gorgeous Mosaic” by Kevin J. Hynes, showed the Typical Jewish Woman in Crime Shows Filmed in NYC: the wife of a Hasid Who Works in the Diamond District. Though only her scarf somewhat identified her as dressed as a modest Orthodox woman, “Mrs. Simon Kesh” (played by Sara Mornell) weeps for her dead husband and his envy of the rich rappers who wore the bling he made for them (presumably inspired by Jacob Arabo). But her own prejudices are detailed by an African-American suspect: That woman asked me what my African name was. It’s like medieval times up in that house. (12/19/2011)

In The Secret Life of the American Teenager (on ABC Family), Jewish women characters were introduced in the mid-4th season episode “Smokin' Like A Virgin”, by series creator Brenda Hampton. “Dylan Green” (played by Ana Lucasey) follows up a party at the lake by calling “Ben” a lot and describes herself on the phone as: My mom’s Jewish. My Dad’s Catholic. Her mother “Natalie” (played by Mindy Cohn) asks her about him and is excited when she declares that he may be her first real boyfriend. But even as she describes her parents as nosey and overprotective, Mom listens in on her only daughter’s conversations with her girlfriends about his past, complicated relationships. They lo jack her, track her down to “Ben”s house, and discover they’ve been sitting around smoking pot. (3/29/2012)

In the “Leap of Faith” episode of Blue Bloods (on CBS), written by David Black, it seemed oddly gratuitous that the mentally unstable daughter “Sandy Huffman” (played by Aubrey Dollar), who is insisting to the Catholic cops that God told her that her step-father killed her wealthy, MS-stricken mother “Caroline” in their Park Avenue apartment, declares I’m Jewish, but it’s the same God. The stepfather “Charles Bynes” (Timothy Busfield) points out she has been hospitalized for mental problems in the past, including attacking an economics professor because she said God told her to, but she’d benefit financially: She may be crazy, Detective, but she’s not stupid. She credits God’s help for the crucial information on the murder and the key clue: I’m sure he has a plan for me. While the detectives joke about the Bible, her references just don’t sound Jewish, par for the course in one of those shows set in a NYC with few Jews. (3/1/2012)

MI-5 (Spooks) (First shown in the U.K. as Episode 9.5 on 10/18/2010, but shown in February 2012 on U.S. PBS stations) “Anna Cohen” (played by Maya Lubinsky) is an ex-Army ex-Palestinian kidnap victim who has serious, revengeful issues with her diplomat father “Levi Cohen” (played by Paul Freeman). (Commentary forthcoming) (2/18/2012)

In The Good Wife “Affairs of State” episode by Corinne Brinkerhoff, the politically ambitious ex-wife of "Eli Gold" (Alan Cumming) is finally seen --“Vanessa” (played by Parker Posey). Despite implications in earlier seasons, not only is there zero reference to anything possibly Jewish about her, even when they argue about their marriage, she is revealed to have committed adultery with a Bin Laden, while doing PR in Dubai for an oil company. She returned in “Live From Damascus”, teleplay by creators Robert King and Michelle King and Leonard Dick, story by Ted Humphrey, to spar about her State Senate campaign. (She: Do me a favor – either stop caring or officially get on board.) But despite her admiration for his aggressive advice how to handle her affair PR-wise, as a challenge to anti-Muslim prejudice, she gives him a peck on a cheek: I miss arguing with you. Win or lose this will be nice., there is still zero reference if she, too, is Jewish. There is certainly more chemistry between them than with his competitor who he slept with, played by Amy Sedaris. (updated 3/2/2012)

I could barely stand watching the first two episodes of Happily Divorced (on TV Land) to see if Fran Drescher’s based-on-her-own-life character “Fran Lovett” would be explicitly identified as Jewish. Evidently she, as well as her mother “Dori” (played by Rita Moreno), and probably her friend played by Renee Taylor, were later in the season, but in order to review I’ll have to make myself watch more episodes sometime when I have absolutely nothing else to do.
Moreno commented in an interview: “We were rehearsing one of the kitchen scenes between Fran and her mother and father, and Fran stopped in the middle of the scene, and she said ‘Have you ever played a Jewish woman before?’ And when I said ‘no,’ she couldn’t believe it. But I’ve always loved doing accents and I’m pretty good at them too. [Fran] said, ‘It’s unbelievable. You are the quintessential New York Jewish woman.’” (10/1/2011)


I only bothered to watch the first of TNT’s Mystery Movies because it was Scott Turow’s Innocent, as adapted by director Mike Robe, and I’ve been meaning to read more of his books. So I was surprised that the victim “Barbara Sabich” (played by Marcia Gay Hayden) was Jewish seemingly for the only reason to portray her as over-protective (when she wasn’t being crazily manic-depressive). Her husband characterizes her as The Jewish Pillsbury when she fussily insists her adult son wear fluorescent gloves while biking. Her murder (or suicide) is caused by her meds ingested with pickled herring and salami, albeit Italian salami. (12/2/2011)

I haven’t gotten around yet to commenting on the 2nd season of Bored to Death (on HBO, out on DVD), when the Jewish girlfriend quickly left, but the opening episode of the 3rd season (out on DVD), “The Blonde in the Woods” by creator Jonathan Ames, came the closest to having the lead character’s mother “Florence Ames” (played by Allyce Beasley) be identified specifically as Jewish. (Could it be because a young woman from Queens I’ve known since she was in primary school with my sons is now a co-producer?) She expalins that he was conceived via a donor from a sperm bank: It was in Fairlawn, near the kosher nosh restaurant. You know, the place with the wonderful kugel.. She notes reassuringly All we know is that he was Jewish and very bright, which is what we requested. He was a member of Menscha. His father “Ira” (played by Richard Masur) corrects her: He was a member of Mensa. Fan sites haven’t gotten her quotes fully correct with their Jewish resonances. In “Gumball”, by Ames and Martin Gero, she defends her son to the cops who want to arrest him for killing a Jockey: He says he’s innocent. He went to Princeton – he wouldn’t lie! (He was framed.) (12/2/2011)

Modern Family (on ABC) used a Jewish woman for a punch line of a joke in the “Door to Door” episode by Bill Wrubel. When the older father takes his Latino son out for a lesson in suburban door-to-door salesmanship for a school fundraising effort, their spiel for Christmas wrapping paper gets several negative responses, including one woman who says apologetically: Actually, I’m Jewish. Even the dad winces when the kid brightly responds: Then you must appreciate a good value! (10/20/2011)

The CW mocked its own Gossip Girl’s reputation for having no Jews on its version of the Upper East Side of Manhattan by running an ad as “Gossip Goy” to promote the episode “The Fasting and The Furious”, written by Peter Elkoff. That was probably to deflect the borderline offensiveness of the episode where everyone was eating and working before the “Waldorf”s” trendy Yom Kippur break fast. In the morning, resident rich bad boy “Chuck Bass” meets a beautiful EurAsian woman with a randy dog in the park, finds out she’s psychologist “Dr. Eliza Barnes” (played by K.K. Moggie), shows up at her office to flirt, but is brushed off when she says she has to get to services. (Then what was she doing at work?) He expresses surprise she’s Jewish, and she, annoyed, explains she converted last year. He, cynically: Good move in your line of work. He pursues her from services that night and brags he gave a huge bribe to find out what temple she attended. She proceeds to give him a zinger of a detailed diagnosis on what he needs to lead a happy and a normal life. He’s shook up and calls her: I don’t need another notch on my belt - -I need help. I’m serious-- if you’ll help me. She has a busy night after break fast, because “Prince Louis” also calls for her help. At least in the next episode, her religion isn’t mentioned when her unethical actions on his behalf are revealed. (updated 11/12/2011)

Hawthorne (on TNT, out on DVD) is set in one of those TV hospitals that has no Jewish doctors (they probably think the Richmond, VA setting is an excuse), but the "Let Freedom Sing" episode by Sibyl Gardner, featured an Orthodox Jewish couple, in a story line that would have made a lot more sense if they were Conservative Jews. As the wife “Sarah Colton” (played by Rachel DiPillo with long brown curls) coos at the doctor’s photos of his kids, the yarmulke-wearing husband (played by Andrew Rothenberg) explains: You can see why she wants to be the youth director at our temple. [sic – Orthodox guy would have said synagogue.] But the doctor has bad news – the cancer has spread to her other vocal chord. She insists: Keep my voice box right where God put it. I stutter except when I sing. . .God’s given me something that that that not only takes away my embarrassment, but I can use to share Him with others. I can’t lose that. Later, she falls to her knees, and sings with her eyes closed, explaining with mordant humor to the interfering teen operating room administrative assistant: I was just praying, but it’s like talking to a wall. [sic – An Orthodox woman would be singing in Hebrew, standing, and swaying in davenning.] The insufferable teen lectures her about what she’s learned about life and God. “Sarah” earnestly justifies her attitude – which would make a lot more sense if she were a cantor in a non-Orthodox environment: I believe my life and my voice are a gift from God. I hope to be a youth director in a few years. Her husband interprets: We walk by faith. But later she cries alone: I asked him to run an errand. I don’t want him to see me like this. . . I’m hurt and really confused and angry! Why do I have to choose between my life and my voice when all I want to do is sing about my faith? (So why would she just want to be a youth director and not a cantor?) The teen suggests she postpone the surgery, as the wife is torn: I can’t just go by my feelings. . . .I have to trust God. . . I have to believe that I won’t [lose my voice]. She hums on the gurney to the O.R. and explains the Psalms: The words have been preserved, but we don’t know the melodies, so I come up with my own. The unqualified teen tells her post-surgery that the doctor tried to save her vocal chords, but the tumor had grown. The wife cries, gets up from her recovery bed to again inaccurately pray on her knees, as the soundtrack plays the Psalm she can never sing again. All of which inspires the annoying teen to get informally baptized by the O.R. doctor. (7/24/2011)

Southland- “Community” episode (description forthcoming) (2/8/2012)

Shoshanna Shapiro in the 1st season of Girls (on HBO, out on DVD) The first three episodes didn’t explicitly say that any of the characters were Jewish. So this reference by creator Lena Dunham in her post-episode commentary on the main females was a bit jarring, and may have been referring to executive producer Judd Apatow: They have “that kind of interesting mix of complete self-confidence and no self-worth that is the trademark of most 24-year-old girls and Jewish comedians.” But in an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air on 5/7/2012 she described the characters: "I wrote the first season primarily by myself, and I co-wrote a few episodes. But I am a half-Jew, half-WASP, and I wrote two Jews and two WASPs.”
In “Hannah’s Diary”, written by Dunham, the youngest of the four, NYU student “Shoshanna Shapiro” (played by Zosia Mamet), the cousin of the sexy blonde, globe-trotting British rose “Jessa Johansson” (played by Jemima Kirke), is stopped on the street by “Matt Kornstein” (played by Skylar Astin), who recognizes her from Camp Ramah (of all the Jewish camps that could have been referenced, this religious one was the oddest choice in this context, either out of ignorance or shock value): You led the most intense kitchen raid in my time time as a junior counselor. . . It was the most intense. She beams: We planned it for like weeks. They stare at each other as he concurs: It was really awesome. She murmurs: I knew. and they go from sit and talk on a stoop, to reveal more of her neuroses that led to her leaving camp early. He: I heard a rumor that you tried to kill yourself by sucking all the air out of a raft. She: No, I’m anxious, not depressed. I did that on a dare. She has a much more positive memory of him saving a girl on a kayak. He asks her to hang out that night, and they watch a movie together, and she nervously rattles off more to watch. But he’s wearing a knee brace and claims he needs to stretch his leg. She offers: U can put it on me, if that would help or whatever. He: You can touch it, if you want. She: I don’t want to touch it if we haven’t kissed. So he kisses her and then he’s quickly undressing her in her bedroom. He’s going on complimenting her body, including City girls are so much hotter than Long Island girls., when his face is quickly down between her legs: I like to eat pussy. It seems weird but I freakin’ love it. She squirms uncomfortably and hesitantly asks: Do you want to have sex instead? If you want to. He thinks that’s cool, but she goes on to confess she’s never had sex before, and he stops. He: Virgins. Not my thing. Virgins get attached and bleed. She pleads on and on that she wouldn’t be like that, repeating his terms with negatives, and begs. He: Not going to happen. In Dunham’s commentary: “When you’re in your 20’s, sex is the battleground where a lot of stuff gets played out. . .She’s getting so close but sex didn’t happen. Zosia was such a champ. I’ve shot a lot of awkward sex scenes, but that was especially painful because the character didn’t know how it worked.” Though she isn’t credited as directing this episode.
In “Welcome to Bushwick aka The Crackcident”, written by Dunham and Jenni Konner, “Shoshanna”, who “Jenna” introduces as “my maternal cousin”, has an experience inspired by a friend of Dunham’s of accidentally ingesting crack at a “warehouse party”. She motormouths about being very high and details having smoked “a glass cigarette”. When “Jenna” realizes what she’s smoked, “Shoshanna”s first reaction is: Oh, no, don’t tell my mom! Don’t tell me! “Jenna” volunteers to be her crack spirit guide to get her through it, but quickly abandons her to her best friend’s ex’s bandmate “Ray” (played by indie darling Alex Karpovsky), who has a nasty, stereotyped response: I’m not a fucking JAP day care! But when she runs off, he follows her down a deserted street, even when she bellows for him to stop chasing her and she attacks him with a move to the balls she learned to do in a kickboxing self-defense class (or some such) that she had only practiced on a mattress. She contritely offers a groin massage in a non-sexual way she learned in a sports therapy class. He ends up complimenting her technique. There’s another odd reference, when “Hannah” (played by Dunham) tries to empathize with an unusually-named woman that Sometimes people pronounce my name ‘Chana’ like it’s Israeli, which is completely disorienting. I’m beginning to think she’s so obviously not a New Yorker that she doesn’t get that her Jewish associations are a bit tone deaf.
HBO Interview: Q: “Ray tells ‘Jessa’ in this episode that he isn't running ‘a J.A.P. day care’. Do you worry about her coming across as a type? Zosia Mamet: I tried really hard to not make her too much of a caricature. I know Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner are always on the lookout for that. She's most definitely a character; she's not a subtle role to play. I'm sure some people think of her like that, but I hope that the majority of people don't. She might seem initially ridiculous, but she has a complicated inner life.”
In the season’s penultimate episode “Leave Me Alone”, written by Dunham and Bruce Eric Kaplan, the other “Girls” are jealous and sarcastic about the success of their college classmate publishing the titular, angsty memoir. But “Shoshanna” enviously thinks the vaguely Jewish-sounding-named author “Tally Schifrin” (Jenny Slate, who has played Jewish characters before) is “so beautiful”, whose experiences get her thinking. She monologued this really fast so I tried to catch the most significant sentences: I don’t know how much time I have left, so, like, I have to start living. I did something kind of crazy. I made an internet dating profile. My nutrition teacher who is like so cool met her boyfriend on match.com. . .I joined [?] one with the most expensive subscription. . . I got this message from a great sounding guy named ‘Bryce’ which is like a good name. He works in product development, which is good for me because I love products. And he’s Jewish. (Her cousin “Jenna” is particularly surprised by that, and repeats “He’s Jewish.”) He likes movies and food. . . .We’re starting in a public place because I know you’re supposed to do that in case they want to rape you. . .So we’re meeting at the café at the Old Navy flagship store. . .I’m going on a JDate!
In the season finale “She Did” (which applies to each Girl), by Dunham, “Shosh” starts the day in a bad mood: I hate today so much that I might not even go to class. “Marnie” protests: But it is so gorgeous a day. “Shosh”: Yeah, I know. It gives me such an uneasy feeling, like a spring itch. I saw 3 people touching tongues yesterday outside my final. “Marnie”: Three couples? “Shosh”: No, three people. “Jemma” invites the Girls to a mystery party (“Shosh” says she threatened to gut me like a fish if I didn’t come), and they are all shocked to discover it’s for her wedding. “Shosh” focuses only on her own inadvertent violation of social rules: I wore white. Because nobody told me. When “Jemma” throws a garter, instead of a bouquet, directly at her, she walks away with great annoyance, and tells “Ray” she’s too upset to dance with him: Everyone’s a dumb whore! “Ray” persists: You’re the strangest person! You’re so raw and open. You vibrate on a very strange frequency. She’s startled: Are you punking me? He: It’s very confusing to me, too. I want to go with you tonight. She: Fine. Just stay out of my emotional life. They sneak out of the party, and they’re next seen in bed, she looking very nervous. She: It doesn’t hurt. He: Because I haven’t done anything yet. He sits up and she panics, repeating such phrases as: You hate virgins! You totally don’t like me! You totally lied! You totally lied about liking me! He: You’ve never done it before. Thus, I’m teaching you how it’s done. It’s a lot of power that I don’t know I deserve. She: My aunt said it’s like scratching a sunburn. He: But I probably do. In Dunham’s post-episode discussion, she explains that “Shosh” is offended at not being involved in planning the wedding, when she’s read up what to do in brides’ magazines. While she describes “Ray” as being attracted to “Shosh”s “sweetness”, she says the cast discussed how “Shosh” would handle losing her virginity, including keeping her bra on, putting on a cheesey girly song (being identified), and lying very still.
To Vulture’s Katie Van Syckle, 6/21/2012, Girls’ Alex Karpovsky Calls Shoshanna an ‘Anti-Hipster’-- “As for what he thinks ‘Ray’ sees in ‘Shosh’: ‘A lot of things. Most strikingly her sincerity, her courage to be who she is, her belief in her own convictions even if they are not totally formed, her innocence. She hasn’t been warped by New York and its hipster bullshit. She is either an anti-hipster or a pre-hipster, one of the two. Either way, she is not a hipster, and that is a good thing for ‘Ray’.’ Not to mention, Brooklyn.”
As the show gained in popularity, there was online grumps that “Shoshanna” wasn’t in each episode, but she did qualify to be included for New York Magazine Vulture’s Kyle Hilton to create a series of Girls “Paper Dolls” to print out, with items representing her memorable appearances: “Listen Ladies book, abortion snacks, stuffed animals, ‘Just Smoked Crack’ face, ice-cream, missing skirt, and crack-fueled fighting stance!” (updated 12/7/2012)


Magic City – Evans family, etc. in the 1st season (on Starz, out on DVD) – The premiere episode, “The Year of the Fin”, by series creator Mitch Glazer, is set just at the dawning of January 1, 1959 in Miami Beach – but that’s no excuse for the plethora of Jewish women television stereotypes: the dead first wife (who we find out in the second episode was named “Molly” as if she was her mother, but then I can’t figure out why her sister looks like such a shicksa), the spoiled little rich girl protesting her upcoming bat mitzvah, and “the necklace of bubbes” on the beach, as one of the adult sons says his late mother described them. The patriarch “Ike Evans” (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) criticizes his daughter “Lauren” (played by Taylor Blackwell) as she prepares for the New Year’s Eve performance of Frank Sinatra at his ersatz Fountainbleu Hotel: If you’re going to wear your skirt this short, you better start shaving your legs. More commentary coming, hopefully before the second season, as the stereotypes got worse and worse. (More commentary forthcoming.) (updated 10/1/2012)

Joan and Melissa Rivers in Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? – 2nd season (on WE). Will the 2nd season of their “reality show” have Jewish references, as inevitably came up in this promotional interview “A Joan Rivers Moment” with Ralph Gardner Jr. in the 1/23/2012 Wall Street Journal?: “In private, Joan's obsessions sound little different than those of a thousand other Upper East Side mothers. Getting into the right schools—first for Melissa and now for Melissa's 11-year-old son, Cooper. Who knew that Melissa, in her early 40s, attended Park Avenue Christian, a tony preschool, before the family moved to Los Angeles? Joan admitted that she wouldn't reveal the school's full name to her Jewish relatives. ‘I said, 'It's called Park Avenue.'"
While the 1st episode of the season, “Skintervention” had no Jewish references as Melissa tried to convince Joan not to have additional plastic surgery, her mother made a frank, poignant declaration that she’s competing against the likes of Jane Fonda and Betty White as show business age peers, so she has to keep looking the best possible. As presented in the 2nd episode, “High Times”, the only Jewish reference when they are hosting Melissa’s boyfriend’s out-of-town parents, the Zimmermans, is when Joan is, in effect, performing for them, as they expect her to do, while she guides them around Hollywood. In a tour of Madame Toussaud’s Wax Museum, she poses next to a replica to mock: Mel Gibson with a Jew! (commentary coming on each episode -- updated 3/22/2012)


Annie Edison in the 3rd Season of Community (on NBC): I only discovered halfway through this season that one of the ditzy characters, the ultra-competitive one played by Alison Brie, was Jewish, so I’m catching up on earlier seasons in repeats/syndication.
In the “Competitive Ecology” episode by Maggie Bandur, the study group is thrown into a tizzy by the biology teacher insisting they change lab partners, so they exchange nasty barbs about each other: ”Annie”: Jeff, maybe it’s just that no one wants to carry you all year. “Jeff Winger” (played by Joel McHale): You’re right, Annie. It’s not personal. It’s not like people really like you. You’re just a good grade in a tight sweater. “Annie”: Well, you’re just a bad grade in a tight sweater. And who the hell are you texting?! Everyone you know is here! “Britta Perry” (played by Gillian Jacobs): If loving worms is stupid, I don’t wanna be smart!, i.e., like “Annie”: It is! And you can’t be. “Britta” makes excuses to the teacher about their terrarium assignment: We didn't have time to finish. “Annie”: Here’s mine. “Jeff”: When did you even have time to do that? You’re pathological! “Annie”: It’s too late for flattery. When the teacher announces that the whole group will have to share one grade: You will fail, “Annie” faints. But the study group keeps arguing and still doesn’t get any work done.
In the “Advanced Gay” episode by Matt Murray, the farcically extremely prejudiced father of the oldest student in the Greendale (CO) Community College study class pointed her out as “a Jewess”. Then in “Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism”, by Chris Kula, she nervously embroidered a cover-up tale after she broke a Batman: Dark Knight special edition DVD: Some of my jewelry is missing. A necklace. It was gold. White gold with emeralds. With my name engraved in Hebrew. It was a bat mitzvah gift. From my nana. She was a Rockette. She married a count. Who was blind. He loved her for her mind. “Abed” dresses as Batman to put together the clues in the theft: Hebrew-themed jewelry. She helpfully adds: My nana gave it to me. But what I especially like is the expectation of “Troy Barnes” (played by Donald Glover) that she would come up with something complicated: I know you think you can think yourself out of this with your thinkingness, but don’t think too much. You just have to confess. And she finally does. But I’m going to use that phrase as a funny take on smart Jews.
”Studies in Modern Movement”, written by Adam Countee, generated a #Annie’s Move T-shirt for sale at the NBC Store after “Troy” and “Abed”s twitter hashtag for a real time account of her move into their apartment, during the original broadcast:
In the annual Christmas episode, “Regional Holiday Music” by Steve Basilone & Annie Mebane, the zealously Christian African-American “Shirley Bennett” (played by Yvette Nicole Brown) describes her plans: Andre and I will be spending Christmas giving gifts to the more persuadable of our Jewish friends. “Annie” begs to differ: I wouldn’t call an unannounced visit from your pastor a gift. And don’t bother this year. I’ll be at the movies with my bubbie. “Troy” is confused: You’re not taking both of them? “Annie” tries to explain: Well, one’s dead. The rest was a hilarious satire of Glee, as one by one the group gets brainwashed into participating in the Christmas pageant. Sceptical “Jeff”: I don’t see how that’s going to happen. But “Annie” enthusiastically gets pulled into the spirit of the season as a sexy Santa’s Helper, complete with boa: This is one of the many costume changes I’ll be doing during the show. I guess we’re a shoo-in for regionals, right? “Jeff”: This is beneath you! You’re an intelligent woman – and you’re Jewish!. But she purrs in baby talk: I guess I have a lot to learn about holiday traditions. and deliciously sings a la Betty Boop/Marilyn Monroe or Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby” in Teach Me How to Understand Christmas. When she lands on his knee with a “boop-de-boop-sexy” and the boa around his neck, he grinches: At some point you reach a point of diminishing returns on the sexiness., and she pouts that she doesn’t understand “dim-im-im?”. At the finale, she joins the group wearing a red reindeer sweater to watch a long Christmas episode of their favorite old sci fi show.
Song lyric co-writer Megan Ganz explained (to Josh Kurp in Uproxx, 3/15/2012) about “Annie”s role in this episode, with zero reference to the irony of “Annie” being Jewish: “Alison was so funny. . .Every character in that episode is being lured into the glee club by another character, and they use that person’s weakness. . . For Jeff, what Annie is appealing to is his attraction to her infantile sort of nature. But that’s the same thing that sort of repulses him in a way, her youth. But obviously we’re sort of satirizing TV shows that do use women singing and dancing in provocative ways to lure attention, so that’s a very basic story point. There are songs like ‘Santa Baby’that show that men are interested in this sort of infantilized woman that’s kind of baby doll and dumb. And in the song, she’s getting dumber and dumber and crawling on the ground and trying to eat mistletoe because she doesn’t understand what it is, so it’s just a parody of those types of songs and also playing at the dynamic between Jeff and Annie.”
”Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts”, written by Vera Santamaria, has “Annie” being more of a stereotype as she starts with a dig at Starbucks: I miss having a coffee shop. Now where am I going to get my capucchino and Sarah McLaughlin CDs?. . .Every time I see a wedding I like I put it in a little scrapbook. Which turns out to be huge when she lugs it out to help “Shirley” renew her vows: Did someone say “Annie? Help? And something about a wedding?” While the anti-marriage/wedding “Britta” is much more efficient with the florist, “Jeff” asks: Annie, I need your help. You’re really sentimental. I’m really having trouble coming up with the toast. “Annie”: As Shirley’s friend, just say what’s really in your heart. And of course the montage of what’s really in his heart is funny.
“Contemporary Impressionists” had a funny batch of putative Jewish women at a bar mitzvah fawning excitedly over a strutting “Jeff” as a fake Ryan Reynolds, but the joke was on his egotism. In the satirical “Pillows and Blankets”, Season 3, Episode 14 first shown April 5, 2012, written by Andy Bobrow, as a funny mockumentary of Ken Burns’s The Civil War, the ponderous narrator identifies “Annie” as A health care administration student who turned a storage room into a sactuary for soldiers with broken glasses and lightly grazed testicles. . .A proud humanitarian providing relief to both sides. In the concluding parody of PBS fundraising DVDs, Greendale TV hosts offer: “From Labs to Riches: The Annie’s Boobs Story.”
In “Course Listing Unavailable”, written by Tim Saccardo, a classmate at the community college dies in a meth lab explosion and “Annie” implores the study group: Guys, how long are we going to avoid talking about this really serious thing that’s happened? The old tycoon “Pierce Hawthorne” (played by Chevy Chase) retorts: Why is it always about the Holocaust with you people? “Annie” persists on a memorial and leads a rousing eulogy that reflects, of course, on herself: Star-Burns, or Alex, as he liked to be called, was a human being. A Greendale human being, like me. I’ve given this place my childhood, my enthusiasm, and my loyalty. And in return, Greendale has warped me like a Barbie in a microwave. Our school flag in an anus. . . . We’re not even the best community college, in our community. Let that sink in. And the cherry on top of this total lack of sundae, I’m failing a remedial biology class on a technicality. All because you don’t know how to run a school. . . Shame on you, dean. Shame on you! Edison out! (updated 10/26/2014)


Harriet Korn in the 2nd Season of Harry’s Law (on NBC) In the 5th episode, the central, middle-aged bully broad attorney, played by Kathy Bates, suddenly proclaimed she was Jewish, in “Bad to Worse”, written by series creator David E. Kelley. That was news to me after watching the first season, and seemed typical of Kelley just throwing that in to stir the pot in an episode that started out about her defending a teacher of evolution to a creationist pastor.
In “The Rematch”, by Kelley, Amanda Johns and Susan Dickes, “Gloria and Abe Gold” (played by Katherine Helmond and Fyvush Finkel) are a lawyer’s first and oldest clients. The wife proposes the unethical and illegal process of divorce so that her Alzheimer’s husband can afford to be in an appropriate residential facility while she can keep the house. The story line is a bit of an opportunity to rail against how the health care system treats the elderly while Medicare is going broke due to such fraud, but the only reason for the couple being Jewish, with no connection to “Harry”, seems to be so that the ill husband can be a former stand up comic and Kelley can be the self-righteous defender of Jewish stand-up comics’ wives. Far beyond the Henny Youngman/Don Rickles mode, the old comic randomly spouts old routines that raunchily insult his wife (I didn’t get every word to transcribe). When the lawyer offers to pay for 24-hour care, she still tearfully insists on divorce-- turns out there’s a widower she wants to marry. For 60 years I had to hear to those jokes, always at my expense, in the privacy of my own home, at dinner parties. Now it’s all I listen to. How often do I have to listen to my genitalia be referred to as a ‘black lagoon’? I can’t take it anymore, not for a month, not for a day. I want that man gone. . . Chances are he’ll never know. “Harry”s lawyer is disgusted that she not only wanted to lie to the government, but to her lawyer as well. The wife returns to explain: I know how disappointed you must be in me. I’ve spent 60 years loving that man. I’ve been his nurse-- and more his brunt. I’ve never had a life, Tommy, outside of this. I have a chance of one now, however short, with a person I very much love. Is it so wrong for me to know a little bit of that life before I go? The lawyers talk about her case at the end of the day at a bar and sympathize. His lawyer tries to get “Abe” to stop telling jokes so she can explain the divorce, but he slides in and out of patter. I get the house. She can keep the mirrors so she can see what I had to look at all these years. . .We always said we’d wait ‘til the kids are dead. What am I going to do without her?. . .We were happy for so long--and then we met. When I make love to her, I like to think of something nice, like not making love to her. Oh, I have a recurring nightmare about my wife's funeral, like it would never happen. Ha ha hahaha. The lawyers try to explain to him that they’ll make sure he’s taken care of.
In “American Girl”, by Kelley and Lawrence Broch, “Harry” blasts a cop for stopping her driving her rented Mercedes Benz to a quail hunting weekend: I’m rich, white and Republican. She explains herself in a monologue that was a convoluted link to the Jewish American experience: Principles are important. . .My father and I used to go hunting. We’d go hunting once or twice a year. Then one day, on my 12th birthday, he decided he was gong to take me to a private club. We wre both so excited. We got all dressed up in proper hunting clothes, planned to have lunch. When we get to the club, they turned us away because we were Jewish. We were excluded. On the drive home, my father’s hands were shaking. “This isn’t what America is uposed to be.” We’re becoming less inclusive every day. It’s not what America is supposed to be.
In the series finale, “Onward and Upward”, written by Kelley, she gets stuck with the body of her deceased first husband who she hadn’t seen in decades, but whose last name she kept. She snaps that he’s Jewish so has to be buried as soon as possible or he’ll go to Jewish hell. But her mostly negative reminiscences of him have zero Jewish connection as she rants that while he encouraged her to move on from his legal secretary to go to law school, the best that she can say about him was that he was a “party”. But she does pull out their youthful wedding photo, and later recalls happy scenes from their wedding. At night, she visits his grave where she had engraved on the stone “Husband. Scoundrel,” where she admits to her colleagues that she loved him. (updated 5/27/2012)


Dr. Zoe Hart in the 1st Season of Hart of Dixie (the CW, out on DVD) On the 5th episode “Faith & Infidelilty”, written by Deb Fordham, the titular, displaced New Yorker “Dr. Zoe Hart” (played by Rachel Bilson, whose father is Jewish) concluded the episode dealing with the minister and his wife by admitting she was “half-Jewish” to her African-American landlord the mayor, who assured her she’d be welcome at church anyway. Though by Judaism’s criteria that means she’s Jewish, when her mother “Candice” (played by JoBeth Williams) showed up in town in “The Undead & the Unsaid”, by Donald Todd, to reconcile about lying about who her biological father was, there was zero reference to her background. Instead, there was a vague explanation by hunky “George Tucker” (Scott Porter) to his blonde fiancée that “Zoe” just reminded him of things he missed from his New York sojourn. In the episode “Homecoming & Coming Home”, by Rina Mimoun, her best friend from NYC brings her a care package of bagels from Zabar’s. In “The Pirate & The Practice” episode, by Debra Fordham, she fit herself into the town’s unique celebration of “Planksgiving” by publicly declaring herself a “Jewish pirate – Achoy!” with an exaggerated “ch” sound. But, oddly, the December episode “Hairdos & Holidays”, written by David Babcock, had zilch such references at all, even when the hunky lawyer shared reminisces of the season in New York, particularly of the Rockefeller Center tree, which only made her joke about the weather difference, not even when she coached a pageant contestant in Christmas carols.

In the “Hell’s Belles” episode, written by Donald Todd, the doctor is seeking out her father’s heritage by joining the Bluebell Belles, but there’s a vague reference to her mother’s side. In completing the initiation process of being a servant for the members, one comments on her tardiness: I thought you’d gotten caught up in the rapture. Oh, do your people go to heaven? The doctor finesses: With my family, it’s Ft. Lauderdale. Eschewing Southern tradition, she professionally diagnoses the group’s fertility problems as psychological. Very oddly, the “Mistresses & Misunderstandings” episode, written by Beth Schwartz, emphasized how the town folk, especially the ladies, don’t like her, don’t want to be seen with her, let alone be friends with her – but with zero reference to her being Jewish as a possible reason, trying to avoid a frisson of anti-Semitism in this sunny, bucolic Southern town.
In the “Aliens & Aliases” episode, written by Debra Fordham, even her temporary assistant “Tom” is aware of her background when he announces: I brought snacks in honor of our Zoe’s cultural heritage: bagels. Zoe: Or biscuits with the middle cut out. But in “Tributes & Triangle”, written by Michelle Paradise, she is thinking of changing her name from her adoptive father’s, without even consider using her mother’s maiden name before she decides on her biological father’s. This is directly followed up in “Heart to Hart”, written by Rina Mimoun, where her nemesis cooks up a thank you dinner for her adoptive father the heart surgeon coming to operate on her fiancée’s father – of potatoe pancakes, though she calls them something in French that neither I nor any fan site caught so may or may not be accurate, when she added: I thought your father would appreciate a kosher meal. “Zoe” tartly corrects her assumption: My mother’s Jewish, My father isn’t. The Southern belle sweetly, um, as butter, responds: How about you sit next to me and I can learn more about your ethnic origins? By the end, “Zoe” reconciles with her adoptive father and he asks her not to change her last name. (updated 10/1/2012)


Mrs. Wolowitz in the 5th season of Big Bang Theory (on CBS, 5th season out on DVD) (As heard and referred) continued blasting the voice and snarky descriptions of a monster of an emasculating Jewish mother, who I am only now catching up on, let alone that devoted fans find her hysterically funny. Until I get around to posting my transcriptions, that I can vouch for, of all the nasty comments by and about “Mrs. Wolowitz”, fan episode transcripts are eventually posted. In “The Pulled Groin Extrapolation” episode, teleplay by Bill Prady, Steven Molaro, and Dave Goetsch, and story by Chuck Lorre, Eric Kaplan, and Jim Reynolds, “Howard Wolowitz” (played by Simon Helberg) genially tells his unconvinced, blonde, very gentile fiancée that they’ll be living with his mother: Why would she move out? It’s her house. . .It’s a great house. Plenty of room. If we have kids Mom’s there to help. You know, when she tells the “3 Little Pigs” story she really has hair on her chinny-chin-chin. “Bernadette Rostenkowski” (played by Melissa Rauch): I'm not going to live with your mother. Not now. Not ever. “Howard”: Somebody, obviously, has some mommy issues. He proposes: Before we make any kind of decision where we live how about a trial run? Stay here for a weekend. See what it would be like. His mother’s reaction, as usual, shouted through the door (voiced by Carol Ann Susi): If she’s willing to give the milk away for free, who am I to object. . . After all your sleep-overs with the little brown boy, a girl is a relief., a reference to his South Asian Indian friend “Raj” (whose portrayal is as stereotyped as the Jewish mother, and yet more indications that she’s oddly brought in from the wrong generation gap). Among the stream of clichés about what his mother does for him, his fiancée asks: Does your mother always cut your meat for you? “Howard” assures: Only when it’s fatty. Don’t worry, you’ll do it when we’re married. Among even more insults by the mother and about her: Let me know when you’re done canoodling; mama needs a foot rub. The very crude yelling mother announces details of her business from the bathroom, even as “Howard” emphasizes their Jewishness by proclaiming, though this was first shown in October: It’s Latke Night. In what inexplicably to me is the most popular quote on the fansites about this triangle, when “Bernadette” greets him the next morning with Good Morning, handsome!, he assumes it’s his mother. But having prepared his pancakes breakfast-in-bed with her in the kitchen, the sweet, mild-mannered, low-talking “Bernadette” has learned to yell back at her in the same tone, and starts talking to him with a Yiddish inflection, as she heads back to the kitchen for some butter.
In “The Russian Rocket Reaction”, teleplay by Chuck Lorre, Eric Kaplan, and Maria Ferrari, story by Bill Prady, Steven Molaro, and Jim Reynolds, “Bernadette” sneaks out of his bedroom after he announces his unilateral decision accept an offer to be a payload specialist for equipment he, as an engineer, designed for a mission to the International Space Station. His mother is then heard, shouting offscreen as usual: Over my dead body my son goes into outer space! He complains to his friends: She went behind my back and turned my own mother against me! His best friend “Raj” from India, with similar parental issues, commiserates: She’s going to have to convince your mother to let you go into space. Talking to her girlfriends, it slowly dawns on “Bernadette” that she made a mistake: I took our love and threw it under his bus-sized mother! When she goes to his house to apologize, his mother objects to his pretending not to be there, with an oddly adjectival use of a Yiddish noun: What kind of a schmuck play is that? When she overhears them kissing, her warning is again pointedly given a Jewish touch: Make up all you want – your tuchas is not leaving this planet!
”The Good Guy Fluctuation”, story by David Goetsch, Chuck Lorre and Maria Ferrari, teleplay by Bill Prady, Steven Molaro and Steve Holland, put an aural costume on “Bernadette” in a Halloween prank-themed episode. When the usual barking roar of Who’s at the door? emanates from the “Wolowitz” house, “Howard” gleefully welcomes “Sheldon”: That’s not my mom – it’s Bernadette! Even the socially inept, borderline Asperger’s, “Sheldon” reacts to this continuing transformation: Really – that’s very unsettling. (very behind on more -- updated 9/11/2012)
”The Big Bang Theory Star Melissa Rauch On Nerds, New Jersey And Real Housewives’ in Huffington Post , 10/11/2011, Nicki Gostn: “Q: Do you get fan mail from nerds? [Rauch] I do. I also get fan mail from girl scientists and Jewish dudes excited that [co-star Simon] Helberg was dating a girl like Bernadette.”


In the middle of Rachel Berry and Sugar Motta in the 3rd season of Glee (on Fox, out on DVD), the cast appeared on Bravo’s Inside the Actor’s Studio, and Lea Michelle very specifically explained that while her father’s family was Sephardic Jews, she was raised in her mother’s Roman Catholic faith, with her father accompanying them to church. She noted that she didn’t look like anyone else in her school – but that was because the rest of the girls had plastic surgery. She related that “Rachel” was like her at age 8 or 9, because that’s when she was on Broadway: “It was my oxygen.”
”Rachel” continued to be pilloried with nasty put-downs in a Jewish context that were supposedly balanced by grudging recognition of her singing talent. In the opener “The Purple Piano Project”, by Brad Falchuk, “Kurt” reports on short “Rachel” and tall Finn”s climax from last season’ nationals: 'The Kiss That Missed' already has 20,000 views on YouTube and the comments section is just full of pithy banter, like ‘Why's that T-Rex eating the Jew?’, even as she had the ego crush of facing a roomful of competing college auditioners as talented as she: I've never been so humiliated in my life. . . We have to move to another town, erase our identities and resign to a sad life of community theatre. But she wasn’t the only Jewish girl made a butt of unredeemed jokes. Played by Vanessa Lengies, she introduces herself: I'm Sugar Motta and I have self-diagnosed Asperger's, so I can pretty much say whatever I want. I’m like a diplomat’s daughter. . . I want to be a big, big star. . . When I saw you guys singing and dancing in the auditorium, I thought: I'm so much better than you.. She’s beyond unaware of how spectacularly bad her audition of “Big Spender” was: I worked that song like a hooker pole. African-American “Mercedes” recognizes her advantage: Her daddy is the rich Jew who donated the purple pianos. Dozens of fan sites have not picked up this pejorative quote correctly.
In the following “I Am Unicorn”, by series creator Ryan Murphy, her indulgent father ”Al Motta” (played by Rick Pasqualone) of “Motta’s Pianos” that had repossessed the pianos from foreclosed homes, funds a competing show choir: My daughter is a supernova! At the same time, “Rachel” is waiting to be anointed the role of “Maria” in the West Side Story production: which means I’m going to be even more self-centered than usual. The coach votes for her: She’s Jewish but that helps with the whole Puerto Rican thing.
But in “Asian F” by Ian Brennen, ”Mercedes” does not interpret that “Rachel” gets the lead role based on her talent -- Why is everybody around here always trying not to hurt her feelings?. Out of spite she joins the rival group.
”Pot ‘o’ Gold”, by Ali Adler, continued showing the Jewish girls in a nasty light, without any complimentary balance. “Kurt” jibes about a photo of “Rachel”: Did you airbrush out your jowls? She’s even more egomaniac than usual abut the West Side Story plans: You can’t cancel my musical! I was considering changing my name to Maria! When “Santana” joins the alternative, female glee club, she intimidates “Sugar Motta” as a “Richy Bitch”, who instantly capitulates: I just wanted to be on the winning team for once.
The snide remarks about “Rachel” continued in “Mash-Off” by Michael Hitchcock. Even as she tries to apologize to “Kurt” for running against him for class president, her retorts: You should have thought of me before you walked all over me in your borderline sociopathic climb to the top. He bends a bit when she turns “a riveting twist” to pull out of the race, when she declares, in a bit of a demeaning way: Consider me your campaign slut. “Santana” cuttingly references her in mocking her boyfriend: Finn’s blubber would last for 8 nights of Hanukkah.
In “I Kissed A Girl”, by Matthew Hodgson, even this seeming altruistic concern for “Kurt”s election is revealed to be selfish, leading her to act unethically and get punished: I haven’t been this worried about a vote since [American Idol]. Kurt needs this election to get into NYADA. More importantly, he’s clearly the superior candidate. . .I mean, come on. . .I had to take a stand. . .They’re all so lost in their own worlds they can’t see how important this is to me! Elections have consequences! And the consequence of Brittany winning this election is that I’ll have to move to New York without my best gay. What if I need an emergency make-over, or a last minute soufflé? (updated 8/6/2012, more commentary forthcoming))


Ziva David on NCIS in her 7th season (The 9th season on CBS, out on DVD) In the season opener, “Nature of the Beast” by Gary Glasberg, “Gibbs” announces that her probation is over and she’s now a “journeyman” Special Agent. So let’s see how Israeli, let alone Jewish her character stays. Her past was also forgotten in Slate’s Secret Agent Woman: “Why are there so many female spies on television?” by June Thomas, posted on 11/17/2011. A New York Times piece on 2/7/2012 about the show’s robust ratings to achieve 200 episodes didn’t mention her at all.
In “The Penelope Papers”, by Nicole Mirante-Matthews, she makes one brief mention of her past with only a vague reference to her family connections to the Mossad: My father attended every birthday party, but his mind was always elsewhere.

In “Safe Harbor”, by Reed Steiner and Christopher J. Waild, there is a passing reference to “Ziva”’s heritage in an episode about Lebanese refugees who may or may be terrorists. She and the mother, played by noted Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, find common ground in family ties. “Ziva” concedes: I had a sister and a brother. I also had a mother. They were killed. The mother sympathizes: We come from troubled lands you and I. At the end, “Ziva”, as usual, turns this train of thought into her daddy issue when she confides in her boss: My mother never told me what kind of man my father was. Perhaps she thought I was not strong enough to handle it. “Gibbs” advises: No, she was just being a mom. She: How do you know? He: Perspective.
One of the closest mentions this season to even her Israeli roots was a, um, veiled reference to her Middle Eastern expertise in “Engaged, Part 1”, written by Gina Lucita Monreal. When she translates Pashtun, “Tony” is unusually admiring: It’s her #9 language. Our very own ‘Beauty of Berlitz’. She retorts: Actually it’s #7. “Part 2”, written by Gary Glasberg, had an even odder reference, as she asserts her confidence when they go on a rescue mission in Afghanistan: I grew up in this region. . .I can hold my own. Only because no one knew she was an ex-Mossad agent. Maybe her colleagues have forgotten too. Let alone that in the Christmas Eve- episode “Newborn King”, written by Christopher J. Waild, she made a Christmas reference to “no room at the inn”, but nothing Jewish.
”Housekeeping”, by Scott Williams, dealt further with “Ziva”s romance, opening with her frustratation that “Agent Ray Cruz” hasn’t returned seven phone messages to confirm their New Year’s Eve date. “Tony” teases her about going Some place quiet with someone she can count on, hopefully. But she’s been reduced to the petty lovelorn: That’s the word, is it not-- hopefully. Even if you think you can count on someone, you often cannot. “Tony”: Agent Cruz seems to be having communication issues.. The “Ziva” who used to seem like one of the guys, now talks like a chick flick: I’m losing my patience. “Tony” commiserates, for all those “shipper” fans, other than me, who want them to get together: We have a lot in common in that respect. “Ziva”: I am grateful to have someone in my life just as romantically dysfunctional as I am. “Tony”: Agent David, do you really consider me to be in your life? And her phone rings: What should I say? He advises: Say hello. When a blonde female agent thanks “Ziva” for retrieving an email from her mother, she asks if “Ziva” has plans for family, outside NCIS. “Ziva” : Family? Some day. But that day seems increasingly distant at the moment.
In “A Desperate Man”, written by Nicole Mirante-Matthews, “Ziva” is even more mired in romantic conventions tied up with her daddy issues. She comes in the office asking if the many phone calls from “C-I-Ray” (as “Tony” refers to him) can be blocked to her home and office phone. “Tony” pleads “Ray”s case, having taken his calls: The guy’s desperate. “Ziva”s mad: You’re supposed to be on my side! . . . Stay out of it! . . . He does not appreciate me. “Tony protests” how many women have said that to him and his endless number of dates, as “McGee” ripostes. “Tony” justifies: What about Ziva? She's like a bad Israeli romance novel. She's not exactly the picture of emotional stability. “Ziva” retorts : That is rich, coming from you. “Tony”: You're saying I'm emotionally unstable, Ziva? and “McGee” interjects again. Later, “Ziva” confides to “Tony” more about her relationship – and even tears up over a petty issue: While he was overseas you know we stayed connected as best we could, trying to make whatever we had work. And now he was finally back. We planned this, this lovely dinner but he never showed, Tony. I waited in that restaurant alone for 3 hrs, no text, no call, nothing. When I saw him next, it was just the following morning and he then, he just said he got caught up with work. (more commentary forthcoming; incompletely updated 8/22/2012)


Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold in the 8th season (on HBO). Creator Doug Ellin referenced her just briefly in discussing the final season on Charlie Rose, 7/22/2011, when he was asked the difference between how the character “Ari Gold” he created started out “as a low life” vs. how actor Jeremy Piven portrayed him: “And now he’s one of the great family men we’ve seen on TV. . .In the first episode he was talking about having sex with supermodels, and 8 years later we know he’s never cheated on his wife, he’s home every night, and she controls the family.” Though he wasn’t asked if she gets a name by the finale!
So I was quite annoyed when I got around to watching the final season that the first thing Ellin did in “Home Sweet Home” was break them up! Even as “Ari” pleads how he misses her and wants to come home, she sounds like some Beverly Hills Housewife cliché: I’m still discovering things about myself. . . I’m not ready. . .I’ve been seeing someone. Next, in “Out With A Bang”, by Ally Musika, she explains why she is with celebrity restauranteur Bobby Flay, who “Ari” sneers is just “a cook”: I need exposure to other things. . .He’s a chef. He’s a businessman. He’s kind, and respectful and generous. She’s furious at her husband’s anger and revenge tactics when he declares war on the restaurant, but by the next episode he’s first dating a younger woman and then sleeping with an old girlfriend his “Mrs” was always jealous of. Her name is finally casually revealed in the last couple of episodes: “Melissa”. And even their daughter “Sarah” gets to show off her smarts. There’s more arguments, that I’ll eventually detail, before they reunite by declaring their love for each other in the series finale,. (incomplete but updated 3/29/2012)


Jackie Goodman in the 1st Season of Friday Night Dinner (on BBC America, originally shown on U.K.’s Channel 4) – seems to be an old-fashioned sitcom “Mum” (played by Tamsin Greig, who gets to do a lot more on Showtime’s much funnier Episodes). From the first episode, we pretty much only know they’re Jewish because of the titular get-together of the grown sons with their parents, and the usual symbolism of the menorah on the dining room cabinet. At least the Jewish mother is a red-head for a change. (8/8/2011)

Curb Your Enthusiasm - Susie Greene etc. (HBO, out on DVD) (Commentary forthcoming) (6/6/2012)



2010/2011 Season

Mrs. Wolowitz in the 4th season of Big Bang Theory (on CBS) (As heard and referred) Until I get around to posting my transcriptions, that I can vouch for, of all the nasty comments by and about “Mrs. Wolowitz”, fan episode transcripts are eventually posted. I by chance caught a rerun of the 4th season’s“The Cohabitation Formulation” episode of Big Bang Theory, a year and a half after it’s initial CBS February 17, 2011 broadcast, and was surprised to discover that since the inaugural season Fall 2007 a repeatedly heard but not seen character who seems to reinforce every negative, infantalizing image of Jewish mothers on TV in the ranting telephone calls and shouts of “Mrs. Wolowitz” (voiced by Carol Ann Susi) as she henpecks her live-in engineer son “Howard” (played by Simon Helberg). I wonder which of the six credited writers is so obsessed with Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint to author her stereotyped lines in the teleplay by Bill Prady, Steven Molaro, and Jim Reynolds, and the story by Chuck Lorre (series creator), Lee Aronsohn, and Dave Goetsch.
Watched retrospectively, ”The Zarnecki Incursion” seemed particularly nasty, story by Chuck Lorre, Steven Molaro & Maria Ferrari, teleplay by Bill Prady, Dave Goetsch & Jim Reynolds. “Howard”s excuse about going along on an adventure is unusually Jewish: Tonight's the Sabbath and my mother and I have a tradition of lighting the candles and watching “Wheel of Fortune”, so If we could leave at 8:00, we'd still be able to regain our birthright at 10:00, 10:30 latest. Later, one of the friends, I forget who, is at the Wolowitz house: I thought this delay was so you could watch “Wheel of Fortune” with your mother. “Howard” : I am. She's just bleaching her mustache. Check it out. Hey, Ma! "Before and After!" Four words, 17 letters, two N's, one V! Ma: Fanny pack of wolves! Friend: That's incredible. “Howard”: Yeah, she's kind of a “Wheel” savant. New puzzle, Ma! "Same name"! One N, two D's, three O's! Ma: Whoopi and Rube Goldberg! Friend: That's uncanny. “Howard”: I know. It's her superpower. Well, that and jiggling her arm fat.
(1/27/2018)

On AMC's Mad Men, the audience may have perceived as Jewish the elderly secretary "Ida – 'Queen of Perversions' – Blankenship", who is revealed as the senior partner's ex-lover. Though there were never any specific references, the actress Randee Heller, who memorably laid down her surprising zingers, seemed to think so, per this AMC interview: "Q: Is Miss Blankenship's accent your own? Where does it come from? A: It's really a potpourri. I grew up with grandparents that were from Russia and they spoke Yiddish, so there's a little bit of that. And then my mom and my aunt and my father's family all were raised in Brooklyn. They were first-generation Americans, so we got a little Brooklyn thing going. And then I moved to Long Island, so I have that. It's a mixture of many accents." (10/10/2010)

Even in the fourth season of Showtime's Californication (available on DVD) I'm still only classifying “Marcy Runkle” (played by Pamela Adlon, née Segall) as a putative Jewish woman, though in the 4th episode "Monkey Business", by Gabe Roth and Matt Patterson, she uttered a distinctive Jewish reference in the midst of this typical foul-mouthed rant (what a couple of episodes later her new lover affectionately terms "obscene verbal diarrhea") to her best friend after her "golden showers" on a pregnancy test turned it positive: I can either vaccum this nightmare out of my twat or I can settle in for a burden of a lifetime. How did this happen? Why does Hashem hate me? Her friend asks whose it is, and she explains it can't be her husband's: That's kid's all ripped to shreds. The friend suggests Rick Springfield. Uh uh. He was all about the ass. Plus he never came. I came nine times and he was about a puff of smoke. . .There were a couple of CraigsList casual encounters here or there. But I never let them raw dog me. Shit, it could be an immaculate conception. . . Fuck, I'm not good enough to get knocked-up by God? Some friend you are! . . Do you think I'd make a good mother?. . .That little mutant would be fucking lucky to have me. And she weeps. As a concierge "waxologist", she dropped a Yiddish word in "Lawyers, Guns, and Money", written by Vanessa Reisen, when she showed up at a Hollywood mogul's house to do the whole Kardashian. . .but you don't have to go through the full body "meshugas". The character made zero Jewish references in the following two seasons, so I didn’t even care about watching the final, 7th season. (updated 10/19/2014)

Two putative Jewish women appeared in summer season finales. In the "No Exit" episode of Hawthorne (on TNT, out on DVD), story by Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara and teleplay by Mazzara, bickering elderly couple "Mr. and Mrs. Rickles" (Bill Macy and Debra Mooney) seem to be named in honor of the nasty comedian. His talk is full of Yiddishisms and references to having just having eaten corned beef at a deli; her sarcastic ripostes may have a Yiddish lilt: Threats! Be a man already!. . .If you were made of money instead of hot air, maybe I'd know what luxury was! Married 48 years, they smile at a quarreling doctor and nurse who have been dating, and in reaction they cuddle indulgently. They reunite with a kiss at the end of the episode's crisis. In Huge (ABC Family), the two part "Parents' Weekend" (Part 1 by Gayle Abrams, Part 2 by series creator Savannah Dooley), we meet the parents of "Ian Schonfeld" (Ari Stidham), who had been prominently wearing a Star of David necklace all season at the camp for overweight teens. The parents (played by Phil Abrams and Nealla Gordon) have no particular Jewish identity. They upset their son by first being overly solicitious to each other, which is evidently unusual behavior because their son says they usually argue, even in group therapy, then to announce to him that they will be getting a divorce. (I haven't yet read the book by Sasha Paley that the series is based on to know if there are Jewish characters in the original.) (8/7/2010)

Warehouse 13 (on SyFy) showed in the "Secret Santa" episode by Robert Goodman that even in science fiction shows Jewish mothers are in absentia. The family history of the boss "Artie Nielsen" (played by Saul Rubinek) was revealed when the youngest staffer of his Top Secret Government Agency schemed to have him reunited with his estranged father "Isadore 'Izzy' Weisfelt" (played by Judd Hirsch with a heavy Yiddish accent), who throws out a couple of Yiddish words. They bond over teasing memories about female relatives "Sylvia" and "Trudy", but their old grudges surface. "Dad": You spit on us! Your mother and me, we worked two jobs to send you to Juilliard. And you threw it all away to work for those fascists! "Artie": The U.S. government I work for! They're not fascists! "Izzy": Oh no! You never heard of McCarthy? "Artie": Oh, please! Dad: I couldn't work for years because – what? I had family in Russia? "Artie" ominously: I know all about the family in Russia, Dad. Dad: Is that right? They turn on the young staffer, but "Artie"s Yiddishkeit re-bonds them. "Artie": She nudged her way into existence! Dad: That's very good. Nudged!. . .Arthur, you [say?] your work was necessary and I believe you. . .Enough already, you get an A. You want to work yourself down to a B? It was when you walked away from music that was hard. "Artie" brings out his musical composition and they sit together at the piano, even as the dad continues to good-naturedly keep complaining about how he plays the "beautiful" piece. The dad calls the young staffer "the annoying gentile", but she leads them in grace in Hebrew before Christmas dinner, even as the dad jokingly complains about her doing it wrong. (12/13/2010)

So many crime series set in Florida, yet so few Jewish women! At least in the first season of The Glades, in "Mucked Up", by Lois Johnson, we heard about the bat mitzvah of "Esther Feldman", only because the Latino forensic medical examiner was pleased to be invited so he could network with her father the judge, even though he had to leave early for the case. (updated 10/20/2010)

Similarly, so many crime series set in NYC, yet so few Jewish women. Castle gratuitously stuck one in for humor, in "Anatomy of a Murder", written by Terence Paul Winter. Opening at the funeral of the Orthodox "Ephraim Mankowsky", his coffin falls and along with his body is a pretty, dead blonde. An older woman mourner, identified in the credits as "Tova", played by Cynthia Frost, calmly asks with a Yiddish inflection: Who's the shicksa?, and snorts that the father of 10 drank himself to death. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit also finally had a Jewish woman, in "Penetration" by Christina M. Torres and Dawn DeNoon -- albeit as a rape and murder victim, "Jennifer Briggs", only briefly seen in a photo. She was a 27-year-old accountant with a jewelry firm in the Diamond District who lived in SoHo. After a bad break-up, she joined "Project Mitzvah" which sets up correspondents with Jewish prisoners. But violent rapist "Seth Coleman" (played by Jeremy Davidson, who, ironically, wrote and directed the Holocaust survivors' drama Tickling Leo) faked his way into the program to get a Jewish pen pal. . .I've always had a thing for Jewish girls. They're freaks in bed.

On HBO's Boardwalk Empire, there are plenty of Jewish gangsters, notably the real Arnold Rothstein and Meyer Lansky. But even though there was a bar mitzvah scene late in the 1st season, and the other ethnic thugs have families, the only Jewish woman seen, even briefly, was a shocked mother who was called on to translate a mug's profanely scabrous Yiddish taunt of his torturer, even as she tries to protect her young son from what she's seeing and hearing. (updated 12/18/2010)

In the British science fiction import Outcasts (on BBC America, following one 8-episode season on BBC), about Earth refugees colonizing the planet Carpathia in 2040, “Dr. Stella Isen” (played by blonde Hermione Norris) was suddenly confronted in the 3rd episode, written by series creator Ben Richards and Simon Block, by a guy with an envious hang-up on Jewish scientists: You are Jewish? She reluctantly clarified: My family were. My husband is. What does it matter? This plot point may be related to the religious fervor sweeping the colony, even as the president insists it is secular. Her resentful daughter “Lily Isen” (played by Jeanne Kietzmann), who her frantic mom specifies while searching for her that she looks like her father, arrived on the last shuttle from endangered Earth. They reconcile after their years apart: They must have really needed you. Even as “Dr. Isen” asks “Lily” to move into her quarters, she warns: I take my work pretty seriously. I won’t be around much.
Her Jewish identity is not part of her official character bio: “Stella is Head of Protection and Security (PAS), the group that aims to maintain order on the new planet. She has sacrificed everything to save humanity, and desperately misses those she left behind on earth.” (7/8/2011)


In The Good Wife, Alan Cumming is not only surprisingly convincing as the fairly observantly Jewish political campaign manager "Eli Gold", but in "Silver Bullet", teleplay by Robert King and Michelle King, story by Steve Lichtman, he was shown to be straight and a father to a daughter ”Marissa” (played by Sarah Steele). He opens the episode with: No. Let me try that again, No. She rejoins: You're so cute when you're being emphatic! Your brow gets all-- He: And the key word here is emphatic. She: Mom said yes. He: Because Mom likes to make me the mean divorced dad. I say no. She: Why? He: Why do I say no? Because I do not want some Palestinian version of yourself blowing you up. She: Dad it's a kibbutz. Unless one of the tractors blows up, I'm going to be fine. Do you know how hypocritical this is? You're the one who always pushed me towards religion. [Note: She conflates Judaism and Israel.] He: Of course I know how hypocritical it is. I'm a parent! It's my perogative. . .Are we having dinner Thursday night? She: Unless you back out. You look happy – are you seeing someone?. . .She smiles flirtatiously as the young pollster enters and introduces himself. She: I'm the daughter. Her father warns him: She's 18 years old! When she calls to cancel dinner plans, he invites a young Latino woman he's been spying on. But the daughter shows up at the restaurant: Hello there. Dad: I thought you couldn't make it, Melissa. She: Change of plans Dad. . . .So you're the reason my dad's so happy. . . And how old are you?. . .I'm so going to Israel.. . .I'll let you two eat in peace. Love you, Dad. Don't forget protection.. When the young woman catches him in his lies, his explanation references his daughter: Because I'm a hypocrite.
That Jewish girls and women so rarely pop up on this Chicago-based/New York-filmed series is noteworthy as the co-creator Michelle King is Jewish (as identified in "The Good Wife and Its Women" by Jan Hoffman, The New York Times, 4/29/2011.) (updated 3/18/2015)


I don't usually watch "reality shows", but I was curious to see the Jewish references in the second time TLC's What Not to Wear made-over a Jewish former TV child star, this time Facts of Lifes star Mindy Cohn. While she was adamant about selecting clothes for comfort, her Jewishness was identified with her past and her "before" image. While her friends refered to "her shlumpy style", including Rachel, a childhood friend, she refers to herself as "the chubby little girl" on the show who now wears "a $300 shmata". She recalls auditioning for her first episode: I just turned 13 – freshly bat mitzvahed. She insists "I like my body. I'm 44. . . I like living Southern California beachy". She argues with the fashionistas as they pretty much throw out all her clothes: "This is hard for me you guys. I live in these clothes . . .I have to let my style reflect the work I've done on the inside." (Therapy?) The fashionistas insist her clothes should let her confidence in her body shine. There's tussles over her saying their rules but violating them – partly because she hates wasting money. But she comes around: "I didn't have to compromise on comfort.. . I can look fun and like a girl and still be comfortable. . . I will take the time, honor myself, and make sure my clothes fit. . .To marry my public and private Mindy image.. . I felt very affirming. . . I hadn't realized that when I wasn't working I had let myself go." (12/18/2010)

Grey's Anatomy executive producer Shonda Rimes proudly touts her refutation of African-American stereotypes in her several, female-centric shows: To The Wall Street Journal's Amy Chozick, on 5/13/2011, she declared about her production company Shondaland: "I get to have a land, that land is called Shonda. In that land, we're not going to have a black, drug-dealing single mother selling crack. Not on one of my shows." Willa Paskin in The New York Times 5/12/2013 lauded: “Rhimes’s shows have been the most diverse on TV. Oprah Winfrey recently praised her in the Time 100, writing, “She gets us — all of us! . . . Everybody gets a seat at Shonda’s table.” But that table only has occasional yet stereotyped Jewish women characters. (The scabrous satire Children’s Hospital, on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, pokes fun by having a male Jewish doctor with a yarmulke, but I haven’t seen a Jewish woman on the staff in its current, 3rd season that I’ve seen so far.) "Almost Grown", written by Brian Tanen, played on one of the excruciatingly oldest clichés about Jews seen in TV, about what the bar mitzvah means (let alone of emasculating, overbearing Jewish mothers). A son, "Seth", yells at his mother "Mindy Gruberman" (played by Susan Slome): You promised me after my bar mitzvah I'd be a man so therefore he can have surgery to have his man-breasts removed. She gets upset about him You just can't cut off the parts of your body that you don't like.. . .Your father has the exact same chest as you and nobody calls him a woman. (We do not actually see the father, who probably is a lot heavier than the very skinny son.) When the older surgeons get frustrated because they had already spent considerable time talking the mother into going along with the surgery, they instruct a young hunky resident to get her to change back her mind. The son confides to him about how he gets teased and wants them removed before he goes to high school. When the mother insists on consulting again with the senior doctors, the smug resident "Dr. Alex Karev" (played by Justin Chambers) then really chews her out in front of them, including a condescending female surgeon, repeating the gratuitous and inaccurate reference: He's a dude with breasts and he's headed for high school and there's no reason that he should be subjected to the psychological damage that comes from school yard crap. You want your kid to be man? Let him make his own decisions! The senior doctors approve and sneeringly turn to her: Any other questions?. After the surgery (which did have doctor-caused complications), mom weeps and the senior doctor claims to know what she's feeling and interprets for the son: She was scared and now she's just happy you're OK. The son turns admiringly to the arrogant resident: You're the man. "Dr. Karev": No, you're the man. (updated 5/12/2013)
Private Practice had a somewhat less offensive, at least warmer, portrayal of a Jewish mother later in the season (commentary to come). (5/12/2011)


Brothers & Sisters finally killed off vestiges of a Jewish connection from the first season, like any long-running show. In "Never Say Never" by Veronica Becker and Sarah Kucserka, when "Ida Holden" (seen in young photos of Marion Ross) dies off screen. As the family members recall her only negatively, they awkwardly, and inaccurately, prepare for her Jewish funeral, including her daughter shopping for a headstone and her grandsons arguing about wearing a kippah at the funeral, which is officiated by a rabbi: We weren't religious. . . But she was, so we have to wear them. Granddaughter "Sarah" (played by Rachel Griffiths): You think a big send off is going to change how any of us feel about Ida? Her daughter "Nora" (played by Sally Field) researches online how to write a eulogy, but ends up just weeping: It’s the things she wasn't that breaks my heart. Her son Saul (played by Ron Rifkin), who throws out a Yiddish word early in the episode to establish his Jewish cred, has harbored guilt and resentment for never telling her he was gay because he was sure she'd disapprove, but it turns out she left him a sweet letter implying that she always knew: Nothing she wanted for me happened. I spent all my life alone. I thought I was able to hide my loneliness from her. He toasts her and introduces her posthumously to the love of his life (played by Richard Chamberlain). (4/14/2011)

Upstairs Downstairs (commentary on the German Jewish woman refugee character and her daughter forthcoming) (5/12/2011)

In SyFy's U.S., Boston-set, adaptation of the British Being Human (out on DVD), the Jewish werewolf "George Sands" has become "Josh" (played by Sam Huntington) and he gained a lesbian sister "Emily" (played by Alison Louder), in the first two episodes "There Goes the Neighborhood" parts 1 and 2, by series adapters Jeremy Carver and Anna Fricke. She's is surprised at seeing him at the hospital where he works, and she describes her feelings in a Jewish family context. She: Where did you go? He: You found me. Here we are. She: I wasn't looking for you. Jackie broke her arm. He: She's your new. . . She: Girlfriend, yes. He: And her arm's OK? She. I miss you. He: I miss you too. How is everybody? She: Your family. We've been freaking out for the past two years wondering if you were dead or alive. Whatever's happened how can you not say anything to the people who love you? He: I told you not to worry about me. She: Josh, did you ever think that the one thing not to say to Jewish parents is 'Don't worry'? Please, just tell me what's going on with you. He: You wouldn't understand. She: Try it. He: It's complicated. She: Josh, I'm your sister. I'm genetically inclined to love you unconditionally. But I thought we were also friends. He: I really missed you. But I kinda need you not to tell anyone that you saw me here. She: What would I tell them anyway? This has been the least satisfying reunion ever. He kisses her and leaves, but she hangs around, and after work follows him into his new basement transformation room: He: What are you doing here? She: What are you doing here? Two years of nothing! And you can't even talk to me! He's in a panic: I'll come see you, I promise. I just need to be alone right now. She: I know why you ran away. . .You think I'm an idiot? Everything was ahead of you. Cookie cutter life, just like mom and dad. You panicked, I get it. You're not nearly as mysterious as you think you are. . . Why punish me? You were my best friend. Why shut me out? He doubles over in pain: It's complicated. She: Are you sick? He: You have to go! She slams the door and breaks off the knob. He desperately telephones his vampire friend, who is preoccupied with vampire stuff, and even begs his ghost roomie to help, who can't leave the house: I will kill her! Sister: Let me help you! He: You stay away from me!, and knocks her across the room as he starts to transform.
In Part 2, when his vampire roommate saves her from being locked up with him just before he finishes transforming in painful agony, she confides: I can't believe my sweet brother went mad. Our mother did, too, you know. I bet he didn't tell you that. You wouldn't know it now she's back on the tennis court and book club circuit. The 'incident' has been neatly filed away. Just our little family curse. . .Jackie's waiting for me upstairs. God, what if he never gets to meet Jackie? I really wanted to rub it in his face that I ended up with the shiksa goddess. Telling his roomie I'm really glad I didn't kill my sister, the next day he tries to warn her of the danger, but she persists: Your friend said you had a condition. Hey, are you mad at me? I told you something I hadn't told anyone. Next thing I knew, you were gone. . .It's me, Josh, what is such a secret that you can't tell me? I saw it yesterday, didn't I?. . .We're here, we're talking. What did you say to [his ex-fiancée]? Because if you didn't want to marry her and you didn't want to go to medical school. . . Look, Jackie and I are going home tomorrow. I'm not letting you leave us again. . .Let me help you Josh, please, come with us! They hug, but he demurs: My life's different now. I'm different. I don't want you to know me. You can't help me. Just leave me alone. She shows up in the next episode pressing him to visit his family. (updated 11/18/2011)


On Desperate Housewives, the provocative web site mogul, the maternal and entrepreneurial landlady "Maxine Rosen" (played by Lainie Kazan), is presumably Jewish, what with dropping Yiddish in the "Truly Content" episode, by Matt Berry, when she "kvelled" at the success of the cleaning-in-sexy-lingerie housewife, and the following week's "The Thing That Counts Is What's Inside", by Jason Ganzel, when she exclaimed at the hunky husband: Look at that punim!, and earthily rued that she'd "ride" him if she were younger. (updated 10/17/2010)

In Hung (on HBO, out on DVD), the season started off with the usual sexy Jewish women on TV –Israelis. In the second season premiere "Just the Tip", by series creators Colette Burson and Dmitry Lipkin, the specially endowed teacher and part-time male prostitute "Ray" has just finished having recreational sex with his naked neighbor "Yael Koontz" (Alanna Ubach) in his broken house, but she has complaints different from his clients: Ray, I'm too old for this. Ray: We should probably stop. She shakes her head: Stop what? You mean sex? There's no problem with good healthy sex. It makes for a fun vibe in the neighborhood. . .I'm not in the army any more. I'm too old to have sex on the floor. He: You were in the army? She: Yeah, the Israeli army. You've heard of it?. . Get a bed and some carpet. Your floor is giving me scabs. And you call that a skylight? Ever hear of hiring a professional? I don't remember that she even had a name in the first season or was definitely identified as Israeli, so maybe that's why he, too, was surprised. In the next episode, she buys him a new mattress as a gift. Later in the season in "The Middle East is Complicated", by Brett C. Leonard and Kyle Peck, a beautiful Arab client "Samar" is annoyed when he mentions his Israeli neighbor's "Middle Eastern" food, and she goes off about Israel not being middle-eastern and their humus as an example of all they took from us. The Israeli storms into his house complaining about her husband's use of prostitutes (He has this at home, why would he do it?) and gets angry at finding the Arab's humus in his refrigerator: Arabs can't make humus for shit. You want humus? I'll make it for you. . .I can't believe I fucked such an idiot. . .I'm sick and tired of Arabs laying claim to what the fuck isn't theirs. If you're naive and uneducated enough to listen then I have no time for you! Fuck you! And fuck your Arab humus! Fuck! The Arab client keeps asking him about the married Israeli neighbor: What else does she bring?. . .You can't fuck me and then fuck her and play neutral. . .Then choose a side. . .You fucked me. . .Now you've got to take a stand. Whose side are you on? Whose humus is better? Whose humus do you like the most? Interestingly, at no point in these discussions is there a reference to Jews.
So it was that much more perplexing that "The Key To It All" episode of NBC's Undercover, by Phil Klemmer, was set in Tel Aviv yet featured not a single female Mossad agent, let alone a Jewish woman tourist in the hotel that was taken over by Russian threats. (updated 1/4/2011)


The last season of the NY-set Law and Order: Criminal Intent (on USA, then repeated on NBC) had a slight twist on the sexy Mossad agent stereotype in "Boots on the Ground", story by Marlane Gomard Meyer and Paul Sackstein, teleplay by Meyer. The male victim is first seen buying sexy lingerie, and answers "both" to the clerk's query if the recipient is "sexy" or "classic". The detectives find that a follow-up call was made to send one to "Rebecca Landon" (played by Iranian-born actress Tala Ashe). The detective identifies her as a sabra (so I'll presume here that she's more than putative Jewish, though that's never cited), who served with an "elite unit" in the army, which I didn't quite catch, but I presume was Sayeret Matkal, not known for its female membership, and that linked her to the chalk left behind at the apartment balcony crime scene, which pointed to an expert in urban in parkour: You could scale a city wall. She also teaches classes in Krav Maga, the self-defense system of the Israeli army. With a shared congee tattoo and hacking friendship with the victim, she had passed negative information on mercenary military contractors that they collected on to Wikileaks in their joint effort to stop "the war mongering bastards". His mother the ex-member of the People's Liberation Brigade would have been thrilled if [her son] was in love with someone like Rebecca. "Rebecca", who was not his intended recipient of the lingerie as it comes out that she's married, admits that the reason she killed him was blackmail: I got a call. . .They told me my 12-year-old cousin had died in a hit and run. Next time [he] called, I did what he asked. She describes the fatal fight: It was him or my family. The detective sympathizes: He put you in a position that no one should have to be in. and turns to the jealous planner: You had an innocent 12 year old girl killed in order to force Rebecca to kill. (5/18/2011)


In the unfunny NBC sitcom 100 Questions episode "Have You Ever Had a One Night Stand", by co-series creator Michelle Nader, "Wayne" (David Walton) walks into his favorite NYC bar during Fashion Week and espies blonde "French-Israeli" (i.e. presumably Jewish) super-model "Arielle Goodman" (played by Beatrice Rosen, known as Béatrice Rosenblatt in her earlier French work) from his rich past: I saw her in Monte Carlo. Prince was doing jello shots off her stomach. I've wanted her ever since. She remembers meeting him there, but warns him: I'm going to make you work for it. . .I want you to woo me, Wayne. The good, old-fashioned way. When he proffers plane tickets for a romantic getaway, she demurs: You still think money is the way to a woman's heart? I wanted something from your heart. . .Figure it out because you have one more shot. His friend "Mike" (Christopher Moynihan) recommends he write a poem – in her native language, which stumps him. I once heard her talk in a wacky language. The friend gets a negative response to his query: Was it pretty? . . .OK, that was Hebrew. They write a love poem together, and do an online translation into some kind of gibberish. "Mike" is at dinner at the bar with "Arielle": I can't believe you are making me do all this because I don't have any money. She clarifies: I'm doing this to get back at you because you hurt me. . .We had plans in Monte Carlo and you didn't show up. I waited nearly 10 minutes. She's impressed he wrote a poem in her "native tongue": Wayne, that's exactly what I wanted to hear! Let's go to my hotel and get in the tub and maybe you can read it to me. But when he takes pity instead on the drunk female friend he had bet about getting a one-night stand that night, "Arielle" is left alone at the bar, where "Mike" finds her: He told me had to take a rain check. He rejected me for a second time. So he tries out the Hebrew poem on her and she grabs him for a passionate kiss. No surprise - "Mike" is played by the series co-creator. This show was so dumb, no wonder I don't watch many network sitcoms even for the sake of monitoring how Jewish women are portrayed. (7/8/2010)

Annie Edison in the 2nd Season of Community (on NBC and re-run on Hulu Plus) As I belatedly catch up with reruns of this season on Comedy Central and in syndication on a local station (where the episodes may be cut to fit more ads), I happened to distractedly watch “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”, written by Dino Stamatopoulos and Dan Harmon, where “Annie Edison” (played by Alison Brie) explained her December Dilemma “minefield” because her mother was Jewish and her father was Episcopalian (not that any of the many fan sites were interested in her full quote). Within the hilarious varieties of animation that the characters are portrayed, “ Britta” (played by Gillian Jacobs) muses that “Abed” imagines her as a wind up ballerina in Winter Wonderland animation: Because you’re fragile and tightly wound., on sale at the NBC Store as the BallerAnnie figurine:
In the finale song, she sings the line: Christmas can even be a Hanukkah thing. That’s what Christmas is for.
Early in the season, in “Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples”, written by Andrew Guest, “Shirley” is furious that “Abed”, in Messianic mode: Did you just scripture me, Muslim? “Annie” gently reminds her: Jesus was Jewish. “Shirley” retorts: Are you ever going to let that go?
In a satire of “a bottle episode”, “Cooperative Calligraphy” writer Megan Ganz explained (to Adam Frucci in Splitsider, 3/28/2011) how she built it around “Annie”: “As much as I can't really believe that an entire study group would stay in a room to look for a pen, I can believe that if Annie freaked out enough they, because they care about her, would have to deal with that situation before they moved on.” (I doubt that the writer is of the branch of the Ganz family related to me.)
Amidst the religion and fundraising satire, ”The Psychology of Letting Go”, written by Hilary Winston early in the season, the very Christian African-American “Shirley Bennett” (played by comedienne Yvette Nicole Brown): Everybody has some sort of service for the departed -- Eskimos, witch doctors, Jewish people. “Annie” retorts: Oh, cool. We made the list.

In the election satire “Introduction to Political Science”, written by Adam Countee, “Troy” (played by Donald Glover) and “Abed”s (played by Danny Pudi) candidate analysis identifies her ethnicity as “hot”.
In “Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy,” written by Andy Bobrow, “Annie” brightly explains: Pierce was having trouble quitting offensive phrases cold turkey, so I created a bargaining system. We traded “you people” for some of his other favorite phrases. “Pierce” (played by Chevy Chase): Yeah, I really got Jewish person-d out of that one. “Annie” proudly grins.
“Mixology Certification”, written by Andy Bobrow (first shown 12/2/2010), is quite insightful about “Annie” (yet without explicit Jewish references in her personality) – though the fan sites mostly ignore this. She’s adjusting to having a fake I.D. to join the study group in a bar to celebrate “Troy”s 21st birthday: I don’t think this girl looks very much like me. “Britta”: Come on, she’s a white brunette. “Annie”: So is Anne Hathaway. . .What's your friend doing with a stack of other people's I.D.s? . . So she's a drifter. A floater. An urchin. Caroline Decker from Corpus Christi, Texas. Texas? Do I need an accent? “Howdy, y'all. I'm Caroline Decker.” I should research Corpus Christi. “Britta”: Annie, relax. “Annie”: I'm not a relaxed person, Britta. I think ahead. I prepare. I don't improvise my life like Caroline Decker, who probably has really bad credit And an unfinished mermaid tattoo. . .If my I. D. says Texas, they'll be suspicious. “Britta”: They're not gonna question your I. D. Because you're a hot girl. “Annie” role plays: Oh, where's that accent from? Corpus Christi, Texas. What are you doin' here in town? Not much, I reckon, just driftin', floatin', spittin' in the wind, general waywardness. All righty. “Britta”: Annie, you're in the bar. You don't have to be from Texas anymore. “Annie”: I don't know how it works. I'm not a barfly, Britta. But she continues her act with the bartender: Actually, I'll have a root beer instead of that water. Y'all are so nice in this town. I'm Caroline. From Corpus Christi. Grew up on a trout farm. Deedly-do. I'm not exactly known for my sound judgment. Back in Corpus Christi, they call me Capricious Caroline. Bartender: What's capricious mean? “Annie”: Probably means I'm too busy livin' life to be learnin' $5 words! . . .I followed that band Phish- spells it with "ph". I just lived in parking lots wherever they played. I don't even like their music. Just did it to see if I could do it. And guess what. I could! Bartender: So what now? “Annie”: I dunno! Even if I planned it, plans just fall off me like chicken crap off an armadilla. Annie's the one that plans things, not me. Annie's my friend. She goes to school here. Thinks she's got it all figured out. She wants to major in healthcare management. What does that even mean? . . I'll tell you what it means. It means a master's degree followed by an internship. She's got the next 15 years of her life all mapped out. All I do now is just follow it or screw it up. Bartender: Another soda? “Annie”: Actually, gimme a screwdriver. I got no place to be. What am I -- Annie? Later, she gets reflective when “Troy” takes her back to her apartment: I pretended to be a different person tonight. . .But I did it because I didn't wanna be me. I did it because I'm not sure who I am. Admit it-we went to school together for four years, and you didn't even know me. “Troy”: Yeah, but I know you now. You're Annie. You like puzzles and little monsters on your pencils and some guy named Mark Ruffalo. You're a fierce competitor and a sore loser. And you expect everybody to be better than who they are. And you expect yourself to be better than everyone. Which is cool. “Annie” grins and hugs him good night.
But amidst the role-playing of “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons”, written by Andrew Guest, “Jeff” still sneers at her as “Annie The Recovering Head Case.” He continues in the same vein in “Competitive Wine Tasting”, written by Emily Cutler. She tries to be supportive of their older classmate: Maybe Pierce finally found his soul mate. “Jeff”: How can you say those things without any trace of irony? She: That's why they call me Irony-Free Annie. He: Mm, trust me, that's not what they call you. The closing joke is a scene from the student production of Fiddlah, Please!, which has male and female black students dancing in a circle to the rap: It’s hard to be Jewish in Russia. . .with an Old Testment beat. (updated 10/19/2014)


Joan and Melissa Rivers in Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? are in effect following-up on Joan's year-in-the-life bio-doc Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, where she was edited as mentioning being Jewish just once in passing. In the first two episodes of this very staged reality show, such that it borders on fiction, the family ties were the closest inference, and then the show was edited to emphasize their identity more, so they are probably the most prominent Jewish mother/daughter team on TV, and their ratings led WEtv cable channel to renew them for 2012.
In the first episode, Joan confides in her best friend how she never confided in her mother at all, but she expects her daughter to tell her everything. So she was hurt not to know that the boyfriend Jason had moved in. While Joan touchingly says she's moved from NYC/CT to L.A. to make memories with her grandson Cooper, Melissa is not just annoyed that grandma indulged by buying him a surfboard he was supposed to earn with good behavior, but that grandma had also told him to keep it a secret from mommy – which he didn't. Joan neatly tied in promotion with doing a favor to impress him, first getting him a tour of the set of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? that turned into her being a nervous contestant.
Their Jewish identity came out more in "Kiss My Ash", the third episode. It was a bit uncomfortable first when a staff member sitting in on the weekly "family" dinner butted into a discussion of the family "curse" of women who can't cook, with a mention of that old joke about how do Jewish women make dinner, that the Rivers' kind of icily provide the punch line for: "They make reservations." Melissa similarly played on stereotypes when she attempted to bond with her big, muscle-bound, tattooed concierge cooking teacher -- I went to Penn, you're from South Philly.. He commiserates that his 80-year-old mother lives with him and still treats him like a child. She clucks: The Jews and the Italians. Joan spends the episode both seriously and amusingly disposing of the ashes of a long-time family friend, but gets particularly choked up at the end. She explains to the camera that Jewish custom is to light candles on the anniversary of a person's death, but because she misses her friend so much, she wants to be comforted by lighting a memorial candle for him now. She cries while providing an emotional teaching moment to her family: You have to mourn as you want. Don't listen to other people. Melissa sensitively suggests she say good night to her grandson: New life always cheers you up. (More commentary on subsequent episodes coming.) (updated 3/2/2011)
Joan also guested on the “Joan” episode of Louis (on FX) (commentary forthcoming). She later gave him advice: “I can't stress this enough, always be good to older Jewish comediennes who were nice to you when you were starting out and had your head so far up your own ass that you had to clean out your ears just to see. You're welcome. Now, who do I see about my check?”

In MTV's American version of Skins, the British gay boy "Maxxie Oliver" has become the ethnic gay girl Tea Marvelli (played by Sofia Black-D'Elia). In the second, eponymous, episode, written by the father and son series creator team of Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain, she's not yet out to her large, very complicated family. Every room in her house is equally decorated with her mother's symbols of Jews/Israel, and her father's of Catholics/Italians. Though most commenters and fan sites only see her uni-dimensionally in terms of her orientation, in a webisode extra, as is done throughout the episode, she conflates her ethnicity, gender, and sexuality by explaining directly to the camera: I know this girl, she's smart, beautiful, kind, respectful. She loves her family more than anything in the world, and they love her back. She falls in love with someone she's not supposed to, someone she knows her parents would never approve of. And it scares her, because she's afraid to disappoint her family. But sometimes you have to follow what your heart tells you, right, because it's the only unbiased voice in all of us. Happiness in love can't be quantified. And it's not what you make out of it, it's what it makes out of you. Who she loves doesn't change who she is. She's still the same kind, respectful person you know, the person I want to be. It's you mom. You were 16 and you fell in love with dad. We're not that different, are we?
In her self-titled episode, "Tea" invites "Betty" (Blaine Morris), who is still in the closet at school, out dancing at a lesbian club, and they have passionate, Ecstasy pills-fueled sex in her room, waking up entwined. Downstairs together, "Betty" is surprised at the crowded, busy house: How many people live here? "Tea" grins: Just my folks. . .Want to meet 'em? She lays on the double entendres as her father enters: Betty came over. . .She likes to chew things over. Dad is vaguely aware they're on the way to school: Can't be screwing around that late – school matters. Gotta pay attention to that. Amidst the chaos, her senile grandmother (actress not yet ID'd), has a heavy Yiddish accent that implies she's a Holocaust survivor (if she were, say, 16 –like Tea is now--in 1944, that would reasonably make her 80+ today) and is mumbling about past presidents: Nixon didn't know how to. . .No one could take their eyes off Kennedy's smile. . .Tricky Dicky. . on their backs. . . Mom (played by Lori Alter), wearing a chai necklace, recognizes "Betty" and is also pleased that the girls are supposedly studying together: The last time I saw you was at [a] christening! . . .She needs a lot of work because she's very lazy. While Dad first criticizes her brother for his profane phone conversation: Don't use the 'B' word in front of your grandmother!, Mom objects in a whisper to something else he says: You have got to talk to him Marco! We do not use that word here . . .the L word. It upsets Grandma – you know that. And the camera focuses on a bunch of lavender in a vase, a visual reminder that will be repeated. Outside, Dad brags about his daughter to another of her friends, who the family thinks is a lesbian: I got a great kid. She loves her family. She's very open-minded. On the bus to school, "Tea" tells her friends that she's fine with helping out her family by dating a boy, in a way that double plays on both positive and negative ethnic stereotypes of Jews and Italians : No biggie – my dad's friends are kinda important. They're into family and sometimes it's good for my dad if I date someone who knows someone.
After school, "Tea" seems to be trying to speak up to come out at a very noisy family dinner: Mom, if I could say just one thing- for Chrissakes!, but her blonde sister "Maria" (actress not yet ID'd) captures their parents' attention by going into early labor with her third kid. (Dad later shrugs about having to support her kids too: The guy ran out.) Oblivious Grandma just keeps mumbling about past presidents: Clinton could get out of trouble like you could get a pageant queen out of her underwear. . . What's the difference, in Arkansas it's a skill --mazel tov! And she toasts him. Later, "Tea" masturbates in her bedroom to a poster of Audrey Hepburn (who also suffered under the Nazis as a teen during WWII). Her addled grandma walks into her room mistakenly, watches her, gets into her bed, and confuses her with her mother: I don't want you marrying that man. . .Italians! All they want to do is get laid. He'll never leave you alone. . . "Tea" confides about her angst that most commenters seem to only interpret about her sexual orientation, but I think is also related to her ethnic identity: Something's wrong with me, Nana. I want the sex. The girls I sleep with bore me. They're catty, clingy, I don't know. It never feels enough. Is it too much to ask for someone to be interesting? I just want to feel equal. Too much? But Nana is snoring away.
"Tea" justifies her dad setting her up on a date to the guy "Tony" (whose girlfriend is their mutual friend): He has family stuff he has to take care of every once in awhile. . . My dad threw his life away to be with my mom. He didn't care that his family wanted to disown him. Maybe he never wanted that world. He loves her. I can't imagine feeling that way about anyone. Maybe I have a screw missing. Which "Tony" (and most commenters) interpret as a sexual challenge: Maybe it just needs tightening . . You're mysterious. Nobody gets in. . .You think you have it all don't you. But I can match you. You met your match.. I took this as also about her broader frustration growing up within a confused identity and yearning for other kinds of equality. Significantly, she takes him dancing to Marlena Shaw's "Let's Wade in the Water" (available on several compilations of British "Northern Soul" music), which updates a gospel song to conflate Biblical Jewish liberation with sexy, "rescue me" funk. "Tony" thinks that means she wants to screw, but she just ends up laughing at his efforts. The young actor who plays him (James Newman) explained in a 1/25/2011 MTV News interview: "They're kind of brought together by this attraction, and I don't think it's necessarily a sexual attraction. . .I think it's a situation where you have these two people who are very bored, with no one in their lives that really gets them, and on that level, it's like a perfect attraction. . .But on another level, it's a disaster because Tea's a lesbian. It's not a situation where it's like she's a lesbian and then she finds a guy and is like, 'I'm not a lesbian anymore.' She really is a lesbian, and so for her it doesn't work, and for Tony, that in and of itself tortures him."
Coming home, she's confronted by a vengeful drug dealer looking for their friend who owes him money. He responds to her sneers: You're a funny little dyke., but her Dad sees them, and he skulks way. She goes into her grandmother's room (filled with Christian and Jewish decorations) and asks to sleep with her. Grandma asks if she's scared, and that gets her free associating about history again, but specifically within a Jewish context. Unlike most other commenters, I interpret her references as, first, linking Nazi persecution of both Jews and homosexuals, then, with how the Allies, under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1st Supreme Allied Commander Europe, didn't try to stop the crematoria, including the decision not to bomb the trains to Auschwitz, where prisoners wore forced to wear color-coded badges by their crimes of identity. While taking artistic license with the blending of pink/purple/lavender, her grandmother sees a continuity of persecution from the Nazis to the so-called Lavender Scare, blaming a man who wouldn't protect Jews within the hot war as one who also wouldn't protect gays within the Cold War, who were both branded in hysterical media propaganda as Communist threats by Nazis and McCarthyites alike:
President Eisenhower let me down. Some kind of war hero. He can kiss my ass. . . I told her, 'This is a free country; no one can hurt you now. We got no ghettos here, Marta.' Eisenhower should have helped us. He should have put a stop to it — but it was on the radio every day. I guess they thought between us and the Communists we were going to tear the place down. They even gave us a name, so every body knew what to hate — 'lavender'. I told her, 'It's a sweet flower; how can a flower hurt anyone?' But people visited. They said that wasn't the way Jewish people behaved. And Marta got so scared that they knew we loved each other. I heard she married a farmer in Wisconsin. Everybody's most particular there. Shame on you, Mr. President! Shame on you! She weeps, and "Tea" does, too: I love you, Nana. Grandma: I know you do, Ruthie.
The next morning, "Tea"s sexual and ethnic identities are again conflated to the audience. Dad calls her outside:: I wanted to ask you something. Is this the guy that called you that name?. . . He called you a kike didn't he? "Tea": Actually, Dad, he called me a. . . He turns back to the creep: That' s not going to fly my friend. Kike, that's an epithet, right there. . . See, this is my daughter and she's precious to me. She's not available to have names put on her, scumbag. She objects. Dad: You're a good person, you should be proud of that, kid. Tea: I love you Dad. And Dad's thuggish associates beat the guy up while discussing how to best run him out of town. "Betty" follows up a kiss in front of the other kids at school with a text, amidst "Tony"'s call: I matched you. I matched you good.. But as a strong, independent young woman who feels nobody does match up to her, she blows them both off for a "wade in the water" dance of liberation, like a contemporary Miriam celebrating across the Red Sea.
[Preliminary summary to be expanded., as I may have missed an episode, so I may wait for the DVD.] During the season, "Tony"s continuing infatuation for "Tea" disrupts the circle of friends, and costs him his girlfriend and earned "Tea" continuing sarcasm from "Betty". In the season finale, "Eura/Everyone" written by Derek Harvie, "Tea" resolves her orientation, at least to her satisfaction. She waits for "Betty", who brushes her off, and calls Tony, with long silences: I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For making you want me. I liked it. I liked that you wanted me. Tony: I love you Tea. She I know. I'm sorry for doing that. She visits "Betty" in the hospital, who is high on pre-op drugs to get her ankle repaired. "Tea" teases how the meds will affect her: Will you forget I hate you? "Betty", woozily: You hate me when you're around boys. What do they have that I don't have? All right, all right. And you totally don't give a shit because you're just a bitch. "Tea": Your wrong Bets, I try. "Betty: Sure you do. I want you here. and invites her into her bed. "Tea" has to go off to help her friends, and she and "Tony" instinctively hold hands at a dance club. But she ends up at "Betty"s room, who is post-surgery unconscious. "Tea" strips, gets into the end of her bed, and falls asleep with a smile. "Tony"s younger sister later says of her: The boygirl. [Tony] loves her as well.
Though after her own episode, the series only seemed to reference her confused sexual identity, at least with "Tony", not her ethnicity, so I don't know if the show's creator was only referring to that aspect in his responses to this hostile interview with AfterEllen: "Skins boss Bryan Elsley talks Tea, Tony and Naomily", posted by Heather Hogan, Assistant Editor on 2/18/2011- "AE: Can you talk a little bit about your process for developing Tea? I know you talked to young lesbian women as she began to take shape. BE: Like lots of the characters in Skins, Tea is based on a person in my life, someone I have known for a little while. She has given me an insight into some of her experiences. And there's a very direct correlation between her and Tea. And, of course, Tea was developed in the teen group, both here and in the UK. . . .AE: Fan criticism aside, do you think you accomplished what you set out to accomplish when you started writing Tea? BE: Yes, I do. I mean, the creation of Tea came out of my friendship with a lesbian who I like and respect and think is an interesting person, and my feeling about Sofia Black-D'elia, who I met and think is a tremendous actress. And, of course, from my teen group and writers room." (updated 3/26/2011)


Being Erica – Erica Strange in the 3rd season (Canadian series, shown in U.S. on Soapnet, streaming on Hulu) (commentary forthcoming) (7/1/2012)

Lisa Cuddy on House, M.D. in the 7th season, and in what turned out to be her last. Now that "Dr. House" and "Dr. Cuddy" are boyfriend and girlfriend, I anticipate we will see her personal side more, including her Jewish identity, and I'll only comment on those references. In the season's third episode, "Unwritten", by John C. Kelley, they are double-dating with his best friend "Dr. Wilson", who has never been particularly credible as a Jew. Regardless, in a go-kart race "Wilson" is side-swiped by his aggressive girlfriend. "Dr. Cuddy": What is her problem? "Dr. House": She hates Jews! Gritting her teeth, "Dr. Cuddy" puts her pedal to the metal, exclaiming: Never... again.
In "Small Sacrifices" by David Hoselton, an episode that tested "Dr. House"s thesis of "Everybody lies" within relationships with Jewish women, we learned a bit more about "Dr. Cuddy": she lied to the Dept. of Human Resources to get her first management job at 29, adding two years to her age to make her look more responsible, and she has a six-day marriage in her past. Meanwhile, we still learn very little about the putatively Jewish "Rachel Taub" (played by Jennifer Crystal Foley), but she's gotten friendly with a guy in an online support group for cheated-on spouses. She explains to her very jealous husband "Dr. Taub" who checked her e-mails: I tell him things I can't tell you. He: Not things about me, about you, about your new job, about coloring your hair, about how you felt when your mother died. I want to know those things! She: He's easier to talk to. He's open and honest. He makes me feel safe. He: Sounds like you love him. She: I'm not having an affair. He lives in Oregon. I've never met him. I probably never will. He: You're having an emotional one. She: Are you equating what I'm doing with what you did? He: I've done terrible things to you, and I deserve all this now, but you can't pretend what you're doing isn't hurtful. And she storms off, but he follows with an apology. ("House" does the same to "Dr. Cuddy", but they are both, in fact, lying as they do so.) She: You think I'm being selfish and I'm not. He makes me feel better about me and about us. He: That is hard to believe, because all I feel right now is betrayed. She: I never wanted that. He: Good, because just like you asked me to stop my behavior, I'm asking you to stop this. She shakes her head and responds like "Dr. Cuddy": I'm not going to lie to you. He: Is this revenge? She: I don't know, but I do know that it's something I need right now. He walks away and confides in his colleagues: It's not over. I just really miscalculated. I thought she'd forgive me for everything, but all those hurt feelings they just don't really want to go away.
In "Larger Than Life", by Sara Hess, there seemed to be some kind of ironic parallels being made again between Jewish women characters at the opposite ends of relationships, though there's still no references as to whether "Mrs. Taub" is Jewish. The "Taubs" are hot and heavy with sex, with her initiating it morning, noon and night. She claims it's a release from fighting for weeks with my sister whether to put Dad in that facility, but he's more and more convinced that she's really hankering for her online friend "Philip" who she's confided in, even as she insists she's never met him. "Dr. Taub" contemplates their 22-year marriage and his infidelities: I don't know how not not to be with her. to his young student, who calls him selfish. Even as the Taubs keep saying they love each other, he finally confronts her: It's my fault. . .Are you happy? She admits she's not, and he asks for divorce.
"Cuddy" tells "House" to come to her birthday dinner with her mom and warns: She's a handful. Guest star Candice Bergen is "House"s clinic patient, "Arlene": I wish that you would take a second look. I'm tired all the time, and when it's cold I get this weird pain in my shoulder.. . .How do doctors get this idea you're better than everyone else?. . .My own daughter is a doctor. She makes a hobby of dismissing my concerns. He: She sounds smart. "Arlene": Did she tell you to say that? He: I've never met your daughter. "Arlene": That's hard to believe, since you're currently shtupping her. He confronts "Cuddy": I have been going out of my way for months now to avoid old Jewish ladies on the off chance one of them could be your mom – and she's a shiksa? "Cuddy" justifies the casting joke: She converted when she married my dad. . .She's the one who ambushed you to find out what you were like because 'I never tell her anything'. He: I obviously can't come to dinner now. She's crazy and she hates me! "Cuddy": Obviously? I need you to come to that dinner. For two hours keep your mouth shut, and behave like an adult. Yes, you will be in hell, but I will feel better having you there. That is what a relationship is. We average our misery. The dinner starts with Mom criticizing how "Cuddy" is catering to her toddler daughter: When you and your sister were growing up, you ate what we ate, no excuses. . . She was a little vilda haya in the park today. Must have been all that sugar. "Wilson" tries to point out the research that counters that myth. Mom shuts him down: I'm sure it's very interesting. I didn't read any studies – I just raised children. Turning to "Cuddy": It's not your fault. How are you supposed to keep up with what she ate? You work all day, you're never home. Then she turns to "House": So, say you two got married? Would you convert to Judaism? "Cuddy" tartly interrupts: We haven't got that far, Mom. "Wilson": That's actually a really interesting question. "House": I'm an atheist. Mom: Honey, half the Jews I know are atheists. It's about community. "Cuddy": House is not big on community. Mom: Why; do you call him House? It makes it sound like you're not serious. His name is Gregory. I'm just trying to help you think about the future. You're a certain age now. The parade of boyfriends can't be as amusing as it was. You need to settle down, like your sister. . . I just don't want Rachel growing up thinking you're a slut. "House" starts telling her off, but Mom freezes – he sneaked a sedative into her drink. "Wilson": I'm relieved. Your mom is quite a handful., but "House" knocked him out too. The next morning "House" warns his staff that Cuddy's mom is in my office and she is really mad. She has settled in, reading his files and sticking her feet up on his desk, and speaks up first: I think we both know I owe you an apology. . .I know I can be a bit difficult. . . In the clinic, you were a complete schmendrick. But once you knew I was Lisa's mother, you held your tongue. That's because you love her. I still think you're a pain in the ass with a God complex, and I'll kill you if you hurt her. But I'm glad she has you. He: We don't have to hug now, do we do? Mom: What do you think? I have a train to catch. . .I'm coming down with a cold. Every time I stay with Lisa or her sister one of those rugrats gets me sick. Children are awful! He reflects on her to "Cuddy": You know, you turned out remarkably normal considering the genes in play. She: Thanks. He hands her a birthday present of a sedatives bottle for when her mom visits again. She: You are a sweet, sweet man.
In a TV Guide interview with William Keck, 12/13/2010, "Candice Bergen Visits House", she described her character as "'a gentile who would prefer to be a Jew. She considers House a goy unable to commit to her daughter.. . .[Cuddy's sister Lucinda] is the good daughter.' . . .Adds exec producer David Shore, 'Arlene's a tough-as-nails woman who's very hard on Cuddy. They love each other, but boy, do they drive each other crazy.'" (More commentary on additional episodes with the mother forthcoming.)
Their relationship was further explored in "Family Practice", albeit with only the briefest Jewish context when the mother calls "House" "that goyishe doctor". (description forthcoming)
In "Fall From Grace", by John C. Kelley, "House"s best friend, the Jewish "Dr. Wilson" makes a veiled Jewish reference when he argues with "Dr. Cuddy" about how she should handle "House" after their break-up: Appeasement is never the answer in the face of naked aggression. It won't be long before his tanks are rolling down your Champs-Élysées.
In "The Fix", story by Thomas L.Moran, teleplay by Moran and David Shore, "Dr. Cuddy" made an unusually explicit Jewish reference. When "House"s African-American #2 warns her about his latest hijinks, she sarcastically remarks: Ma nishtana. . .All those years of medical school and you never went to a seder?. . It's 'Why is this night different from any other night'? And she walks away from him. (updated 5/9/2011)


Ziva David on NCIS in her 6th season (The 8th season on CBS, out on DVD.) Her co-workers' light sexual banter with her continues to be a factor in why the series has become a strongly reliable hit, even as the writers grapple with "Ziva"s changed status into a U.S. citizen. But to continue to see her as sexy, they usually present her more as an Israeli than as a Jewish American woman. In the season opener "The Spider and the Fly", by Gary Glasberg, her colleague "Tony" is curious about e-mails she is getting from a guy she may have been with when on assignment in Florida, but in her usual befuddlement over American pop culture and slang, she doesn't get his references to "looking balmy": I do not know where you are looking. I do not have tan lines., insisting she was lying in the sun just before I came, and came up with thoughts about the case. His curiosity about "the guy from South Beach" persisted in "Royals and Loyals", written by Reed Steiner, as she insists: He's just a friend. But she very uncharacteristically giggled while reading her e-mail, piquing "Tony" even more: Señor South Beach? I'm glad there's someone out there who makes you smile. I'd like to meet him. She's amused: If and when you meet my friend, and I emphasize if, what will you say? He chuckles: "Be careful. Handle with care. Contents -- priceless." He went on to tease her about the British agent she was assigned to liaise with, though, as usual, she didn't get his movie reference to Bond: I'm not into bondage. I can assure you. But he insists the Brit will perceive her as sexually as he does: I'm just watching the pheromones oozing from your body. She protests: I don't see anything He persists: That's because they are invisible. It's just a musky scent given off to attract the opposite sex. She keeps objecting: You're being ridiculous. He combines pop culture references with his perceptions of her: It's true. First your 'Miami Vice', and now your 'Prince Albert In A Can'. Oh, they can't help it – you're just a walking Israeli love machine. Her boss drops a more serious reference to her origins when he revises his instruction to her about the British agent: Watch him like Syria, not Switzerland. In "Worst Nightmare", by Steven D. Binder, she is the only one not surprised by a young woman suspect's affair: I find older men, well, attractive.

"Dead Air", by Christopher J. Waild, reverted her to Israeli to keep her sexy, and treated her as an immigrant with Daddy issues. In this October episode about suburban domestic terrorists, it opened and closed with paeans to baseball. "Tony" rhapsodizes about World Series season: Baseball has seeped into the native consciousness in this country. She frowns: I do not feel seepy. "McGee" is a bit condescending: Maybe you just have to be born here. She shrugs: It's just a game. "Tony" goes on about Field of Dreams: It speaks to the immigrant experience. She is still bemused: I did not become an American citizen because of baseball. As "Tony" goes on, she interrupts him before the case interrupts them: You know, baseball is actually very popular in Israel. They even started their own-- She is confused when they describe a private gated community as representing the American Dream: A picket fence would provide neither security nor privacy.
They send her in undercover with her old Mossad identity to take over contact with the isolationist vigilantes: I'm afraid [bomb supplier] is out of business. In his line of work, competition can be a killer. . . .I'm Ziva David – the competition. Her colleagues follow her progress through binoculars. "Tony": How is Miss America doing? Who's she supposed to be again anyway? "McGee": She's playing herself. From five years ago. Before she started at NCIS. "Tony": Sassy rogue Mossad agent. Sometimes I miss that little minx. "McGee": It's only temporary, until we find what our suburban terrorists are planning. "Tony" is critical: She's not doing a very good job. Her body language is all wrong. Classic 'Ziva' would have been more reckless. Her hair would have been more wild. She was very sexual then. "McGee": You think Ziva's less sexual now? "Tony": Compared to the Ziva I shared a bed with five years ago, yeah. "McGee": But you guys were undercover. You were just putting on a show. You were just putting on a show, right? "Tony" just clears his throat.
Meanwhile, she is cannily doing her job in a way that plays on an intriguing blend of political shibboleths. She explains to the suspect that the bomb maker's line of work made him an enemy of Israel. Getting rid of him was for country. Doing business with you—now that's for money. I believe I have something that you need. The amateur terrorist is intrigued: A Mossad profiteer working on American soil? Where exactly do your allegiances lie? She: That does not matter. It is not my job to police America. I have other customers. [Bomb maker] had a thriving business. Good luck. Back at the office preparing for another meet, she nostalgically takes out her old set of knives, as "Tony" teases her about "a complete relapse". She's surprised: You did not like me then? At the next meet, her contact comments approvingly: I see you have quite the famous father. She: I see you did your check-up on me. Let's get down to business. She dismisses the other guy's work and demands more money. So he introduces her to the rest of his merry band of conspirators at a backyard BBQ. They explain their motivations by expressing their admiration for Israel (in a secular context, but sounding similar to the evangelicals in Waiting For Armageddon): In a way, you're fortunate. When Israel spends money on its military, it's usually to protect itself. We send money half-way around the world. She parries: You're not fighting a war on your own soil. The others protest (and I didn't get down their whole litany of complaints, which oddly sounded more like liberals than conservatives): Oh, but we are! Crime. . .illiteracy. . .The only threats our government takes seriously are the violent ones. . .Some of us here have decided to become a threat ourselves.
Later, she speaks very personally to the conspirator's daughter: Fathers, they sometimes make mistakes. Mistakes that require a lot of forgiving. Protecting "Tony" from the exploding bomb, she tackles him, ending up on top. He: This is nice. I miss the old Ziva. She smiles: I can tell. He: Don't flatter yourself. That's just my knee. She is surprised how dedicated the bomber was to coach a baseball team. "Tony": You'll understand eventually. She: Will I? She goes to the baseball diamond and picks up a ball and mitt. She calls out: Hey 'Gibbs' – have a catch? "McGee" is surprised at her skill: So you do know a little something about baseball. She grins: Yeah, my father taught me. As her new father-figure, "Gibbs" grins and throws her the ball – a la Field of Dreams.

"Broken Arrow", by Frank Cardea and George Schenck, continued to use "Ziva"s antecedents, even as it opens with her being thrilled to receive My United States of America passport! Her boss explains why he selected her for an assignment at a Turkish embassy function over "Tony": I'm sending another agent who speaks several languages and looks better in a dress. A higher-up is put off by just how good she looks: Does Agent David carry a weapon? "Gibbs" assures him: She is a weapon. She is charmed by "Tony"s con man father, who asks his son: What is your current relationship with her? "Tony": Ziva? We're co-workers. We don't have a relationship. It's strictly business. Dad: Then you won't mind if I make my move , if the opportunity presents itself. But even though she is undercover as his arm candy "Sophia", a notorious Turkish arms dealer recognizes her as "Ziva", daughter of "Eli", who is now working for the U.S., but she is able to put him out.
Two-part Sweeps Week episodes dealt specifically with her changing identity and relationship with her father. (I seem to have not gotten around to transcribing a key background episode from last season, October 2009's "Good Cop, Bad Cop" by Steven D. Binder, where some of these characters also appeared as "Ziva" dealt with the repercussions of barely surviving the mission her father sent her on.) In "Enemies Foreign", by Jesse Stern, she draws guns on two terrorist suspects, but when the man and woman speak Hebrew to each other, she recognizes them as Mossad agents. As "Tony" says sardonically: Oh good, the Israelis are back. The lithe, blonde (i.e. not stereotypically Israeli for TV) female officer (played by the Israeli actress Sarai Givaty) introduces herself: Liat Tuvia. In Hebrew Liat mean you are the one for me, Tony. "Ziva" sneers: In Israel, it is one of the most common names. "Liat" sneers back: Only grandmothers are named Ziva. "Liat" also stumbles over American idioms with him: You are very tongue and ear. "Ziva" corrects: She means tongue in cheek. But "Tony" is eyeing "Liat": Don't put words in the girl's mouth!. Her colleague "McGee" also appraises her: Clearly this is the new Ziva, your replacement in the Mossad. "Ziva" seethes. The very handsome officer "Malachi Ben-Gidon" (played again by T.J. Ramini, a Brit whose father was Palestinian) is amused: Did you think we would not move on after you left us? She turns on him: You left me! "Tony" plays peacemaker: Let's not get hung up on who left, right or wrong.
Back at headquarters, she takes "Liat" to the ladies' room (throughout the episode these Israelis speak English to each other): Outsiders are not allowed unaccompanied in this building. "Liat" again sneers: Congratulations on becoming American. You must be very proud. "Ziva": I am. "Liat": And your family? How do they feel? "Ziva": Y'know, you were personally selected by my father to fill a vacancy in his roster, not his bloodline. And trust me, the second part is not something you want to covet. She recites "Liat"s resume and compares them competitively. "Liat": But I'm not done. Benefit of youth. See, I would expect you to look into past content. But you seem to only care about my abilities with a gun. "Ziva": You have a pet cat named Bill. I happen to like cats. "Liat": Still, I feel this measuring contest would be more at home in the men's room, don't you? Back in the interrogation area, "Malachi" announces that her father is coming to a conference in a couple of days. "Ziva" is aghast: You're lying! My father has not left Israeli soil in 12 years! "Liat" retorts: We're not lying!
"Gibbs" meets with her dad (again played by Michael Nouri), who muses over the late intelligence director who was responsible for bringing our two organizations together. And for bringing my daughter into your life. I'm not here for her. "Gibbs", who has been her replacement father-figure: For Ziva. She has a name. "Eli David": I'm aware. I gave it to her.. . ."Gibbs": You didn't have to make the trip. Meanwhile, "Ziva" and "Liat" find they share a philosophy, doubtless from their training. "Ziva": It is not about the size of the gun. and "Liat" finishes her thought: It is about the will of the shooter. The director asks "Gibbs": How's our own David handling it? "Gibbs": Her father left her to die in a desert. Director: So it's a problem. "Gibbs": Would be for me. Won't be for Ziva.
When "Ziva" and "Liat" prepare security precautions to protect "Eli" from those trying to kill him, "Tony" watches them: Trained killers looking for killers. "Tony" grills "Malachi" about "Liat": Are you her first? Partner, I mean. "Malachi": She is young. What she lacks in experience, she makes up with a passion like I have never seen. "Tony": Am I sensing something between the two of you? "Malachi" smiles: Nothing serious. "Tony": So the two of you haven't slept together yet? "Malachi": Of course we are sleeping together. Just it's nothing serious yet. "Tony": I have to get back to Israel. "Malachi" grins: Next year in Jerusalem, my friend.
"Ziva" and "Liat" talk while on patrol. "Ziva": Given my father's many enemies, we would have been better served with advance notice. "Liat": Do you include yourself? Among his enemies? I wonder if protecting him from assassination is an appropriate assignment for you? "Ziva": Let us find out., and she plays her father in a mock test of their security plans. "Gibbs" bemusedly calls her "Director David" for the test, but she corrects I would imagine he would move more slowly. "Liat" shows up the inadequacies in their plans: A three man team is one thing, but we shouldn't be so naïve as to assume that means only three guns. I'm 'dead' now, but so are you. "Tony" teases "Ziva" about "Liat" besting her, using his usual movie comparisons: I've seen it a million times. The pretty popular girl gets all jealous when the hot new transfer moves in and steals all the spotlight. She's so disconcerted that she reverts to misunderstanding an idiom when "McGee" explains how he's "hung a net" to track down the terrorists. "Ziva": I do not know who Annette is, or why you are so proud of killing her.
The lab tekkie "Abby", who "Ziva" has uncharacteristically been attempting to bond with in earlier episodes, pulls her aside: You should see your Dad. "Ziva": How would that help the case? "Abbie": It wouldn't. Have you even spoken to him? "Ziva" : No. . .What does it matter to you? "Abby": Do you think it's just by chance that he came back into your life? I mean, what about Gibbs and his father, and Tony? Just there comes a point, you know, in your lifetime where - where they come back into your life. Because - because they matter to you, and you matter to him. I suppose that sounds complicated, but believe me, it's not nearly as complicated as knowing they're never ever coming back again. Meanwhile, her father is digging it to "Gibbs": You have a way of making my family disappear. And "McGee" is admiring him: I got to hand it to your father, Ziva. He has who knows how many guns trained on him right now, and he is completely oblivious. "Ziva": No, he's aware. He is always aware of what he does. Not caring about the consequences is what makes him who he is. "Ziva" and "Liat" then very effectively team up to bring down two of the terrorists. "Ziva": You did good. "Liat": So did you.
The captured Palestinian terrorist "Karif Yasin" (played by Israeli actor Oren Dayan) gives a passionate, and not unreasonable, rant against what the Mossad chief has done to his people: Eli David will be eliminated. . .It's war. . .You do not know who he is.. . .He will be lying dead on the street. "Gibbs" concurs, to a point: Yeah, he's a son of a bitch. But I'm not going to let you murder him on American soil. "Ziva" is waiting at the car to take her father to the conference with the NCIS director. Dad: I understand you volunteered for this detail. "Ziva": Yes, to protect my director. Dad: OK, let's go. "Ziva" gets unusually emotional: That's all you're going to say to me? Dad: What is the point? I know that face. You made the same face when I told my brother he could not buy you a pony. Ziva if you want to talk. We will talk. I'm not going to beg. "Ziva": Why not? You know, confronted with the prospect of your own death, another man would want to talk. Dad interrupts: A lesser man! "Ziva" slams the car door: A human man! Dad: Ziva, you are not dead. You are living your life, making your choices. If you choose to let me be part of your life, I would welcome that with open arms. I am saddled with responsibilities that you cannot possibly fathom. The safety of our nation. And every one of our neighbors wants us dead. I don't have the luxury of allowing my feelings to dictate my actions. "Ziva": You do not have any feelings! Dad: I have no feelings?... There was a time, Ziva. When I was quite different. When my house was filled with the sound of children laughing. You and Ari and Tali. There was a time, Ziva. Yes. His guard confides in her: His heart is hidden for a reason. She drives the car fast to avoid an attack. Her director to her dad: Most fathers teach their daughters to drive. I blame you for this. Dad: This she learned from her mother. When the guard lies dead, the fate of her father is left in a cliffhanger for the end of sweeps week.
In the concluding episode "Enemies Domestic" by Jesse Stern, "Liat" is furious about the attack: Someone is going to pay for this!. . .You know, our safe house in Tel Aviv is a concrete bunker - 100 feet below ground. "Ziva" retorts: Meaning this would never have happened there? Because there's no violence in Israel?. . .Are you blaming me? "Tony" and "Malachi" try to get them to focus on the evidence, as they find "Eli David"s blood. "Liat": Why do you assume he was kidnapped? "Ziva": Because it's the only option where my father is still alive. The two women continue to glare at each other. "Liat": He was walking. . .He made a tourniquet to take care of his wounds. He was not abducted. "Ziva": No he fled the scene. "Liat": No, he eluded his attacker. "Malachi" interrupts: He left us a trail to follow. "Liat" finds a message in Hebrew in the dirt, and rubs some of it out. "Malachi" identifies the message as knesset, the Hebrew word for "house or home". But "Ziva" guesses what the original message was, and she explains the Golem to "Tony", who mixes it up with "Gollum" from Lord of the Rings: Golem is a supernatural being from Jewish folklore. He was created from mud to protect the Jews. The mystics etched the word 'emet" into his forehead. When the task was completed the letter 'aleph' was scratched out, changing the word to 'met'. Do you understand what I'm saying?. . . Liat is an overachiever – she erased the entire word. "Ziva" explained to "Liat" how she figured out to go to the nearest synagogue (a really big, decorated one). [Rachel Gostl gave me the clearest and most succinct explanation: "The words that had been written were 'Bet Knesset'; the Mossad agent erased 'Knesset' to change the meaning of the message. "Ziva" told the story of the golem to illustrate how removing a small part can change the entire meaning. When you erase the aleph in 'emet', you get 'met' which means death, sort of the complete opposite of 'emet'."]: But just one question: why did you not trust me? "Liat": You're not with us. "Ziva" yells: Abba! Show yourself! "Liat" protests: Are you an idiot? "Ziva" makes an odd reference to the Passover game: We're not looking for the afikoman! He can hear us if we call him. "Liat": Yes, but you don't know who else might hear. But "Ziva" yells again: Abba! The two women take off their jackets and get into a serious fight – until "Eli" appears: Stop it! What are you doing? "Ziva": He's coming with me Malachi. "Liat": He's not going anywhere. "Eli": Liat, you do not answer for me. "Ziva" tells him his guard is dead and "Director Vance" nearly so. Everyone has questions for you. "Eli": Take me to NCIS. You will have your answers. "Ziva" is skeptical about his explanation: And maybe my father is lying. That is what he does. "Liat" is more sympathetic, and more than a bit flirtatious: When your whole country could be wiped away any day, you don't take tomorrow for granted. "Tony": That's terrifying. "Liat": It was meant to be comforting. The techie "Abby" cites why "Eli" is the probable suspect: He knew how to do it. He just confessed to knowing how to build the murder weapon. I mean, how many people know how to build a homemade claymore mine? "Malachi": In this room? He, "Liat" and "Ziva" join her in raising their hands.
There's flashback sequences to when the NCIS director "Vance" first met her father, on a 1991 assignment in Amsterdam. "Vance": So what wakes an Israeli up in the morning? "Eli": My wife. Though not for several months. "Vance" gets a background briefing on "Eli": We called him 'Mogen David – the star of David'. He rocketed up the ranks of the Mossad. The report says he's involuntarily inactive. He went off the deep end after his wife ditched him for someone else. "Eli" asks "Vance": Who will cry for you if this will accidentally blow-up, turning us into smears on the wall. "Vance": Who'll cry for you? "Eli": I have children. "Vance": Why would you lure a hit team here? "Eli": Because Mossad told me I could kill them. The Russian turned an Israeli sailor. Bled him dry for information, then sent a hit team to dispose of my fellow countrymen. My wife could no longer live with what I do. She took my family, my children, to ensure that they do not grow up to be like their father. This I cannot fight. I need a target. "Vance" later asks: What's your daughter's name? "Eli": I have two – Talli and Ziva. At the end, "Eli" puts a small Israeli flag on "Ziva"s desk: There have been times when I felt this job takes a piece of me. I worry they may be gone forever. "Ziva": Sometimes life--surprises you. "Eli" comes closer: Those are the moments worth living for, my Ziva. He kisses her on the forehead, and leaves.
"False Witness", by Steven D. Binder, was in effect the winter holiday episode, and "Gibbs" seemed a bit thick when he asked "Ziva" where she would be having her Christmas turkey. Her answer was not only not a gentle rebuke, but it's what we do on Christmas too: I'm going skiing. . .with my friend from Miami. . He lived in the French Alps for awhile and he says he misses the snow. Her colleagues continue to be curious about her boyfriend in Miami when she asks for extra days off to spend time with him, in "Ships in the Night" by Reed Steiner and Christopher J. Waild: He travels. . . .That's why I'm using comp time to visit him for three days. "Tony", oddly, teases that he's probably Cuban, which she denies. In the follow-up "Recruited", by Gary Glasberg, the colleagues gossip about her days off, even as "Tony" blithely claims: I have better things to do than to obsess over the whereabouts of our "Little Miss Fancy-Pants.. She calmly reveals, with a smile, more about her personal life than usual amidst their teasing: He came to me. We went skiing again, this time to Vermont. . . He enjoys nature, and I discovered that he's a fantastic cook. He made this delicious osso buco. . . He is an experienced man who knows how to appreciate life. . . .His name is Ray. I promise you, Ray is a good man.
In "Freedom" by Nicole Mirante-Matthews, after bemusedly fending off "Tony"s continuing jealousy about "Renaissance Ray", "Ziva" shows uncharacteristic sympathy with a military battered wife she suspects of murdering her marine husband by citing her experience as a tortured prisoner: I know what it's like to be under the control of a man. To feel like you have no power. And the only way to get that power back is to shut down. You tell yourself you must shut down. You tell yourself to never show emotion to anybody. I know what that's like. It's the only way you can survive. I also know what it's like to seek revenge.
At some point I will describe/transcribe her romantic relationship with “CIA Agent Ray Cruz”, which I was slow to do because I’m in a minority, non-PC view compared to other fans. I appreciate actor Enrique Murciano as a hunk, who was a prime reason I used to watch Without A Trace, but I was a bit disappointed with the hints first that her lover was Latino, only because I was hoping she’d keep dating Jewish and/or Israeli men, despite that her earlier such boyfriends kept getting killed off. (updated 1/26/2012)


Rachel Berry in the 2nd season of Glee (on Fox, Season 2 out on DVD) is pilloried with nasty put-downs that are eventually followed by a modicum of sympathy, opening with—"Finn": Rachel is what you'd call a controllist. Rachel: I'm controlling – controllist isn't a word. The second season premiere "Audition", by Ian Brennan, continued in that vein with club members calling her "an ambitious little freak" and her motivations attacked for dirty tricks against a talented new foreign transfer student from the Phillipines (including sending her to a wrong address at a crack house), who she first thought would make a good back-up singer, but she then saw as potentially taking solos from her: You didn't do this because you love Glee Club. You did it because you love yourself more. While her boyfriend defends and protects her, her apology is mostly in singing "What I Did for Love" (from A Chorus Line).
In "Britney/Brittany", written and directed by series creator Ryan Murphy, she's an overly possessive girlfriend now that she's won the former quarterback: I want to be the only thing that makes you feel good about yourself. She expands on that later: The only way this relationship is going to work is if we're both losers., but he assures her he'll let everyone know she's his girlfriend even if he is back playing football. She finally apologizes for her jealousy and they end up walking hand in hand down the hall. To her boyfriend's shock when changes to sexy outfits: I had a very vivid Britney Spears fantasy at the dentist, and since its made be feel free to be out of my own way. I've always been afraid to dress like a pretty girl because I never really felt like one before. Now I realize it's OK to feel like it now and again. Maybe it's a good thing., garnering unusual compliments from Mean Girl "Santana" who goes from accusing her: Hey dork, did anyone ever tell you that you dress like one of the bait girls on To Catch a Predator? to Well, congratulations. Normally you dress like a fantasy of a perverted Japanese businessman with a very dark specific fetish but I actually dig this look. Yeh. Gay "Kurt" is also approving: It seems that Britney has really helped you blossom. But it gets pointedly sneering that the only straight guy who has a positive reaction is the annoying "Jacob Ben Israel" with the big Isro—that "Brittany" calls "a Jewish cloud"-- who is driven to a sweaty, exaggerated sexual frenzy at the mere sight of his crush dressed like that.
Even if this is PR-ese, the parallels between perceptions of the Jewish actress and her character resonate in these interview quotes from Marie Claire, November 2010, around a cover story and series of sensual photos in designer outfits: "My acting teacher and music teachers didn’t really like me and they kind of ignored me. . . I was told by agents and casting directors I wasn't right for TV. I didn't feel that but I was told it and you believe it. I was always working on Broadway and auditioning for TV - things like Law & Order - but there was never anything. . .The minute I read it, I wanted to play Rachel because I felt like I understood her, and that she was part of me. . .Glee has made me feel beautiful. Now when people say that I don't feel like they're lying."
"Grilled Cheesus", by Brad Falchuk, dealt directly with religion, and was somewhat less mocking of "Rachel". Her boyfriend "Finn" finds religion in the Jesus image on his grilled cheese sandwich, and bends his knee to this icon for football success and: Rachel's a prude. . .but they're still girl boobs and I'd like to touch them. . .Please answer my prayers. But when he proudly announces his new faith in Jesus Christ the two Jews in the Glee Club are startled. "Puck": I'm a total Jew for Jesus. He's my number one Heb., but he' doesn't want to be bothered. "Rachel" is so upset that she sits "Finn" down in her room: Let's talk about your new-found love of Jewish and how it affects me. I want this relationshpo to go the distance, but I need to know that when I'm 25 and I've won a bunch of Tony's and I'm ready to have intercourse and babies that those babies will be raised in a certain way.. He mumbled under his breath: You're not going to have sex until you're 25? She: I want my children to be raised in the Jewish faith. Both of my dads' peoples were slaves once. I need to know that my children will be free to workship in the way that I decide is right. He: Sure, of course, yeah, they should totally go to Jew church and wear those hats and eat that salty stuff on their bagels She's grateful: I'd like to give you something in exchange for what you've given me. - second base, and he credits his new icon: Rachel's boobs are really awesome. Later, the club talks about singing spiritual songs on behalf of gay "Kurt" who is facing a personal crisis with his father's serious illness, but they are thwarted by his protests against religion in public school. "Rachel" takes this personally: I found the most perfect song to sing, and now its being torn away from me like Sophie's daughter! "Rachel" takes "Finn" outside so she can sing him her selection because Yentl was outside when she sang this song in the movie. --"Papa, Can You Hear Me?" "Rachel" later joins two other classmates at the hospital to pray for the father, as "Mercedes" explains: Rachel, Quinn and I are taking turns. We're from different denominations. "Rachel" explains to the angry "Kurt": We just wanted to do something.
In the episode "Duets" by Ian Brennan, with the theme of sympathy for people who are different and "special", the series continued its mix of both zapping "Rachel" big time and sympathizing with her a bit, here amidst a singing competition. "Rachel" confesses to her boyfriend: I'm not really a nice person. I'm selfish. I'm only really generous if there's something in it for me. "Finn" cheerfully agrees: Yeah, but I still like you. She: You're so kind and open. It's made me want to be a better person. But because they've together sung a lovely version together of Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" that they both decide would be bound to win, she explains to him how they can encourage the new guy to stay in the Glee Club so they'll win Nationals: We have to throw the competition. . . . He: Wow, Rachel, I'v never seen you like this. I'm impressed. She: Like I said, You inspired me. He: Technically you're doing this because it'll help us win Nationals so there's something in it for you so it doesn't really count as doing something nice. She: I'm just going to ignore what you just said. . .We have to find a way for the new kid to win the competition so he sticks around. Later she plots with him: Being the IT couple is so much harder than I thought. . . I am so stumped on how to lose this thing. In order to lose, "Rachel" and "Finn" giggly scheme to pick a lousy song and peform it offensively. (So they sing a love song ,"With You I'm Born Again", inappropriately dressed as a priest and a Catholic school girl.) "Finn" assures the new kid he no longer has feelings for the head cheerleader "Quinn": I'm with Rachel now. I mean she's a lot shorter than Quinn and she talks a lot, but I'm in love with her. "Quinn" also cites her in considering whether to partner with the new guy: What I need is to find a way to torture Rachel. So "Quinn" is very suspicious when "Rachel" promotes the partnership as a way for her to be "on top of the proverbial pyramid in every aspect of your life": What's your angle? . . Me winning means you losing and you'll do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn't happen, so what is in it for you? "Rachel": I agree, you're probably not going to beat Finn and I. But I just thought as the team captain, it would be good for the team to have healthy competition for 2nd place. While "Rachel" feigns surprise to the club at the outcome of the vote, "Finn" whispers congratulations when the other duo wins: We did it Babe. To make nice, both in the plot and, I think, to mollify the audience's impression of her, at the end "Rachel" approaches "Kurt" at his locker: I think that you and I are a little bit more similar than you think. "Kurt": That's a terrible thing to say. "Rachel" commiserates from personal experience: I know you're lonely. I can't even imagine how hard it must be to have feelings in high school that you can't act on for fear of being humiliated, ridiculed or worse. But we're going to win Nationals this year. And you know how we're going to do that? Because we have you. "Kurt": That's true. She: That's 12 people who love you just for being exactly the way that you are. I know you're lonely, but you're not alone. So, I was wondering if you would maybe want to sing a duet with me. I think you'll be really happy with my song selection - it's sort of everything both you and I love. He: But the duet competition is over. She: I thought this one could be for me and you.. The episode ends with their triumphant performance of "Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again", as originally done by Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland, with Michele superbly, full-on channeling a schmaltzy La Streisand, complete with sailor blouse and holding hands. (Wasn't it odd that Oprah managed never to use the J-word when Barbra had her final guest appearance on the show, even with their look back with Redford at The Way We Were, and had to be hastily reminded to add that the design book she was promoting could be given as a Hanukkah gift as well as for Christmas?)
In "Never Been Kissed", written by Brad Falchuk, the cheerleaders in the glee club snarkily comment they are surprised that "Rachel" is quiet and not bossing them around as usual. She testily explains she is fulfilling the teacher's assignment of opposite gender behavior, but zings they are sewing the sequins on the costumes wrong.
From Dave Itzkoff's interview with Ryan Murphy in The New York Times online 11/20/2010: "Q: You’ve said the bullying storyline won’t be contained to just this episode. How will you work the other characters into it? A. At the beginning, it is about the Chris Colfer character [gay Kurt], certainly. But as we get deeper into the episodes, it will be about how all the other kids are tortured and bullied. The kid in the wheelchair. The Jewish girl. Because they stick up for Kurt, they will all get increasingly tormented. So it’s not just about gay bullying – it’s about all different kinds that happen in schools. And how really, also, it’s about how educators struggle with what to do and when and how to do it. That’s something we are spending a lot of time and energy exploring – the teachers’ culpability and how, hopefully, we’ll shed a little light on the stress and struggles they go through, that in so many school districts, their policies are wrong."
In "The Substitute", by Ian Brennan, the series continued the annoying practice of condemning bullying of "Kurt", but tittering at put-downs of "Rachel" that are supposed to be compensated with recognition of her talent. With "Mr. Shue" out sick, she takes over the club: What solos would you like to hear me perform at Sectionals? They rebel, and "Kurt" begs the sub, "Holly Holiday" played by Gwyneth Paltrow, to take over. When she takes attendance, "Santana" mocks: I'm Rachel, [Finn's] loud girlfriend. The sub immediately sticks it to "Rachel": You suck! You're like a total drag! Has anyone ever told you that? "Puck" passes by: I have! "Rachel" later concedes: Maybe I should be more like you – all fun and forget about the consequences. Sub: Frankly, yes, you should. At least sometimes. When was the last time you did something just because it would be a blast? I mean you have all these great ideas. When was the last time you actually did one of them? . . .I used to be just like you, trying to get everything so right, hanging on so tight. (She's seen in geeky flashback.) "Rachel": What happened? Sub: I got punched in the face. "Rachel" agrees she needs to perform an upbeat number: I kind of need a partner. The sub grins with her 'catch phrase': I thought you'd never ask! They do an exuberant song and dance duet of "Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag" from Chicago, ending with a hug. "Rachel" throws her support to bring back "Mr. Schuester: I used to think I was the best thing in this school. But I was wrong. It's Mr. Shue.
"Furt", written by Ryan Murphy, continued the bullying protest, and even revealed a scintilla of misgivings for picking on "Rachel". She agrees with the rest of the group that "Kurt" is depressed, in her selfish fashion, and argues that they should help him: He's barely even competing with me for solos. Similarly, when he announces he's leaving for another school: I've never been so disappointed in you before. . .Does this mean you're gong to be competing against us in Sectionals? In another story line, she confesses to "Finn" that she didn't really have sex with "Jesse". "Finn": I had a feeling, considering how much of a prude you are with me. Not that I'm complaining. She smiles: Now we can save it for each other. So he warns her nemesis "Santana" to keep secret that they had sex: If Rachel found out, she'd break up with me. "Santana: And this would be bad because? He responds chivalrously: Because I'm in love with her and I don't want to hurt her feelings. "Santana" sneers: That midget? She's like an anchor dragging you down. He: Stop it Santana! That's my girlfriend!. She: Then maybe I'll tell her. If you two broke up, we'd be free to see each other, right? Later, "Rachel" comes in all dressed up for "Finn"s widowed mother's remarriage. "Finn": You look amazing! I just really love you! She glows with a "Me too." In "Finn"s toast, he calls their coupledom "Finchel". There's a bizarre side story where the cheerleader coach "Sue Sylvester"s mom shows up to attend her daughter's just plain odd solo wedding after years away from her family claiming to have been a Nazi hunter: And to think I was going to send you to Israel for your honeymoon. They love me there.
"Special Education", by Brad Falchuk, continued to mock "Rachel" in a way it condemns treatment of other characters, even while appreciating her talent and empathy from "Kurt", albeit with a Jewish jab. She starts announcing that she has made the selection for her solos for Sectionals, when the Glee Club teacher interrupted that he's changing the focus to dance. She: What – they're going to dance in front of me while I do my solo? "Mr. Shue": You are not getting a solo in this competition, Rachel. "Mercedes" is, well, glee-ful: Finally! So what song do I get to sing? When he announces who will be duetting, "Rachel" calls them "Ken and Barbie" and "Quinn" snaps back: You used to just be dislikeable, but now I feel like punching you every time you open your mouth! "Finn" supports "Rachel", calling her "the star quarterback", and arguments ensue. "Santana" attacks: Your boyfriend is a hypocrite. "Rachel": Like you even know what that means? "Santana": It means your boyfriend is full of crap, Hobbit. "Rachel" confronts her: You know what, ever since the wedding, you've been up my butt and I'm sick of it! "Santana" points to "Finn" for defending "Rachel": Oh yeah? Well, that's not what you thought last year in that motel room. That's right, Yentl. Your sweetheart – he's been lying to you. Because he and I totally got it on last year. "Rachel" is upset: Just tell me if it's true. "Finn": OK, I'm sorry I lied to you. But I just thought that if I told you the truth you'd get so mad at me. To tell the truth, you're kind of scary. She: Don't you see that it's a lot worse now? Why her?. . .Do you think she's prettier than me? The guidance counselor interrupts – it turns out they're talking in her office: Don't answer that! "Rachel" explains: My dads went to couples' counseling because one of them put up wallpaper in the den without asking the other and they said it was the only thing that kept them from killing each other. We need your help. That's why I set up this counseling session. The counselor suggests they use their talents and try singing to each other, like betrayal songs by the Eagles. But "Finn" argues: Why are you so caught up with who it was? She: Is it because she's hot? He: Yes, sure, she's super hot. She: As a therapist, is it therapeutic for me to slap him right now? The counselor quickly: I'm not a therapist. Maybe you should storm out.. And "Rachel" does.
She ostentatiously walks into the next Glee Club with duct tape over her mouth (and wearing a loud polka dot outfit) and confronts "Mr. Shue": You silenced my talents. I'm merely protesting. . .My talents are wasted in this club. My star shines too bright and I think you're threatened by it! He's having a bad day himself and very uncharacteristically explodes: I'm tired of this Rachel! You have a terrible attitude! You are a lousy sport! And it is not OK any more! She rises: Well, I'm upset! I'm furious about this! A couple of things, actually. (And glares at "Finn".) "Mr. Shue" expands: I'm sorry you're disappointed, but you could also make the choice to be happy that we're part of a glee club that is bursting at the seams with talent. There's an awful lot of 'my' talk going around. 'What's in it for me?' 'What solo am I going to sing?' Now when we go to Sectionals we're going to be good sports. . .When [others] win we're going to congratulate them because that's what we do. Out in the hallway, "Santana" blows a kiss to "Finn", and blows by "Rachel": Did I tell you he bought me dinner after? "Puck" stops by and is uncharacteristically empathetic: Rachel, are you OK? She: Are you talking to me? Are you going to steal something from me? He explains how his recent ordeal being locked inside a port-a-pottie for 24 hrs. has affected him: I promised God that if he got me out of there I'd start being nicer to people. No way I could do that, so I changed it to just Jews. He sympathizes about her "boyfriend troubles" and they walk down the hall arm in arm, with she complimenting his muscles.
Her lonely practice is later interrupted by "Kurt": Don't bother spying on me to get a leg up on solos. I'm getting to Sectionals in my mind. But he's there to ask for help with his solo audition: Because even though we hate each other, we've had our moments! And I could use your expertise. And no one knows how to kill a ballad quite like you. You are as brilliant and talented as you are irritating. She: This might be my only chance to sing for a little while, so I'll give you a couple of tips. She nixes his Celine Dion selection, and urges him to do a more personal choice: Do you ever fantasize about your own funeral? He: No. She: Of Finn throwing himself into the grave out grief and all the heartfelt speeches and the regrets.. He: That's insane. She: Clearly no one in the Glee Club appreciates me. So is it wrong for me to fantasize about them finally realizing how amazing I am and it being too late? And there's only one song that expresses these feelings. She takes center stage, and then she and "Kurt" exchange verses of, this is very funny, Evita's "Don't Cry for Me Argentina". Wherein, "Kurt" is told that the goal at his new school is to fit in, not stand out. At the competition, she helps him get ready. He: How come you were never this nice to me when I was your teammate? She: Because you were my only real competition. They hug it out and from the audience she reminds him to smile.
But it turns out he already knew about "Finn"s infidelity, and she confronts the Glee Club: Everybody knew but me! "Santana": Nobody tell you anything because you are a blabber mouth, and we all just pretend to like you. "Puck": No, I kinda like her. "Finn": It happened when you were dating another guy so you don't really have a right to be pissed at me. OK, I shouldn't have lied about it. But that's not what you really care about. What you really care about is the Santana of it all. She: Who are you right now? Guys, you're going to have to find somebody else to mindlessly harmonize in the background, because I'm not going on stage with him! But the teacher gives a pep talk to them all, and they tie winning Sectionals, and she even hugs "Finn" in all the excitement. Back at school, she's walking the stairs with him: When I started Glee Club, Mr. Shue said being part of something special makes you special and somewhere here along the way I lost that. But winning at Sectionals reminded me of that. "Finn": So we're part of something special, you and me? She says "Yes." He: I love you. No more lying. Ever. Hug. She: There's something I need to tell you. Last week when we were fighting? I was so mad at you that I wanted you to feel as bad as I felt. I'm so sorry, but it will never happen again. (We see the flashback of she and "Puck" making out for a bit before he decides he can't betray "Finn" again.) But "Finn" is mad: I thought you were a lot of things, and I loved you because and in spite of all of them, but I never thought you were mean. She: I'm saying I'm sorry. Didn't what you did with Santana kind of cancel this out? He: We weren't together then! I didn't cheat on you. How could you do this to me? She: It was a mistake! Maybe we should go to another counseling session. He: You can't have couples counseling if you're not a coulple. She: You're breaking up with me? He: What you did was really bad Rachel, and you knew how sensitive I would be about this after what happened with Quinn. He walks away. She calls after him: You said you'd never break up with me! He: I never thought you'd make me feel like this. Back at class, "Mr. Shue" announces: I think we should celebrate the best waywe know. So Rachel, how would you like to solo? She: I don't really feel like a solo right now. She defers to "Mercedes", walks out, and tears down "Finn 4Ever" from inside her locker.
"A Very Glee Christmas", by Ian Brennan, lamely didn't even try to deal with the December Dilemma. "Rachel" tries to win back "Finn" by creating a winter wonderland on stage, explaining: Being a Jew, I don't usually give Christmas gifts, but given how much you care about the holiday, I can make an exception. She offers him a I.O.U. to pick any song for her to sing. He declines, but she: Just like Broadway, the show must go on. Besides, the AV Club worked so hard on the snow. But instead of a generic winter song, she sings a schmaltzy 'Merry Christmas, Darling'. She keeps pursuing "Finn" with more Christmas songs: Last Christmas I asked Santa to give me you., but he keeps backing off: You mess me up Rachel. Can't you see how screwed up I am about this? I've had two girlfriends and both cheated on me. You can ask Santa again next year, but I'm officially breaking up with you. She invites the glee teacher to share Christmas Eve at her house: We're going to eat Chinese and watch "The Main Event". Was the plug that the inventor of the movable legs for the paralyzed kid is Israeli supposed to make up for the lack of even a token mention of, or conflict about, Hanukkah? I was so disappointed that there wasn't a Hanukkah song on the album either.
Michele sang "America the Beautiful" during the Super Bowl, but there was no reference to her Jewish identity in the bruited post-episode "The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle" by Ian Brennan, and even her personality was somewhat on its best behavior. While she first objects to the football team joining the glee club for the week in loyalty to our two dads --I will not be in the same room with known homophobes!--she quickly lets her preening ego win out over her principles: As offended as I am by their appearance here, I will not let anything get in the way of a performance., and she does a sweet duet of Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" with "Puck" intended to make "Finn" jealous.
In "Sexy" by Brad Falchuk, the only references to "Rachel" are cutting remarks by "Santana", about how she wears tights to how she takes over temporary chairmanship of the Chastity Club: Because you take over everything? (More commentary coming, particularly on "the Jewish nose" episode.) (updated 3/11/2011)


18 To Life (Canadian Broadcasting Corp. summer import to the CW, which was scheduled to run 6 weeks of 2 episodes a week, but pulled it after just 3 weeks. CBC ran the full first season and renewd it for a 2nd season.) In this Montreal-set sit com, created by and mostly written by Derek Schreyer and Karen Troubetzkoy, about 18 year old next door neighbors rushing into marriage, "Ben Bellow" the groom is from a secular Jewish family, whose father converted. Mom is "Judith" (played by Ellen David, who has also gone by the name Ellen Cohen), and also has two daughters, the younger "Wendy" (played by Arielle Shiri) living at home and "the big sister from Downtown" "Monica" (played by Kaniehtiio Horn). The joke is that the gentile family is easy-going, leftist hippies, while the Jewish family is conventionally straight-laced, so both are initially against the marriage. As "Judith" protests the engagement in the first episode "A Simple Proposal": Why are you doing this to us? . . .We're not going to stand by and watch our only son ripped from our arms!.
Here's the CBC's character descriptions of the Jewish females:
"Tom's mom, Judith, has a way of making Ben believe all her ideas are his, which makes her the real power of the house. Though her primary role has been Ben's Wife, Judith has had a few jobs over the years. When Ben was struggling to complete the bar, she ran a successful mail order business from home that more than paid the bills (though Ben's conveniently forgotten this episode of their lives). Still, she is much more comfortable exuding control from places that are hard to see. Judith is a traditionalist, and if the term may bother her feminist neighbours, well, she'll pour it on even thicker to rile them."
"Tom's older sister is the practical one, when she's not over-imbibing. The consummate latté-swilling city gal, Monica will bend over backwards to convince Tom of his mistake. Yet to discerning eyes, Monica's Sex-In-The-City lifestyle doesn't look too hot. One day Monica will discover she's actually upset her little bro beat her to the punch. But until then, she'll aim plenty of scathing barbs at Tom without spilling a drop of her latté."
"If there's one person who could prevent Tom from growing up, it'd be his little sister Wendy. Theirs was (and still is) a relationship of Three "T's" - teasing, tickling, and torturing. A rebel in sheep's clothing, Wendy relishes taking Tom down a notch or three. Growing up, Wendy and Tom enjoyed playing "blame the other", a game at which Wendy was particularly adept. But they're also fiercely loyal. Wendy's a precocious teen, possessing an adult vocabulary and insight that at times can be disconcerting. Though she has big ambitions in life, for now she enjoys being a kid, something she hopes Tom doesn't forget himself."
Are Jews in Montreal known to be right-wing conservatives? In the third episode, "It's My Party" by Jenn Engels, "Judith" fondly reminisces about meeting her husband at an anti-nukes rally – when he was attacking the demonstrators. "Monica" is portrayed as money-conscious, planning to "invite all of Mom's rich friends" to the bridal shower, rating the guests by net worth, and anticipating which expensive gifts she can take as her cut for planning the party; the mother of the bride sarcastically calls her the fraught sobriquet "princess". "Judith" confesses she hadn't told her friends about the marriage: Then maybe I wouldn’t have to tell them when my 18 year old son gets divorced., then relenting and inviting them over for a "Mazel Tov!" when she hears just how the bride has loved him since childhood.
"Goy Story" by Skander Halim, who also wrote Pretty Persuasion, was full of exaggerations that seemed to be intended to be realistic, not satiric, but I recognized echoes of how my nephew finessed between his mother and his bride:
"Judith" has invited the couple over for dinner: So Jessie, how do you like the matzo ball soup? "Jessie" responds sweetly sarcastic: It needs some bacon bits. "Tom" quickly adds: She's kidding! "Judith" is casual: I knew that – joking's in our DNA! She and her husband kibbitz about various Jewish comics, but she moves on: You know, Jessie, there's probably a lot you can learn about our people. "Jessie" takes a big breath: You know, guys, there's no way I would ever conv- "Tom" interrupts quickly: converse about something like this without keeping an open mind. "Judith": So you'll both come for dinner next Friday? Because I've invited Rabbi Goldstein, that's the rabbi who converted your father. . .So what's the technical term for a divorced Jewish woman? A plaintiff!
The couple talk in the library. "Tom": I'm just saying, if you come right out and say you're never converting, there's going to be huge drama. "Jessie": If I don't press and crease my jeans there's huge drama with your mom. . . So you want me to let her think there's even a possibility? That doesn't solve anything. It just delays the inevitable. "Tom": Yes, but the inevitable takes so much longer when it's delayed. "Jessie": But isn't that incredibly disrespectful to your religion? "Tom": Disrespectful to the rabbi, maybe. But to the religion, solid. It's just a white lie. Not even white – translucent. [The rest of the episode revolves around hiding and revealing various lies – including the ridiculous one that somehow his dad has been hiding from his wife all these years that he didn't go through with the circumcision.]
"Jessie"s mom lectures her against organized religion as oppressive, so insists on joining them for dinner, where she turns her nose up at paper plates and plastic utensils – how classy and wasteful! "Judith" explains: It just so happens that the rabbi keeps kosher and we do not. It's a religious observance. The in-law snorts: Good to know you kill trees to go to heaven. . . Why are you trying to brainwash my daughter? "Judith": I am merely trying to expose her to a different way of thinking. I mean she's an open-minded, intelligent girl, like – there must be someone. What's [her father's] mother like? "Judith" excuses her elder daughter as she proudly serves dinner: Here comes my famous kugle!. . .Wendy is at a Young Conservatives rally. The mother-in-law whispers: Do you see Jessie? This is how they rope us in.
The Rabbi addresses "Jessie": Judith said you expressed an interest in our faith. "Jessie": Actually, I think she expressed that interest for me. Her mother interjects: I just have to get this out there. It is possible to live a life without being bound by religion. "Judith": If you like to drift around aimlessly with no direction or purpose. The in-law: All right, Jessie is not converting! "Jessie": All I'm saying is that, while I respect your religion, I'm not really comfortable with the intention of this dinner. Her mother: Some of us feel religion has wreaked havoc the world over. Suddenly, the older sister "Monica" shows up and her brother asks her not to make things worse: Tom, please, what kind of manipulative, self-serving bitch do you think I am? But she starts hinting at her father's lies, asking the rabbi about the brit and circumcision, for a silly discussion that leads to exposure all around, including "Tom" blurting out about his wife: She has no intention of converting. Never did! "Monica" grins at the shouted chaos: Best family dinner ever. L'chaim! (updated 9/3/2010)


Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold in the 7th season (on HBO) While I still haven't gotten around to commenting here on the previous season of my favorite Jewish couple on TV, this season's opening episode "Stunted", written and directed by series creator Doug Ellin around a theme of macho posturing, had what I think was the first time one of the boys commented admiringly about their marriage. As "E" faces his own nuptials, he stops "Ari" from his sarcastic jokes about his wife: You're the perfect picture of marital bliss. The Mrs. is seen a couple of times on the phone demanding that "Ari" join her at a school parent/teacher conference: I like it when we do these things together! She's almost mollified with a promise of a fancy dinner when he cancels again – almost.
"Buzzed" by Ally Musika introduces jealousy for one of the first times in the series, as the Mrs. catches "Ari" congratulating a comely, ambitious colleague in the office– when he was supposed to be shopping with her for a vintage chandelier. This becomes a key incident for "Ari" for the season, as he risks his business and reputation to appease his wife to prove his fealty to their marriage. In "Dramedy", by Ellin, his kids warn him before breakfast that their mother is mad at him. Their daughter warns: You have have done something wrong! He nervously pleads with the Mrs. in the kitchen: Tell them, honey, that we're all good. Mrs.: What am I so upset about?. . The slut who ruined your best friend's career and marriage is still working in your office. I still don't understand why you didn't fire her last year! And if that wasn't enough, for some reason you were spinning her around as if you'd just won Dancing With the Stars. Why were you spinning her around, Ari? He explains his excitement over getting an NFL team for L.A. But the Mrs. persists: I don’t like that gal, Ari, I don't like her one bit. But that night when he announces what he did at work, she's taken aback: What? You fired her? Now I feel bad! "Ari" shows his priorities: She'll be fine. What about us?
In "Bottoms Up", by Ally Musika, the "Golds" are having uncomfortable sex in bed, with the Mrs. yelling "Ow!" several times, until she pushes him off her: Why are you so angry? He apologizes, and admits he's mad at the woman he fired, who is on a revengeful tear through Hollywood. Mrs. is annoyed: You were thinking about her while you were having sex with me? Do you have some kind of confession to make? He explains how she's been raiding his clients: Baby, that's what marriage is for, to have sex so you can bang out your anger. I'm sure you've done it to me. But the Mrs. walks away. He confesses that he has been neglecting some of his clients due to the NFL deal. Mrs: Yeah, you've been neglecting some other people too. He: "Baby we were just having sex! Mrs: You were having sex! He pleads for her to come back to bed: Baby, you can't leave me like this! How am I gong to work? Mrs: Work yourself Ari. That evening, the Mrs. comes home to a hallway strewn with rose petals, leading to "Ari" in a petal-filled bed: I saved the most important meeting of the day for last. Let me show you how much you mean to me. Mrs: Maybe I want to hear it. He: Can I do it after? I still have blue balls from this morning. Mrs: You lost your hustle. He: I love you! You are the most important person in the world to me! I owe everything to you! You're beautiful! She smiles: OK, you can tell me more after we're done. And she strips to reveal scanty, sexy lingerie. As they kiss in bed, with her thonged ass prominently in the lens (that ties together the theme for the episode), the phone rings. She answers it: I'm giving you a taste of your own medicine. He gets bad business news, so that even when he gets back to kissing her she asks: Are you angry? I'll take a rain check. and walks away with a swaying wiggle.
In "Hair", by Ellin, the Mrs. comes to the office after he has gotten awful news about the public revenge the fired woman is taking. Ironically, the Mrs. comes in criticizing him for how he talks to his new assistant, as the ex-employee claims to have tapes of how he talks to employees. The Mrs. has come in with swatches to redecorate his office: I would like you to be involved. It would give us something to do together. We never do anything together. He disagrees. Mrs. Not any more we don't. . .Since the merger, I don't feel good. . .Because you're never home, and with this NFL thing. . .I feel like you've been keeping a lot of secrets lately. He promises her dinner to talk about it all, but she's waiting in the car when he stops to deal with his biggest client's latest disaster.
In "Tequila and Coke", by Ellin and Ally Musika, "Ari" has to deal with his image vs. the truth about his relationship with his wife. He explained to "Lizzie", the woman he fired: My wife wanted me to get rid of you. . .She wanted you gone. "Lizzie" retorts: I wouldn't have pegged you for bending to your wife's demands. He gets uncharacteristically serious: I talk a lot. . .The tapes could be a problem for my family. . .The NFL is nothing compared to my wife and kids. When he confesses to a studio executive that he's been faithful to his wife, she's surprised: You are actually one of the good guys – despite what people say. There's a side joke of a phone call to singer Lenny Kravitz on the phone in full Jewish regalia in a synagogue, explaining: My niece's bat mitzvah is Saturday and I've got to help her get her voice right. The Mrs. forcefully leveraged the collision between her husband's personal and professional lives in "Sniff Sniff Gang Bang" by Musika, in the aftermath of the release of tapes revealing how he talked to employees. She's sulking in the dark bedroom. He comes in complaining about the bed in the guest room. She: I didn't tell you to sleep in there. I told you I didn't want to have sex and that's how you took it. He: You said you didn't want to talk and you didn't want to have sex. What else is there to do in here? She abruptly sits up: Do you want to talk? He: I'd rather have sex. She: Well, let's talk. I am so embarrassed and humiliated! He goes on about his workplace: As I am. She quotes from the web postings: Horrible things that you said! He: You knew the man you married! She: Now the whole world does! The kids at school, their parents, my mother! He: So this is about everyone else? She: No, this is about us. She gives as an example when she called his office that day. How many calls did you take before me when all this blew-up? I was on hold for ten minutes! He: I came here. She: Three hours later! That's what I mean – you put the business before family. He: Baby, you and the kids mean everything to me. Nothing else matters. You tell me what you want me to do. She: Honestly, I don't know. She walks out of the bedroom. At the office, he puts off others clamoring for his attention: Now I have bigger problems – like with my wife. . .I'm going to a meeting with my wife.
So they end up at another session of couples therapy (with the Dr. played by Nora Dunn). Mrs: It just came to me – I should look at this as a blessing. 'What can I do?' he asks. So what are all the things I wanted him to do that I have never said? Dr: It’s nice to see you have finally found your voice. He: When has she not had her voice? Dr: I have never heard this kind of pro-active conviction from her side. He: She's always had conviction. That's why I love her. She: Ha! He: What – do you doubt that? She: Since the merger you’ve been elsewhere. He: I've been very stressed. Dr: Do you not think he loves you? He: C'mon now! Don't be ridiculous! She: Would you let me answer please! Yes – I know he loves me but- He: Wait, is this about what happened to her, or other things? Dr: Please let her speak. She: Please let me speak! I know he loves me. . . His phone rings. I know he loves me but it's always on his terms. I'd like to lay out mine. Dr: What are they? She: First of all, no Blackberries in the house! He: Don't be ridiculous! She: I knew you'd say that! So my solution is have callers contact your assistant and he—and only he—may call the house. He: I will try that if she lets me check that message right now. It must be important. We can try that. Dr. Fantastic! She: And no more promises you can't keep. Dr: Let' s stay away from the abstract. She: OK, If you break another promise, or lie to me, I'll have to seriously review our relationship. Dr: Do you hear what she's saying? He, quietly: Do you really feel that way? She: I do. Dr: Sorry, we're going to have to end now. He: No and fuck you, with that fucking clock! She: And I want you to work on your anger, too! Dr. suggests meds. She: I've begged him to take Zolof! He: Baby, I'm who I am, but I love you. I don't want to break any more promises, so I won't make them. . .Do I get to make any requests? She: Such as? He: No more therapy! She: I think more therapy! I think twice a week. You are not getting off the hook. He: OK, therapy every day if you want. Here, let's have Doc move in with us, but please let me check this message. She: Fine. He: Can I please go? She: Go! He leaves. Dr: We'll talk about this next week.
In the penultimate episode of the season, "Porn Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", by Ally Musika, the Mrs. tries hard to enforce "Family Night" with no business calls at a bowling alley with their kids. She also tries to share some time with "Ari" during a suit fitting as he again keeps insisting I'm all yours. but runs out into the street to a famous client. But that night the conflict comes to climax at the famous Wolfgang's restaurant. "Ari" keeps dashing to a hidden phone, whi.e the Mrs. keeps trying to calm him. Disrupted phone conversations lead to a confrontation in the middle of the restaurant with his female nemesis. At first, the Mrs. supports him by frostily blowing her off: You must be the one who sent the tapes of my husband., and tries to get the two to agree to meet the next day, and him to sit down. The nemesis tries to explain that a disgruntled assistant was really the source for the tapes, but at this point "Ari" is shouting and "Mrs." is so mortified that she grits her teeth and stalks out.
In the season finale, "Lose Yourself", by Doug Ellin, the "Golds" marital crisis is paralleled with his main client's meltdown. When that client annoys "Mrs." by not showing up as promised to their son's Little League game, "Ari" scurries around preparing a surprise 40th birthday party for her. John Cleese points out the futility of his plan: She hates your guts. . .You do not want your wife walking into a surprise party when the only thought your wife has in her head is about killing you. "Ari" comes home early to find "Marci" (played by Illeana Douglas) there to comfort my ailing sister, who is in tears: She married a scumbag! Mrs. interrupts her husband and sister shouting and cursing at each other: Yes, Ari, I'm ailing badly. Do not speak to my sister like that! Fuck you! Are you going to call her a whore? Are you going to to fuck another woman? Fuck you! and she storms upstairs, despite his repeated apologies. He pleads and bribes the sister to get her out of the house for the party prep and then to be back in time. But the sister returns alone: She's not coming. I had to tell her. I didn't want her walking into an ambush. I'm going to get some of her things. Mrs. herself calls from a bar: I'm sorry. I can't face all those people. He pleads that he'll clear the guests so that it'll just be the two of them, repeating how much he loves her, to no avail: Just come home! But she persists, dislodging the rock of his life and the most romantic and stable Jewish couple on TV: I need a break, Ari. From us. I need some space. I'm going to pick up the kids and go to my mother's. (updated 10/1/2010)


2009/2010 Season

I have an extra category in my commentaries on Jewish Women in (and Missing from) the Flicks, and I could add "missing" for a TV show this season. In the confusingly mixed-message series Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime: Television for Women (summer Sunday nights. 1st season on DVD), I kept wondering if the plus-size lawyer "Jane Bingum" (played by Brooke Elliott), known for being brilliant and aggressive, was Jewish before her dead body was inhabited by the soul of a vacuous skinny ninny. But I couldn't figure out why she sounded Jewish until I saw Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn's TV Guide interview with the show's creator Josh Berman from 7/27/2009: "Berman says the series is less about being big in a model-size world than about the struggle for identity. 'I don’t know anyone who hasn’t felt like an outsider at some point, whether it’s a weight issue or an ethnicity issue or religion. . .My grandmother, who I based the character on, was actually a Holocaust survivor—she was 14 years old in America and all by herself—so talk about feeling like an outsider.'” . (updated 7/8/2010)

United States of Tara (Showtime, Monday nights at 10:30 pm and On Demand) in its second season gave us the oddest putative Jewish woman on TV yet, surpassing the faux Cherien Rich. "Dr. Shoshana Schoenbaum" (spelled several ways even on the official site) first appeared in the 2nd season's "You Becoming You" by Dave Finkel and Brett Baer. Referred to as the former Manhattan therapist of the gay neighbor and writer of a self-help book, she becomes an additional alternative personality projection of Overland Park, Kansas suburban housewife "Tara"s dissociative identity disorder, complete with New York accent and Yiddishms. (6/2/2010)

I missed the first half of the first season of Party Down (on Starz, Friday nights and On Demand if your cable system is more reliable than my TimeWarner Cable), so I've been catching up to find hints if the woebegone "comedienne that happens to make ends meet as a cater-waiter” "Casey Klein" (played by Lizzy Caplan) is supposed to be Jewish (my nephew was sure she is). The closest hint I've gleaned so far is in the 2nd season's "Nick DiCintio's Orgy Night", by John Enbom, Dan Etheridge, and Rob Thomas, when she tries to explain to her ex-boyfriend his new girlfriend's feelings for her pet fish through commentary one can infer comes from the classic Jewish children's book The Carp in the Bathtub, by Barbara Cohen and Joan Halpern. Another actress reduced to naked waitressing commiserates with him: I got 'too Jewey' once…and I was auditioning for The Diary of Anne Frank. (updated 10/10/2010)

A putative Jewish woman showed up in NBC's Heroes, "Lauren Gilmore" (played by blonde Elisabeth Röhm, whose character suddenly became Jewish in Law and Order back in 2005 and whose "Bitsy Epstein" didn't strike me as even putatively Jewish earlier this year in the "New Beginnings" episode of the new 90210). In "Once Upon a Time in Texas", by Aron Eli Coleite and Aury Wallington, she gratuitously complained that because of her secretive work with the company, that was then bagging and tagging those with special abilities, she had to lie to her mother why she couldn't attend her nephew's bar mitzvah.
The actress said in a TV Guide interview she will be a recurring temptation for an office romance this season of "Villains" for "Noah Bennet" aka “Horn-Rimmed Guy” aka HRG, who here turned down her offer to turn their co-worker friendship into a motel tryst: "She’s just a bad-ass kind of guy like him, but a girl. . .[they] have a past, that I can’t say is exactly romantic, but there’s definitely love between us. There was a period in time when they were incredibly close – nothing happened but they were really close – and you could see that there was a real bond between them. [Something] was almost going to happen, but he was still married at the time. So she erases her memory of when it started to become a little hot and heavy between them. . .What I love about the storyline, is that it’s the question of soul mates. If you know nothing about somebody, do you still sense them? Once her memory is erased it’s still undeniable. I think we are meant to be with certain people. Whether we remember all the details, it’s just a deeper connection. . . and because I worked with him, I really understand him, and that sort of brings him to life in another way. . .The emotional relationship between HRG and Lauren is really well-written and really well-realized. And then of course there’s all the intensity of the plot and the action that goes along with their mission together professionally. So it’s got a little Mr. & Mrs. Smith to it."
When she returned in "Chapter 10: Thanksgiving", by Adam Armus and Kay Foster, she's living in D.C. and working for the C.I.A.. They meet in the supermarket where she helps HRG shop and then prepare dinner for his daughter, his Ex, and her boyfriend, even as he keeps telling them she's just an "old friend". She's wry when the Ex first presumes she's the hired help: Mistaken for a domestic. That certainly breaks the ice.. Later she defends him: I think Thanksgiving dinner was his way of showing [the daughter] that she has a family who loves her. When he suggests they follow up with Christmas dinner, she deflects: How about a movie? and gives him her phone number. She made another putative Jewish reference in "Chapter 11: The Fifth Stage" written by Tim Kring. She and HRG are setting out on a movie date (She: Who said anything about sex?) when she agrees to help him out: Working for the CIA has a few benefits, like waterboarding terrorists, some pretty decent bagels, and the ability to triangulate cell phone calls. He confesses to her that she had the memory of her feelings for him erased: You chose the high road. She: So now you're single, playing the field and you thought you could re-ignite the flame?
In "Chapter 13: Let It Bleed" by Jim Martin, "Lauren" may be the first political liberal in the series. When a restaurant owner recognizes her sardonically as "The Iron Maiden", HRG explains: Just a little nickname you earned back in the day. It's a compliment. But later she stops him as he ratchets up interrogation of a suspect: Noah Stop! Torture doesn't work! I may have been the Iron Maiden back in the day, but I have changed. You may think I'm shoving my liberal agenda down your throat, but you are losing your target with your emotions. . .These medieval tactics are getting you nowhere! (updated 1/6/2010)


The Simpsons celebrated their 20th anniversary, 450th episode in "Once Upon a Time in Springfield, by Stephanie Gillis, with a twist on the usual putative Jewish woman – she sure seems Jewish, but she's not. "Princess Penelope", voiced by Anne Hathaway with a very thick Long Island patois, is set to marry her life-long crush "Krusty the Clown", My Borscht Belt Baby, under a chuppah, when Krusty’s father, "Rabbi Hyman Krustofski" surprisingly announces: “We are gathered here today to marry a Jew and — a Congregationalist? Is that even a thing?. (updated 1/15/2010)

Annie Edison in the 1st season of Community (on NBC and Hulu Plus/Amazon, belatedly catching up in syndication on Comedy Central and an independent station. I’m noting the “first shown” dates because under different showrunners all the characters changed inconsistently over the years.) In the pilot episode (first shown 9/17/2009), written by Dan Harmon, a former high school classmate, the African-American football player “Troy Barnes” (played by Donald Glover) teases that her nickname was “Annie Aderol” for the amphetamines she was known to take. In the 4th episode, “Social Psychology”, written by Liz Cackowski (first shown 10/8/2009), she explained in a rush to the British “Prof. Ian Duncan” (hilariously played by comedian John Oliver): I heard about your special psychology lab. . I know it’s limited to second year students. But I had a 4.0 in Riverside High I’m not looking down on the school at all, but I’m only here because of a brief addiction to pills that I was told would help me focus but they actually made me lose my scholarship and virginity. If I was in your lab early it would be a real feather in my transcript. “Prof.”: I’ve been in this situation many times, so I’m going to be up front. I’m not allowed to date students. “Annie” reels back, but he agrees to let her in, on condition she brings two human subjects. “Annie” squeals in delight. She gets “Troy” to agree, but has to work on “Abed” (Danny Pudi), who was planning on seeingall four Indiana Jones’s at The Vista. I was really looking forward to the first three. I bought a whip. “Annie”: This is really important to me, Abed. Could you please go as my friend. My really good friend? He: Wow, I didn’t realize we were really good “Friends”. I figured we were more like Chandler and Phoebe. They never really had stories together. Sure, I’ll do it, Chandler. She squeals and hugs him. The prof explains to the gathered research assistants: The waiting is the experiment. . . The Duncan principle is simple. The longer the ego waits, the more ground is taken by the id, resulting in a predictable emotional eruption... better known to ma and pa as a good old-fashioned tantrum! He assigns proud “Annie” to give the research subjects the false instruction: We’re running just a little bit behind, so it’s going to be five minutes. The researchers watch the subjects on a TV monitor. At over three hours, “Troy” breaks down and drags himself out, yelling what “Annie”s promises have made him miss. Later, the frazzled prof. sends “Annie” in to “Abed” again: Sorry you’ve been waiting 26 hours. It will be five more minutes. “Abed” is still calm. Unlike the furious prof: He's ruined the study. He's warped the Duncan Principle! Damn you, you outlying piece of datum! You! You did this! You've ruined the Duncan Principle! She: You told me to bring two subjects. Prof: Subjects, not Rain Man over there! I should have never let you in this lab Little Annie Fannie Panties in a bunch! She retorts: Oh, that’s so hilarious! Did you think of that the last time you skipped a trip to the dentist? He tantrums in response, as the students take notes and he rails to her: You destroyed the Duncan Principle! She yells at “Abed” to “Go home!” The next day she explains to the two subjects what the point of the experiment was, but “Abed” takes the info quite calmly: “Gotcha”? That’s all you have to say? You sat in a room for 26 straight hours. No food, no water. Didn’t that bother you? “Abed”: Yes. I was livid. He: Yes. I was livid. She: Then why didn’t you leave? He: Because you asked me to stay and you said we were friends. “Troy”, like the audience is touched, though fan sites don’t pay much attention to their relationship aspect of the episode: That’s really beautiful. Wait. Is this still part of the experiment? The next day “Annie” brings “Abed” a gift basket: Abed, here. I wanted to say sorry for yelling at you. [You were being a good friend and I was really selfish.] (The bracketed phrases were in an online script, but I don’t remember hearing her say that in the probably edited syndicated version.) He checks the gift: ”Indiana Jones”, cool. She: I just got you the first three because. . . And they smile in unison: The fourth one blows. “Abed” affirms: We’re cool. In the conclusion of the full script, the prof. invites her to join another research trial, but she turns him down, to his great surprise: Actually, Professor, I think I’m watching movies tonight, with a friend.
In “Debate 109” (first shown 11/12/2009), written by Tim Hobert, the City College debater taunts her: Little “Annie Aderol”/Wasn’t popular in high school!
I think “Comparative Religion” (first shown 12/10/2009), written by Liz Cackowski, may have been the first one that identified “Annie” as Jewish, as usual in TV in a holiday-themed episode. The very Christian African-American “Shirley Bennett” (played by comedienne Yvette Nicole Brown) is decorating the study room and sweetly asks “Annie”: Are you changing into your Christmas outfit for my Christmas party? “Annie” grimaces and avoids her proffered WWBJD bracelets, as in “What Would Baby Jesus Do”: I guess I could wear one of my Hanukkah’s sweaters. “Shirley” is startled: I didn’t know you weren’t, um, Christian. “Annie”: Yup, I might even say I’m Jewish. “Shirley”: That’s good. That’s wonderful. I respect all religions of the world. Don’t we have a diverse family. You can each bring trinkets from your religion. -- as each member identifies as non-Christian, including Muslim, Jehovah’s Witness and atheist. She loudly sings “Joy To The World” when “Annie” brings in her menorah: Is this your Hanukkah holder? That’s nice. She pushes it under branches, then “Annie” brings it out – and as she turns around the audience can see she is indeed wearing a Hanukkah sweater. “Shirley”: I can’t believe I never knew you were Jew--- “Annie” keeps being perturbed that “Shirley” can’t say the whole word “Jewish”, even as she asks her to set up the manger. “Annie” talks to the Baby Jesus: We knew you were one of us. -- and sticks it on a rockabye bough. In the midst of the depressing party, “Annie”: Shirley, you are a guilt machine. Old rich guy “Pierce Hawthorne” (played by Chevy Chase): Annie knows a thing or two about guilt. Am I right Jew? “Annie”: Say the whole world! Confused, “Pierce”: Jewy? “Troy”: A Jehovah’s Witness would never say ‘Jewey’. “Annie”: Everyone’s faith is weird! Let’s not talk about it! As a fight breaks out at the end of the party, the camera pans over the menorah visible under the Christmas tree.
In subsequent episodes, she notes her “possibly bigoted parents” as the reason she didn’t pursue her crush on the football player. While she bemoans, in “Introduction to Statistics”, written by Jon Pollack and Tim Hobert, I was so unpopular in high school, the crossing guards used to lure me into traffic!, while “Romantic Expressionism”, written by by Andrew Guest, sets up the group as her new family. She’s first seen flirting with the hunky hippie “Vaughn” (played by Eric Christian Olsen), to “Britta”s sarcasm and confusion, but she manages to ask: Can I ask you something About Vaughn?. . . Would you um, I haven't we haven't anything. . . Would it bug you?. . . Troy? The other day after Spanish, I thought he was trying to hold my hand, but he'd just mistaken me for Abed. He'll never think of me that way “Britta” condescends: Well, Annie, I would have to be a villain to tell you who to date, which I am not. “Annie” shrieks: Thank you. You're the coolest girl I've ever met! But when “Britta” tells “Jeff” how cute they are together, he protests: Look, this isn't about you, you groovy hipster. It's about Annie. We're like her Greendale parents. You got to say no to that stuff!. . .She's 18. Her taste in men is still being established. Creepier and creepier dudes will start thinking of her as an option, and it all starts with Vaughn. He's a gateway douche bag. “Britta” shrugs: People collide. Things happen. It can't be controlled, right? “Jeff” persists: And that can be your toast at her shotgun wedding to Star Burns. . . He's got her in some kind of hippie collar. I can hear her armpit hair growing from here. We got to do something. . . Well, I know if we say we disapprove, we'll just drive her further into his hemp-braceleted arms. We need to be smart. We need to hatch a scheme. They’re revolted as “Vaughn” massages her shoulders, and “Star Burns” leers: Hey, Winger, check out Annie. Somebody just went to the top of my "to do" list. So “Jeff” and “Britta” agree to “hatch a scheme” to drive “Annie” back to “Troy”. First “Britta” goes on to “Annie” how sexy “Troy” is, then “Jeff” points out how pretty “Annie” is to “Troy”, who is reluctant: Maybe it's because I knew her back in high school, before she dropped out. She had braces and acne and a pill addiction and a nervous breakdown ending with her running through a plate glass door, screaming "Everyone's a robot!" “Jeff” tries another tack: I'm gonna describe to you a complete stranger who happens to be in our study group. and whispers in his ear. “Troy”: Come on, you got to be exaggerating. Oh, man. And she's Jewish? I can't believe I didn't see that. Well, I guess she deserves another shot. Oh, wait, never mind. It's too late. I heard she's hooking up with Vaughn. “Britta” adds: She's helplessly in love with you. She's only with Vaughn to get your attention. “Troy”: I have the weirdest boner. and goes up to her: You know, I never noticed how beautiful you are. “Annie” is nonplussed: Troy, you’re being weird. . “Troy”: Tell him that you've been in love with me since high school. “Annie” to “Vaughn”: I never want to lie to you, so I will tell you I did have feelings for him, but it's over. While “Jeff” and “Britta” are toasting each other over their matchmaking: We did the right thing. They belong together. Their babies will be so cute. But “Annie” is furious: Hey, guys, thanks for getting involved in my love life. . . That was super cool and mature of you. Oh, and since you're both clearly idiots, I should probably let you know that I'm being sarcastic. “Jeff”: We're sorry. We were worried about your well-being. “Britta”: I guess we feel like we're sort of all a family, and Jeff and I are like your Greendale parents. “Annie” sharply: You're not my mom, Britta. She would never wear boots that go up that high. And what about respecting me as an adult and as a friend? Turns out “Britta” was jealous about “Annie” dating her ex, even as “Annie” protests: I asked you if you cared, and you said no., but “Jeff” was a bit jealous too, as both deny the significance of a kiss they shared in an earlier episode “for the team". “Jeff” Maybe it's more complicated, because unlike a real family, there's nothing to stop any one of us from looking at any of the others as a sexual prospect. “Troy”: It did get weirdly specific when you were describing Annie’s body. “Annie” is taken aback: Why are we even talking about this? “Jeff”: Because you started having sex with Britta's ex-boyfriend. “Annie”: What? We haven't even kissed. “Jeff”: That doesn't mean you're not having sex. “Annie”: Vaughn told me he would take things as slowly as I wanted. He likes me for who I am, and I like him. “Vaughn” serenades her a sweet, silly song on his guitar, including an endearment I like your nose, and she delights in returning to him with a big hug, as the group assents: Vaughn wants to show me a cloud that looks like a pumpkin, if that's okay. . . I wouldn't hang out with you guys if you were creepy. Trust me. I have good taste.

In “Basic Genealogy”, written by Karey Dornetto, she’s become a moral keystone, as it were, asking How much effort do I rate? to the amoral “Jeff Winger” (played by Joel McHale): For you? I’d break a light sweat. . .You’re becoming dangerous Annie, it’s those doe eyes. Disappointing you is like choking the Little Mermaid with a bike chain. In their concluding conversation on his dilemma about a study group-mate, “Annie”: So why are you talking to me about it? “Jeff”: Because... You're...You know... She: A decent person? He: Maybe. She: And you knew that talking to me about it would make you feel like a bad friend? And you wanted to feel like a bad friend. Because you wanna be a good friend? He: You really suck, you know that? She smiles.
In “The Science of Illusion”, written by Zach Paez, “Annie” and “Shirley” leap to volunteer as security during April’s Fools Day, setting up “Abed”s observations of the pair like watching a buddy cop movie as they compete for the “bad-ass” role. The two stake out the notorious “Star Burns”: “Shirley”: He makes one false move, and I’m gonna go Shirley on him. That’s what my high school friends called crazy. “Annie”: Yeah? Are you gonna go Shirlier than I did when I got addicted to pills? “Shirley”: Why are you so concerned with being a bad-ass? “Annie”: Maybe I’m tired of everyone thinking of me as a little girl. Maybe I wanna be in charge of how I’m defined. “Shirley”: Well how do you think I feel? You have two kids and they stick you in the margins. I’m not done yet, I still got moves! “Annie”: I haven’t even started yet! I’ve got moves I haven’t even seen before! They’re uncharacteristically aggressive with real cops who come on campus: “Shirley”: I tend to play by my own rules. “Annie”: She loves rules. I only have one: stay out of my way. “Shirley”: Stay out of mine more! And then “Annie” walks into her own spritz of pepper spray: These are not tears! This is self-inflicted friendly fire! But after a movie-style pep-talk from “Abed”, they do pair up: The name's Annie Edison, but people call me Psycho because I had a nervous breakdown in high school. My partner's a Christian housewife. How can we help you? After their disastrous stint, “Annie” cries: I actually wanted to be treated more seriously. The only reason I slammed Jeff’s head against the table was because I wanted to feel like an adult, like Shirley. “Shirley”: And I only wanted to feel young, like Annie.. They hug it out.
In “Contemporary American Poultry”, written by Emily Cutler and Karey Dornetto, the recurring juvenile joke is that “Troy” names his constantly running away monkey “Annie’s Boobs”
In “The Art of Discourse”, written by Chris McKenna, “Annie” turns on “Shirley”: When you found out I was Jewish, you invited me to a 'pool party' that turned out to be a Baptism. “Shirley” retorts: Well excuse me for trying to sneak you into Heaven. In the Animal House tribute food fight closing scene, the label under a freeze frame: “Annie remained Jewish despite ingestion of airborne pork.”
The season’s penultimate episode, “English as a Second Language” written by Tim Hobert, focused on “Annie”, again balancing her ambitious perfectionism with her sweetness, her distinctively unusual combination for Jewish women characters on TV. She announces how she’s going to help them through the stresses of studying: We're not going to have any trouble passing our Spanish final. I've transcribed this semester's notes on my digital recorder, which she proudly holds up as the others are snarky that she does this every day. We're all going to spend the next three days boning up. Then pass the exam and move on to Spanish 103. But “Jeff” objects. “Annie” is surprised: I guess I just figured we're a Spanish study group. So we'd keep taking Spanish together. . .I like this group and I want it to stay together. . .I used to be alone but next year I'll be in the front row of a Spanish 103 Some others concur – until she confesses that the class meets 6 am, Monday - Friday. So she leafs through the catalog and comes up with anthropology, at noon. “Britta” reassures: Annie, you realize that we'll be friends Whether or not we have a class together, right? “Annie” bites back: Of course you think that, Britta. It's obvious from your name your parents smoked pot. But “Annie” later transcribes her recorder – and it was running when “Senor Chang” (comedian Ken Jeong) confessed to “Jeff” he was a fake teacher. The dean announces they’ll be taking the exam for a replacement – who can actually speak Spanish. When she says she’s already accepted they have to re-take the class, they figure she ratted them out, even as she tries to distract them by prattling on about the rolling tongue recessive gene. “Jeff”: You made this happen because you're obsessed With all of us being together next year! “Annie”: I wouldn't say I was obsessed. “Jeff”: Permission to treat the witness as hostile. . . Did you record yesterday's Spanish class? She fumfers, but they all remember she said she did. He continues grilling: You heard Chang tell me he was bogus. And then dropped the dime because you would do anything to keep this group together. Because you are insecure. Because you didn't get hot until after high School. Her high school classmate “Troy” concurs, she confesses. “Troy”: Someone make her a dude so I can punch her! She’s defensively babbling: Go ahead and hate me! It's better than what was going to happen. We were all going to drift apart and you were all too cool to do anything. “Britta”: Maybe not too cool. Maybe just, you know, not psycho enough. “Jeff” warns as she very amusingly follows his description: Now she is going to make the Disney face. Her lip is going to quiver and her eyes will flutter, But they won't ever actually close. But do not feel sorry for her. She stole a year of our lives, and we're right to be pissed! . .Everyone close their eyes. Do it. Close them. “Abed” seems immune at first: I can only connect with people through movies. “Jeff” yells: She’s the Ark of the Convenant! That works. She begs: You guys, I'm sorry! I only did it so that we could stay friends. They squirm and “Jeff” yells: Picture her as Paul Giamatti! and he rants on. “She”: I said I was sorry! “Jeff” continues: Who cares if you're sorry? We're still screwed! Be sorry about this stuff before you do it! Then don't do it! It's called growing up! “Shirley”: Annie, we’re still going to see each other all the time! She: That's what my rehab group used to say. The only one that keeps in touch is the guy that sells jewelry made out of bottle caps. I had hoped that this group would amount to more than passing hellos and whatever the hell this is! She runs out crying. “Jeff”: Nobody even think about going after her. That's what she wants is more personal drama so we fail the exam and stay in Spanish forever. We have to beat her. Don't text her. Don't call her. Don't mention her. We do not need her to study. Does anybody know how to study? “Abed”: Annie usually-- “Jeff: Whose side are you on? Later, they hit a studying snag. Shirley: Shall we call Annie? “Jeff”: Absolutely not. Keep your eyes on the prize and let her grow up. But though they have studied so well that they can express themselves in Spanish, for the following exchange, they are now concerned: “Shirley”: Where's Annie? Oh, I sent her a text, But she hasn't responded yet. “Jeff”: Shirley, what did I tell you? Don't play into her ploy for attention! “Shirley”, reads her text: And this isn't a ploy for attention. She's sorry. She does need to grow up. Starting by making things right with Chang. “Jeff” panics: He'll kill her! Who cares about a stupid exam? We're a study group! . . And Annie's our friend. They run out screaming, and the rest of the class boycotts the exam by declaring they are friends with “Hannah”. “Chang” literally sings her praises: Annie getting me fired was the best thing that ever happened to me. She's helping me replan my life. She's got a real mind for stuff like this. “Annie” burbles: We're gonna find Ben a job so he can stay at Greendale as a student and work on his teaching degree. And music classes. They all laugh how easy the exam was. “Annie”, wearing a plain back dress, is contrite: Jeff, I can never forgive myself for what I did. “Jeff”: Jeff, I can never forgive myself for what I did. Look, I treated you like a child for having feelings. Maybe because that's, you know, when I stopped having them. But you shouldn't. You don't have to be a kid to admit that you like people. And you don't have to dress like this to grow up. You look like a travel agent. “Annie” giggles: You don't like it? I was going for more of a professor thing. “Jeff”: Ah, hell, I can't stay mad at you. They are nervous until they see their grades – “Annie” squeals at getting a 95: Not to take anything away from anyone, but didn't the test seem extra easy? (Turns out “Pierce” got the teacher to make it easy.) “Annie” gets everyone to agree on taking anthropology together next term. (updated 11/1/2014)

Mrs. Wolowitz in the 3rd season of Big Bang Theory (on CBS) I was late to The Big Bang Theory bandwagon, as it hadnt’t occurred to me to watch for a Jewish woman, so I’m slowly catching up with the stereotyped presentation of “Mrs. Wolowitz” in this season by watching repeat episodes in syndidcation. Until I get around to posting my transcriptions, that I can vouch for, of all the nasty comments by and about “Mrs. Wolowitz”, fan episode transcripts are eventually posted, among other sources.
In ”The Adhesive Duck Deficiency”, story by Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady & David Goetsch; teleplay by Steven Molaro, Eric Kaplan & Maria Ferrari, “Howard” gets high on an astronomy camping trip from Dead Heads’ marijuana-laced brownies and confesses about a woman in a specifically Jewish context: I lost my virginity to my cousin Jeannie. It was my Uncle Murray's funeral. We were all back at my Aunt Barbara's house. Our eyes locked over the pickled herring. We never meant for it to happen. To this day, I can't look at pickled herring without being aroused. Oh Cousin Jeannie! (We got her version of the memory in the 8th season.)
But I noted when Mayim Bialik was introduced at the end of the third season (May 2010) as “Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler”, because she frequently plays a Jewish character. Ironically, she was first a punch line in “The Bat Jar Conjecture” episode, initially broadcast in April 2008, teleplay by Bill Prady& Robert Cohen, story by Stephen Engel & Jennifer Glickman. “Raj” suggests asking the girl from “Blossom” who went from being an actress to getting a PhD in neuroscience to be on their Physics Bowl team. “Leonard” nixes with: We are not getting the girl from “Blossom”!
Bialik herself makes the connection in her blog (where I’m tempted to ask her if she’s discussed the portrayal of “Mrs. W.” with the writers) and in a 12/22/2011 interview, with USA Today’s Whitney Matheson abput her character becoming a regular on the series: “But I'm a Jewish person who only wears skirts, so I'm very happy that Amy seems to keep the level of modesty that I like to keep in my personal life. (Laughs). . . Obviously, that What Not to Wear gave me a lot of publicity, and it really kind of put me back in certain people's minds. But that was kind of the funny thing -- then I get cast as this frumpy-to-the-max character who basically breaks every fashion rule that Stacy and Clinton have ever given to anyone.”
Even as none of the press notices, in promoting Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way, she noted about her book tour (where she also celebrated Purim in NYC, including the pre-fast): What I Learned: “4. Bling. I love wearing a Magen David, and I don’t really care if it doesn’t ‘match’ the look of the outfit. I like being seen in it and it makes me feel really protected and ‘myself’ in situations that can challenge even the most confident of people.” So it was interesting that Barbara Walters on The View brought up her observance only off-screen as one of her “Top Ten The View Moments: . . 8. My dress. Barbara asked me off-camera about my clothes and said she was surprised to see me dressed ‘like that’ because she knows I am… conservative. That’s code among Jews for tznius… I know The View has featured some kind of negative stories about religious Orthodoxy and Orthodox women in particular in the past. I smiled at her and said, ‘I’m covered knee to elbow. I came to observance late in life and this works for me.’ She smiled back and said, ‘You look beautiful.’ Kind of an amazing moment.”
In her May 30, 2012 blog, she described herself as: “as the only actress I know who is not a size 0, and as a feminist liberal Torah-loving, Torah-living, God-fearing, Yiddish-spouting, Mishnah-quoting, boundary breaking member of the only Tribe I’ve ever known.” She also put her feelings about her 2012 Emmy nomination in a Jewish context: What Does It Really Feel Like? Thank you, HaShem. Thank you for the Universe and for my historical homeland that brought my people into and out of slavery. Thank you for the complexity of my people that brought my grandparents over on shabby boats from the shtetls of Hungary and Poland. Thank you for bizarre quirky parents who gave me challenges to conquer. Thank you for every time I failed and every time I succeeded, because it brought me here. I love that my religious faith and devotion has me honored and thrilled but humble and grateful beyond explanation.”
Which led her to think even more about what to wear at the Emmys in a Jewish context: “As I considered the dress, my thoughts invariably turned toward my neck. Why? Because I try and wear a Jewish star around my neck anytime I’m in public, or private for that matter. I like publicly identifying as a Jewish person by adorning my neck with the Star of David. It’s kind of my thing. With all due respect to stylist Ali, she doesn’t always feel my Jewish star necklace ‘goes’ with every outfit and I had a feeling the Emmys would be one of those nights that she would say my Jewish star doesn’t ‘go’ with the outfit. . . She affirmed my desire and confirmed my suspicions, suggesting that I wear a Jewish star to every single event of the weekend, except the actual Emmys. I thought about it and I slept on it and I came up with a proposition. I asked Ali how she felt about me wearing a mezuzah. For those of you who don’t know, a mezuzah is the thing that hangs on door frames of Jewish homes and buildings. Mezuzahs are Biblically mandated and contain a small scroll inside with the first blessings of the Shema, one of Judaism’s holiest prayers. Small mezuzahs are often worn decoratively on a chain and depending on one’s taste, can be very ornate and beautiful. I sent Ali some images of ornate and formal-style mezuzahs and to my great delight she loved the idea and could picture something like this working for the Emmys. Thankfully, she is officially on board to search for an Emmy-appropriate mezuzah.” Which she dubbed Operation Motzi Mezuzah (updated 5/23/2015)


Lisa Cuddy on House, M.D. in the 6th season: Once again in this series "Dr. House" made a comment about "Dr. Cuddy" being Jewish without any acknowledgment on her part. In the unusual "5 to 9" episode by Thomas L. Moran that focused completely an A Day in the Very Busy Life of Dr. Cuddy, there was no Jewish paraphernalia glimpsed in her apartment or any Jewish references made by her. However, when she asks "Dr. House" for advice on her tough, brinksmanship negotiations with an insurance company, his rejoinder is: Despite what you may have learned at Hebrew School or from Jimmy Cliff, sometimes the bigger they are, the harder they kick your ass. (2/10/2010)

In House, M.D. this season, "Dr. Chris Taub" (played by Peter Jacobson) is back on the team, and while it's still not 100% sure if his wife (played by Jennifer Crystal Foley, daughter of Billy Crystal) is Jewish, the "Ignorance is Bliss" episode by David Hoselton skirted suggestively with a couple of Jewish women stereotypes about money and castrating their men. When a colleague rags him about what his wife thinks of him again quitting a lucrative practice, he ruefully notes that he's been relegated to the living room couch. He finally brings it up with her after a long day at work, while she's reading in bed: We have to talk about this. She: It's late, I'm tired. He: I know it's a big pay cut, but I'll always have a chance to make money, but I won't always have a the chance to do this job. She: That's what you think? That it's about money? He: So it's about that I didn't consult you before I took this job? She:That was offensive. But it's not about that either. He:So then – can ;you give me the first letter? She:When we got married, you were an intern working 30 hour shifts doing grunt work and we both put up with it because we knew it was leading to something better. In your private practice you called the shots. But now you're 40 years old and you're still doing grunt work. He: Is that what this is about? You think I'm a wuss? She: He made you miss Thanksgiving dinner. And to prove her point his beeper goes off. He then puts in action "Dr. House"s maxim of "Everybody lies.": he takes a photo of "Dr. House"s bruised face from his colleague's punch and tells his wife she was right, that he was the one who told off the boss and insisted on ground rules. She's first worried: Is he OK? Are you going to be fired? Arrested? Wow! And then she gives him a big sexy kiss and he gets mighty lucky.
In "Black Hole" by Lawrence Kaplow, they are arguing, he thinks about couples therapy. She: We're arguing over the fact that we never do anything together any more. . .I love you but if you start talking to me again like I'm on the witness stand I swear I'm going to break your neck. . .What do we do gether just the two of us? He tries to keep it at going out to dinner, but she keeps arguing, and complains about her to his colleagues. Later they exchange sexy texts, including while she's grocery shopping – but unbeknownst to her, when she arrives at the hospital for some afternoon delight in their car, "Dr. House" is the author. Her husband covers up by pleading for trust. Though she's a bit suspicious that he's made out in the car with someone else (and the episode continues to show hints that he still might be untrustworthy), at least there was one of the biggest visual clues yet that she too is Jewish. After he proposes to re-new their vows, they together look through their wedding pictures where he is wearing a yarmulke at a presumably Jewish wedding.
It continues to be a mystery that the series keeps portraying "Dr. Taub" as a ladies' man, when, come on, Jacobson is quite plain compared to the lovely Ms. Crystal Foley, and he's no longer a rich plastic surgeon. But in "Open and Shut" by Sara Hess and Liz Friedman kept the story line going, what with a patient who is in an open marriage. She's surprised he tells her about the patient: You're bringing this up because. . .? It's more interesting than your other cases? . .You don’t usually mention your patients. . . Is an open marriage something you want? . . All this time. . . There's somebody else? Be honest. . You want to. . .But it never occurs to me to act on it because I'm married. You are enough for me. Aren't I enough for you? By this point she's weeping over her restaurant dinner. Later he insists to a colleague that Rachel is worth it. because I'm 5'6", have a receding hairline. His wife later confronts him: Know what the worst part was when you had that affair? It wasn't the sex. It was the lies, realizing that the narrative of my life was totally wrong. You weren't struck in surgery, you weren't out. . .I don't want to go through that again. She then proceeds to set stringent rules for his affairs, and he's taken aback by her permission. She responds: It's what you want isn't it?. . .You want that thrill. . .But I love you and I really believe that you love me and we've got a llive together. At this point, I either walk away or I try to accept who you really are. "House" gives "Taub" a hearty "mazel tov" at getting his wife's blessing. But later "Rachel" weeps while meeting "Taub" at their car. I can't do this! I'm sorry. He claims he doesn't need anyone else. But later he kisses a nurse in the same garage. (5/15/2010)


A putative Jewish woman was in the second episode of White Collar (on USA) In "Threads" by Clifton Campbell, there were only clues that the beautiful witness to a murder by an Israeli counterfeitor during Fashion Week in NYC might be Israeli, whose many tangled necklaces possibly included a Star of David. Played by frizzy-haired Carmel Amit with a possibly Israeli accent, "Tara" explains she was at the party because she wants to be a model: I came here to get an agent, make contacts, not this. She helped the FBI by recognizing that a contact was speaking Hebrew on the phone. When she wears a sexy dress to trap the bad guy, she tries to allay her nervousness: If only I could wear it on a runway. Her handler keeps reassuring her how beautiful she looks and encourages her: Who's to say you won't one day? (11/3/2009)

Even in the third season of Showtime's Californication I'm still only classifying “Marcy Runkle” (played by Pamela Adlon, née Segall) as a putative Jewish woman, though she described a nice dress as "a schmata", in "Mr. Bad Example" by Gina Fattore and Matt Patterson. Maybe if I was more convinced I'd bother to describe in detail her drug and sexual escapades (including bedding her teen crush Rick Springfield) and transcribe her profanity-laced dialogue. (updated 1/20/2010)

In the two-part 5th season episode "Hostage Takers" by Raymond Khoury of the 2006 British spy thriller Spooks, but shown this year in PBS syndication as MI-5, a dead Jewish wife was the reason the analyst "Neil Sternin" (played by Matt Day) betrayed the U.K. He helped a Mossad plot to thwart the U.K.'s effort to sell nuclear technology to the Saudis because his wife had been killed in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv. He is so motivated for revenge that he even leaves his computer to kill another agency geek who has discovered his role, before killing himself. To balance the uneasy trust issue of Jews with dual loyalties, the Jewish government bureaucrat who supported the deal, along with his wife, are among those taken hostage by Mizrahi Israelis posing as Al Queda types. (2/10/2010)

On NBC's Mercy "There Is No Room for You on My Ass" St. Patrick's Day episode, by Peter Elkoff and Colleen McGuinness, "Heather" (played by Kate Middleton) the wife of "Mike", one of the very Irish Flanagan brothers, is suddenly and quite gratuitously revealed to be Jewish. This provides fodder for a lame joke where he claims that the family meeting in a circle isn't an intervention for his PTSD sister, but could be "like that dance at Jewish weddings". Even his wife is incredulous that he means the hora. "Heather" loudly defends her sister- in-law: What the hell did she do that was actually so terrible? She shot an armed robber. She beat up some skel who pimped out her kid. Instead, as long as the family is gathered together, she screeches nastily to her husband: Let's talk about something that is terrible. Like his porn addiction! He is a chronic masturbator and it is ruining our marriage! He yells back: Well, I have got to have sex with somebody! Unnecessary and unfunny. (3/22/2010)

In the Pilot of Deep End, written by David Hemingson , "Rachel Blau" (played by the ubiquitous Noa Tishby) is a potential client for the Los Angeles law firm from a Tel Aviv-based foundation working for peace in the Middle East that is "hunting for stateside representation". She talks fast Hebrew to a handsome young associate, who happened to be wearing a yarmulke because he was just back from a brit. She calls the Aussie a nice Jewish boy like you. . . We're cut from the same cloth, which is the only thing I care about in selecting a law firm. Except the closest "Liam" can bring himself to telling her he's not Jewish is to sheepishly say I like bacon. When he brings the papers to her hotel to sign, she supports TV's stereotype of beautiful Israeli women by sexually assaulting the guy. He protests: This is inappropriate. . . I actually worked kind of hard on this. She purrs: Let's just confirm that. . . Ooo., as she discovers the uncircumcised truth with her busy hand. She sends him a bottle of champagne and a note about silence is golden. (1/23/2010)

The Secret Life of the American Teenager, in its third season episode "Til It's Gone", story by series creator Brenda Hampton, teleplay by Elaine Arata and Jeffrey Rodgers, managed to find the most cliché Jewish woman possible. "Dr. Jeff Zegay" (played by My Boys hunk Reid Scott) is in bed with his older girlfriend, a blonde Evangelical Christian pastor's widow, as his phone keeps ringing – it's his mother and he keeps ignoring it. The girlfriend suggests: We could have sex while you talk to your mother on the phone. He's sarcastic: Ooo, a Jewish boy's dream! but she doesn't get the sarcasm. He explains that his mom calls him a lot ever since his brother died. And then post-coitus his mother walks into his bedroom! Played by Annie Abbott with a Yiddish inflection: This is the widow? I thought you were dead Jeffrey! You didn't answer the phone! "Jeff" is surprisingly calm: I was going to call you in the morning. Mom: You should have answered the phone! The girlfriend: I told him to answer the phone. Mom smiles: Good! Thank you. Your husband and my son have only been gone six months, but I like you. Life goes on! Do you have children? . . .Do you want more? .. .Something to think about. Good night. And next time, pick up the phone or you know what will happen! After she exits, the girlfriend moans with embarrassment. "Jeff" is still calm: Don't be. She's a liberal Democrat. No judgment. Unless you're a Republican. . .Oh no. . I’m glad we had sex before I found out. But she confesses to cheating on them by voting for Obama, just like she cheated on her late husband.
I guess Hampton and Rodgers figured they then compensated with "The Rhythm of Life" episode. I had specifically been watching this season to see if Mayim Bialik's eccentric and forceful guidance counselor "Dr. Wilameena Bink", with her internet degree and controversial past of going to the prom with a student, was Jewish and I thought early on she clearly established she wasn't. So where the heck did this impassioned speech come from that shamed all the gossiping mothers and daughters standing around at the Mother and Daughter Dance she organized that she opened with a very funny version of "The Chicken Dance" and closed with this monologue: It has been a wonderful evening, but it's time to say good night. But not so fast. I have a few things I need to say before we go. My grandmother and her sister spent three years in a concentration camp when they should have been in high school. And they survived. They survived, they said, because every night, rather than sink down in to the horrors that were going on around them, they imagined that they were once again dancing in their living room while their father played the violin. And they found the courage and the will to live, driven by the memories of dancing with their mother, and wanting so much to have just one more dance. When they told me that story I thought wouldn't it be great if I could get a bunch of girls together with their mothers and dance? Create some kind of special memory that just might get us all through high school? That's possible isn't it? To take each other by the hand – mothers and daughters and dance away the pain that goes on every day in our hallways? Granted, it's not a concentration camp and there's no war going on here, but there are wars and there are wars. If you've ever been made fun of or you've ever made fun of another girl, join me on the dance floor won't you? If you've ever wanted what another girl has and resented her for having it, join me. If you want to do what the other girls are doing because you don't want to feel insecure or left over, stupid or inferior, join me. If you've ever wanted a guy just because he was going out with another girl because you wanted to hurt her, join me. If you've ever wanted a guy not because you're interested in him but because you wanted to beat out the other girl in some sort of bizarre race for the guys, join me. Join me, mothers and daughters. Join me in stopping the meanness and competition that goes on every day in our hallways. Not only do women have the power to unite and stop all the wars going on in the world and I believe we have the power, but have the power to stop the wars within. And there can be no peace until there is peace within. This is for Grandma Sadie and my Great-Aunt Pearl. And she grabs a mom's hand to lead them in a circle dance to "Hava Nagila". (updated 2/20/2010)


The sci fi conspiracy series Fringe (on Fox) has had continuing dark hints of revived Nazi science since its first season. But "The Bishop Revival" by Glen Whitman and Robert Chiappetta was the first to link it to targeted Jewish genocide. The episode opens at the Milton-Staller (presumably inter-faith) wedding in Brookline, MA. "Nana Eve Staller" (played by Magda Harout) arrives with her daughter and brushes aside plea to take it easy in order to get inside quickly. Meanwhile, her daughter-in-law welcomes her son's bride "Shelley": I'm so happy you're joining our family. David is lucky to have you. Family is very important to me. That warmth becomes ominous foreshadowing. The grandmother is horrified by the sight of an uninvited young bespectacled blond man and points at him accusingly: It can't be! It can't be true! It's him! It's him! And then she and all 14 of her direct descendants collapse choking to death as their blood turns blue (an illegitimate grandchild is unaffected). The investigators find she has concentration camp numbers tattooed on her arm. Later the audience can see a photo of the staff of a pre-war German lab – and there's the face of the same guy who released the poison in the air.(2/10/2010)

Nip/Tuck also had a woman Holocaust survivor in the penultimate episode of the series "Edith and Walter Krieger" by Brad Falchuk. So what don't "Edith" (played by Hildy Brooks) and "Walter" (played by Harold Gould) don't like about themselves? (That's each episode's usual opening line.) She speaks up first: We want our tatoos removed. . . It just occurred to me when I was watching a documetnary on the TV about Buchenwald and suddenly I was overwhelmed. And I thought, well, we have lived such a great life, we've survived so much since there. So I want to erase this obsession with terrible things from the past.. "Walter": You can see she's a remarkable woman! Their daughter "Allison" (played by Amy Pietz) interjects: That's not what you said in the car, Dad.. He tries to hush her, but she persists: How can I keep my mouth shut when Holocaut deniers are more vocal than ever? When so many survivors have passed? Why would you two want to erase one single reminder? "Edith": My daughter is upset and I understand. She has a different perspective. "Walter": At the end of the day I want what Edith wants. She is my inspiration. This will be her chance, a second chance at some joy and I can give it to her. Yes, take it off. The doctors warn of the difficulty of doing plastic surgery on elderly patients with thin skin. "Edith": Doctor, after what we've been through, this is bupkis. “Raisins & Almonds" plays as they hold hands during the surgery. But the recovery does not go smoothly – he has delirious flashbacks in German. When his wife visits him in recovery she asks: You said over and over – what did we do to the children? What were you talking about? There was something in your voice. Like you were one of them. Walter, please tell me you weren't one of them! I didn't sleep all night. He admits he was "just a tattooist", justifying his role as those who were tattooed got to live. I promised God that if He gave me a second chance, I would live like a Jew. I lived with the people that I harmed., explaining he tattooed himself. "Edith" is aghast: It's not all right. I was your penance? "Walter: Why I was given this gift I do not know, but God gave me you. "Edith": God is a joke! "Walter": Does it count for nothing what I have become? I've been a good man. You always talk about forgiveness. She weeps. The daughter steps in when the doctor recommends painkillers: Why should he get any painkillers? He didn't give his victims any painkillers! She brings in a member of their temple who volunteers at the Wiesenthal Center, "Lena Gold" (played by Bryna Weiss), who has reported "Walter" to O.S.I in Washinton. If the evidence warrants Mr. Krieger, or whatever his name is, will hopefully be deported to stand trial for his crimes. The daughter tries to get her mother to leave, saying "Lena" will wait with "him" to get picked up. "Edith": I’m not going anywhere. The daughter retorts: Fine – stay with your Nazi! Her mother pleads: He's my husband! The daughter warns: You're not the only one he has to answer to. "Edith" shakes her head: Mein kindt – how are you ever going to live with yourself? "Allison" and "Lena" storm out. The doctor asks "Edith": Where does it come from? How do you do it? This capacity to forgive? She shrugs: How do you not? So this whole story was really a backdrop to the doctor's own complicated family problems. (2/28/2010)

Set in Brooklyn, HBO's quirky comedy Bored To Death (1st season on DVD) had a string of putative Jewish brunettes for most of the season circling around lead character, blocked writer/amateur P.I. "Jonathan Ames"(played by Jason Schwartzman), who frequently identified himself as Jewish, albeit "agnostic". There was his ex-girlfriend "Suzanne" (played by Olivia Thirlby), or his best friend "Ray"s girlfriend "Leah" (played by Heather Burns), or his agent "Caroline Taylor" (played by Bebe Neuwirth), or maybe the naked bed bunny "Miriam Thompson" (Jennifer Blank) of his publisher. But in the last episode only the hippie chick "Stella" (played by Jenny Slate, previously mostly known for an F-word slip on Saturday Night Live) was explicitly ID'd as Jewish. It's been renewed for a 2nd season so maybe she'll become a regular character next year.
She first appeared in the penultimate episode of the season "The Case of the Stolen Sperm" by Jonathan Ames (yes, he named the lead character after himself) and Donick Cary, working at the Park Slope Food Co-Op and wearing a pink "Legalize Marijuana" T-shirt. After noting that the neighborhood may have more lesbians than San Francisco, she is affronted by "Jonathan"s request for info about a particular member couple, let alone at an attempted bribe: This is a food co-op, OK. People expect privacy! We have ethics here. The people who work here are like family! Who do you think you are? I'm not going to betray their trust for money! He points to her shirt: I might have something else that would interest you? And in the next scene they are toking together. She: I like a man who cames with a one-hitter. I can tell that this is good stuff because I'm kind of missing everybody in my life right now, but I don't mind because it's like a beautiful sadness. "Ray" joins in: When I get high, I realize that I clench my anus. "Stella": That's not healthy. . . ."Ray": Yeah, but smoking helps me unclench it. "Stella": See, that's why pot should be legalized. She hands over the address. "Jonathan" assures her he has more of this organic pot to share and she un-ironically concurs that they should get together, particularly when she gets the new vaporizer she's ordered: The volcano –they use it on cancer patients in Germany. It's very healthy. It's what Woody Harrelson uses. She gives him a comforting hug before getting back to work.
In the season finale "Take A Dive", by Jonathan Ames and Martin Gero, she calls "Jonathan" to offer really good pot from L.A., medical marijuana. It could help with your writing. At his apartment that's been left bare since his ex left, she offers to build him new bookshelves, based on her experience with Habitat for Humanity, and initiates a body contact game of one-on-one basketball. When that vaporizer arrives, she suggestively advises him on how to use it: Just squeeze down on that nipple and suck in the marijuana. . . It's healthy because it's invisible vapor. . . I'm really glad that you could hang out. There was a pollen in the air today that smelled like kissing. Do you know that smell? And they kiss. By the time they're seen post-coital she's grinning: I think I'm still coming. My whole body is vibrating like a tuning fork. He's in tune: I'm glad I'm not vibrating but I do feel really good. As they cuddle, she asks why he can't write his second novel: I don't mean to give you advice. But my writing teacher said you should only write about what you love. I'm not a writer, but that's what I try to do when I paint. What do you love? She supports him to write about his cases, then: Wanna vaporize some more pollen? He grins: I want to vaporize you. And they go for a second round.
On his blog background to the series, Ames explained her dialogue: "Jenny Slate as Stella is just great in the vaporizing and love-making scenes. I love the way she talks about the pollen in the air and then later asks, "What do you love?" I had her bring up the pollen because one time when I was living in Princeton there was this tree that was giving off the most erotic odor and I would become very aroused. I thought of climbing the tree and sort of making love to it, but chose, rather, just to inhale deeply as I walked past. Also, I have Stella mention that her body is vibrating like a tuning fork because I've noted that the female orgasm and its effect on the body is markedly different than what happens to a man's body after an orgasm. A man often feels drained and depleted, not to mention confused, but women seem to be energized, at least in the way that a tuning fork continues to hum for some time after its initial outburst of sound. The Volcano vaporizer that Jonathan and Stella use, I've been told, is the best on the market. Later, as a gift, the production gave me the vaporizer and it's now on my kitchen table like a trophy. Thanks to HBO, I have a television, bookshelves, and a vaporizer! Thank you HBO"
The character "Jonathan" later talks about "Stella" to his friends in what may be the most unique description of a young Jewish woman on a TV series ever, and has convinced me to seek out series creator Jonathan Ames's novels and maybe even his essays: I actually kind of like this girl Stella. She's sexy as hell, smart, Jewish, has a great vaporizer. Which his friend "Ray" deflates with the usual problematic conflation for Jewish women on TV: Sounds like your mother. "Stella" comes to his boxing fight against a critic and she kisses him in the ring after his victory. Later, he asks her over to celebrate, but she begs off sex due to her usual post-coital urinary infection. He asks her to just hang out without sex, but she kindly defers: No, it would be too frustrating. We'll see each other in a week. I'll increase my drinking to a ton of cranberry juice. She gives him a friendly kiss, but with a lot of admiration for his feat: You were an animal!"
In reference to an earlier episode, he described his background: "Half my roots are Czech-Kafka-Jewish roots and the other half are Ukranian-Russian-Jewish, and my great-grandfather, on the Russian side, Nuchum Schwartz, whom I'm named for and who was born in Russia and emigrated at the end of the 19th century to New York, used to go to the same Russian baths that I go to." (updated 9/14/2010)


CBS's undistinguished, Pittsburgh-set hospital show Three Rivers (Sundays at 9 pm) suddenly turned beautiful young nurse "Alicia Wilson" (played by Teri Reeves) Jewish in "Good Intentions" by Sunil Nayar. Her refusal of a shyly proffered, hard-to-get gift of a genuine Maine lobster roll from the smitten transplant coordinator -- That's sweet, but I'm Jewish. . . It's a bottom-feeder. But thanks for thinking of me., pointing to a Star of David necklace that she hadn't been wearing earlier, was sweet, but was just a light-hearted plot diversion about his romantic inexperience. A couple of episodes later in "Alone Together" by Frank Military a grateful patient's wife suddenly quoted the Talmud to the transplant doctor about "when you save one life it is as if you saved the entire world" despite no indication she was Jewish. (11/8/2009)

The breezy grifters-turned-Robin Hoods in Leverage played on two TV Jewish women stereotypes in "The Two Live Crew Job" by Amy Berg and John Rogers. "Olivia Mercer" (played by Chrisse Roccaro), the heavily accented daughter of a Holocaust victim, and her brother plead for the return of their father's stolen Gustave Klimt painting, complaining of the owner: "He even bribed a judge!" But the muscle in the competing gang of thieves is the gorgeous "Mikel Dayan" (played by the Israeli star Noa Tishby). She's described as ex-Mossad, she used to work both sides as an ex-mercenary. . .She'd mop the floor with you. She killed a guy once with a mop. . She broke the mop in two pieces. . . When she faces off, she only speaks Hebrew – until she teases You wouldn't hit a girl would you? She looks mighty fine in a sweaty fight, taking her ripped shirt off amidst broken steam pipes. But she gets distracted by a kiss before being handcuffed. Later she and her hunky counterpart compare scars. When she shows off one from a grenade wound in Somalia, he points to his from a sniper in Myannamar, which reminds her of having been a sniper there in 2003. (9/1/2009)

TV crime shows the past season have been full of Madoff-like, Ponzi-scheming hedge fund managers who are also invariably Jewish – though not in the third season of Damages that is centered around such a fictional case. The "He Dead" episode of comic summer series Psych, by Saladin K. Patterson, found a satirical angle when the botoxed widow "Alice Clayton" (played by Christine Baranski) announced We don't hide anything except money, illegitimate children, and the fact that we're Jewish. (8/21/2009)


Grey's Anatomy again tried to make up for being the only major U.S. teaching hospital without Jewish doctors by playing the card of “Dr. Christina Yang”s (Sandra Oh) have a step-father who is Jewish in "I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watchin' Me", by Tony Phelan and Joan Rater. She's frantic to be on the list of residents who survive a hospital merger: The list is life. Her doctor boyfriend is shocked that she would quote Schindler's List in comparing her situation to the Holocaust. She retorts: I'm Jewish. I'm allowed. And yet again in the lame holiday season (and deservedly low-rated) "Holidaze" by Krista Vernoff, "Dr. Yang" again claimed to be Jewish in refusing to sing along with a morale-boosting round of the secular holiday song "Let It Snow" in the operating room. The African-American chief resident appropriately put her in her place: Don't play the race card with me! (updated 11/20/2009)

Who Do You Think You Are is the U.S. version of the U.K. show that has been airing since 2004. A particular motivation for executive producer Lisa Kudrow to bring the show here with a sponsor, was to follow the Holocaust story of her father's family. While neither in her promotional visit on Oprah nor on her episode did she say if her mother was Jewish or her identification with her Jewish heritage, even if non-Halachic, (which would have been interesting for her to mention when Friends was on first-run and there was much discussion of the Jewish identity of the brother/sister duo and as her public image contradicts the usual image of a Jewish woman, including when a character called her nosybody character a "gestapo" on The Comeback), her journey through the past and present was one of the best Holocaust-education programs I've seen on network television, especially for avoiding stereotypes and focusing attention beyond the concentration camps, as detailed in the documentary Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades. (More detail when I get a chance.) (updated 1/8/2011)

The Good Wife (on CBS) pulled out one of TV writers' recent favorite Jewish women: Orthodox but with a past, i.e. Baal teshuva. In "Unorthodox" by Robert King and Michelle King, the titular lawyer is nonplussed to discover that the daughter "Anna Stern Loeb" (played by Natalie Gold) of the senior partner she is currying favor for is living in an Orthodox neighborhood. (Though the series is set in Chicago, this sure looked like the Brooklyn brownstone neighborhood where it was filmed.) The daughter notes their surprise at finding her there and explains why: I was in rehab out in Westchester. There was volunteer there, a yeshiva student. And he had this amazing LP collection. . .They were good LPs. Isaac was talking about passion and music and the Torah, and I just fell in love. That's the problem with love – you can't make it do what you want. Her legal problem is that a lady tripped in front of their house and their homeowner's insurance won't cover the exorbitant punitive damages being sought: It could take away our future. . .Just when you think you've found your place in life, comes this. She is meanwhile rushing around to finish her housework before Shabbat, but just as she asks for her dad's help, her Hasidic husband walks in, played by Daniel London, who for some reason is getting typecast like this lately. He protests: We don't want it. We’re not in touch with him. (though it turns out that the plaintiff's attorney is aiming at dad's deeper pockets.) Outside the house, the cynical investigator is not convinced of her transformation: Last year she was club-hopping with Tara Reid. Wanna know what she'll be doing next year? Club-hopping with Tara Reid. The husband belays his suspicions enough to ask if the lawyer is Jewish, as that would help her understand the issue. Instead, he's sympathetic towards her disgraced husband who helped the community with a skinhead problem. So the couple tours her around the eruv whose broken wire on the Sabbath led to the law suit. (I have a discussion of eruvim in fiction, re: Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and real life.) Of all the suspicious statements by the plaintiff, her claim that she shopped at the neighborhood's kosher market due to its large supply of gluten-free products, which are usually parve, was actually credible, as I do too – but it would have been closed on the Sabbath. While the lawyer looks enviously at the couple as they hold hands before going into court, "Anna" starts to cry on the stand when the plaintiff's attorney puts her cell phone records into evidence – there's been calls on Friday nights, so she could have called to have the wire repaired: A call to my father. We've been estranged. The attorney presses that she hid the calls from her husband, who stalks out of the courtroom. Despite the lawyer's protest that the wife wasn't being selfish, the husband explains: It's a betrayal. She lied to me. She's betrayed everything. . .Have you forgiven your husband? Then how can you tell me to forgive? The lawyer is sympathetic to "Anna": "It's going to be hard.. "Anna" concurs: It's the small things. He doesn’t trust me. Like with my dad the first time after rehab. He looked at me differently, like I was a time bomb. The lawyer tries to be reassuring: I'm sure he wants it to work. "Anna" smiiles ruefully: I'm sure he does. You can't just throw a marriage away, can you? And the couple holds hands after the jury finds in their favor. (11/15/2009)
"Fleas" by Amanda Segel Marks stuck in a rather bizarrely gratuitous metaphor when the son defended keeping secrets from his mother about blackmailers as being (not exact quote) "like hiding Jews. . .you know, from the Nazis". (3/16/2010)


Private Practice in "The Parent Trap" episode, by Craig Turk, had yet another Orthodox woman, mostly as an excuse to talk about sex. The pediatrician "Dr. Cooper Freedman" (played by Paul Adelstein), whose Jewishness is rarely referred to, and whose lack of knowledge about birth control policy among the Orthodox was really naïve (let alone executive producer Shonda Rimes in both her medical shows) was examining an infant while a toddler looks on: You have these two little ones and four others, what under 8? How're you doing? "Rachel Gold" (played by Rebecca Field), with her head covered and a long skirt: I'm great! I'm very blessed. Dr: Doesn't mean your're not exhausted. You get no time to yourself. . . She: It's Shimon. . .He's not interested. . It's not proper. I shouldn't be talking to you about this. It's not proper. And I don’t' think you can help. The doctor asks his friend the shrink and his girlfriend the doctor recently turned sexologist for advice, and they compete for solutions. He has the wife meet with both of them: It's not the first time Shimon hasn't been interested since we had a baby. But it's lasted longer this time. I started thinking. . . The two doctors keep interrupting each other and ask if he's emotionally distant, as they assume a stereotype. The wife smiles: Not at all. Shimon's wonderful. They ask about physical changes. The wife: Well, he hasn't een sleeping well. He's up poking around the refrigerator. And maybe I'm imagining it, but he's getting a bit. . . The doctors think she means flabby, or couvade, the sympathetic pregnancy syndrome. I'm sorry I'm not being clear. That's not what I want at all. I love my husband, but I can't have him. . . The sexologist is confused: I thought you wanted help with your sex life? The wife struggles: We have 6 kids, who I adore. But if I have to raise, or if Shimmon has to provide for any more, we can't have more kids. So this couvade, is there any way to keep it going permanently? The doctors argue a solution and come up with birth control. "Shimon Gold" (played by Dennis Apergis) listens: I work 2 jobs, 6 days a week. And Rachel is consumed. She makes our home. She juggles school books and doctors and meals and birthdays and so many things, I lose track. "Dr. Friedman": Exactly. So at a certain point, whether it's 7 or 9, do you think you'll want to stop? Husband: The Torah tells us "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it." We interpret that to mean that we can't do anything to try to prevent a pregnancy. I love my wife and neither of us wants to give up, you know. Doctor: What if we found something that wasn't technically birth control? Husband: We have chosen to be faithful [to Torah – I think, can't read my handwritten transcription]. Who would we be fooling? The doctor finally figures out he needs to talk to a rabbi, but, oddly, bring in his own, not an Orthodox one. Even this rabbi can explain to the doctors: It's a mitzvah for us. Married people are supposed to be having sex. . . Judaism is unique among the major world religions in that it promotes sex not just for procreation, but for pleasure. [Isn't Hinduism a major religion in the world?] You see, you should come to shule more often. You'd learn all sorts of good things. . .But you want to know about birth control. You should read the story of Onan. We're pretty down on anything that has to do with destruction of the seed. It's all about interpretation. Depending upon how observant they are, some Jews feel that if you've had at least one boy and one girl you've been fruitful enough. Others take a harder line. . .Rabbis have been debating these rules for thousands of years. . But it does look like your patients are looking to end-run the Lord. They sound like they want to live by the letter of the law. The doctors debate various birth control methods. "Dr. Friedman" suggests a semantic solution: If it doesn't say birth control on it, the Golds would be fine with it. They together advise the couple: Ultimately, it's not a medical decision. It's a personal one. The shrink meets separately with "Rachel": Dr. Friedman told me how tired you are. . .Your problem is very common in young mothers. Among other things, it's iron-deficiency anemia. This should help. If you feel you need it, that would be up to you. She hands over the round plastic pill package that "Rachel" immediately knows is birth control. She walks out with it to the waiting room full of all her kids. (12/20/2009)

ABC's Ugly Betty had one of its rare Jewish women, for a series set in NYC, in "Be-Shure" by Gail Lerner. "Jean" the pharmacist (Faith Prince) is very helpful to both "Suarez" sisters when they come in for pregnancy test kits: I didn't work at Barnard Health Services for 25 years for nothing. But she's also been invited to holiday dinner by their father. She brings along a menorah her niece made: I thought it might be nice to light it along side the tree. Dad enthuses about a multi-cultural celebration. In the midst of her English rendition of the candle blessing, she drops the menorah when a pregnancy test stick falls amidst the gathering. Later Dad sympathizes about the broken menorah. "Jean" is philosophical: It's fine. Between the Long Island nieces and the Brooklyn nephews, I have handmade menorahs coming out of my tuchis! Would have been nice to light it though. Dad invites her to celebrate a combined Easter and Passover. "Jean" agrees, with presumed foreshadowing of stereotypes unlike this episode: I'd like that. Just don't tell my mother. She'd kill me if she knew I was dating someone who wasn't Jewish.(12/20/2009)

In the second season of PBS's Masterpiece Inspector Lewis (the spin-off from Mystery's Inspector Morse series based on Colin Dexter novels) the usual loud, brassy, aggressive, liberal Jewish woman lawyer was in "Life Born of Fire", written by Tom MacRae. "Nova Rose Cohen" (played by Kate Miles) makes a point of explaining that her mother picked her first name but she has a Jewish father, in the midst of vociferously representing the Oxford gay community to be allowed their Gay Pride event on campus. She had also represented a nightclub owner to buy a decommissioned church from the college. Though dealing with all kinds of gay stereotypes, at the end her "partner" is revealed to be a male investigative reporter. (9/14/2009)

Being Erica – Erica Strange in the 2nd season (Canadian series, shown in U.S. on SoapNet, streaming on Hulu) (commentary forthcoming) (7/1/2012)

Rachel Berry on Glee (on Fox, 1st season on DVD) It was several weeks after Jewish bloggers assumed "Rachel" (played by Lea Michele) was Jewish that the scripts confirmed it. The talented and aggressive, diva and insecure, funny and obnoxious daughter of two fathers, "Rachel" hinted she was in the fourth episode, "Preggers", written and directed by Brad Falchuk, by speciously pleading that she deserved to play Maria in West Side Story because she could relate to the Jewish Natalie Wood from the film version. From a briefly seen photo in the pilot, we saw that her two dads are white and African-American, though she then brightly explained To this day we don't know which one is my real dad. and the actress in interviews has said the back story is that one is Jewish, though we won't see him until at least the third season. According to an interview with series creator Ryan Murphy in TV Guide 6/7/2010: "I like feeling their parenting influence without meeting them. At least for another season."
In The Hollywood Reporter interview with Leslie Bruce on 8/11/2010 there were no Jewish references: "Michele: Rachel was me when I was younger and working in musical theater. I was very determined and I did a great show every single night. I never missed a performance. Since then, I've mellowed out, but there is a part of me that's very Rachel Berry. She is so different now than when we started. Initially, she was very "Pretty in Pink": making her own clothes, and wearing tons of necklaces with big theatrical makeup. We were figuring out who she was and we realized her personality was enough. She didn't need the gloves and pearls." A year later, there was a veiled Jewish reference in an interview in the same publication, 8/26/2010, "On the set as Glee begins its second season" by Mary Murphy: "Michele was a Broadway actress who'd never had any long-running role on television, and was constantly being rejected either because she wasn't a classic Hollywood beauty or because she was too ethnic -- or for myriad other reasons. Now she's a mega-star."
While in the 7th episode, "Throwdown" by Brad Falchuk, the Glee director specifically noted to the grinning girl: All you have is each other. It doesn't matter that Rachel is Jewish. Because you're all minorities – you're in Glee!, so that in a show themed about divisiveness they can all join in singing Avril Lavigne's "Keep Holding On", most of the speculation about her was due to Michele, the Bronx-born, Jersey Girl actress with a Sephardi father, who told The Daily News' Richard Huff in "'Glee' star Lea Michele thrilled by leap from Broadway to new Fox show" posted 8/30/2009: “'I never really thought there would be a place on television for me. . .I have a very specific look. I’m Jewish. I’m Italian. . . I remember looking up to Barbra Streisand, and thinking, 'Finally, someone who has a Jewish nose, who didn't get a nose job'. . . Michele said she hopes that being on TV, in some way, might make her a role model. 'I love me and my body and my Jewish nose. If that is inspiring and can give young girls a sense of confidence, that's great.' " As she told Access Hollywood posted 9/9/2009: ""I got my dream song! I got to sing a Barbra Streisand song. I can't say which it is but it's one of her most popular songs. Ever since I was a little girl, a Jewish girl, it's like always been playing through my head. So I had the opportunity to sing that on the show." From a Q & A with The Washington Post's Ruth McCann posted 9/23/2009: "Q: Do you have an ideal musical role? A: I want to be in Funny Girl. And I want [Glee creator] Ryan Murphy to direct it. Q: Would you do it on Broadway? A: I would do it in a basement in Brooklyn, if somebody would let me do it! It’s the best role ever — any Jewish girl would want to play Fanny Brice!"
But it wasn't until the marvelous 8th episode "Mash-Up", by Ian Brennan, that her being Jewish became a plot point. Here's the details of the episode, because the very uniqueness for a teen TV show to have an attractive Jewish couple is why it was such a sweet and funny target for satire, fitting in the titular theme of blending two unlike songs into one. And then, of course, why it couldn't last in TV Land as the One and Only.
"Noah 'Puck' Puckerman" (played by Mark Salling), the bullying football player with a Mohawk who was identified in an earlier episode as Jewish, narrates the scene: I know this looks weird, but wait until you see what happens next. "Rachel" is singing Christina Aguilera's "What A Girl Wants" to the mirror with a hairbrush mike as "Noah" accompanies on her guitar. He complains: My ears are starting to hurt. Can we take a break? Wanna make out? She quickly assents and next they're rolling on her bed. Then flashback as "Noah" narrates:
I know it's wack, but I also remember what our history teacher told us last semester: 'Only Nixon can go to China'. I have no idea what she meant, but it reminded me of when my family ordered Chinese food and sat down together for our traditional Simchat Torah [pronounced with the hard "H"] screening of Schindler's List. That's really when all of this started. It wasn't the most normal tradition, but we did it for my mom. She said it made her feel more connected to her Jewish roots. [As shoots ring out from the TV, his younger sister runs away screaming.] As she was giving me my sweet 'n' sour pork, she said something that really hit home. Weepily: 'You're really no better than them, Noah. Why can't you date a Jewish girl?' That night I had the strangest dream. [He's lying in bed looking quite sexy without a shirt as Rachel appears at his window looking fetching in a nightie, wind blowing her hair against the moonlight and wearing a very large Jewish star necklace.] I knew it was a dream because there's no way Rachel could have climbed up the wall outside my window with no shoes on. When I woke up, I knew it was more than a dream. It was a message from God. Rachel was a hot Jew and the good Lord wanted me to get into her pants.
Next seen is a dreaded Slushie being carried down the hall as students scatter hoping not to be the target. The hand stops at Rachel and she closes her eyes and mouth in anticipation of being dunked – but it's "Noah" offering it up:Hey, I picked this up for you. It's grape. I know that it's your favorite because the last time I tossed a grape one in your face you licked your lips before you cleaned yourself off. Hey, I was wondering if you want to get together to work up some mash-up ideas?
He continues narrating: Things happened pretty fast from that point. Getting her to make out with me was easier than I thought. Guess she's kind of desperate. But she's imagining he's the hunky quarterback "Finn" instead. When in reality he turns back into "Noah" she backs off. "Rachel": I can't do this. "Noah": Why – we're a couple of good-looking Jews. It's natural. He closes his eyes and comes in for another kiss. She: I can't give myself to – someone who isn't brave enough to sing a solo. If you don't have the guts to do that, then how are you going to be bold enough to deal with the ups and downs of loving an admittedly high maintenance girl like me? He: Are you questioning my bad assedness? Have you seen my guns? He holds out his arm. She: Noah, I'm sorry. Your arms are lovely, but I just don't see us working out.
In Glee Club the next day "Noah" volunteers to sing My personal tribute to a musical Jewish icon. – and picks up the guitar and sings a lovely version of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" to her, as she beams and grins, and she joins in on the chorus with the rest of the group. They are later arm-in-arm down the hallway, but he's thoroughly bored by her conversation about Tommy Tune. He asks for a comment on his song and she offers a technical analysis of his high B. But just as she says You're a great performer, Noah. I just want to say how proud I am to have you on my arm in front of the whole high school-- and he gets Slushied. Next, she's washing his head in the sink. He concedes: You're pretty good at this. She: I've had a lot of practice. You're actually a lot luckier than me and Quinn because your head is shaved. He: I'm really sorry I ever did this to you. She: It's OK. He: No it isn't. No one deserves this feeling. You know what the worst part is? It's not the burning in your eyes or the way the Slushie drips all the way into your underpants. It's the humiliation. I feel like I could burst into tears at any moment. Rachel, I'm sorry, but today when the clock chimes 3:30 – She: You're choosing football over Glee, which means we probably can't be together any more. He: Yes, dammit, I feel like such a bad Jew. She kisses him on the top of his head, gets off his lap and out of the bathroom.
But at 3:30 pm she waits – and grins as he slowly does enter the Glee room: Are you sure about this Noah? Choosing us over the team means you might get a Slushie in your face every day. He: Bring it. They hug. Later, he watches football practice from the stands. She joins him: You miss it. He: Hell no. She: I hope you didn't choose Glee over football because of me? He: Why? She: Because I don't think this relationship is going to work out. He: Cool, I was going to break up with you anyway. She:No you're weren't. He: Yes I was. You won't even let me touch your boobs. He turns back to look at "Finn" playing on the field: Finn right? He's never going to leave Quinn, not with that baby in her belly. [which is his actually] She: You like her don't you? I can see you staring at her when I'm staring at Finn. Is that why you joined Glee, to be closer to her? He: Like I said, they're never breaking up. God, what's the matter with me? I'm a stud and I can't even hold onto a chick like you? No offense. Why don't girls like me? She: Because you're kind of a jerk. No offense. I just think you want it too much, which is something I can relate to. I want everything too much. Our relationship was built on a fantasy, like every other one in my life. I think I just agreed to us being together because I thought it would make Finn jealous. I just hope we can still be friends. She puts a hand on his shoulder, but he shakes her off: We weren't friends before.
The "Ballad" episode by Brad Falchuk continued to poke fun at "Rachel"s excesses, with Jewish references, while being sympathetic. While it opened with "Finn" finding himself admiring her butt, she only has eyes for their teacher "Mr. Shuester" when they sing a romantic duet together in class. He sees the warning signs when she gives him a novelty gift, a tie with a large clef and many stars: So whenever you look at it you can think of how you're making me a star! She comes over to his house, but even he's surprised at his wife's reaction: You're making her clean our bathroom? She's practical: I've been dealing with these school girl crushes for years. Why shouldn't I get something out of it? He immediately drives "Rachel" home, and even though he makes her sit in the back, she considers it "golden alone time" to practice "their" ballad – she starts singing Jennifer Page's "Crush". He asks about "Puck", who she dismisses He was too limiting, as are all the boys in high school. I need a man who can keep up with me intellectually and creatively. He remonstrates: That's a tough road for most high school boys. She agrees: That's why I have my sights set much higher. But his crush from a couple of years ago, "Pepper" (played by Sarah Drew), is aiming at her, and confronts her in the girls' bathroom: Hey Barbra Streisand. We need to have a little talk. "Rachel" rebuffs her as the school crazy. . . There's nothing you can say that will change how I feel about Mr. Shuester. Ours is a love for the ages. Your threats will just make our love grow stronger. But "Pepper" goes on quite the insightful rant, which she credits to what she learned from therapy etc.: Lesson Number 1- you and Shuester – it won't work. . .We're not so different you and me. We're both mildly attractive and extremely grating. Love is hard for us. We look for boys we can never have! Mr. Shuester is a perfect target for our self-esteem issues. He can never reciprocate our feelings which only reinforces the feeling that we're not worthy of being loved! You need to find some self-respect Rachel! Get that mildly attractive groove back! At their next rehearsal, "Mr. Shuester" is emphatic that she's been inappropriate, even as she tries to tell him that she's prepared to sing Elton John's "Sorry Seems the Hardest Word" because I know how much you love it. . . I've been such an idiot. Mooning over you and cleaning your apartment. He is understanding about adolescents: I know it's not always easy for you, Rachel. I know there's some things about yourself you think you'd like to change. You should know there's some boy out there who's going to like you for everything you are, including those parts of you that even you don't like. Those are going to be the things he likes the best.
"Hairography" by Ian Brennan continued to both zing at "Rachel" and sympathize with her. Gay "Kurt" is surprised that pretty ex-Cheerio "Quinn" talks to him for the first time when she propositions him to make over "Rachel", which appeals to his multiple personal angles: I admit that I like a challenge as much as the next guy, but Rachel somehow manages to dress like a grandmother and a toddler at the same time. "Quinn": My point exactly. You are as concerned about the Glee Club succeeding as I am and she's a distraction. Look at her – she's wearing a pants suit. And a bright blue one no less. Don't you think the judges are going to take one look at her and may want to knock her down a peg or two? "Kurt": And to think I thought you were a dumb blonde. Deal. Next "Kurt" is with "Rachel" in her bedroom and waxing her eyebrows. "Rachel": Kurt, why did you volunteer to give me a new look? "Kurt": One, I'm a sucker for makeovers. Two, you need something to distract from your horrible personality. Most of the time I find it hard being in the same room with you. . .You're extremely talented Rachel, watching you perform is amazing, but sometimes it's hard to appreciate what a good singer you are because all I'm thinking about is shoving a sock in your mother. "Rachel": What kind of make-over did you have in mind. "Kurt": You need to broaden your appeal. I want every boy in school to do a double take when you stroll past. "Rachel": There's really only one boy I'd like to impress. Can you keep a secret? I'm in love with Finn. "Kurt" is startled – he is too. He changes his approach. I understand completely. I happen to know for a fact that Finn is attracted to loose women. "Rachel": What? Finn is so wholesome. "Kurt": let me put this in musical theater parlance. In Grease what did Sandy do to get Danny Zukow? She had to ditch the poodle skirt and slap on a cat suit. In short, she had to dress like a 'ho'. Maybe if your look was better, more desirable, Finn would be in your arms right now, instead of Quinn's. Next we see "Rachel" flaunting a lingerie look in the school hallways. "Finn" stops her but is speechless. "Rachel": Hey Finn, I didn't see you there. Did you want to ask me something? "Finn": Yeah, I just forgot, um, I got distracted. "Rachel": Well I'm glad I got your attention. I wanted to know if you wanted to come over on Friday night. As someone who has had long luxurious locks since I was a toddler in the pageant circuit I figured I could give you some tips on our hair number. "Kurt" meets up with her: Objective achieved. Commence Phase 2. On Friday, "Rachel"s grand entrance to "Finn" in her bedroom is dressed in an off-should outfit, like "Sandy" in the movie and she turns on the finale song, which "Finn" had sung at his Glee audition, and dances suggestively up to him. He stops the music and her. I'm going to say this as nicely as I possibly can, but you look like a sad, clown, hooker. This look, it just isn't you. Maybe when I saw it I was caught off guard that you looked all adult and stuff, but it's not what's really great about you, Rachel. I actually like the way you usually dress, sequined leg warmers and stuff. "Rachel": I thought this was what you liked. "Finn": Not at all. Funny, I was just having this conversation with Kurt last week and he asked me. . . Flashback: "Kurt": So what kind of girls do you like? "Finn": Well, I like them when they're natural and stuff. Not a lot of make-up, no skin-tight clothes. Back to the present. "Rachel": I feel like an idiot. "Finn": . . .But I really like you, Rachel. I gotta go. Next she's seen slamming "Kurt"s locker and confronting him: You set me up! With Finn. "Kurt": Looks like someone is running for Drama Queen again. She: How could you do that! I thought we were friends. He: And what made you think that? You should be thanking me. All I did was make you realize that your schoolgirl fantasy of running off with Finn was nothing but a fairy tale. She: You like him. That's what this is. And you were just trying to eliminate the competition. He: I was just trying to help him understand that you are not a viable second choice. She: You think I'm a second choice? He: A distant second choice. She: You think I'm living in a fairy tale. If I were second or if were 50th, I'd still be ahead of you because I'm a girl. He: OK, here's the dope, princess. There's no hope for either of us. He loves Quinn. They're having a baby together. We're nothing but distractions. The sooner we realize that the better. And later, they both watch sadly as "Finn" and "Quinn" walk down the hall arm in arm.
Following "Once Upon A Mattress" written by Ryan Murphy (which I haven't yet transcribed its negative view of "Rachel"), "Sectionals", written and directed by Brad Falchuk, continued to explore the issue of "Rachel"s similarity to the iconic "Tracy Flick" from Election, who is aggravating in how super determined she is to succeed, yet is very good at what she does, but who in the real life of the business world is seen negatively as a tough, or "bully", broad – a frequent Jewish women's stereotype, particularly seen in lawyers on TV shows. "Rachel" is first seen purposely trying to sow suspicion among the glee members: Did any of you think it was weird the way that Puck rushed to Quinn's aid at rehearsal yesterday? They claim friendship, but "Rachel" persists: But it seemed like more than that. I never told you guys before, but I'm a little psychic. I can't read minds or anything yet, but I do have a sixth sense. Something is definitely going on there. She calls after them as they flee to confer about how to keep "Quinn"s secret: It's nothing to be scared of. It's not like I'm Carrie or anything. "Artie": If she finds out she's going to tell Finn. She's a total trout mouth. "Kurt" proposes locking her up in his basement until after sectionals, but "Mercedes" points out: We can't – we need her to sing! "Kurt": Damn her talent! "Mercedes" sweetly distracts "Rachel" as she walks by: Hey hot mama! Then "If she tells Finn he's going to flip! "Kurt": And they we really have no chance at sectionals. "Rachel" continues to plot, but with a Jewish angle that fan sites didn't get accurately. She sweetly nags "Quinn" at her locker: Hey I know it's not my place, but have you had your doctor run the full genetic test panel on your unborn child? I only ask because my cousin Leon and his wife got pregnant and then they found out he was a carrier for Tay-Sachs. (We were tested before getting pregnant.) "Quinn" is worried: What's that? "Rachel": It's a genetic disorder, pretty terrible from what I understand, if one of the parents is a carrier than there's like a 50% chance that the child has it, or something like that. Leon's baby was fine. But it was still pretty scary though. "Quinn": My doctor never mentioned that. "Rachel": I'm such an idiot. They would only mention that if one of the parents was Jewish. Only Jews carry the gene. [sic] I'll see you in rehearsal. "Quinn" to "Puck": You have to take me to get those Jewish baby tests. "Puck": Is this even a real thing? I have Fight Club tonight. But "Quinn"s concerned this could endanger the adoption. When the choir learns they are on their own to do a set list, "Rachel" comes forward: I would be thrilled to contribute a ballad from my repertoire. "Mercedes" challenges her: You know what Miss Bossy Pants – Enough. I worked just as hard as you and I'm just as good as you. You always end up stealing the spotlight. "Rachel": Do you honestly think you're as good a balladeer as I am? She turns to the temporary faculty advisor and whispers: Ballads are kind of my thing. But "Mercedes" is allowed to try out and she explodes with, of course, "I'm Not Going" (an iconic African-American woman's song from Dreamgirls). "Rachel" concedes with a grin: Obviously everyone adores you. While it wouldn't be my first choice, I can't wait to hear you sing that song at sectionals. You're amazing, Mercedes, and you deserve it. I'm going to hug you now. "Finn" is impressed by her magnanimity: I know that was hard for you. "Rachel": It was the right thing to do. I wanted to bring the team together . . .But I want you to be happy Finn. I don't want you to suffer. I have to tell you something. Which leads to "Finn" hitting "Puck" at the next rehearsal. "Quinn" asks: Who told you? "Kurt": Obviously it was Rachel. "Rachel" lies, but looks guilty: What, I didn’t do anything. "Finn": Yeah, it was Rachel. She tears up as "Finn" stalks out and apologizes to "Quinn": I fully understand if you want to beat me up. If you can, just try to avoid my nose. "Quinn": I'm not mad at you. What you did was just what I wasn't brave enough to do – just tell the truth. "Rachel": I was selfish when I told him. I wanted to break you two up. I thought he would want to be with me. "Quinn": And now neither of us have him. As the bus readies to leave for sectionals, "Jacob Ben Israel" (played by Josh Sussman with a big Isro, who in an episode of Bones was called "Afro Geek") volunteers to replace "Finn" – and immediately cuddles up to "Rachel", who pushes him away. She tries to cheer up the choir about drawing 3rd out of 3: My extensive auditioning for community theater has taught me that we either want to go first or last. If we’re first, then everyone has to measure up to us and if we’re last, then we’re the freshest in the judges’ minds. "Kurt": And did you ever get any of those parts? She first tries to cheer up "Mercedes" that her ballad is performed: It's a really popular song. But when even the deaf choir steals another song, she stands up in the middle of the audience and barks to the members: Meeting in the Green Room in 5 minutes! She rallies the troops after the Cheerios admit to spying, but also loving glee: There's no point in us arguing any more. We have to go on in an hour. . .Mercedes do you have anything else in your repertoire? "Mercedes": But it's not as good as anything you're gonna sing. . . .Look Rachel, The truth is you're the best singer we've got. "Kurt": As much as it hurts me to admit it, and it does, she’s right, Rachel’s our star. If anyone is going to go belt it on the fly, it should be her. "Rachel": Well I do have something I've been working on since I was 4. "Finn" comes in to save the day and politely asks "Jacob" if it's cool if he can have his place back. "Jacob": Quite. I was just here because I was hoping to get into Rachel's pants. "Finn" then channels 42nd Street to "Rachel": Don't worry about me. This is all up to you now. You wanted the solo. You wanted the chance to be a star. This is your chance. Don't screw it up. She surprises the audience by entering from the rear of the auditorium with Barbra Streisand's signature star-making song from Funny Girl "Don’t Rain On My Parade", an iconic Jewish woman's song, to her own standing ovation. And about a week later, the actress was nominated for a Golden Globe. (And at the end of the season Emmy nominated.)
In "Hell-O" by Ian Brennan the show choir's arch-nemesis, the cheerleaders' coach "Sue Sylvester" targets her: Rachel is the kind of girl who wants things too badly. And wha she wants is Finn. and she instructs two Cheerios to go after her boyfriend. Skirting the requirements to do a song with "Hello" in the title, "Rachel" angrily sings the All American Rejects' "Gives You Hell" to the conflicted "Finn" in rehearsal. In the show tunes section of a record store, she is approached by "Jesse St. James", the hunky senior at their competing choir Vocal Adrenaline with faint praise for her take on "Don’t Rain On My Parade": You totally lacked Barbra's depth. . .But you have talent., as he flirts with her through Lionel Ritchie's "Hello." The Cheerios snicker at her in front of "Finn": Did you see what she wore? She looked like Pipi Longstocking. But Israeli. When "Finn" complains: You do talk too much and usually about yourself. even as he's trying to make up with her, she retorts confidently about hitching her future to "Jesse": I know who I am! How many chances at this am I going to get? But even as the choir insists she choose between Glee and (the duplitious) "Jesse", "Sue" further manipulates her emotions at a gathering of "The Old Maid's Club".
In "The Power of Madonna", written and directed by Ryan Murphy, "Rachel" tries asking for advice from the popular girls about having sex for the first time: Can I ask you guys something private? "Santana" cuts her off with an odd Jewish reference: Yes, you should move to Israel. The school's virginal counselor says she talk to her mother. "Rachel": But I have two gay dads. The counselor then suggests her rabbi. Rachel: I really don't feel comfortable discussing this with Rabbi Greenberg.
In "Bad Reputation", by Ian Brennan, "Rachel" declares she's going to get down and dirty. . .Rachel Berry is going to get musically promiscuous. First she admits to how her being overly critical of others' "imperfect performances" builds up like a volcano, I just can't help it, and then it just comes bursting out. (not exact quote – I can't read my handwritten notes!) "Puck" helpfully agrees: It does suck when you do that. She: I'm right but it doesn't do much for my reputation. "Puck" at first moves in for a kiss: Jesse will never fully understand what it means to be a Jew. . .Why should I stay if there's no change of us making out? The wheel-chair-bound "Arnie" uses her as a point of reference in a plan to change his reputation: We have to do something more terrifying than Rachel's personality. "Jesse" tells her what he learned about her from asking around: Compulsive need to be right. (I didn't get the full quote here either.)
In "Laryngitis" by Ryan Murphy, "Rachel" does some soul searching when she can't sing:Who am I without my voice? I'm like this spoiled, annoying, only child. "Finn" plotzs at her feeling sorry for herself, but she persists: I'm like Tinkerbell. I need applause to live. This is about as close to self-actualization as she gets when she thanks a quadriplegic: Thank you for showing me that just because I'm not any good at anything other than singing doesn't mean I 'm not any good if I can't sing. And then she offers him singing lessons. "Jesse" strokes "Rachel"s ego in "Dream On" by Brad Falchuk by assuring her that being a star is definitely in her future: It's not a dream – it's an inevitability. While Idina Menzel, probably in response to fans' acclamation, was revealed to be playing her birth mother, it's doubtful that her "Shelby Corcoran" is Jewish. (However, in the 2013 PBS broadcast of Idina Menzel Live: Barefoot at the Symphony, her thank you’s included: “Temple Beth Shalom back home was good, but this is so much better. . .We Jewish girls from New York have a bossiness about us.” Her gushing fandom for Barbra Streisand as her idol, who she was thrilled to perform a signature song for at The Kennedy Center Honors, even accompanied by Streisand’s frequent accompanist Marvin Hamlisch, sounds eerily like “Rachel”: “Her album was the first one I bought when I was five.” So it was that much more surprising that Rachel Shukert, in Tablet Magazine, 3/7/2014 after Menzel’s wow Oscar-winning performance of Frozen’s “Let It Go” could claim: “Even the Jews, who are usually so quick to embrace a pretty and successful daughter of Israel, no matter how tangential she may be, have all but ignored her.”) But, in a wasted opportunity, at her sold-out Radio City Music Hall concert-- She “announced she’ll release a Christmas album this year, which will include the original song December Prayer. (Her introduction to this information: I’m Jewish. . .) but…”, as reported by Erin Strecker, 6/17/2014 in EW.
"Funk" by Ian Brennan continued this series' dual approach to "Rachel" – attacking and supporting her at the same time. Her ex "Jesse" lures her in optimistic slo-mo to the school parking lot, only to be egged by his vegan-taunting compatriots, topped off when he smashes an egg on her head: I loved you. When she broods over the mothers of the little baby chicks coming after me, the frequently taunted "Kurt" gives a mixed message defense of her: Rachel's one of us. We're the only ones who get to humiliate her. "Finn" is more politic: We can't let Vocal Adrenaline turn Rachel into an omelette. Even when they plan musical vengeance, a cheerleader taunts her for keeping "Jesse"s number in her phone.
In "Journey", written and directed by Brad Falchuk, "Rachel" lands the hunk and his declaration of love continues how the series both criticizes and admires her for characteristics that are frequently associated with bright, aggressive Jewish women in popular culture: You're a leader, Rachel. The way you're on everybody is really annoying, but it is very motivational. And she gives him a big kiss there in the school hallway. (updated 6/17/2014)


Ziva David on NCIS in her 5th season (7th season on CBS, out on DVD) Oddly, a cover story in Entertainment Weekly 10/23/2009, by Lynette Rice, about the series' #1 ratings on broadcast first-run this season and in repeats on USA cable channel was called "The World of 'NCIS': Why It Keeps Getting Bigger: 'NCIS' and its little sibling, 'NCIS: Los Angeles,' are conquering the country", but gave no credit for its success to the character of "Ziva", nor the actress playing her. (TV Guide quickly made up for that lack with a light-hearted 11/2-8/2009 cover story with her, "NCIS Takes The Cake" by Chris Willman, that I'll pull quotes when I get a chance.) The Wall Street Journal, in "Deconstructing TV's No. 1 Show 'NCIS' isn't young, hip or edgy, it just has the most viewers", 12/11/2009, by Amy Chozick only referenced the actress and her role as "adding to its international appeal".
While "Ziva" was being tortured in Somalia by a Yale-educated terrorist in the season opener "Truth or Consequences" written by Jesse Stern, her hunky colleague "Tony" is furious that her father the "tight-lipped" Mossad director hasn't let NCIS know about her: The man's got to have some feelings about putting her back in the field!. The tekkies de-code clues on her computer to her location by de-crypting a "Chad Gad Ya" clip, which they oddly identified as "a Hebrew nursery rhyme", though it's mostly in Aramaic and is usually sung at the Passover seder. When "Tony" comes to rescue her, she demurs: I did not ask for anyone to put themselves into harm's way for me. I do not deserve it. , "Tony" ignores the martyrdom implications and instead puts a Christian spin on her sacrifice: What are you doing out here, some sort of monastic experience? Doing penance? "Ziva" persists: It is justified. . . You try to save yourselves. I am ready to die.. . As an inside joke, Israeli star Noa Tishby cameo'd as bespectacled American-accented "DEA Agent Claire Connell" who tried to get her job at NCIS.
The next episode, "Reunion" by Steven D. Binder, dealt more with her daddy issues. She comes to "Gibb"s' house, bringing a thank you gift of a special chisel: When you left me in Israel, I felt betrayed, but I had a long time to think about things – a very, very long time. And you were right to leave me there. . . I had forgotten who I could trust. We were a team and I would like that again. He demurs: You need to talk to The Director. She persists: It is your blessing I came for. . .and he's not the only one I need to talk to. When she does meet with The Director, he challenges her if she's discussed her desire to return to NCIS with her father. She bristles: I am not sure how his opinion is relevant. He persists: We rescued you. Not Mossad. Not your father. She: Have I not been a valuable asset to NCIS? Then what is the problem? He's precise: David, you were never an agent. You were the Mossad liaison officer. That requires you to have a relationship with Mossad. Have you even spoken to your father? She: No. He's stern: You're damanged goods. How damaged I need to know before I can even figure out what to do with you. You pass the psych eval battery and we'll talk. No promises. When "Tony" hears about her meeting, he smirks: No one's ever accused you of having tact.
The Goth tekkie "Abby" is her only woman friend so she can unload a frank tirade on her (and I never got around to transcribing the complexities of her relationship with "Rifkin" the oddly-named Mossad agent, maybe because I never got over that they changed the actor playing him between introducing him in photographs at the beginning of last season and then when he showed up in D.C. at the Sweeps Weeks conclusion.): What the hell is wrong with you? How could you have doubted Tony? After all that you two have been through together? You really think he killed Rifkin because he was jealous? You weren't thinking! That's right – you weren't thinking! . . .I could understand your initial reaction. . .You were in an emotional time for you and people act irrationally. But to tell Gibbs that you didn't trust Tony? I could also understand he did just shoot your boyfriend to death. In your living room. All right, I'll give you that one. But this is Tony we're talking about – all soft and goofy on the outside and 100% rock on the inside and after everything you accused him of, he risked his life to go save you. You shoud be ashamed of yourself! The in hindsight is starting to make a bit more sense. The ball is in your court. It is Tony – 1, and Ziva – zilch. It's your move, and it better be a good one. . .If I wasn't so worried aobut you. . She unveils a big "Welcome Home Ziva" banner. Separatey, "Gibbs" asks the director: What does Eli David think?. . .We need Ziva. Back in the office, she thanks "McGee" [though I can't quite read my handwritten transcription exactly right]: These three months have been a challenge, but that's all in the past, and the past's past. But he gives a blunt retort: So why have you been avoiding Tony? So she confronts "Tony" -- in the men's room: When you shot Michael, I almost killed you where you stood. "Tony": I wasn't standing. "Ziva": No you weren't. You were lying on the ground. Without adequate back-up, completely violating protocol. . .but that does not matter. Just as it does not matter how it worked out for Michael. He: So what does? She: That you had my back that you have always had my back. And that I was wrong to question your motives. He: So why did you? She, very atypically tearing up: I trusted my brother Ari. I trusted Michael. I couldn’t afford to trust you. . . I guess I had a long time to think about things. He apologizes and she gives him a peck on the cheek: Your instincts were right. You're a cop and I should never have faulted your thinking. . . Later she's at "Gibbs" house: We need to talk. . I sensed your hesitation. .I understand what you did in Israel.. He tries to interrupt about her brother Ari, and there's a flashback. She: You know what happened that night. He: I want to hear it from you. You had orders to kill your brother. She confirms. He: That's a problem. She doesn't understand and he's annoyed that she doesn't. She: When I volunteered for that mission. . . He interrupts: You killed your own brother Ziva! She: It was because I hoped my father was wrong about Ari! I did not want some else blindly following orders. I volunteered to protect him. He: You lied to me. She: No, when I told you Ari was innocent I believed it. But yes I would have lied to you. He was my brother and you were nothing. But I was wrong about Ari and about you. I pulled the trigger and saved your life. I was not following orders. He was my brother and now he is gone. Eli is all but dead to me and the closest thing I have to a father is accusing me. . . She weeps. He: OK. So with her "new" father and American identity will she lose her Jewishness?
In "Endgame" by Gary Glasberg, "Tony" disturbingly compared Israel to North Korea when he claimed "Ziva"s Mossad experience was like that of the North Korean operative they were tracking: Both pretty ladies. Both trained assassins. She does sympathize with their prey's background as revealed through her code name: In Hebrew it means the bull, sure, stubborn, that's why she's so good. "Tony" concurs: You should know. . .You're a dangerous woman. Later, "Tony" appears to be jealous of "Ziva"s mild flirtation with a fellow investigator, but she's surprisingly revelatory in her denial: He's a field agent, a nomad. I've had enough of that in my life. I came to NCIS to settle down, to make a home for myself. The last thing I need is [him]. And then she giggles when she thinks "Tony" calling him a Texas longhorn is a sexual entendre, not getting that it's (mostly) a sports reference.
The holiday episode "Faith" by Gary Glasberg had a brief, character-appropriate reference. As "Ziva" closes in on a suspect in a "redthroat" bar, as she calls it, he taunts her: I bet a pretty little thing like you never killed nothing before. and nastily invites her back to his place. She grimly says "Happy Hanukkah" then decks him. Later "Tony" asks her How many languages do you speak? She: Including the language of love? 10. When they are surprised at the true murderer, she's the one who points out that fratricide goes back to Cain and Abel in the Bible.
But in "Flesh and Blood", by Frank Cardea and George Schenck, the process I predicted of "Ziva" being seen less and less as Israeli, let alone Jewish, now that the series is #1 in the ratings as she studies for U.S. citizenship (she teased with her boss about her studies of the U.S. Constitution) continued here where she is guarding a member of the Saudi Royal Family. Suprisingly, only her knowledge of Arabic and her attractiveness are issues. She surreptiously listens in on his heated private conversation with his brother, then reports on what it's like to protect the flyboy playboy: The Prince is a chauvinistic royal pain in the tush!. . .You may have to hire someone to protect him from me! Her boss wryly mutters He's not used to anyone saying that about him. And nothing else about her came up in their close contact?
In "Masquerade", by Steven D. Binder, "Ziva" and "Tony" debate legal issues in combating terrorist tactics (the case is about South Americans), and her view seems to have changed somewhat since her Mossad days and her new citizenship studies. He argues: It's not all black and white when it's splattered with red. She: Or when your way of life is threatened. She points out that her captors in Somalia used similar justications for their actions. . . This country holds itself to a higher standard. It is a nation of laws which are to be followed not only when it is convenient or easy. I have seen first hand what happens when convenience wins out. Tony interjects: He was a terrorist. She chuckles: I'm sure he would say he was just protecting his way of life. . .His actions were indefensible regardless of his reasons. That is my point. "Tony" quietly points out that she never talks about her experiences. She shrugs: What is there to talk about? He persists. She: What [her captor] did was bad enough. Becoming like him would be worse.
In "Jack-Knife", by Jesse Stern, a hunky ex-Marine shows up again to work with her on a case and he grills her how she can be a probationary agent without U.S. citizenship. She charmingly concedes: There are a few strings being tugged. Later when they pose as long-haul truckers, she is flummoxed by all the slang: What language was that? But she is surprisingly sympathetic in helping him work through a PTSD attack as driving their rig echoes his dangerous convoy service in Iraq. When she then stares down a careening truck, he's a bit flabbergasted: And you people think I'm crazy.
"Ziva" isn't completely losing memory of her past as she works toward her American citizenship. On "Mother's Day" by Tony Wharmby, "Tony" gripes about the heat as they are on assignment in Arizona. She remonstrates: Stop complaining! In Israel this feels like winter. "Tony" counters patriotically: We're in the good old US of A. Where like to embrace central air, not melanoma.
In "Patriot Down" by Gary Glasberg, "Ziva" is busy preparing for her naturalization interview, so interestingly her sense of identity is less as an Israeli. "Tony" jokes about visiting the cafeteria of a unit with a murdered member: I mourn, I eat, I'm Italian. and "Ziva" rejoinders: Jews and Italians are similar that way.
The season ended with "Ziva" taking her citizenship oath in "Rule Fifty One" by Jesse Stern. As the episode opened she was excited: "Tony": This can't be happening. It cannot be happening. How could they let you in? "Ziva": I passed the exams. I will officially become a citizen of the United States of America. "Tony": I've never been more disappointed in my government. "Ziva": Hey! That is my government now. "Tony": Not till Friday. "Ziva": You should hear the oath I have to take. I basically have to renounce all my ties to Israel. (So she can't be a dual citizen? Maybe that's an NCIS requirement.) "Tony" stops being sarcastic and reassures: You will still be you. And I'll be there to hear it. But when she is seen with a large group of new citizens, he's off on a special, secret assignment instead. Let's see how ethnic she gets to stay next season. (updated 5/29/2010)


Curb Your Enthusiasm - Susie Greene etc. (on HBO, repeated frequently On Demand again, and in syndication on TV Guide Channel.) (my commentary forthcoming from catching up watching the season on DVD) Disclaimer: I only learned in late 2009 that Emmy-winning producer Frank Rich, a second cousin once removed, since Season 5 (2016), executive producer showrunner was David Mandel, my second cousin once removed.
Comedienne Susie Essman, while promoting her book What Would Susie Say?, commented on her alter ego in a "At Home" 10/8/2009 The New York Times interview with Joyce Wadler "Yes, She Does Windows": "Ms. Essman took her cue of who Susie Greene was from the ultra-modern home the character had on season one. 'I took one look and said this is a Beverly Hills housewife whose husband is in the business. She gets her hair blown out three times a week, gets every kind of facial. She wears lots of animal prints. Each individual piece is frequently O.K. — it’s the combination that puts it over the top.' . . .As for Susie Greene, Ms. Essman thinks she is misunderstood. 'People think she’s a yelling, angry, crazy woman, when the truth is it’s justified, she’s provoked. . .I love Susie Greene — she is so freeing. I analyze things from every which way. She just reacts without any kind of censor. Everything is an indignity, and she is absolutely sure of herself in every single response. . . All those doubts held me back for years: I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t pretty enough, is this the right dress to wear? Susie Greene thinks she is drop-dead gorgeous and everything she chooses to put on is drop-dead gorgeous. Imagine being like that.''”
In an interview with TV Guide 6/7/2010, Larry David was asked by David Kronke in "One Cranky Summer": "Having watched Susie incessantly insult you on Curb, it's a little odd to see her defend you so often during The Discussion [panel discussions she hosts after the reruns on their channel]: "She's my friend and a very intelligent actress. So I'm glad she's defending me. Naturally, I feel like a lot of my actions are defensible, so they should be defended by someone." If I were an obsessively diligent analyst, I'd check those discussions for further explications of hers and the other Jewish women characters. (updated 8/8/2010)


Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold and others in the 6th season (on HBO) (commentary forthcoming)

Dina Malinsky, Joan Rivers and others in the 2nd season on Z Rock (on IFC. Out on DVD) (commentary forthcoming)

2008/9 Season

Though I haven’t read the Gossip Girl books by Cecily Von Ziegesar to know if they have Jewish characters, even the producer conceded at a March 2008 Paley Television Festival panel how ridiculous it is that there are no Jews on The CW’s Manhattan-based TV version: "The only question we get more than 'Where are the gays?' is 'Where are the Jews?'" (That must be why a central couple took over a hotel bar mitzvah party in the 2011 season finale for the chair dance.) Josh Schwartz said, before immediately hitting on "Gay Jewish Monkey!" as a solution. So I suppose the Jewish wedding of Wallace Shawn as "Cyrus Rose" to one of the mothers in the middle of the 2nd season was supposed to make up for that. That pairing produced the first Jewish woman in the series, getting one line in "Seder Anything" by Amanda Lesher. Of course, it was his stereotypical mother "Ida" (played by Marilyn Barnard), who disapproved of the marriage and her family interrupting the reading of the Haggadah, which her new daughter-in-law confused with Hadassah. A putative Jewish female popped up in “New Haven Can Wait” by Joshua Safran and Alexandra McNally, at a not-very-credible Dean’s reception for Yale applicants. In response to the Dean’s Latin-named “Quiz” about who living or dead, real or imaginary, they would most like to have dinner with, an enthusiastically geeky “Ms. Steinberg” (played by Molly Camp), undoubtedly named in honor of series producer K.J. Steinberg, selected Artemis the goddess of the fruit and the hills. As a freegan, I believe in all living things being equal to all people. . . also screw ‘the man’ at the same time. (updated 5/20/2011)

In the second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the cyborg “Cameron” (Summer Glau), who has inputted the Bible, gave uber-mom “Sarah Connor” (Lena Headey) an unusual exegesis of the rape of Dina (she pronounces it with a long “i”) in the “Brothers of Nablus” episode by Ian Goldberg, starting with the titular nomenclature for the tribe who Jacob’s revengeful sons brutally punished, a strategy for deception the cyborg finds educational. There was also an odd reference in the season premiere of HBO's Big Love, "Block Party" by Mark V. Olsen & Will Scheffer. "LaDonna Flute" (played, ironically by Israeli actress Noa Tishby) is the tribal lawyer for her husband's casino negotiations. Saying she spent time on a kibbutz, she asks the polygamists if they're like the meshugana guy on trial and what the Book of Mormon says about "dark-skinned people." Nip/Tuck had an atypically nasty stereotype that it had avoided in the previous five seasons when writer Jennifer Salt incorporated unusually unconventional looks at Jewish women and plastic surgery. But in "Allegra Caldarello" by Sean Jablonski, "Dr. Christian Troy" looks forward to giving up his practice due to what he thinks is his imminent death: No more rhinoplasties on self-hating Jewesses. (updated 3/9/2009)

Hawthorne (on TNT, outon DVD) in the first season finale "Hello and Goodbye", written by Sarah Thorp, Anna C. Miller and executive producer John Masius, stuck in its first woman with a putative Jewish name-- a brunette, bespectacled cancer researcher "Dr. Cohen" (played by Kitty Swink). That's more in this Richmond, VA set hospital than in Miami Medical, among other medical series. (6/2/2010)

I had been trying to figure out if Maggie Siff was again playing a Jewish woman character as “Tara Knowles”, the ex-girlfriend/now doctor of the hunky young motorcycle gang leader in Sons of Anarchy, what with “Agent Scott Kohn” stalking her, though towards the end of the season she mysteriously claimed to be half-Irish (in “Hell Followed” by Brett Conrad). In “Fun Town” by Kurt Sutter, the head of the rival, Aryan gang sneers about the Jewish doctors at the hospital to the Lady Macbeth-like matriarch “Gemma Teller-Morrow” (played by Katey Sagal) and her own questionable heritage. She drily concurs that there’s some of “that mixed in on the Russian side”. Gee, those Jewish peddlers really got around to land in such a desolate Western town. (10/31/2008)

Mrs. Wolowitz in the 2nd season of Big Bang Theory (on CBS) (As heard and referred) Until I get around to posting my transcriptions, that I can vouch for, of all the nasty comments by and about “Mrs. Wolowitz”, fan episode transcripts are eventually posted. In Big Bang Theory there’s a faux Jewish woman in “The Vegas Renormalization” episode, teleplay by Steven Molaro, and story by Jessica Ambrosetti, Nicole Lorre and Andrew Roth. (I saw it in syndication two and a half years after its first CBS broadcast on 4/27/2009 because that’s when I discovered there was a Jewish male regular character on the sitcom about Caltech geeks so I should have been monitoring his Jewish female connections.) When engineer “Howard Wolowitz” (played by Simon Helberg) gets the brush-off from his friend with benefit “Dr. Leslie Winkle” (a recurring, non-Jewish colleague played by Sara Gilbert), the guys make their first trip to Las Vegas to cheer him up. At a bar, they encounter a sexy woman (played by Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) who doesn’t capture “Howard”s interest until he overhears her, umm, chewing out a waitress about the lack of a brisket. She introduces herself to him as “Esther Rosenblatt” and claims, with a Yiddish accent, that among her favorite things are reading a good book by the fire [and] getting freaky on the Sabbath with a bacon cheeseburger. . .Oy gevalt, you’re hot! At which point, he confronts his pals if they set up a hooker to pretend for him – and thanks them. (10/19/2011)

Then there was an exchange I’ve been curious would come up since Numb3rs began with its Jewish brothers and dad. In the 5th season’s “Conspiracy Theory”, by Robert David Port, Rob Morrow, as “Don Eppes”, complains to his father (Judd Hirsch) that the prosecutor girlfriend he’s been getting serious about mocked that he’s been seeing “first a shrink, then a rabbi, all in one year”: It’s not like I asked her to convert. Dad praises differences to keep a relationship strong, but this is one of the few times in years I’ve even heard a Jewish male character refer to this option on a TV show. The girlfriend finds a sweet olive branch – she got them tickets to a debate about ethics with his rabbi at a local synagogue. (12/8/2008)

Jewish heritage was also oddly brought up in NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy, “High Crimes and Turducken” episode by Mark Rosner. As the lead character is struggling with his own dual identity, his father-in-law walks into Thanksgiving for a big announcement. . .I’m Jewish! I hired a researcher to find my birth mother. She was Doris Silverman, a 19-year-old Jewish girl from Detroit. While his daughter comments: I think he’s enjoying it because he knows it would kill Mom., he reflects that It’s not that I have anything against the Jews, they’re the chosen people. It’s that I think I belong somewhere. That I’m connected in this world. In Desperate Housewives, with mother “Bree Hodge” (Marcia Cross) sarcastically complimenting rebellious daughter “Danielle Van De Kamp” (Joy Lauren) on being “dressed so ethnically” in peasant blouse and skirt, were we supposed to think that she had converted to Judaism, in the “Kids Ain't Like Everybody Else” episode by Joe Keenan, because she’s married environmental lawyer “Leo Katz” (Andrew Leeds) and announced on her first visit home after three years of negotiations that her five-year-old son “Benjamin” would be bar mitzvahed? (10/13/2008)

As usual, Jewish names are assigned to girls and women to be punch lines in a joke. The first episode of the revived 90210, “We're Not in Kansas Anymore” attributed to writers Rob Thomas, Gabe Sachs, Jeff Judah and Darren Star, made a point of having the officious student reading the TV news to the school be pretentiously named “Hannah Zuckerman-Vasquez” (played by Hallee Hirsh). The TV.com synopsis described her as a look-alike for actress Gabrielle Carteris who is presumed to be the daughter of the former editor of the school paper Blaze “Andrea Zuckerman”, a regular from the original 1990 – 2000 Beverly Hills series who for years was the only young Jewish female character I knew also played by a Jewish actress, though I only watched it occasionally. Too bad the hunky teacher disparages her by implying she has already become her mother: Hannah looks 30 years old. (She’s listed as recurring in the 2nd episode “The Jet Set” but I didn’t notice her there). (updated 10/24/2008)

I presume that most viewers assumed that the patient "Barbara Feingold" in the "Love is a Battlefield" episode of the last season of E.R. by Karen Maser was Jewish, because she was the on again/off again wife of Bronx-accented Garry Marshall as "Harry". But she was played by Debra Mooney who usually plays gentile grandmothers and there were zero Jewish references. (updated 1/27/2009)

Even in the second season of Showtime's Californication I still wasn't sure that “Marcy Runkle” (played by Pamela Adlon, née Segall ) is more than just a putative Jewish woman, even as I tried to stay awake through the boring, frequent omni-sex and coke scenes for clues-- the passing reference to her having gone to NYU wasn’t determinative. (updated 11/22/2008)

I don't watch any of CBS's C.S.I.s regularly, but the Jewish women references in "19 Down. . . (Part 1)", by producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar, may have been a new manipulative low in crime shows. First, I just thought it was ironic that the only young, attractive Jewish couple I'd seen on TV in years were the blonde victims, "Joel Steiner" and his fiancée "Tiffany Cohen", who we never even got to see alive on their way to a Pearl Jam concert. The guy was ID'd by the only lead about his death, his Star of David pendant, that his mom (played by Caroline Aaron, who frequently plays Jewish mothers, notably recently in Love Comes Lately) tearfully described as her bar mitzvah gift to him, and that he then had a copy made for his fiancée. But this was really building up to comments by their jailed murderer, who explained to a forensics class via web cam how easy killing is like taking a nice Jewish girl on vacation. . then l'chaim. He's questioned: No one tried to escape or fight back? The killer: Tiffany fought a little. At first. Another questioner: How did you control them? Then, here it comes, a tortured Holocaust connection: Not with force. I'm going to go back to the Jewish theme here, doctor, though I want you to know that I've had Catholics, Protestants, and one atheist. By the way, they all prayed eventually. Anyway, during the Holocaust, when the first arrivals at the death camps realized they were going to be killed, they flew into a panic. So the guards, the Nazis, started telling them that they were going to be put to work and their skills were going to be used. And they all calmed down to go obediently into the showers. So if you bring a human being to the brink of death and then you offer a chance to survive, they'll grab it and they'll thank you for it. And then you can do whatever you want. And believe me I did. "Mrs. Steiner" then crashes the class screaming Where is my son! After she's removed, the killer coolly comments: When Mrs. Steiner had her moment, it got me thinking how much I miss being out in the world. The Jewish reference was gone from the concluding Part 2 until the crime was solved and "Tiffany" was remembered by her star necklace (after a bit of torture porn tape replay of her serial killer). Aaron popped up later in the season as a putatively Jewish woman in Mr. Monk and the Magician as "Aunt Sheila Dorfman". At her murdered nephew's wake, she goes on about having just come back from a tour of Italy with her mah jong group, proving, "Mr. Monk" comments: Apparently it's heredity. . . The man would not shut up! His assistant "Natalie" rejoins: A dominant trait. (updated 2/21/2009)

C.S.I.: New York later in the season featured women Holocaust victims, now and in flashback, in "Yahrzheit", with a story by Peter M. Lenkov and teleplay by Lenkov and Barbie Kligman, complete with an opening warning that the episode would feature images that showed "the evils of the Holocaust". Among a conspiracy of neo-Nazis selling off Holocaust-related items, the detectives find a diary kept by the young mother "Esther Schnitzler" (played in flashback by Melinda Y. Cohen) with a sketch of a diamond brooch they recognize from the auction house. Through a Shoah Foundation-type archive of videotaped Holocaust testimony they find "Hannah Schnitzler" (played by Rita Zohar): When we first got to the camp, we were marched to an area where they shaved our heads, took our clothes. On the way there, there was a big ditch... filled with bodies. That's where I saw Esther. She'd been shot in the head. Nearby was her husband, children... all dead. I remember thinking- that can't be them. She tells how a German youth promised to bring the family to safety in exchange for the heirloom, but delivered them directly to Auschwitz instead, where his father helped build the crematoria: Back then, one could make good money turning Jews over to the Nazis. The detective makes the connection between that youth and the old guy, masquerading as a survivor, who sold it, and returns the brooch to the elderly survivor. She explains yahrzheit to him, and that her cousin's would be in two weeks: We light the candles in memory. . .This time it will be in celebration. The episode concludes with her chanting kaddish over a candle for her cousin, and his father, who he learned helped liberate a camp. (10/17/2010)

Diamonds, written by David Vainola, inspired by the non-fiction book Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession by Matthew Hart and shown in the U.S. on ABC as a two-part mini-series, had an atypical angle on Jewish dominance of the diamond business. "Maya Winfield" (played by blonde Angelique Pretorius as a total airhead) is her South African diamond-dealing daddy "Moishe"s "most prized possession" and he promises her a special diamond for her engagement to a scion of a competing, also Jewish-owned company, even as he complains about the big wedding she wants. And she gets the ring, the wedding and the groom. (9/14/2009)

While I haven't gotten around yet to watching the Lifetime Movie of the Week take on the December Dilemma Will You Marry Me?, Loving Leah, the 235th Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, was a surprisingly sweet Jewish love story, fancifully using Levirate marriage as a premise for romance, parallel to the many pioneer or arranged marriages of convenience in other Hallmark movies, like the adaptation of The Magic of Ordinary Days. Avoiding the usual stereotypes, writer P’Nenah Goldstein, for the press notes, described how she adapted her play: "I’d describe the stage version of Loving Leah as broad comedy with touching moments. On the screen, I’d say it’s a drama, with comic undertones. The reason for the difference? In television, it’s very hard to play comedy because you have no laugh track. In the theater, the audience provides an audible laugh track, and those laughs are – you hope – infectious. But in television – unless you’re filming a sitcom with a studio audience – it doesn’t work that way. So I pulled back on the broad comedy and played up the drama. It’s interesting, though – that approach only works because we’ve got a top-notch cast. They’re able to strike comedic notes effortlessly, and that’s so important."
Lauren Ambrose as "Leah Lever" gave real life to a widowed Hasidic woman blooming after first marrying at 18 – not just because the character was already reaching outside the community by wanting to go to a secular college and going to see old movies at revival theaters, but because she retains her observance and finds accommodation with a modern life (she abandons her wig and gender segregation, but still dresses modestly, keeps kosher and shomrei Shabbat). When her mom is taken aback by her transformation, she defends herself: It's still me! Guided by a woman rabbi at what is only identified as a "Reform Temple" (Ricki Lake as "Rabbi Gerry Schwartz", who also is a producer on the film) in the neighborhood, she neither deserts her observance nor retreats into it, and inspires her brother-in-law/2nd husband, the secular Prince Charming doctor Jake (Adam Kaufman) to renew his faith (by the end he's also touching the mezuzah she's put up by the door and joining her at Shabbat dinner). (At least here's the rare fiction where a handsome Jewish professional gives up the beautiful blonde shiksa girlfriend; in real life he's parenting with Without A Trace's Poppy Montgomery.) She similarly defends her independence to him when he tries to restrict her: You're not responsible for me! He concedes: You're kind of sassy. You got spunk, kid. (I think he was doing The Mary Tyler Moore Show reference to match her old movie fandom – she feels guilty that she was off seeing The Way We Were when her 1st husband/his brother "Ben" died suddenly and she compares their platonic marriage to the sleeping arrangements in It Happened One Night.) He then helps her study for the math SAT and teaches her to swim, though his guilt over his brother that briefly tears them apart would have been more credible if we saw more than just a few kisses.
Bewigged Susie Essman was more toned down than usual -- though she managed to offend Lubavitchers with a throw-away joke she made in promoting the movie on The View. According to Ben Harris in JTA's "Essman irks Chabad with TV comments" on 1/27/2009: "Essman commented on the appearance of female members of the Chasidic group. 'I learned that they're not very good dressers,' Essman said, describing what she discovered in making the film. 'The wigs, you know they wear the wig because God forbid a man should see your hair and be driven wild with desire.' Sara Esther Crispe, the editor of the Chabad Web site TheJewishWoman.org, said her community was buzzing about the segment and that she was hoping to go on The View to rebut Essman's comments, which she said were not only 'obviously incorrect' but degrading and insulting to all women. 'To reduce any woman to her mere physicality is insulting, it's degrading, and it completely denies the overall power that a woman has and her unique abilities. And I thought it was very sad that nobody stood up for that.'” Her "Malka" is a critical Jewish mother as "Leah" warns her husband: She can make my life a living hell. She's a professional. The author describes the character: "She represents probably every Jewish mother since biblical times, including many I’ve known myself." Essman, in the press notes, described her character: "I know who this woman is. I’ve known many Malkas in my life. She reminds me a little bit of my grandmother, who was my favorite person in the whole world. Malka’s tough, but loving. Nothing’s more important to her than her children. She loves her girls, and will sacrifice anything and everything for her daughters’ happiness. One of the lines in the script that really got to me is when Malka tells Leah to go back to Jake, because she wants her to be happy. A mother is only as happy as her saddest child. I wept when I read that line." Mercedes Ruehl as the mother-in-law "Janice" is also not a stereotype as a secular mother with no domestic skills, who knows her Hasidic in-laws looked down on her as Reform; she tries not to offend them and is willing to learn about the customs, but even she is surprised by her daughter-in-law: What happened to the Brooklyn you? "Leah" is very comfortable with her: I'm still here, just with some modifications. Both mothers help the way too G-rated romance win out. Natasha Lyonne as her pregnant with children sister "Esther" put on the Brooklyn accent a bit heavy, but she did attend Yeshiva High School in Manhattan so probably had some authentic inspiration, and was a bit of comic relief. (updated 1/30/2009)
Hallmark Hall of Fame also featured more typical TV images of Jewish women, as Holocaust victims in The Courageous Heart Of Irena Sendler. I'll get around to viewing it and commenting on it at some point.) (updated 5/14/2009)


Shirley Jones was putative Jewish mother "Lola Zellman" in the "Does Everybody Have a Drink?", written by Angelina Burnett and David Hollander, episode of A & E's addiction drama The Cleaner, garnering press attention, and an Emmy nomination, in her only TV appearance of the year for playing a lush nightclub singer who drunkenly flashes her breasts. Only her also alcoholic husband of 37 years, "Bernie" (played by Steve Landsberg) and her "nice Jewish boy" son "Michael" (played by Noah Bean) are actually identified as Jewish, though she does sing "Hava Nagilah" in their lounge act and makes nasty, racist comments about and to her son's Latina fiancée. She reminisces dating Rock Hudson and dancing at the Copacabana, but she's getting the DT's and jaundice. Their behavior drives their son to drink, as he crashes their performance: Everybody raise a glass to the worst goddamn parents a kid could have!. She breaks down after her husband refuses to enter rehab: Bernie's sent me away. I don't know where to go now!. . .I don't remember the last time I did something on my own! And The Cleaner leads her to son's door for reconciliation. (updated 7/8/2010)

In the "Chicken Soup" episode of Nurse Jackie, written by Mark Hudis, Lynn Cohen was feisty and loving old Jewish wife "Mrs. Zimberg". Her husband, played by Eli Wallach (Emmy nominated for this appearance), tells the nurse he doesn't want his wife ("My childhood sweetheart!") to know how ill he is and refuses another bypass, as he keeps insisting that her chicken soup will help him best. His wife concurs: He's had enough. Trust us. . . .They don't call chicken soup Jewish Penicillin for nothing. . .It's all about faith . . It's a cure-all . . .Back in ancient times, a Jewish mystic blessed the first pot, and to this day there's a little magic in every pot. True or not, it's a nice story. The husband boast: It's kept me alive two years longer than any doctor predicted. It's all I need. As they complete each other's sentences, his wife points out: The doctor that told Bernie he had less than six months to live, he's dead. Husband: Hit by a bus. Wife: Crosstown M14. Husband: They're nice buses, if you have to get hit by a bus. Wife: You could do worse. After he dies, "Jackie" comforts that the soup eased his suffering. The wife explains: That's all I ever wanted. I knew he was dying. We've been married for 100 years. How could I not know he was dying. The wife smilingly uses Yiddish (probably "Gai kakhen afen yam") against the annoying nursing supervisor who had wanted to discharge him, which she translates as meaning go shit in the ocean. (updated 7/8/2010)

In Plain Sight gave an odd twist in "Aguna Matatala", written by David Slack, in sympathetically taking the man's point of view for refusing to give a "get" to allow his wife to divorce. (My commentary forthcoming.) (9/14/2009)

Eli Stone, in "Sonoma" by Brett Mahoney and Alex Taub, had a Jewish woman character who is becoming familiar on TV, the descendant of Holocaust victims claiming a work of art. (My commentary forthcoming.) (9/14/2009)

As the season drew to a close, actress Mayim Bialik, teen star from TV's early '90's Blossom, made something of a career comeback, after finishing her PhD and having two kids, in fiction and "reality", in Saving Grace and TLC's American version of a BBC "make-over" series. My commentary forthcoming on how she held her own against the fashionistas' criticisms, as she specifically put the experience in Jewish terms in an interview with Celebrity Baby Blog posted 5/28/2009: "But they really taught me to emphasize the best parts of body and show off what I’m comfortable showing off. I’m a pretty modest dresser. I don’t wear pants, or like them; I’m a Jewish woman who’s made the decision to wear skirts, so I wear mostly skirts past the knee. I don’t like to go sleeveless – they had me in a sleeveless dress as one of the outfits on What Not to Wear, and I said on air, 'I’m really not comfortable showing this much skin.' So it’s really just a preference. They were willing to be flexible – if they showed me a mannequin wearing pants, they said I could also swap them for a skirt. I had an audition for Saving Grace as a Hasidic Jew, and had one long skirt still hanging in the closet that didn’t make it to the show, and I wore the long skirt and booked the part! I just filmed it last week. I emailed Stacy and Clinton and said, “Ha ha, you made me over so I could play a Hasidic woman!'” In that episode, "Mooooo", by Elle Johnson and Annie Brunner, used Grace's Oklahoma setting to play on last year's scandal at kosher slaughterhouse/meat-packers Agriprocessors in Iowa. She played the Orthodox "Esther Weinstein", the modestly dressed daughter of the murder victim, a meat inspector who died trying to prevent use of unfit animals. [My long-lived namesake Great Uncle Leo was similarly a veterinarian in the Chicago stockyards, pre-The Jungle.] As the only one in the community who will help the detectives, she guides them through the rules for Shabbat, kasruth and other observances so they can investigate, as the only Jew they even know is the coroner. Her father's prayer book that she pleads with them to find turns out to be a major clue. Owning up to a tattoo, she explains she's comfortable with outsiders because I left when I turned 18. I came back when I turned 22. . . I have a husband and seven kids. The men can keep their businesses and careers. The women build the future. We raise the children. (9/13/2009)

David Mamet, creator of The Unit, stuck in a Jewish woman in "The Last Nazi", a disjointed episode he wrote. The guys go off-duty to help the president do a favor for a major campaign donor of bringing in the Nazi doctor who killed his family and has been working incognito in Switzerland. Just as they are hustling him off to The Hague, presumably to the International Criminal Court, a young woman (played by Natalie Avital) with a prominent Jewish star necklace shoots him point blank in the street, then, before getting away with murder, lays on his body a black and white photo – her family? The donor's? Who the heck is she? I only caught the episode in repeat syndication so maybe there was some other context I missed. (5/15/2010)

Valerie returned to the 5th season of Rescue Me (on FX), perhaps satirically playing on Gina Gershon's sexy image by having her play even more dress-up, role-playing sex games with "Tommy", including as a librarian, in "Baptism" by Evan Reilly, but their relationship is foundering about the dog. Next, in "Frank" by series creators Denis Leary and Peter Tolan, "Tommy" wanted her to put on a French accent and interview him, like the sexy French journalist doing a 10th anniversary follow-up of the impact of 9/11. When she (literally) sniffs out the reason for this charade, in "Wine" by Tolan and Leary, she kicks him out, and presumably leaves the series.(updated 4/22/2009)

Being Erica – Erica Strange (a 2008 import from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., shown in U.S. on SoapNet, streaming on Hulu) Played by Erin Karpluk, she is a 32-year-old Torontonian "too bright for the job" with a "great education and great friends", as described in the first episode "Dr. Tom", by creator Jane Sinyor. There's a hint she's Jewish from the list of major regrets in her life that she compiles for the titular mysterious new therapist: "Yom Kippur 1998 (Nazi)". After he time travels her to reconcile her past and present, her dad somehow becomes more religious, sporting an "I'm with Moses" T-shirt and a kippah. There's more hints in "What I Am Is What I Am" by Aaron Martin, when she is sarcastically described as "daughter of an insurance agent, granddaughter of a bricklayer" who has a Masters in English Literature. She misses Montreal bagels and takes a job with her "Uncle Ruby"s bridal company, who reminisces: I used to dress your mom up in your bubbe's lace curtains when I was six. Mother issues were hinted at in "The Secret of Now" by James Hurst. The magic shrink comments: Sounds like anyone you know who can get under your skin that you lose the power of speech? She retorts: My mother? (updated 4/13/2009)

The Starter Wife started out near the end of the previous year in Lifetime TV’s silly yet inexplicably Emmy-nommed romantic Hollywood satire 6-episode mini-series (available on DVD) with an ambiguously possibly Jewish woman as the spouse fired on the phone by her studio exec husband. Gigi Levangie’s novel emphasizes that the couple is not Jewish, but while the TV version, adapted by Sara Parriott and Josann McGibbon, never explicitly identified her as Jewish, it starred Debra Messing, notable as a Jewish actress who played a Jewish woman on the sit com Will & Grace (confusingly the wife and her gay friend are known as Will and Gracie in the book), and the husband “Kenny Kagan” was played by Peter Jacobson with his obvious usual Jewishkeit. Interestingly, in an interview with Felicia R. Lee of The New York Times, on 10/9/2008, in Debra Messing’s ‘Starter’ Role Has Staying Power, she noted: “I’m still not the obvious choice for anything, really. I’m not beautiful enough to be, you know, a leading lady in the conventional term. It’s about what has always been the standard, and I don’t look like the standard. I’ve got the flat chest. I’m more ethnic-looking than most people.”
When it was extended into a weekly series this year (lasting only the single season, available on DVD), not only had the ex-husband gotten more attractive and more ambiguously Jewish as re-cast in David Alan Basche, in the 5th episode, “Das Booty Call” by Tod Himmel, “Molly” made a startling announcement, based on zero previous evidence, to her new lover: I know what I said about animal lust, but I lied. I never got the booty call gene. I’m just a nice Jewish girl from Detroit.. And if I’m going to call for an appointment, it’s to get my teeth cleaned or my car tuned and not to have fabulous voracious sex with a man I hardly know. . .Who am I kidding?. . It’s not enough. I want to do dinner and movies and Santa Barbara and go hiking or walking, or more walking. And I know that’s not what you’re looking for, so I think we should go snip snip before I get too attached. So good-bye. And of course “Zach” (Hart Bochner) responds: I’m in. Are you going to make me take you out three times before we have fabulous and voracious sex again? This after her Best Friend Forever (played by the inestimable Judy Davis) warned her she wouldn’t be able to do a booty call: You’re not cold and hard inside. “Molly” concludes the episode writing in her diary: Sometimes sweet is way better than voracious. There’s been series before that suddenly announced a character was Jewish, but usually just as an excuse for a plot point and is quickly forgotten. I’m so unconvinced, that I only noted her references to being Jewish. (updated 3/9/2009)


Lisa Cuddy on House, M.D.
I have followed the character portrayals of actress Lisa Edelstein, who the audience clearly identifies as Jewish whatever role she plays. From New York Daily News Extras on the House by David Bianculli, 12/7/2005: "Another House Extra had to do with House (Hugh Laurie) and his teasing banter with his boss, Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), whom he jokingly claimed was rumored to be a transsexual. 'She played a transsexual on Ally McBeal, noted Nora Lee Mandel of Forest Hills, N.Y., adding the year (2000) and the character's name (Cindy McCauliff)." (She also insisted in the "Forever" episode that she is in fact a woman.) Ileane Rudolph asked her in the June 26, 2006 TV Guide about her cartoon voice-overs: "A: For an American Dad next season I play a crazed woman from JDate. . . Q: Once you became an actress, did you consider changing your name? A: It's not very glamorous, and I lost out in the past because it was too 'ethnic'. But most of my parents' families were killed in the Holocaust, and it would be denying my family line. It didn't stop me. I have a great career. . . I'm off to Paris and Israel for a vacation with my family." Unlike many of the show’s fans, I was not completely convinced that she is playing one of her usually explicitly Jewish women on House, M.D. though the titular misanthrope cracked to her in the first episode of the 2nd season: What's with the male secretary? Jdate not working for you?, and at least one fan claims to have glimpsed a menorah at her home, but I didn’t notice, so I didn't add her character here.
So it was that much more intriguing when her character in the 5th season finally came out – as a Jew. But I'll only comment here on her growing self-identification. In "Unfaithful" by David Hoselton, one of the season's most watched episodes, "Dr. Cuddy" is drawn to observances because she has adopted a baby girl. She invites "Dr. House": You doing anything this Friday? I thought you might be available for Rachel's simcha bat.. . "House" buts in: Jewish baby-naming ceremony. Time honored traditional dating all the way back to the 1960's. (though many online fans thought it's a baby shower). "Cuddy" persists: My house at 7. It'll just be the rabbi, a few friends and family. "House" sneers: Nothing like welcoming a new baby into the world with a completely naked display of hypocrisy. and goes on about "religious hokum". Later, she pleads with "Dr. Wilson" to keep "House" away: How do I keep House from ruining my precious display of religious hypocrisy? She later continues the debate with "House": There's nothing hypocritical about recognizing your heritage. "House": Are you keeping kosher now? Wearing four-cornered garments? Slaughtering heifers to the God Ra? Wait – is that one of your people's? Or Option C – you're a liar and a hypocrite! She stands her ground with him: For better or worse, you are a part of my life. It's a sincere invitation. I want you to come. He concedes: I wouldn't miss it for the world. She: I'm glad. But later when he again sneers: I detect a stink of leftover faith., she flares back: You were right. I don't want you there. It's a special occasion filled with love and acceptance and the last thing I need is someone there who is filled with loathing and contempt.. He quietly agrees. But he then persists with "Wilson": Your attendance is validating her hypocrisy. If she invited you to a ceremonial lynching would you go? "Wilson" shrugs: Everybody's a hypocrite. Why are you so obsessed with Cuddy's particular brand? You're the hypocrite! You want to go! You don't resent this baby – you want to be a part of it! If you want to go, go. Act like a human being. (interesting that the script writer didn't have him say mensch.) "House" and "Cuddy" are leaving for the evening, looking out at the snow, and she waits for him to say he'll be coming. Instead, he comments: Bad weather. Maybe you'll get lucky and your sister will decide the roads are too dangerous to drive on. She smiles: Fingers crossed. But when friends (with even the blond Aussie wearing a yarmulke) and relatives arrive that night, she's visibly disappointed he's not at the door, as he is seen instead at home piano riffing from "Sunrise Sunset" into the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" as part of "Cuddy's Serenade", which some fans thought had klezmer touches, that Hugh Laurie himself wrote for the episode.
Perhaps not coincidentally, this is also the first season we're hearing more from "Rachel" (played by Jennifer Crystal Foley, daughter of Billy Crystal), the putatively Jewish wife of "Dr. Chris Taub" (played by Peter Jacobson) who has mostly been a poster girl for forgiveness after adultery (such that she even saved up money in a secret account to buy him a car earlier in the season, in "Adverse Events" by Carol Green and Dustin Paddock. No wonder he called her "amazing".) In "The Greater Good" by Sara Hess, "Dr. Taub" hesitantly asks his wife if she thought they should have kids. Her quick answer: On our third date I told you I didn't want to have kids and you told me you were okay with that. . .This is not a whim for me. It's not a decision that I made lightly. I like our life. as she snuggles with him and turns the TV back on. She wakes alone to find him sleepless in a chair and asks: Do you think you can't be happy without a kid? He: I know I can't be happy without you. She comes out of bed to cuddle with him. (updated 2/21/2009)


Dina Malinsky, Joan Rivers and others on Z Rock (on IFC, available on iTunes for download, on DVD) I missed the first couple of episodes of this somewhat improvised, fiction-within-a-reality-situation about Z02, a Brooklyn rock band (2/3 are Jewish brothers), whose day job is kids’ parties as the Z Brothers, so I wasn’t sure if “Dina” (played by stand-up comic Lynne Koplitz as a blonde) was supposed to be Jewish until guest star Joan Rivers, being very Jewish, returned as her aunt in the 5th episode, after being featured in the opening episode (which I have managed to miss on every repeat, and I didn't watch Rivers on Celebrity Apprentice or her roast on Comedy Central). (In an interview on Vin Scelsa Idiot's Delight 12/6/2008 on WFUV, Koplitz talked in veiled terms about her affinity with the character – that it was the first time where they didn't want her to change her voice or loudness-- what some would infer as her Jewishness, as she also suggested downloading the episodes as a gift for every night of Hanukkah.) So “Dina” knew what she was talking about in the third episode when she asked to have her Manishewitz with vodka at the brit the Brothers were playing at. The character’s official bio is: “The manager of Z02 and the Z Brothers, Dina is a reformed rock n’ roll rebel with a dark past and a killer rolodex. She finds opportunities for the guys in every situation and will stop at nothing to see them reach success.” This makes her sound hard-edged, but she reminds me more of a potty-mouthed version of "Yola" the sweetly trying harder manager on The Chris Isaak Show. Like when she threatens the father of the newborn about the guest star, she has a distasteful past with from college: We had a deal. I was never going to tell Jennifer about the hooker in Vegas and you were going to keep John Popper far away from me. “Dina” has some reluctance regardless how far she goes each week—blackmail, sex acts, electrolysis, humiliations—to salve male and female egos as she tries to be as aggressive as possible on behalf of her clients, so somehow she’s always charmingly funny and appealing.
In the fifth episode, “Dina” negotiates with Joan to get her to consider using the band on the pilot of a new late night show. “Dina”: I’ll do anything you want! Joan: Anything? Will you do what I asked you to do at seder? “Dina”, reluctantly: Call my mother a whore? Joan: You know how angry that would make your Aunt Sadie? After the questions or before? “Dina”: I can make it the 5th question. Joan: You would say ‘Why is your mother different from the rest of us?’ and you would say? “Dina”: Because she’s a whore. Joan: You’re such a good girl! “Dina”: So will you give the band a second chance? Later, Joan tries to inspire the band with a story about going on stage despite boos and discouragement, and that her own mother begged Johnny Carson for her 2nd chance. “Dina”s so impressed she asks if it was true: Well, my mother had to go down on him. (Joan tells the real story of Carson’s crucial mentorship in the documentary about Jewish women comediennes Making Trouble.) But Joan being there does impress the jazz impresario to let them back on stage, which gets them back their regular Brooklyn gig.
In the 7th episode, “Dina” refers in passing a couple of times to her wild rock ‘n’ pass, from letting slip that she was once in Rick James’s infamous basement to her writing a song with another famous R & B icon: Every time I hear a certain Lionel Richie song my stomach still turns. I can’t say it legally, but let’s just say that prick owes me royalties. Later when she’s slugging a bottle of beer with the boys back at Southpaw in Brooklyn, she gets reflective: I’ve been screwed over at least a million times in this business. But that’s OK – I’ve screwed over at least 2 million schmucks in my day. She also claims to hand down family advice from Nana: She used to say the only way to get over one girl is to get under another. My nana was kinda a whore and little dykey.
In the eighth episode, Joan Rivers is back and giving the band a break to open for her at a casino. She reminisces about her wild days in the ‘50’s in casinos and D.C. (with Ike wearing only the top of his uniform), confusing “Dina”: I love you Aunt Joan, but I never know if you’re joking, or lying, or are a bit of a whore. Joan protests: Wait a minute—I’m not a whore! They have a frank, colorful discussion that I’m not sure ever came up on Sex and the City, discussing their preferences for different styles of penises -- uncircumcised (Dina, which is certainly a new way for a Jewish woman on TV to declare she won’t date Jewish guys) vs. circumcised (Joan- particularly that of rocker David Lee Roth). Right after “Dina” treats herself to a massage “for being the super-manager that I am”, everything goes wrong and Joan angrily takes back her offer to “Dina” for the band to be regulars on her talk show: How could you do this to me? You know that family means everything to me – you are no longer my family! At Passover next year, you will not be breaking matzo with me! “Dina” turns on the irresponsible band members: You got me disowned! Do you know how to make matzo? Then there’s a flashback to where Joan was during all the chaos – coming out of Roth’s dressing room and spitting into a hanky.
In the penultimate episode, “Dina” is now a wreck without “Aunt Joan”s support: Unfortunately, she’s not on my side any more. She’s cut me off and she’s not returning any of my calls any more. Getting her kicked out of a casino got her a bit angry. The band mates are shocked to see her cry, even as she insists it’s really allergies and claims I’m looking forward to [living in] the storage unit. Drinking and weeping in a bar, she watches QVC so she can see “Joan” pitching her jewelry and gets through to her on the air, but “Aunt Joan” is furious: You’re calling for money aren’t you Dina? I haven’t got any more money to put in your stupid band! . . Do you want a watch? How about a green one? Green for money! . . You ruined me in the casino and now you’re going to ruin me here at QVC! “Dina” weepily protests: But we’re family! “Joan” retorts: A family sometimes has to kill to survive. . .You’re all about money aren’t you? Don’t you come to my house for Passover! Don’t you dare come to my house for Passover! Do you understand? “Dina” politely thanks the bartender for putting on QVC instead of sports before she staggers off, crying that she used to manage a band and flourishes their CD. Meanwhile, the band is in the process of making the ultimate sacrifice for her – give up their rock ‘n’ roll dreams to just be kiddie entertainers under contract to John Popper. Appalled, she makes a last ditch effort to get them a record contract, and is attacked by the music executive for her aggressiveness: I will take Mace in the face for my band! Her weeping touches him and he agrees to listen to the CD: I love them, almost as much as I hate John Popper.. On a wild cab ride to the band’s rescue in Brooklyn, she lets forth with a stream of teary profanity against red lights, the driver and pedestrians—but she’s too late.
In the finale, money is an issue between “Dina” and her Aunt Joan. While Joan is walking her dog, “Dina” returns the money she borrowed and explains the boys’ kiddie music contract. Her aunt shrewdly notes: You’re $50 short. “Dina” protests: I had to take a cab. Joan persists: Family is family, but interest counts. Don’t tell the boys I took the money back – I want them to think I’m generous.. . You can buy me a dog. And the exchange dog poo jokes. “Dina” is so upset that she announces to her clients You’ve sacrificed so much for me, now I’m going to sacrifice for you. To the camera she announces: There are so many pressures in this business, the key is to always keep your self-respect. She storms in on Popper, strips and offers herself up to him in exchange for ripping up the boys’ contract: I only have 15 minutes so go ahead. But he’s more interested in competition with the mogul, and “Dina” sets up the deal. Aunt Joan comes to their celebratory signing party, and returns the money to “Dina”, over her protest, and guiltily offers to buy her a somewhat confusing gift: 6 months on JDate. . Do not tell them you are not Jewish. Go down on them as soon as you meet them, you’ll forgive you anything. “Dina” counters: I’ll take $100 for vodka, the rest you keep. Joan approves: You are so unlike your mother now! “Dina” grins: You’re not mad at me any more! Keep the money. I’ll get it from you when you’re dead.
Other just as aggressive women in the series are either possibly or definitely Jewish. There’s the trophy wife “Kitty” of mercurial music mogul “Harry Braunstein”, who throughout the series keeps getting the band in trouble because she keeps insisting on having sex at very inappropriate times with long-haired David, the self-designated lothario in the band. In what seems to be a satire of the satirical Flight of the Conchords, their #1 fan is “Esther” (played by Simone Lazer), who is thrilled, in the third episode, when David picks her out for sex. But just when he gets turned off when he finds out she’s a proud grandmother of “Isaac” (I couldn’t quite catch what she had done similarly to her grandson), she is angry to learn she was only going to be a “Slump Buster” for him. She revenges on him by telling his band mates that he cut his dick while shaving his balls. (updated 6/10/2009)


The Sarah Silverman Program – 2nd season (Vols. 1 and 2 on DVD) In “Message to Your Grandma: Vote Obama” by Dave Itzkoff in The New York Times 10/7/2008, she described her sense of her Jewish identity: “Though she comes from a Jewish background, she said: ‘I have no religion. But culturally I can’t escape it, I’m very Jewish.’ Her appeal to older viewers, she said, is ‘because of my Jewy-ness.’” Previewing this season of her show: “Among other adventures, the new episodes find Ms. Silverman . . . suing the entire country of Mongolia for rape. ‘My sister, Laura, explained to me that she and a lot of Russian Jews have slightly Asian features because of Genghis Khan, in the 1200s, coming into Russia, and raping and pillaging, and becoming part of the bloodline. . . “So that actually came from a true story.’” Ginia Bellafante’s review in The New York Times 10/23/2008 noted: “Ms. Silverman’s shock lines have a more pungent effect in her stand-up routines than in the less confrontational environment of filmed television comedy, where they can seem even more vague and self-congratulatory. In a recent episode, after a man begins mistakenly speaking to Laura in Chinese, Sarah’s response is: ‘O.K. maybe you look the tiniest bit Chinese, but it’s not like I go around speaking Hebrew to every guy with an oily nose.’”
She gave an uncharacteristically relatively serious response about the show to an interviewer in the 11/3/2008 New York Post: “Mandy Stadtmiller: ‘Your Comedy Central show continues to be hysterical and get great ratings. Having done a lot of other TV shows before, why do you think this show has finally become the perfect vehicle for you?’ Silverman: ‘Part of it is that the cast and crew are made up of a group of friends that love each other and share a vision for the show. The other part is that said group is made up of very funny silly people.’”
Nominated for 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (updated 2/10/2010)


Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold in the 5th Season (out on DVD) is evidently popular enough that HBO has given her a line of souvenir items in “The Ari Boutique” though they don’t seem to reflect her taste -- Mrs. Ari T-shirt and Mrs. Ari mug.
She returned in the 3rd episode of the season, “The All Out Fall Out” by Rob Weiss, as she delighted in presenting “Ari” with an anniversary present – a bright red Ferrari, with vanity license plates. She assures him Don’t worry, I got myself something else to make up for it. He’s thrilled: Remember how much I wanted this when I was 25? She purrs and cuddles up to him: Well, maybe it will make you feel like you’re 25. They kiss passionately there in the driveway until the kids complain. But he meets up with a competitor on the way to work who teases: Oh, that’s right, you married into money. “Ari” retorts: We only use her money for the small stuff. Their drag racing escalates into dirty tricks at the office—until the competitor sends out an e-mail with a photo of the Mrs. from her actress days – presumably naked in Hard Bodies 3, crossing even “Ari”s line. “Ari” races to the competitor’s office: That is the mother of my children! Apologize now, in front of your entire agency!, hits him, describing it as a “bitch slap”, and again demands an apology. And he gets it. “Ari” walks out with a smile. At home, the Mrs. is all dressed up to go out, but he sweeps her up in his arms and announces to “Sarah” that she’s to take care of her brother and sister while Mommy and me have a little conference. The Mrs. laughs with pleasure:Are you still taking me to dinner? Ari: Doubtful. as he carries her away.
In the same episode, Fran Drescher, with an accent toned down from The Nanny, guest starred as “Mrs. Levine” who is in total control, all business and a tough negotiator, in her flashy plans for the outlandishly expensive Sweet 16 party for her profanity spewing Goth daughter “Candice” (Ashley Rickards), whose bandaged nose is not from her recent nose job, her dad ruefully explains, and her mom rues: She hurt her nose doing God’s know what. The daughter helpfully snarls I got it going down on my boyfriend. . .. When “Candice” propositions the guest entertainer, Mom snaps back: Don’t be a whore!
In “Gotta Look Up to Get Down” by Ally Musika and Rob Weis, “Mrs. Ari” matches her husband one-on-one, even as she tries to get him to stop doing business at the funeral of the guy who dropped dead while negotiating with him. I have never seen someone so giddy after a funeral. He reports on what he’s been offered: How would you like to fuck a studio head? She retorts: I don’t know. Is Ron Meyers available? But she’s suspicious when he calls a woman from a long, long ago liaison about how he would hire her at the new job and warns her I’m on speaker phone with my wife in the car. “Mrs. Ari” is more concerned about that than his job prospects: What were you afraid she’d say? Did you fuck her? He confesses his long-ago past but she keeps challenging him: Why have I never heard [her] name before. . . I don’t know if I could live with someone working for you who you had sex with.
Just as in “First Class Jerk”, by Doug Ellin and Rob Weis, his wife had sagely advised him about the multi-million dollar job offer even while she was playing tennis - Be your own boss. No one can tell you what to do., Ari’s daughter “Sarah” (played by Cassidy Lehrman) models her mom’s role in their family. In “Seth Green Day” by Ally Musika, she is in the kitchen making breakfast for her younger brother. She insists her dad can talk to her for advice as he would to her mother: I’m 15 and obviously more adult than you.. . A man is a man when he stops whining and asks a woman nicely. . .You pretended you were nice for you to get her to marry you.
(updated 7/2/2009)


Ziva David on NCIS in her 4th season (6th season on CBS, out on DVD) Since the team was disbanded at the end of the last season, we’re briefly supposed to think in the opening scene of the new season, in “Last Man Standing” by Shane Brennan, that “Ziva” (Cote de Pablo) has changed careers as she vamps in a tight backless dress in a Morocco nightclub, singing Tom Waits’s "Temptation" (the actress has recorded on a couple of tracks of Roberto Pitre’s Vivo En Vida). But as she eyes a suspicious attaché case, we know she’s once again under cover for Mossad, especially when the case explodes – practically in her face. The team fears the worse when TV coverage picks her up being carried off in a stretcher, but she quickly has a miraculous recovery. For the first time we meet a formidable influence on her life, her father “Eli David” (Michael Nouri with a creditable accent) as he’s on the phone with her boss: Thank you for sending my daughter home to me. . .How can a father raise his daughter to be a professional killer? Every day is a fight for survival. It’s my dream that my daughter will not have to make that decision for her sons and daughters. I would like my grandchildren to be doctors and architects to live a happy life, to grow fat and old. You want her back? Are we winning? I would like to think we are. Then there’s a bomb or an atrocity. Use her well. Ziva is the sharp end of the spear. When she returns to NCIS she just has a small facial scar, but smiles It’s good to be back. as she’s hugged all around.
”Agent Afloat” by Dan E. Fesman and David North set up the season for “Ziva” and “Tony” getting closer. When she comes on board to conduct an investigation on the ship where he’s been exiled, she finds his office bulletin board full of photos of their team, including many shots of her smiling in a bikini – were they from a case or a social activity? As they feel each other out about how they got on during the separation, he gets interrupted while pressing her about something upsetting that happened to her when she was temporarily back in Israel.
”Capitol Offense” by Frank Cardea and George Schenck continued the softening, Americanization of “Ziva” by female bonding with Goth-in-the-lab colleague “Abby”, presenting her with a chocolate cupcake: I owe you for letting me sleep at your place. While their male co-workers pant at their fantasy images, she calmly explains a burgeoning office friendship: My building was being fumigated and Abby was good enough to let me stay on her couch—in my pajamas. Even as she still comes out with malapropisms, calling a colleague “a control geek”.
Her boss "Gibbs"’ father flatters her out in the “Heartland”, by Jesse Stern, when he explains to her the importance of context: Back in Israel, you were considered a pretty girl. You step one foot in my country and you’re considered an exotic beauty. (Which begs the question of what is the actress considered in her native Chile?)
The series’ climb in the ratings for its best year is partly due to the snappy interplay among the colleagues. In No Mystery: Ratings Heat Up For ‘NCIS’ by Bill Carter in The New York Times 11/17/2008, “David Stapf, president of Paramount Network Television, the studio that produces NCIS [said] ‘It’s a fun show.’ Fun? The essence of the stories, which are not unlike those of the better-known CBS hit CSI, is murder. But the show does emphasize the camaraderie of a quirky band of investigators. [Veteran writer Shane Brennan, who took control this season as “show runner”] said that he looked for ‘the naturalistic kind of humor you find in any office where people work together.’. . . ‘He’s given the show a sense of emotion you can really respond to,’ Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, said. . . Mr. Brennan said. . . he concentrated on what he called ‘the core of the show, the ensemble cast.’ That meant finding stories that also contained memorable character moments. ‘The audience remembers the moments, they forget the plots.’”
“Nine Lives” by Linda Burstyn, Dan E. Fesman and David North, was full of the trademark double entendres as “Tony”s curiosity was whetted about why “Ziva” was so soon returning to Tel Aviv for a visit. When she’s yelling in Hebrew on the phone, he surmises: Your ‘Women of the Mossad’ calendar get lost? But it’s her airline reservations that have gotten lost. “Tony” surmises that she was in Israel for four months long enough to hook up with someone. “Ziva” shrugs with her usual amusing malapropism, dragging out the words for sexy effect: Why are you getting so hot and bothersome because I may be having a little fun? It’s usual for people to go on vacations all the time. “Tony” rebuts: “Normal people. “Ziva” plays along: I am normal people., which he retorts with his usual movie reference: You’re normal people like the people in Ordinary People were ordinary people. Throughout the episode “Tony” gets more and more suspicious about her hiding information from her friends, in parallel to the FBI witness withholding information on their case, as she inimitably remarks: No wonder he's keeping his cards so close to his breasts.. . I’m intrigued by how intrigued you are by this, Tony. . . Maybe that friend felt it was the best for everyone. He demands: Are you seeing someone? What’s his name? She laughs: It would be hard not to see someone in Israel. It is quite populated you know. “Tony” searches her desk for clues – and finds a photo of a smiling, curly-haired, shirtless hunk on a beach. He grudgingly tries to be supportive as she leaves for a first-class flight, even managing to eke out a farewell in Hebrew. That photo showed up again in the "Knockout" episode by Jesse Stern, when she showed it while bonding with a witness in protective custody. "Ziva" murmurs" He travels. A lot. The witness warns: Long distance relationships are impossible. "Ziva" wags her finger warily at the word "relationship": I don't know. The witness has noticed the hints of electricity between her and "Tony": Maybe you should be looking for something close to home? And "Ziva" just happens to interrupt "Tony" and the witness as he's pouring out his lonely heart in a stopped elevator.
In the opening of “Murder 2.0” by Steven D. Binder she’s furious that “McGee” still has sexy photos of her in a bikini as his screensaver: I told you destroy those twice!. . .You did not erase those photos! And I will not spare one of your eyes! . . .Today is not your lucky day!. . I am going to ruin McGee’s whole year! She later points out the educational uses of scrolling through a YouTube-alike to watch “The Evolution of Dams.”
In ”Cloak” by Jesse Stern, her Mossad training may be getting intertwined with her growing feelings for “Tony”. In the midst of a sting operation to uncover a mole where they were supposed to be overcome, she fights back against orders: It was a reflex. I heard a gunshot. I saw you. . .
In "Road Kill" by Steve Kriozere, she and "Tony" continue to banter. She muses: I remember my first fight. I was eight. Shmuel Rubinstein. He snickers: Sounds like a real stud. (Stereotyping much?) She in reverie: I punched and it was over. He's curious: What did Shmuel Rubinstein do to incur the wrath of Ziva? She: He said he liked me. Through the episode, the guys try to explain to her the joys of competitive air guitar, which she keeps dismissing as childish. He asks her if she ever just acts silly, stupid and brainless. She: Tony, you and I come from different places. In my world, you grow up fast. You have no choice. He responds: Now you do. When she stays behind at the office at the end of the day, she enthusiastically takes up the air guitar on the computer, for the signature freeze frame.
"Silent Night", by Frank Cardea and George Schenck, couldn't resist projecting American Jewish customs onto an Israeli in the show's holiday episode. "Ziva" tried to get "Tony" to open up during a stake out: Hanukkah's all about family. Is it the same for Christmas? This after she was toy shopping with "McGee" and noted: My mother preferred I play with dolls, but I preferred Battleship. In an episode with a theme of remembered war crimes, "Broken Bird" by Jesse Stern, the only Jewish reference was "Ziva"s contribution to the discussion of why Washington D.C. has no J Street: In Hebrew there's no J. A former colleague's remark that "Ziva" is on Facebook, in "Bounce" by North and Binder, seemed promotional - Have you seen her knife collection?, let alone when he turned out to be the murderer.
In "Hide and Seek", by Dennis Smith, she conflates her daddy issues with her attitude towards her homeland. When "Tony" reacts negatively to her remark that she's enjoying hiking for clues in the woods like she did as a kid, she retorts: Hard to believe we have forests in Israel? He sulks back: Hard to believe you had fun as a child. She relishes explaining: Our father used to blindfold us and we had to find our own way out. It was a lot of fun. There was an oddly inaccurate reference to her homeland in "Toxic" by Steven D. Binder. Her co-workers are surprised: You don't have spring cleaning in Israel? She explains, wrongly: We do not have spring. Israel is in the desert. Um, isn't Passover cleaning spring cleaning? (More synopses from the season forthcoming.) (updated 4/13/2009)


Jenny Schecter in the 6th Season of The L Word (on Showtime, repeated frequently and On Demand, and will be repeated on Logo Channel. Deleted scenes not covered here. On DVD.) “Showtime drama announces plan to axe major character” by Lila Holland, 12/05/08 , on TV.com: “Somebody's gonna diii-iie! The L Word is getting all Twin Peaks on us for its sixth and final season. Showtime has announced that the drama--centered on a group of lesbian friends and set in Los Angeles--will be killing off one of its main characters at the start of its January 18 premiere. . . Jenny Schecter is going to die! The body of the much-maligned character (played by Mia Kirshner) will be found floating in a swimming pool during the first moments of the premiere, and how she got there is anyone's guess. Accident? Suicide? Murder? If so, who's the killer? These questions and more will be answered, but it may take all season to get to the bottom of this mystery. Fortunately for Jenny fans, the brooding young writer will be making some calculated visits from beyond the grave. Producers have promised frequent flashback scenes of Jenny at her not-dead-yet best, and we imagine those scenes will prove instrumental in the solving of her case.”
In a 1/16/2009 interview with Jim Halterman of The Futon Critic at the start of the season: "Chaiken also said there were two factors that led the writers to decide that Jenny would be the one to bite the dust. 'The first was recognizing that over the last several seasons Jenny has become more and more of an aggravation to more people. She simply provokes people. I think not intentionally. I think that Jenny... I don't think she has a malicious streak I think that she has an inquiring mind and a kind of interest in seeing where people go in the face of challenging emotional provocations but I don't think of it as malicious... but she's pushed a lot of people pretty much to the end of their nerves. And the second factor that played into it is that she's obviously has had this same effect on the audience. There seem to be many people who love and adore Jenny as a character but possibly, even a few more, who occasionally call for her to be drawn and cornered in the public square.'"
In the "3 months earlier" flashback from her dead body in the opening episode "Long Nights Journey Into Day" written and directed by Chaiken, "Jenny" is effusing at the wrap dinner for her film: I want to thank my terrific friends. You guys have shown me so much loyalty, friendship and compassions. It's what Lez Girls is all about. It means the world to me, more than any lover. . .I am madly in love with someone and it's really changed how I feel about all of this. Thank you for putting up with me. but when she finds out the lover has had sex with her roommate she's vicious to "Shane": It's the ultimate betrayal. You've broken my heart. She threatens both of them, even as "Shane" declares her friendship and "Jenny" cries and goes on a tirade. She's so involved with this that she's oblivious that her producer "Tina" is fighting to prevent the studio adding a "hetereosexist" ending. Instead, "Jenny" entices "Nicky" into rough make-up sex. But after a big kiss, "Jenny" is typically nasty before leaving her bed and joining her friends for their usual breakfast: You are nothing but a self-absorbed, self-indulgent little brat. Our affair on set was nothing but a showmance. When I said you broke my heart, I wasn't talking about you darling.
In "Least Likely" by Rose Troche, "Tina" flatters "Jenny" than she has become a good script writer and could help change the film. She, typically, reacts selfishly when she learns that her neighbor friends want to expand their house to expand their family: How am I supposed to get any work done while all that racket will be going on next door? "Tina" breezily suggests ear plugs. Surrounded by fawning fan girls, "Nicky" threatens You're dead meat Jenny Schecter! "Jenny" is still stonewalling her roommate "Shane" from apologizing. When "Shane" starts moving out after another argument, "Jenny" confesses: You know it was you I was talking about when I said you broke my heart. When I said it, I felt like my heart was breaking. . .I realize I'm in love with you, just like all those stupid girls. And they fall into a passionate embrace.
This coupling shocks their friends in "LMFAO" by Alexandra Kondracke, who bad mouth "Jenny" amongst themselves. "Helena" mocks "Jenny"s claims the relationship can work within restrictions: Boundaries? Jenny doesn't even know the meaning of the word! Meanwhile, the negative of Les Girls is missing, which "Tina" has to carefully explain to her what that means until she gets it: This film is my whole life!. . I have nothing! My agents have fired me because they don't think I'm professional. If this film doesn't come out I'm fucked. I need this film to come out so I have this kind of chance again. Which makes it ironic that "Alice" would ask her advice for a film treatment that of course "Jenny" trashes. (More synopses from the season forthcoming) (updated 10/19/2009)


2007/8 Season

The first possibly Jewish woman character of the season showed up in Showtime’s pointless, male fantasy sexual throwback Californication (on DVD). The only substantive clue so far that the sexually adventurous, bossy, foul-mouthed, curly-haired brunette wife “Marcy Runkle” (played by Pamela Adlon, née Segall ) of the best friend “Charlie” (Evan Handler frequently plays Jewish guys) is Jewish came in the 7th episode “Girls, Interrupted” by Gina Fattore, where the lead libertine jokingly called the couple “You Hebrews.” (updated 11/22/2008)
There was a similar quizzical ambiguity with “Wendy”, the clueless, sexually demanding wife (played by Amy Sloan) of the Jewish guy friend “Karl Mixworthy” (played by Joshua Malina) on ABC’s one-season Big Shots. It wasn’t even clear if they both went to Scarsdale High School, as one clue mentioned in “The Way We Weren’t” by Emily Whitesell.
I thought the reformed succubus turned fashionista “Roxy Kaufman” (played by blonde Elaine Hendrix) might have been Jewish, as she Lilith demon-like house mothers others of her kind, in the second episode of the funny sci fi satire The Middleman (ABC Family, out on DVD) in “The Accidental Occidental Conception” by Sarah Watson, returning in “The Cursed Tuba Contingency” by Hans Beimler, but the name was the only clue. A Jewish name was used more amusingly in between in “The Sino-Mexican Revelation” episode by series/graphic novel creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach, as the titular heroes pretend to be Mossad agents at a diamond theft crime scene, representing “the motherland” that was the source of the jewel, and “Wendy Watson” (played by Natalie Morales) thinks fast on her feet to come up with the pseudonym of “Lt. Esther Finkelstein.” (updated 8/3/2008)
I gave a similar pass to the recurring elderly neighbor “Ida Greenberg” (played by Crawford Brown) on Desperate Housewives who wasn’t specifically identified as Jewish, but everyone else figured she was. We sweetly learned in “Welcome to Kanagawa” by Jamie Gorenberg and Jordon Nardino that she played in A League of Their Own-type 1940’s professional women’s baseball team, (recalls her friend, with an ironic choice of meat metaphor: She was a super-star. Arm like a cannon. People said she could throw a pork chop past a hungry wolf. She made the only unassisted triple play in league history in 1944), “Lynnette Scavo”s son “Parker” confesses that during the devastating tornado Mrs. Greenberg sort of saved my life. . . She said she’d be okay in the corner, as she put the “Scavo” children in the only safe hiding place. But “Ida”s curly-haired niece “Erica” was played to the greedy Jewish stereotype hilt by Meredith Scott Lynn: Did you guys happen to find a pearl necklace? It’s the only valuable thing Aunt Ida owned. [Shades of the imagined butcher’s ghostly wife in “Tevye”’s nightmare in Fiddler on the Roof?] As “Lynnette” explains “Ida”s dream to have her ashes spread on her field of dreams, the niece is dismissive: We’re kind of pressed for time. We thought we’d just put her in the family plot back in Omaha. . .That’s kind of crazy, don’t you think? “Lynnette” offers to carry out the request: If you don’t have time to respect her wishes, I will. The niece sneers: You know, you’re not family. So I think that would be inappropriate. “Lynnette” digs in: Look you’re taking her pearls. The least I can do is honor her wishes. The niece placates sarcastically: Look, at the risk of being bitchy, this is none of your business, so would you please just drop it? “Lynnette” retorts: For what it’s worth, you went past bitch ten minutes ago. The niece not only takes the cremation urn, but says to the homeless “Scavos”: I want to get out of here. You got a week (to vacate). While “Lynnette” steals the ashes to both comically and poignantly carry out “Ida”s last wishes, fan sites are specifically identifying these women as Jewish and it’s the daughter’s impression that will be the lasting one. (updated 5/23/2008)


Ugly Betty used a presumably Jewish girl’s name to make a joke. In “Zero Worship” by Dawn DeKeyser, “Betty” is trying to convince her boss to follow the Milan and Madrid lead in featuring non-anorexic models in the magazine’s fashion show and pages. She gets to him by saying how the contemptuous teen age girls who just toured her offices made me flash back to when I was a kid at Leslie Levine’s pool party. Every one of those kids had one of those teeny tiny bikinis. And there I was in my over-sized New Kids on the Block T-shirt eating chips inside with Leslie’s parents. A pool party in Jackson Heights? When her boss agrees, she exults: Suck that Leslie Levine! Set in Providence, RI, Canterbury’s Law producer/playwright Theresa Rhebek quizzically chose to name the ripped-from-the-headlines bitchy girl “Isabelle (Izzy) Shapiro” in “Sweet Sixteen”, who posts online a “List of People We’d Like To See Dead” and allegedly manipulates a disturbed guy into doing it. As she brags I’m a girl and I’m hot. and her wealthy, lying BFF commends her as cool and smart and funny, she’s played by blonde, blue-eyed, pug-nosed Brianna Steinhilber and has a struggling single mom “Lisa” who has mortgaged their modest middle-class house for the lawyer and bail (though she ambiguously manages to find Mom’s old pearls and engagement ring and grandmother’s jewels when she runs away, let alone the credit cards). There were no other signs or references I could pick up that the girl or her mother were Jewish. Similarly in the “Dudes Being Dudes” episode by Cory Nickerson of the otherwise charming no-Jew-in-Chicago-in-sight comedy My Boys, “Bobby” begs the central woman character “P.J.” to attend his sudden fiancée’s wedding shower: Mrs. Shapiro keeps winking at her and telling her how magical the wedding night will be. A similar name was used to imply a victim point in the 2nd episode of the 2nd season of Saving Grace, “A Survivor Lives Here” by Mark Israel and Talicia Raggs. In a series set in Oklahoma City and haunted by the bombing, “Grace” tries to help “Paul Shapiro”, the son of her friend who died there. But despite their name, his mother “Janice” (played by Dee Wallace) did not seem Jewish nor were there any Jewish references. (updated 10/5/2008)

In Terminal City (shown in Canada on CHUM in 2005, this season in the U.S. on Sundance Channel), mini-series written by Angus Fraser. the central woman stricken with breast cancer may be Jewish, as TV tends to focus on the BRCA1 gene connection to Jewish women. “Katie Sampson” (played by Maria Del Mar) is married to “Ari” who has a very strong Jewish identity inculcated by his Holocaust-haunted and Israel-obsessed child survivor father Saul, and their kids include “Sarah”, who is aggressively going after her Indian English teacher for an affair, and “Eli”, who upsets them all by considering conversion to Catholicism, among other spiritual adventures, including dressing in a formal suit like a Chassid, even though “Ari” gently joked that “Katy” doesn’t believe in the God she’s furious at for allowing her to have cancer (though she fantasizes that she would believe if she were cancer-free). So just when I thought she was probably Jewish, what with their reminiscing about first meeting “Ari” at a B’nai B’rith Youth conference, “Ari” emphasizing how she has retained her sense of humor and her comparing herself to Lenny Bruce, her funeral is held in a church, with the implication that was why his father didn’t approve of their marriage and didn’t accept her until their daughter “Sarah” was born, who, regardless, she imagines will carry on the tradition of candlelight blessings at Friday night Shabbat dinner. (updated 7/13/2008)

Grey's Anatomy again tried to make up for being the only major U.S. teaching hospital without Jewish doctors by playing the card of “Dr. Yang”s (Sandra Oh) step-father being Jewish in ‘Crash Into Me”, parts 1 and 2 by Krista Vernoff and Shonda Rimes, to have her object to operating on a handsome EMT Nazi with a large Swastika tattooed on his chest: My step-father’s parents died in Auschwitz. (Maybe they meant grandparents? Not sure the biographical chronology makes sense otherwise.) When he complains about her rough treatment of him, she sneers: Keep calm! It’s not like you’re in a concentration camp or something. He flim flams about whether the tattoo was just a youthful transgression: Remember, you have to treat me like anybody else. That’s the beauty of this country. But as “Dr. Yang” is really more concerned about her professional experience issues, the story-line quickly turned racial instead as the tough drill sergeant-like African-American Chief Resident “Dr. Bailey” determined to “rise above”: No one ever better call me The Nazi again. Even ABC’s summer reality series Hopkins barely had Jewish doctors, glimpsing them occasionally as background experts, even though My Handsomest Cousin was a pediatric neurology resident there during filming. Evidently, Jewish women doctors didn’t fit into their determined effort to show a diversified staff. (The following season's Boston Med, and even 2012’s NY Med improbably ignored Jewish women doctors there too, though an elderly patient or two, accompanied by their daughters, could have been perceived as Jewish.) Even more puzzling, in "Sweet Surrender" by Sonay Washington, there was no indication that "Jessica Smithson" (played by Mary-Charles Jones) was a Jewish girl dying of the genetic Tay-Sachs disease (or any other susceptible Gentile population). At least Monk in "Mr. Monk On Wheels" by Nell Scovell had a Jewish woman doctor "Dr. Levinson" (Jacqueline Wright) when he briefly had to go to the emergency room (updated 9/3/2012)

The Cleaner (on A & E) had an odd comic relief reference to a Jewish girl at the end of the season in the pilot episode of the addict intervention drama. The young, blond Mohawk-haired slacker “Arnie Swenton” (played by Texan Esteban Powell) explains, in a script by producer Robert Munic, why he avoids violence: Not that it’s the very first time I got punched in the face. Dany Mitchelman in Hebrew School – man that girl had a punch on her. I saw stars for two days after that. We ended up dating in high school.
But in the same penultimate episode of the season where he collapsed back into addiction and had to be dried out, “Five Little Words” by Munic that was broadcast into the next season around the High Holidays, an unusual Jewish woman character was featured. Because the Ukrainian actor Mark Ivanir as the oddly-named father “Gaza Rashburg” usually plays Russian gangsters (such as seen a week later on NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy’s 1st episode) I wasn’t sure at first that the bulimic, pill-popping sorority girl “Mika” was Jewish (played by Tania Raymonde, who has dropped her last name of Katz, leading to some online speculation about her ethnicity), not that I had any idea that the real Alpha Delta Chi is actually “a national Christian sorority”, which probably the show didn’t realize either or check if they could use the name. So I didn’t realize Dad was instead an Israeli drug dealer (“one of the biggest drug dealers in the state” says a member of the team who blames him for his brother’s OD) until there was an exterior shot of his headquarters called “Rifka’s”, with a Hebrew sign that my brother-in-law Coby translated for me as “bakery” (just like my favorite spot for delicious cannoli near my Queens neighborhood turned out to be the front for a major Italian heroin ring).
In the opening at a raucous party, the sorority girl “Mika” is having black-and-white flashbacks to her humiliation at last year’s event where her almost naked body was marked up butcher-like, or as the plastic surgeons do in Nip/Tuck, at a “Hogs and Heifers” hazing showcase (that’s what the woman on the interventionist team later calls it) and was taunted with chants of “You’re so fat!” when she was a pledge. Back in the present, she’s shakily taking pills and forcing herself to throw up in the toilet, weeping the titular I wish I was dead. She tries to suggest a different hazing ritual to the sorority sisters, but the chief Mean Girl insists that it’s been a tradition for 30 years: We know how much it sucked for you last year. I mean we all went through it and you get to mark the girl this year. While “Mika” is still flashing back, Mean Girl pressures her today: What about our other tradition? Daddy’s little private pharmacy? I love it!, as “Mika” hands over pills. She reluctantly goes to the bakery and insists that Dad speak English when he greets her affectionately in Hebrew. He rebukes her: I missed you at dinner last Friday. Your mother made something special. (I couldn’t catch the dish.) She sneaks pills from his supply while he gets her a sufganyot (jelly doughnut) and then tries to get her to eat it. She defers that she had breakfast, but he’s concerned: It’s 3 o’clock, breakfast was a long time ago. She mumbles she’s late for class, he protests: You’re always running. Everything I give you, you act like you don’t want it, your car, your fancy car, whatever. She’s defiant: I don’t ask for it. Dad is getting desperate: Tell me something. What are you doing to yourself, Mammela? Just talk to me! Tell me! Pills have disappeared, you smell of alcohol, I know something is wrong, Mammela, let me help you! She turns away: Nothing is going on! Nothing’s wrong! Leave me alone! He persists: Why am I making you so unhappy? What is it? Is it the way I speak? Is it where we live? We’ll move! I’ll change, all right? She backs away: You are who you are. Your accent, where we come from, I understand. But the one thing you can change, you don’t. She switches to Hebrew, with English subtitles: You are a drug dealer. It’s true and that you do not change. That makes him very angry, and she walks away. Dad calls in a favor from the interventionist: My daughter’s sick. She steals my pills. She weighs nothing. She swills alcohol. All I know is that whatever my daughter is doing is killing her. The female member of the team talks her way into the sorority house and searches “Mika”s room, with an experienced analysis of clues: One bottle of vodka, lipstick on the rim, so she’s just sipping it. Laxative, ipecac, zip loc box. Her boss translates for us non-junkies: She’s using the plastic bags to store and weigh her vomit. This girls a full-blown bulimic. The spy has found blood as well, and images what tearful flash back to the fat chants against her on display last year “Mika” is having. Later, Mean Girl visits “Mika” in her room: It stinks in here! You haven’t left this bedroom in hours! “Mika” mutters: Yeah, I got sick. Something at lunch didn’t agree with me. Mean Girl counters: You ate carrots – 3 of them. “Mika” tries another tack: I’m exhausted. I was up until like 3. . . Mean Girl zeroes in: So which is it? Exhaustion or the food? There’s no way. . . “Mika” snaps back: What – there’s no way I could have food poisoning? No way I could be exhausted? I have a really sensitive system! Mean Girl turns sympathetic: Lots of girls go through this Mika -I’m concerned. I care about you! “Mika” rejects her overture: Just go away! Get out of here! She again flashes back to last year. Later, this year’s party looks the same, as the Mean Girl introduces the new scantily clad pledges to a crowd of rowdy frat boys: We present you the finest in campus flesh! “Mika” has more flashbacks to when she was exposedly marked up and Mean Girl announced: Any piece of meat that is too fat will not be tolerated! Will you help me corral these farm animals? . .Bring out our next little heifer! “Mika” remembers her saying last year: This little piggy has the face of an angel. Don’t you think this piggy can be prime cut? But then she turned around and whispered into “Mika”s ear: Don’t worry – as long as daddy supplies the house, you’re golden. In the present, “Mika” runs away, and talks to herself about all her insecurities while she weepily scarfs cookies down, including an ethnic reference: You’re too fat! Too stupid! You’re dark! They only like you because you give them daddy’s pills! After Dad pleads for help as a fellow father despite his line of work, the interventionist figures out For bulimics it’s a ritual. . .She wants to go some place where she’ll be found by her father. and finds her collapsed outside the bakery, just after she had mumbled another take on the titleI wish I was alive. He clears her stuffed esophagus ultra-dramatically in the nick of time, but warns Dad: Your daughter’s going to need long term medical treatment. She’s going to need therapy. This was certainly a more explicit look at bulimia than anything on the Family Channel’s Greek, which doesn’t have any Jewish women in its sorority. (updated 10/23/2008)


Kike Like Me (Originally produced for Canadian TV, shown in the U.S. on Sundance Channel) Jamie Kastner doesn’t speak to many Jewish women around the world as part of his exploration of whether he is Jewish and how Jewish identity is perceived, but he intentionally toyed with stereotypes when we see his wedding picture with a curly-haired brunette. (12/28/2007)

The Quest for the Missing Piece (Originally produced for Israeli TV, review forthcoming, as seen at the 2008 NY Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) and will doubtless show up on U.S. cable TV.) Oded Lotan includes Jewish women, particularly his sister, in this intriguing look at the tradition of brit milah and circumcision around the world from the point of view of a gay man. Unfortunately, he ends up climaxing with a Portnoy’s Complaint-like attack on his mother. (12/28/2007)

Flying: Confessions Of A Free Woman (7/4/2007) (emendations coming after 1/4/2008) (Screened theatrically at the Film Forum, but it is a TV mini-series, not a movie. Shown on the Sundance Channel in the U.S. May 2008.)

Mrs. Wolowitz in the 1st season of Big Bang Theory (on CBS) (As heard and referred – forthcoming catch-up) Until I get around to posting my transcriptions, that I can vouch for, of all the nasty comments by and about “Mrs. Wolowitz”, fan episode transcripts are eventually posted. (9/29/2013) The Sarah Silverman Program – 2nd season (on Comedy Central) I haven’t gotten around to commenting on this set of her shows, as it’s hard enough to keep up with her video hits on YouTube: winning an Emmy for outstanding original music and lyrics for co-writing the satirical virally popular song “I’m F*cking Matt Damon”, right after she broke up with her non-Jewish boyfriend, that was originally produced for his Jimmy Kimmel Show, and influencing the presidential election in Florida (that almost made me sorry for my kids that they don’t have grandparents there to schlep to). (10/7/2008)
She briefly reprised her guest “Marci Maven” role for the third time in “Mr. Monk’s 100th Case” by Tom Scharpling, though her character has not been explicitly ID’d as Jewish. Structured as a reality show tribute to the famous “Detective Monk”, “Maven” was “interviewed” in front of her shrine to him as President of the Adrian Monk Fan Club though fan can mean one thing to, like you, and something completely different to, like, say, Judge Harriet Waxman of the Third District Court. Y’know, I can tell you something about Judge Waxman, she’s never been in love, so she’s shooting from that perspective. She points to two photographs of her with “Monk” decorating the altar: This is actually, really from a case we worked on together, a homicide. It took a lot of clue hugs, but we cracked it. But this one wasn’t as real.. (updated 9/28/2008)


Oddly, not a one of the women in HBO’s first season of In Treatment turned out to be Jewish over its 48 hours. Though set in an unspecified American town, it is based on Be’ Tipul (In Therapy), an award-winning television series that debuted in Israel in 2005, and is executive produced by Noa Tishby, an Israeli-born actress. According to press reports, it is basically the same Israeli show but with English-speaking actors. (The short-lived The Ex List on CBS the next season was also based on an Israeli show and also didn’t seem to have any Jews.) I was betting on at least “Amy” and “Jake” being Jewish, what with her mother named “Molly”, but when they discussed naming their baby after family, they revealed male relatives named the gentile-sounding “Otis” and “Sloane” and talked about celebrating Christmas.(updated 11/10/2008)

With the fictional TV season shortened by the writers’ strike, the trend for Jewish women on TV this season moved from Mossad agents to Hassids. Law & Order: SVU featured Jewish women in “Unorthodox” by Josh Singer. “Rachel Zelinsky” was played by Cara Buono, one of my favorite TV actresses from playing Italians on Third Watch and The Sopranos, answered questions about her ex to the detectives of the Sex Crimes Unit after her ten year old was found to have been raped: My ex got me into some crazy stuff. Religion. He became a zealot. He lost all interest in me. He spent all his time with the rabbis. We split up. He moved to Williamsburg. The now-Hasidic ex is bitter: This is all Rachel’s fault. These unspeakable things only happen in your world. At the yeshiva, the defensive receptionist is played by Zoe Lister-Jones who also played an Orthodox woman in Arranged. The detective follows the tutor suspect “Jacob” out, only to discover that he’s been meeting her, using her little brother as cover. She goes on a bit incoherently about why what they’re sneaking off to do together is forbidden in their culture: We just wanted a little privacy. (So, nu, why aren’t they married already?) As their alibi of spending the day at a film marathon checks out, the detectives are incredulous: He’d rather everyone think he’s a pervert rather than let everyone know he spent the day making out with his girl at the movies? Meanwhile, it seems that the ex has taken the rape victim up to one of those Hasidic enclaves in Rockland County, as “Mrs. Zelinsky” explains their “totally sheltered” restrictions in a voice-over of images of the community. They find the rebbe with the kid, not the ex: It’s my duty to save Dovid from his mother’s world. The detectives exchange looks with the rebbe after the trial: Maybe the Hasidim are onto something. Unplug the kids from their modern life. These days it may not be such a bad idea. I couldn’t tell if Rhea Pearlman’s “Roxana Fox” who was defending the teen rapist was supposed to be Jewish too. (1/18/2007)

In a continuing exploration of his cynicism, let alone his God complex, House, M.D., who in the previous three seasons has taken on nuns and other religious faithful, now faced in “Don’t Ever Change”, by Doris Egan and Leonard Dick, an ultra-Orthodox woman. The episode opened with “Roz” (played by Laura Silverman, whose sisters are a rabbi and comedienne Sarah, on whose Comedy Central show she co-stars) marrying her bearded husband Yonathan (played by Israeli-born Eyal Podell) in a traditional Hasidic wedding service, celebrating as male and female separated dancers lift up chairs they linked with a handkerchief, but she starts bleeding and falls. Secular Jewish “Dr. Chris Taub” (played by Peter Jacobson) becomes the religious expert throughout the episode as he had previously been ID’d as Jewish, noting that Hasidim fast on their wedding day, so maybe that contributed to her collapse. Discounting the possibility of poisoning by Cossacks, “House” suggests a suicide attempt, but “Taub” objects Suicide is a sin. “House” supplements his usual mantra (that I have a version of on the official T-shirt) People lie, people sin and in my world, people include Jews. . . Hasidic women marry young so they can start pushing out little Hasidlings. 38-year-old woman means a woman not on anyone’s hot list being pushed on to a guy not on anyone’s hot list. No way out. The female resident objects that a physical diagnosis fits better than an epiphany that her life is meaningless. “House” shrugs: Fine, check her innards for bad cells and her house for bad karma. Carbonic acid should be on the shelf right next to the self-hate and self-loathing. While searching the house, “Taub” rags on Hasidic arranged marriages, while the African-American “Dr. Foreman” defends the rationale of shared values. But what they find instead in the house is evidence of her earlier life in rock ‘n’ roll. She confesses that she used to be hooked on heroin when she was a record producer, but that she’s been clean for many months. I became ba'al teshuvah (Hebrew for "master of return", which refers to secular Jews changing their lives to become ultra-Orthodox) six months ago. I took one class, then another class. She left behind pop music is considered frivolous. Same as we don’t watch TV or movies. and she claims she told her husband about her former life, at least “in broad strokes.”
“House” adds “altered mental state” as one of her symptoms in his differential diagnosis. “Taub” protests She’s nuts but we can’t just give her 10 cc’s of atheism and send her home. “House” sneers: The woman didn’t just choose to keep kosher, she became a masochist. She went directly to the extreme of Hasidic Judaism of stringent rules. People don’t change. The husband is furious: I want a doctor who doesn’t think my wife is sick just because she’s religious. . . My wife’s body is sick. Her mind and soul are fine. “House” concludes a theological debate with him: So you will trust my diagnosis, and you'll let me treat her, because in this temple I am Dr. Yahweh. But his boss “Dr. Cuddy” warns him: If you’re dissatisfied with your life, changing it is a symptom of mental health. I get why that concept is strange to you. The woman resident concurs: Maybe she didn’t change. . How do we know that the real Roz isn’t who she is now and who she was then? Can’t we say that her previous life was true without making her present life a fraud? “Roz” surprises her new husband with an involuntary “Damnit” at a painful stress test, and he expresses his concern to “Dr Taub”: With the treatment she’ll be the way she was before I knew her? “Taub” provides odd comfort: You’ll find someone else. “Yonathan” protests: There isn’t anyone else. “Taub” is incredulous that he could feel that way after only meeting her three times while he extols how he still loves his wife after 12 years of marriage like on their wedding day (which is actually a sore point as he cheated on her so took this job to try and save his marriage), but “Yonathan” cuts him off: But the more you know someone the more you should love them.
“Dr. Foreman” muses while perusing her MRI: Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll and the 600 rules of God are all in there somewhere. (“Yonathan” had earlier corrected “House”s reference to the 613 mitzvot.) “House” joins them: How’s our mental Yentl? Her limbic system and pleasure centers are lighting up like a Hanukah bush. as “Foreman” explained the procedure to her – but while he was touching her in comfort, her brain waves were changed by her praying. “Taub” too is now sympathetic- They have something we don’t have., and “House” jeers: You drank the Manishewitz-flavored Kool-Aid. Find out where her wiring is klempt. Groggy under anesthesia she overhears the male residents talking about the woman doctor: Stop loshen horeh! (harmful gossip – though it’s a phrase that’s usually snidely used against women). At yet another procedure, her husband turns away, uncomfortable at seeing her uncovered, and the woman doctor tries to be comforting: Under the circumstances, I think Roz would sacrifice modesty to have you with her. But “Yonathan” gives a spirited retort: Please, you think it’s sweet that I care for her modesty, that it is archaic, but ultimately irrelevant. Our traditions aren’t just blind rituals. They mean something, they have purpose. I respect my wife and I respect her body.
“Roz” is feeling better from the new treatment and urges her husband to go home and get some sleep. He demurs and the couple exchanges flirtatious endearments about the matchmaker: I never told you, but you are much better looking than Mrs. Silver led me to expect. He gives the only explanation we’ll get about why he wasn’t yet married: She never liked me. When I was 8, I threw up on her shoes at my uncle’s wedding. But she again collapses and he alerts the doctors to just how bad off she is: She’s saying the sh’ma! She thinks she’s dying! Cute Aussie “Dr. Chase” is brought in to explain that she needs surgery to stop internal bleeding – but she refuses. I’m going to die anyway. I just want to share one Shabbat with my husband. I don’t want the surgery until after sunset. Her husband pleads with her: Roz, please, the Torah commands us to preserve life. She smiles: I waited 38 years to find what I wanted. I can wait another 8 hours. I’ll leave the rest to God. “House” is disgusted: She’s not a masochist. She’s suicidal. “Taub” reiterates She’s not suicidal. She’s made a commitment to her new life with her husband. She wants one meaningful experience in that life. She’s connecting with all the years she’s not going to have. “House” snorts: A better way to connect to all those years is to actually have them. He rags the frustrated “Dr. Chase” who protests that “she’s adamant” even though he had a rabbi call to try and convince her, is sarcastic about trying “twin rabbis”, but then suggests:You want more time? Joshua got God to make the sun stand still. No reason we can’t make God speed it up. And of course by God I mean you. So, presumptively with the husband’s connivance, they cover up the windows and lie to her about the Sabbath that starts at sundown Friday and ends at Saturday sundown with no “work” allowed in the duration, claiming that the drugs have made her confused about the time, as “Taub” transports her to a candlelight dinner with your husband. So you’ll pray, scarf some challah, then we can do this? She’s so weak that she has to be helped to raise her hands as her husband recites the Shabbat prayers. “Taub” isn’t sure what part of the prayers “Yonathan” is up to, but “House”, surprisingly, knows that he’s blessing his wife and quotes from Eshet Chayil, known as “A Woman of Valor”, as he refers to lines from the prayer: She laughs at the future because she’s an idiot. Her value isn’t beyond pearls because dead people have no value. “House” is furious: The woman’s not just a masochist, she’s a hypocrite. The commandment to preserve life comes before all others. “Taub” tries to defend her: Actually, she’s not a masochist and she’s not following all the rules. Just the ones that please her. “House” targets him: Right, she walks in crazy, explained how ritual trumps living, and you decide it’s a beautiful life style? “Taub”: She’s wrong, but if there’s more. . . “House: Then the only meaning is here . . “Taub”: But if she thinks God is there for her. If she lives her life believing that God is there. . . “House: Then she dies. Things aren’t there just because we want them to be there.
Which gives him the solution to her physical dilemma: Or what isn’t there!, as he chases her gurney down the corridor: Stop that Jew! Chase hates working on Shabbos, so let’s make it easier for him. . .Your contractor, and you know who He was, put your kidney on a cheap chain. . .You’ll have something to tell all the ladies at the mikveh. Mazel tov! Now you’ll be able to push out those 14 children. It was her dancing at the wedding that brought her condition to the crisis point. And at the end of the episode, “House” and “Wilson” (who is supposedly also Jewish – fans presume his mother was Jewish) wish each other “Shabbat Shalom.” (a common Friday night “peaceful Sabbath” farewell) The atmospheric music included “Nani, nani” by the Accentus Ensemble and melodies for the prayers, including the Niggun of the Alter Rebbe. (updated 2/8/2008)


The season finale of Eli Stone, “Soul Free” by Courtney Kemp Agboh and Andrew Kreisberg, had a woman rabbi wife (Jayne Brook as “Rebecca Green”) for a heavy-handed discussion of religious end-of-life issues through a legal fight with her terminally ill husband (“David Green” played by Richard Schiff). (I’ll transcribe the dialogue when I get a chance.) (updated 5/8/2008)

In the otherwise ethnically neutral NYC in NBC’s weak Sex and the City imitation, Lipstick Jungle, two old Jewish ladies popped up in “Chapter 2: Nothing Sacred” by Oliver Goldstick. Tracking down the black tranny who bought her first hat design from a rummage sale, the fashion designer is startled to see an old lady, accompanied by her yarmulke-wearing son, wearing it as they wish her “Shabbat Shalom” when they come out the front door. The woman explains It was a gift from that lovely tall girl down the hall. . .Very neighborly of her. Recalling a much funnier Curb Your Enthusiasm, the designer follows them to synagogue where her somewhat less old friend is shocked that the designer pulls out cash to buy the hat: You can’t wheel and deal in a House of God! . . Shame on you – snatching clothes off a widow’s back!. . .What are you an animal? She can’t attend services bare-headed! The designer’s billionaire boyfriend later turns up with the hat: I just made an 80 year old woman with a bald spot very rich and very cold. In the “Dog Eat Dog” episode of ABC’s very similar series Cashmere Mafia, either writer Lizzy Weiss, Tze Chun or Mike Weiss had the tough blonde cosmetics business boss “Lily Parrish” (played by Christine Ebersole, but presumably channeling Helena Rubinstein or Estée Lauder) angrily calling a contractor a “pisher” and “mezkheit”, to the non-comprehension of equally blonde “Caitlin Dowd” (Bonnie Somerville), who begged off that she’s an Irish Catholic whose only Yiddish is “shmear” and the self-referential “shiksa”. (updated 2/26/2008)

Hana Gitelman showed up again in Heroes the strike-shortened 2nd season only in the supplementary online graphic novel, in Episode 5, Chapters 69 and 70 called “Hana and Drucker’s Plot Discovered” and “The End of Hana and Drucker”, story by R.D. Hall and art by Tom Grummett. But her background seems irrelevant to exploration of the spiritual connections within the internet that she has melded with, and her ability can’t save her from virtual data overload. (updated 8/30/2008)

Bubbe Botwin in the 4th season of Weeds (on Showtime most nights of the week and On Demand) continued another trend for the portrayal of Jewish women this TV season as elderly or with Alzheimer’s or comatose, albeit with the series’ satirical touch, as “Bubbe” is described as “far, far away”. In the season premiere “Mother Thinks the Birds Are After Her”, (episode #38) by series creator Jenji Kohan, the pot-dealing-Mom-on-the-run “Nancy Botwin” (Mary Louise Parker) announced that they would be going to the beach house of her late husband’s grandmother – as she’s burned down their house with gasoline. The older son “Silas” (Hunter Parrish) is surprised: Doesn’t Bubbe hate you? Mom: She just hates that I’m not Jewish. It’s not personal. But the son is still hesitant: I only met her twice, and once was at dad’s funeral. She called me something like. . He fumbles at unfamiliar Yiddish. His uncle "Andy" (Justin Kirk) helpfully explains: She said you had a goyishe punim. That means you have a face like a goy. Mom persists: Well, she loves her great-grandchildren, so we’re going. The younger son “Shane” (Alexander Gould) : Dad once told me that bubbe killed the neighbor’s dog. His uncle is quickly defensive: No one could ever prove that! “Shane”: What’s she like? Uncle: She’s great, actually, and a bitch. But in a great, tough cookie way. So “Andy” is shocked at the sight of his grandmother (played by Jo Farkas) lying in a sick bed, and on top of that both that dad would have dismissed the home health aide, yet leave her to go to the track for awhile, and then that he would clean her tubes and bottom (“Andy” is a bit numb later when he notes that in the process I saw my grandmother’s vagina.). His dad (played by Albert Brooks) walks in just after they arrive, giving some commentary on Jewish women, and unless we get more information this season, we’re to presume his wife was Jewish and shared his attitudes. He explains why he calls his daughter-in-law: Not-Francie. Because Francie is the woman your father should have married. She’s wonderful. She’s an eye doctor. Beautiful, tiny hands that bring sight to the blind. She married a cantor and has four children, and she’s still the #1 Lasik surgeon in the entire north county. She gave me a discount and now I see perfect. She’s wonderful. Trying to ignore the pictures around the house of her late husband “Judah” with Francie, “Nancy” just happens, for no particular reason other than to set up a laugh line, serves a meal of some spaetzle-thing, to her father-in-law’s consternation: You’re sitting in my mother’s living room, eating German food and smelling like gas? She was in Auschwitz for Christ’s sake! What kind of monster are you? “Nancy” retorts: A terrible shiksa monster here to terrorize your clan. Get over it already, Len, it’s been 20 years. What do you want from me? “Len” protests: Hey, Judah stopped talking to me! “Nancy” retorts: Because you would only call me Not-Francie. Because you refused to come to our wedding. Because the one time we came down here after Silas was born, you told us the baby had eczema because Judah had watered down the gene pool. “Len” keeps calling her Not-Francie anyway. “Nancy” challenges “Len”: Your mom’s not doing well, and you’re not looking so fine yourself. To her brother-in-law she is rueful: I hadn’t counted on the dying woman in the living room.
In the next episode, "Lady's a Charm" (episode #39) by Victoria Morrow, after “Nancy” attempts to use Bubbe’s vibrator as a hair dryer, until she appreciates what it is (she muses- Oh bubbe – who knew?), Bubbe sets in motion a moral dilemma for the already very morally compromised family. “Andy” uses Bubbe as the excuse for why he had gone off to spend money his dad had given him and his brother instead of placing it on a bet on a sure thing at the track, such that “Lenny” angrily calls him a gonif- a thief. Bubbe told us to do it! She said you never win! and pleads for Bubbe to wake and support him. But just as “Lenny” snarls: Look at her – she’s a bag of broccoli!, she does speak and only her son understands her mumbled words: It’s Yiddish! She speaks Yiddish! She said ‘Kill me’!
Next, in “The Whole Blah Damn Thing” (episode #40) by Ron Fitzgerald, “Andy” appears in an old coat of his grandmother, sardonically noting: Bubbe likes her pelts. He explains Bubbe’s recent trip to Clarityville to his surprised sister-in-law: So she’s in there? The family debates “killing Bubbe” vs. “helping her find peace”. “Andy”: ’"Kill me?’, huh, what do you think she meant by that? Maybe it was her sled? . . . .No, well, yes, but no. I mean yes, and also no. Mostly yes, like in an incredibly merciful, dignified yes up here, in the foreground. With this deeply felt, sorrowful tinged with regret and guilt about the big fat yes, no back there a ways. The older grandson is doubtful: We don’t really have a lot of family. Do we really want to kill her off? “Andy” orates: That back there? That is as good as it gets for Bubbe. There’s no recovery. Pain and more pain and wanting that pain to end. His older nephew persists: So let’s just kill her? “Andy”: Let’s help her find peace. Nephew: By killing her. “Andy”: I wish you wouldn’t make killing her sound so much like killing her. The younger nephew pipes up: Show some balls! His older brother retorts: Yeah, death is no big deal, because life is just blah blah blah. And “Andy” begins one of his fan-favorite monologues to relate to Bubbe: Look, Silas, life is just blah blah blah. You hope for blah and sometimes you find it but mostly, it’s blah, and waiting for blah, and hoping you were right about the blahs you made. And then just when you think you’ve got the whole blah damn thing figured out and you’re surrounded by your blahs, death show up. And blah blah blah. Which convinces his nephew: All right, let’s do this. They nominate the younger one to negotiate with Grandpa: She said she wants to die. Grandpa bitterly mocks his knowledge of her condition, as they just arrived, but the kid defends his position, as he turns to his unconscious great-grandmother: I think you have the right to choose the manner of your death. Grandpa is sarcastic: Pulling the plug on her. Is that you have in mind. The kid shrugs: Pretty much. Grandpa persists: So tell me. Would you want to kill your mother? Just say that was your mother laying in that bed. “Shane” is stalwart: If she said kill me, I would. Grandpa continues: Well, as luck would have it, it’s not your mother that happens to be the woman that spent the wonder years kicking my ass. Calling me a loser, a liar, a bad investment, force-feeding me liver and applesauce. Hanging my dog – twice- accidentally so she said, but how did they get up there in that tree? “Shane”: I think you’re having problems letting go. Grandpa: Of course. I am having problems letting go. Because it’s my fucking mother. All eye balls and elbows and ready to play God. All right, Big Guy – here’s her ventilator, it starts here and ends here, so yank it. Give it a tug, a pop and she’s gone. Easy right? “Shane” is defeated: I can’t. Grandpa pats him on the head and back and goes out on the beach, where “Andy” joins him, to his discomfiture: What the fuck do you want? . .Fuck, say it! You want me to kill my mother! “Andy”: Goddamn it, yes! Yes I want you to pull the plug! I want you to cash in her chips. I want you to enter her in the dirt derby. You’re the one who told us what she said. You. It was Yiddish. You could have told any lie you wanted. You have said anything. But you told us. Grandpa protests: You can’t listen to that. It’s just talk coming out. She could have said anything. “Andy” counters: How many times has she talked? Grandpa: I don’t know. “Andy”: How many times has she said ‘I want to die’? Grandpa: I don’t know, once, twice, several times, never. I don’t know. What do you want me to say? That I wish she was dead and this would all go away? “Andy” affirms and Grandpa repeats – and they go back to drinking beer. “Andy”: So, do you want to be the one? Grandpa: This is some kind of fucking honor? “Andy”: No, she likes me. Grandpa’s eyes narrow: Nancy. “Andy”: Bubbe did say that bringing Not-Marcie into her house would kill her. Grandpa: Psychic, that woman. Back in the house, “Andy” lets her know: We’re just saying our goodbyes. We decided it would be best to pull the plug and let her rest in peace. Actually – we decided you should do the honors. And she excuses herself from her drug-dealing negotiations: I have to go kill my dead husband’s grandmother now. - and he sympathizes: Been there. “Nancy” faces Bubbe: I don’t really know a lot about you to be honest. I don’t really know your real name. If I thought about it, maybe I do, probably. Helen? I’m sure I’ll read it in the paper or on your grave. Anyway, I now Judah loved you and I know you loved Judah. And that’s good to know. I know you’re not hanging on for things you haven’t done because you did things you needed to do. . . You touched all their lives and you were loved and you collected many treasures that we will now have to figure out what to do with. I pray that you will rest easy, that you will not fear, that you will have peace and you will thank God it has come at last. Please don’t be mad at me. As her family stands around Bubbe’s bed, she tries several different circuit breakers until one kicks off. And Bubbe keeps breathing. As they stand around her bed, “Nancy” calmly directs her youngest: Shane, get your mother a pillow.
The opening shot of the next episode, “The Three Coolers”, by Roberto Benabib, is of a tall Jewish memorial candle, the kind lit when returning from a funeral, though it makes the younger grandson nervous: Isn't that a fire hazard?. Grandpa: It's on a dish. Shane: What if there's an earthquake? Grandpa: Well, I think the odds are in your favor that the two houses you live in won't burn down... although your mother is a wild card. The grandfather announces: Let’s pay respect to a courageous woman who escaped the clutches of Adolf Hitler to lead a long, productive life only to be snuffed out by a hypoallergenic pillow from Bed, Bath and Beyond. The days of sitting shiva are then marked off on the screen in Hebrew letters, as on “Day 1”, he explains the rules: Now, remember, soon we’ll eat and we’ll remember some more. “Day 3” they get visited by real estate agents: She was a lovely woman. On “Day 4” an agent asks how did she die? The grandson replies: Mom killed her. On “Day 5”, Grandpa plays her Auschwitz numbers for the lottery: Hey man, they’re obviously lucky – she survived! “Day 6” the male real estate agent flatters the family’s devotion, but Grandpa stops him: I’m touched by your outpouring of emotion, and I think Bubbe would have been too, but I’m going with the hot chick who walked in here on Tuesday. On “Day 7” he announces: Attention beloved mixed-marriage family. Shiva is over. Meanwhile, “Nancy”s drug dealer admires her killing technique: I had to smother a guy with a pillow once, too. My arms got tired. You? Nancy: Not so much. It was Tempur Pedic. Conformed to her face. Grandpa takes young “Shane” on a treasure hunt: There’s money believe me. Bubbe was convinced the Nazis were going to rise again. So when she got too old to prepare to shtup her way out of the camps, she started hoarding money for bribes. . . genocide can happen again. It must never happen again, to the Jews. . . Jackpot! Good old Jewish paranoia—the trick is to make it work for you. She was a very spry woman in her day., as he climbs up to find her cache. (quote isn’t 100% exact) Amidst all of these family remembrances, “Andy” suddenly says I miss Yael, she might have been the one, his Israeli ex-girlfriend. Grandpa then imparts a final lesson to his grandson before he splits: Your mother taking out my mother – it was the best thing that could have happened to me. You know why? Because Bubbe was my fucking cooler! I gotta get out of this place! I’ve been here too long. (as in the movie The Cooler) (updated 10/5/2008)


Faux Cherien Rich in her 2nd season on The Riches (on FX Tuesdays at 10 pm, repeated overnights. 2nd season on DVD.) It didn’t look like there was still going to be this fake Jewish woman on the series at the start of the season, as the family of travelers seemed to be on their way to Mexico. But in “Friday Night Lights” by Ellie Herman and Dmitry Lipkin, “Dahlia” couldn’t break her attachment with the real “Cherie”s mother, “Dr. Morgenstern” (played by Peggy Stewart), who even through her dementia can see she’s not “Cherien.” She not only brings “Mama” to a Texas hospital, after alcohol-induced hypertension, but picks her up on their way to continue pretending to be the “Riches”: I’m not gonna leave mama with some Jew-hating rednecks! Her husband “Wayne” is at first confused about their relationship: She’s not Jew. . oh, yes, she is a Jew! OK. (updated 3/23/2009)

Berta Bronstein on Mandrake started by giving us the sexiest Jewish woman character on TV who is not just a one-note – figures she’s imported from Brazil, via HBO, in a 2005 series available On Demand with English subtitles and Spanish dubbing, so the titular lawyer/fixer of rich clients’ problems (played a bit dourly by Marcos Palmeira) is pronounced “mon-DRAH-kay”. Set in Rio de Janeiro, he’s a compulsive womanizer, particularly falling in love, or at least coupling, in each episode with his clients’ nubile daughters or trophy wives.
The characters were created by Brazilian novelist Rubem Fonseca, evidently originally in the 1983 scatological social commentary noir High Art (A Grande Art), at least that was the first of his works translated into English, with some odd word selections, by Ellen Watson, and apparently continued in the 2005 Mandrake: The Bible and the Stick (A Bíblia e a bengala), that doesn’t yet seem to be in English [his alter-ego writer in Bufo and Spallanzani complains that his publisher wants him to write another popular detective novel, so I guess he gave in]; he’s reported to have been actively involved in the TV adaptation, with his son José Henrique Fonseca as the show runner. In the first book, told in the first person, “Berta” is already the title character’s ex, though he thinks of her frequently amidst his trio-plus of steady lovers, as a gold unicorn necklace she gifted to him is stolen during a brutal attack and leads him on a trail of revenge. His first mention of her is at his new girlfriend’s apartment, whining that “Berta” had bigger breasts and she always used to keep a bottle of white wine on ice for me. The new woman taunts back: Why don’t you go back to her? Drink wine and play chess all day. Should be a thrilling life. Especially with a woman who’s got big breasts. But she asks him to move in and gives him a BJ anyway, and in the next chapter we learn that he did used to live with “Berta”. He finds books on his shelf that belonged to her – “Millet, Friedan, Green, Dworkin, Steiner, Horter, Rich, authors she had insisted I read”, not that she’s quite this intellectual on TV. He also reminisces about how frequently they went to the movies: “The last movie we went to see before we broke up was an old Vincent Price flick, House of Usher, maybe in the hope that the Price-Poe combination could save our relationship. Berta was tall, thin and pale, with blues eyes and black hair. At home, after the movie, she attempted her Vincent Price imitation, modulating her voice and widening her big, expressive eyes. But she couldn’t quite manage it; she was too unhappy.” He goes to see her compete in the National Women’s Chess Championship: “Berta was playing with the same level of concentration that had exasperated me so often in the days I played reckless, headstrong chess—never, however risking the queen. Which was what Berta was doing at that very moment: losing the queen, apparently distracted, causing her adversary to tremble with excitement as she moved her piece. But it was the Würzberg ambush. I watched Berta’s triumph and then moved toward her, shouldering aside some of her more enthusiastic fans. Congratulations. Berta started, surprised, fighting the pleasure she felt to see me. She had suffered a great deal and believed some retribution was called for.” He goes on to ask her for a chess match, offering to play with handicaps, but she only agrees to a cup of coffee with him. She wonders if it’s all his girlfriends that make him look so awful and he denies that. She retorts: How can it be? The great fornicator – abandoned by women? And she walks out. He muses: “I’m going to throw away all her letters, I thought. One was more than twenty pages long, and every paragraph started with I love you. Berta. Her hands were cold the first time we slept together. And she hadn’t been able to stop talking in a high, reedy voice, like a frightened sheltered child. She had had a very strict upbringing, as a Yiddish meydele.” But he still keeps a photo of her in his bathroom: “a pale dark-haired woman sitting behind a chessboard,” much to his girlfriend’s annoyance, though he likes that the new one with the perfect body sleeps naked: “Berta Bronstein didn’t sleep in the nude, because she didn’t like anyone to see the little bulge that appeared when she lay on her side.” Later, he remembers how “Berta” saw through his “infantile imposture” about his family, as he has to visit who could be his future in-laws: “Berta was really amusing. No, Berta was not really amusing. But if she wanted me right now, I’d go running and jump into bed with her.”
So how does this strong Jewish woman change when she becomes a TV character? “Berta” (played by Maria Luisa Mendonça) is his “official girlfriend” who sleeps over and is familiar to his housekeeper. He frequently professes love to her, but he is simultaneously having frequent sex with “Bebel”, a nympho barely 18 year old, who is also drawn from the book. In “Berta”s official character bio, as translated from HBO Latino by my brother-in-law Coby, she “is a mature and sophisticated woman who maintains a love relationship with Mandrake. She loves yoga and is a great chess player, and she would be the woman in Mandrake’s life, if there was one.” One definition of sophisticated seems to be that the actress doesn’t have to bare her breasts as often as the other spectacularly endowed women in the series.
In the first episode “The City Isn’t What You See From the Sugar Loaf (A cidade não é aquilo que se vê do Pão de Açúcar)”, written by director José Henrique Fonseca, Felipe Braga and Tony Bellotto, that “Berta” is Jewish is immediately telegraphed, as she surprised “Mandrake” with her return from a long, boring trip to Europe: It must be to keep the nomadic tradition of the Bronsteins alive. She continually sloughs off his frequent declarations of love with verbal jabs and sarcastic expressions about his constant infidelities, as she gives him a blow job or straddles him. In the 2nd episode, “Valentine's Day (Dia dos Namorados)” written by the same trio, he has to help a client whose Jewishness is loudly pronounced as he is filmed, by director Toni Vanzolini, in the same frame as his handy menorah. But while the fixer flirts with his daughter “Deborah Graff”, he atypically doesn’t seduce her, maybe because the father has just criticized him: Responsibility - if you were one of us you would understand. When “Mandrake” begs off a call from another lover to celebrate the holiday, “Berta” mocks: Does that mean I was the chosen one?
The third episode, “Eva”, again by the three amigos, demonstrates that “Berta” is an intellectual, that he loves her for her mind, too, as whenever he sees a chess board he thinks of her, as directed by Arthur Fontes, after the episode opens with him playing strip chess with her. They are drinking wine mostly unclothed and “Berta” is restless to make love already. But he’s concentrating on the board: It’s not everyday I can beat Berta Bronstein. She protests she’s getting cold, and pulls him into bed and under her for very energetic sex. He does come back from the client visit looking for her, still looking at that chess board, and later she calls him with her moves. He muses that he’s obsessed with playing chess with her. They continue the match in their underwear and “Berta” is restless at the 15th move: Focus Mandrake or you’ll lose the game. . .You’re drunk! He crawls over to her begging to be held. She holds him in her arms and asks why he doesn’t seem to be himself. As he snuggles he confesses that he’s in love with another woman. “Berta” stiffens and her eyes start to tear: Is she younger than me? Every day a younger one. Is she 16? 12? He claims she’s her age (which didn’t appear to be true about her, yet another client’s daughter). “Berta” gets more emotional: Is she prettier than me? He purrs No – you’re gorgeous, you’re gorgeous. and he kisses her. [I’m gong to presume that the lousy English subtitling accounts for him calling her “Bebel” here, as I also think he means infatuation, not love.] But she then pushes him away: I won’t see you until you’re through with her! He protests: But it doesn’t exist! How can I be through with something that doesn’t exist? She’s getting angrier: Why did you have to tell me about this? If you told me then it exists! Next you’ll be telling me that only she cares about you! I want you to like only me! If not, no more chess games, no more getting drunk on wine, no more sex whenever you want it! And by the way – I hate wine! And she pours out the wine and smashes the chessboard. He wakes up in bed alone, and then his elderly Jewish partner/mentor, who was his father’s partner, warns him that “Berta” will shoot him one of these days.
But by the next episode, “Yag” by the same three, “Berta” is more conventionally like other Jewish women on TV - too intellectual about sex. As “Mandrake” comes home from a night of wild sex with another young woman, he plays a message on his answering machine from her: Where have you been? I came by just to smell your scent. And then I stayed to study, but I couldn’t concentrate. I kept thinking about our delicious fuck. You are the master of the missionary position. Look, I just left a surprise in your room. You can tell me later if you like it. Kisses. And she’s in his bed naked – reading the Kama Sutra. As he tries to make love to her, she’s full of instructions, this way, that way, he questions, she corrects, she gives names to the positions from diagrams in the book and prattles on with quotes about It’s the conjoining with your yoni. . .the opulence of sex . . . man’s oldest position. . . the reproduction of the fetal state. He begs: Isn’t there something we can do that’s less painful? She screams on about The female! The splendor! No Mandrake No! And when he next sees his legal partner, he tells him once again that he’s in love with another woman.
She’s similarly annoying about sex in the next, 5th episode “Detective”, by the same three writers. Dressed in a leather bustier, she’s driving him crazy with several very odd-looking sex toys. She says they’ll relax him but they do the opposite, as she turns one on: It’s a bi-polar massager, to be used by both of us at once. Somehow, they get turned on anyway, despite his protests when she queries about one Will it fit?, as he takes her from behind. She’s on her way out the next morning, being genial to the housekeeper, when she finds the very young “Bebel” on his doorstep while he’s in the shower. She’s very suspicious, but he can honestly answer that she’s the daughter of a client. Which excuse “Bebel” found riotously funny when they made love on the beach later that day. That night he’s just trying to watch TV in bed with “Berta” and she starts up again – but interrupts herself to complain first about his nose hair, then his eyebrows, and proceeds to trim them.
”Berta” comes over to stay for the weekend while her house is being fumigated in the 6th episode “Atum Vizcaya (Canned Tuna)” by the same three writers. But the phone rings – it’s “Bebel”, which really makes her angry. “Bebel” comes to the apartment and interrupts her yoga routine. But by the time “Mandrake” comes in they are together. He jokes: Is this a home invasion? “Berta” corrects: No, a yoga class. But she continues to be sarcastic about “his friend” - I thought this was my kingdom. “Mandrake” reassures her, calling her “my love”. So “Berta” invites “Bebel” to stay for dinner, but is very condescending to her about introducing her to the gourmet take-out cuisine of Indian food and éclairs, though she isn’t just a jealous hag. His partner “Wexler” is unsympathetic the next morning: You’re 40, take responsibility. . .You’re a lovable bastard. Later, “Berta” is at a restaurant with another man who questions why she is so tense and invites her to a yoga spa in California, as she laughs and very sexily flirts with him: I think it’s what you need. Why don’t you come with me? It will do a world of good for you. Later in “Mandrake”s apartment, the camera focuses on the chessboard, as a reminder that she’s not there.
He keeps looking at that chessboard in the opening of the 7th episode “Kolkata”, by the same three writers, as he’s dreaming about “Berta” and “Bebel” doing it together while he’s on a medically required 48 hours of celibacy. He’s playing a word game with “Bebel”, but she’s not as good at it as “Berta”, and “Bebel” mocks that chessboard. “Berta” sends him a Blue Moon card that now her female libido has been enhanced, then declares This is my night! when she comes to his door with a whip. She claims she needs it as an accessory: Another blue moon won’t occur until 2018. As the Gram Parsons’ song “Love Hurts” plays on the soundtrack, she whips his furniture, crawls on the floor to him, and then is all over him, even as he tries to stop her. I want it. I want it. But he explains he has to abstain. She tries to block him answering the phone: You’re not leaving me like this! So he invites her to the business party he has to go to, where the feature is an update of the kama sutra. She’s quite impressed that the speaker is so knowledgeable about tantric sex, and thoroughly enjoys the demonstration. “Mandrake” starts to get jealous, but she lectures him about his envy. The guru invites her back to his room, but she’s very drunk as he mumbles tantric foreplay. She stretches out on his red silk sheets as he lights incense. He asks if she’s flexible and takes off her leather boots as he prattles on about shiva and synthesis. “Mandrake” walks through the orgy rooms looking for her, and walks in just as he’s getting her naked, as she seems hypnotized by meditation. “Mandrake” gets her out of it as the guru is revealed as a fraud. She keeps insisting it was really only a yoga lesson, as she goes with “Mandrake” to check on “Wexler” at the hospital, but she asks: Are you mad at me? “Mandrake” insists I love you. as they kiss and he keeps a firm hold on her so she can’t get away again. “Wexler” is noncommittal as he professes to “Bebel” and “Berta” that I adore both of you. “Berta” kisses both men good-bye.
In the 8th episode “Ampara”, by the same three writers, “Berta” has come out to their lawyers’ restaurant hang-out with him and “Wexler” after “Mandrake” has been shot and visited him in the hospital. She puffs on a cigar to be one of the boys, as “Wexler” orders champagne for their special guest and flatters her: You have to notice that Berta is a treasure. “Mandrake” again professes her love for her, but she’s suspicious of his motives: What is it? Have you been up to no good? Then she tells him she’s pregnant.
Episode #9 “Brasilia”, by Tony Bellotto, was presented as the continuation of the 1st season in the U.S., but was the opening of the 2nd season originally. “Mandrake” has been telling clients that he can’t leave Rio because of “Berta”s pregnancy and he stocks up on baby name books from a bookstore. He calls her to say he’s coming for dinner, but when he gets there she’s in tears. Though the English subtitles were awkward, she announces that she’s having an abortion: We’re not having this baby. It wouldn’t work out. This is not the right moment. We are hopeful, but I don’t want to. You’re not ready to be a father. I’m not ready to be a mother. We would end up hating each other. I don’t want to lose you because of a baby. I would want a baby with you even more. I’ve already gotten everything set up to get taken care. It will be done tomorrow and I don’t want you to come with me and I don’t want you to see you again after. I’m going to Amsterdam and then I’ll travel. I’d rather you not be at home when I leave. She weeps and he’s stunned. Later in the episode, her words haunt him when he ends up with a call girl (who turned out to be an undercover cop), now that he can leave Rio. At the end he narrates: I still love you Berta, but I think she’s never coming back. I’ll just have to move on.
The 11th episode “Rosas Negras (Black Roses)” by Felipe Braga, is about the last we hear about “Berta”, the sexiest Jewish woman on TV. When “Wexler” asks about her, Mandrake says when he tried to contact her All I got was silence. He tells another ex, who is now a distraught client, that he’s still in love with the woman he almost married. Meanwhile, he gets a postcard from “Bebel” asking if he’s still married or did he get a still younger girlfriend yet. And in this and the last 2 episodes he finds he still can’t say no to women. (updated 10/5/2008)


Rachel Menken and others on Mad Men (on AMC, this season out on DVD Alex Witchel in ‘Mad Men’ Has Its Moment, profiled Matthew Weiner in the 6/22/2008 New York Times and provided an unusually candid look into what goes into casting a Jewish woman character. She describes his role on the series: “Weiner (pronounced WHY-ner) is the creator and show-runner of Mad Men, which means the original idea was his: he wrote the pilot; he writes every episode of every show (along with four other people); he’s the executive producer who haggles for money (he says that his budget is $2.3 million per episode and that the average budget for a one-hour drama is $2.8 million); and he approves every actor, costume, hairstyle and prop. Though he has directed episodes, most of the time he holds a ‘tone meeting’ with the director at which he essentially performs the entire show himself so it’s perfectly clear how he wants it done. He is both ultimate authority and divine messenger, some peculiar hybrid of God and Edith Head. ‘I do not feel any guilt about saying that the show comes from my mind and that I’m a control freak,’ he told me. ‘I love to be surrounded by perfectionists, and part of the problem with perfectionism is that by nature, you’re always failing.’ Weiner describes his parents as “Jewish scientists” - “His father, Leslie P. Weiner, is an acclaimed neuroscientist; the neurological care and research center at the University of Southern California is named for him. His mother, Judith, graduated from law school in the 1970s but never practiced.”
Witchel reports that: “Weiner let me sit in on a casting session, though he prefaced it with a recitation of everything I wasn’t allowed to say. He has reason to be paranoid about auditions; he is convinced they provide the biggest leaks about the show. If actors don’t get cast, they go on the Internet and spill plot details for spite. If they do get cast, their agents exultantly tell everyone in town what’s happening next. But that day, Weiner was prepared. A few roles needed to be filled, including a comic à la Don Rickles who is used in a Sterling Cooper [the fictional agency at the center of the series] ad campaign, and his Jewish wife, who doubles as his manager. Weiner had already seen a woman who interested him for the latter role; none of the actresses today knew that.
For the women auditioning, their “sides” (a scene without context) said their dialogue was with a character named Trent Cresswell. Though his name sounded like a porn star’s and seemed to have become a fast office joke, it was code, in this case, for one of the male leads. . . Weiner sat on a black leather couch, [casting directors Carrie] Audino and [Laura] Schiff at a table, videotaping each reading. Weiner was so engrossed during the auditions that he seemed to be listening with his spine. His eyes were unnervingly piercing. After the first actress left, he said, ‘I love her, but this woman is not in show business.’ ‘Yes, but it’s an interesting color,’ Audino began. ‘Listen, she’s really good,’ Weiner said. ‘But she’s got a class thing. It makes me nervous.’
The next woman came in. Long legs, long arms, lots of hair. The scene was a telephone conversation with Trent Cresswell that included the line ‘I like being bad and then going home and being good.’ Weiner said he heard it from a woman he sat next to once on a plane. After her first reading, the actress leaned toward Weiner. ‘What are you looking for?’ she asked intently. He didn’t take the bait. ‘Everything that’s in there,’ he said evenly. ‘It shouldn’t sound sexy; the words are sexy. It’s declarative. This is who I am.’ She did it again — exactly the way she did it the first time.. . .’Actors seem to feel the need to add more to make the show sound like it looks. They seem to want to make it period, but they don’t need to.’
Weiner liked the next woman, who happened to be a peroxide blonde, which he didn’t like. She can dye her hair, he said. But Audino and Schiff said no, she couldn’t, she had another job. Weiner got instantaneously angry. ‘I would hate to get attached to someone and find I can’t use them,’ he said, his voice escalating. Audino made some peace, offering the option of a rinse instead of a dye. ‘We’ll make it work for you,’ she said in a tone that simultaneously soothed him and goofed on him. ‘I’m warning you of a potential issue, maybe. Let’s not freak out about it.’ He heard both sides of her tone and calmed down as readily as he’d angered.. . .
Another actress came in to read the Trent Cresswell scenes. When she left, Weiner looked transported. ‘That’s exactly how it sounded in my head,’ he said, as Audino and Schiff chimed in support. Just as suddenly, Weiner changed tacks. ‘She’s been altered,’ he said with a tone of doom. ‘She looks very contemporary to me.’ She certainly had the phoniest looking breasts on the block, though given the costumes, that wouldn’t matter. Was it her nose? They queued up her audition on the laptop and Weiner zeroed in. ‘It’s her lips,’ he said. He was right. In 1961, no one got collagen shots. The last actress read, this one naturally gorgeous and thoroughly great.
After she left, Weiner reviewed the auditions on the laptop. The peroxide blonde came up. ’I’m looking for Jewish,” he said, holding his hands up to the screen to block her hair. ‘She looks to me like the Queen of Sweden.’ By now, it was 7:30 in the evening. “If you want them to be at the table read, we have to tell them tonight,” Audino said. “What I really want to do is take these home and show my wife,” [Jewish?] “Linda Brettler, an architect . . . She supported him when he was broke, and she is now his most-important sounding board. ‘Every single script goes through my wife. She inevitably says, ‘What is it about?’ We talk about it and I’m always angry when she’s talking.’ He didn’t look angry, he looked glad, as he always does when he talks about his wife. ‘She’s chewing gum and taking her time. She went to Harvard, she’s really smart and I just stand there literally with my hands out like — ‘What?’ I argue with her, and I always swear I’m not going to show it to her again because I’m so defensive. I mean, my writers come up with lots of good ideas, but she is really something.’] Weiner answered, looking miserable. Clearly, there wasn’t time. He went down the hall and rounded up half a dozen people to watch the tapes. They . . . voted for the naturally gorgeous, thoroughly great actress. Weiner seemed dispirited. ‘O.K., I’ll hire the beautiful woman,’ he said. Problem solved. For about 30 seconds. He shook his head. ‘I just don’t want it to look like a TV show.’ At 7:45 it was official. He chose the woman he saw before that day’s auditions.”
When this episode, co-written with Rick Cleveland and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, aired as “The Benefactor”, the character “Bobbie Barrett” was played by Melinda McGraw and there was no specific confirmation she was Jewish, though it was always clear her husband was Jewish. So while I conservatively considered her a putative Jewish woman character, based on the evidence, Weiner always saw her as Jewish, as in this insightful interview with Alan Sepinwall of The Newark Star Ledger, posted 10/26/2008, he compares “Rachel Menken” and “Bobbie Barrett” and their relationship to the lead character: “’The common denominator maybe is my idea of what woman Don goes with. When we were casting Melinda McGraw for Bobbie, I told the casting directors I wanted Suzanne Pleshette, and I got her -- in spades. Rachel Menken, these are all individuals, but they're all types. . . .’ Q: On fans' dislike of Bobbie Barrett: A: ‘People were upset about Bobbie Barrett, that she wasn't Rachel Menken, and I'm like, she's not Rachel Menken, and he's not in love with her, and he says no. But he should never have slept with that woman. It was really just a medication. She offered him something he wasn't getting at home, but it was really just a medication.’ Q: I want [to . . . talk[] about the other somewhat sexually violent moment of the season, which was Don grabbing Bobbie Barrett by the reins.’ “ I don't see that as sexually violent.’ A: ‘I didn't necessarily either, but some people interpreted it that way. I know, it's fantastic, but I'd love to talk about it, because I really sort of didn't. To me, that is sexually violent in the sense that 9 1/2 Weeks is sexually violent. A sadomasochistic relationship is about power as much as sex. Bobbie Barrett is playing in the same world as Don, and I think what she's saying to him is 'I slept with you, so you have to do what I say,' and what Don is saying is, 'No, I slept with you.' As uncomfortable as it may be for people, they go on to have a relationship, and it's based on their knowledge of their inner selves. To me, you can look at is as a perversion or as violence, but there are sexual relationships based on power, it was specific to them, and I think Bobbie Barrett was extremely aroused by what that experience, by Don being in charge. . . .Even though Don was getting what he wanted, in a cold way, it's literally two people -- she was the aggressor in the car, and then he calls her on the phone with his kids there and lays down the law, but she drops this bomb and says ‘I liked being bad and going home and being good.’ You see Don being rolled into this thing. You don't know how much they're both using it for business to get what they want, but I saw it as, here's what always happens, and you can't have it both ways. . . I always take it from character. I'm not speaking from a philosophical sense about these characters. They're not symbols. The more you know about Bobbie Barrett, and the more you know about Don, it probably should have happened in the bedroom, it was in public, but that's the currency of their relationship. Yeah, there's violence to it, as there is to him tying her up, and to him telling her to stop talking, and to them treating each other like s--t, and bossing each other around and having sex in the car. It's a side of Don that is part of what people find attractive about him. I think that, as there is with a lot of sexual situations, there's an incredible huge flag of judgment that comes up on the surface with people, and then there's this bubbling thing in the background that is, ‘Why can't I stop thinking about that?’ And it's about the bedroom. You try to think just as animals, it's two people working it out that way. I'm not trying to be incendiary about it, or insensitive. Certainly, my god, that is not behavior that should be emulated in any respect, it is a complete violation. But with these two people and their relationship and the history they had with each other, it was very natural and believable, and also kind of showed a ruthlessness on both their parts. She could have gone in and not done what Don said, too. I believe it was titillating for her. That's what I meant, that's that the actress was told, that's what I meant it to be.’”
Weiner "dishes on the show's Jewish characters” with Jody Rosen in a “Mad Mensches” podcast from 10/24/2008. (updated 4/5/2015)


Jenny Schecter in the 5th Season of The L Word (on Showtime, repeated frequently and On Demand, and will be repeated on Logo Channel. Deleted scenes not covered here. Out on DVD.) “Jenny”s back from her “cruise” – and is even more the villain. “LGB Tease” by Ilene Chaiken opened the season with her re-writing “Lez Girls”, the adaptation of her roman a clef, and the thinly veiled characterizations are nastily centered around her and reflecting silly stereotypes of lesbians. But she’s cooing over a hedge fund billionaire, played by Wallace Shawn, who is bankrolling the film and gives her creative control, not just on the script but directing too. Still fixating on her dog, she mistreats her assistant into quitting (the final straw is insisting that the assistant can work around her Sunday schedule by attending a different church service in the afternoon) and barely acknowledges her former friends. She makes clear her revenge to “Tina”, who is ostensibly supervising the film for the studio: If it was up to you, I would never be allowed on the set. . .I’ve never been treated so badly before. You treated me like a pariah. You were trying to get ahead by using my creation. . .I will never take any of your sticky notes into account.
In “Look Out, Here They Come”, by Cherien Dabis, the producer orders “Jenny” to add more lesbian sex to the film, even as “Tina” objects to the unrealistic pairings: Nobody cares what you think Tina. Then she gets set up for what is clearly a take-off of All About Eve Her friends in the café shelter a young woman, “Adele”, who is reading the book: Jennifer Schecter is my favorite author. and is thrilled to be introduced to her roommate “Max”. Obnoxious “Jenny”, wearing a lot of make-up, comes in aflutter: It’s such a fucking nightmare. My assistant quit on me. and on and one with petty complaints about the producer’s daughter’s wedding and present she has to buy. “Adele” is over the moon to meet her literary idol, despite “Jenny”s rudeness, including getting her name wrong. The girl gushes that she adapted the book into a screenplay as a student project at the University of Southern Florida. She goes on how the book saved my life through difficult times. . . .I found everything I could read by Jennifer Schecter. . I’m so honored to meet you. “Jenny” enlists her to buy the wedding gift and starts ordering her around to accompany her shopping. “Jenny” makes an inappropriate entrance at the wedding when the bride is supposed to be coming down the aisle, and wearing a ridiculous ballooning black dress. “Adele” comes after with an inappropriately huge wedding gift box, topped off by a piece of cake that “Jenny” tastes and nastily rejects. “Jenny” dances with her sugar daddy, cooing Do you know you’re the only man in my life? She reports “Adele’s compliments: I think our movies is going to have an impact on people.. and he concurs. She reports this to “Adele”: William is so grateful to be involved with this movie.. He think it’s going to redeem all those vulgar things he did to make his money. “Adele” sycophants: Yes it will. You are just so amazing for showing him the error of his ways. “Jenny” offers her the assistant’s job and “Adele” gives her a big hug in excitement. “Jenny” is disdainful: Careful with the dress!
In “Lady in the Lake” by Chaiken, “Alice” is having a satirical dream about “Jenny”. She imagines they are Charlie’s Angels with gaydar guns, and the gun can’t figure out whether “Jenny” is gay, straight, bi or what. Fully awake, “Tina” sneers that “Jenny” is freakish with her new assistant, as “Adele” waits on her hand and foot at the gym. “Jenny” says she’s in training for a difficult breast cancer benefit run that requires considerable training, even as they all sign up in solidarity for their friend who died of breast cancer.
In “Let’s Get This Party Started”, by Elizabeth Ziff, “Jenny” is bragging: All the lesbians in Hollywood want to be in my movie. . .I was disappointed that Natalie Portman passed on the lead role. I thought the implication was as much about Portman being Jewish to play her, as anything about sexual orientation, but she objects to a beautiful woman playing her. “Tina” points out that the actress she wants is not fuckable. . .It’s important to have an actress who looks like she enjoys kissing a woman. The producer claims he’s already conferred with the financier, and he prefers this actress to Portman. The assistant makes excuses, that “Jenny” is fragile because she’s quitting smoking. But “Jenny” insists that “Adele” should call the financier again, and again., and squeals that she’s getting an expensive watch from him because he’s thrilled with the casting: She’s going to ruin my fucking movie! “Adele” wants her to go to a new club, the Shebar, and “Jenny” tries to get in by saying she’s a director who wants to use the club in her movie. The actress, “Niki”, who has been hired against her wishes also shows us, invited by the duplicitous “Adele”, and confesses that she’s not “out” in Hollywood, but how much she wants to be in her film – It’s my life! It’s so true! The character is me! “Jenny” capitulates: It means something that you are saying all these things. I don’t give a fuck that you’re gay. “Niki” enthuses more, promising: I will give everything to this role. . .I want you to want me. You are the director.
In “Lookin’ At You Kid”, written and directed by Angela Robinson, ”Jenny” presides over the first table read of the script of her film, announcing: My name is Jenny Schecter. I am the writer and I’m also the director. I’m thrilled to have all you guys here. It’s the culmination of so much for me. Later she eyes a young woman trying on costumes who is talking a mile a minute in Valley Girl-ese and aks: Do you have a girlfriend?, but later backs off, explaining I have to be a big girl and be serious about my work.. She tries to explain her character to the actress, but has to simplify her references, including explaining what Svengali means. She also starts demanding that her little dog should be in the film: I think he’s ready. While her friends snidely call “Adele” her “indentured servant”, she mocks “Adele”s taste but effuses I can’t imagine what life would be like without her. As the friends meet their actress counterparts, most of whom are “gay for pay”, they vent about the script. “Bette”, who is bi-racial, grouses about Jenny’s warped interpretation of me. . It’s fiction. . She really thinks Jenny’s idiotic drivel reflects me. . I am flabbergasted that she cast such a fucking white actress. But “Jenny”, who is getting a bit drunk, charges ahead in explaining a scene that self-servingly re-lives her gay awakening: You have just met the most alluring. . intoxicating woman of your whole life. . .You’re going like insane. . Then ;you remember that you have this man named Jim who likes to swim, so what are you going to do? She reenacts out the seductress’s role to the actress playing her, and kisses and fondles her all over, in the bathroom. And on into the bedroom, then into a closet, giggling as they undress, kiss and caress each other, as “Jenny” notes: The irony hasn’t escaped me.
In “Lights! Camera! Action!”, written and directed by Ilene Chaiken, “Jenny” is directing rehearsal, teaching the actress how to tongue kiss and finger a woman: It would be nice if you looked like you were actually giving her pleasure. . . than sewing up a hole in her jeans. . . You guys really don’t know how to fuck a woman! I am getting a lesbian sex coach to teach you! In a joke on the actually filming of this series, “Jenny” gets nasty about shooting in Vancouver, rather than in Los Angeles and rants to a studio executive: I don’t think you know how to treat artists! “Adele” saves the day by texting her sugar daddy. “Jenny” wants to celebrate by giving her a make-over, out of the wardrobe budget: The appliqué on the back your jeans was declared an abomination by the Geneva convention! “Jenny” marvels at the movie set: All this because of a few words I put on a page!-- and already she’s an hour and half behind schedule, as “Jenny” acquiesces when the lead actress makes objections, fumbles simple instructions like “action” and isn’t paying attention during scenes. She only pays attention when the actress, “Niki”, changes a line of “my script,” but “Niki” is incredulous that the character could have been that naïve. She petulant storms off to her trailer: We hooked up the other night, Jenny. Now you’re treating me like any other actress. “Jenny” calmly explains she’s avoiding gossip: But when you walked on the set today, I really wanted to kiss you. and she does, again, they smile and head to the couch. But they don’t realize that “Niki’s mike is still on and the whole crew is listening in to their conjugation. As the sugar daddy comes to the set, “Adele” claims to him that this romance “saved the movie”. The producer protests but “Jenny” tears up to “William” He’s being mean to me! . . .Niki is so fragile! “William” coos: Don’t be mean to my baby!. . .If there’s anyone who can take a fragile person and put her back together, it’s you. While “Tina” darkly notes that by fucking the star, she’s fucking herself, “Adele” gets her hair cut like “Jenny”s.
In “Lesbians Gone Wild”, by Elizabeth Ziff, “Jenny” again shows her ignorance of filmmaking, as she’s suspicious of the making of the electronic press kit and DVD extras, as she and her lead actress freak out: Get the fuck off my set! She flirts with “Niki” to get her in the mood for the scene, as they kiss behind the trailers. Later, though she’s due for a meeting with the producer, she kicks everyone out of the trailer so they can have sex. “Tina” explains to “Bette” where “Jenny” and “Niki” are: Oh, yeah. They fuck in her trailer every day during lunch. The whole crew knows, and Adele stands outside to guard. It's insane. While they are in bed naked making love, a scandal is swirling that “Niki” has been outed and the producers are panicked about the marketing problem. Meanwhile, “Niki” goes on about wanting children with “Jenny”, who is flattered: No one’s every said that to me before. . .Let’s get the fuck out of L.A. It’s a terrible place. Do you think that we should stop fucking over lunch? . . .Do you think that they might notice? “Niki:: Mm-mm. I don't care if they notice. . . Because. “Jenny”:What? What? What? “Niki”: I love you. “Jenny” responds: I’m going to give you a hicky right now. “Adele” craftily suggests the couple go to a club for “Turkish Oil Wrestling” and encourages them to get into the ring together. (I can’t tell which track on the soundtrack sounded vaguely Middle Eastern while they were in the ring together, which would have a leit motif similarity to earlier recollections of “Jenny”s Jewishness – or it could have to do with the outlandishly named sport, though fans have identified that it’s Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up”.) Amidst the slo mo wrestling, they share a victory kiss, with “Jenny” finally reciprocating: I love you!
Jenny is still oblivious in “Lay Down the Law” by Alexandra Kondracke. “Tina” tries to fill her in on the crisis, but she’s going on about the right colors and jewelry for each character and insists: I’m not done with my meeting! But there’s photos all over the tabloids about the wrestling match and “Niki”s managers want to pull her from the film. “Jenny” insists: She’s fucking me. “Tina” retorts: Not unless you grow a dick. “Jenny” joins the weeping “Niki” in her trailer as she protests: They’re making me! I want to go with you so bad! “Jenny” yells at the manager: I don’t care about you! Do you think this is fucking 1952 where you can give her a beard and pretend that she’s straight? You should be ashamed of yourself! The manager is frosty: I’m not even going to go into the questionable ethics of you screwing your underage star of your film. “Niki”: But I love her! I do! The manager continues: But if you so deeply care for Niki and your mission is to make the first star-driven movie about lesbians, you’re not going to destroy the career of the star upon whose success this movie hinges. “Jenny” raves on to him as she comforts the weeping “Niki”: He’s not even a fucking human being – he’s an agent. When they are told to cover up “Niki”s hickey, “Jenny” retorts: Change your fucking tie. Meanwhile, “Bette” sympathizes with another actress, calling the film: Jenny’s masturbatory opus. “Jenny” is then barred from a premiere, even as she frantically texts “Niki”, while her assistant “Adele” lies and tells “Niki” to give a big kiss to the cute beard she’s attending with – putting “Jenny” into tears.
Filming is continuing in the next episode “Liquid Heat” by Chaiken. “Jenny” is directing a love scene between “Niki” and the actor playing her-about-to-be-ex. She’s explaining the characters and relationships, but does it in terms of her feelings, as the point when she was realized that she didn’t like sex with a “hairy man”. But “Jenny” gets upset when she realizes the “Niki” is getting turned on by making out with a guy. She shouts: But you don’t like fucking him! Then realizing what really happened there: Did you fuck him? “Niki” has a lame excuse: I was drunk. I’m so sorry. “Jenny” very hypocritically scolds the actor that it was unprofessional for him to have sex with his co-star: It was a vile and desperate act. You’re fired! He walks off the set naked. The producer and sugar daddy make her apologize to the crew, the first time she’s made such a concession: I know that you've been talking about me. So, I just wanna say, yes, it's true. I did lose my temper. And now I'm on my way to apologize to Mr. Fallen, and I have made a mistake. And the dumb-shit actor boy is no longer fired. Similarly, she at first refuses to hire a bully’s lover for a part, but then concedes. “Adele” continues to manipulate the two women, as they make up, kiss, apologize, declare their love and make love on the movie set, amidst every other couple on the set also having an orgy of sex.
For episode #60 “Lifecycle” written and directed by Angela Robinson, the editor at tv.com summarized a deleted scene that was posted on the Showtime web site, which “takes place in L.A. before the Pink Ride. Niki is filming with her new video camera, given to her by Jenny, of Adele packing Jenny's things for the ride while Jenny lounges on the bed. Niki complements [sic] Adele on her bone structure, causing Jenny to ask ‘Are you flirting with Adele?’ Niki responds, ‘Maybe.’ Niki throws Adele on the bed and tells Jenny that they kissed the other night. ‘It was really hot.’ Shane pops her head in the doorway to ask if the girls are ready yet. Niki then starts to flirt with Shane, saying the she's noticed Shane looking at her. ‘You think?", Shane asks. Jenny notions [sic] Niki and her camera to her and says, ‘They can't have you -- you're mine.’" At the start of the bike ride to raise awareness for breast cancer, “Jenny” and “Niki” kiss, though “Tina” is upset that they’re being seen together when they get asked for autographs. “Jenny”s view of the bike ride is that My pussy is so numb. “Jenny” later gives “Niki” a present for both of us -- a purple penis. “Niki” decides to film her with it, directing her to strip, while they tell each other they’re beautiful, and thereby probably fulfilling many fantasies of the male viewers of the show. Strapping on the penis, they yell y yell their declarations of love for each other. The image of them silhouetted against the side of the tent is captured on film as “Adele” takes the footage out of the camera. “Jenny” confides in “Niki”: My friends think I’m out of my mind for falling in love with you. . .Are we actually going to make it? “Niki” swears her fealty forever.
In #61, the penultimate episode of the season, “Lunar Cycle” by Chaiken, ”Jenny” is in the editing room, and annoys her friends: Please don’t fight! I can’t stand when sisters do that. But “Alice” snaps back: Don’t direct! But “Jenny” is all upset when the footage of her with the purple penis is shown to the producers: This was a private tape. . it’s not an abomination! Turns out “Adele”s purpose is blackmail. She lectures about the importance of the movie – and that she’s already talked to the financial backer: It mustn’t be tainted by scandal, by reckless (& ?) behavior of the few people entrusted with this opportunity!. . .The situation has become untenable! “Jenny” protests: They are trying to ruin this movie!. . .If anyone has any integrity, you can come with me. You can stand up to these people! Who wants to come with me? Who’s with me? “Shane” does go with her. She weepily begs “Niki”, but her manager points out she’s under contract. “Adele” takes over as director, even as “Jenny” insists it is still “our movie!”. As Alice Cooper’s “Only Women Bleed” plays on the soundtrack, she smokes a bong with “Shane” and moans over and over that “Niki” is “dead to me”. . .Never again will I avail myself to someone with such generosity and an open heart. [TV.com caught additional dialogue I didn’t: “’and show her the ropes and teach her everything that I know.’ Shane: ‘Don't let Adele do that to you, Jenny.’ Jenny: ‘I'm talking about Niki.’ Shane: ‘Oh, fuck Niki.’ Jenny: ‘I did.;” . . I’m not in love with her any more. . She’s dead to me. . .She’s like the wicked witch. She weeps as “Shane” declares she’s her best friend, then she declares to “Max”: Adele” has fucked me over.
In the season finale, “Loyal and True” by Chaiken, “Tina” updates “Jenny” on the movie’s distribution and how “Niki” is crying that her calls are not returned and keeps asking about her. “Jenny” is self-pitying: I don’t have a career any more. My agent’s just dropped me. I don’t want to be with someone who can’t be what she is. I’m fine. But do you think I should call her? “Adele” revenges on “Tina” for meeting with “Jenny”, but “Jenny” manages to get into the wrap party to interrupt her thank you speech: You stole it! Her friends even cheer her on: >I>We love you Jenny! “Jenny” defends herself: I realize the movie is out of my hands now. I hope people trusted with this responsibility will merit it. (not sure that’s accurate) She thanks her friends, kisses “Niki” and announces: I am madly in love with someone. It’s changed the way I feel about all of this. Thank you for putting up with me. I think she was saying this to the TV audience as well, as for the first time she not only sounded classy but looked classy. But then “Shane” is down on “Niki”, etc., just as “Jenny” is calling for her and looking for her—and finds her: Oh my God! What are you doing! “Shane” tries to apologize. “Jenny” protests: It’s the ultimate betrayal. You’ve broken my heart. And if that’s not bad enough, “Adele” has caved in on changing the ending of the movie, making the lead character go back to her boyfriend and declare she’s not gay. “Tina” is furious: This was the movie that was going to change all that! “Adele” is philosophical: The movie is full of lesbians! So over the seasons, Chaiken has changed “Jenny” from damaged to villainous to obnoxious and now she’s supposed to be sympathetic? At least we no longer hear vaguely klezmerish music when she appears on screen so her Jewish identity has pretty much been dropped as happens with most Jewish women characters over the long term of TV series. (updated 10/25/2008)


Rhonda Pearlman on The Wire (on HBO) is still with the African-American "Major Cedric Daniels". She gives him a kiss in the courthouse the first episode of this last season “More With Less” – just after blithely giving a murderous drug dealer directions to the criminal court offices. Then in “Not For Attribution” by Chris Collins and David Simon, she’s very efficiently undertaking the grand jury investigation of the state senator, making the high-powered witnesses cool their heels until she efficiently dispatches them. She’s excited that the newspaper is reporting that “Cedric” is being considered to be top cop: This is good news! How’s this not good news? Ah, he hasn’t been fully honest with her, because he goes to his almost-ex-wife the councilwoman, worried about the stuff that could come out about his past in the Eastern district that could reflect badly on her too. Next in “Transitions” by Simon and Ed Burns, “Rhonda” and her new boss are in no mood to follow the suggestion of the knowledgeable detective who walked her through the state senator’s corrupt accounts to take the real case with the real murdering drug dealer up to the Federal level. When The Baltimore Sun editor is surprised to accidentally catch news of the grand jury through a perp walk on TV and his new reporters are equally ignorant, he turns to the bitter, grizzled, old cop beat reporter who is packing up his desk after being summarily laid off in budget cuts, who quickly gives an efficient summary of “Ronnie Pearlman”s career (I hadn’t heard anyone call her by that nickname before), including that she’s now “shacking up” with “Cedric.”
In “React Quotes” by David Mills and David Simon, she is angry about the lack of newspaper coverage of the press conference for her indictment of a state senator, as is the reporter about not getting called for the perp walk. But it turns out the reporter she had left a message for left four months earlier. By the end of the episode she has fallen hook, line and sinker for “McNulty”s serial killer ruse and she eagerly gets a judge to sign the orders for the to-be-misdirected wire tap: Good hunting! She continues being enthusiastically duped by her ex-lover in “The Dickensian Aspect”, by Ed Burns and David Simon, as she petitions a judge to wiretap a reporter (who is just as duplicitous as “McNulty”) to no avail, and warns him: How many enemies do you need? It’s a bit uncomfortable as her current lover joins them in the courthouse lobby – and gets worse when he hands her copies of leaked grand jury testimony. The team continues to hide the truth from her when she happens to come by the squad “to cover loose ends” such that she ends up apologizing for intruding. Her boss pulls rank on her big case, saying he wants to handle the trial of the state senator himself. But she pulls out the copied testimony: We have a leak.
But even as of 4/22/2011 a male writer for the Jewish-oriented Tablet Magazine hadn't recognized this positive portrayal of a Jewish woman in the series, let alone on TV in general, as Simon testily points her out to him in this interview, where he also describes his own Jewish background and feelings about the organized Jewish community's responsibilities.(updated 6/5/2011)


Ziva David on NCIS -- (5th season on CBS, out on DVD.) Ironically, Cote de Pablo was nominated for a 2008 ALMA award (“Spanish for ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’ which represents the determined spirit of the Latino people in an effort to reflect the spirit as well as the scope of the awards program”). from The National Council of La Raza as Outstanding Actress In A Drama Television Series for her performance in this role. “Bury Your Dead” by Shane Brennan opened the season with “McGee” being sarcastic about her family: Since my parents raised a gentleman and yours a killer. . .Do you believe in miracles Ziva? She gives a wistful response amidst her worry for their colleague: It’s not a part of my training.
In “Ex-File” according to TV.com: “The Hebrew rap song Ziva listens to at the beginning of the episode is "Bela Belisima" by the Dag Nahash. The song praises Bela Froind, an [O]rthodox woman who stopped a public lynching of a terrorist on May 12th 1992. The Palestinian terrorist, Adnan Al-Afandi stabbed two Israeli teenagers in a market in Jerusalem, then the public attacked him. Froind la[y] on the body of the terrorist to prevent his murder until the police arrived.” In the script by Alfonso H. Moreno, “McGee” continues his analysis of her character, as in earlier episodes: Behind the torture and the contract killings, Ziva, you’re really just a. . She challenges him: A what? He, pointedly: A whom. A girl. In “Family” by Steven D. Binder, she similarly remonstrates “Tony” about him missing a woman he romanced while on an undercover operation. He: The heart wants what it wants. She retorts: Well, it shouldn’t. He: This from the woman who fell in love with the dead man walking.
In “Identity Crisis” by Jesse Stern, she is unexpectedly kind to a newbie woman colleague who admires her: I wish I had your confidence. “Ziva”: It comes from experience. In “Designated Target” by Reed Steiner, “Tony” is getting tired of “Ziva”s vernacular malapropisms: How long have you been in this country? Assimilate already! They later debate his grandparents’ immigrant experience vs. hers: As opposed to outsourcing, which is what you are. In “Lost and Found” by David J. North, “Tony” has to explain another pop culture reference: It’s a href="http://mavensnest.net/dames.html#lifetime">Lifetime, the cable network geared to women. You’d hate it. In a competition with “Tony”, she counters: I’m a trained assassin.
”Ziva” is learning American slang by taking a film course in “Tribes” by Reed Steiner. Entering a mosque, she is respectful to the Muslim father of the dead Marine: I am Jewish. I do understand traditions. During the unauthorized MRI examination of the victim to respect avoidance of an autopsy, she offers him tea and he at first demurs. He asks: You’re an Israeli Jew, no? She confirms. He notes I used to take my family to Haifa.. “Ziva”: I spent my summers in Haifa. He takes the tea, and he compliments her: You make it Arab style, strong. She chuckles: I like strong. Father: You like Muslims? She confirms. He: May I ask why? I don’t wish to offend you. Just curious. She explains: When you grow up in Israel, most of your neighbors are Muslim. My best friend was Muslim Arab. He was a young boy. We were very close. Father: You still close? “Ziva”: No he was killed when I was 12. By an Israeli missile strike on a hotel. Father: There’s been too much killing. She concurs. Sweet, but I’m not sure it makes a lot of factual sense.
In “Internal Affairs”, by Reed Steiner and Jesse Stern, are more references to “Ziva”s image, both her toughness and her malapropisms: I would hate to be misunderstood.. An FBI agent asks her: Does this happen often? “Ziva”s half-serious response: Once in a blue lagoon. He also challenges her about a suspect: Were you there to kill him? Her solemn response: It’s what I do. She colorfully solves a mysterious death: In Mossad, we call it a thumb tap as she mimes a gun shot to the head. In the Zone” by Linda Burstyn continued in the same vein. “Tony” brags about being in one of Saddam’s palaces after Baghdad was liberated. She shrugs: Me too – before Baghdad was liberated. Her competitive edge against women colleagues comes out as she discourages an uptight agent from getting the back-to-Baghdad assignment: as quoted by the editor at tv.com: “’Nikki, it is dirty there. Sanitation is very poor. And diseases – have you ever heard of leishmaniasis? It begins with a large, oozing sore, often in the face. And then it just.’(makes slurping sound) ‘Oh! I have photos I can show you.’ Nikki: ‘No! Thank you for your concern, but I still... really want to go.’ Ziva: In that case, I hope you can handle competition a lot better... than you can handle... handles.’ (Opens door for Nikki)” She’s so intent on getting the assignment that she flattens a stress ball that’s tossed to her, even as a competitor sneers My contacts are still breathing. Her boss isn’t convinced anyway: Sending an Israeli to Baghdad? I don’t think so.
But we see a very different side of “Ziva” in” Recoil”, teleplay by George Schenck and Frank Cardea, story by Dan E. Fesman. The plot is twisty, but I’m focusing on her emotional arc so I will post a detailed commentary at some point. (updated 10/5/2008)


Charlotte “Chuck” Charles on Pushing Daisies -- (on ABC, both seasons on DVD). The lead character’s childhood crush-next-door was immediately identified in the first episode “Pie-lette” by creator Bryan Fuller as “a Jewish girl”, and re-emphasized at the rabbi-led funeral of her father (whose death he had accidentally caused as he was just learning about his unique power to foil and cause death), though that was forgotten in the second and last season. All grown up, she is charmingly played in this delightful fantasy by wide-eyed Anna Friel. Presumably also Jewish are her beloved, eccentric, cheese-loving aunts “Vivian” (Ellen Greene) and one-eyed “Lily” (Swoozie Kurtz), the former “Darling Mermaid Darlings” synchronized swimming “underwater artistes” duo. Plucky and enterprising even while staying at home to care for them with their disabling personality disorders, she harvests honey for the homeless and reads a lot of books. Killed on a cruise as the “Lonely Tourist” to Tahiti innocently smuggling statues, she is awoken like Sleeping Beauty by the touch of her Prince Charming, pie-making “Ned” (handsome Lee Pace) – who to keep her alive can never touch her again. (His detective partner just dismissively refers to her as “Dead Girl”.) They devise various modes to cope as they gaze longingly at each other, from a Plexiglas divider in the car to large amounts of plastic wrap. But she spunkily joins in on his reward-seeking murder investigations, with a great deal of sympathy for the deceased. That she’s “an unOrthodox urban honey pioneer”, as described in “Pigeon” by Rina Mimoun, could have been a pun, as they rooftop danced together in full beekeeper regalia. “Smell of Success” by Scott Nimenfro had another pun. When the narrator relates that the aunts are making their way through slides of happier times from the past, “Aunt Vivian” sadly comments: Remember when we went to Hebrew Feta Fest? When I saw the picture the first thing I thought is that I miss Charlotte. The slide is of the grinning young “Charlotte” wearing a bright T-shirt lettered “Jews for Cheeses” surrounded by Jewish stars. (Will ABC be selling those shirts? I want one, even though we’re now lactose intolerant.) It sure looked like production designer Michael Wylie put a picket fence Hanukkah menorah in front of “Chuck”s house when “Ned” was diorama dreaming of holidays at their respective houses. When she’s mourning her father at the cemetery in “Corpsicle” by Lisa Joy, she helpfully points out to “Ned”: There’s no headstone for me yet. We wait a year. (updated 7/21/2009)

The Sarah Silverman Program (on Comedy Central, Wednesdays at 10:30 pm, repeated overnight and other nights. 6 episodes this fall, another 10 next summer. ) On Late Night 10/2/2007 promoting the show, David Letterman asked if her character was just a dumber version of herself. She demurred, explaining that her character is: An earnest, ignorant, arrogant asshole. She then went on doing shtick about her parents as “comedy gold”, with her dad’s radio commercials for his “Crazy Sophie’s Factory Outlet” clothing store especially inspiring her work, and here’s her kibbutznik sister’s rabbinical view. In a review of a study of jokes that includes a few JAP jokes “that could get [author Jim Holt] a stern letter from the women’s division of the Anti-Defamation League”, which in itself is a condescending protest, Joseph Epstein in the 7/11/2008 The Wall Street Journal explains how Sarah gets away with her un-PC humor: “hiding behind the mask of a faux naïve Jewish American Princess, [she] specializes in telling dangerous jokes—about black teenage pregnancy, the Holocaust, the crucifixion-and has lived not only to go on telling them but to collect handsome fees for doing so.” Nominated in 2007 for a Writers’ Guild of America award for Best New Series, and one of its online extras “Program Nugget” was nominated for an Emmy in 2008 in the “Outstanding Special Class - Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Programs” category. She was also Emmy-nominated in 2008 for playing “Marci Maven” on Monk in the episode “Monk and His Biggest Fan”, repeating a character she had first played in the 2004 episode “Mr. Monk and the TV Star” - that I’m not sure why I didn’t comment on either time except maybe the character didn’t strike me as being explicitly ID’d as Jewish. (updated 8/4/2008)

Curb Your Enthusiasm - Susie Greene etc. (on HBO, repeated frequently On Demand again, and in syndication on TV Guide Channel. On DVD.) Gina Gershon was back only in “The Anonymous Donor” as “Ann” the sexy Orthodox Jewish dry cleaner, with the unbuttoned silk blouse and a chai necklace, whose customer relations are like: I could give a shit if it was Santa Claus. In this largely improv, heavily edited series that follows creator Larry David’s outline, Susie Essman was entertainingly back frequently as the foul-mouthed “Susie Greene,” reconciled this season as the wife of his best friend. She continued as the conscience who loudly and fearlessly chastises the inconsiderate and misanthropic “Larry David” character. Her most frequent conversational gambit is “Fuck you.” When she came over to complain about “Larry” damaging her daughter’s teddy bear, she gained an admirer in “Leon” the satirically ghetto brother of the hurricane victim family the Davids are sheltering: I like a woman with a smart ass mouth like that. A theme throughout the season was her preparation for her daughter “Sammie”s bat mitzvah. She has a very funny argument with “Larry” in “The Freak Book” as they try to settle on their cemetery plans, about who do they want to be next to for eternity. In “The N Word” her husband “Jeff” tries to argue hospital malpractice when an African-American surgeon is so upset by “Larry”s inadvertent use of the title slur that he ends up revengefully shaving him bald – but his claim that seeing him bald turned his sweet wife into a witch gets quickly undercut. Her persona is similarly amusingly satirized when, in “The Bat Mitzvah” finale, “Larry”s house guest turned replacement partner defends him by giving “Susie” as good as she gets in kind, satirizing both Black and Jewish women loud mouth stereotypes. That’s certainly something his WASPy ex-“Cheryl” didn’t do for him. (updated 7/24/2008) Disclaimer: I only learned in late 2009 that Emmy-nominated executive producer David Mandel is my second cousin once removed.

Nip/Tuck– Rachel Ben Natan (on FX, Tuesdays 10 pm, repeated overnight and later on Fridays and Sundays, goes a few minutes over an hour) Nip/Tuck in its 5th season episode “Duke Collins” by Lyn Greene and Richard Levine introduced another arc about an unusual Jewish woman, this time the Israeli Rachel Ben Natan (played by Maggie Siff, unrecognizable from notably playing another Jewish “Rachel” last season in Mad Men), who has been helping the plastic surgeons’ son “Matt” recover from meth lab burns. When I get a chance, I’ll transcribe her crisp dialogue about bearing the scars from a terrorist attack in a pizzeria: I sat across the table from a very handsome boy who blew himself up.
The next episode was named for her, by Jennifer Salt (who has tended to write the Jewish-themed episodes), where she could benefit from the Hetta Grubman Plastic Surgery Fund, set up by another Jewish woman, who left all her money for people who wanted plastic surgery but couldn't afford it. The episode opens without “Rachel” having to explain the usual opening question of “Tell me what you don’t like about yourself.” “Matt”: Rachel’s not a complainer, Dad. She’s been through enough surgeries so if she says the pain is bad, it’s bad. She cries out during his examination and he concurs: That’s what we call exquisite pain. She’s anxious:The pain is so bad, it’s causing me nightmares. I wake up all edgy and hopeless. As she protests that she is not seeking a facial reconstruction, the doctor goes through technical explanations of the surgery, but is interrupted by his partner who breezily notes that the X-rays shows there’s an extra tooth in her body: No wonder I’m having nightmares. The bomber is alive and well and living inside of me. During the surgery, as Azam Ali’s “La Serena” repeats during the episode, the doctors discuss the motivations of suicide bombers, as the lesbian anesthesiologist blames a testosterone-fueled misogynist society. As directed by Charles Haid, “Dr. McNamara” imagines the bomber justifying targeting “Rachel”: I looked around me at all the students eating their lunches, so arrogant, so sure that this cafeteria belonged to them, this cafeteria built on land that belonged to me, that was a source of happiness to them. I looked at her, no cares at all except her own selfish desire. Just before I pushed the detonator, I asked Allah to take out as many students as possible.
After the operation, “Rachel” frantically approaches “Dr. McNamara”: He’s still inside me! He can’t stay inside me! I haven’t slept in four days! A pill won’t do the trick. The doctor imagines the bomber gloating: She survived the blast but I can still ruin her life. “Rachel” desperately explains: After the explosion, there was a lot of detritus left inside of me, a lot of fragments. The doctors said they wouldn’t have to remove them, that the metal would naturally work themselves out over time. . . I don’t know who I am. I never raise my voice, I’m the one who makes jokes to get my way. Something’s going on I can’t control. Did you ever feel that your anger was a physical presence inside you, like you’re possessed? So many great things happened to me. I came here, I found my work, I made a certain peace with my new face. I actually had hope. The doctor reassures her: Rachel, you are a survivor. You have a powerful spirit. Nothing can change that. But the image of the bomber mocks his clichés: There are some wounds that do not heal. “Rachel” gets angrier: You’re not listening to me! After I found out about the tooth inside me, I did a body scan. The fragments inside me are not just metal. I’m riddled with human shrapnel! His bone and tissue are inside me! Please take him out of me! His anger and his hatred are destroying me! Please take them out of me! She weeps.
After the operation, during which is heard “Dunya” by Niyaz, “Dr. McNamara” hands her a box with the removed body fragments and his parents’ address in Ramallah, Palestine. (I remember in 1976 taking the wrong exit off the highway and driving through that town before Israeli soldiers stopped us and suggested we turn around.) She repeats the name and speaks to the box: My suicide bomber. My mother’s still mourning the fact that I don’t look like Natalie Portman anymore. Now your mother’s really proud. I thought it would be easier once he was out of me. “Matt” speaks the episode’s theme that links with the other characters involved in humorous and serious prejudices and betrayals: Hopefully this can be the last chapter, forgiveness. “Rachel”: I hope so. Forgetting is easy, forgiveness is really, really hard. The doctor reassures her that she doesn’t have to go through with her plan, but “Rachel” insists: I made a commitment to myself. The doctor: I’m in awe of your efforts, Rachel, I really am. “Matt” persists in asking his father to do further surgeries pro bono, as the doctor looks at a photo of her pre-bombing: She’s been such an inspiration to others and especially for me. But the doctor has questions for her, alone, and about his son. Are you doing this for yourself or for someone else? “Rachel”: Something’s shifted in me since my bomber’s gone. I’ve begun to think about a real life. I’ve even begun to fantasize about having a life with love in it. “Dr. McNamara”: Are you in love with Matt? Is he in love with you? (As if it weren’t enough in this series that his ex-girlfriends have included a tranny, a neo-Nazi and a Scientologist.) “Rachel”: We don’t discuss things like that. We’re just good friends. . . Your son’s a great guy but he’s not the only fish in the sea. . . .When I sent those remains off to Palestine, I slept through the night for the first time since the explosion. The trick is forgiving the unforgiveable. The beautiful closing song was “Forgiveness Hymn” by Yoel Ben-Simhon, from his CD with the Sultana Ensemble. Marlee Matlin was the usual tough Jewish woman lawyer as “Barbara Shapiro” on the “Magda and Jeff” episode by Hank Chilton, albeit here with the twist that she’s deaf, but seemingly for the sole purpose that a gay character could satirically bemoan Hollywood’s “Jewish mafia”, then apologize to her.
Surprisingly, in the penultimate episode of the season, “August Walden”, written and directed by Sean Jablonski, “Rachel”s surgeries have continued. She challenges “Matt: - Six of them – can you tell the difference? He claims “a little.” While his fathers are curious what’s going on between them in his silent room, they then explain to her how they’ve relieved most of her pain, restored about 60% of her sense of smell, and some cheek bone definition in her face. But “Christian” argues with “Matt”: Otherwise she looks exactly the same. The point is she’s never going to look any better than this. “Matt” challenges the premise: So then looks are all that matters? “Sean” tries to be appeasing, but “Christian” is direct: I’m just going to say it. I don’t care if she shits solid gold. You can’t underestimate the burden that comes with dating someone like this. “Matt” rebels: You two are just unbelievable. She nursed me through my recovery. She made me believe I was worth something. “Christian” switches tactics: Look, did you wear rubbers with her? Why? You’re a perfect catch for a girl like this. She forgets to take her pill one day and you’re trapped for the rest of your life. “Matt”: You guys are assholes. “Sean”: Look, you were vulnerable when you met her. You just got out of a bad relationship and we don’t want to see you getting buried in another one. “Matt”: No, you just don’t want your son dating a girl who’s walking proof that you two aren’t gods, that you can’t make everyone look perfect. You guys have been messing with people’s faces so long, I don’t think you know what ugly looks like any more. (Meanwhile the Hedda Grubman Fund has a waiting list.) “Matt” visits “Rachel” with flowers, the DVD of Munich to watch with her, and a book about Learning Hebrew, explaining to “Christian”: I’m taking a course at the Jewish Community Center. “Christian”: You’ll take any kind of Kool-Aid a girl will feed you, huh? “Rachel” jokes with the doctors: Ready for my close-up? “Sean” hems and haws: In serious cases, we hope for incremental improvement. It may take a few more surgeries than we anticipated. “Rachel”: I’m not going to do any more. Matt was the one who kept pushing and pushing. My plans have changed. . .I’m leaving. I’m going back to Israel. I haven’t told him yet. . .He thinks he’s a nice boy, but he’s very confused. I know what he thinks. He thinks I’m the answer. He thinks Judaism is the answer. He always thinks the answer is out there somewhere. He needs to go inside, that’s the only place it is. “Matt” walks in cheerfully: Hey you look good! “Rachel”: I’m going home, Matt, back to Tel Aviv. “Matt: Why? I don’t understand! “Rachel”: It’s not right between us, Matt, I just don’t love you. “Matt”: I thought what we shared. . . “Rachel”: Was lovely, yes. But I’m not attracted to you. I’m sorry but I’m not. Attraction has nothing to do with what someone looks like. It’s an inner chemistry. And it’s there or is isn’t. “Matt” a bit nasty: I’m sorry, but have you looked in a mirror lately? “Rachel”: I now what you must think. You think because I’m not beautiful that I have no right to be picky. Perhaps you thought I could avoid getting hurt by choosing someone too desperate to reject you. “Matt”: Screw you and all your bullshit about looks don’t matter. Like you’re some poster girl for inner strength. As if looks don’t matter. “Rachel” You won’t find some part of yourself that’s missing. You need to look inside. Only then will you be able to express love instead of need. “Matt”: I don’t need you. I felt sorry for you. The only chemical reaction you’re going to get from a man is pity. He walks out the door, picks up another woman patient and beds her (who turns out to be his half-sister, so he can add incest to his partnering woes). (updated 6/26/2008)




2006/7 Season

Of course one of the losers being beauty counseled by sexy ex-model "Gabrielle" in the "Beautiful Girls" episode of Desperate Housewives, by Susan Nirah Jaffee and Dahvi Waller, had to prominently have a Jewish name, "Isabelle Horowitz." Jewish women characters were also used for comic relief on the same night of season premieres on E.R. and Grey's Anatomy. On E.R., for the first time in 13 seasons front desk clerk "Jerry Markovic" (the very large Abraham Benrubi) as he's in surgery from a gun shot attack suddenly has a Jewish mother (the very tiny Estelle Harris, who played an archetypal one on Seinfeld, even though her son "George Costanza" ostensibly wasn't Jewish). Amidst a tense, emotional life and death episode, "Bloodline" by producers Joe Sachs and David Zabel, she's pushy, selfish, controlling and whining on and on about money issues and her son's non-Harvard career aspirations as she throws Yiddish words around, before finally seeing him in the recovery room: Oy vey, you gave me such a scare, my shaina boychick and kisses his hand in affection. He smiles tolerantly: I'm sorry mom. To shell-shocked colleagues and roommates recovering from the death of an intern's patient/lover in "Time Has Come Today" on Grey's Anatomy by executive producer Shonda Rimes, Sandra Oh's "Dr. Cristina Yang" continued her somewhat silly claim that because her step-father is Jewish I am a Jew. I know what to do when someone dies. I know food and death. Shiva is what I know how to do. What she really means is that when she was a child, her step-father sat shiva for his mother, so she lived in a house that observed the rituals for seven days and she inferred the rules from that experience: It's something you do when someone dies. . .People bring over food, family comes over. It's supposed to help with the grieving. It honors the dead. . . Yeah seven days of no leather shoes, no work, no sex, no sitting on things higher than a foot, no shaving, no clean clothes. So they all decide to sit shiva together. The horse was beat again in “Six Days” by producer Krista Vernoff. “Cristina” is asked if she has a father: I have a – step-father. I see him for Yom Kippur. (updated 1/12/2007)

A Jewish woman patient showed up on House, M.D. with the same condition as had been portrayed more ethnically neutral through “Megan Clover” though by Abigail Breslin, on Gray’s Anatomy earlier in the season. In “Insensitive” by Matthew V. Lewis, the shrewd, misanthropic “Dr. House” quickly diagnoses “Hannah Morgenthal” (Mika Boorem) as having Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with seven indicators, one of which is: Ms. Morganthal – it’s one of those Jew names. Ashkenazi Jews are a high risk group. When his resident protests based on her description of her symptoms, he sarcastically responds in a new rewording of his dictum that “Everybody lies”: They killed Our Lord so you want to trust them? When she continues to protest his examination, he retorts: Think I just want to check out your tuchis, as your people would say? It is touching that she has a very strong relationship with her caring mother. (2/18/2007)

The State Within, the BBC America mini-series thriller by Lizzie Mickery and Daniel Percival, had Sharon Gless as hawkish Secretary of Defense “Lynne Warner” cannily sneering in Part 1 about the Chair of the Joint Special Homeland Security Committee “Madeleine Cohen” She’s a Democrat. But she’s also a Jew in anticipating her support after a bombing for Patriot Act 2 to expand measures, as in 24 this season, authorizing a government round-up of Muslims. These days that’s unusual realism in showing a Jewish woman as a U.S. Senator. The Secretary offers her a ticket to a fund raiser for the victims’ families but is rebuffed as the Senator frostily informs her she’s already bought her own ticket. She similarly rebuffs the British Ambassador Sir Mark Brydon (Jason Isaacs) when he lobbies her on behalf of British Muslims being targeted: We’re determined to show how resolute we are. . .Our first concern is the safely of U.S. citizens. She’s angry at first when he uses the Jewish card by making comparisons to Germany in the 1930’s: Are you accusing me of being a Nazi? But she later announces that they won’t pass legislation based on race, religion or ethnicity. (When I get a chance I’ll transcribe the exact dialogue.) (2/19/2007)

The O.C. in its last season took a silly but satiric take on intermarriage in “My Two Dads” by creator Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. “Seth” and “Summer” have foolishly gotten engaged after a pregnancy scare and are implicitly daring each other to back off. “Seth” presents “Summer” with a Torah: So you can convert to Judaism. “Summer” storms off with a Shalom Cohen! She’s seen practicing learning Hebrew letter flash cards with her step-mother and correcting her pronunciation of chutzpah. Later “Seth” backs out of accompanying his friend elsewhere: Can’t come. Summer and I kinda have a date to build a chuppah together. But in the series finale “The End's Not Near, It's Here” by creator Josh Schwartz that looked at each character’s future, they do share a Jewish wedding. (updated 2/23/2007)

TV drama's most common representation of Jewish women, as Holocaust survivors, reappeared in the "Provenance" episode of Numb3rs (out on DVD), written by Don McGill. Gena Rowlands guest starred as "Erika Hellman" who had been defeated in court about her claims to a Pissarro painting stolen from her father by the Nazis due to attacks on her memory as the only living witness that it was in his collection. When the FBI agent secures the original painting with I hope this will give you some comfort., she puts it in a larger perspective about her family: And to think even I was beginning to question my memory. But meeting her has him thinking about his heritage as he asks his brother Ever wonder why we never were more religious? The math maven shrugs: Mom [The Late Mrs. Eppes] wanted a Christmas tree. So the agent goes in a different direction, asking his father about his "Cousin Anna" who got out in time but never found a soul of her family. He pledges to find out what happened to them. In the 6th episode of the 5th season, 11/2008, “Magic Show” by Sean Crouch, Dad took sole blame when for his son seeking more spiritual sustenance: Do you feel like I cheated you out of something?. . .We were never a religious family. . . I taught you about God. I gave you that choice. (updated 11/8/2008)

Just about every detective procedural drama eventually includes something Nazi-related, particularly in series with cold case squads, but Waking the Dead (shown on BBC Imports) included younger Jewish women besides Holocaust survivors. I guess I wasn’t paying close attention the first four seasons, before “DC Amelia 'Mel' Silver” (played by Claire Goose) was killed off in “Shadowboxer” as evidently the pert blonde was Jewish. Her death in the line of duty has been haunting her irascible boss “Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd” (Trevor Boyd), including a mysterious necklace that was sent to her in the mail. What we didn’t see until this sixth season finale, “Yahrzheit” by Declan Coghan, was that it was a chai and that it’s connected to a 1945 cold case of a murdered girl that she was working on with a mysterious woman “Sarah” (played by one of my favorite American TV actresses at playing tough broads, Michelle Forbes), who first claims to be working with the War Crimes unit of Interpol and that she met “Mel” when she was “tracing her roots” at The Wiesenthal Center. “Sarah” is on the trail of Nazi gold smuggled out of Poland. But it turns out (sorry I broke out laughing at this revelation) that she really works for the Mossad (after all, so many of the Jewish women on TV do this season). The trail she’s on is for the network that smuggled out Mengele. Over lunch, she asks “Boyd” about how “Mel” died and her funeral, that he didn’t attend: What was the point? She was already dead. She shakes her head: Funerals aren’t for the dead. They’re for the people they left behind. I tell you British sandwiches. You should come to NY. I’ll show you a real sandwich. He deflects: That’s a long way to go for a sandwich. How does your husband feel about you going off around the world with Mossad? She: What do you mean my husband? He, waving his ring finger: Y’know, it’s my job to notice these things. She, self-consciously twisting her wedding ring: No, I’m not married. I’m a widow. He: Sorry. Recent? She: 9/11. We were both NYPD. He was on duty and I was off. He, with a good question: So how did you end up with Mossad? She: Someone killed my husband. Took my life from me. I wanted revenge. He: Did you get it? She: Yeah. He: Did it make you feel better? She: No. He: So when do you think you’re going to start your life again? She: What’s it to you? He: That’s no answer. She: Can I get back to you on that? . . . So why do you care when I’m going to start my life again? He: Shouldn’t I care? She: I don’t mind that you care. I’m just wondering why? He shrugs that he doesn’t know. She: So why are you doing this? Well, I know why I’m here. I can’t face NY. What is it that you can’t face? He: Can I get back to you about that? “Sarah” figures out the solution to the extremely complicated case, that I had trouble following, where the murdering elderly woman raised as a Nazi, ferociously played by the estimable Eileen Atkins, turns out to have been a Jewish child, with the oddly non-Jewish name of Kristina, kidnapped at age 7 into the Lebensborn program, which the police were conveniently able to document with paperwork. So her grandson can return to his bar mitzvah lessons reassured that he is in fact Jewish. After the kaddish at the Jewish funeral for the family murdered in 1945, “Sarah” puts stones on their gravestone, and the rabbi invites “Boyd” to do so, too. He then walks over to “Mel”s grave and puts a stone on her gravestone too, with flashbacks to her face, living and dead. “Sarah” does too. Were you with her when she died? He nods. Good. No one should die alone. He: So what are you going to do now? She: I don’t know. Back to NY? He: Good. She: I guess? He: We should keep in touch. She: Yes, we should. But we won’t. But the next scene has them in front of the NYC skyline surrounded by NYC sounds, eating a sandwich on a park bench. She, smiling: So what do you think? He, mouth full: It’s good. She: I told you. You’ve got a little. . . and she intimately brushes crumbs out of his gray beard. They look deeply into each other’s eyes and kiss, then hold on to each other with an eyes closed embrace. While I recall his romantic liaisons in earlier seasons, he hadn’t been involved since “Mel”s death. (5/31/2007)

The "Crucified" episode of Fox's Justice by Jason Tracey, Jonathan Shapiro and Craig S. O'Neill, had a mostly silent, but lovingly loyal Jewish mother of a rebellious Goth, death-metal-fancying teen accused of murder -- and the parents' intermarriage is given as cause for "inchoate religious education" that would lead a kid to commit a heinous crime, leading to the hot shot defense team's first loss of the season. Now that's an argument against intermarriage that I don't think the Jewish community has volleyed yet. Another loving Jewish mother was JoBeth Williams' "Sheryl Kates" in the "Outsiders" episode of ABC's The Nine. She urges her adult son the doctor, played by Scott Wolf, to get therapy and to come home for Shabbat dinner, which he hasn't done since he was traumatically held hostage in a bank hold-up and broke up with the long-time, non-Jewish girlfriend she loved like a daughter (though there seems to be a daughter at the table). Even the ex says she "really misses them", as she was estranged from her own Wisconsin family. It was because the parents were so emotionally invested in their relationship that he had been reluctant to tell them the ex is pregnant and he wasn't sure she wanted "doting grandparents". The Shabbat blessings over the candle, wine and bread were warmly chanted by non-Jewish actors. (updated 11/25/2006)

In the second and last season of HBO’s occasionally historically accurate series Rome, Atia’s henchman “Timon” is Jewish and has a wife, “Deborah”, who is being influenced against his violent ways by her newly religious and anti-Roman brother-in-law from Jerusalem, “Levi”.

Debi Mazar used her native Outer Borough accent as "Leah Feldman" on the satirical Ugly Betty first seen on "Trust, Lust and Must" by Cameron Litvack. She's an amusing twist on the usual TV tough Jewish woman lawyer because she's a girl from "Betty"s Queens' neighborhood of Jackson Heights. She defends "Betty"s sister "Hilda" hawking health supplements in front of her daily yoga exercise storefront by snowing the proprietor with the NYC Municipal Administrative Code, and throwing in the Constitution's right of free assembly as well. With their father's problems in mind, "Hilda" eagerly asks if she can help: Have I ever handled immigration law? In this neighborhood? Once I got my degree my uncle Abraham turned this into the Israeli underground railroad. And she'll only charge $5,000 compared to the fancy lawyer's $20,000 fee. Ah, but in the follow-up "Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral" by Mark Pennette, "Betty" investigates neighborhood rumors that Leah is bad news from a friend of a friend in Astoria complaining how she handled a custody suit: She files paper. She takes all my money. And I never see her again. If it weren't for her I'd probably have my kids with me for Thanksgiving. Insisting I have never lost a single cast yet., "Leah" claims that was just court expenses and anyway the woman was a neglectful alcoholic, so "Hilda" invites her to their family dinner after handing over the rest of the retainer. But lo and behold, she doesn't show and all her phone numbers are disconnected. "Hilda" has to reluctantly admit that "Betty" was rightfully suspicious. (updated 11/27/2006)

The Unit (out on DVD) jumped on this season’s bandwagon of sexy Israeli women soldiers in “Two Coins” by executive producer David Mamet. The rangers on this super-secret team are training new terrorist attack prevention techniques in Jerusalem, assisted by the lovely sergeant “Michal” (played by the model turned actress Sendi Bar, whose real-life husband Aki Avni also co-starred as her colonel and was the central hunk in Time of Favor). “Charles Grey”, code-named “Mr. White”, played by hunky Michael Irby in his first featured episode in the series’ two seasons, is smitten, or as one of the Israelis claims to translate quizzical Hebrew slang He fell off his camel., relating it to Isaac first seeing Rebecca. He is certainly very aggressively flirting with her over dinner in the base cafeteria that even more ludicrously has matzo on the table when it’s not Passover. He fingers her silver necklace. She explains that it’s a Roman coin, with the inscription “Never Again” in Hebrew on the back, in memory of her brother who died in a terrorist bombing of a Tel Aviv café. She invites him to see ruins, stopping first at her old school bus stop, where she inscribed her first boyfriend’s initials when she was 12. But the ruins are across the border in the West Bank, which they foolishly sneak over to and where they make passionate love, with their clothes strewn in the moonlight, her pendant hanging on a nail. But terrorists have picked that time and place to infiltrate with bombs. As they scramble to get dressed, she overhears their plan to bomb the bus stop: Those animals! Taking a child on a bus! They huddle together all night to keep warm and keep watch on the sleeping terrorists. One finds her pendant and starts looking for them, while he creates a diversion with gunpowder from the bullets in his gun and yells at her to run. But she’s caught and used as a hostage shield. She shouts over and over: It’s all right, it’s over for me! One of the bombs goes off and she’s dead. When the rest of the unit comes to the rescue, he bends over her body I’m sorry., stroking her hair and kissing her forehead. He finds the pendant and kisses it. Too bad the rest of the team condescendingly referred to her as “the girl”, but in general they’re pretty condescending to the Israelis. The other titular coin was a back-home story with one of the wives, but together resonate as coins on the eyes of the dead.
C.S.I. bizarrely jumped on the bandwagon in “Happenstance” by Sarah Goldfinger. Psycho seductive nurse “Natal Peled” (played by Israeli actress Sarai Givaty) with a history of rape charges against her is a suspect in the death of her doctor lover’s wife because the murder weapon is an Israeli gun and she is an ex-soldier. (A war photographer turned out to be the killer.) (updated 1/4/2008)

Russian immigrant criminals have become a mainstay of TV and movie crime, but the “Severance” episode of Standoff by producer Craig Silverstein may have been the first to have one with a Jewish mother, “Sofia Marcovich” (played by Camille Saviola). As her flamboyant web soft core pornographer son “Reggie” (played by handsome Henry Lubatti who has been getting cast as Muslims on TV lately) explains We’re street Jews, bro. But his Latino wife screams as she takes her mother-in-law hostage in retaliation against his threats: He was her prince! No one was good enough for her little bubbela! (7/27/2007) An older Jewish woman was used for the usual comic relief in State of Mind, part of Lifetime: Television for Women’s expanded effort at original series with a parade of quirky characters. In “Passion Fishing” by creator Amy Bloom, crotchety “Mrs. Fleischman” may or may not have murdered her equally elderly husband in a culmination of mysterious accidents in their argumentative retirement vacations, after calling her therapist in a panic that she’s convinced her husband is trying to kill her by cooking dinner. (updated 8/6/2007)

A minor Jewish woman character recurred in HBO’s weird spiritual surfing family mystery John From Cincinnati (repeated frequently and On Demand) as “Daphne” (played by Jennifer Grey), the nagging fiancée of lawyer “Meyer Dickstein” (played by Willie Garson, who always plays Jewish nebbishes). In “His Visit: Day Five” episode by Alix Lambert, she is introduced to a doctor among the oddball crew he’s taken as a client at a very rundown motel, she sarcastically comments: Great, let’s invite his mother and your mother and they can shept nakhes together. She continues in the series as the snorting sarcastic skeptic. In her next appearance in “His Visit: Day Seven” episode by Abby Gewanter; the official episode summary describes: “Across the café, Dickstein sits with Daphne, describing [the hospital attorney] Lewinsky's [unethical] offer and explaining it could get him disbarred. Daphne, seeing an opportunity, tells him, I'm not the fair-weather type, Meyer.” Her official HBO bio is: “As overbearing as Dickstein is meek, Daphne dominates the relationship with her fiancé, who openly fears her. Hardly the kind of woman who passes time with criminals and drug addicts, she has plenty to say – and much to learn – about Dickstein's new friends at the Snug Harbor.” As the Surfing Messiah is being welcomed in the rushed series finale, due to the series’ sudden cancellation, “His Visit: Day Nine” by Zack Whedon, “Daphne” is converted to sexual liberation, awaking her fiancé with a blow job under the covers, and then passionately pulling him off the welcoming messianic parade. (updated 9/16/2007)


Nip/Tuck gave us the return and spectacular finale in the “Conor McNamara” episode by Jennifer Salt and Hank Chilton of the inestimable Mrs. Grubman, as played wonderfully by Ruth Williamson. Her dialogue was so rich that I'll transcribe it all as soon as I have time. (10/25/2006)

Rescue Me (on FX, on DVD) has mocked every other ethnic group and human characteristic over its four seasons, so now it was time for creators Denis Leary and Peter Tolan to zestfully go after Jewish women stereotypes, in the person of Amy Sedaris’s hilariously crazy recurring “Beth Feinberg”, daughter of the well-hung Chief who forces Leary’s “Tommy Gavin” to date her. A couple of episodes later, Gina Gershon’s Valerie who, like all the women on this series has an obsessive sexual thing for “Tommy” announces to his shock that she’s also Jewish. Which made the absurd finale of his uber sexist conquest of her even more ridiculous. The role qualified her for various fanboy lists of the hottest women on TV, probably marking the first time a Jewish woman actress/character had been so cited, but she's such a one-note, one-name, no back-story, annoying character, who I kept presuming wouldn't be sticking around the series, that I haven't gotten around to transcribing her one-themed dialogue yet. (updated 4/16/2009)

Rachel Menken on Mad Men (on AMC, Thursday nights at 10 pm, repeated frequently and free On Demand on digital cable. This season on DVD.) Played by Maggie Siff, here’s her character’s official bio: “The female head of Menken’s, a major Jewish department store, is in the market for an advertising agency willing to take her company to the next, more affluent level. After an aggressive interaction with Sterling Cooper’s “Don Draper” [played by Jon Hamm], she realizes that her vision might not be shared. As their common professional beliefs become apparent, however, a successful merge of interests might not be so impossible.” Until I get a chance to transcribe her dialogue here’s the official recap of their first meeting in the first episode “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” by creator Matthew Weiner: “Don” “has little patience for her demands to turn her store into the next Chanel nor her distaste for his less-than-innovative idea to offer coupons to housewives. ‘I'm not going to let a woman talk to me that way,’ he says as he walks out the door. . . “Don” attempts to reconcile with “Rachel”, and she teases that the flashy mai tai nearly does the trick. When he asks why she's not married, she admits that – aside from wanting to have the option to be a businesswoman – she's never been in love. ‘The reason you haven't felt it is because it doesn't exist,’ he says. ‘What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.’ Soon, she agrees to come back” to the agency.”
From The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates muses about the role of blacks and Jews in the series in “The Negro Don Draper”, 10/27/2008, as if they can tell that the main character is “passing”: “Only two groups of people truly can sense something [amiss] the blacks, and the Jews. . . .The major theme is set from the first episode, when Don, wooing Rachel, a Jewish proprietor of a department store, is enjoying the sound of his own voice. Rachel listens skeptically and then cuts right through the mask: I don't know what it is you really believe in, but I do know what it feels like to be out of place, to be disconnected, to see the whole world laid out in front of you the way other people live it. There is something about you that tells me you see it too.
She’s back in the 3rd episode “Marriage of Figaro” by Tom Palmer that I’ll also transcribe when I get a chance, but here’s the AMC summary: “The conference room fills with Don, Pete, an executive from the research department and Rachel Menken, the Jewish department store owner. While the researcher presents a report on top competitors such as Saks, Don’s cuff link falls off and slides toward Rachel. Without missing a beat, she flicks it back. They smile and lock eyes. Pete notices. The researcher then gives his recommendations, including having a personal shopping service and designer collections, both of which are current staples of Rachel’s company. No one from Sterling Cooper bothered to come into her store, and Don promised to correct the oversight. Pete offers to walk her down, but Don steps in. That evening he meets her at Menken’s Department Store. Rachel gets him new knights in armor cuff links, and shows him the store. They end up on the roof, Rachel's favorite part of the store, where she keeps four German Shepherds. Rachel confides that the store is much like her home, especially because she grew up without a mother. “Don’t try to convince me you were [n]ever unloved,” Don says as he takes her hand in his. He lifts her face up and kisses her deeply. She kisses back. When their lips part, Don pulls her close and quietly admits that he’s married. Shocked, Rachel asks if he does this all the time. Before he can answer, she tries to maintain her professionalism -- she’ll keep the account with Sterling Cooper, but she wants someone else on it.”
The sixth episode “Babylon” by Maria Jacquemetton and Andre Jacquemetton, particularly focuses on Jews and attitudes towards Jewish women, as the firm is asked to come up with a non-kitschy tourist campaign for Israel in association with the release of the film Exodus, so I’ll comment in depth when I get a chance – but I was humming “By the Waters of Babylon” for days afterwards that “Don” hears in a Greenwich Village dive with his bohemian mistress. The official episode re-cap is inadequate and almost as sexist as the ‘60’s men: “At Sterling Cooper, Don meets with Nick Rodis and two men from the Israeli Tourism Bureau, Lily Meyer and Yoram Ben Shulhai. Nick, from Olympic Cruise Lines wants Israel to become a tourist destination. “If Beirut is the Paris of the middle east, we’d like Haifa to be the Rome,” he says. Back at the office, Don, Paul and Pete sift through stacks of research on Israel -- including a copy of Exodus and the Old Testament -- as Salvadore doodles. They struggle to find anything to make the nation enticing. After the meeting, Don calls Rachel Menken and asks to meet for a drink, for business. She agrees to lunch the following day. At home, Don is reading Exodus. Betty notices and confides that the first boy she ever kissed was Jewish. Meanwhile, Don’s at a luncheonette with Rachel. He needs her advice on his Israeli Tourism client. “I’m the only Jew you know in New York City?” she says. When he doesn’t relent, she explains that Jews have been living in exile for a long time, first in Babylon and then all over the world. “We’ve managed to make a go of it,” she continues. “It might have something to do with the fact that we thrive at doing business with people who hate us.” When Rachel returns to her office, she calls her older sister Barbara to tell her she met someone -- someone their father would hate.” We found out in the ninth episode “Shoot” that he didn’t get the Israel account – but, ironically, the current Israel tourist folks have bought ad time during the show.
In the 10th episode, “Long Weekend”, by Bridget Bedard, Maria Jacquemetton, Andre Jacquemetton, and Matthew Weiner, according to the overly modest official re-cap, until I have a chance to transcribe it, “They cut [a] meeting short for another, this one with the Menkens -- both Rachel and her father Abraham. Abraham is somewhat open to the suggestions Sterling Cooper offers -- they want to add a restaurant on the ground floor and close the store during construction -- but he has concerns that he’s creating a store that even he wouldn’t shop in. Don, looking at Rachel, describes how his customers have changed: “They’re like your daughter, educated and sophisticated. They are fully aware of what they deserve and are willing to pay for it.” . . . Don knocks on the door of an apartment. Rachel, in a robe with tousled hair, answers. She lets him in and fixes him a drink. He leans in and kisses her desperately. “Is this like the end of the world,” she asks, stopping him. “Just do whatever you want?” Don opens up and talks about the first time he was a pall bearer and being that close to death. “This is it, this is all there is,” he says. “And it’s slipping through my fingers.” They kiss passionately, slowly lying back onto the couch. He asks if she really wants this. “Yes, please,” she replies. Afterwards, Don opens up once more.” In a Best of Mad Men interview on AMC, Weiner reflects that their exchange was his favorite of the season: “She’s been mature and responsible, raising objections. But little by little he wins her over and he tells her something we didn’t think he would ever tell another person.”
In the 11th episode, “Indian Summer”, by Tom Palmer and Matthew Weiner, according to the overly modest official re-cap, until I have a chance to transcribe it, “In another bedroom, Don stares at Rachel. She admits that she thinks about them being together. “I don’t know if I understand how this works or where it goes,” she says. “’I’m worried this is a fantasy.’”
In the penultimate episode of the season, “Kennedy vs. Nixon”, by Lisa Albert, Maria Jacquemetton and Andre Jacquemetton, according to the official re-cap, until I have a chance to transcribe it, “Don”s past is catching up to him and he runs to “Rachel”: He goes to Rachel Menken’s office with a sudden desire to go to Los Angeles with her for good. Although he piques her interest, she reasons that she has a store to run and he has a family. They fight, and she realizes that he doesn’t want to run away with her. He just wants to run away.” In the season finale “The Wheel,” by Matthew Weiner & Robin Veith, “Rachel”s dad informs “Don”s boss that she’s suddenly gone on a long cruise – and neither are happy that it has something to do with him. (updated 10/5/2008)


Faux Cherien Rich on The Riches (on FX Mondays at 10 pm, repeated overnights. 1st season on DVD.) In “Been There, Done That” by Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin, the fourth episode of the first season of this tale of a family of travelers who adopts the upper middle class identity of the couple moving from Florida to Louisiana who were killed in a hit and run accident they caused, “Dahlia Malloy” (played by Minnie Driver) gets a visit: We’re the welcoming committee from Temple Beth-El. Woozy from the pills she’s downed in a recurrence of the addiction she acquired in prison for a credit card scam, she drawls: I don’t know anyone named Beth. But one of the women persists at the door: We spoke on the phone? I handled your membership. We got your check. We just wanted to fill you in. Give you a chance to join the havurah with the temple. There are a lot of goyim in the area. This is a great way to meet other Jewish families. It’s not Tampa, but there are upwards of 800 of us here. “Dahlia” is dumbstruck: We’re Jewish! Another of the women is curious about the cross around her neck: That’s an interesting necklace, Cherien. Dahlia: Actually, you’re looking at it sideways. It’s an X, like one those X marks the Jews necklaces at Wal-Mart. Thanks for stopping by! I got to clean the house. After she slams the door, she mutters: We are Jewish now – Jesus! When her husband returns she’s set up the menorah from the unpacked boxes in the bedroom (and is constantly visible in future episodes, oddly always filled with candles) and casually mentions to him among other crises: Oh, by the way, we’re Jewish. This could be funny; if this dark comedy uses the twist as an opportunity for satire in an exploration of the family’s stereotypes about Southern Jews. In the next episode we learn that “Cherien” was a dental hygienist. In “Cinderella” by Colette Burson the faux “Cherien” makes quite a faux pas when she serves pork at a business dinner for her husband’s boss, and has to go into a tortured explanation of how it does in fact fit in with kashruth. In “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” by Ellie Herman we learn that her senile mother in a nursing home is “Dr. Morgenstern”, but she can still tell: You’re not Cherien. Cherien’s a bitch. (1/8/2008)


Hana Gitelman on Heroes (NBC Mondays at 9 pm) was first seen as a new “hero” with a special ability in Chapter 13 of the first season (available on DVD) of the accompanying online graphic novel, collected into a hardcover book. In a TV Guide 1/2007 interview, producer Tim Kring explained why she was brought into the story this way: “That was unique to this character. “Hana”s nickname is ‘Wireless’ because she can pick up all sorts of wireless communication -- so what cooler way to introduce her than through the Internet?” He expanded in a Wired interview with David Kushner, 4/23/07: “A modern TV creator also has to think outside of the boob tube. ‘When I pitched Heroes, I knew an important element to getting on air was how it can incorporate the Internet, I'm sort of a student of television, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that things are changing quickly. Production costs are going up. We're losing eyeballs. We have to reach people in other ways.’ Which is why Heroes has recently introduced a female character who can physically interface with the Web. She's already a featured character in the tie-in web comic, and she guides fans through an alternate-reality game, giving them codes so they can hunt for clues on MySpace pages and blogs purportedly written by the characters. (Kring and his team of super friends have also set up 9thwonders.com, a site with illustrations, interviews, and message boards where fans can gather to dissect the previous week's episode.) ‘My job has changed from being in the writing and editing room," Kring says, with some surprise, "to managing a brand."
On TV, she is played by Canadian actress Stana Katic (In TV Guide, Katic gushed about playing “Hana”: “I’ve always wanted to play a superhero for the ages, so this is bloody fantastic!. . .I love the drawings of her in those cargo pants, with a gun in each hand. She’s absolutely kick-ass-looking!”) The first Jewish woman character in a sci fi series since Babylon 5, she’s haunted by coming from a line of strong Jewish women, as she narrates in “Wireless Part 1”, by Aron Eli Coleite, guest artist Phil Jimenez, art by Michah Gunnell. Her tanta, her grandmother, fought against the Nazis in the Resistance, coordinating tank attacks, then she’s seen with a gun to her head before being seen shorn behind a barbed-wire fence: She never gave up. She survived. She goes on describing the background to the illustrations: That’s my mother, Zahava. You can’t tell underneath that flight helmet but she’s quite beautiful. She was one of the IDF’s first female pilots. She shot down two MIG’s in the Six Day War The three are together, boarding a bus, “Hana” as a little girl licking an ice cream cone: A far cry from my mother’s and my grandmother’s legacy. The wars were over, the major battles finished. At least that’s what we wanted to believe. But that bus going from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was the first suicide attack in Israel and forced it off a cliff at Kiryat Yarim. I was in the hospital as their funerals came and went and I could not pay proper tribute. I could not say good-bye. My Tanta braved Auschwitz. My mother waged the War of Independence. They played by the rules of engagement and they survived. Then some coward changed the rules forever. And I had a legacy to carry on. Grown up, she asks to be assigned to the paratroopers but is denied, in an unrealistic interchange that dodges sexism in the Israeli army: We’re all very impressed by your skills, Ms. Gitelman, but you will best serve your country in Army intelligence. She’s furious: A desk job? I think you will find that I am more than capable for field work. The commander: We have grave concerns about your heart. “Hana”: I assure you my heart is fine! Commander: Our enemies can hear it beating now. Your heart yearns for vengeance. That’s why you will always sit behind a computer. Your judgment cannot be trusted in the trenches. So she goes into intelligence work: At my best, I seemed to know our enemies’ moves before they did. They promoted me again and again but I was still miserable. She keeps exercising to stay in shape, though she’s chain smoking. Out on the perimeter one night, she spots an intruder: The rules of engagement say to shoot on sight, but the rules didn’t account for my heart. The pounding in my heart - am I killing this man for security or revenge? Am I a patriot or a murder? I thought about my mother and my grandmother and I hesitated. I failed them! as she’s knocked down. But he surprises her: I’m not here to hurt you, Lt. Gitelman, I’m here to change your life! -- it’s “Horn-Rimmed Guy” aka HRG aka “Claire” the cheerleader’s father who has been ambiguously tracking down the heroes we don’t know yet for what purpose.
“Part 2” by Coleite and Joe Pokaski , art by Michah Gunnell has flashbacks to “Hana”s childhood therapy with a psychologist: I had abandonment issues after the death of my mother and grandmother. He said I needed to learn to trust. She’s seen falling back in a failed trust exercise. I never had friends or boyfriends. I never really liked to talk or date or whatever. And the times when I did need someone they always let me down. I didn’t like that. So she’s not too amenable when HRG takes her to an unknown location and insists she should trust him: You can see that might be an issue with the blindfolding and all. He takes her to a special facility in the Alaskan tundra: You want to do some good. Punish the bad guys. This is where you’re going to learn how to do that. You’re special. She’s intrigued: He said he was CIA. He said I was being recruited into a special program. That I was hand selected. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to trust him. They tested me physically. She’s seen, among other exercises, throwing knives with first one hand then the other. [On NCIS the not dissimilar character “Ziva” is seen doing the same in the “Friends and Lovers” episode by John C. Kelly, explaining In the Mossad we have a saying: ‘Knives don’t run out of bullets.’] They pushed me to my limits, and just when I thought I had no more strength, no more energy, they pushed harder! And the tests weren’t only physical. They measured my brain waves. They poked and prodded. They took samples and injected what they called ‘vitamins’. He said I was special. But I felt useless. Weeks of testing and still nothing. My mother and my grandmother- I had failed them! You promised I’d see action but all I’ve seen is snow! Help me – I don’t know what you’re testing me for! I want the truth! She threatens the tester to know what his text message is about – before he got it. Then it was as if I had opened a door. And then a flood rushed in – all the e-mails, text messages, satellite transmissions floating invisibly above the world I don’t know how it was possible but I could read, sense every one of them. . . I knew every code can be broken. You just have to identify the key. I knew with enough exposure, with enough practice I could master this. It was beautiful, but it was too much. HRG knocks her out! When she wakes up weeks later she can send e-mails with her mind, and she’s only sending out one: Kadima – attack! HRG approves: I think you’re ready for your first mission.
In Part 3, (same creative credits as Part 2), she’s out trying to foil the evil microbiologist “Dr. Strauss” from selling the formula for turning microbes deadly by intercepting his transmissions, but is captured, as she flashes back to her grandmother’s similar experience: If I saved a few hundred lives, maybe I’d make my grandmother proud. The man in the horned rimmed glasses may have made me special, but she taught me everything else. Out of the two sexes it is the man who is weakest, not physically, but mentally without fail. They all underestimate the true power that women have – conviction! As she beats up her captors and vaults over the barbed wire fence smack into more guns, she thinks: I wish my grandmother was alive to see me now. I would ask her -‘How in the world is conviction going to get me out of this?’
In Part 4 (same creative credits as 2 & 3), “Hana” is in Tanzania staring at huge guns pointed at her: Well, I really stepped in it. You’re gonna hate me for what I do next. Call me all sorts of names. Coward, Idiot. Believe me. You don’t hate me more than I hate myself. I was in the Mossad long enough to know that diplomacy is the only way to make it out of here alive. Let the politicians and the Horn-Rimmed Guy work out the details. She holds up her hands: I’m CIA! But at the U.S. Embassy, the CIA says she’s wrong, that none of her contacts pan out. Who are you working for Ms. Gitelman? “Hana” thinks: He lied to me! It’s my fault. I wanted to believe him so badly that I walked into the lie. Stupid! I replay the moments looking for an answer. Where did I go wrong? She flashes back first to the past few months of experiences with HRG, then years ago in her and her family’s lives: Was it my desire for revenge? Or the death of my mother and grandmother? Was I too innocent? Too reverent? Or was I too proud? Was it just in my blood? It’s everything. My past. My ability. My mistakes. I’ve been fumbling to find out who I am. This is me. With her mind she manipulates the computers in the building to trigger a leak and with the distraction grabs a gun: I was in it deep. I would be on at least two or three governments most wanted lists. I was a walking dead woman. Yet I never felt more alive. For once I knew who Hana Gitelman truly is. Which is ironic considering that Hana Gitelman is never going to be heard from again. And she escapes out a window, hiding out in Missoula, Montana with a new name, where she can monitor transmissions more clearly. I spend my time trying to find information about the man who did this to me. . . He used me. He manipulated me. I’m going to find him. Make him pay. Now I know what you’re thinking. That I haven’t changed. That I still have vengeance in my heart. But that’s just who I am. And she’s off on her motorcycle as she’s discovered that other people in e-mails are talking about finding HRG. In the next online episode, “How Do You Stop an Exploding Man?”, paralleled in the broadcast episode “Chapter 16: Unexpected” by producer Jeph Loeb, she advised “Ted Sprague” on how to get revenge for having the radioactive powers that have ruined his life and how to contact her by her code name “Wireless”, tracks HRG to Odessa, TX then coordinates an ambush of him and his family – hey, save the cheerleader, save the world y’know.
”Hana” reappears in Chapter 21 of the online graphic novel parallel story “The Path of the Righteous” by Coleite. She is following leads anywhere, but I hate graveyards. They’re museums for awful memories. Sometimes it’s best not to think. Thinking can weigh down the soul In the next panel she rejects the approach of the other heroes who are after HRG, as is being followed in the broadcast episodes: Revenge and emotions make excellent blindfolds. Me, I’m on a different path. The Man in the Horn-Rimmed Glasses is getting his orders from somewhere. And she’s off on a motorcycle. I’m done thinking. I’m just driving. Following the stream, as if it were the friggin’ yellow brick road. She’s followed the e-mails to Odessa, TX, where like any graphic novel heroine now she is voluptuously filling out tight black leather as she stands astride a roof, perhaps because a different artist was drawing her here, Staz Johnson: And when I pull back the curtain, I’m going to find the wizard that has been manipulating us. Ironically, in Chapter 23 – “Family Man” of the online graphic novel written by Jesse Alexander, art by Johnson, HRG hopes she has forgiven him and reaches out to her by e-mail from Odessa to protect his special daughter. That’s why “Wireless” has responded: I’ll do it. and is speeding down Route 66 at 110 MPH on her motorcycle to him.
”Hana” uncovers key information in the next six chapters of the graphic novel called “War Buddies.” In Chapter 24 “The Lonestar File”, written by Mark Warshaw and art by Steven Lejeune with a bustier “Hana”, she describes her abilities as I’m a walking blackberry., as she summarizes where she’s at now: Yesterday I wanted vengeance on the man in the horn-rimmed glasses – Bennet. He manipulated me, used me. And when I needed him most, he threw me to the wolves. Today, he turned to me for help so the question is – do I trust him? Bennet says that he’s a victim too, manipulated by the company. That we’re both on the side of the angels. That it’s up to us to take down the company. To help me, Bennet gave me one file number. That’s it. One. According to him, one file would help me take down the entire kingdom. But she’s stymied because the target file is on old-fashioned paper. Even I have my limits. And I was out of options. So what choice did I have? She zooms away on her motorcycle on highway 40, heading east. War does not care if you are a man or woman. My training in Israel prepared me for this. So we have to play the hand we’re dealt Flashback to the Mossad Training Center in Israel in 2001, where “Hana” gets beat up a big guy. She’s learned how to get revenge by not using brute strength. She lures “Casey Smith” via his MySpace page. Posing as “Samantha”, she meets him at a bar, dressed in slinky, bulging cleavage-spilling red, purring flattery when he gushes I like your accent.. They’re watching the election returns for the political “hero” “Nathan Petrelli”, but she demurs: Politics and religion. Not good first date conversations. But you know what is? And she slams him against the wall with a big kiss, while taking off his clothes. In bed he’s asleep while she steals an ID card from his wallet, she addresses the readers: Don’t be mad at me. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. . . What did you expect? That I’d break into the Pentagon guns a-blazin’? I need to accomplish this mission. I need answers to my questions! And she finds the one file, about strange happenings during the Viet Nam War that make links between the heroes, as revealed starting in Chapter 25 “Unknown Soldier”. By Chapter 29 online “War Buddies: Call to Arms”, story by Mark Washaw and pencils by Staz Johnson drawing “Hana” ever bustier, she’s figured out the connections between “Linderman” and the “Petrellis”, but “Smith” has also woken up and figured out what she’s done and calls security, who repeats his description of her: An attractive brunette? The APB goes out for “Hot Israeli chick. Possible target goes by name of Samantha.” She’s hiding in the files: Think quick, Hana. Play your hand. The security chief receives an apologetic e-mail from “Smith”, saying it was a false alarm. “Hana” sneaks off: Time to get out of here. At a computer at Reagan airport, she gets “Linderman”s credit card number for a ticket to his headquarters in Las Vegas, but has difficulty getting through his firewall. She thinks: That says something. That says you have something to hide. You are a real shady bastard. I’ll need to be at closer range if I am going to be able to dig deeper. I’ll come back for the bike. I don’t want to waste anytime. And she flies off in a jet, where her mind can get into his server and she sees what he has planned for the son of the “Petrelli” she learned about in the secret Viet Nam files. Election rigging. This guy is a peach. If this Linderman guy wants Petrelli to win so bad it can’t be a good thing. To unrig an election is a tall order. I’m going to need a little help from my friends. And her mind projects a swirl of “Call to Arms” e-mails, with names that foreshadow all the heroes who we’ll doubtless be learning about in the future, as the show has been renewed for an extra-long second season. Her recruiting efforts continue in the accompanying Heroes 360 game, that I haven’t yet explored—hey just keeping up with the show and the graphic novels is an eyeful.
But Chapter 33 online begins the two-part ominously titled: “The Death of Hana Gitelman”, story by Aron Eli Coleite and art and color by Jason Badower, introduced with: “Hana Gitelman has fought all her life. In most of her battles there was a clear distinction between friend and foe. But the man in the horn-rimmed glasses has always proven to be the exception. Once her mentor, he betrayed her, fooled her into doing his dirty work. Against her better judgment, she has taken up his cause again. But as she delved deeper into her assignments, she had only more reasons to question their uneasy alliance.” She’s looking at the moon (an eclipse is the show’s logo), with thoughts that I’m not sure how she got growing up in Israel: When I was a little girl I imagined heaven was filled with clouds and angels with feathered wings. The heavens are filled with mechanical angels—satellites. Thousands and thousands of satellites. And like angels – they watch over us. They see everything we do. Every call we make. Every e-mail we write. They know how we live. Close-up of a satellite beaming out: “Searching. . Target. . .Hana Gitelman” Close-up of Hana: And they know how we die. This isn’t how I expected to die. Nothing is what I ever expected. And a gun is shoved up against her head. Flashback to three days ago, on swings at a playground at night, somewhere between Texas and New York. It’s “Bennet”, relieved that she’s responded to his alert, with two of the heroes, but she’s angry. I’m getting a little sick of following your orders. I mean, how can we trust your endgame? She addresses “Ted” and “Parkman”: Bennet has us all wrapped around his little finger. Jumping through hoops. Doing your dirty work. She points a gun at him. “Bennet” explains: I’m trying to get your life back to normal.My life has never been normal. Thanks to you it never will be. “Ted” threatens her with his radioactive hand glowing. “Hana” points a second gun at him: You wanna test me? “Ted”:Honestly? Yeah, I kind of do. She asks: What’s the gig? “Bennet” explains their plan to find and disable the Walker tracking system in NYC, but he points to the sky: I need you to destroy the isotope tracking system. Up there. “Hana”: You think I can destroy a satellite? ‘Bennet”: You have no idea what you are capable of. But I know, remember? Flashback, to last year, near the top of the world, bundled up in parkas, surrounded by nothing but snow. “Hana”: I’m going to die. “Bennet”: I thought you Israelis were supposed to be tough. “Hana”: Treck me through he desert with a full pack and a half ration of water and I’ll be fine. But this. . .No one can survive here. I don’t feel so good. “Bennet”:It’s not your body. You’re in perfect condition. It’s your ability. Up here, all the satellite communications. All the e-mails. They buzz around like flies – and you’re the flypaper. She: Make it stop! “Bennet”: Not possible. You have to contain it. She: I can’t, I. . She report, as we see a blaze of energy emanating from her: According to news reports that day, many cell phones and e-mail providers said the temporary glitch in service was due to magnetic activity. But I knew it was because of me! Exhausted, she turned to “Bennet”: Why’d you bring me up here? To make me sick? “Bennet”: To make you realize just how much you are capable of. And she punches him in the face. He removes his broken glasses: Hana, your whole life you wanted to be important. Special. Back to her now pointing a gun in his face: You just might be the most important person on the planet. We need you! While she focuses on the sky, the other heroes wonder if she can pull it off. Bennet: If she can’t no one can. Flash forward to two days to New York City. She enters a crowded dance club in a hot little black dress: In Tel Aviv they call it the end of the world party. Bombs are falling, the world is going to end soon. So you might as well live like there is no tomorrow. So I dance. And drink. And for the first time in a long time I feel alive. And she grabs the nearest guy and gives him a big kiss. She recalls: Once Bennet sent me the specs on the satellite I heard it faintly whispering. It was encrypted. It was lousy with security, passwords and firewalls. I had to go where I could talk to it. She’s looking out an airplane window. Where I could bypass the security. Like the Arctic tundra, there are places where communication is easier. She’s walking through a big city in China. Then she’s on a boat in a lake. And I had to make sure this satellite heard me loud and clear. And for that I’d travel as far as I need to go. I’m glad to see my ride hasn’t left without me. She’s looking at a rocket and attaches herself to it. I can’t believe I’m actually going to do this. Only one problem. Make that five problems. As now there’s five guys pointing guns at her. This is not how I expected to die. In Chapter 34, online, Part 2, “Hana”s remembering 13 years ago: It’s true what they say. Moments before you die your life flashes before your eyes. But I didn’t expect to remember this! She sees herself as a little girl, back in Tel Aviv, with a big red umbrella, jumping off a building, to the grass below. It was two weeks after my mom and grandmother died. My psychologist said I was reaching out for attention. But honestly I thought it would work. That the umbrella would slow me down. That I could fly. Like the angels. I was wrong. My dad said ‘Hana, I know you’re upset about you’re Mom’s death, but you must learn to be more careful!’ My teacher said ‘You must learn to be respectful.’ My drill sergeant said ‘You must lean to obey.’ The man in the horned-rimmed glasses said ‘They’re tracking the isotope with a satellite. You must destroy the satellite. If you don’t, none of us will be safe.’ Back to China: So here I am, careful. Respectful. Obedient –yet. There’s still a gun in my face! This isn’t how I expected to die – and I’m not about to go down without a fight! And she strikes out and manages to wrestle the guns and hold them at bay. I can read and interpret all forms of wireless communication. But I can also send it. Manipulate it. A man comes over with a tank, waving his arms, yelling: Hey, wait! So sorry for the confusion Dr. Gitelman. She got the Chinese government to believe that she’s an engineer from Israel joining this space flight as part of new diplomatic relations between the two countries. All the documents and e-mails were perfectly forged in my mind.It’s all right. I could use the exercise., as the gunmen are ordered to get her back to the based immediately. The next frame has in her skimpy lingerie getting the space suit on getting told the launch is just waiting for her. Like I said, I’m getting pretty good at using this ability. I’ve done some amazing things. But this. . as she gazes at the rocket and prepares for blast-off and then looks out the window happily. But I never expected to be doing this. This is how the angels see this earth– observing –watching everything. And for a moment I forgot the mission. And I forgot about the manipulations. And the pain. And the death. And then my ability kicks in and reminds why I’m here. It’s so strange up here. The wireless communication is so thick I can barely see or hear anything else. The pilot asks her: Are you ready for your spacewalk Dr. Gitelman? She thinks: I’m not. This is crazy, but I can’t let on. I must do this, so I say ‘Let’s go!’ That satellite’s codes are encrypted. I had to get close enough to break through its security systems and communicate with it. I find it quickly, orbiting over Australia. I send a self-destruct order. The onboard guidance system will send it out in the atmosphere where it will burn to a crisp. But the satellite isn’t responding. Something has gone terribly wrong. The satellite had a defense mechanism. A virus. I don’t know how it’s possible, but the virus affected me! This ability, I knew I’ve gotten good. But this. My heart is racing out of control. My brain is pulsing. I’m dying, but I’m not dead. I’ve got to time this perfectly. Vision’s blurring. Can’t breathe. There’s only one chance to succeed.. She leaps onto the satellite. I had to do it. It was the only choice. It was the only way that people like me could be safe. And I didn’t want to be a martyr. And I wasn’t doing it for revenge. Or because I had a death wish. I did it because it was the right thing to do. So I suppose in a lot of ways it was exactly how I expected to die. Later on, she’s communicating by e-mail, as “Samantha48616e61”, with a child hero, “Micah”, who asks: How did you feel when your mom died? Her text message back: Lost. Angry. And it did me no good. It took me a LONG TIME to learn that. He thanks her for the online chat, and asks her name: My name is Hana Gitelman. But you can call me Wireless. And she seems to be in the ether itself as she muses: And the truth is, death is never quite what you expect it to be. It might seem like an ending, but really, the journey is just beginning. In the broadcast episode that went into the future for “Chapter 20: Five Years Gone” by Joe Pokaski she is seen working with “Bennet” in Texas helping to hide the other heroes with special abilities against the genocide program. But she gets shot in the head by the mind-reading hero who is then the head of Homeland Security. (updated 11/9/2007)


The Sarah Silverman Program (on Comedy Central, 6 episodes. 1st season on DVD.) So I’ve avoided discussing here the comedienne in movies (The Aristocrats and Jesus Is Magic) as those appearances reflect her stand-up act rather than a fictional representation, though I’ve enjoyed how she enlivens awards programs as host or presenter and talk shows despite her extreme fondness for saying “vagina” over and over and over again. In her recurring appearances on Monk (in “Mr. Monk and The TV Star” in 2004 and “Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan” in 2007, both written by producer Andy Breckman) she played “Marci Maven” but otherwise there were zilch Jewish references about her character. But now she’s being like Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm by writing and playing a character who is a sort of a public persona of herself, with her sister Laura playing her sister. At least they are forging a new TV image by portraying funny young Jewish hyper-verbal women who look sweet and attractive like “nice Jewish girls” but are disconcertingly potty-mouthed and borderline offensively off-kilter, either to appeal to the channel’s young male audience or expand to women who would otherwise just tune in the channel later to watch The Daily Show next. Successfully so, according to the 2/5/2007 Hollywood Reporter: “The show's debut [was] the best for a Comedy Central original since. . . 2004. [and] . .in adults 18-49, making it Thursday's most-watched primetime cable program in the demo.” As she announced in a voice-over, the first episode, written by her with Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab: contains full frontal Jew-dity.. When the flirtatious “Officer Jay” confirms that their last name is Silverman, he makes time with Laura: Y’know, I think the Holocaust thing was totally uncalled for. Jewish stereotypes of tzedakah were satirized in the next episode shown “Humanitarian of the Year” as Sarah ups the ante in competition with “Officer Jay” for the title, as she takes in a homeless ex-high school classmate/mental patient “Fred” but claims her motivation was I’m not a religious person but God probably., then sings I did it because I’m a humanitarian! A ghost in the Ladies Room (shades of a scene from Harry Potter) tries to warn her of impending doom but ends up protesting her stereotyping how ghosts talk It’s like saying ‘The N word’ to a black person. Sarah responds with a nonsensical non-sequitur: Interrupting a Jewish person while she’s urinating is like saying the Holocaust never happened so I guess we’re e-e-e-even. Having triggered “Fred”s relapse, the life lesson she learns this week is: If you open your heart and try to help people, they’re eventually going to try and stab you to death. And satirized it’s sad.
”Positively Negative” satirized the stereotype of Jewish families’ closeness. In her opening Sarah shows a slide of gravestones with flowers (but no stones in the Jewish tradition) of her parents Max and Rose Silverman and blithely announces My parents are dead. In her weekly introduction of her gay neighbors, she comments Or ‘gaybors’ as my grandma used to say. When an elementary school teacher introduces her to the class as their guest speaker “Mrs. Silverman”, Sarah smilingly corrects: Mrs. Silverman was my mother and she was a bitch. Over sentimental music, her sister Laura defends her to boyfriend “Jay” the cop, when Sarah is, justifiably, attacked by a mob of protesters for inappropriate grandstanding: She’s my sister and she’s in trouble!. . .I know you don’t like her. Let me tell you a story about what she’s really like. When our father died I cried for days. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat. And then Sarah came to me and said ‘Laura, I know you’re really hurting, but it’s time for you to face the fact that our father was a total ass munch. The world is better off with him buried under piles of dirt with worms crapping in his mouth. And stop your crying already. And you know what I did? Stop my crying and I grew up and I became a nurse and I met the most wonderful man. Anyway, that’s my big sister! As to her real life family, in TV Guide 1/29/2007, Silverman cites: “My dad thought it was funny to teach his little girl swear words. He thought it was hilarious when I would yell them at grocery stores.”
In “Muffin Man” with a theme of prejudice and assumptions about trying something new, “Sarah” mishears a word by her sister’s boyfriend “Jay”: You racist. Your girlfriend is Jewish. So am I. So’s Albert Einstein. And she goes on naming famous Jews. “Jay” corrects and mollifies her: Silly, I said dyke. (Yeah, I missed an episode that I’ll catch on a repeat eventually, and I have to get around to commenting on the weird Sarah-sleeps-with-God finale that was originally the pilot episode.) (updated 10/1/2007)


Nora Holden on Brothers & Sisters (on ABC, Sundays at 10 pm.) This soapy family drama went through a lot of writing, producing and casting changes by creator/playwright Jon Robin Baitz just up to and even after getting on the air, with the result that Napa Valley mother and grandmother “Nora Holden” is played by Sally Field but still had to deal with her being Jewish, because her brother is "Saul", played by Ron Rifkin -- shades of the Friends dilemma. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that one of the producers is Greg Berlanti who charmingly handled a daughter of intermarriage at a similar off-kilter angle in Everwoods first, second, third and last season. Even as characters kept repeating with great disbelief "You're Jewish?", writers Chris Olin and Peter Calloway figured out in the "Light the Lights" episode how to deal with the issue by tying together the political rhetoric and personal story lines through an unusual take on the December Dilemma, with an approach that sounded a lot like my similarly political family when I was a kid. Adorable young daughter “Page” is querying her mother, “Sarah Whedon”, played by Rachel Griffiths, about something her Jewish friend has claimed: If your mother is Jewish, you’re Jewish. Is that true? Mom is startled: Uh, yes. Yes it’s true. “Page” persists: So why aren’t we Jewish? Grandma is Jewish, so you’re Jewish, so I’m Jewish. So why don’t we celebrate Hanukkah? Mom continues to be befuddled: That is a very good question, Page. Um, I guess it’s because Grandma never talks about it. “Page”: Well, did she teach you about Christmas? Mom demurs: No, not really. “Page” persists: But you had Christmas? Mom agrees: Yeah, yeah, every year. “Page”: But why? If we’re Jewish, we should be having Hanukkah like Mackenzie and Duncan and Moises. Cut to Grandma’s kitchen: That is a very, very good question. First of all, your grandfather loved Christmas, and he wasn’t Jewish so we that’s what we did. “Page” is even more confused: So you just stopped being Jewish? Grandma is momentarily stymied: Yes, no, no, no, you can’t do that. But you can ethnically be Jewish but at the same time Santa is just so much fun as a symbolic holiday character that represented, as a real, real person, not as a symbol, but as a magical man in a red suit who brings presents. “Page”: But Hanukkah has a menorah and candles and 8 days of presents. Mom intervenes: Honey, is that why you want to be Jewish? Because the loot’s better? Grandma: You see that’s what religion does. It equates spirituality with materialism. “Page”: I don’t want to be Jewish. I thought we are Jewish. Grandma: We’re secular humanists, honey. “Page”: We’re sick what? Mom to her Mom: Okay, Mrs. Sartre, that’s enough. I’ll send you the bills for the therapy. Grandma: The point is Page, religion can often lead to zealotry and war. Exactly what’s happening in the Middle East right now. Which is why I don’t believe in organized religion. What I believe in is the ACLU which is why I have already signed all you kids up. And Grandma chooses to make a snow flake for her holiday party cookies. Mom goes off to a business meeting complaining that Mom should be happy driving one generation bonkers to her brother “Thomas” who is not surprised: What did you expect? . . .I’m sure she’s glad [his wife] is pregnant to have another mind to warp.
We next see grandma and granddaughter shopping for a Christmas tree. “Page”: Grandma, who does God like more – Christians or Jews? Grandma: He likes everybody equally. “Page”: But who does he listen to more? You know, when they pray? Grandma: He listens to everybody, sweetie, he or she or whomever or whatever God is. “Page”: But I need God to listen. Grandma: Why? Why do you need God to listen? “Page”: To make me better. Grandma: Oh Page, do you think God will cure your diabetes if you are Jewish? “Page”, almost in tears: I keep praying and I’m still not better. Maybe it’s because I’m not Jewish enough. Grandma: Is that why you want to celebrate Hanukkah? Oh honey! and she gives her a big hug. Grandma describes her sobbing to two of her other grown children, with the youngest, Dave Annable as “Justin Walker”, protesting that it “sucks” if they therefore won’t celebrate Christmas. Grandma announces that they’ll celebrate both with bells, whistles, latkes, ornaments, carols, the works. Calista Flockhart, as “Kitty Walker” the conservative radio and TV pundit, is pleased: I think it’s great that we’re finally embracing our multi-culture. And Uncle Saul will be in heaven. She’s checking online. Wait a minute, Martha Stewart has Hanukkah recipes? Grandma: I prefer Joy of Cooking. There’s something off about Martha’s, but I can’t put my finger on it. But the point is, that little girl is in the midst of a massive spiritual crisis. “Justin”: What- fried batter is going to cheer her up?. Grandma is now energized and enthusiastic: And candles and songs and prayers. We’ll get a rabbi, we’ll make a video. “Kitty” also gets sarcastic: Hey, why don’t we hire Neil Diamond to come over and sing “Havah Nagilah”? Grandma is insistent: Page has had a horrible year. She wants to look for God then I will put aside my distaste for empty religious ritual and I will look with her. We all will. “Kitty”:Mom, I hate to be a killjoy, but do you remember all those peace marches that you took me to? Do you see what happened? But Mom one ups her: It seems to me that the only thing that happened is that you’ve been offered your own TV show to spout your nonsense, so perhaps my methods were not so foolish after all.
Later, Grandma is reading from a very thick book to her granddaughter, who just wants to play dreidls. Page, this is the Book of Maccabees, the original history of Hanukkah. Don’t you want to learn every detail of why we celebrate? Do you know one of the most important Jewish principles? “Page” is bored: Bagels on Sunday? Grandma laughs: No, knowledge is light and we are seeking knowledge, knowledge from this book. The holiday isn’t just about presents, sweetie pie, no Hanukkah is about religious persecution. But “Page” wants to keep twirling the dreidl: Maybe we could just sing the song? Grandma is insistent: Come, come, come now Page, you wanted Hanukkah and we are going to have it! Her son-in-law warmly greets his daughter, but Grandma proceeds to lecture him: We just learned that the Greek king of Syria outlawed Jewish rituals and ordered the Jews to worship Greek gods like Zeus. That’s outrageous! “Page” pleads: Can we go now Daddy? When “Kitty”s colleague unexpectedly shows up to the party to see a table full of latkes and a menorah set for the first night, he’s nonplussed: What’s going on in here? Grandma proudly explains: It’s Hanukkah. He’s quite startled: You’re Jewish? She stumbles over her response but recovers with pride: Yes, I am, we are. We’re Jewish. But Uncle “Saul” explains that “Page” is hiding upstairs because she’s intimidated by all this. . . I couldn’t be more Jewish, but I’m overwhelmed by your intensity. But Grandma insists: Where’s Page? Is she OK? . . I don’t understand. All of this is for her, let’s go get her. . . We have to light the candles, say the prayers, recite the blessings. . .But this whole night is so Page can have Hanukkah. She insisted on it. “Page”s dad is annoyed: She’s feeling overwhelmed. . .She’s a young girl and she wanted to explore her heritage a little bit. She didn’t enroll in a seminar on Judaism. “Page” comes down all upset: It’s all my fault. I’ve ruined Hanukkah. Uncle “Saul” is reassuring: Is that what I heard? You didn’t ruin Hanukkah! You come with me sweetheart. . . I want to thank you all for joining us to celebrate the miracle of the oil. As you can see this is not a traditional Hanukkah, but anyway who cares? We are here tonight because of Page, because this little girl is searching for a miracle. A lot has been taken away from her this year. A lot has been taken away from all of us. We lost William [the grandfather], a perfect bill of health, we lost relationships, you can lose everything. Judaism teaches us to accept whatever obstacles area placed in front of us. Sometimes they are seemingly insurmountable. But if we have faith, faith in family, in learning, faith in each other, faith in ourselves, if we have that, then we can live, no matter what has come before. And Page that is the miracle of this evening. It is a miracle of faith. That the oil will burn no matter what. So Page you are going to light the first candle. You are going to light the light. He does the first Hebrew blessing and sings a Yiddish lullaby that my mother-in-law Shirley identified as “Oif'N Pripitchuk (By the Fireside)": “The song is literally about little children sitting around a warm place (stove, that is) and learning their ‘ABC's’. The song is very real to me. My mother taught it to me when I was a very small child.” Natalie Minoff of the JCC on the Palisades kindly provided a translation: "A flame burns in the fireplace/The room warms up (as the teacher drills the children in the alef-betz)/Remember dear children, what you are learning here.(Repeat it again and again.)/When you grow older, you will understand that the alphabet contains the tears and the weeping of our people./When you grow weary and burdened with exile, you will find comfort and strength within the Jewish alphabet."
Grandma shows up at the mistress’s front door, with whom the family has been feuding over the will: I brought you an almond popover with lemon curd and strawberries. I made it for Hanukkah. "Holly", the blonde shiksa, played to the hilt by Patricia Wettig, the co-writer’s mom, is sarcastic: You’re Jewish? Again? Now that William is gone? Grandma barely manages not to be exasperated: My granddaughter wanted to celebrate Hanukkah. We just had a lovely little party. The mistress continues: How do I know it’s not poisoned? Grandma perseveres: I came here to forgive you. From the bottom of my heart. And they have quite the heart to heart exchange.
”Page” is sitting with her mom in front of the family Christmas tree. So you’ve had your first night as a Jewish household, what have you learned? That God blesses every family regardless of religion? “Page”: And that Hanukkah can be as much fun as Christmas, which is my favorite holiday again. . . Mom why did I get diabetes? Was I bad? And Mom explains that you have to have faith that it will get easier to deal with and they’ll always love her, etc. etc. The mom later approaches the mistress: This will be brief. We’re going to buy our Christmas ornaments. The mistress smirks: I thought you were doing Hanukkah this year. In the spirit of compromise in their negotiation, the mom rejoins: We’re doing both. . .Welcome to the family business. The closing shot is through the window of the family celebration, pulling back to show the lit decorated tree and the second night of Hanukkah candles, accompanied by Sarah McLachlan covering Gordon Lightfoot’s “Song for a Winter's Night”. Because "Nora"s Jewishness is so quizzical, I'll only monitor her representation in this series when it reflects her ethnicity in any way, as the characters with no comment sat down to Easter dinner in “Game Night” by Molly Newman.
With “Sexual Politics” by Monica Owusu-Breen & Alison Schapker (and directed, incidentally, by Sandy Smolan, the son of a family friend) the typical Softening of “Nora” proceeded: “Kitty, I’m so confused. I went from my father’s house to my husband’s house with nothing in between. It’s not like you. Your life was always yours, the choices you made, the life you created belonged to you. . .I did like [being at home.] I would not trade a single moment of it. But now with your father gone and you kids’ grown, I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life. . I have to give myself some time to figure out who I am without having anyone else to account to. Just the next episode title of “Something Ida This Way Comes”, by Sherri Cooper and David Marshall Grant, set up the wicked Jewish grandmother to differentiate “Nora” by comparison and presumably get all the shibboleths about Jewish mothers out of the way, so I’m quoting this episode at length that I expect not to continue to do so. Though the word “Jewish” in describing her is never repeated from the Hanukkah episode, nor, oddly, are any Yiddishims uttered, she is played by Marion Ross, matriarch of the nostalgic TV series Brooklyn Bridge.
Brother“Saul” to “Sister Nora”: You are many things, but low maintenance is not one of them. “Nora” answers the doorbell: Mom ! Oh my God Mom! Mother what are you doing there? “Ida”: It’s your birthday. What do you think I’m doing here? “Nora”: Mother, I think it was supposed to be a surprise. I guess these things can happen. “Ida”: So now it’s my fault. Get my bags, the cabdriver left them. “Nora” confronts her brother: I certainly didn’t think you would invite OUR mother to a surprise party which I didn’t want without some warning in the first place. “Saul”: But she’s here because she loves you. “Nora”: Don’t! She never even came to my husband’s funeral. What kind of mother is that? “Ida” drops something in the kitchen as it goes off: You have so many fancy gadgets. Do you even use half this stuff? “Nora”: I like to cook Mother. “Ida”: Using all this stuff isn’t cooking. It’s cheating. An odd joke of ignorance is thrown in where daughter “Kitty” (Calista Flockhart) is madly calling around for an alternative caterer and is surprised by one: You’re STRICTLY kosher? Say I just wanted a little cream sauce. . .?
At the party, “Ida” complains, amidst the last minute medieval theme and it turns out the family has not only been hiding from her that the oldest son is gay as she goes on and on about him finding a nice girl, but also that the youngest son is on leave from rehab which is why the party is dry: Nora, a peasant girl just told me there’s no alcohol! What is going on here? Though she likes the look of Kitty’s boss: Who’s the movie star? as who wouldn’t say that when he’s played by Rob Lowe, who explains that he provided the last minute chef. Well thank God for you or there would be nothing to eat EITHER.. “Nora” literally starts climbing the walls (at least this counters the stereotype of Jewish women as non-drinkers): Where’s the booze? . . Mom is driving me crazy! I’m going to end up institutionalized on my 60th birthday? “Saul”: Why do you let her get to you? Why don’t you just walk away? “Nora: Oh, where would I go? She’s like a heat-seeking missile! “Saul”: How do you let her do this to you? You’re both behaving like children! “Nora”: How am I behaving like a child? “Saul”: You both blame each other for the same thing Nora! “Nora”: What has she been telling you? “Saul”: Nothing, just that there’s so much misunderstanding going on here. “Nora”: No I understand everything she says. I wish I didn’t. “Saul”: All right, tell me something. Did you tell her not to come to William’s funeral? She told me that you didn’t want her there. “Nora”: I can’t believe you listen to her. She asked me if it would be all right if she went on a cruise to the Bahamas. What was I supposed to do? Say, no Mother I really think it’s be a better idea if you would come to my husband’s funeral?”Saul: Well maybe she just wanted you to tell her that you wanted her to come. “Nora:\”: You know what? It was not about her. It’s not my responsibility to make her feel better. Why do you always take her side? They find booze and down it quickly.
When the truth comes out about the sons, and why didn’t they tell her all these years?, Grandma’s mouth drops open. “Nora” retorts: Oh Mother stop acting so horrified, you’re enjoying every second of this. “Ida”: What else do I not know about this family? “Nora”: All right you want to know so I’m going to tell you. Mother, William cheated on me. Yes, is that what you wanted to hear? William had an affair with another woman for almost half my marriage. And not only that, hold on, he was also an embezzler. A very successful embezzler, but an embezzler none the less. Are you happy now? “Ida”: Well I’m not happy. I’m not surprised, but I’m not happy. “Saul” intervenes that he’s going to take her to his house and then home the next day. “Ida” complains: But what did I do? “Saul”: This is Nora’s birthday and she has had a terrible year. You have not been nice to her since you got here. I’m sorry I invited you, really I am. “Ida” I never understood this family. “Saul”: That’s because you never even tried. Ida walks out.
The kids discuss “the serious family drama” they witnessed. Middle hunky son “Thomas” (played by Balthazar Getty): Can we talk about Grandma? Gay son “Kevin” (played by hunky Matthew Rhys): I mean she’s nice to us. But forget with Mother she’s like Joan Crawford. “Tommy”: Can you imagine having THAT as your parent? Sister “Sarah”: You got to hand it to her. She turned out pretty well considering. They toast Mom from their hidden stash.
”Nora”: goes up to her mother’s guest room: Stop packing. You’re not going anywhere tonight. I know you never liked William. What was it you always called him? The Charmer? Ida: The Operator. “Nora”: You didn’t want me to get hurt. You were being my mother. When I think of somebody hurting my kids. . . But Mother, listen to me. Grown up kids make big ole grown-up mistakes. And you were right, weren’t you? I’ve tried to imagine why he needed somebody else. I’ll never really understand it. But Mother, I want you to know Mother that we had a good marriage. “Ida”: I know! You father spent all of our marriage in the office, at least that’s what he said. In any case, it was hardly a great marriage. Not even a good one. And when I looked at yours, I could see. . There were times I almost left. “Nora”: Why didn’t you? “Ida”: There was you and Saul. I didn’t want to be alone. I realize now that I am anyway. And, Nora, I wanted to come to William’s funeral, but I thought that I had said so many terrible things about him that you wouldn’t want me there. So I told you about the cruise because I wanted to give you an easy way to say ‘Don’t come’. She cries. “Nora’: Oh Mother. I didn’t want to insist that you come. I just didn’t want to take care of you that day. I wanted someone to take care of me. “Ida” gives her a framed baby picture as a birthday present: That’s you. That’s the oldest picture I could find. You were so beautiful, even as an infant. There wasn’t a day I didn’t hear someone say that you looked like a Sears Roebuck doll. . .You must have done something right. You’ve got a house full of joy. If I didn’t call Saul on Sundays, I would never hear from either one of you. “Nora”: That’s not true. I’m glad you came mom. The next morning “Nora”s says she’s feeling better now that your grand mother is headed to the airport. “Kevin”: We all feel terrible about your childhood. “Nora”: That’s a reversal. I just hope I’m not like her. But I think I’m a little like her. I mean I’m opinionated like her, and stubborn. And she says whatever the hell comes to her mind. “Kevin”: Not such a bad role model for a girl in the ‘50’s. Or a gay man now. “Nora”: Genetics is very strong thing. (Commenting about the flu the siblings all have.) You look awful! “Kevin”: Thank you Ida.
“Saul” comes in: She’s headed back to the desert with the other scorpions. “Nora”: Saul, thank you for last night and everything with mother. You haven’t done that since right after my 7th grade Christmas recital, remember? “Saul”: Right, she said you couldn’t sing. “Nora”: Well I couldn’t sing, but she didn’t have to tell me. Well, you’ve been a good big brother, then and now. . . You have to rinse those before you put them in the dishwasher. “Saul”: Nora - shut up. “Nora": Okay, I’ll just rinse them later.
Though in an 4/20/2007 interview in EW with Rachel Griffiths by Alynda Wheat about relating to her character had zilch mention of Jewishness, their insight is significant: “[W]hat Griffiths knows how to do is a rarity in television: She makes her women feminine and forceful. ‘I don’t really understand women who [aren’t]. Get someone small and blond to play that person. It’s not in my nature.’” The mother/daughter relationship issue was revisited in “The Other Walker” by Monica Owusu-Breen & Alison Schapker. Amidst a soap opera plot about the discovery first of a mistress then of her having a daughter by their late father, daughter “Sarah” walks in on Mom buried in a self-help book, complaining So far it’s just pages and pages of vague platitudes. “Sarah” isn’t in the mood for a book review: Mom, you’ve been avoiding my calls. I wish I could turn back the clock. I wish I could have made a different decision but I didn’t. You seem angrier at me than[her brothers] Am I wrong? “Nora: Probably not. “Sarah”: You hold me to a different standard than anyone else. It’s not fair. “Nora”: Yes, you’re right. It’s not fair. I just always felt this connection with you. You raise a boy and you don’t expect them to tell you anything. You’re lucky if they acknowledge you on their way out the door. But you always confided in me. I felt you trusted me to handle whatever came along. I never had that relationship with my mother. I always thought I had that with you. “Sarah: Mom, I do have that relationship with you. The last thing I wanted in the world was to hurt you. ‘Nora”: I know. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t. Mother/daughter issues continued with secular Jewish cultural resonances in “All in the Family” by Sherri Cooper-Landsman and David Marshall Grant. Mom hosted the first dinner with the newly discovered daughter of the mistress. “Sarah”: I got to hand it to you mom. That was quite a party. How was it that you were able to do that? I mean, living with Dad and his whole Republican personal responsibility spiel, you always managed to show us how important it was to give. Mom: The world’s not fair. You do what you can. “Sarah”: That’s exactly what I mean. I’m often astounded by your compassion. I don’t understand why it doesn’t extend to me? Mom, I came here because I want things to be better about us. I need you to care about me the way you care about the world Mom: That’s not true. Of course I love you., but she bursts into tears. I’m sorry. I’m just so mad. Your father’s dead and I need someone to be furious with. It’s so sorry to tell someone who is not around anymore to go to hell. (updated 4/23/2007)

I don't agree about the series’ quality, as I think it’s mostly a self-righteous soap opera, but here's an appreciation of actress and character from Dorothy Rabinowitz in "Studios Turn Up the Lights", The Wall Street Journal 12/22/2006: "Sally Field as Nora, the family matriarch, a woman disposed to a kind of liberal hysteria that addles the mind -- she's not happy about the conservative views of daughter Kitty. . . But Nora wasn't conceived to be anything like a joke mother. She's pure steel, an enemy terrifying in battle. To have viewed an early scene in which Nora graciously entices Holly, the woman who has been her deceased husband's lover, to her home and a large family dinner -- to have seen her brilliant posturing and malice, every madly embittered twinkle, as she moves in for the kill and reveals, to the family (and the similarly innocent TV audience), that she's known all along precisely who and what this woman is -- was to grasp how exceptional a drama series this could turn out to be." In the 11/16/2006 TV Guide, creator Baitz also enthused about his casting, though he made no reference to Jewish characters: “I believe in the story we’re trying to tell—that of an American family who loses its blessing and tries to reclaim them. I believe in the face of Sally Field, which carries her experience and her age with pride, undeniable light and fierce intelligence. I love seeing an American woman over forty who has not succumbed to the temptations of altering her features. I believe in the power of the women in our show and their sensitivity and pride.” (Hmm, and the majority of its viewers who are women too probably.) “I believe in the Walker family as Americans struggling to hold on to their ideals and struggling to love one another, or risk losing the delicate, invisible web of interconnection that sustains them. . . I said yes to television when I realized that I had to try to understand what holds this country together during a time of war and economic disparity and red-state/blue-state mistrust and rage. I thought that a show could talk about that, and if it worked, if it was funny and real, there would be a place for it.” But he was dropped from the show amidst the second season, with his explanation of why it’s no longer focusing on an older women and her ethnicity and what might have been. The disappearance of “Nora”s Jewishness was confirmed in the second season’s “The Missionary Imposition” episode by Daniel Silk and Brian Studler. She is on a date with Danny Glover’s “Isaac Marshall” who relates how he visited Africa to trace his roots. She muses: I don’t know where I come from. If I were to explore my ancestry, I don’t know where I’d go. I’m a little of this and a little of that. I’m a mutt. He reassures her: You’re a very well put together mutt. (updated 2/14/2008)

Ziva David on NCIS -- (4th season on CBS, out on DVD with extras: Cast roundtable (parts 1 & 2), Ducky's World, Behind the Set: The Production Design of NCIS, Dressed to Kill: Dressing the Sets of NCIS, Prop master, Picture Perfect: The Looks of NCIS, Season of Secrets) “Ziva” was at the center of the opening episode of her second year on the series, "Shalom", teleplay by John C. Kelley, from story by Kelley and producer Donald P. Bellisario. She's got cool taste in music, listening to one of my favorite Latin rock bands Kinky in her snazzy sports car as motorcyclists get her attention and she flashes back to an explosive operation in Paris -- just as they lead her to an explosion in Georgetown. Her squad is starting to worry about her not showing up for work. The recently promoted "Tony" is sanguine: What are the two things you know about Officer David? The new probie responds smartly: Don't make her angry. He adds: And she can take of herself. She, however, is now angry with her Mossad supervisor, who goes on about how sorry her father the Mossad chief is about not seeing her. "Ziva": And does he wonder why I hardly talk to him any more? They argue about the assassination she has just witnessed of a Syrian in U.S. custody, he denying it was Mossad, which would jeopardize U.S.- Israeli relations, and she proclaiming her effectiveness as a liaison with NCIS. Then he shows her photographs: Did you or did you not sleep with your new team leader? Starting three months ago, he's been visiting your apartment at least one night a week. "Ziva": My father has you spying on me? . . .These days I don't know what to believe. She finds out the FBI wants to arrest her for murder and espionage. He reassures: Your father will find a way out of this. But "Ziva" recalls the source of their estrangement: Like he did for my brother? She of course easily overcomes her Mossad guard, with saucy dialogue: Ever been tied up by a woman before? Did you enjoy it? She uncharacteristically sobs for help on the phone to her retired boss "Gibbs" down in Mexico: Save me? Turns out it's all an Iranian plot to discredit her father, as she gets in a somewhat silly cat fight with the woman Iranian agent that she concludes with: I'm not making you a martyr. You're under arrest. The Iranian as a Mata Hari for 2006 scoffs: Your time with the Americans has made you soft. But "Ziva"s stereotyped Israeli-ness has been tamed - she throws a tape recorder of the agent's confession to her colleagues: I've been with NCIS for a year. I'm not just a killer any more. Now can I go home? Which certainly would be a new interpretation of American handling of terrorists to "Jack Bauer" on 24, let alone President Bush.
In "Singled Out", by David J. North, she continues to banter with "Tony", particularly about her reckless driving, but the script suddenly has her questioning him about "a mysterious girlfriend" that he denies, so their implied romantic dalliance seems scotched. There is a funny interlude when she incompetently goes undercover as a computer nerd at speed-dating that she doesn't quite understand as "Gibbs" has to order her to Turn up the charm. You're a geek, not mentally deranged. She's ready to wreak revenge on a suspect just for putting his hand on her butt.
"Witch Hunt" by Steven Kriozere continued the now somewhat tired motifs of "Ziva" being uncomfortable with a victim's wife: I'm just never good with the crying and the women. She thinks she's being sensitive in her questioning when she comments to the mother of the kidnapped child: I know what it's like to lose a member of my family. and mangles the English language: I allowed myself to feel sorry for her and that makes me a chimp. "Agent McGee" similarly disparages her alienation from other women in "Once A Hero" by Shane Brennan by pointing out she didn't think to find a victim's purse. She, of course, resents the implication: Does every woman have a bag? He sputters: You're not a, you're not normal. . . You're right, not every woman has a bag. At least her idiomatic English has progressed to punning when she purrs to "Tony" You look run over. You need servicing. as that was in response to him bragging that his body is a finely tuned engine.
"Sandblast" by producer Robert Palm assumed she was a bomb expert (even though she thinks all suicide bombers are crazy). While everyone else on the team clears out when they realize they've been set up by a CIA informant, "Ziva" charges in to defuse the bomb, though she has to deal with flirtatious language from her co-worker that Keanu never had to in Speed as he teases: I can see down your shirt now. . . But I'm not sure it's worth dying for. Of course, she cuts the right wires in the nick of time, to mixed praise from their boss: Nice job, Ziva. But if you ever do anything like that again, I'll kick your ass back to Israel. So when later another bomb is discovered, she's sardonic with him: Do you want me to defuse it because before you said you'd kick my ass. . . And she succeeds with five seconds to go. She similarly heroically rescues the Director in "Once A Hero", in the nick of time blocking her from a falling body at a reception.
In "Twisted Sister" by Steven D. Binder and "Smoked" by John C. Kelley and Robert Palm, we learn that "Agent McGee" has pseudonymously written a series of roman a clef spy novels, Deep Six: The Continuing Adventures of L. J. Tibbs, with loosely-changed characters from his "the essence" of his co-workers. So "Lisa", based on "Ziva", is "the sultry and emotionally distant Mossad officer" who longs to have "Tommy" on the "crystal white sands of her homeland." Inspired to tease by the book fantasy, she breathily leans over "Tony" at his computer: It takes all of my willpower to resist all my urges around you. . . Because my father wouldn't approve. He: Because I'm not Jewish? She: Because he disapproves of killing a co-worker.
”Suspicion” by Shane Brennan tiredly repeated the type of encounter “Ziva” had with a sheriff in the boondocks last season, though this time in a case with Middle Eastern resonance as they are chasing down a Muslim sleeper cell, when he sneers at her Jewish star: And where are you from Ziva She sneers back: The city. He later tries to make amends: Y’know, I didn’t mean anything ‘bout what I said earlier.. She bristles: Yes you did. Then a suspect similarly notices her necklace: You’re a Jew? Israeli? Mossad? . . So now you’re as suspicious of me as I am of you. Is it always going to be like this? “Ziva”: At least in our lifetime. The same good ole’ boy sheriff later makes nasty comments about Muslims, and “Ziva” bristles: You insult his religion, then you insult mine and yours. Say you’re sorry. “Ziva” later explains her curiosity about “Tony”: It’s our Mossad training. We’re taught to push, push, push, and not give up. Her boss snorts: Or until you get your ass licked.
With “Ziva” and her sexy banter a prominent reason that NCIS is the only show bearing up against the American Idol onslaught, “Dead Man Walking”, by Nell Scovell, could have had an AKA of “Ziva in Love”, as her other defining characteristics were re-established in the opening, as “Tony” assumes she can identify their colleague’s fancy new jacket: Why do you assume I knew the designer? Because I’m a woman? Because I’m Jewish? “Tony”s surprisingly honest response: Because you’re a good detective. While in the previous episode she attracted the interest of a cop who at the end died in the line of duty, she fell head over heels for a DOA-style irradiated nuclear arms inspector. Highly unusual for such a TV series, it was not lust at first sight, but grew out of mutual interests and compatible personalities, so I’ll document their doomed courtship. First, she racks her brain to figure out why she recognizes handsome “Lt. Roy Sanders” and surprises her colleagues that it’s not from work: Ziva has personal connections? They click immediately, from her first being knocked against him in the ambulance and her interrogation: Sorry, that was too blunt. He smiles: I like blunt. But as he relates his day they realize they both run at 5:30 a.m. on a trail along the Potomac across the Arlington Memorial Bridge: I pass you every morning. I’m going east, you’re going west. Don’t you recognize me? You have to picture me sweaty and panting, and you know. She holds up her hair. After that description what guy wouldn’t claim to recognize her? Yeah, of course. I know you. You have a smooth stride, great carriage. I often turn after you pass to admire your technique. You have a very cute, tight technique. For the first time ever, she laughs at such a line. Continuing the interview, she asks if he has a girlfriend and he mirrors her thinking: I never met a woman who could understand why I do what I do. She finishes for him: The focus, the risks, the sacrifices. He continues: But I love what I do. I truly believe there are good guys who need protection and bad guys who need monitoring. She continues for him: It’s a mission, not a job. He: ’All that’s needed for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.’ She’s startled: That’s my favorite quote ever! (The full quote is actually “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil. . .” and is attributed but not documented to be by Edmund Burke.) He later notes that he’s informed his parents and his tough father’s reaction: Every problem has a solution. She’s a bit ironical: He sounds a lot like my father. He smiles: I would like you to meet them. Does that sound weird? Out walking in the hospital garden, he jokes about fighting with his sister and she dryly notes: Someday I’ll tell you about my family. He’s gentle back: Don’t wait too long. He almost faints and she lunges to keep him upright: I have to get you into bed. Sorry, it’s my English. and uncharacteristically blushes about her malapropism. Trying to stay professional investigating his co-workers she suggests to one he rebuffed Maybe he’s gay. who responds with regret: No, I saw the way he looked at you. She takes out her frustration on the vending machine when “Tony”, who has been hiding his own romantic relationship from her, points out that she’s falling in love, in a very atypical exchange between them as she accuses him of being no expert on the subject: Part of me just wants to run. I can’t believe this is happening to me, of all people. How should I take it? Character building? Life affirming? “Tony” continues to warn her and she gets sarcastic: The next time Lt. Sanders and I ‘stay up talking’ we’ll use a lead condom. She retrieves “Roy”s neon orange cap that had led her to recognize him as a fellow jogger, hugs it and puts it on his head, as he asks if she would have noticed that he wasn’t on the trail any more: I won’t forget you now. And they clutch hands, in the series’ emblematic black-and-white freeze frame conclusion. Sidelong looks from her colleagues are at first the only acknowledgment of this brief relationship in the following episode “Skeletons” by Jesse Stern, until the goth lab tech “Abby” thinks she’ll be sympathetic to her own break-up. But “Ziva” is characteristically stoic and resists a hug: I liked him. He died. What else is there to say? But there’s sweets hints that she’s still haunted episodes later in “Iceman” by Shane Brennan. She’s late to work for the first time because she changed her running route, misjudging the time as she wore “Roy”s orange cap. When a corpse seems to recover, she mutters I’ve had enough of ‘dead men walking’. That Jewish star necklace of hers is once again a close-up focus when questioning an Arab as he sneers: If we were in Israel, I’d be in your office instead of you in mine.
In “Grace Period” by John C. Kelley, “Ziva” is in tense competition with a female shell-shocked NCIS agent whose team was killed in a bombing who keeps mispronouncing her last name with the usual accent on the wrong syllable. “Gibbs” intervenes sarcastically as the estrogen spill threatens to turn into testosterone: Are you getting soft on me Officer David? “Ziva” explains: Look, I know what she’s going through. Sometimes you need to find some thing or some one to focus your anger on. It’s your only relief. “Gibbs”: Of course the drawback is you know they tend to hate you. For life. “Ziva”: If it helps her get through it, I can deal with that. The other agent is still fuming, to “Tony”: I don’t know how you work with her. . . What do you think Gibbs would do if I slapped her? “Tony”: I’m more worried what she’d do. A Mossad assassin and all. “Ziva” explains what they’ll do when the suspects show up as they set a trap: And we’ll kill them. “Tony” hastens to correct her: We catch them is the preferred term. But the other female agent is admiring: I like hers better. The agent laughs when “Ziva” reacts to a suddenly closed door: I didn’t think anything could make you jump, Officer David. “Ziva”: That was merely a reflex. Officer: In American we call that jumping. “Ziva” admonishes her, but surprisingly gentle: In Mossad, we call that the difference between life and death.

She’s again wearing the orange hat as she comes in her jog at the opening of each episode. In “Cover Story” by David J. North, “Tony” protests about the character created by their colleague that only seems as if it’s based on her: Come on, he’s not writing about you as Lisa and her broken heart. She too dismisses the similarity: The whole point about Lisa and the memento she keeps from a relationship that was never allowed to happen. And they both agree how unrealistic it is that the two would pour out their hearts to each other, as in the book. We do learn that “Ziva” claims her French is better than her English.
”Trojan Horse” by producers Donald P. Bellisario and Shane Brennan was a bit inconsistent in revelations about her. As she struggles to figure out what the team is discussing when they compare “first times”, she reveals: My first time was in a weapons carrier. They respond in unison: Of course! So we’re supposed to believe that she waited until she was over 18 in the army? In the ambiguous season finale “Angel of Death” by outgoing producer Bellissario is she obsessively tracking “Tony” by cell phone messages because of romantic jealousy or just partner concern as she claims? (updated 10/28/2007)


Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold and daughter Sarah in the second half of the 3rd Season (out on DVD)
In “Manic Monday” by Doug Ellin, Marc Abrams and Michael Benson, “Ari”s gay Chinese-American assistant “Lloyd” is allied with her: The Mrs. said you didn’t eat dinner again last nigh. “Ari”: Why do you talk so much? “Lloyd”: We like each other. . .When he’s done you will be at couples therapy. Yes! Later at therapy, the Mrs. explains she knows something’s wrong with him because his eating and sleeping has been atypical: I didn’t see him sleep past 5:30 since 1993. And that he didn’t even go to the Lakers game in order to avoid his ex-client: He’s been in a funk since he got fired. And then of course there was the birthday party incident. . . “Ari” apoplectically protests: I came here today because I thought this was a session n how my wife could learn to communicate. How to answer a question without a question. Basic Humanity 101, which I thought given your wall of fucking diplomas you could easily fix. Or if you couldn’t you could give her a pill that could either fix it or make her a mute. But now to turn around and gang up on me? I have work to do! I have hundreds of clients to deal with and just so we’re clear I don’t care about any of them. They’re all just a number. Just like Wife #1 and Therapist #7. He storms out and the Mrs. apologetically says to Nora Dunn, playing the therapist: You’re really only our fifth. Later he tracks the therapist down at her weekly golf game to admit his wife was right. She advises: You can right now stop, work hard and go in a direction to make yourself a decent positive member of society. . .or you can go back to the low life narcissistic grunt I’ve watched berate his wife for a year a half in my office. He protests: I knew you were on her side! But maybe the Mrs. is having an impact because in “Dog Day Afternoon” by Ellin and Rob Weiss, “Ari” displays a shocking bout of ethics. They are in the car and she queries: Ari, are you OK? What’s the matter? You’ve been in a fog since dinner! He sighs: I sold my soul today baby. She: What do you mean? He: Just what I said. But for what? So we can have two shower heads and a plasma in every room? She: Tomorrow’s a new day, Ari. And remember you always have a chance to get it back. He:We’re Jews baby, no we don’t. As Donna Summers’ disco hit “She Works Hard for the Money” comes on the car radio, he swerves the car around as she screams: What are you doing? He rescues “Lloyd” from a just-signed gay writer with the epithet: We may be whores at my agency, but we’re not pimps. “Lloyd” cheers: Ari Gold, you’re my hero!
”Gotcha!” by Rob Weiss and Ellin was more about how the relationship between “Ari” and his Mrs. grounds his ambitions, as it opened with them preparing for a visit from his old college buddy. Mrs.: How come any time I ask you to take a day you can’t, but your little pledge brother comes to visit and you clear your calendar? “Ari”: Because any time you ask, I have a really important meeting. Just the luck of the draw, baby. Mrs., laughing: Why is he staying with us anyway? “Ari”: Because not everyone can afford a hotel room in Beverly Hills. Mrs.: Well, not everyone likes to get sexually harassed by your fraternity brothers. “Ari”: We have not seen Scott Siegel in 10 years. Let’s not live in the past. Mrs.: Oh the past, where he’d yell ‘Hey, sweet ass!’ at me and you’d laugh like an idiot? “Ari”: He was funny! Mrs.: Yeah, I never thought so. “Ari”: That’s because you don’t have a sense of humor. Do you know that he was ahead of Conan O’Brian at The Lampoon? (That’s a change from previous references to their alma maters, as he wasn’t previously identified as a Harvard, or Ivy League, alum.) Mrs.: Yeah, and now he’s making ‘em laugh as a bartender at Hooter’s. Who’da thunk it? “Ari”: That’s when he was 27. He could be a manager of Hooters now for all we know. Mrs.: and his fiancée is staying here as well? “Ari”: No, he’s naturally going to keep her locked up in the car. Mrs.: Well, he probably should if she’s anything like the girl he brought to the wedding. “Ari” giving her a kiss: Scott could never get good looking women, but at least he’s found love. Oh God, I hope she’s not another. . . (a few unintelligibles there) Doorbell rings and she laughs: Oh God! He’s early!
”Scott” (played by Arte Lange): There they are – the most powerful couple in L.A.! “Ari”: It’s my man! How are you doing? “Scott” to Mrs.: Wow – look at you! You haven’t aged a day! Whaddya do – pilates three days a week? Mrs., pleased and blushing: Stop it! “Scott”: Come here – let me feel that tautness. It’s a joke, I’m kidding. A little humor for old times’ sake. You look gorgeous. Get over here – I get a hug or what? Mrs. demurs, then laughs: OK, yes. You! “Ari”: So where’s this alleged fiancée of yours? “Scott”: Aw, she’s comin’. Hey, baby, I wanna show you off. And in comes a young blonde knock-out, played by Leslie Bibb, in slo-mo: I scored big time, huh? And Jewish. Well, she’s converting. Gonna have her bat mitzvah three weeks before the wedding. That’s an unusual occurrence on Jewish relationships in TV shows. To Mrs.: It could have been you if you didn’t reject me so many times. The “Golds” are uncharacteristically struck dumb, until they can finally manage to greet her and shake her hand, and she kisses “Scott”, who makes introductions: Baby, meet the only girl that could have kept us from being together. Mrs.: I don’t think so. So nice to meet you, Laurie.
They are BBQing in the back yard. “Scott” is slathering sunscreen on “Laurie” by the pool. “Ari” to Mrs.:How the heck did he get her? Seriously? Mrs.:What – are you jealous? He: No! Maybe? She: Hey, if that’s what you want, Ari, it’s not too late. He: Over ten years of marriage and no pre-nup, I think that’s a little past too late. (That’s a reference to California’s 50% communal property rule for divorces after 10 years of marriage, that Tom Cruise famously made sure to just miss when he dumped Nicole Kidman.) She: Whatever. He: Don’t whatever me, baby. Answer me –the question, baby, is how the fuck could he have possibly gotten that? She: Ari, he is one of your oldest friends. He: I love him, baby, but in college he couldn’t close a screen door. She: Well, I think you were right. It seems like he’s changed. He: The sexual harasser? She: Well, he’s grown into himself. He, imitating “Scott”s voice: He wanted to feel your tautness! She, walking away: I guess pilates has paid off. Nice that somebody has noticed.
”Laurie” shows off a huge engagement ring. “Scott” brags about what it cost, and his Bentley. She gushes: He bought me one too. For Hanukah. “Scott” corrects her pronunciation, exaggerating a hard “ch”. “Ari” teases him for having worked at Hooter’s and “Scott” asks him to stop – and “Laurie”s surprised because he hadn’t told her. “Scott”: Years ago, don’t hold it against me. It was back during my, y’know, make my parents feel like they fucked me up phase. Mrs. agrees, as she points her sarcasm at herself and reveals a bit more than we knew before: I know that phase. Two years skiing in Aspen. And then I was an ‘actress’. “Laurie” concurs: Culinary school. But then I finally got it together and went to medical school, so. The “Golds” are again dumbfounded. Mrs.: What? You’re a doctor? “Scott”: Radiology. “Laurie”:I’m still only a resident. Mrs.That is very impressive. “Scott”: And she’s only 26! Just a baby! They kiss. “Ari”: So what are you doing, Scottie?, as he runs down all the lame stuff he last heard “Scott” was doing. “Scott” Yeah, Ari wanted me to come out here to work for him as if I was still his little brother back at the frat. Actually, Ari, I don’t do anything. And he proceeds to explain how he’s an internet $65 millionaire from developing and selling stamps.com. The “Golds” are again dumbfounded. Mrs. You know, Scott, that is an amazing story. I always knew you’d find your way. “Scott” proposes a toast: To all of our success and to our most beautiful women! Mrs.: Oh, Scott that is very sweet!
The “Golds” are dressing for dinner in their bedroom. She looks gorgeous in sexy lingerie, he’s in a towel. “Ari”: We should just tell them to go to a hotel. I mean, they can afford it. She, imitating his voice: Hmm, what a difference six hours makes. When I said that, you said ‘It’s only one night. Shit, you can do that in a Mexican jail and come out almost as clean as you went in’, I believe was the quote. He: When we were 25 it was funny when he would say how hot you are. Now, it’s just annoying. She: No, when we were 25 he’d say stuff like ‘Show me your tits!’ or ‘if I hit this shot from half court how about a blow job?’ and you’d laugh your ass off. Now he’s sort of complimentary and it’s kind of sweet. He: No, it’s kind of sickening. She: You know what I think? I think that you like Scott as a loser with no money and no girls and now he’s got more money than you and a younger girl and you’re sort of threatened. He: Threatened?! She: Yes, threatened. And it’s really immature, Ari. He: Oh, it’s immature that I don’t like my adult friend speaking to my wife like that. Well, obviously you do and he does. So why don’t we see how Scott likes it when I start drooling over the future Mrs. Siegel’s soon-to-be-Jewish ass?
The two couples are at dinner. Mrs.: Scott, this steak is terrific! “Laurie” beams: Glatt kosher. “Scott: Y’know, we passed by a butcher on Fairfax and I said we had to get it for you guys. “Ari”: We’re not kosher, Scott. Mrs.: Well it was still thoughtful. “Laurie”, with a malapropism: It’s clean meat. Glatt, right? “Scott”, sharing a laugh with Mrs., as “Ari” burns: And lean. Not that you need to worry about that. “Ari”: I’m surprised you eat red meat, Laurie. “Laurie”: Why? “Ari”, as Mrs. tries to stop him: I mean with a body like that. . Mrs. interrupts: So tell us about the honeymoon? “Laurie” It’s going to be amazing! “Ari”: It’s going to be amazing, like that body! Mrs., quickly: 27 days you say? “Laurie”: Yeah, yeah. Just the two of us. “Scott” explains the yacht trip. Mrs.: Sounds amazing. Truly amazing. “Ari”: What? Our honeymoon sucked? C’mon! Mrs.: And our honeymoon was amazing, Ari. “Ari”: So we only made it to Hawaii. We didn’t have any money, like most people don’t when they get married. “Scott”: Well, I’m sure, look wherever you went with this beautiful woman was absolutely heavenly.. Mrs. beams: Thank you Scott. “Ari”: Just as I’m sure wherever you go with this little hottie will be more than amazing. Fuck, it will be orgasmic. I mean, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but ever since you got here I have not been able to take my eyes off your ass, I mean it is the perfect shape. It’s like God came down, hand-crafted it, put it on a little silver tray and hand-delivered it to my man Scottie. Bravo Scott boy! Bravo! Let me get some Scotch! Mrs., very embarrassed, gets up from the table: I am so sorry.
The “Golds” are in their living room. Mrs.: Ari! What the fuck is wrong with you! “Ari”: What? Too much? Mrs.: Just a little. “Ari”: Pay back is a bitch. Mrs.I cannot believe how jealous you are of him! It is ridiculous! “Ari”: He won the lottery! Stamps.com? Are you kidding me? Mrs.: What don’t you have Ari? Sorry, is this not enough for you? “Ari”: It is enough for me, but I’m starting to feel that maybe it’s not enough for you? Mrs.: You’re right Ari. It’s not enough for me. Which is why I stuck it out with you this long. In the hopes that your college friend who nauseated me would make $65 million and come back and rescue me from you. “Ari”: I’m detecting sarcasm? They laugh. Mrs.: You’re detecting a lot of sarcasm. This is more than enough for me. You, Ari, are more than enough for me. He: Come here. He lifts her up, against the fireplace. She wraps her legs around him and they kiss passionately. Scott bursts in on them – but they stay frozen in place, Mrs. playing with his hair. “Scott: Listen, Ari. I know you were kidding out there but Laurie doesn’t get frat humor. So she’s outside getting a cab. I’m gonna grab the bags and we’re gonna go to a hotel. But listen, I’ll be back in a couple of months and we’ll grab a steak and a couple of dances over at the Rhino, all right? Sorry, take care. He exits. Mrs.: Should we try to stop them? “Ari”: Nah, kids are at your mom’s. Let’s burn the house to the ground. (That’s a Talking Heads song reference.) Mrs., laughing: OK. He carries her over to the couch, he’s on top, and her legs go up with a whoop.
In “Return of the King”, by Brian Burns, the Jewish mothers are the enforcers of religious rules on Yom Kippur. The “Gold” family is walking to shule in the morning. “Sarah” is already complaining: I hate this! I’m starving! “Ari”: Now you know what Mommy goes through every day to make a hot body for Daddy. Mrs.: Ari! “Ari”: Daddy’s just kidding sweetie. Mrs.: We fast today to make important sacrifices to show God we’re sorry for our sins. “Sarah”: Daddy ate a breath mint! Mrs.: What! “Ari”: Now you’re going to have to atone for ratting daddy out baby. What - - you think God wants my breath to smell? They meet up with colleagues, the “Rubinsteins”, an imbalanced father-son producing team. The mother, Sheila played by Caroline Aaron, is furious that the father jetted off to work, let alone that the son, played by Adam Goldberg, keeps using the F word today about a crisis with a sundown deadline that impacts “Ari”s ex-client “Vince”. Mrs. interjects: Ari doesn’t have a phone, Nick, it’s Yom Kippur. “Mrs. Rubinstein”: Nick doesn’t either because I frisked him before we walked out. But “Ari” and “Nick” keep negotiating. Mrs.:Jesus Christ! It’s Yom Kippur! “Ari”: Look who just said Jesus Christ!. . .I can’t, my hands are tied. It’s the holiday. Mrs.: Thank you! But he reveals a secret phone to “Nick”. “Sarah” later tracks him down in back of the synagogue, next to the dumpster, negotiating with “Nick” and “Vince”s new agent: Mom told me to find you. “Ari”: You did. I’m in the bathroom. I’m not feeling well. I’m getting sick. “Sarah”: You want me to lie? “Ari”: That’s the beauty of Yom Kippur. As long as you apologize by sundown, it doesn’t matter what you do. The two men discuss how to get to the studio chief’s Orthodox shule two miles away. “Nick” complains that his mother took all his money away. “Ari” sympathizes about his wife: She took everything but my fillings. Mrs. confronts him back at their “half-Christian shule”, as the studio chief, played by Harris Yulin, sarcastically referred to their Reform synagogue: I don’t even know what to say. “Ari”: I’m sorry. I will fast the whole week to prove to you how sorry I am. Mrs.: Just get your ass in that temple and set a good example for your children. He hands over the phone. Mrs.: And the bat phone. He hands it from its hiding place in his sock. Thank you. But in the middle of the sermon, the phone goes off, and Mrs. has to fetch it from her purse, being roundly criticized all around. “Nick” is apoplectic that “Ari” didn’t answer the phone. Mrs. warns: Ari don’t! “Ari”: I can’t abandon a brother in peril! Not on the High Holiday! Mrs., icily: Abandon me again Ari, you’ll be going to have to do a whole lot more than pray. “Sarah” warns: I wouldn’t move Daddy. Back at home, they are waiting to break fast. Mrs. warns her uncle, played by Shelley Berman, hovering at the buffet table: Five minutes, Shelley. Then you can eat ‘til you drop. Excuse me. . . and she glowers at “Ari” at the house phone. “Ari”: I’m not even making a call. I’m just checking messages. Mrs.: In four minutes, Ari! But he distracts her by pointing at her uncle: Shelley! The Boys from Queens suddenly barge in: We tried to call but no one was answering. Mrs.: That would be my fault. I have his phones. “Ari” grabs their phones as she tries to object: What -- they’re not Jewish! At the “Rubinsteins” the phone rings and the mother yells: Don’t you dare answer that phone Nick! Back at the “Golds”, Mrs. announces: It’s 6:58! Everybody can eat! Hmm, in our family, we can’t eat until way after 7:18. Maybe it’s California time.


Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold and daughter Sarah in Season 4 followed in only two weeks and were a prominent feature of “Ari”s life, as indicated by Reeves being upgraded to a listing in the opening credits. (I’ll transcribe their continuing revelatory family relationship in the fourth season ("We agreed to suffer through monogamy together." Says Ari to his wife.) when I get a chance. USA Weekend, 9/28/2007, declared Ari Gold and Mrs. Ari #3 in the Top 5 Best Relationships on TV, voted by a panel of three newspaper columnist relationship experts – just ahead of Homer & Marge Simpson. (updated 10/7/2007)

Rhonda Pearlman on The Wire (on HBO, 4th season out on DVD) has gotten more race conscious in the 4th season now that she's sleeping with (and possibly living with, not clear yet) a black man, "Major Cedric Daniels". In Chapter 39 - "Soft Eyes", teleplay by David Mills, she's ambitious and far more cynical about her career future as a white prosecutor in black majority Baltimore than in earlier seasons - the frankest awareness of a Jewish woman as a white woman I've ever seen on TV. She confronts wily "Detective Lester Freaman" who has sub rosa craftily issued politically explosive subpoenas and challenges "Rhonda" with a Why do you care? She gets in his face: If [my boss] thinks I fucked him and he wins, I will be in central booking covering bail reviews. If he loses to [his opponent] a new front office comes in and maybe they bounce the white girl back to a trial team and give the narcotics division to one of their own. It's Baltimore Lester! [The white candidate later is even more frank about the problem of political ambition in an upcoming debate against the black mayor: I can beat his ass, but the next morning I still wake up white in a city that ain't.] She refuses to issue two more subpoenas on other VIPs and "Lester" reacts The hell you are! She describes in detail the political connections of the two targets: We drop subpoenas on these guys three weeks before the primaries and all hell breaks loose. "Lester" challenges her: You can give me resumes and job titles. I'm just following the money. "Rhonda": And we will follow it. After the polls close. We can drop a second batch of subpoenas. There is no reason to do this now-- "Lester" uncharacteristically shows his hand: But right now with the primary coming they have to worry about how they look. Right now they have to worry about scandal. She realizes she's been played: You told me you wanted to do this a year ago but fresh cases got in the way. . .Very clever, Lester. You have it all figured out. "Lester" goes back into his usual modesty subterfuge: I'm just the po-lice. She relates the story to his ex-boss "Cedric" in bed while they're working in PJs. The thing I resent the most - he's not just playing the system, he's playing me! Like I'm part of the problem. "Cedric" is amused: And now you feel about guilty about it? He sarcastically imitates the detective: Did he do that thing where he stares at you over the top of his reading glasses? You know, that look that says I'm the father you never had and I never want to be disappointed in you ever again. They laugh but she protests: It's not funny Cedric! Those subpoenas went out today. The front office is going to go bat shit! He laughs again: Shit, I'm just glad to see Lester doing it to someone other than me. She hits him with her pillow, he holds her and kisses her and they embrace sexily.
In "Alliances", teleplay by Edward Burns, story by David Simon and Burns, "Rhonda" is trying to figure out how to balance her ambitions and feeling like she's accomplishing anything, as she muses to "Cedric" in his office after they witness desultory drug busts: If [her boss] wins and forgives me my trespasses maybe I'll go in and beg for something new. I don't know, it feels like enough is enough.
It's post-election in "Unto Others", teleplay by story editor William F. Zorzi, story by Burns and Zorzi, and "Rhonda" is girded for the worst at her first meeting with her new boss. She offers: How can I help with your transition? but he targets right in on the timing of the controversial subpoenas and she sinks in her chair. Yeah, I think you're wasted in narcotics--and asks her take over the Violent Crimes Unit, in charge of all homicide investigations. She admits to being taken aback that she didn't get demoted, as she mumbled "Lester", and the new boss who is definitely not like the old boss explains: You didn't intend to go after a couple of [the mayor's] money men just before the primary? . . .I won and I admire your courage if not your loyalty.
In "Corner Boys", teleplay by novelist Richard Price, story by Price and Burns, she's warmly encouraging to her lover "Cedric" as he's reluctant to meet with the mayor-elect about the police that goes around protocol and advises: Baby, I'd fire away, with both barrels. And she kisses him. Their equal, loving and supportive relationship is very atypical for this brutally realistic series -- can it last as they both get promoted? In "Know Your Place", teleplay by new writer Kia Corthron, story by Corthron and Burns, while they're making dinner she asks about his promotion to colonel ceremony: Will you be embarrassed if I'm there? Can I come? He affirms going public with their relationship: I'll be proud if you're there. They kiss and make a toast to the Mayor-elect, and she adds And us. She grins and applauds proudly in the second row. In "A New Day", teleplay by Burns, story by Burns and David Simon, "Sgt. Landsman" picks up on their relationship as they announce the Mayor's "mandate for change" in the Police Department, shrewdly commenting to himself They make a nice couple.
In the despairing season finale “Final Grades” by David Simon and Ed Burns, her ex-boyfriend, the reformed drunken cop “McNulty”, is back, congratulating her amidst "Cedric"s former school gym now full of dozens of dead bodies: Your first red ball. . .You’ll be fine Ronnie. Just don’t let any one see you sweat. But even with her current boyfriend authorizing more resources for the investigation she still has a tough case to make as she’s all exasperated business, yet keeping the overwhelming case organized: Where’s the PC [probable cause] on [the innocuous looking pair of assassins]? Weak. Very weak. And the bodies keep coming in: Just when you think you’re done. . . and they sit down together for a progress report to the new Mayor. We’ll have to wait another year to find out if she can get the kingpin and his young henchmen into jail. (updated 12/4/2006)


Yael Hoffman on Weeds (on Showtime most nights of the week and On Demand). In the first episode of the second season, which jump started the TV season in August, "Corn Snake" by creator Jenji Kohan, we were introduced to more "Israeli snap" through the sexiest, skimpiest dressed Director of Admissions of any rabbinical school where the lazy, conniving brother-in-law "Andy Botwin" (played by hunky Justin Kirk) wants to enter to avoid military service. At least she's played by a real Israeli actress with a genuine accent, Meital Dohan, so she can fluently say in Hebrew I think you're full of shit and pointedly tell him as she shows him the door and announces she's done with him: I'm wearing a bra so stop looking for my nipples. There is genuine chemistry between them as he uncharacteristically hesitates You make me very nervous. so I look forward to the recurring potential of what could be the youngest attractive young Jewish couple on TV. In the 2nd episode, "Cooking With Jesus" by Kohan, she's impressed by the entrance essay he rolled up while stoned -- Is this your version of the Torah? -- and provisionally accepts him into the school.
In the 3rd episode, "Last Tango in Agnestic" by Robert Benabib, we learn more about "Yael", which of course plays upon stereotypes of Israeli women very similar to "Ziva David" on NCIS (that are a bit less funny now with the revelations coming out about officers harassing women). Now a rabbinical student half-heartedly learning Hebrew, "Andy" flirts with her asking if she's with someone: Not since my lover was killed. . .He was my commanding officer in the Israeli army. A fucking Hamas suicide bomber piece of shit blew him up in a pizza parlor. . .anyway, since hunting down Zev's murderers I've sort of been concentrating on my studies. He asks about her name, an amusing question from someone ostensibly studying the Bible. It's from the Book of Judges. Yael invites the leader of the enemy army into her tent, gives him milk to drink and when he falls asleep she hammers a tent stake through his skull. . I guess my parents expected big things from me. He asks her out for something other than milk as thanks for the school admission. I have a policy never to date students. "Andy": Just commanding officers? Yael: I was just following orders. . . Okay, fine.
"A.K.A. The Plant" by Matthew Salsberg continued satirizing Israeli women and men vs. metrosexuals. "Andy" takes "Yael" out as a thank you and she's knocking 'em back. He flatters her: You have amazing shoulders. "Yael": No they're tarnished. [I think that was her word.] Bullet wound from the Army. "Andy": You saw battle? "Yael": Israeli men are very macho. Everything is all fine when you bring another woman into bed. But you bring another man? And they go crazy. "Andy": So he shot you? "Yael": To be honest, if he hadn't, I would have thought he was a faggot. And the sex was great that night, the pain and the pleasure - hmm, very exciting, hmm. L'chaim! as she cheerfully downs another glass. They laugh and he comes in for a kiss. What are you doing? "Andy": Oh, I thought we were hitting it off. "Yael": Yeah we are. He tries again to kiss her. "Andy" is perplexed: I'm sorry, it's too soon since your lover died. "Yael": No, I've been with many men. Helps to get over things. "Andy": Good. He again comes in for a kiss and she grabs his hand to stop him. Am I getting mixed messages here? Or? "Yael": Look, you're adorable, but I'm not attracted to you. Sorry. "Andy": Are you a chubby chaser or something? "Yael": No, just I like a man, someone big and strong. Someone who can grow a beard. You're pretty and I could flip you like a pancake. You'll ask permission instead of just slamming me up against the wall and fucking me until I come like a volcano. But we can still be friends, right? "Andy" is not a happy camper!
"Crush Girl Love Panic" by Devon K. Shepherd continued to satirize the image of Israeli women as vigorously omnisexual. "Andy" is Israeli dancing at his school when "Yael" dances over when he takes a break out in the hall. She lets down her hair and purrs: Are you still angry with me? "Andy": No, I'm still fine with being friends. "Yael" puts her leg over his chair, pulls out a flask from her garter and takes a swig. "Andy" leans over: I have to fuck you! "Yael" laughs: Will you stop! You don't have the qualities I look for in a man. He: Now what exactly are the qualities? I can get them. I know a guy who knows a guy. "Yael" takes another swig: I like big men. You have none of the physical qualities I look for in a male lover. She strokes his cheek. But you do have soft skin and sad eyes and those are the things I find very attractive when I sleep with women. Next we see them he's almost naked, she's pushing him onto a bed and is quickly stripping. She takes out a VERY large, black leather dildo and straps it on with high boots. "Andy" laughs nervously: Think you can take it? "Yael", theatrically: It's not for me. He eyes it: It's big. "Yael": I know. "Andy": That's really big. "Yael": It'll fit. She greases it up. Stop being a pussy. "Andy": I thought that was the whole point. He leans over to kiss her. She pushes him face down on the bed. Don't forget to breathe! And all this is accompanied by merry klezmer music. I didn’t mark the URL (let me know if you find the citation), but an online men’s magazine cited this in his Top 10 Sexiest Scenes on TV in 2006.
In "Must Find Toes" by Barry Safchik and Michael Platt, "Yael" slinks into "Andy"s room after he's recovering from a dog biting off two of his toes: How's my little man? . . . What can I do to make you feel better?. . .That wasn't bad for a skinny gimp. He: I found your gimel spot, didn't I? She laughs and he tries to get her to stay for another round of him "pitching instead of catching": I have a life you know. I can't spend all day in bed like some people. I have a lot of work at school. When do you think you'll be back? Everyone misses you. He happily explains that he no longer needs rabbinical school to avoid military service. She's furious and slaps him. You can't commit to anything can you? . . . I trusted you. I put my job on the line. I thought you had rouach. . . You are a scrawny selfish little pig. I did everything for you. The dog should have bit your dick off. He colorfully refutes her points but she slaps him again and I'm not sure if she used the Hebrew term instead. An episode or so later, he's taking his nephews supermarket shopping, sees a display of kosher food and sighs regretfully: Ah Yael! (updated 1/18/2007)


Jenny Schecter in the 4th Season of The L Word (on Showtime, repeated frequently and On Demand, and will be repeated on Logo Channel. Out on DVD.) All the criticism of this character may finally have reached creator Ilene Chaiken, as she said in an interview in the 1/12/2007 Entertainment Weekly: “We’re letting her be as evil as everyone thinks she is.” In the season premiere “Legend in the Making” “Jenny” actually has some common sense. (I haven’t checked the deleted scenes yet on the Showtime web site to see if there’s more insight into the character.) She finally gets realistic about her lover “Moira/Max” who complains: I just don’t know why we can’t work it out. . . I thought you supported my transition. “Jenny” sensibly replies: I do support your transition. We just don’t go together any more. . .Because you identify as a straight man. So there is the mismatch because you want me to be the straight girl to your straight guy and I identify as lesbian who likes to fuck girls. And you are not a girl. And to "Max"s chagrin, "Jenny" rolls around with another lovely woman. It was also realistic that the first magazine review she reads of her just published memoir criticizes it for being “self-indulgent”.
In ”Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Alexandra Kondracke, “Jenny” gave us some more context on her family that has been so confusing up to now, but she also got some more comeuppance. Heather Matarazzo is playing “Stacey Merkin,” a reporter whose piece she had admired in the New Yorker, even though I told my publicist I don’t want to do any more gay press. “Stacey” sympathizes: That’s understandable. You don’t want to be ghettoized. “Jenny” corrects: Not so much as a lesbian writer, as a memoirist, just want to be a writer. “Stacey”: I’m not happy unless I’m qualified by at least five things. . .pussy-tasting, cunt-enthusiast, half-BuJew . . . it is half-Jewish but practicing Buddhist. “Jenny” laughs and identifies herself as Jewish. “Stacey”: Nice, rock on! Jewish sisterhood! Way to go. “Jenny” grins: Yeah, Jewish lesbians. “Stacey”: But the reason I choose to write for Curve magazine is that they let me pick the books that I review. And I only review the books that hold a real significance to me. . . My partner is a survivor. “Jenny” continues the interview: I didn’t want the boys to come across as one-dimensional monsters. And what I was trying to show was that in our culture, sometimes boys are condoned for their actions. And that it is okay to rape these girls, girls are for raping. “Stacey”: It seems to me that the real monsters in your book are your parents. “Jenny”: No. I didn’t want my parents to come across as evil. I love my parents so much. When it happened, they were just devastated. You know, I think as adults they had the power to help me overcome it, and they chose not to. Instead it festered into a pathology, and I think the sum of it may be pretty dysfunctional, you know, probably making me into the dysfunctional liar that I was for most of my young adult life. “Stacey”: This is a very brave thing to admit about yourself. “Jenny”: I don’t know, I think that is why I write, I just want to get all this stuff out. Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever opened like this to someone before. You’ve made me feel very safe. Thank you for that. “Jenny” has gone online to enthusiastically check out the magazine for the review and assures “Max” why she didn’t need to have it pre-screened for protection. We had an understanding. I think that’s the kind of thing that happens when two gay women speak to each other. Yeh – here it is! She reads it out loud: ”Jennifer Schecter - Sum of Her Parts: Jennifer Schecter’s autobiographical examination of her violated childhood is sexually explicit, self-indulgent and self-pitying. Schecter is an undisciplined writer who applies a sloppy solipsistic logic to an undisciplined life. Her central thesis that childhood sexual abuse is both a cause and an excuse for deceitful adult behavior is both insulting and dangerous to those myriad women who have suffered at the hands of predatory men.” Okay, c’est la vie. She closes the computer and walks away from the table. Fuck you Stacey Merkin! Fuck you! Her roommate “Shane” comes to see what all the screaming is about. What happened is that Stacey Merkin revealed herself to be a true cunt. She used her gayness to get me to open up. And the thing is Shane I didn’t even want to do the fucking interview. All while being interrupted by “Shane” not to curse in front of her young step-brother, but she keeps instructing to him Say Stacey Merkin is a fucking cunt over and over, until “Shane” gets him out of the room. “Jenny” tries to get into “Stacey”s office but the receptionist’s points out she’s not there. Let me ask you something, Jolene, did you read that little piece of shit review that she wrote about me in your little magazine called Curve? Because actually I got a rave review in Publishers Weekly magazine, can you just look my review please, at pw.com, just put in Jennifer Schecter. “Jolene”: Well good for you Jennifer, then you shouldn’t give a shit what she wrote in this piece of shit magazine. “Jenny” shouting: But I do care, because I think she should be fired. I think she used duplicitous methods to get me to open up. . . She used her sexual orientation and her gayness to get me to open up. And do you know what Merkin means, Jolene? “Vagina wig”, that’s what her name means. Shame on you, for not correcting her sloppy syntax and grammar. The Showtime web site included an interview comment with Chaiken that actress Mia Kirschner ad libbed that definition.
”Lassoed” by Chaiken opens up in stylized black and white, with “Jenny” channeling Marlon Brando as she bellows Stacey! and then she describes what she did to “Alice”: So I found an ‘S. Merkin’ in Van Nuys, which is so of course where that ‘vagina wig’ is going to live. . .So I go to the house and I’m standing out front: ‘Yo, Stacey, say it to my fuckin’ face, you fuckin’ vagina!’ And she makes fun of an elderly Korean neighbor who complained. Even “Alice” who had previous stalking experience is startled: You were yelling outside her balcony at 4 in the morning? “Jenny”: I was! Because did you read the review? . . It was fundamentally dishonest! “Alice” sympathizes: Yeah lesbians love to eat their own. “Jenny”: The thing is the vagina’s girlfriend was molested and now she’s like this perfect saint, which is awesome and I was abused and I’m like this fucked-up nitwit, but that’s MY experience! And that’s mine and I don’t know why she’s slamming me for my own experience. “Alice” advises: Let it go. It’s this tiny magazine, I mean who reads it? And didn’t Elle say something great about ‘refreshingly literate’? That’s huge. Concentrate on that. However, later in the ladies room at a club party, another woman comments about a flyer for “Jenny”s reading the previous week and why she hasn’t read the book: I read the review in Curve magazine. It said some of the parts made her ashamed to be a lesbian. “Jenny” complains to her friends: She’s the one who ought to be ashamed to call herself a lesbian. . . I mean ‘Saint Lindsay’ – why is she in the pantheon of honesty? A visiting academic, “Phyllis”, played by Cybill Shepherd gives advice from the cutthroat world of the ivory tower: The fact that she compared the two of you is proof enough of her stupidity. “Jenny”: Thank you! I mean the whole thing was, I wasn’t writing about all survivors’ stories, I was just writing about my story and my experience. I think Chaiken is answering critics of “Jenny”s character. “Phyllis”: It’s a shame you can’t do what I did when I got my first bad review. . .The reviewer . . . absolutely ridiculed my premise, so with a wicked rebuttal I just dismantled him point by point. He lost his job because of it. Too bad you can’t prove your critic was wrong about her girlfriend’s unimpeachable integrity.
“Jenny” makes up an excuse to ask “Max” to track down “Lindsay”s psychiatric records on the internet and over the next couple of episodes lies and entraps her to reveal more about “Stacey”. In “Lez Girls” by Chaiken she goads her to speak ill of her partner: I just got this image of her that she becomes this fucking cunt. That she just churns out page after page of utter shit that she thinks is worth all the ego and maniacal behavior. “Jenny” flirts with her until she reveals where “Stacey” lives and that she’s coming to be with her the next day. Meanwhile, the friends discover that “Jenny” has had a piece published and “Alice” is furious, as she describes it: Jenny has new fiction – a serialized novella in The New Yorker called “Lez Girls”. She describes herself as ‘innocent but open-hearted photographer from the Midwest Jessie Star who moves to Los Angeles to be with her boyfriend and is seduced . . . She recites off the various names that have barely been changed and protests that “Jenny” is being really mean. She later confronts “Jenny”: We’re in it! “Jenny” is her usual self-centered self: Thank you Alice so much for being so gracious about my accomplishment of being published in The New Yorker, but Alice if you actually read beyond the cover. . . “Alice” seething: Oh I read it! “Jenny”: It’s The New Yorker’s FICTION issue! You’d see that it is actually a work of fiction. “Alice”: That’s bull shit!. “Max” defends her. “Jenny”: I draw from my own life and I use my friends’ and my own experiences as my inspiration but at the end of the day it’s fiction. Hey Alice there’s this crazy weird thing that happens when you write. As a writer. . “Alice” the journalist/radio broadcaster is sarcastic: Wait is this a lesson? In writing? From Jenny Schecter? Let me get a pen! “Jenny”: Get a pad too! This thing that happens when you draw from your life and then in turn you take these experience and then you use something called imagination, Alice. “Alice”: Oh, imagination! God, so that’s the thing you were lacking when you could barely change our names! “Jenny” goes on a odd jag of pretending to call Monet and claiming what she did is like him painting water lilies. “Alice” also pretends to call him: Don’t you even fucking compare yourself to him! They continue arguing at a club, but “Jenny” won’t really let “Alice” get a word in: I just want to make one more point! So you’re saying that I don’t have one creative bone in my body and that’s bull shit! But then she spots her nemesis and partner and begs “Alice” to kiss her to hide from them both, as “Stacey” also wants to avoid her and the partner is just plain dumbfounded. Nice to hear Jill Sobule’s “Tender Love” used over the credits!
In “Luck Be A Lady”, written and directed by Angela Robinson, ”Jenny” sets up a very complicated revenge on “Stacey” by manipulating her away from a romantic make-up weekend with her vet lover “Lindsay” through a job ruse, and expanded on with more lies in a deleted scene on the Showtime web site. “Jenny” seductively goes with her to the hotel instead and “Lindsay” is sorely tempted: The reason why I feel guilty is that I really want to kiss you. . . A lot. “Jenny”: So kiss me. and she initiates kissing and serious clothes removal, before “Lindsay” stops out of terrible guilt and says she’ll break up with “Stacey” first. “Jenny”: I am so crazy about you, but I have to talk to you about something. OK, I’ve been lying to you and I’ve done something that is very dishonest, and I am very, very, very sorry, and I hope that if you can let me explain all the crazy reasons why I’ve done this that it won’t be too late for us. “Lindsay”: I’ve believe there’s no such thing as too late, I truly believe that. Please tell me, just talk to me. Whatever you’ve done. “Jenny”: I’m so sorry. I can. . . But then there’s a knock on the door – it’s “Stacey” full of apologies and is she shocked as “Lindsay” makes introductions, but “Stacey” corrects her: This is Jennifer fucking Schechter. The lunatic whose book I reviewed. “Jenny”: Hello Merkin. That’s what I was about to explain. . . I thought that if I could prove that if you weren’t a saint. And I thought if I could make you sleep with me that it would prove all those really horrible, mean things that Stacey said about me and my experiences and the way I turned out wouldn’t be true. I thought that if I could turn you into a liar and a cheat like me. But no, the thing is, you’re not. And you’re right about that, Stacey. You’re a saint. I’m so sorry. I know it’s crazy. And the pair walk out and slam the door on the tearful “Jenny”.
In “Lesson Number 1” by Ariel Schrag, “Jenny” has written more chapters in her thinly disguised roman a clef Lez Girls such that “Max” advises that she’s pretty rough on their friends, but continues to insist it’s fiction. When her movie studio chief pushes ex-lez “Tina” to get the rights to the book (Everyone knows you’re ‘Nina’ in the story he points out), she negotiates with “Jenny” that such a movie adaptation would be important to help some girl in the Midwest come out. “Jenny” insists It’s not a book about lesbians. It’s about relationships. and pretentiously compares her goal to be an adaptation like The Unbearable Lightness of Being, but with a woman director. Foolishly, “Tina” advises her to get a high-powered agent, who advises “Jenny” of the bidding war for the rights, including starlets like Katie Holmes wanting a part, though “Jenny” says she wants “Tina” to be at least included in the bidders.
”Lexington and Concord” by Chaiken opens with “Jenny” having an atypical guilty dream. She brings a beautiful bouquet of flowers to the grave, whose gravestone is marked with a Jewish star, of the sick dog she falsely adopted to manipulate the vet. The dog’s paw reaches up out of the grave Stephen King-style and grabs her throat. She awakes from the nightmare saying the dog’s name: Am I going to rot in hell? The guilt doesn’t soften her up later in the episode as she’s really cold to “Tina” amidst tough negotiations for rights to her book, that “Tina” says: It’s the hottest property in town. Everybody wants it. . .And all I want to do is wring her neck. Her ex “Bette” insists she shouldn’t take her counterpart in the novel seriously: She’s a fiction writer.. But “Bette” is equally annoyed at “Jenny” for not giving “Tina” preference in the negotiations with her obnoxious agents, who, of course, include a leering guy. “Jenny” is sarcastic about giving preference to friends, claiming “Tina” wouldn’t do that at her job at the university and is dismissive of what “Tina” can do for a movie adaptation: At the end of the day the project’s going to be out of her hands. The following episode “Lacy Lilting Lyrics” by Cherien Dabis is a heavy-handed satire of various sexist ways male Hollywood directors claim they would adapt her book, played by real directors John Stockwell, Garry Marshall (riffing off Pretty Woman) and Lawrence Bender (and a fourth, horror film director in a deleted scene), that increasingly infuriate her, with “Tina” making excuses: She’s really sensitive about the material. In “Little Boy Blue” by Elizabeth Ziff she settles on –surprise!—a woman director, “Kate Arden” (played by Annabella Sciorra) partly because she’s hitting on “Tina”, as well as flattering “Jenny”: I was so turned on by your story. It was me. What was with “Jenny” exclaiming at the race track? In these kinds of public places I always have the compulsion to take off all my clothes. Continuing in “Literary License to Kill” by Chaiken the friends read the book and get more and more angry at her. “Bette”s even talking to herself while reading: Fuck you, Jenny! It's complete, utter, total bullshit... I wouldn't say that! Never! That's not even grammatically correct, you fucking idiot... You're dead meat. You're just dead fucking meat, Jenny Schecter!
In the season finale, “Long Time Coming” written and directed by Chaiken, “Tina” is planning revenge on “Jenny”, scheming to fire her from the film adaptation of her book and buy her out of her contract by lying to her that the studio exec’s meeting with the new director has been cancelled. But “Jenny” crashes anyway: Hello, I am so sorry I’m late but I had to pick up little dog from the groomer’s because I wanted him to be all lovely and pretty for his very first studio meeting. Um there was no parking pass for me at the guard gate for some reason. She gives the studio exec a big hug and air kiss before fooling with the fancy little dog and is sarcastic that she didn’t know he would be at the meeting. “Tina” makes excuses but “Jenny” is acid: You thought that I was completely clueless? Someone to fuck with? Someone who didn’t realize what a lying, duplicitous scheming excuse you are for a friend? Be careful, if you’re doing business with her, she eats her own. The director contradicts: Actually, Jenny, Tina’s been a really good friend to you. As a matter of fact, she’s protected you. . “Jenny” smilingly interrupts while kissing her dog: She just wants to fuck you. She does. She just wants to get in your pants. While the dog gets lose on the conference table amidst the startled execs, “Tina” gets angry: Shut the fuck up Jenny, OK? You’re a cunt. Bette almost lost her job because of you. Did you know that? That affects my child. That’s food out of Angelica’s mouth. That is a roof over her head. That to me is unforgivable.. “Jenny”: Oh God, Tina. Can you just cut all your bullshit? Just because you’ve had a baby doesn’t make you more exalted than the rest of us. I’m so fucking tired of all these tedious lesbians having babies and their self-aggrandizing bullshit Dog pees on table and she cuddles him. He’s not potty trained, is he? “Jenny” takes the dog for a walk poolside to meet with the director. I want to apologize for my behavior the other day. I was a little upset. And I think that the reason why I let that happen is because Tina made me feel threatened. The director puts her off, that it’s not a good time. “Jenny” doesn’t quite stop: OK, I just wanted to tell you that I think if you and I could try to work together you and I could do something meaningful and powerful. But here comes “Merkin”: I hear the book is riveting, Jenny. I can’t wait to read it. Any more lives destroyed in this one? Have you crushed any souls lately? Or was Lindsay enough? I’m writing a story on Kate. “Jenny” confusedly asks: Where’s Lindsay? and “Merkin” explains: I was just going to talk you about that. Lindsay was my girlfriend. She was a veterinarian. A sweet, selfless person. Then Jenny came in and destroyed her. “Jenny” points: She wrote a terrible review of my book. “Merkin”: Are you going to kill that dog too? “Jenny”: I didn’t kill a dog. The dog was old, the dog was sick. “Merkin”: Lindsay was so incredibly upset when she found out the dog she put down was actually not even Jenny’s dog at all. The director: You’re even more twisted than Tina said you were. You’re even more twisted than the character in the book. “Jenny”: I made a mistake. It was a very bad mistake. Director: Do you prey on people whose lives are already falling apart, or do you take a more aggressive role in creating their grief and destruction? “Merkin”: That’s such a good question. In Jenny’s world, does art imitate life or does life imitate art? When I think of that poor girl that’s the basis for the character. . They discuss particular characters – Director: I heard she was really nice girl until she met you and then her life just fell apart. “Jenny”: That’s not true. You shouldn’t listen to anything Merkin says. The Director gloats that it wasn’t “Stacey” who told her, but goes through all the other roman a clef names from the book. I can’t wait to tell you what I’m going to do with the character of Jessie in my adaptation of Lez Girls. While “Tina” and the director are walking hand in hand down the ocean front in a very atypically romantic episode, “Jenny” is all dressed up for the friends’ beach party and dragging a rubber dinghy into the water, inviting her little dog Sounder: It’s just you and the pariah. We last see her intentionally stranded in the ocean as the sun rises, while Sounder is yipping a warning back on the shore. “Shane”, who is in an uncharacteristic family mode, asks: Hey where’s your mother? Where’s Jenny?. The series has been renewed for another season so we’ll find out what happens to her. (updated 3/26/2007)


2005/6 Season

I'm not dealing with "Paris Geller"s tyrannical reign in the apartment and the Yale Daily News in Gilmore Girls as her Jewish identity disappeared a couple of seasons ago, as is common with Jewish characters on long-running shows looking for wider syndication.

In the midst of an explosion of one holiday celebrations on the WB's Related's "Have Yourself a Sorelli Little Christmas" episode, directed by Jerry Levine, the office of the demanding, obnoxious party-planning boss "Trish" (Anne Ramsay) was only decorated with a Hanukkah menorah. She never did get a last name to confirm if she was Jewish. (updated 3/29/2006)

Uh, oh is that new I.T. chick replacing the mourned "Edgar" on 24 Jewish? "Shari Rothenberg" (played by Kate Mara) provided a crucial clue to finding the deadly gas by remembering her chem major days at UCLA in "Day 5: 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM" - but she was clearly a problem in raising unwarranted sexual harassment charges. (3/29/2006)

Sea of Souls on BBC America, which is BBC Scotland's take on The X Files, featured a succubus, as had in the past Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and without doubt Supernatural will do in the future. But unlike the American shows this sexy redhead most beautiful demon I've ever seen was specifically identified as a descendant of Lilith, complete with a calling card of an image from "Hebrew mythology" such that the "Clyde University Department of Parapsychology" had to call in a brunette expert in the subject, "Valerie Acher" to explain the legend that Lilith was Adam's first wife, etc. She passed on an amulet with an Isaiah quote that her "Aunt Miriam" had worn as protection. She then turned to a friend who was expert in Canaanite writing to translate "sisters of the night". The expert had explained that Lilith didn't kill her lovers if they impregnated her and while the cute scientist bragged that he had conquered the demon, she got the last laugh when the closing shot showed her quite with child. (5/28/2006)

In "The Running Man" episode of the 2nd season (out on DVD) of Numb3rs by Ken Sanzel we got a bit more information on The Late Mrs. Eppes [She wasn't given a name until the "Dreamland" episode October 2009 of the 6th season-- Margaret.] She was an intern with a tenant rights lawyer when she met her future husband, who was working for a real estate developer. [In the 3rd season’s “Primary” by Julie Hebert, Dad compared his courtship with his sons dating women they work with: You mother and I met while working together. People always fall for each other at work.] Then they took turns financially supporting each other through graduate school. But the widower is shocked to discover that she had secretly maintained her passion for playing music, even as she chose the law and family over music as a career. Also in Season 2, her older son, Rob Morrow's FBI agent, has been seriously flirting with government attorney "Robin Brooks" played by the same actress Michelle Nolden who played his Jewish wife in Street Time but I haven't been watching regularly any more to determine if she's also playing a Jewish woman here. I'll have to check on the reruns or DVDs someday, if I really cared. (But he finally admits early in the 3rd season that she dumped him, as he begins an affair with an agent of color.) (updated 10/31/2009)

Nip/Tuck started a fascinating arc in its third season, introducing "Ariel Alderman" (played by American Dreams sweetheart Brittany Snow) in the "Madison Berg" episode by producer Jennifer Salt, that linked continuing stories about these damaged characters with this series' typically outrageous way of dealing with sensitive social issues, here the point where right and left radicals can almost sound alike in challenging stereotypes:
The episode opens with the doctors' standard line to prospective patients: Tell me what you don't like about yourself? to the daughter. But the mother introduces herself: When I turned 16, my parents just announced - if you want to get a husband, you're going to have to get your nose done. "Dr. Christian Troy" turns to the daughter: Do you want a rhinoplasty? "Madison" is hesitant: Well, um, getting married and having kids is not high on my list of priorities. I mean, it was for my mom, because things were different then. Mom protests: Not all that different. It's not like it was the dark ages for God's sake. "Dr. Quentin Costa": Are you happy with your nose, Ms. Berg? (She was played by Hallee Hirsh, formerly the daughter on E.R. but who frequently gets cast as a Jewish girl maybe due to her curly locks, and she looked quite attractive to me; I couldn't even figure out what the nose discussion was about.): All I know is it's always been a given that I'd be sitting here a few days before my 16th birthday. "Dr. Troy": It's about how you feel when you look in the mirror. It's true that we've done a lot of rhinoplasties on Jewish girls and the trend is definitely towards a more refined profile. "Dr. Costa": We can show you some of our work, perhaps. I assume you want to take advantage of our Sweet 16 package? Mom is enthusiastic: Absolutely. When I read your ad in the temple newsletter it said that you offer a 20% discount on a recovery room at the De La Mer Spa? "Madison" is looking through the portfolio and squeals: Oh my God! It's Lisa Burrows! (sp?) She's a senior at my school! "Dr. Costa": Have you seen her 'before' photo? "Madison" is quite startled: Lisa Burrows is Jewish? I'm in. And I want her nose.
"Ariel" looks like quite the sexy goth. By their school lockers, she introduces herself to "Matt" (who still looks like a skinhead due to a traumatic rebellion against his fathers). As she flirts with him, she taps him on the arm: Uh-oh. JAP alert. 3 o'clock. ("Madison" walks by with a bandage on her nose.) "Matt": Yeah, she looks like she just got released from the slaughter house my dad runs. He's a plastic surgeon. He does a lot of Sweet 16 nose jobs. "Ariel": Jews with gentile noses and gentile names. Completely pathetic. The bandage on her face isn't covering her nose job, it's broadcasting her self hate. And she's not the only one. I mean, everywhere I look it's just a sea of pathetic look-alikes and wannabees. At this point, the viewer is thinking maybe she's a far left radical. "Matt" is admiring: You're not like anyone else I know who hardly ever notices. "Ariel": You could really help me out with something. I'm doing a paper on homogenizing influences in the melting pot culture and it would be cool to talk to a plastic surgeon. Maybe you could introduce me to your dad? "Matt": Umm, if it'll get you to have coffee with me, I will.
"Matt" negotiates with his dads (tangled soap story why plural) to meet with her, in exchange for standing up as best man at his biological dad's wedding, who then insists (the sort-of adoptive dad) "Dr. Sean McNamara" join him for the interview, which has an increasingly propulsive percussive soundtrack. Though "Ariel", now dressed in elegant black, guesses wrong on which dad is which: Wow, you know, I'm usually really good at reading facial features. to "Sean" You have the dark facial features more like the Irish in Matt. to "Christian", who is a product of rape and abandonment, You look like you have some Caribbean blood in you, the hair, the wider nose. Is your father from Cuba? "Christian" (dryly) I never had a conversation with my father about his roots. . .How can we help you? "Ariel" announces: I want you to dye my skin black. Basically, I want to look African-American. "Christian": We don't dye people's skin. "Ariel": No, but I could bleach my skin, wouldn't you? "Sean": I thought you were here to do research for a term paper. "Ariel" This is research. I'm asking you to address the fact that it is acceptable to make a black person white but not to make a white person black. Michael Jackson is whiter than I am. "Christian": We don't treat Michael Jackson. "Ariel": OK, closer to home. Let's talk about the Jewish girls who book their Sweet 16 nose jobs with you. What per centage of your income comes directly from their desire to look like Heidi Klum or Kirsten Dunst, distinctly Anglo-Saxon gentile girls? "Christian": What's your point? "Ariel": My point is that you are wiping out the physical characteristics that make up the ethnicities in our culture. Underlying everything you do is the worship of an archetype. It's all about making every one look white and Aryan. That's the topic of my term paper. "Sean": That's not correct. We offer people a choice. We don't have a preference for a particular ethnicity. "Christian": You don't need to defend what we do. "Ariel": Yes, I think you do. Little by little, you and all the other plastic surgeons are creating a nation of non-white whites. Every time you lipo a big black ass or shape the bump off a Jewish nose or widen a slanty Asian eye, you make that person more viable in a white world. Then that person marries a white person and they give birth to a mixed race child. In the long run, you're just wiping out the races. Is that your master plan or just an unfortunate by-product of what you do for a living? They kick her out of the office and she explains to "Matt":They're very defensive about their work. I asked intelligent, well-researched questions but they didn't want to deal with it. They just want their own point of view parroted back at them. The doctors explode at "Matt" - "Sean": She's a racist!
Next we see "Matt" and "Ariel" necking in his bed. He questions her earring. She claims it's Thor's hammer and various pagan symbols. He insists it's a swastika. It's got some pretty evil connotations, Ariel. She claims: It's just four L's, for light, love, life and luck. My dad gave it to me. He's very, very smart. "Matt": You're not into some kind of neo-Nazi racist kind of trip are you? "Ariel": No, but I believe people shouldn't disguise themselves and hide their identities. I don't hide who I am. And I would like to know if someone is really Asian, or Jewish or what their real gender is. And oh my God, those sex operations that plastic surgeons do -- have your fathers done any of those? "Matt": Yeah, I think they did. (Ouch, on his ex-lover, sure.) "Ariel": That to me is truly immoral. Playing with something that is as sacred as someone's sex. Playing God and spreading disease and fear. I'm not a Nazi, Matt, but I am a Purist. "Matt": You have fears. I think you're beautiful. They go back to making out. "Ariel": I'm going to do something. Do you trust me? Now what red-blooded American boy wouldn't think she's about to suggest something sexy, as the soundtrack blares "more and more people. . " Instead, she pierces his ear for the swastika earring.
They are now in the "Aldermans" kitchen. Mom is showing off her collection of Aunt Jemima figurines and bragging how she just got one off e-Bay. "Matt":I don't understand the appeal of this stuff. It seems kind of demeaning, you know, big fat black lady in an apron. "Ariel": To Mom, it's just a piece of Americana. "Mrs. Alderman": Yeah, it's just from another time. It's before they wanted to look like us. You know, blacks were blacks and the women enjoyed their size. See, she's just happy to be large - she holds more cookies. "Mr. Alderman": I'm with you. If I were black I wouldn't want to be memorialized as a cookie jar. . .I did a little research on you. You were involved in a pretty brutal gay bashing. . Your friend here took down a transsexual. What did he/she do - make a pass at you? (drums on the soundtrack, this is a complicated back story) "Matt": "Mr. Alderman": Oh I got a friend in the department. I run a check on anyone Ariel brings home. It helps me sleep at night. "Matt": Is this where my dinner invitation disappears? "Mr. Alderman: This is where I tell you that you always have a place at this table. . . You behaved like a man and that takes balls by the way.
"Ariel": Oh, dad, did I tell you that Matt's father is a plastic surgeon? "Mr. Alderman": So now then you grew up with all that liberal multi-cultural, poly-sexual double-speak and you still turned out to be a many of honor, huh? So now I’m truly impressed. Dad passes the food and asks if "Ariel" gave him the earring. They assent and she squeezes "Matt"s leg under the table. "Mr. Alderman": I've got a job for you. I think you're up to it.. ."Mrs. Alderman": He's never had a son. He's always looking for a protégé. "Mr. Alderman": Do you think you could get me the patient files from your father's office? Matt, do you know what the phrase 'mental duress' is? People claim that their mental health is being jeopardized by something they don't like about themselves (Oh- there's that phrase again!) and then they get their insurance companies to pay for it. Like Jews get their noses fixed. Gays get their organs lopped off. And me and a lot of other hard working guys like me don't have time for 'mental duress'. And end up picking up the tab in higher premiums. One of these days, you'll have a family of your own and you're going to have to choose between a bike for your kid or health insurance. Unless, of course, you follow in your father's footsteps. "Matt": No, that's not going to happen. Wait, how do the files help? "Mr. Alderman": They tell us which of these health insurance companies are the most lenient with these elective surgeries. And then we use that information to put pressure on the government. "Ariel": (very seductively) I'll go and help you for support. . . . "Mr. Alderman":I see a kindred spirit. Maybe a friendship down the road. "Matt" rushes off to the wedding and his fathers object to his "skinhead jewelry": Why should I have to compromise? This is who I am! In the next episode, he and "Ariel" are hot and heavy in bed and they declare their love for each other to his fathers' anger. A couple of episodes later, "Matt" realizes she and her father are fanatical racists and they break up.(updated 12/15/2005)


Jewish women were frequently patients:
E.R.'s "Man With No Name" by executive producer David Zabel on 10/6/2005 starred Jessica Hecht as a woman who has a roller skating accident on a J-Date with a geek and reveals she's concerned that she has tested positive for the BRCA breast cancer gene. Her mother died of breast cancer and she's embarrassed to finally admit to taking dubious "natural" preventatives from Mexico that turned out to be giving her anemia and lead poisoning. I thought "Abby", the recovering alcoholic nurse turned doctor whose own romantic life is a train wreck, blithely pushed her too hard to prophylactically have a double mastectomy when she expressed concern about a fading future with marriage and children, but the last we saw she was consulting with an oncologist so we don't know her decision. The issues of risk and percentages were glossed over. A subsequent episode, "Wake Up" by Janine Sherman Barrois, revealed that this story line was part of a breast cancer awareness campaign sponsored by one of the show's advertisers (this didactic Lifetime TV-type message approach is probably one reason the show's ratings are falling). Hecht's character is distraught that despite her double mastectomy she will not be able to have reconstruction due to complications. You ruined me! she screams at "Abby," Who's going to marry me? Who's going to have a kid with me? . . . You just give doctor talk. You don't get it. She's given up on internet dating sites and bemoans that she won't be able to breast feed a baby. "Abby" then reveals that she too has a family history of breast cancer but has not had the courage to have a mammogram but because You were incredibly brave she now will. Meanwhile, "Abby" finds the geek date, who was despondent that the patient had spurned his efforts to visit her, and brings him to her bed side. (updated 10/21/2005)
Grey's Anatomy had a similar story line in the "Let It Be" episode written and directed by women, writer/producer Mimi Schmir and director Lesli Linka Glatter, but they made the character much more ambiguously Jewish. The ethnic identity of "Savannah" (played by a blonde, lively, sexy Arija Bareikis, i.e. wouldn't be conventionally perceived as Jewish) is not identified, though she cites an extensive family history of breast and ovarian cancers, as well as the genetic marker, and she is married to a man identified only as "Weiss," which could be his last name (played by Joseph Lyle Taylor who in his career has invariably played New York ethnics). The debate about prophylactically removing her breasts and uterus revolves around her relationship with her husband, climaxing before surgery with her posing for a series of erotic photos for a reminder to him of what she had. (updated 11/23/2005)
Everwood had the same story line in "An Ounce of Prevention" by Bryan M. Holdman, though there's no specific reference to the women being Jewish and they are both lovely blondes, i.e. again wouldn't be conventionally perceived as Jewish. "Ellie Newhoff" (played by Brooke Nevin) turns 18 and wants to be tested for the gene, as she's concerned because her mother died of breast cancer and her sister "Ruth" (played by Laura Regan) is now in remission after double mastectomies. She tests positive and the plot revolves around her risks, including weighing that her boyfriend breaks up with her when she wants to have the preventive surgery. (4/12/2006)

Jewish women were similarly ambiguous in a Grey's Anatomy episode on spirituality issues in the December holidays, "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" by producer Krista Vernoff. To avoid her serious boyfriend's Christmas celebration, Sandra Oh's "Dr. Yang" suddenly announces I'm Jewish.--because her step-father was "Saul Rubinstein." He asks the dates of Hanukkah this year and if there's any Hanukkah carols (an unfamiliar pop Hanukkah song bursts out on the soundtrack) or other traditions he should be aware of, she's oblivious to all and protests I haven't observed religious holidays since I was old enough to know better. and equates his religious beliefs with believing in Santa Claus. He kicks her out of surgery for disrespecting him - but has a decorated Christmas tree and full lit menorah set up when she comes home. A sweet-natured, brown-haired patient "Mr. Epstein" is married to a blonde and has three tow-headed children and they celebrate all the holidays, they proudly announce, including "Chrismukkah," which has entered popular culture from The O.C., and was also on the sit com Girlfriends with a Jewish father and African-American mother. The strength of intermarriage is emphasized when "Mrs. Epstein" tearfully pleads with "Dr. Shepherd" to re-do his brain surgery to bring back the genial personality of the love of her life.
"Tell Me Sweet Little Lies" by Joan Rater and Tony Phelan also unnecessarily played on Jewish women stereotypes. We're introduced to a returning porcine heart valve implantation patient, plump, curly dark-haired "Mrs. Naomi Cline" (played by Jill Holden) who is deliriously happy at finally being married, noisily showing off her wedding ring from a geeky, balding grey-haired discomfited guy complaining at her giggly attentions The honeymoon should be over by now. She's exhausting. In trying to figure out why her valve is failing, "Dr. Grey" is sure she's lying -- the House-imitation-like theme of the episode-- about using drugs It's not normal. Nobody's that happy. and twice does a tox screen. The second one finally reveals a raised serotonin level that indicates a tumor.(2/15/2006)


"The Green-Eyed Monster" episode of Veronica Mars by Dayna Lynne North and directed by Jason Bloom had an unusual visual surprise. "Veronica," as a private detective, discovers that the suspected gigolo is lying to his suspicious rich intended. Instead of playing tennis he's getting Hebrew lessons from a rabbi. We see him, oddly, wrapped in a tallit reading Torah. Seems the heiress, who has been hiding her wealth, for whom he's bought an engagement ring, is Jewish and he wants to surprise her with his conversion. We don't see the resolution of their relationship, as it turns out he's also been hiding from her that he too is wealthy. (10/25/2005)

"Mixed Matches" by Gail Pennington, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2/11/2006:
"on the UPN sitcom Girlfriends, Toni (Jill Marie Jones), a Southern Baptist, ran into problems and eventually divorced Todd, a New York Jew (Jason Pace). The couple’s differences, however, centered more on their clashing religions than on the fact that he’s white, and she’s black. In a sitcom rarity, Girlfriends addressed the race question directly when one of Toni’s friends said, 'Toni and Todd had absolutely no business getting together.' The friend told her husband, 'Marriage is hard enough without having to deal with all that race and religion drama. We’re lucky. We’re both black and Baptist.'" I'm looking to transcribe the dialogue with the Jewish mother-in-law/grandmother, as evidently raising the baby Jewish was a custody issue. I tried catching up on reruns in syndication and BET, and it seems that her Jewish mother-in-law has only appeared twice, once passively at their mixed-religious wedding, each time played by a different actress. I have seen an episode where "Toni"s determined not to let "the white folks" get her baby but throughout her courtship and marriage there's virtually no reference to Jewishness until they had a baby. Up until the custody battle, their arguments were much more about money and selfishness. The actress playing “Toni” left after this season. Without referring specifically to the Jewish character, in “Mixed Blessing” by Greg Braxton, The Los Angeles Times, 2/26/2007: “Mara Brock Akil, creator of the CW's Girlfriends and The Game, said she felt that the trend of depicting interracial love as ideal and harmonious smacked of dishonesty. ‘I find it not only false but unfortunate that the very thing that defines the 'interracial couple' is not explored,’ said Akil, who has included story lines about the differences of mixed couples in both of her shows. ‘And by not exploring race, not only do you miss the opportunity for great stories, you miss what is unique to their experience. . .It's the elephant in the room. TV tends to shy away from where it thinks it will offend. Couples of different backgrounds are dealing with this. To not show it makes it bland. They might as well be of the same race.’" (updated 2/26/2007)


Julianna Skiff on The Sopranos (on HBO - repeated frequently and On Demand) Only in the last episode of the 6th season, "Kaisha" by producers Terence Winter, Matthew Weiner and David Chase, was it confirmed that the very sexy, hard-driving real estate agent played by Julianne Margulies with the beautiful mane of curly brown hair was from Hanukkah people when her lover, "Tony"s married nephew (and expectant father) and fellow non-recovering addict "Christopher Moltisanti," complains that she has no Christmas tree. He then refers to her as Jewish when he confesses to his jealous Boss. Much of the episode is taken up with the lovers at 12 step meetings, falling into hot lovemaking and then too boozed and drugged out to get up for even that in bed or in cars in a Days of Wine and Roses tribute montage.
We first met her earlier in the season in "Johnny Cakes", by Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, where she approached "Tony" about selling a neighborhood market institution to Jamba Juice. She flirted with him to get the deal, but initially resisted his sexual overtures: For once in my life I will exercise some self control." But they kept dancing around each other while doing business, and sex is clearly one motivation for him agreeing to the deal when it coincides with some other machinations, until he at the last minute pulled out of having sex with her due to a very atypical bout of spousal fidelity. At the beginning of the finale, "Tony" is regretful and tries to rekindle the flirtation, but she dismisses him. He does note to his shrink that she fits the pattern of his past mistresses - smart brunettes (previous ones were Italian and Russian).
We didn't learn too much else about her except her concern for her elderly parents, and she only resurfaced briefly in the last season, in “Kennedy and Heidi” by Matthew Weiner and David Chase, at “Christopher”s funeral, where she explained her presence there to “Tony” and his wife, “Carmela”: I’m a recovering addict. I owe him a lot. To “Tony”s discomfort, “Carmela” comments: Good-looking woman. (5/17/2007)


NCIS- Ziva David -- (On CBS, Tuesdays at 8 pm, repeated frequently on USA. Season is out on DVD with supplements that could provide additional insight on “Ziva”, including commentary tracks on select episodes, “The Women of NCIS”, “NCIS Season of Change”, “The Round Table”). Mossad agent "Ziva David" (played by the Chilean actress Cote de Pablo) was a guest role on "Kill Ari" by executive producer Donald P. Bellissario, the two-part season opener for this 3rd season of a procedural involving crimes committed stateside involving Navy or Marine personnel or property. We first see her dressed in butch fatigues but with saucy dialog, to put a purring foreign, less fraternal spin on the teasing banter her late predecessor on the team had with the chauvinist hunky "Special Agent Anthony 'Tony DiNozzo" (played by Michael Weatherly who was sexier on Dark Angel). When she catches him having a sexy daydream about the dead agent -she brags Oh women do it too. With handsome men. And even occasionally women. She lets down her hair and "Tony" responds: You can sit there provocatively or you can tell me what you want. Turns out she not only already knows all about him, but gives their new boss's boss an enthusiastic Shalom and greets her with a kiss on both cheeks, who explains they've worked together since 9/11 - and later explains "Ziva" is damned good. . .She saved my life in Cairo.
But uh-oh. She was assassin "Ari"s control agent for his work undercover with Hamas (I have to say that no matter what villains of whatever (super)nationality Rudolf Martin plays on whatever shows, he's fine to look at, like Sark from Alias) and there she is murmuring on the phone to him: I don't want to lose you too. We then get a bit odd back story on Mossad as being parallel to the Mafia as a family business (allowing "Tony" to exchange Italian for "Ziva"s Hebrew) and see "Ziva" get called on the carpet to report to a "Deputy Director David" --ah-ha-- her father. Mark Harmon's gruff, demanding unit chief "Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs" tells "Tony" to Stay on her ass. and he follows her to a hotel pool where she exchanges pleasantries with another woman who looks enough like Ziva to be her sister - but what really got his attention was zeroing in on the Star of David she wore around her neck. Gee, she clearly had to be another Mossad agent because who else would wear a Jewish star in the D.C. area and sure enough, "Ziva" had slipped her a new passport and cash for "Ari."
As confessional exposition we get back story on this tangled web of relationships. "Ziva" explains: I lost my little sister Talli from a Hamas bombing. She was the best of us. She had compassion. . .I only wanted revenge. . I was Mossad long before Talli. . .there was an aunt. . . a lesbian lover. I volunteered. Then we hear "Ari"s long confessional explanation -- he's "Director David"s bastard son by a Palestinian woman, trained from childhood to be a mole in the camps. "Ziva" shoots him dead just before he shoots "Gibbs" and she announces He's my half-brother. That didn't really sound like kaddish she then recited over his body, and then she accompanied his body back to Tel Aviv.
"Ziva" returned and formally joined the team in the 4th episode of the season, "Silver War." (I haven't transcribed that one yet though I've read that she's reading the same men's magazine that "Tony" is, only in Hebrew.) In the 5th episode, "Switch" by Gil Grant: The team sarcastically pronounces her last name with the accent on the 2nd syllable, Hebrew-style. She's played Ninotchka-like as a humorless soldier, i.e. I should warn you - I'm not very good with women, and bristles at polite acts of chivalry. She trips over American English slang and idioms (like "yard sale" and "he's on the goat" and "If the glue sticks.") though she knows 5 languages, and is seen later in the season reading The Dictionary of American Slang. She is oblivious to popular culture - I don't have a TV. and later in the season punned on her fond memories of the Paris Hilton, as she constantly demurs In my country. . . or In Israel we have a saying. . . in a running joke, and mixes up "social security" with "social services." In "Deception," by Jack Bernstein, she thinks she's getting the idioms right: Does a bear sit in the woods? and You can't see the jungle for the ferns. Or in "Light Sleeper" by Christopher Silber she says I've learned from Gibbs that you can attract more bees with honey. However, she is the first one to ever stand up to "Gibbs", slamming an elevator to stop to insist that he treat her with respect.
In the ridiculously salacious "The Voyeur's Web" episode by David J. North (wives of servicemen posted in Iraq are making extra money through a porn web cam site), it's clear that "Ziva" will continue to have double entendre and coy exchanges with "Tony" as I've never had sex with you. Does that mean I'm a virgin? She demonstrates that she knows the correct way to turn on a vibrator and complains that Some of the American men I've been meeting seem to be, how do you say? up tight. But, unlike her predecessor, she treats him to dinner when his hot date cancels due to her husband.
In "Code of Honor," written by Christopher Silber and directed by Colin Bucksey, we (and her You don't want to know team) don't actually learn her mysterious torture techniques that get crucial information by reducing a suspect to quivers -- illegally and despite that all the real facts show that brutal torture isn't effective in interrogations. While the sassy bantering continued, which I think is one reason this show has become a hit this season, this seemed like something more out of Alias, 24 or TV's La Femme Nikita than Abu Ghraib or whatever is going on in those secret locations in Eastern Europe. (In "Model Behavior" by David J. North she noted: I assume you know that I've never performed an interrogation without inflicting some sort of pain. -- so the point is to make the Mossad the bad guys compared to Americans?) (In "Deception" she balked when they're trying to get information out of teenage boys: I don't interrogate children. - and her boss sardonically points out: No, you talk to them. However, in "Iced" by Dana Coen she had absolutely no compunction in falsely accusing a stereotyped Latino gang leader of terrorism in order to access the super wiretapping powers of the Patriot Act.)
Sweeps Weeks saw more salaciousness with "Ziva" hooked up with "Tony" "Under Covers" by L. D. Zlotoff, directed by Aaron Lipstadt as married assassins under surveillance, which was done with much more sexual tension and élan in the TV series of La Femme Nikita, etc. Besides the usual double entendres and physical interplay, "Ziva" aggressively made the point that for the ruse to be realistic, I should be on top. And she snores much worse than "Tony" does, which destroyed any of his sexual fantasies and made me think she should be tested for sleep apnea. Though we did learn that she cleans her gun when she wants to stay focused.
In "Frame Up" by Laurence Walsh she is mystified that an ex-girlfriend egged "Tony"s car: In Israel, we just shoot men who aren't true, which I didn't think was a particularly funny comment on gender-reversed domestic violence, even as a joke. While the two younger co-workers compete for her ratings of their tusches, per some web site, the chivalrous old pathologist "Ducky" translates another of her dad's Hebrew proverbs as "A little fire burns a great deal of corn," as he admits that has never made any sense to him.
In "Probie" by producer George Schenck, the boss whispers in her ear when she expresses skepticism about the titular colleague's claims: McGee is not your father. And he's not Ari. He doesn't know how to lie. Quizzically, this is the only time I've seen him relate a current crime to one of the team's personal life. She, of course, continues to tease "Tony" as he queries whether she misses the old spy game: Well, there was a lot of sex. (In "Light Sleeper" by Silber she has no sympathy for a North Korean counterpart who fell in love: A spy having a baby is an occupational hazard.)
"Boxed In" by Coen, directed by Dennis Smith, managed to find another way to confine "Ziva" and "Tony" together, but the banter was better than usual, as we also got a bit more insight into her. We've just been screwed in here! she shouts when they are backed into a shipping container at the Port of Norfolk by a gunfight with terrorists, when "Tony" corrects her English that they've been "bolted in" (and it turns out to be handy that she can read Arabic). He is miffed that she's been inviting colleagues over for dinner when she explains I like to cook. and she grudgingly provides that in exchange the lab tekkie tuned her piano. When things look bad, he jokes Your life would have had more meaning if you had slept with me. She retorts: Maybe if you had something else on your mind I would have. Really? No. To pass the time, he complains she never talks about herself--Maybe I like a little privacy--and suggests they exchange favorites, like best sexy noir movie. He cites Body Heat, but she says she prefers to have the air conditioning on. He suggests favorite fantasies, she mentions sumo wrestlers. He posits First time you realized that Daddy isn't perfect. but her brusque reaction confuses him because he doesn't realize that raises her father issues. When the container's movement pushes her on top of him, they teasingly recall their earlier undercover escapade unclothed in that position - but this time her Star of David dangles over his face, which turns out to be foreshadowing for him to MacGyver-style use her necklace, attached with her hair scrunchy, as an antenna for his cell phone to contact their boss. Upon their rescue, when he's milking a minor injury, she announces to the team that she'll be cooking him dinner, and the rest reminisce on how much they liked her cholent. In the 1/9/2005 TV Guide de Pablo commented about this episode: "Ziva knows very well what her powers are as a woman, and she really enjoys toying with DiNozzo. To her, every single rumor about American men is confirmed by this man."
"Head Case" by George Schnenck and Frank Cardea opens with "Ziva" actually showing some emotion when they find a severed head. It's far worse when you know the person. She explains that a colleague had infiltrated Hamas in Ramallah and was beheaded. She gets choked up: That's when I decided I'd never be captured alive. She later is disdainful about a timid undercover operation: Why doesn't he just sleep with her? Why not? It's a valid interrogation technique. Her boss "Gibbs" concurs: I've done it. "Ziva" responds: So have I. In the midst of discussion from what the case has revealed about the underside of America, a colleague asks her: You want to go back to Israel? Her surprisingly positive answer: No, I love it here.
In "Ravenous" by Richard C. Arthur, a silly satire of Deliverance, "Ziva"s Jewish star necklace again plays a key role. Passing on a display of pickled pig's feet with a wry They're not exactly kosher. in a rugged grocery near Shenandoah National Park, the hulking proprietor sneers You're wasting your time here sweetheart, I don't date your kind. Fingering her star, she retorts: What is your kind? Breathing? Though she shudders He makes my skin crawl! He's a serial killing racist. when her boss asks her to do an interrogation without breaking his bones, she finds out that he wasn't the murderer because he was at his daughter's dance recital. She gains his trust by noting the Hebrew origin of the daughter's name "Sarah" (not that I think it really means princess). (The killer was the cute park ranger she had been flirting with.)
In "Bait" by Laurence Welch, she is pragmatic that a 15 year old could be a suicide bomber and wryly announces Shalom as she pulls a gun on a Latin American drug dealer's henchmen.
Her banter with "Tony" continued in "Untouchable" by George Schenck as she seeks to avoid having another car accident on her record. He's changing his shirt, hairy chest showing, while he negotiates: What's in it for me? She, breathily, Anything you want. But he tattles anyway and their boss knocks him on the head: That's for blackmailing your partner. While looking for a mole in the Pentagon, she casually notes It just happens that espionage is one of my specialties. As they search a woman's frilly abode, she reveals she too had stuffed animals. When I was 12. She also claims she's gotten complaints from her neighbors: I'm what you Americans like to call a screamer.
"Jeopardy" by David J. North played further on "Ziva"s rep as an annoying drug dealer in her charge drops dead after she explodes and her colleagues debate her culpability: Nice guy still called the Probie: You don't think Ziva is really capable of this, do you? Their boss: She's capable of it. The nice guy continues: But you know you don't really think she would just. . . Boss: Kill someone? Nice guy: Not without a good reason. "Tony": We all know Ziva has crazy Ninja skills. But she has some self-control, right? Not a lot? Some? Never mind. The Brit forensic doctor "Ducky": Jethro, you and I know that this is far beyond Officer David's character. There's no sign of any physical altercation. Boss: With her training there wouldn't be any. "Ziva" defends herself to him: When the elevator doors opened he refused to go in. If this had been a year ago, I would have snapped his little neck, but it's not and I didn't. I asked him several times to get into the elevator and he wouldn't. So that's when I struck him. Boss: How? "Ziva": With my fist. Boss: Where? "Ziva": In the jugular. . . It was just a little love tap. . . I've seen your American movies. This is where I resign. Boss: Next time you hand over your badge you better be prepared to lose it. Assigned to desk duty in a very fetching, tight embroidered, see-through blouse, she fumes with a malapropism: I'm being treated like a leopard! Do they think I'm going to enter the building and massacre everyone? . . I know I didn't kill him. While, as usual on network TV series, she's exonerated when the victim is found to have had a congenital problem, the implication that she's being civilized by her experiences with NCIS is intriguing, but unclear if this is a personal growth and maturity on her part that we haven't learned about before or some sort of veiled comparative commentary on U.S. good guy muscular tactics for truth, justice and the American Way vs. those mean ruthless Israelis who stop at nothing.
"Ziva" played an unexpectedly moving and emotional role in the season finale "Hiatus, Part 2" by executive producer Donald P. Bellisario. Boss "Gibbs" has emotional-triggered amnesia from an explosion which can only be solved by his memory and the team has despaired at finding triggers for restoration. But not only has she finally mostly mastered American idioms and revealed that Dances With Wolves is one of her favorite movies, she shakes "Gibbs" to his core by bursting into tears and confessing to him that she was "Ari"s murderer. You killed your brother? She sobs. He holds her in a big hug. I owe you Ziva. She earns a rare privilege to address him by his first name: I'll collect Jethro.
In a TV Guide Q & A 8/28/2006 with "TV’s sexiest special agent", Cote de Pablo gave her interpretation of "Ziva" of what interviewer Mary Murphy called "the intense season ender. Your character, "Special Agent Ziva David", really came undone. A: "Ziva" had been keeping a lot of secrets, and in the finale she was struggling. Her NCIS family perceived her to be icy and cold, which she is not. She denied many things to wake up every day and do this job. She denied she killed her brother, and she denied she left Israel, her country. And when she revealed it in the final breakdown scene with Gibbs (Mark Harmon), it was like a confrontation with herself, almost like a punch in the belly." And what's in store for the next season: "I am going to confront my past, the link to Mossad and the things from my past and my father (the deputy director of Mossad). But I need help. And I can’t turn to anybody at NCIS. The only one that doesn’t doubt me is 'Gibbs'."
As the series got more and more popular, her character's name, the feminine version of "Ziv", drew more interest from Americans, whether in TV fan-fiction (usually romantic) to extrapolations from Slavic myth into Ziva: Warrior of Light. (updated 11/13/2010)


The L Word - Jenny Schecter in the 3rd Season (on Showtime, repeated frequently and On Demand, repeated on the Logo Channel. This season out on DVD.) The new season opened with "Jenny" (played by Mia Kirschner) at her parents' house six months after her breakdown. "Labia Majora" by executive producer Ilene Chaiken gave her rigid, stereotyped, Orthodox parents who seemed to be out of the 1973 prologue. "Jenny" comes in after drinking with her new butch girlfriend "Moira" to Mom, oddly wearing a head scarf indoors at home, putting the Shabbat candlesticks on the table: We really have to hurry. We have one hour before sundown. Your father wants everyone to go to shule because it's your last day in Skokie. "Jenny" asks her to stop having her stepfather set her up with men and Mom doesn't want to hear about the why not: We all know you were sick. "Jenny": That's not part of my sickness. Her shrink doesn't have a problem with my sexual orientation. Mom: So I think the doctor is as sick as you.
She brings "Moira" home late at night and the sound of their sexual activities wakes up the parents in the next room. Her kippah-wearing stepdad first yells How dare you bring a man into this house! before really getting angry: What the hell are you doing? How dare you treat us this way after we opened our home to you? I want you out now! "Jenny" coldly responds: Warren am I too fucked up for you? Am I too perverted? Look at me! Do I remind you how messy and out of your control your life is? I'm not the girl you wanted me to be. I'm not going to marry that nice Jewish boy. I'm not going to have those nice Jewish kids. I'm not going to shut up and be subservient. I'm not going to set the dinner table and pretend that bad things don't happen. Stepdad: I don't know what more we can do. "Jenny": Nothing. There's nothing you can do for me to make you the person that you are comfortable with. To Mom: When are you going to start being an actual person and not a silent slave to that man? Stepdad: Don't disrespect your mother! "Jenny": That's a privilege that's reserved for you.
"Jenny" storms out, then Mom follows out the front door: I don't understand. Are you trying to punish me? "Jenny": No, I'm grateful to you. You did a good job with me. I'm not trying to punish you. Mom: Is this because of what happened when you were a little girl? Is that why you turned out this way? "Jenny": Why didn't you protect me? Mom: There was nothing I could do to change what happened. "Jenny": You could have comforted me and told me it wasn't my fault. Mom: I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. "Jenny": Thank you. It's the first time that you've ever acknowledged what happened to me. I presume we'll finally learn more during this season, but it sure sounds like it had something to do with her biological father. In the next episode, even the butch friend is getting fed up with her inconsistent demands: What do you want?
The following episode ("The Lobsters" --a chilling bitch metaphor--by creator Chaiken) sneaks in the info that "Jenny"s roommate in the mental hospital was a prominent NY editor's eating disordered daughter; how convenient that she handed over her book manuscript. "Jenny" cryptically points out that communication between parents and daughters is the key to preventing the kinds of problems she and the daughter shared. In the next episode, "Light My Fire" by Chenier Dabis, "Jenny" is throwing her manuscript into the fire and announces she's giving up writing to wait tables. However, she identifies herself as a writer: My novel is about some bull shit about my child hood. . .I just want to write fiction.
But in "Life Size" by novelist/playwright/filmmaker Adam Rapp, the Mother the Editor from Simon & Schuster (a division of Showtime's Viacom parent appears and challenges "Jenny"s intent: I have to ask you something, Jenny. How much of the novel is true? I'm imagining that a lot of the things in the book actually happened to you. The way you handled the trauma and the landscape of that poor girl's mind. "Jenny" warily responds: It cuts close to the bone. Mother Editor swoops in: You were a cutter, right? "Jenny" is defensive, but overwhelmed: I was, but I'm not now. The Mother Editor compares her book to Bastard Out of Carolina and wants to make the book a fall feature: We're gonna send you on a book tour and I don't want you to be afraid to talk about that. "Jenny"s a bit naive: Why would I want to talk about me? The book is fiction. Mother Editor: Unfortunately, people don't buy literary fiction the way they used to. Survivor memoirs have a much better chance of reaching out and reaching an audience. "Jenny" doesn't realize she's approaching an Oprah-moment Rubicon, but then this was probably filmed before James Frey got sent to the woodshed on the yellow couch: How much of the content would I have to change? Mother Editor: Not all that much.
In "Lone Star" by Elizabeth Ziff, after helping her partner shoot up testosterone and teasingly getting a "Jewish star" not a "gold star" because she has slept with men, "Jenny" flies to NY to meet with an editor, played namelessly by actress/writer Eve Ensler, who is also an anti-domestic violence activist, as a breath of common sense fresh air dealing with "Jenny", so of course she's vilified:
Editor: Everyone is excited by The Sum of Her Past."
Jenny: Oh good, I'm really excited, and I'm nervous.
Editor: We have a lot of work to do. Oh, I'm not talking about line edits, Jenny. It's deeper than that. As your editor, I have a basic problem with the journey of the book. Or rather the lack of it.
Jenny: Um, but it's, but it's what happened to me. So I don't know what I could do to change that.
Editor: Let me explain, if I might. She then quotes an extensive passage from the book. "Each moment the blade penetrated my skin I forgot what it was like to be on my face in the dirt. Every drop of blood was a reminder that I still belonged to the earth, that I was flesh and blood, that those boys weren't everything in my body. Cutting myself, hurting myself, forced me from the hurt they inflicted. I was the one doing the damage, not them.
Jenny: I don't see what's wrong with that. Editor: You still view yourself as a victim. You're repeating the same scene over and over. It feels compulsive.
Jenny: I was a victim when that happened to me. I don't know why I can't say that.
Editor: Jenny, Jenny, you're an excellent writer. Excellent. Jenny: Thank you.
Editor: But that worries me more because young girls will read this and think that cutting is a viable response to trauma.
Jenny: I would never suggest that to themselves but for me, at that moment in that time, it made me feel I was alive and it made me feel like I had some control over my life. And in that moment that was empowering.
Editor: That's bull shit Jenny. We're not going to do an advertisement. . .
Jenny: (talking over her) It's not bullshit because it's what I did. I'm sorry but you can't tell me what's bullshit from my life.
Editor: I'm not going to publish a book where I tell young women that self-inflicted violence is going to free them from the violence they endured at the hands of other people. I'm not going to do that.
Jenny: I'm not asking you to do that.
Editor: Jenny, what's missing in the book is your strength, your resolve, your heightened awareness. Jenny: I've survived.
Editor: Yes, and I'm interested in how you thrive. Not just survived. Jenny: I'm here.
Editor: Jenny, it's really hard to give up being a victim. It's safe, it's cozy, it's familiar. I'm interested in the other places, when you let go of your pain, out of your self and you were able to connect with the larger word.
Jenny: Let me ask you something. Why are you working on my book? Why? You guys asked me to change it from fiction to memoir and that put me in a pretty vulnerable position and suddenly I'm too passive for you, I'm a victim, I'm not transformed enough? You know what I think? I think, I don't know. May I take it? (grabs her manuscript and gets her coat on) Thank you. I think you should probably go find yourself another hero. Fuck you. And she goes running off to get Mother Editor.
Mother Editor: She is one of our finest and most respected editors.
Jenny: She hates my book.
Editor: How could I hate your book Jenny? It's my story, my darling. I'm the girl in your book.
Mother Editor: That's why I put the two of you together.
Jenny: But it's my story. Not hers.
Editor: I'm just asking you to come at it from a position of strength.
Jenny: And I have come at it with all the strength that I have.
Mother Editor: That's honest. If that's where Jenny is then that's how she has to come at it.
Editor: I'll tell you what. I'm not the right person to edit Jenny's story. I understand it, but I can't promote it. Bless you, my darling. Jenny (triumphantly): Thank you.
"Jenny" has been very supportive of "Moira"s transitioning into "Max," including organizing a fund raising party to pay for the surgery, inferring that she's returning to her bi-sexuality as in the first season. But in "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way" by Chaiken, "Max" is very jealous and "Jenny" finally explodes: I can dance with whoever the fuck I want to dance with. I wasn't sucking his cock was I? . . . When I realized I might be gay, I didn't rule out men. But if I'm going to be with a guy, I'm not going to be with some aggressive, macho male pig who has different standards of behavior for himself than he does for me. "Max" promises: "I'm going to be a better man. But "Jenny" later continues the discussion: I don't know you. You've becoming a completely different person. . . No, I don't understand. . .And when you get the body you need, who's going to live inside it? Is it going to be that sweet kind compassionate gentle person I met or is it going to be this motherfucking monster?
In "Losing the Light" by Rose Troche, which features nasty comments on straight men and bisexuals, "Jenny" for some reason has arranged a reunion with her ex-husband "Tim" when his Ohio swim team is in town for a meet. She introduces "Max" as her boyfriend and while discussing his sports history, "Tim" becomes quizzical and "Jenny" confrontationally explains he is a pre-operative, transitioning transsexual. While "Tim" makes crude comments about her to his wife, "Jenny" suddenly fantasizes that she instead could be "Tim"s very pregnant wife and "Max" tries to guy bond with the leery "Tim".
At lunch, the wife politely asks about "Jenny"s writing and "Max" proudly announces that she's getting published. "Tim" is startled: You? "Jenny": Don't look so surprised Tim. "Max": It's a memoir. It's like things that have happened in Jenny's life. I'm pretty sure you're in it. Tim: I am?. Jenny (defensively): I don't know. You read it and tell me what you think. and she goes on that it has a national publisher. Tim: So it's going to be everywhere. . .That's amazing. Jenny gets very sarcastic: I know - 'I always thought you could do it.' "Tim": What are you trying to say Jenny? "Jenny": Tim I know you. You don't always have to say every thought out all the time, all right. "Tim": You don't know me. All right Jenny, what private thoughts are you having Jenny?. . .Maybe I didn't think you could commit to anything long enough to see it through. "Jenny": Oh I committed. I became a self-mutilator, I'm on medication, I did a short stint in a psychiatric hospital, I spent six months with my parents in Skokie. Everything that I know you would want to happen to me. "Tim": I never wanted any of that for you Jenny. "Jenny": I don't believe you. "Tim": Well, sorry, for you. You know what pisses me off? You acting like such a victim. And no, I'm not going to forgive you. I'm not going to wish you well. Sorry. You should have let me go. That would have been the honorable thing to do. "Jenny": Don't talk to me about honorable, Tim. Hey Becky, did you know that the night Tim came to say good-bye to me he gave me a little revenge fuck? Is that honorable Tim?
On the car ride home with "Max," "Jenny": That was a total disaster. "Max": You guys just have your stuff, that's all. Tim's not that bad of a guy. "Jenny": What? Did you hear the conversation? "Max": Do you miss it? Being with a man? I mean, that could have been your life. "Jenny": I would have killed myself if that were my life. [Um, she tried to kill herself when she was living a gay life.] "Max": They seemed happy though. I mean, you know, he has a good job, a wife, a kid on the way. It doesn't seem so bad to me. "Jenny": Max, would you want to be some oblivious guy who lives in the suburbs and who has a wife and kids and SUV and who just lets all the rotten shit in the world just go by and try not to let it touch him? "Max": I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to be happy.
In "Last Dance" by Chaiken, "Jenny" demands that "Max" pursue a confrontation with the macho IT company that wouldn't hire her as "Moira" but now does for a higher position. She had already contacted her agent about writing a piece for The New Yorker about it. But the now hirsute "Max" refuses. "Jenny" is furious: You're going to sell out. You're going to start sleeping with the enemy? "Max" retorts (sounding a lot like all the rational people who get fed up dealing with "Jenny"): If you think men are the enemy, then you have the problem. At the very touching memorial service, "Jenny" gets called out for exaggerating a past sexual encounter with the late friend in order to grab attention.
In the season finale, "Left Hand of the Goddess" written and directed by Chaiken, "Jenny" is obviously bored at a dinner with "Max"s male work colleagues as they drone on about IT stuff. The head guy tries to sympathize as his wife trills on about her stereotypically female interests. "Jenny" looks up from playing with her food: I'm thinking about the story that I'm working on, about how when I was 12, I used to masturbate like 20 times a day and I'm not sure whether I should make it like fiction or like a New Yorker-style essay piece, I don't know. On a deleted follow-up scene that was on Showtime's Web site, we see them back home after the dinner. "Jenny": I'm never doing that again. "Max": Good. "Jenny": You know, I'm not going to play the part of your acquiescent little girlfriend just so you can please your co-workers. "Max": Why is it so important to you to make people feel so uncomfortable? "Jenny": That's not what's important to me. I just want to tell the truth with my life. "Max": I worked really fucking hard to get that job. "Jenny": Yeah, I worked really fucking hard to get healthy. And I’m not going to hide and I'm not going to disappear just so you can be part of a culture that treats their women like shit. "Max": There's women at the company and they don't treat them like shit. "Jenny": Oh yeah? What about Moira?
"Jenny" is sarcastic about the wedding of their friends. She mocks the bridal gown shopping in recalling her own wedding: I wore a beautiful pair of black Converses, a great pair of ripped tights with dirt on them, a jeans skirt and then I wore a beautiful old, ripped, stained pink sweatshirt. . .I really didn't have that childhood thing, you know, of getting married, that all little girls are supposed to have, that kind of dreams. When "Max" is pleased that traditions are being followed, "Jenny" spits: I think that's regressive. In a pre-wedding toast (I like the Brit slang "hen party"), "Jenny" says what she learned from the guest of honor: The thing that you taught us about friendship is about being fearless. So thank you very much for convincing me to cut off my lustrous, mink-like long, long, long mane as short as humanly possible and thank you very much for not making it look like yours. Another friend sarcastically murmurs It's really grown back fast. which might be an inside joke about wigs or something in the production as "Jenny"s hair is back to being lustrous and she's always sticking flowers and fancy barrettes in it. She continues: You've taught the whole group that a person's rough edges are beautiful.
At the winter resort for the wedding, "Max" goes off skiing and "Jenny" strikes up a seductive conversation with "Claude", a Continental-accented woman travel writer for a gay magazine, who immediately asks how is sex with a transsexual. "Jenny" expounds: That's a personal question. Sex isn't a leisure activity. Sometimes it's a revelation, sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's scary, sometimes it's fun, sometime's it's tepid.
On a deleted scene that was on Showtime's Web site so I'm not exactly sure where in the chronology it would have appeared, they are in the resort's cigar lounge and "Max" espies them through the window. "Claude": You told her about us? What did you say? "Jenny": I told him I like girls. We next see "Jenny" and "Max" in a lobby. "Jenny": Max, I don't want you to be upset. "Max": In the story that you write about it, I'm sure I won't be upset. "Jenny": Max, I'm gay. I miss, I miss sleeping with women. "Max": You're going to go up to her room right now and have sex with her, right? "Jenny": Yes. I am. And I am talking to you about it before hand. I wouldn't do it without speaking to you first. "Max": I guess I don't have much of a case then if I object. "Jenny": No. And she kisses him on the cheek and walks away, and the camera stays on sad "Max."
Back to what aired, "Jenny" and "Claude" are in bed and it was hard for me to discern the dialog between their drags on cigarettes, kisses and licking champagne off their bodies. Contradicting her earlier sneer at her assignment, the writer now defends issues of putting labels on writers in giving August Wilson as an example of an author who explored a specific group's experience. "Jenny" responds: I don't want to be like this gay writer. (updated 10/18/2006)


Curb Your Enthusiasm - Susie Greene etc. (on HBO, repeated frequently On Demand again, and in syndication on TV Guide Channel. This season out on DVD.) With Larry David's manager "Jeffrey Greene" reunited with his wife "Susie" (played by Susie Essman), her character was softened and became the frank and honest voice of Jewish propriety in the 5th season that had Larry, facetiously and scabrously, exploring his Jewish identity. In the season opener "The Larry David Sandwich," only "Susie" chastises him for buying his High Holiday tickets from a scalper, as they go to the same services.
In "The Seder," "Susie" is incredulous that Larry's gentile wife "Cheryl" has offered to prepare her first seder --Does she know what she's doing? and proceeds to advise and help her, and attends with her family. She's also the one who speaks up when he invites sex offender "Rick Lefkowitz" - What the hell are you trying to pull Larry? He should not be in our presence on a holy day, on any day. What are you doing? and is noticeably protective of her daughter throughout the evening.
However, in "The Ski Lift," she gets pulled in on Larry's scheme to get his friend Richard Lewis placed higher on the kidney transplant list (though she sees through his machinations: Let's be clear. You want to save your own kidney.) She agrees to pose as Larry's Orthodox wife during a ski weekend in order to impress an Orthodox foundation president who runs a transplant consortium, creatively claiming that they met at a Hillel function in college. She dons head scarf and shares his bedroom - but not more Do you know how much I've done for you already this weekend? Get the fuck out of my bed!
The executive brings along his observant daughter "Rachel Heineman" (played by Iris Bahr), who is constantly including Yiddish phrases and religious strictures in her conversation. Larry manages to blow his whole effort when "Rachel" gets increasingly anxious as sundown approaches on the stalled ski lift because she claims she can't be alone with a man then. She demands he jump off the lift to save her reputation and, of course, he refuses. So she does. "Rachel" shows up again in "The Korean Bookie" which had an ethical theme. To put the theme rabbinically, if you smash someone's car and you write out a check for repairs, is it O.K. that the recipient uses the money instead to pay for breast augmentation for his daughter? Though a now stacked "Rachel" points out that didn't cover the full cost. But maybe the next check he'll have to pay out when he smashed the other side of the car will cover the rest.
In the final episode of the season "The End" we finally get to meet Larry's mother - in heaven. She's played by a very funny Bea Arthur who finds a lot to harangue him about.(update 10/18/2006) Disclaimer: I only learned in late 2009 that Emmy-nominated executive producer David Mandel is my second cousin once removed.
Virginia Heffernan in The New York Times of 12/25/2005 picked her as one of her favorite characters of the year: "She's as bothersome as Larry, and far more vulgar, but - ingeniously - she hoards the moral authority on this show. Nobody plays the suspicious, carping Best Friend's Wife like Susie Essman."


Everwood - Delia Brown (4th and last season. Out on DVD. Soundtrack CD available.) In "Pieces of Me" that was written by Josh Reims as cornily and clumsily as any episode of 7th Heaven with a heavy-handed theme about memory, and way below par for this series, "Delia" (played by Vivien Cardone) explains to a priest at a job fair that she's not interested in the seminary because she's Jewish. When she notes that she's 12, he asks if she's having a bat mitzvah. I don't think I'm having one. Me and my mother used to talk about it. We were going to have it at Tavern on the Green. But I don't really get the whole bat mitzvah thing anyway. "Father Patrick" explains that it's an important tradition, It's a rite of passage between childhood and adulthood. She's confused because her older brother seems to be going through that now, I won't have to move into a new house, will I? He expands It's more of a spiritual passage. And girls mature faster so they can celebrate theirs at 12.
She then announces to her dad that it's time, but he mixes up a bar and a bat mitzvah. "Delia" corrects him - You have so much to learn. Dr. Dad reports back with what I found startling information from a guy who thinks nothing of jaunting over to Denver from their small mountain town for a surgery and considering how many relatives I have in the state. The writers clearly mixed up CO with the Alaska of Northern Exposure which did a lovely episode about a mourning minyan. The nearest rabbi lives 150 miles away and he doesn't drive. . .I must have talked to every Jew in Colorado, all five of them. [sic] But your father always has a back-up plan. So we'll celebrate without the ceremony. "Delia", for once, objects. But you promised. Then it's just a party.
Then, bizarrely and in TV stereotype fashion, there's a parallel story of his elderly patient who needs brain surgery for a benign tumor. The couple, played by ethnic short hand specialists Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna, is concerned that he'll lose his memory because he's a Holocaust survivor and the last repository of memories of his family and village: He doesn't want to forget that. It's part of what made him the man he is today. . .A big part of being Jewish is to remember our history. Another big part is to believe. But we believe some crazy things. Dad notes that his daughter is particularly fond of the Hanukkah story. She responds:That's a good one. But you can't always survive just by being practical. You do what you can, but you have to leave room for a miracle. You have to. (Umm, the whole point of the Hanukkah story is that it's a miracle, not practical.)
After the surgery, where the wife talks a family oral history throughout, Dad springs a surprise on "Delia": Guess what we're doing six months from now? You're going to have a bat mitzvah! The whole kit and caboodle. "Delia" asks if he found a rabbi. Why should I trust you that this time you won't change your mind? He concedes, with a touching sentiment despite what an odd story line took to get this said: I made a mistake. I almost deprived you of something very important - your Judaism. That should always be a part of you. Just like it was always part of your mom. And no matter where you go in life I want you to never forget who you are and where you came from. "Delia" doesn't understand why it will take six months - that seems like a lot. He explains: That's how long it takes to study. . . You want to be the Chosen People you have to work for it. My kids would think six months is getting off light!
Six months later, "Lost and Found" by Nancy Won had the local grandmother asking How's that bat mitzvah going? "Delia" enthusiastically responded (in a break from the secular strife and tears with her dad) I like my rabbi teacher a lot. He gives less homework than my other teachers.
In "You're A Good Man, Andy Brown" by Anna Fricke we learned that the teacher is a klutzy but sweet rabbinical student, presumably from the seminary at the job fair, "Josh 'A Stain on the' Stein"s who doesn't wear a kippah and whose received doctor's diagnosis of Adult Attention Deficit Disorder did not make much sense. While the teacher wants dad to get more involved, the big brother is sarcastic: How can you help "Delia" with her bat mitzvah speech when you don't even know what mazel tov means? While she's the first bat mitzvah in the history of the world to do this three months in advance, the writers pulled out of the rich parashat for Shabbat K'Doshim (Leviticus 19:1 - 20:25) with its plethora of detailed instructions from God to Moses a line that resonated for these characters, though they used an even looser translation than the Jewish Publication Society's of Leviticus 20:6 in Etz Hayim: "And if any person turns to ghosts and familiar spirits and goes astray after them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people." The script said it more like "Thou shall turn away from ghosts" - which "Delia" then beautifully, if not halachically, related to as it is time that she and her dad stopped dwelling on the dead mother - It's about me and you dad.. . .It's better that we turn to one another than to a ghost. For the final episodes in the series, she is constantly explaining to her quite ignorant classmates (particularly the Mean Girls she had taken up with) and neighbors about her Jewish rite of passage to become a woman, as she keeps calling it.
The series finale "Foreverwood" by Rina Mimoun & David Hudgins (for Part 1) and Anna Fricke & Josh Reims (for Part 2) included "Delia"s bat mitzvah, with the endless repetition of the today I am a woman theme and her insistence on perfection. The brother's new girlfriend asks to come: I've never been to a bat mitzvah before. Very cool. It sounds like fun. Like one rockin' party. Bro demurs: Yeah, that's how they phrase it in the Torah. Yeah, what could be more fun than a lot of Hebrew and a bunch of [b]ratty 13 year olds? . . . Maybe at 9:30 we'll break out the limbo stick. Dad, however, suddenly gets pedantic with a formal explanation: This whole event is like a wedding. There's rented tables and chairs and assigned seating and meals that have already been paid for before, of course, relenting.
There was a quick visual-only montage of "Delia" reading from the Torah then on to the party at the fairgrounds, complete with carousel. At the candle lighting, she made a sweet speech about remembering her mother. The celebration included Hava Nagilah and dancing with the lifted chair. The brother has a lame conversation about it with the girlfriend when she compliments his sister's reading: Not that I understood it. He jokes: That's OK. Nobody really does. . . Do you want to brave the hora? She teases back: What did you call me? Another friend later comments: Those Jews really know how to party. Though I think there were only four there. Dad then gives "Delia" the ultimate girl fantasy present: a pony and riding lessons. And sure, she promises she'll help muck out the stall. (updated 10/18/2006)
In a TV Guide online interview posted on 5/29/06, producer Rina Mimoun explained that this last season was "about people fulfilling their ultimate destinies. . . It's hard in television to show female friendships, and it's even harder to show young girls who are smart and intellectual and care about things other than their makeup. We've got to get some rockin' ladies on TV. This is my goal in life!"


Beautiful People- Annabelle Banks (cancelled from Disney Family, out on DVD) is set in a bizarrely ersatz New York City, and not just because it is painfully obvious that it is filmed in Toronto. The student body at the expansive elite Manhattan private school where kids drive to school evidently includes Jewish teens among those who, according to "Annabelle Banks" in the pilot by executive producer Michael Rauch, have all known each other since We met on the first day of pre-kindergarten. and they all went to Kim Horowitz's bat mitzvah. Gideon had to kiss [Paisley] during our game of Spin the Bottle with 1974 Chateau Lafitte. . .and he threw up all over the Horowitz's priceless, hand-sewn rug. . . "Gideon Lustig" shrugs: I never could hold my Manishewitz. adding Our shrinks introduced us. In the third episode, "Reload" by Rauch and producer Vince Calandra, it was made suddenly explicit that "Annabelle" (played by Kathleen Munroe) is Jewish -- gee, maybe because she's a brunette intellectual who doesn't fit in with the titular In Crowd of what must be some sort of Christian school like in Saved! because how could there be an expensive private school in NYC with so few Jewish students? She crows over a student magazine project: I haven't gotten this many compliments since my bat mitzvah. I haven't made this much money since my bat mitzvah. In the next episode, this strong young woman is weakened when it's suddenly revealed that she's been pining for oblivious, blond best friend "Gideon" all along.
In the opener of the second half of the first season, "Flashback to the Future" by veteran new producer/writer Anne Kenney, "Annabelle" has not only transformed her supposedly geeky looks to sexy during spring break, but also her personality, let alone her Jewish identity. As she purrs to "Gideon" in finally extensively stoking teen boy-appealing fantasies that I won't bother quoting here, to indicate that she thinks of him romantically: I've not only changed my look, I decided to change my attitude. I'm tired of being your friend. I don't think about my friends the way I think about you. . . I want to be more. It's your move.
"Gideon"s lecherous dad notices Look what happened to you. about her, in "It's All Uphill From Here" by Lisa Albert. She and "Gideon" try two romantic trysts of passionate kissing, only to be interrupted - and then, of course, she gives up, over his objections. This just isn't working is it? Romantically. It's just not happening. It's just not that hot. . .Wow, I just assumed it was as weird for you as it was for me. . .For me it stayed weird. He's quite disappointed: If you're not feeling it, OK. Whoops! I accidentally missed the next episode! I'll have to wait for a repeat.
In "Black Diamonds, White Lies", executive producer Rauch clumsily reminded us "Annabelle" is Jewish by having her change her plans to come along on the school ski trip because It was either this or go to my cousin Isabelle Goldblatt's bat mitzvah. To which "Gideon" responds heartily: Mazel tov. But while he is giddy from being a boy toy for his dad's girlfriend, she bemoans that her transformation to a lovely swan has still left her alone: All the changes I've gone through - the hair, the clothes, the look -- nothing's changed.
"Wherever We Are Now" by Elizabeth David oddly turned the series into an episode of MTV's My Super Sweet 16, as "Annabelle" accidentally discovers that her parents have sent out invitations to her whole class and dear God! all her teachers for a Sweet 16 party at Chelsea Piers. She moans: I didn't even know about it! They knew I didn't want a party or invitations or a bunch of people I don't even care about crammed into one space feigning enthusiasm for my birthday. "Gideon" concurs: Knowing Annabelle's parents, they'll show up riding white elephants and there will be fire throwers, jugglers, court jesters and acrobats. Maybe even Hilary Duff. Close, there were the pop girl group The Veronicas and Cirque de Soleil-looking types on ropes. Cozying up to the teacher who we have already been telegraphed is a lesbian, "Annabelle" points out her parents with an ethnic tinge: I think they're entering the part of the conversation where they decide how many goats I'm worth. The teacher responds dryly on a more practical note: Or parcels of land.
In the penultimate episode of the season, "Best Face Forward" by producers Anne Kenney and Lisa Albert, "Annabelle" is tempted as she thinks, as we do, that she's being hit on by her attractive lesbian teacher "Rhonda Newberg" (yet another Jewish lesbian on TV) when she's invited to coffee and an art exhibit on high school yearbooks. She stammers out an invitation to dinner, only to be horrified by the affectionate appearance of the teacher's blonde partner. So she's upset when best friend "Sophie" the next day teases How was your date with Miss Newberg? and she impetuously wants to drop out as year book editor. "Sophie" gets her to confess: I thought she asked me out on a date and then her girlfriend joined us and I said I'm sick and I went home and now I don't want to work with her. . .I don't know what I am. I know I felt comfortable around Miss Newberg and she seemed to like me, and she's gay. "Sophie": Do you feel the same way about her that you felt about Gideon? "Annabelle": Look what happened with him. A big zero. Which is overheard by the startled guy in question: You're gay? Oh God, please don't ell me I turned you into a lesbian!(updated 10/17/2006)


Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold and daughter Sarah in the 3rd Season
From They're No Angels, by Lynn Smith, The Los Angeles Times June 11, 2006: "Now, [executive producer Doug Ellin] said, "The majority of stuff comes out of my head. It's all loosely based on a bunch of people." 'Ari Gold's wife (Perrey Reeves), the real boss at home, is based on Ellin's wife; Ellin's own agent, Ari Emanuel informs, among others, the contentious 'Gold'. In an interview in The Courier Mail, Hollywood homie star, June 28, 2006, Jeremy Piven explained his perception of their relationship: "'Ari' has such deep love for his wife and yet can't stop looking at every ass that passes him. That duality is so fascinating to play, and maybe to watch." In zap2it.com interview posted June 9, 2006: "Piven reasons, 'and I think that gives a little humanity to the creature 'Ari' is. His wife obviously knows all his tragic flaws, but she knows how to play it.'"
From The LA Times in Newsday June 22, 2006 - Women of Entourage Come on Strong (fair use excerpt): "'Mrs. Ari", the smart, fearless wife of fictional Hollywood agent "Ari Gold", doesn't even have an official first name. But Perrey Reeves, the actress who plays her on HBO's Entourage . . . isn't complaining. . .Her character, who comes on particularly strong in season three (which started June 11), is an extension of her obnoxious, neurotic husband (played by Emmy-nominated Jeremy Piven), Reeves says. 'I love it. That's how the boys see me,' she says. . .[T]his season, 'Mrs. Ari' and other female characters, such as Eric's girlfriend, Vince's mother and Ari's new colleagues, also come on strong as independent-minded, roost-ruling women. 'It really balances it out,' Reeves says. The show started out as a 'guy show' but now 'we're trying to find more time for women,' says head writer Doug Ellin. 'We want to show that these guys are not sexist guys.' They may rank women numerically, but 'at the end of the day, they're all guys looking for somebody they can talk to. . .They're not predators. . .Obviously, there are extremely strong women in Hollywood . . .I hope we keep showing a fully rounded world.' Reeves, a longtime friend of Piven, was working on the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith when she learned he had recommended her for the Entourage part. 'They weren't sure what they wanted to do with the role. Maybe she'd be a doormat . . .I said, 'No, no, no. I'd kick his butt.' And it worked out.' 'Once we found her, we knew we had something great," Ellin says. Reeves' character brings sophistication to 'Ari', he says. When they're together, 'he gets a nice glow about him, he gets a little classier.' She's also 'the only person who puts him in his place. Reeves says Mrs. Ari, a former actress and trust-fund baby, 'has clear boundaries and is very organized. She loves Ari so much. She's there to make sure he doesn't do anything foolish. They're ambitious, but in a mutually supportive way.' Ellin admits his own wife, Melissa, provides material for 'Mrs. Ari'. Reeves and Melissa Ellin have become such good friends that if "Mrs. Ari" ever does get a first name, Reeves wants it to be Melissa, Doug Ellin says. With "Mrs. Ari", Piven gets to show 'Ari's softer, more vulnerable side, which fans will see more of in the current season. 'We feel we're really a nice family. You never see us with nannies. We actually do our job,' Reeves says."
This new approach was clear from the first episode of the season, "Aquamom" by creator Doug Ellin, even as it pushed hot buttons about Jews and money. The script leered very close to stereotypes but creatively veered warmly and knowingly away to continue its portrait of a unique TV husband and wife partnership. We pick up with "Ari" struggling to set up his own agency in a crumby building and then having to inform his wife that a check for a contribution to their kid's expensive private school has bounced. They are dressing for the big movie premiere with her looking quite fetching in lingerie as the sexiest, feistiest Jewish mother on TV this season:
Mrs.: OK, no wonder everyone at the book drive was staring at me.
"Ari": They were staring at you because you're hot, OK. Look at all the other mommies. They're ugly.
Mrs.: This is so humiliating. I had no idea we were in this bad of trouble, Ari. . . Tell me what you need. . .The number.
"Ari" lists his overhead. I need 100 grand. Mrs.:Jesus! Ari: Come on. I'm on fumes here!
Mrs.: Well I dipped into my personal savings five times already.
"Ari": Hey, what's mine is yours.
Mrs.: Sell your fucking car.
"Ari": Sell your fucking watch.
Mrs.: You eat at The Palm four nights a week.
"Ari": Do I ever order the lobster? [Though they do not keep kosher, this has double resonance as traife.] No, I order the Gigi salad and I sign clients. Honey, this is the master plan happening. The seeds have been planted all over this town. You know that. Honey, they just need a little water.
Mrs.: You keep telling me that but when are they going to grow?
"Ari": . . .Vinnie is the first seed to bloom. He's going to be the biggest movie star on the planet. You know that.
Mrs.: No, Ari, I don't.
"Ari": Well, you need to know that I know that, OK, and you need to trust me the way you trust your daddy's trust fund. You call them personal savings, but you haven't saved shit personally.[Uh oh, rich daddy issues!]
Mrs.: Whatever, Ari. My father put that money aside for me in case something happened to us and it's almost gone.
"Ari": But we're still here. I could have banged Heidi Klum when she was 23, but I took a pass, OK. What the fuck is going to make me leave now?
Mrs.: You could die.
"Ari": You would like that wouldn't you.
Mrs.: Not until I was sure that the life insurance check didn't bounce.
Later they are on the red carpet at the star-studded premiere of the fictional Aquaman. Ari: Vinnie's going to be huge.
Mrs.: You believe that?
"Ari": I know it.
Mrs.: I trust you. But still no lobsters.
"Ari": I love you. They kiss.
The next episode, "One Day in the Valley" (a play on a sexy noir movie title) by Marc Abrams and Michael Benson, went the next step in hot button couple issues: sex vs. business, as the episode opens with them in bed. "Ari" wakes up "Vinnie"s manager, "Eric", with a call to explain the importance of Opening Day figures and they exchange rousing variations of the F word, as the Mrs. comes over to her husband to kiss his ear and stroke his chest.
"Ari": Game Day, baby. No go, no go.
Mrs.:You'll talk dirty to E. (She keeps stroking his chest.)
"Ari": Aw, come on. (Her hand reaches his nether regions.)
Mrs.: It's been three weeks.
"Ari": I know, I know. After we open, baby, then we're all good. (He jumps out of bed and she sighs deeply in frustration.)
Mrs.: And if we don't open?
"Ari": If we don't OPEN? No No, What do you mean by that, if we don't open? Would you say that to a fighter on the morning of a bout? Maybe you'll get knocked out so you have to fight if you're in a coma? Don't jinx us baby, not today.
We next see him in his office, with his assistant, who confirms an appointment for 4:30 with "Dr. Marcus", stopping "Ari" in his tracks.
"Lloyd": Yeah, your wife called and said you needed an emergency session.
"Ari": Fuck, Lloyd, Why didn't you just tell her I that I didn't have time.
"Lloyd": Because you do have time.
"Ari": Why didn't you lie?
"Lloyd": Because I'm scared of your wife, Ari.
"Ari": Yeah, me too. Maybe if I rub this guy's balls [the idol statue "Lloyd" had just give him for good luck] she'll disappear.
We later see them in a return to "Dr. Marcus" (played by Nora Dunn, as in last season's marriage counseling sessions): So when is the last time you had sex?
"Ari": (laughs nervously): With each other or. .
Mrs.: Look if you're not going to treat this seriously, Ari. . .
"Ari: Honey, I'm taking it seriously, just for the amount of money we're spending here I could get you a pro to service even your most bizarre fetishes. (laughs again)
Mrs.: See, this is what I'm dealing with.
"Ari": Come on. (His phone rings, and rings - as it did during their previous sessions.)
Mrs.: Don't. "Ari": It's Vince.
"Dr. Marcus": Don't you feel that a lacking sexual relationship is a big problem in a marriage?
"Ari:" Oh, I do, Doc, but we fuck more than any other married couple you know. And I know this because whenever we go out with another married couple the subject comes up and they always say 'Y'know, I can't believe how often you guys fuck.' (His phone rings again and again and again.) It's Vince baby. (pleading)
Mrs.: I don't give a fuck.
"Ari": OK, well, you see, y'know, after the year that I've had and on the most important day of my life you'd think she would ask me what I wanted. Y'know, a nice blow job perhaps. Where I could just sit back for the first time in nine months and do nothing but admire the top of her head and pray that this fuckin' movie opens so I can stop (his phone rings again and again) selling assets like we're fuckin' Michael Jackson. All right now, I have to answer the fuckin' phone when it rings three fuckin' times and it's fuckin' Vinnie. As the doctor and Mrs. exchange looks, "Ari" does plead with "E" on the phone Don't call me back unless. . . And the office is struck in the rolling black-outs. Can we pro-rate this session please?
Back home, Mrs. tries to comfort "Ari" about the black-outs. Well, there's nothing you can do about it now. So why don't you sit down and relax.
"Ari": Baby, I can't relax. . .I have to go. (She comes over to him and starts undoing his shirt.) Isn't it a little convenient that the kids are at your mother's?
Mrs.: Ari, I've been patient. But now whatever happens, it's totally out of your control. So let's go upstairs.
"Ari": Fine, but I'm not going to like it. (She strokes his groin.) I may like it, but just a little bit. (His phone rings.) Baby, I don't want you to hear this, but I have to go. I have to go to the Valley. I promise. I promise you when I get back no matter what we're going to dent that headboard and, no bull shit, I guarantee you, you will not walk right tomorrow. (She giggles and he kisses her.)
Later, after being thrown in the pool at a celebratory party, he announces to his client: That was actually refreshing but I have to go home and hammer the wife. "Vinnie" asks for a lift and "Ari" is quick to respond: Anything to keep me away from my house.
"Dominated" by Rob Weiss took on another hot button - father and daughter. We again met the "Golds" daughter "Sarah," who seems a refreshingly normal 13-year old, even if her first date is swooning over obnoxious Teen Idol "Max" who is in line to take up the Cody Banks franchise and regales her with his own movies. Dad busts up their living room TV watching date early but we see her secretly pleased smile over her laptop in bed before her mother warns the protective dad: So go tell her you secretly monitor her buddy list. See how that affects her trust issues. But he finds a pretext for taking her computer away. The next morning, in their kitchen:
Mrs.: Ari, you're acting insane.
"Ari": I'm acting. . . There's a movie star that has his sights set on our baby girl and I'm acting insane?
Mrs. laughing: He's 13.
"Ari"- quoting his client: Yeah but in celeb years that's like 30.
Mrs. laughing again: But I'd like to see how you're going to tell our daughter that she can't go to the water park today. (for a promotional event). . . This is your thing. You're going to tell her.
"Sarah": Tell her what. . . What time are we leaving for the water park? Max wants to know.
"Ari": Uh, baby, you know that I love you right? "Sarah": Of course.
"Ari": And you know that it's out of love that I tell you that I don't want you coming to the water park today and I don't want you seeing Max any more. "Sarah": Why not?
"Ari": Because he's an actor, honey, and actors are bad. I know this honey because I work with them all day.
"Sarah": Mom used to be an actor.
"Ari": And now she's not and that's why she's now good. (Mrs. shows disbelief.)
"Sarah": Dad, you're being really unfair. I really like him. You can't keep us apart for no reason. "Ari": I can certainly try.
"Sarah": Mom! Mrs. shrugs: Your father. . .
"Sarah": I hate you guys! I hate you!
Mrs.: Congratulations! You just won yourself $50,000 in child therapy.
"Ari": Hey, in this town as long as I keep her off an E! True Hollywood Story I've done my job! Later leaving his clients at the park for family business, he confronts "Max" when he sees him with another girl (We're not exclusive.) to leave his daughter alone, and gets taunted about his five-man agency. Ah, the intersection of family and business in a company town!
"Ari" continued to fit in family business in "Crash and Burn", by Brian Burns, as he again threatens "Max" and has his housekeeper listen in on "Sarah"s calls by warning He's trying to steal our little girl's soul. So when she calls Dad to sweetly ask permission to go on a boat with the math club, he can claim A father always knows when his daughter in lying. "Sarah" is furious: How did you know it's Max? You're spying on me! I'm not your baby! I'm 13 years old! I love Max and you can't keep us apart forever! When she's in tears coming out of the SUV after soccer practice and avoids his hug, the Mrs. explains she's now mad at "Max" -- and "Ari" jumps for joy. Mrs. says "Max" will be making a movie in Kazakhstan--unbeknownst to her, he had suggested that to director Penny Marshall over his own client: I'm so glad our daughter's tears make you so happy. Ari is cheerfully defensive: Those tears made sure our little girl is going to stay a little girl for at least another day. So how about a quick blow job before my [client] dinner? He later claims why he is late to the dinner: It was date night with the wife. She thinks I'm out getting popcorn.
"Strange Days" by Marc Abrams and Michael Benson wonderfully encapsulated how the "Gold"s marriage is both a loving and financial partnership within a vicious company town. "Ari" uses his ex-boss's knowledge of his wife as a key point in threatening to go to court for money owed him: Or have you forgot? I got a very rich wife who loves to spoil me. He immediately seeks her out with the results, carrying a large ring box, interrupting her Ladies Who Lunch with funny Desperate Housewives quips as she queries: Ari, wha - what are you doing here?
"Ari": (like a formal presentation): I came to tell you, honey, that our marriage is a sham and the last 15 years have meant nothing.
Mrs.: What are you talking about?
"Ari", opening the jewelry box: I came here to tell you that I want it to actually mean something this time.
Mrs., as all the ladies lean in and their mouths drop open: Oh my God! "Ari": Let me put it on you, baby. OK ladies, whip 'em out. Let's see who has the biggest.
Mrs.: I take it the meeting went well. Ari: Baby, it went well. Let me show you how well it went. He takes hold of her jacket and shopping bags. I'm going to be stealing the bride-to-be every one. Come on honey.
Mrs.: Where are we going? Ari: It's a secret. (While he exchanges nasty asides to the ladies.) We see them next in raw office space. He's enthusiastically wide-armed describing his plans to her.
Mrs.: Oh my God. . .It's huge. . . Ari, can we afford this?
"Ari": Baby, this is what we've been planning for nine months. With this, all the pieces are in place. I know you're scared, but it's time. Just say yes. She says Yes.
"Ari" kisses her twice and grabs her hand: Let's take a lap in the executive jacuzzi. Mrs.: You have a jacuzzi? Ari: Not yet, but they're going to put one in. Mrs.: No they're not. "Ari": We could talk about it. Mrs.: We just did. "Ari": I don't know, maybe I could bribe you. He lifts her up high, then wraps her knees around him. Mrs. Ooo! Ari, are you out of your mind? He kisses her all the way down her breast.
They emerge from the building post-coitally mussed and distracted, with his arm around her. Mrs.: I can't believe we just did that! "Ari": It was like freshman year at the ZBT House. Mrs., eyes narrowing: We didn't do it freshman year at the ZBT House, Ari. "Ari" breezily: You're right, that was Amy Meyers. Mrs.: You fucked Amy Meyers! Oh my God! "Ari": You're going to get mad about that? It was 20 years ago! And you landed the big prize. Mrs. grins: I did. "Ari": I love you.-- and she says Awwww just as he drags her down screaming onto the sidewalk to hide from his nemesis driving by.
Mrs.: So what's the difference if he knows? Oh my God, we don't have the money? Ari! "Ari": We have an agreement. So he didn't see anything. It's all good. But no, the nemesis is still there.
"Ari": My wife lost a contact. Why don't you pop out and help us find it? They exchange vulgarities until Mrs. is quite taken aback and even the enemy backs off: Sorry, he brings that out in me.
"Ari" kisses her again: It's all good baby, he didn't see a thing.
She's still shaken at the charity auction later that night, while "Ari"s pointing out vacations he could bid on. No more spending Ari. Not until we're in the clear.
"Ari", canoodling and negotiating with her: We are in the clear, baby, I don't know why I panicked. Where do you want to vacation? C'mon, it's charity. A tax write-off. I'll bid on all of them.
She shows off the ring to the ex-boss's snobby wife, played deliciously again by Melinda Clarke who etched in acid says: It's exquisite. It's so unlike you. I must compliment Ari. God, it must have cost him a fortune.
Mrs. panics: Well, actually, it's just a C.Z. Don't tell anyone. Clarke recoils and demurs. Mrs. grabs "Ari" from a flirtatious conversation: I can't believe I had to tell that bitch this was a fake. "Ari": You didn't have to do that. Mrs.: But I thought we were keeping the money a secret. "Ari": No [the ex-boss] knows we have the money. He gave it to me. Mrs.: How the fuck am I supposed to know? You have me so confused! I don't like secrets. I don't like lying. "Ari": Office space. You just can't say office space.
But the nemesis already figured out why the couple was in front of that particular building: Unless your wife's baby blanket business went big time, you are about to open the biggest agency in town and demands in on too favorable terms. "Ari" denies it, but he wins the vacations and the ex-boss greets him: You're really spending that money, Ari. What else are you buying? "Ari" mouths OK to the enemy.
The Boys virtually kidnap "Ari" to go to "Vegas, Baby, Vegas" (by Ellin) -I have the theater with the wife and her mother tonight. . . She said she'd rather see me bound and gagged in a real kidnapping. The guys talk sexual history revelation in a relationship - You and your wife didn't make lists? "Ari" is confident: Yeah we did - and I'm the only one it. Of course, he is much more obsessed with winning back money at the gambling tables than distracted by the strippers - or my kids are going to community college.


2004/5 Season

Law and Order had yet another Jewish murdering matriarch 11/24/2004 in Mercedes Ruehl as "Zina Rybakov" with an odd Russian accent in "All in the Family" by William N. Fordes. While attempting to illustrate the plight of the agunah (Orthodox women whose husband will not grant the official divorce get), the episode delighted in the lurid exoticism of the Diamond District, the Orthodox community and the usual Russian mobsters of Brighton Beach, who the widow may or may not have counted on to take out her beyond-shame husband when she let them know he was cooperating with law enforcement, after she had ratted him out to the Feds too. The episode was particularly clumsy in dealing with ADA "Serena Southerlyn," played by Elisabeth Röhm who a couple of months later left the series anyway (she was fired for being too emotional - but she accused the D.A. of firing her for being a lesbian - that was an odd coming out); she was awkwardly anointed Jewish a few seasons ago, so here she was familiar with what a mikveh was but was ignorant of other Orthodox terms or requirements. She concluded that the widow committed a murder without committing a crime in arguing that the charges be dropped.(1/15/2005)

In what most be the only major teaching hospital in the U.S. with no Jewish doctor on staff (despite being otherwise acclaimed for its diversity), Grey's Anatomy had a colorfully Jewish patient in "Save Me" by producer Mimi Schmir on 5/15/2005, as part of an overall theme of faith. Sarah Hagan played "Esther Friedman" nee "Devo," a rebellious Orthodox daughter (we see her davening in long denim skirt, but not, oddly, with a covered head) of secular parents who needs a porcine valve transplant to save her life: You want to put a pig - a friggin' non-kosher, traife mammal into my chest, into my heart, the very essence of my being!. . . If you give me a pig part I might as well be dead. Her father pleads with her: I told you this whole Orthodox thing was a mistake. What was so wrong with being plain old Reformed like everyone else we know? She angrily retorts: You guys don't even light candles Friday nights. You don't even know the Passover plagues. I'm not sure kasruth laws have anything to do with this kind of medical procedure, but she convinces the usually flirty "pagan" intern (who was muttering the plagues as comic relief) to find an alternative with her conviction: Do you know what it's like to be a teenager these days? My friends spend most of their time screwing around and getting wasted. At least I have God. He wants me to be passionate about what I believe in. He does convince the suddenly insecure surgeon to undertake a bovine solution for the first time. (5/22/2005)

Judging Amy, in December 2004's "Early Winter" by Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia (who also acted in the episode), like last season gratuitously used a Jewish sur-named character as a case of egregiously neglectful parenting by an affluent mother. "Marissa Levy" was a teenager arrested for stealing valuables from a neighbor's house then attacking him with a baseball bat. Her complicated life involved a father who travels on business in Hong Kong and her mother for some reason accompanies him and didn't even come home for their daughter's court appearance with "her second mother," her Spanish-speaking only nanny. While attending prestigious "Trinity Prep," evidently in downtown Hartford, "Marissa" took up with a boy from the wrong side of the tracks near the school who led her to commit her crimes, her nanny finally reveals, after "Marissa"'s various emotional lies had stirred confusion. The judge rejects a plea bargain that had the parents make financial restitutions all around and orders her to trial and the parents to appear with her, after lashing out at her as a little rich girl acting out against absent parents. . . You Miss Levy have been leading a double life, one of privilege and one of recklessness. This young woman and her family would make anyone disapproving, but making them Jewish was just plain odd. (12/8/2004)

"An Echolls' Family Christmas" episode of Veronica Mars by producer Diane Ruggiero gratuitously used a Jewish woman's surname as the punch line of a joke. A selfish sexy agent's wife casually admits to an affair with a handsome movie star while noting that her ambition had been to change her name from "Martha Greenblatt." (12/15/2004)

In a very atypical episode of the British procedural drama Waking the Dead (shown on BBC America‘s Imports), "Anger Management" by John Milne and director Andy Hay, "Rebecca Jacobs" is obliviously married to a very unusual hit man. He is an ex-stoner and accomplished blues and flamenco guitarist and at her urging seeks guidance from their rabbi as he reconciles parts of his life she knows nothing about. We even see her lighting Shabbat candles for the family, though it seems to be typical of Brit TV series that the Jewish characters are more observant than the secular, inter-married Jews of American TV. Is it to make them more exotic or that Brits don't recognize ethnic identity separate from religious affiliation or is that British TV isn't filled with secular Jewish writers as is Hollywood? BBCA heavily edits their dramas to fit in commercials, so who knows what other Jewish references were left out.(1/8/2005)

As a fan of the British The Office, I have ignored NBC's American version, so may have missed a satire of the hard-driving Jewish woman corporate executive in the character of "Jan Levinson-Gould" (played by Melora Hardin), which premiered March 2005. I have 2 1/2 seasons to catch up with retrospectively and contemporaneously to confirm if she is Jewish and then monitor here. (updated 1/6/2007)

Entourage - Mrs. Ari Gold in the 2nd Season (On DVD) In the 18th episode of the series, fittingly, we finally got confirmation that "Ari's wife" as she is only known as (played by Perrey Reeves) is also Jewish. "The Bat Mitzvah" by executive producer Doug Ellin and producer Rob Weiss focuses on their oldest of three kids, "Sarah," (who we hear practicing her haftorah terribly off-key to her dad's chagrin) and we see this she-who-must-be-obeyed who has kept her uber-agent husband (played by Emmy-nommed Jeremy Piven and based on Ellin's own real-life agent, Ari Emanuel -- is his wife Jewish?) faithful and family-centered through the sheer force of her indomitable will having to face the Hollywood sharks he swims with - though she clearly would have preferred only to have relatives at her daughter's $500 a head (so "Ari" claims) Beverly Hills Hilton party (regardless of the $50,000 check present from his boss). His boss's trophy wife (played by Melinda Clarke of The O.C.) zings her You look fabulous. Being a housewife certainly agrees with you and she responds in kind: Playing a raging bitch on TV actually agrees with you. You're so natural. Clarke retorts: Well, if you hadn't quit acting at 25 it might have been you on a hit TV show.
Despite her constant nagging of him throughout the series, she is not the usual shrew, but rather a sympathetic figure for trying to force him to be a mensch to his family, particularly to give up his workaholic ways to spend time with their kids, though he claims that due to her Be a man career advice he missed Keanu from Bill and Ted and went with the other guy; as producer Ellin said in an interview with Media Village about the second season: "In every episode we deepen the characters. We are seeing "Ari" more with his wife and we see he actually cares about his family." Even his clients know how he feels about her. In the opening episode of this season, "The Boys Are Back in Town" by Ellin, "Ari" explains: Just relax, it's Hollywood, baby. Everyone strays sometimes. His client's usually nice guy manager replies acidly: Yeah? Did your wife? "Ari" is uncharacteristically deflated: That's the mother of my kids. For more pungent 1st and 2nd season dialogue between "Mr. and Mrs. Ari Gold" (scroll down).
Virginia Heffernan noted in The New York Times July 8, 2005 about the "Neighbors" episode by Ellin and Chris Henchy: "Which makes the scenes between "Mr. and Mrs. Gold" especially rewarding. As "Ari"s wife, Perrey Reeves is haughty but conjugally ambitious; she may even be scarier than he is. In couples' counseling, she complains about "Ari"s temper and then waits icily for him to display it. When she scolds him for taking a cell phone call, he explodes in rage. "Ari"s wife gives the therapist a look of victorious case-resting. She excels, as her husband does, at brinksmanship. This therapeutic exercise is another one-on-one sport, and she's won." On "Good Morning Saigon" by Stephen Levinson and producer Weiss, "Ari" promises to get to dinner on time: I wouldn't leave you alone with my mother. I know what would happen.- just before he turns around for a wild goose chase to track down his revenging client.
In the appropriately titled "Exodus" (directed by Julian Farino and written by Ellin, garnering an Emmy nomination) we saw - a drum roll please - what might be the sexiest, most romantic scene between an attractive married Jewish couple ever shown on television. "Ari"s coup d'etat at his firm has failed and he has lost his job and all its perks, escorted out with only "Lloyd" the gay Chinese-American assistant he's browbeaten and slams his hand against the parking garage in frustration. In total professional defeat (and he doesn't even know yet what disaster his star client is about to dump on him) "Ari" asks him What the hell am I going to say to my wife? "Lloyd" stirringly bucks him up, declaring: Go into your gorgeous $3 million house with your beautiful goddess wife and figure out how you're going to make both our lives happen.
On "Lloyd"s car radio comes Stevie Wonder's classic "For Once in My Life" and "Ari" declares that's fate because that's "their song." He honks and honks and his wife comes running out in her nightgown and bathrobe, looking quite sexy but screaming Are you out of your fucking mind Ari?
"Ari": Baby!
"Ari's Wife: What happened to your hand?
"Ari": Dance with me baby! Nothin'.. Y'know what, I haven't stopped thinkin' about you. Baby, you're my everything. (lines from other classic pop songs)
"Ari's wife": Lloyd, what's wrong with him?
"Lloyd": He's in love is all. and drives away.
"Ari": Baby this is our song. You are my life. No, I'm not going into that house until you dance with me. Right now.
"Ari's wife": The music's gone Ari.
"Ari": That's weird but I can still feel it. Come on. (He dances.)
"Ari's wife": Feel it in the house. (They kiss. He lifts her up, continues kissing her from her mouth down to her breast and carries her into the house on a run. Stevie Wonder revs up again over the credits.) And by the end of the season he still hadn't worked up the nerve to tell her the truth about his job.
(updated 8/8/2006)


Queer as Folk - Melanie Marcus in the 5th Season (Showtime repeat plus keeps it On Demand, and it repeats on the Logo Channel. All seasons out on DVD.) I had stopped tracking "Mel" because she was pretty one-note as the usual tough Jewish lawyer broad, even when her partner had a baby. But last season she made the interesting choice to also have a baby, now named "Jenny Rebecca," with sperm provided by the maturing sweetie pie "Michael Novotny," who himself just got married in Canada to his lover. But her commitment with her long-time partner "Lindsay Petersen" broke up over the latter's affair with a man. In the season opener we saw the hard-driving career woman (amazingly thin post-partum) near exhausted collapse over handling a colicky baby, day caring for the toddler "Gus" she co-parents (though I never thought she did so very warmly in earlier seasons) with the ex and the stress of the break-up they were hiding from their friends. But "Michael"'s been taking some interest in parenting (well, buying toys for "J.R.") plus he's foster parenting a teenager, though his still-partying best friend (and "Gus"'s biological father) accuses him of being "ersatz heterosexual" (the writers/producers Daniel Lipman and Ron Cowen seem to be siding with the Queer Culture theorists as they make the gay male parents fussy satires).

"Michael" lashes out when he finds out about the "gay divorce": When I agreed to be the baby's father, it was because I knew she would be raised in a home with two loving parents, not in some sort of time-share arrangement with complimentary sniping. You can make all the excuses you want, but if this is how you plan on raising our daughter, we should never have had her in the first place. "Mel" lawyerly points out that their arrangement never included his "physical custody". She then goes from offering time of "none" to, in the second episode, a vague promise of maybe some time "when she's 4 or 5." "Michael" resorts to legal action "to protect what's best for my daughter and my rights" and "Mel" snaps back, as written by producer Del Shores, to her old self: You go ahead to try [to get joint custody]. But let me tell you. You're not only up against one angry mother and lesbian. You're up against one pissed off lawyer. Meanwhile only "Michael"s gentile mom has been involved in regular grandparenting, speaking up in defense of single motherhood like her own experience in an unusually sympathetic speech for a woman in this series; we haven't seen the Jewish set since soon after the birth. (updated 10/18/2006)

In the next episode, in a teleplay by executive story editor Brad Fraser, "Mel" tensely insists to "Lindsay" that she wants the custody battle kept between the birth mother and the birth father. "Lindsay" points out: But we were life partners for ten years. "Mel" somewhat lamely insists: You just have to trust me. Which of course sends "Lindsay" straight to "Brian's" expensive lawyer, as "Brian" wryly notes: The queers are about to learn what the breeders knew all along - when it comes to divorce, no one stays clean. At the custody negotiations, "Mel" rants about "Lindsay's" infidelity and "Lindsay's" shark responds about her past. But that was before we got married. The shark continues: Ms. Marcus on more than one occasion has endangered the life of her unborn child, refusing to listen to her own doctor's orders, working to the point of exhaustion. "Mel" furiously protests: That's a goddamn exaggeration! I was fine. (Well, actually, she did have a hard time doing mandated bed rest.) The shark continues: Which hardly qualifies as a better mother than 'Ms. Petersen', biological or otherwise. With some nasty back and forth about experienced mothers vs. first-timers [I was glad to hear some sanity about real people briefly break out here], the negotiators have to agree that "Jenny Rebecca" has three parents, but at the price of much resentment. Even "Gus" now becomes a battleground as over "Lindsay's" angry anti-sugar disapproval, "Mel" ups the ante about mothering, feeding him home-baked brownies - uh, since when did she get all Mrs. Homemaker? -- Unless you plan to tell your lawyer I'm abusing him by giving him a brownie. . . You got what you wanted by discrediting me. By making it seem as if I was a lousy mother. "Lindsay" turns it into a metaphor about their relationship: I was damned if I was gong to lose 'Jenny Rebecca' because I didn't stand up for myself.

In a teleplay written by co-producer Michael MacLennan, "Mel" is preparing the three-way custody transfer to "Michael", as she bitterly complains to "Lindsay": She should be with me instead of being tossed around like a fucking football. If you'd listened to me we wouldn't be playing this game of baby, baby who's got the baby! Lindsay turns this out of the maternal realm and back to the image of "Mel" we had pre-motherhood: Is that's what's killing you? It's not about the baby is it? It's about you! It has to do with Mel Marcus not getting her way and not giving up complete control over everything. Well, tough shit. You don't. So get used to it. "Mel" does look truly miserable and forlorn alone after she brings the baby over to the biological father (though she had called him "a stranger" and "Lindsay" had offered to let "Gus" stay over).

In the next episode, in a teleplay by producer Shawn Postoff, "Lindsay" (All you care about is who has ownership!) and "Michael" (She's a fucking control freak!) cave about the custody arrangement after the baby comes down with a fever while being left with a babysitter, and "Mel" trumps that what matters is what's best for the baby - to be with her mother.

Postoff suddenly stuck Jewish frames of references in "Mel"'s mouth a few episodes on. When her ex describes her parents' latest pressures on her, she replies: "I smell goyim." She uses a Holocaust analogy in seething against proposed local legislation restricting gay rights: The last time people said don't overreact, the next thing they knew they were shipped off to the camps. At a protest meeting, the congresswoman speaks against threats to "our rights as full and equal citizens of the United States" is named the Jewish-sounding Beth Edelstein. Pittsburgh has a lesbian Representative?

Two episodes later, in another teleplay by Fraser, "Mel" continues to reveal her Jewishness. As the campaign over a Proposition 14 to restrict gay rights heats up, she protests: I feel like I'm living in Nazi Germany and we're the new Jews. . .Listen, my zaydie, my grandfather, used to tell me everybody thought he was nuts for leaving Germany. (She affects a Yiddish accent for the first time in the series.) 'Oy, you're making too much of it. It'll pass. That'll never happen.' He lived to the age of 87. The rest of his family died in the camps. However, that doesn't stop her from spouting annoying stereotypes when she suggests that her lonely accountant friend seek out a Jewish man: If you really want to get hitched, what you need is a Jewish guy. They make the best marriage material, provided you can get past the incestuous relationship they have with their mothers that lasts beyond the grave. So he finds a doctor at a temple's professionals mixer - but this guy, unlike "Mel" in her choice of marriage partner, spurns him when he sees his uncircumcised cock - I want a Jewish husband. I want to settle down, carry on traditions, heritage. . .You're a nice guy, Ted. You're just not a nice Jewish guy. As "Ted" describes his effort to meet a mensch and settle down. . . I didn't make the cut.

In the third to last episode, by Fraser, "Mel" looks positively Jewish mother domestic - she's feeding her baby when she hears the preliminary news that their friend is recovering from the nightclub bombing - but then she spits right and left, explaining I don't want to put a kennehora on it. . .I always expect the worst anyway. I've never heard anyone in my family use that expression like that, but I guess the producers felt it had to be used in a context that non-Jews would understand. And then she goes on darkly about her grandfather - and decides that she and her reunited partner and their kids should flee to Canada.

In the second to last episode, by MacLennan, "Mel" is sleepless after her partner's son's gay biological father refuses to let him go to Canada and she pulls out a letter my grandfather wrote me when I got into law school. 'My dearest Rachele' - that's Yiddish for Rachel, he liked my middle name (more likely it was her Jewish name) 'You have no idea how proud I am to think that one day my granddaughter will be the first Jewish woman Supreme Court Justice' -- Zaydie always dreamed big -- (and either this was before Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed or the writers are really misinformed) 'I hope you know how lucky you are to live in a country where everyone has the same right to live his life free of intolerance and oppression. That's why I cam here so many years ago. Be grateful you are an American.' -- I wonder what he'd say if he knew what was going on now?

In the finale, by the executive producers Lipman and Cowen, "Mel" and "Lindsay" pack up with the kids to move for political freedom. Their young friend teases that as immigrants to a new country You'll start speaking English with a Yiddish accent. "Mel" jokes: This is Toronto not the Lower East Side!, though she teases her self-effacing partner dithering amongst their possessions: You're such a schicksa! Why don't you just say you want the table!. (updated 8/15/2005)

The L Word - Jenny Schecter in the 2nd Season (on Showtime repeats and On Demand, and repeats on Logo Channel. 2 soundtracks out. This season out on DVD. 2nd season to be rerun, edited for basic cable, on Logo.)) In the season 2 opener, "Life, Loss, Leaving" by executive producer Ilene Chaiken, "Jenny Schecter" is still clueless about the impact her sexual confusion has on men. "Gene" is fed up with her eyeing every lesbian couple and woman on the block and in exasperation tells her: You're a full-on, girl-loving lesbian. Deal with it. Her hunky ex packs up for Ohio, after one last quickie shtupp, which makes her whispered Don't leave not make a lot of sense.

In "Loneliest Number" by Lara Spotts and "Lynch Pin" by Chaiken "Jenny" is still feeling very much bisexual amongst her lesbian friends. When they play a game of what would you do with a penis, she notes, to their scorn, I like men with small dicks because they really try hard to please. In response to another game of self-perception, she concedes that If I were a guy I would ask myself out. But as a woman, no fucking way. She tells her hunky new guy roommate "Mark" that she doesn't know if she's gay, and he explains that her friends cavorting naked in the pool next door "exude" gay-ness, probably something in their hair cuts. So in the middle of the night she asks her promiscuously lesbian hairdresser roommate "Shane" to cut her hair- I feel like I need to change. At least she's finally trying to improve her sophomoric writing, as inspired by a tough writing teacher played by Sandra Bernhard, who decried her stories as a journal, not fiction. By "Loyal" by A. M. Homes, she's pro-actively identifying herself as gay, even at a job interview to be the ghostwriter for a macho (and of course closeted gay) TV star's memoirs.

But in the middle of the season Chaiken started confusingly playing "Jenny's" Jewish card (and I think I have the order of events correct below). "Mark's" admission that he has been videotaping his roommates 24/7 triggers her repressed memories and she starts lashing out at herself, her lesbian lover and him (though he actually did it not really for the porno producer who was paying him or for his own arty documentary but as an act of unrequited longing for "Shane" though I cannot figure out why everyone is so attracted to her). In "Land Ahoy" by Chaiken and directed by producer Rose Troche, "Jenny" confronts him by stripping stark naked with "is this what U want?" marked on her chest. He demurs that she has the wrong idea about what he did. She announces I'm going to use [your camera] now and goes into a feminist screed: You have violated us. You have crossed every line of trust. And don't you dare tell me this was for the sake of art. She turns the camera on him:Do you have any sisters? He uncomfortably admits to having two younger ones. She ratchets up her venom: I want you to ask them a question, and the most important thing is that you really listen to their answer. I want you to ask your sisters about the very first time they were intruded upon by some man. He protests What makes you think my sisters have been intruded upon? She spits out: Because there isn't a single girl or woman in this world who hasn't been intruded upon, at times it's relatively benign and sometimes it's painful. But you have no idea what this feels like. Next we see "Jenny" she is working on a new "project about my family", with klezmer clarinet music in the background, which will continue to be a leit motif about her memories of abuse, for some reason. She appropriates "Mark's" camera: Hi Mom. As you can see I have all our family pictures here. I am videotaping this because I have a couple of questions for you about zayda. I would like to know if zayda lost his mind when he began to transcribe the Torah by hand. Or did that cause him to lose his mind? Do you remember the day they took him away? I wanted to ask you about Grandma. And Grandma, if you're watching this, I wanted to ask you about your experiences at Auschwitz. I wanted to know if when you arrived at Auschwitz did they separate you from your daughter and I wanted to know if you remember the name of the [SS guy] who took your arm and branded you with that tattoo. Do you remember his eyes? Do you know if he used a steel plate or did he use a needle? Then she goes on a cruise with her friends.

In "Loud and Proud" by producer Elizabeth Hunter, "Jenny" takes a photograph of herself as a child and puts it into a drawing of a mouth of a hideous clown and then puts photos of her parents or possibly grandparents around a Shabbat table and she recites a bracha. Then she takes the child photo and puts it into the middle of a maelstrom and cries. "Shane" comes in and asks her what she's doing: I keep on having these nightmares and I'm just trying to work it all out. "Mark" interrupts her and tries to make amends by mouthing feminist truisms. She just gets more venomous: Fuck off Mark. It's not my job to make you a better man and I don't give a shit if I've made you a better man. It's not a fucking woman's job to be consumed and invaded and spat out so some fucking man can evolve. . . Why should I forgive you? He imitates her by stripping naked - though with his hands carefully placed. She spurns his effort: What I want is for you to write "Fuck me" on your chest. Write it! Do it! I want you to walk out that door and I want you to walk down the street. And anybody that wants to fuck you say, "Sure, sure, no problem." And when they do you have to say "Thank you very, very much" and make sure that you have a smile on your face. And then you can be stupid fucking aware what it feels like to be a woman. He's moving out and we hear her klezmer abuse flashback music. While she's eating Life cereal in the kitchen he again tries to apologize but she's too upset: Like you can buy me off with money and good deeds like some kind of whore? [Interesting that she uses part of the pleading wording from the Rosh ha Shanah incantation.] You opened up a Pandora's box and now you're just running away. So I dare you to stay here and deal with this, but we're not friends. We hear dissonant klezmerish violins as she goes to a S & M club (a club that her friends will visit out of curiosity as part of "celebrating diversity" for Gay Pride but find too disturbing). She gets clamped down as she experiences more childhood flashbacks. Now we can see that she remembers being gang raped by teen age boys with either masks or tattoos in what looks like a barn. Her disheveled child self comes out to stare at what appears to be Hassidic men singing in a Succoth tent that has a carnival atmosphere.

In "L'Chaim" by Chaiken and directed by John Curran "Jenny" goes to a bar called "Howling Coyote" that advertises "topless boxing" as klezmer music plays in her head. The proprietor is skeptical of hiring her, but his assistant, who I think had been her enabler at the S & M club smirks: Trust me. She's a very sick girl. She is then sketching a nightmare montage of images with her family photographs while she keeps repeating the Hebrew blessing for Shabbat, with a klezmer clarinet again in the background. She's haunted by the tattoo image from her rape as she sketches a man with a distorted, angry face yelling at a scared little girl. This morphs into a sketch of anti-Nazi demonstrators in Skokie, Illinois. This angry crowd morphs into a shouting crowd at a boxing match. She invites her friends to the strip club, despite their discomfort at being there; they push men away and yell at them to get their hands off - I feel like I'm in hell. The MC announces "Miss Yeshiva Girl", again with klezmer accompaniment. "Jenny" throws out her shoes then comes out, frozen in the stage lights, to jeers as at first she does nothing. But she gradually seems to treat this as some sort of masochistic performance piece, as the Hebrew blessings continue in her head, and she takes off her clothes to complete frontal nudity, though the stripper before her had kept pasties on. The male audience cheers and her friends are horrified. This seems to be cathartic for her as the next morning she cheerfully accepts breakfast from "Mark."
In the season finale "Lacuna", written and directed by Chaiken, "Jenny" is again stripping at the club, more confidently this time. "Shane" waits for her outside and claims You were good. "Jenny" cheerfully replies: No I wasn't, I sucked. It doesn't matter if I'm good. Shane asks: Why are you doing this? "Jenny" explains: Because when I'm up there it's my fucking choice when I take off my top and if I want to show my breasts. And it's my choice when I take off my pants and show my pussy. And I stop when I want to stop and it makes me feel good because I'm in charge. And it helps me remember all this childhood stuff that happened to me. I have to. It's important. Do you remember the shit that happened to you as a child, that makes you not want to trust people as an adult? "Shane" says she does. "Jenny": Then you're fucking lucky. "Shane": I don't how that makes me lucky. "Jenny" explains: You're lucky because you can go on with your fucking life and you're not dogged down by these horrible, oppressive childhood memories. And you stand a chance of being a normal productive person. "Shane": Well do you know what happened to you? "Jenny": I don't know. Like I remember things and then I think 'Is this true? Did this stuff really happen? Or am I making it up?' Because the older I get the memory becomes a little blurry. Like I can't. I don't know the truth any more. Later at a fundraising benefit for the Ms. Foundation, she defiantly tells Gloria Steinem Another misconception is that if you're a lesbian you're automatically a feminist, whereas a lot of gay women I know are absolutely not feminist. During a performance piece "Jenny" has more klezmer-haunted carnival flashbacks as the poet repeats "This is not fair because he penetrates me with his stare." In this one she is a clown falling from a trapeze. Dressed matronly in tiara and fur coat she goes home by bus -- with an overly obvious store sign for "Israeli Imports" hanging above her head as yet again klezmer clarinet plays. She hugs a girl on the bus that she clearly sees as her younger self and cries. She has more flash backs of the rape and that tattoo or mask image and running in the woods. At home, she takes a bath and anoints herself with water before taking out a razor blade to her thighs. Rescued by "Shane" promising We'll get you help, "Jenny" moans I'm so fucked up. The Spring 2006 issue of LILITH Magazine (Spring 2006, Volume 31, No. 1) includes defensive quotes from Chaiken about the Jewish memory roots of Jenny's problems in "Miss Yeshiva Girl" by Beth Schwartzapfel, who identifies Chaiken as Jewish: “I’m in no way saying Jewishness is responsible for causing trauma in Jenny’s life. It’s about memory, It’s about the fact that as suppressed memory comes back, everything swirls together, and Jenny’s memories are dominated by her childhood, her upbringing. . .dominated by Judaism and Jewish imagery. . . I don’t have an obligation to simply. . . portray all lesbians or all Jewish people in a positive way. My obligation is to tell good stories.” (updated 7/13/2008)

"The Late Mrs. Eppes" on Numb3rs (on CBS Fridays at 10 pm. This 1st season out on DVD.) we have yet another Dead Jewish Mother, wife of Judd Hirsch's retired "Alan Eppes" (they met at work, on line at the cafeteria) and mother of David Krumholtz's adorable brainiac "Charlie Eppes" and Rob Morrow's fearless yet open to intellectualizing FBI agent "Don Eppes." I'm always convinced that this syndrome is a way to avoid having a living, breathing, appealing Jewish Mother on the screen as that would challenge the stereotype. As created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, the guys are Jewish mostly by dint of the actors cast than the scripts. We have learned that Dead Mom early recognized the younger's genius and made sure he got the special education he needed. Dad assures son: She understood how your mind worked. Of course, there's no Jewish women in romantic sight -- we've only seen the "one part exuberance, two parts obsession" brothers flirt with a Latina grad student and a WASPy ex-girlfriend agent. We also learned (in "Counterfeit Reality" by producer Andrew Dettman) that Morrow's "Donnie" left his live-in girlfriend in Albuquerque, another WASPy agent, to return home to San Francisco when his mom got sick, bringing him to reconnect with his brother, explaining Family first, right? She sympathizes: You had to go home. I always understood that.-- but had he given her that engagement ring? In the season finale "Man Hunt," also by Dettman, he reiterates that he does not regret leaving a previous undercover assignment: Not being in touch with my family. I don't miss that. But a return to the family fold hasn't gotten him to date Jewish women. (updated 5/29/2006)

"Rebecca Bloom" and the Nana on The O.C. (played by Kim Delaney) was introduced on "The Accomplice" episode by executive producer Allan Heinberg as the daughter of "Sandy Cohen"'s favorite law school professor and a political activist on the run for 20 years from the law for a bombing "act of civil disobedience", as her co-conspirator describes it, that accidentally turned deadly, a familiar plot point in TV series. But we learn about her through his wife's "Kirsten's" caustic comments: The smart, political, Jewish woman that you were supposed to marry. . . You're still in love with her. . . You were the love of her life. "Sandy" protests: We were kids. We were just engaged to be engaged. "Rebecca" also seems to still be living in the past, as the next week she offers him samples from her pot stash and keeps trying to seduce him -- though she didn't even chant kaddish when they dumped her dad's ashes into the Pacific. She tries one last seduction for old time's sake as they are conveniently holed up in a motel - but is rebuffed, and then she's gone into the rain. So the closest we've gotten to an attractive, appealing Jewish couple on TV is that they are ex's?(updated 3/10/2005)

It was very disappointing in "The Return of the Nana" by Schwartz, shown on May 5, 2004, that Linda Lavin's strong Jewish mother "The Nana," returning by popular demand with her cancer in remission from last season, was turned into an oblivious wimp such that she'd fall for a gigolo (even if he was played by Tony Denison who will always have a place in my guilty pleasures for his role in the cable movie Sex, Lies and Cold Hard Cash). Such that she needed to be rescued by son "Sandy" who is the one who had actually purchased her Miami Beach "million dollar condo" for her with his WASP wife's money that served as the questionable source of the temptation.

We've also gotten brief glimpses into "Seth Cohen"'s relationships with Jewish females. In "The New Era" by J.J. Philbin we learned of his thing for "Tiffany Rosenberg": Third grade. Class field trip to Sea World. I tried to sort of talk to the dolphins. She overheard. There was taunting. It was really bad. So I guess that was it for the rest of his life to not date Jewish girls. In "The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't" creator Josh Schwartz wryly notes the absence of Jewish girls on the show when "Seth" directs "Ryan" to Do some Jew-recruitment. Round up some Hebrews, my Aryan friend. When "Ryan" instead invites his gentile date he laments It would be better if you were Jewish. There's that ratio issue. At least Schwartz did a mea culpa from last year's association of Moses with the holiday, admitting it should be the Maccabees. There's only one token Hanukkah song on the show's holiday soundtrack - Ben Kweller's "Rock of Ages" despite this interview comment from Schwartz: "What Jewish boy or girl growing up doesn't feel a little jealous?" he ponders. "They get all the good songs. They get the tree. They have all the characters -- Frosty and Rudolph. We've got dreidels. It's not really the same." Gee, Josh, all the more reason for you to provide something for them! In "Family Ties" by Schwartz and producer Drew Z. Greenberg "Seth" twice despairs of projecting himself as a bad boy, that instead he becomes like a Jewish grandmother [variously transcribed on the Web as he just said Sylvia]. . . I am so screwed. Bruce Banner gets mad, he turns into the Hulk. I get mad, I turn into a 75-year-old yenta.(updated 1/24/2005)

Everwood (3rd season. Available on DVD.) "Delia" suddenly re-discovered her Jewish identity in "Need to Know" by Bruce Miller and directed by producer David Petrarca. She objects to the school's euphemistically named "holiday pageant" because I'm an angel and there's no angels in the Hanukkah story. There's no angels in the Kwanzaa story. Her brother "Ephram" points out that she doesn't know the Kwanzaa story and that she is half Christian anyway. She retorts: But what about Mom's half? He shoots back: You could be like Elijah and not show up which just confuses her: That's a joke that's over my head so we know she doesn't know about the Passover seder ritual. We see the family post-pageant, with "Delia" removing her beard and sword as her dad notes proudly You were the only Maccabee in the manger. How could I miss you? You stole the show. "Ephram"'s girlfriend invites him to her family's tree trimming with egg nog and they have an odd banter as he calls those "pagan rituals." She lightly says: When are you going to accept My Lord? and he flirts back: When you stop persecuting my people. When he goes home, the camera focuses on the lit menorah in the window, though the timing of the first night while they are on school vacation is completely out of sync with 2004 and continues the usual conflation of Hanukkah with Christmas.
In "Since You're Gone" by Barbie Kligman, he also suddenly conveniently Yiddish of Mom's heritage as he goes to talk to a lovelorn kid as a mitzvah. Meanwhile, the Himbo on the show reveals that the only girl he could never get to out with him was vetoed by her mother who would only allow her to date Jewish guys. "A Mountain Town" by producer Michael Green had additional gratuitous Jewish references, as "Ephram" anticipates returning to NYC. NYC advantages include getting lox and a bat mitzvah tutor for his sister, which is the first we've heard of that possible rite of passage happening in this family.(updated 6/15/2010)


Rhonda Pearlman on The Wire (on HBO - available on DVD.) has gotten even more promiscuous in the third season, as written by crime novelist Richard Price, in the second episode "All Due Respect." Giving up on the drunken cop, whose affair with her helped destroy his marriage, she virtually sexually attacks the noble African-American "Lt. Cedric Daniels," just recently estranged from his politically ambitious wife. I wasn't the only one to notice her proclivities, per a Q & A with creator/executive producer David Simon on the HBO BB for fans of the show: "Q: Why is it that [Assistant State's Attorney] Pearlman only dates men who are married? As soon as "McNulty" was free, she jumped on "Daniels" when she deduced he was separated by seeing his clothes in his office. Does the woman have father issues we don't know about and will we ever know about her background? A: She and "Daniels" got together when he was separated. All's fair in that instance, I think. But I guess everyone has issues now that I think about it." Finally in Chapter 34 - "Slapstick" by producers Simon and George Pelecanos, she got to do her tough prosecutor bit (in tandem with "Daniels") as she threatened a company that supplies burners (anonymous cell phones) to drug dealers with an exposing press conference to speed up the implementation of the court-ordered wire tap. The FBI even complimented her that they couldn't get them to give up the information any faster.
In "Reformation" by Simon and Ed Burns she flirts with a judge to get him to agree to a novel wire tap of a planted set of burners, such that "Daniels" wryly comments "Quite the legal mind." In the season "Mission Accomplished" by creators Simon and Edward Burns, she assumes her affair with "Daniels" is over when she is stunned to watch his wife declare her candidacy for City Council, but instead --for ironic political reasons-- the wife got the Mayor's support, "Daniels" got his wished-for promotion to Major and she gets her man. He takes her out --You and me in public?-- to a restaurant and romantically holds her hand. In a beautiful and explicit scene, shot in his characteristic chiaroscuro style by director Ernest Dickerson emphasizing black and white, they make passionate love. The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez includes an essay by David Simon's "consort" Laura Lippman on "The Women of The Wire."(updated 2/8/2005)


Joan of Arcadia (was on CBS. 2nd season out on DVD.) continues to use the ill-fitting plot point of "Grace" having a rabbi for a father and her reluctant studying for her bat mitzvah as a spiritual counterpoint. In "Out of Sight" by Stephen Nathan, Joan asks her How do you deal with your father being all into God? Grace gruffly responds: Sometimes I hide his yarmulke and watch him freak. In "Back to the Garden" by co-producer Cynthia Gregory, she sarcastically, and somewhat incongruously for what we know about all the characters, comments about Joan's new wild friend: My father thinks I'm being tainted by the heathen schicksa. This season, "Grace's" story line has revolved around her revelation and struggle with her mother being an alcoholic. Though the term rebbitzin has not been used, in "Wealth of Nations" by producer Tom Garrigus, she bitterly explains how her father copes: It's their little agreement. As long as she's sober at temple and has everyone snowed. Of course the AlaTeen meeting that her boyfriend, "Joan's" brother, drags her to is in a church; I do wonder if this is the first time there's been a Jewish alcoholic woman on TV, though we haven't actually met the mother yet. Young adult children of alcoholics is a recurring theme on TV this season, from life as we know it to the cancelled Dr. Vegas.

To "Joan's" surprise, "Grace's" mitzvah, as "Joan" insists on calling it, happens in "The Book of Questions" episode by consulting producer Ellie Herman, but then "Joan" oddly spends much of the episode assuring God that I'm not really the point person for Jewish amid other denials of being Jewish and researches the ritual as if she's just discovered what "Grace" has been studying for months. She discusses with God that she sees this as different ways to share the same truth. To the writer's credit, she didn't wallow in the usual "now you are an adult" cliché, but instead emphasized coming of age for moral responsibility and the mystery of it all. "Grace's" synagogue speech, after a mostly accurate representation of a service with singing and standing, starts a bit oddly but actually concludes with an unusual theological angle for TV. She noted that she and her dad had been in conflict about this since I hit the double digits. It was a political thing and a daughter of the rabbi thing. I indulged them on one last empty ritual and then I'm out of here. Then, when you handed me the Torah, it hit me. This is a genius way of attacking adulthood, this religion. There's no easy answers here. It's basically a book of questions. It's a way for us to keep searching to make sense of this mess and dealing with a lot of questions takes guts and when there's no guarantee there will be answers. And I hope I'm up for it. And she even tells her parents that she loves them, as we finally meet "Grace's" shaky mother "Sarah Polonsky" (played by blonde Mary Mara) who we also witness drunk in front of a shocked "Joan" though she manages to stay sober through the service and party. "Dive" by David Grae oddly links "Grace"'s bat mitzvah to her mother's alcoholism: So we came home from the bat mitzvah and she pulls out the family albums and she gets totally hammered while going through the whole family history. The theme of the episode is finding the strength to do something you are afraid to do and she tells her boyfriend that she got the courage to talk to her mother about her drinking.( updated 10/18/2006)

Pilot Season (on the little seen Trio channel) A satirical mockumentary in the style of The Office, this mini-series featured comedienne Sarah Silverman as "Sarah Underman" in a follow-up to a 1997 mockumentary Who's the Caboose? as an actress manipulatively trying to get ahead in Hollywood, without her clingy and competitive ex-boyfriend. In the episode "Come Back Kid" she explodes at her agent on the phone with a round of profanities that she's sick of only getting sent out to read for the bitch parts and screams that it's because she's Jewish and brunette (her management angrily drops her when she refuses to dye her hair blonde for a role). I thought it was a funny take on the legacy of the "Lilith" character from Cheers and Frasier.(10/30/2004)

2003/4 Season

While I don't usually bother monitoring "procedurals" for Jewish female content (and there's been plenty of ethnically colorful murdering Jewish matriarchs on the various Law and Orders over the years who get seen over and over on cable), CSI in October 2003's "Feeling the Heat" by producer Anthony E. Zuiker and Eli Talbert had an odd homicide investigation when it turned out that guest stars Arye Gross (as "Paul Winston") and Stacy Edwards (as "Vicki Winston") were Jewish parents at the end of their rope in caring for a second Tay-Sachs child. From their names on, their characterizations, back story, and actions made little sense. In November's "A Murderer Among Us" episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent by executive story editor Diana Son does a twist on the post-Inquisition Spanish hidden Jew phenomenon by having an Argentine immigrant (played by Maria Thayer), whose Spanish is laced with Ladino, kill herself to expose her husband's murderous anti-Semitism. What was with Judging Amy's May 2004 "Predictive Neglect" episode by Rob Fresco naming Sharon Lawrence's insensitive, nanny-employing superstar lawyer "Andrea Adelstein" though there were no particular other indications that she was Jewish. Why not pick a more ethnically neutral name?(updated 2/25/2005)

Mrs. Grubman was a recurring character on three episodes on the first season on Nip/Tuck (On FX. Out on DVD.), but got her own eponymous episode in the second season, by writer/co-producer Jennifer Salt. For a scabrously satirical series that is intentionally outrageous about plastic surgeons in Miami, executive producer Ryan Murphy has actually been pretty restrained in his portrayals of Jewish matrons, and there isn't Yiddish or other cultural references inserted for ethnic identification when character's names imply that they may be Jewish. "Mrs. Grubman" (played by Ruth Williamson) was practically a plastic surgery addict in the first season, sexually blackmailing "Dr. Christian Troy" to do continual age-defying work on her for free. This season we actually got some sympathetic background on her family life and her misguided motivations, though her conclusion was ironically punishing as yet another surgery brought on a stroke, leaving her and her family even worse off. (updated 10/17/2006)

Fran Felstein on The Sopranos(on HBO and DVD.) - In this fifth season's "In Camelot" by executive producer Terence Winter, Polly Bergen played the first Jewish woman in the series, the longtime mistress of "Tony"s late father, who won her heart over love-struck "Uncle Junior." In an episode filled with ripostes at television writers, as personified by Tim Daly, "Fran Felstein" is consistently described by her past and present admirers has "having class." As "Tony" steams over her son's photo with the dog his mother banished from her house, "Fran" explains that Bruce married an Israeli girl. He's a food service manager for El Al, and that when he moved she finally had to put the dog to sleep. Filled with creepy nostalgia for her Judith Campbell Exner-like past, the highlight of her life was a one-night stand with JFK, preserved with a handkerchief memento, culminating in an age-inappropriate flirty re-enactment for "Tony" of Marilyn Monroe's "Happy Birthday Mr. President" song. (updated 10/18/2006)

Rocked With Gina Gershon (repeated on Independent Film Channel various nights. Out on DVD.) Gershon opens this 6 episode documentary/reality series with the line: "What's a Nice Jewish Girl doing in a spiritual huddle backstage at the House of Blues?" Turning lemons into lemonade, Gershon produced this documentary of her promotional tour for her co-produced, poorly-distributed film Prey for Rock 'n' Roll. The film is based on the experiences and music of punk rocker Cheri Lovedog and the distributor would only open the indie movie where Gershon would promote it [I missed it the week it played in NYC], so, with two weeks notice, she promoted it like a reel actress playing the part of a punk rocker in real life, or as she summarized at the close of the series: Nothing ever goes as planned. I went on a rock 'n' roll tour to promote a movie about a real rock 'n' roller and in the end became a rock 'n' roller without a movie to promote. She took on respected alternative rockers Girls Against Boys as her backing band (selected she notes not only for their musicianship but "I picked the cutest" and also notes that "I met them only once and became really great friends" as she blows off more exhaustingly useless PR to spend her last day on tour partying with them) and wrote tunes of her own, as well as adding covers (such as "These Boots Were Made for Walking") and does a quite beautiful rendition of a ballad in the last episode. While actors in rock bands automatically generate derision, she, like Russell Crowe in his band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, has tremendous charisma to pull it off. I grew up obsessed with rock 'n' roll, she admits right away. At the end of the first episode, she was most upset at the fucking mess. As if I wasn't nervous enough that the unexpected crowd in L.A. at her debut kept her family and friends from getting in. While the series makes frequent bemused mention of her lesbian fans, who became loyal to her due to Bound, her arrival in New York City gets her contemplating the image compromises she's willing to make to promote the film as for a photo shoot she picks an outfit that is not what I would wear to my nephew's bar mitzvah. She also shyly queries her old high school friend Lenny "Leonard" Kravitz her trepidation about appearing in shorter leather in NYC than her usual T-shirt and jeans, but it's not over the line for rock 'n' roll and she protests to him that I'm just a nice Jewish girl from L.A. Though she closed the series with a very funny take on them playing at a bar mitzvah, including using coffee filters as yarmulkes, she's now getting paying gigs so has continued on tour.(updated 10/17/2006)

Wonderfalls (cancelled from Fox, but all the episodes are on the DVD and are being repeated on the Logo channel.) The pilot episode, "Wax Lion" by executive producers Todd Holland and Bryan Fuller, set up the wacky premise and characters including an obnoxious old high schoolmate who lords her financial success over slacker lead character "Jaye Tyler" by updating her that she's converted for love and is now "Gretchen Speck-Horowitz," getting the response: So you don't really believe in it? The dig at Sex and the City's "Charlotte" continued in the "Pink Flamingoes" episode by producers/writing partners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts as "Gretchen," who greets everyone with "Shalom!" and has her cell phone ringing Havah Nagilah with her cell ID as "Princess," explained while organizing their 6 1/2 year high school reunion that she was really a Christmas and Easter kind of Jew though her husband was much more Jewish than I am because he was born that way, then cries out as she realizes her marriage is all status and no love: I've done everything he wanted. I even changed religions. Now I'm not even going to heaven. What more does "Robert" want? I converted for him. That’s lot of work. There's tests and stuff. I never considered if I loved him. Through "Jaye"s magic she decides: I'm losin' the hyphen and keepin' the ring! In the odd way that fate wins for everyone who listens to "Jaye" as she acts on the urgings of maniacal talking plastic animals, "Robert" instantly meets a woman who looks stereotypically Jewish (curly brown hair surrounding a Roman nose) and we see a long, happy, traditional future of marriage, children, and Jewish holidays with family. (updated 7/25/2005)

Charlotte Goldenblatt on Sex and the City (all out on DVD) -- In the series finale, by executive producer Michael Patrick King, "Charlotte" found comfort in her conversion to Judaism as she kept struggling to find a baby to adopt: We're Jews. We've been through worse than this. Then got word they would get a baby girl from China. (2/23/2004)

The L Word (on Showtime. Soundtrack out -- but not with the actual songs used in the episodes - what's with that? This season out on DVD. 1st season to be rerun, edited for basic cable on Logo.) Gee, I knew that of course the channel's distaff version of Queer as Folk would have to have a Jewish lesbian, par for the course on television. We had a hint in the pilot that writer "Jenny Schecter" (played by Mia Kirshner) is Jewish, as she wears a chai necklace while making love to her hunky, supportive, athletic boyfriend of four years. The actress is Jewishly out in interviews: (in The New York Times, "'L Word' Star Basks in an Erotic Mystery by Luisita Lopez Torregrosa on 4/5/2004): "Ms. Kirshner is a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. Her father, a journalist who works for The Canadian Jewish News, was born in a displaced persons' camp in Germany in 1946. He met her mother, Etti, a Bulgarian, in Israel. 'The only books in my house when I was growing up were about the Holocaust,' she said. 'That's all I read as a child. But I never knew about my family's experience.' It was not talked about in her home, but 'I think it shaped who I am.' Isolated and timid, she went to a school where most people were blond and rich, she said, and there she was, wearing second-hand clothes, dark-haired and Jewish."

In the second episode, "Let's Do It" by Susan Miller, her lesbian temptations come out through a fantasy of making out at an Orthodox Jewish funeral with her blankly exotically Continental temptress "Marina," who quickly becomes her lover. Is she gay? Is she bi? Is it a temporary try-out?

In "Lies, Lies, Lies" by Josh Senter we learn her past affair with a male writing professor has evolved into a "passionately intellectual relationship" and she's now fantasizing about "Marina" while getting "the coach" sweatily horizontal on the floor (no mean feat to get a rise out of him off the couch from ESPN!). In "Lawfully" by producer Rose Troche, her fiancé at first seems more upset that she's cheating on him when he comes upon the two together than that she's with a woman -- but why can't she talk to him about her confusion about being bi or gay instead of rejecting "Marina" in front of him? Let alone insisting on plunging into a quickie Las Vegas wedding that he has the sense to abandon? And does she then have a mental breakdown on the way home from Vegas in the next episode because of the strain of not coming out or, as her neighbor says, to have experiences as a writer?

In "L'ennui" by creator Ilene Chaiken she grovels to "Marina" after "Tim" kicks her out by admitting "I'm just a coward, a liar, and a cheat," and luxuriates with her in the lezzie life at a party and in bed (no sign of the chai necklace this time). She declares she wants to move in, but is shocked to discover her new lover actually has a regular girlfriend (a deliciously dominating Lolita Davidowich) who just travels a lot, while "Marina" justifies that I've opened up your world. You'll find your world is full of possibilities. So she crawls back to "Tim" as Lucinda Williams's "Nothing's been the same since Those Three Days. . ." plays on the soundtrack (from World Without Tears). Is it because "Listen Up" was written by a man (Mark Zakarin) that she could finally admit, to her old college roommate, I never said I was a lesbian. I think I'm bi-sexual. Chaiken in The New York Times piece "said she would keep the audience guessing about Jenny's sexuality. 'I think that sexuality is fluid,' she said. 'Jenny's sexuality definitely exists on the edge of fluidity. She will be mostly with women, but with some men, too.'"

In "Luck, Next Time" by Troche she first declares her love for "Marina," gets kicked out by Davidowich, promptly identically declares her love for "Tim," and hysterically aggressively gets him naked and pumping again. Will the series paint him as homophobic because he gets fed up with her whining to him about how her lesbian lover is playing games with her? Wouldn't that be a problem in a relationship regardless of gender and orientation? The problem with the triangle for a viewer is it's unequal and uninteresting: with him, a person we have gotten to know as a human being, she's sympathetic, seductive, and alluring as she builds on their past relationship; with "Marina," who we know very little about other than as a temptress with several women, she's a wide-eyed little girl who can barely talk so there's only sexual attraction between them as bland partners and zero else. It reminds me of the central entertainment problem with the supposedly groundbreaking movie Sunday Bloody Sunday where Peter Finch as the gay lover and Glenda Jackson as the straight lover were just ever so much more fascinating than the blah boy toy between them.

In the penultimate episode of the season, "Locked Up" by Chaiken, "Jenny" passionately kisses a new lesbian date in front of her husband and his friends, right after flirting with a handsome marine biologist whose pick-up line is: I didn't know that nice Jewish girls work in grocery stores. She teases back: How do you know I'm a nice girl? After his riposte of Are you implying you're not? she agrees to a dinner date. And she still doesn't explain her bi-sexuality or whatever to poor "Tim," even though he woefully asks her if he was inadequate.

The season finale, "Limb from Limb" by Chaiken, was a Jewish bi-sexual's fantasy. The marine biologist turns out to be Jewish, "Gene Feinberg" (played by adorable Canadian rocker Tygh Runyan), and thinks his marriage broke up because his ex wasn't. "Jenny" demurs that it isn't important, but he responds, No, it's just an added bonus as why he wants to date her. So on their first date, she strips him and pretty much sexually attacks him standing up in his office, then dissolves into hysterical tears. When we next see them, in the shed her still-husband has grudgingly loaned to her, she evidently has confessed her whole recent tale of sexual discovery and he's very understanding about being the first guy she's been with since setting sail. She brings him up-to-date: I still like guys. I like you. She later turns to writing to figure herself out and makes a point of exploring her full name of "Jennifer Diane Schecter" and then "Sarah Schecter" - her Hebrew name? her mother's name? While on her second date with "Gene," to her neighbor's art gallery, "Tim" confronts them: Did she tell you she's a dyke? "Gene" laughingly responds: You didn't tell me you were a dyke. You told me you were in love with one woman and were sleeping with another. And then, gosh, in walks "Marina" with "Jenny"'s new lover "Robin" (played by Anne Ramsey). Back at the shed, "Robin" comes in on them and apologizes for being with "Marina" and then "Marina" calls on the answering machine, declaring her love for "Jenny." And then just as you think this is a set-up for a frisky ménage a trois, they play a rousing game of Monopoly and fall platonically asleep on separate couches (it's a very roomy shed). This after director Tony Goldwyn has shown us pretty much every other character in the ensemble in the most explicit lesbian couplings of the series. So I guess this is the closest we'll get this season to an attractive Jewish couple on TV.(updated 1/14/2008)

Line of Fire (was on ABC, and they still have 2 un-broadcast episodes in the can that we'll doubtless have to wait for the DVD to see. Not sure if they're all on the released video version.) We found out from one of the mobsters in the pilot episode, written and directed by creator Rod Lurie, that the merciless, chain-smoking, drink-guzzling Special Agent in Charge "Lisa Cohen" (played by Leslie Hope) is Jewish: They have a Jew lady runs a Federal satellite office. Replies the undercover officer she hired: You don't see that very often. The thug concurs: No, not a bad-looking broad. Tell you what I'd like to do. Like to take her out, wine, dining and take her back to her place and give her a good banging. And then when we were done, I'd like to slice her head off and send it to [the head of the head of the crime organization]. That way everyone ends up with a smile on their face. She was more complicated than the usual Tough Lawyer-type Jewish Broad we've seen before. In "Undercover Angel" also written and directed by Lurie, she sure exchanged long, meaningful glances with a woman at the bar. But at the bar two episodes on in "Boom Swagger Boom" by producer Chris Mundy and directed by Elodie Keene, she picks up a guy for steamy S & M sex -- and tells the married Chief of Police she's doing it Because I miss you -- and ends up back in bed with him two episodes later after protecting him from an assassination. In "The Best Laid Plans" by producer Wendy West we learn that she has an ex-husband and son, who she's only driven to call in the tragic aftermath of a mysteriously absent father's kidnapping of his child. Meantime, I mostly watched for Anson Mount, the hunk from Tully, who went on to become one of the WB Boys on Mountain.(updated 10/26/2004)

Paris Geller in Gilmore Girls has even less Jewish identity in the fourth season. Maybe it has something to do with now attending Yale. More likely its Syndication Deracination Syndrome -- I've noticed that as a show is more successful and the producers smell syndication profits they wash out the Jewish identity of characters, as instead of appealing to a few network executives in L.A. and NYC for renewals they'll now be looking to market the show to TV stations all over the country for reruns. She dumped her age-appropriate Princeton boyfriend and is having a passionate not-so-secret affair with a professor who was Grandpa Gilmore's classmate. The next season, after he dropped dead, she complained: You sleep with one old guy and suddenly you're Catherine Zeta Jones. when she thinks all the older male professors are now hitting on her. (11/15/2004)

Ironically, this interview from the New York Times 1/23/2005 reveals how the creator of the show has kept her own Jewish background out of the show:
"Virginia Heffernan: The central characters on Gilmore Girls are Connecticut WASP's from an old American Revolution family. But that's not your background. You're a Jewish woman from Los Angeles. How did you end up in this terrain?” Amy Sherman-Palladino: “Well, my writing, my banter comes from my upbringing, my Catskills/Borscht Belt influence. My father's a comic, now in his 70's. He's the king of the cruise lines. He works on the cruise lines 90 percent of the year. I didn't set out to write a WASP story. I pitched the WB an hour-long about a mother and daughter who are more friends than mother and daughter. And they loved that idea. But I didn't know where they lived. Do I put them in New York? Do I put them in Chicago? I thought a small Connecticut town would be great. I grew up in the Valley, and I didn't know any of our neighbors. I think when you grow up like that, there's always sort of a fantasy of a place where everybody knew each other, and you had that safe sort of feeling. I wanted the parents in the nearest moneyed area. Hartford seemed right. It kind of dictated WASP. And I also wanted to do a social structure: a daughter who has socially elevated parents and lets them down - it's just more pain. And it's more comedy. So that dictated WASP, too. But we've introduced everything we can. Paris is a Jew."
The series’ 2014 Netflix run prompted nostalgia and interviews with its creator, who expanded on influences from her Jewish identity: “Mel Brooks’s 2000 Year Old Man - My father was a comic, and he stuck it in my room, like, ‘Yeah, you are not going to be a dancer. You are a Jew; have a sandwich.’ It was something I listened to over and over and over. . .Anything even mildly Jewish was very important to me for a very long time. The Borscht Belt, the comic, that whole sort of very rich history — it was a lot of that that I’d heard about through my dad.”


In The Practice this last season (earlier seasons on TNT and in syndication), producer provocateur David Kelley has given us yet another typical TV I’m half-Jewish. I’m Jewish by blood. I was raised Jewish. I consider myself Jewish. young blonde woman in the new lawyer in the firm, “Jamie Stringer” (played by Jessica Capshaw, Steven Spielberg's step-daughter). But in “All the Lonely People,” he put in her mouth virtually the same words in virtually the same discussion he wrote earlier this season for socially inept martinet Jewish Assistant Principal Scott Guber (Anthony Heald) in Boston Public. Kelley had both characters speak up for the crisis in Jewish continuity -- "Jamie" says: Jewish culture is being threatened by intermarriage. But for both, this motivates them for selection of a Jewish mate as a reason for forestalling an inter-racial romance, and being answered by an articulate, powerful African-American male (in the first case her lover/co-worker, in the second his supervisor) that was out and out racism, which chillingly reminded me of the U.N. resolution equating Zionism with racism. Both shows have had ratings difficulties and Kelley seems to be intentionally trying scare up his usual controversial mode to get attention. “Jamie” later in the episode has second thoughts about the real reason for her breaking off the relationship -- It's not a Jewish thing. It's a man/woman thing. The following week, her Jewish co-worker "Elenor Frut" sardonically comments on a flower delivery for "Jamie": I hope that's from a Jew. (It's actually a grateful woman client who was bamboozled by their colleague.) Perhaps in an effort to forestall criticism with a parallel relationship, Kelley also brought into the first episode actress Lisa Edelstein, who he frequently has used in his many series as his Jewish Everywoman, as a murder victim’s noble sister who strikes the smug shark lawyer “Alan Shore," played by James Spader, with love and humanity at first sight.(updated 9/24/2004)

Anna Stern and Nana on The O.C. -- We ALMOST had the first cute Jewish teen couple on TV. Could the smart, spunky "Anna Stern" from Pittsburgh (played by Samaire Armstrong) have been Jewish? She was the first girl to see the good points of "Seth Cohen" (who Newsweek calls the "adorkable" Adam Brody and Vinay Menon wrote in The Toronto Star May 5, 2004, "Why The O.C. became a hit": "The O.C. is really a family-fantasy centered around the Cohens. . . Seth (Adam Brody) is the show's most important character. Moping about in his vintage T-shirts, occupied with video games and graphic novels, armed with withering sarcasm, Seth is the show's grounding centre and ironic oracle — the geeky smartass called upon to provide commentary and scathing insights into the petty obsessions of those in his midst.") The writers might have intended her to be Jewish -- according to TV Guide (2/14/2004) "the script originally called for an actress with classic bookworm [!] looks - 'long brown hair, glasses, that kind of thing,' says Armstrong. -- The O.C. producers took a chance on her and her fusion of sun-kissed punk and sexy intellectualism." But writer/co-producer Stephanie Savage wimped out to make it clear if "Anna" is Jewish in "The Best Chrismukkah Ever" episode -- it would have added another layer of competition if "Anna" could have been his friendly Jewish choice vs. "Summer" his schicksa bitch possibility. As it was, "Seth" kept saying that celebrating a combined Hanukkah and Christmas put Moses on his side in tandem with Jesus, when in fact referring to the Maccabees instead would be more appropriate. Once he chose "Anna" over clearly WASPy "Summer," would "Anna" yet be outed as Jewish? No, the producers avoided the issue by having him break up with "Anna" and go back to a personality-transplanted "Summer" and having "Anna" go back to Pittsburgh altogether, aw shucks -- did the actress get another pilot role before or after?

From Los Angeles Times on 3/21/2004 (fair use excerpt): "He's O.C.'s fresh breeze: Infusing it with sly wit and detail, creator Josh Schwartz has raised the Fox drama above its prime-time soap trappings" by John Horn) suggests the usual reason of Jewish writers having TV reflect their own lives of avoiding relationships with Jewish women: 'People ask me, 'Do you write your own life into the show?' Schwartz says a few minutes later, down on the The O.C.'s soundstage. 'And I say, 'Of course. What else would I write about?' . . .The Cohens are loosely based on his parents (except Schwartz's mom can cook, he notes), and Seth shares much of Schwartz's wit and erudition. 'The Seth and Sandy relationship is very similar to the relationship I have with my dad,' Schwartz says. "It's very loving, but we very rarely are overt with our emotions. Instead, we give each other a lot of [grief].'"
A New York Times piece on the same day supports that explanation as well: ("'The O.C.' Rewrites the Rules of TV Writing", by Ari Posner, fair use excerpt): "[Allan] Heinberg, the hyper-articulate story maven, has run the writers' room, developing stories and character arcs, and pumping out drafts with a small staff. And Schwartz is free to participate in casting, editing, post-production — but most of all he's free to write, write, write. Mr. Schwartz maintains control of all story matters; he's written about 16 of the show's drafts outright and written or rewritten parts of the others. 'When he has to, he can bang out a script in two days,' Mr. Heinberg marveled. Fox's Marcy Ross said: 'It's a love fest over there. But it's all to service Josh's vision. This show is his baby.' Schwartz's baby speaks with many voices, but perhaps the most winning is that of Seth Cohen, Sandy's gawky son, played by the dazzling Adam Brody. Together, Schwartz and Mr. Brody have conjured something highly personal and refreshingly new: the nerd-as-hipster comedian. Indeed, the show has gradually tilted from Ryan, the newcomer to the O.C., toward Seth, the audience favorite — who also happens to be the character most closely based on Mr. Schwartz. Sitting in Mr. Brody's dressing room, the actor and writer try to sort out the delicate business of where Josh ends and Seth/Adam begins. The two men have become fast friends, and they kibitzed as if they go back all the way to high school — which, in a sense, they do. 'I don't feel like I have to be him,' Mr. Brody said. 'I don't feel any pressure. I'm not saying to myself, `I wonder how Josh would do this.' " Mr. Schwartz cut in: "Well, there was a time I'd find Adam trying to imitate my walk.' Mr. Brody: 'I'm really hard-core method.' Mr. Schwartz (who calls himself '100 percent Jew'): 'He actually converted.' Mr. Brody: 'Yeah, I used to be Christian.' They cracked up."

On the second season promotional special "Welcome to The. O.C.: A Day in the Life," Schwartz, acknowledging that "many in our audience are really young" and how much of the series is based on his shock at coming as a Jewish guy from Providence, RI to be faced with water polo jocks at USC: "All the bar mitzvah boys out there need Jewish role models, like girls who will dress up like Wonder Woman for them." Too bad he doesn't see that Jewish girls need role models, too.

We did meet a Jewish woman in the first season in "The Nana" by Heinberg; Linda Lavin humanized "Sophie Cohen" even though she was the kind of tough broad that TV shows regularly associate with a working Jewish woman. As "Sethela" says (as she calls him) I love when The Nana comes and Dad gets all Jewish again. But she's there to run their first seder at home and what Jewish means to him is that his Bronx social worker mother is judgmental and political. Whatever extra money she has she sends to the ACLU and the woman's shelter. She's coming here to stage an intervention to put me back on the road to righteousness. Or, in her case, self-righteousness. That woman's scary. She's nuts -- that's part of her charm. Dad is holding a huge grudge that she wasn't a stay-at-home Mom after the divorce and forces her to stop the Jewish Mary Poppins act to admit that she does want him to feel guilty --about his rich, non-Jewish wife-- You married a woman whose father represents everything I fought against my whole life-- about leaving public interest law, and living in California, with a very funny rant against living there that recalled Woody Allen's famous plaint, ending with a screed against sunshine and Governor Schwarzenegger. With the amusing and sweet side story of "Summer" studying the Haggadah and challenging "Seth" that I'm going to out-Jew you by doing the 4 Questions, the conclusion with the opening blessings of the seder was satisfyingly warm as all made peace. On the summer TV Critics Tour Schwartz said of Lavin. "She was great. The Nana really popped for people. And so, therefore, I think it's safe to say the chemo is working."(updated 11/15/2004)


Anna on Curb Your Enthusiasm was in the penultimate episode of the fourth season (repeated frequently on HBO and out on DVD) in the body of Gina Gershon as the sexiest Hasidic woman, let alone dry cleaner, ever on TV, who save for a fire alarm would have given Larry David his very special tenth wedding anniversary present, as blessed by his rabbi's likening it to Sarah permitting Abraham to take up with Hagar. (updated 10/18/2006) Disclaimer: I only learned in late 2009 that Emmy-nominated executive producer David Mandel is my second cousin once removed.

Joan of Arcadia (was on CBS, this season out on DVD) Mid-season, "The Devil Made Me Do It" by producer Hart Hanson, suddenly created a complicated Jewish back story for "Joan's" androgynous friend "Grace Polk" in order to have her father, played by Paul Sand, be "Rabbi Polansky" to give advice on the Devil's temptation methodology; at least it was theologically correct. This sudden Jewishness reappeared in "Requiem for a Third Grade Ashtray" by Joy Gregory. We learn from the rabbi that "Grace" "managed to put off her bat mitzvah for three years." While we're also supposed to believe that neither "Joan" nor her friends know what a bat mitzvah is (except for the Jewish geek guy who is also surprised-- Goin' for the full Jew, huh? as he brags about his gift haul), "Joan" asks her: I take it you're not going to Hebrew class by choice? "Grace" angrily replies: I refused for three years. Now my dad's using my sick grandmother to guilt me out to do it. Rabbis are really good at the guilt thing. I thought I'd stick up for a Palestinian homeland just to piss off the teacher. But my father loved it. He says it's in the Talmudic tradition. This story line is just an excuse for laying the groundwork for a discussion of taking on adult responsibilities. (updated 10/18/2006)

Miss Match (was on NBC, unseen episodes could yet be shown) Of course, the first homosexual couple Alicia Silverstone as "Kate Fox" fixes up are lesbian Jews, in the same "The Love Bandit" episode by Jed Seidel that for the first time confirmed that the Foxes are not Jewish. One could watch television fiction and think that the majority of lesbians are Jewish. Ironically, Silverstone in Real Life is Jewish, here dating "Michael Mendelsohn" (played by David Conrad), so once again we miss the opportunity for a cute Jewish heterosexual couple.(4/21/2004)

Skin (cancelled from Fox, but is being repeated, including un-broadcast episodes, on the Soap Network) The only (by some definitions) Jewish woman lead character in a network TV series this season briefly was "Jewel Goldman" (played by Olivia Wilde) in the Juliet role of the daughter of the porn film mogul (Ron Silver) in love with an Irish/Latino Romeo son of the crusading D.A. She was cast for her chemistry with him, not by any stretch of imagination any Jewishness, because once again a TV woman is Jewish only because a male relative is played by a strong ethnic actor, as the mother (played by Pamela Gidley) is clearly a blonde schicksa, even while she tries to use philanthropy to gain respectability for the family name. But, refreshingly, "Jewel" explains in the pilot by executive producer Jim Leonard: We're not Jews; we're Jew-ish. Why else would her grandfather be named "Lawrence Goldman Senior"? While she complains that My family is more like 'The Osbournes' than 'Ozzie and Harriet,' in fact, her charitable parents are close, loving, trusting, and proud of their "great kid," in contrast to her lover's stiff family, and she sticks up for her dad in court, while "Adam Roam" hides his famous father. She complains that the kids at school all assume she's a slut due to daddy's business and admits she's a virgin -- but just until the end of the first episode, with his cross dangling over her breasts. So where could they go from there? Nowhere!(updated 5/23/2005)

Rachel Goldstein on Street Time -- In the second and last season on Showtime, "Rachel Goldstein", who was always a passionate and fiercely loyal lover, has undergone even more of a personality conversion as she becomes an avenging angel for her murdered brother "Goldie" to take over the family business. In "High Holy Roller," written by story editor Paul Eckstein, she pronounces to her untrustworthy brother-in-law, "I'm taking my brother's share. What are you going to do about it? You gonna kill me?" while her husband is negotiating immunity for her and her drug-dealing father. In "Gone," by Tony Puryear, she literally and forcefully strikes back at her violent brother-in-law -- You should see the other guy she ruefully notes to her husband's nemesis parole officer, just before she collapses in his arms. She even becomes his Lady Macbeth, as in "Hostage," by Tim Metcalfe she warns her husband: Don't underestimate me. . . I should have killed your piece of shit brother when I had the chance. She certainly inspired her lover to accomplish her goal.(updated 10/30/2003)

Everwood (2nd season. Available on DVD.) This season is continuing its confused ambiguity about Jewish identity in a mixed marriage. The dad for some reason bought presents a month in advance while celebrating Thanksgiving in the "Unhappy Holidays" episode by story editor John E. Pogue, crowing Who finds Hanukkah wrapping paper in Everwood? I do! and takes his daughter Christmas tree shopping because Delia identifies with being Jewish until it's time to pick the tallest tree in the lot. (updated 6/15/2010)

2002/3 Season

The most intriguing Jewish women characters this season are on cable:

Charlotte York on Sex and the City -- In the first half of the last season we have the odd spectacle of "Charlotte", "the Episcopalian Princess," converting to Judaism because the love of her life -- her earthy Jewish divorce lawyer "Harry Goldenblatt"-- says he'll only marry a Jew. Although he claims to be a Conservative Jew --I don't keep kosher and I eat pork, he points out as a matter of practice rather than theology-- the conversion was at the Upper East Side's prestigious Temple Emmanuel, stronghold of the Reform Establishment of NYC.

In sweet episodes, written atypically by the women producers/story editors Jenny Bicks and Cindy Chulack rather than its usual gay men producers, Charlotte enthusiastically dives into conversion classes and graduates to submersion in a mikveh, which might be the first time such rites have been shown on TV. In her ever-quest to do the right thing, she says farewell to Christmas in the "Perfect Present" episode, even though her lover shrugs that "many Jews have Christmas trees."

"Pick A Little, Talk A Little," by co-producers Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky, has "Charlotte" as "Martha Jew-art"-- putting up a mezuzah at her front door, cooking Shabbos dinner, and doing the brucha over the candles. But resentment immediately erupts: I gave up Christ for you. Can't you give up [watching] the Mets for me? . . What have you done for me? And "Harry" walks out rather than having to hear that taunt the rest of his life, as "Carrie" narrates: Just what New York needs -- another single Jewish girl.

In "Hop, Skip, and A Week," by new writer Amy B. Harris, we see "Charlotte" "guilted into joining her synagogue's sisterhood society" [sic], and "bubba'd into blind dating" their sons of various dubious suitabilities and going to the temple's "Single and Mingle Night." Where, "out of all the synagogues in all the cities, you had to walk into mine," apologizes "Harry," falling to bended knee.

"Charlotte's" Jewish wedding in "The Catch," by Cindy Chulack, is just an excuse for a string of word play and easy jokes on Yiddish/Hebrew words as "Carrie" intones: "The wedding had gone from Jewish law to Murphy's Law." "Charlotte" is warned about the chair carrying tradition: "Falling off the chair would be the hora, the hora." The wedding planner demands lilies on the chuppah: "The theme is yentl-chic." A nasty best man's drunken toast is described as a "mazel tov cocktail." Carrie's one-night fling with him is ridiculed as "They all think you are a big hora." That was the Klezmatics playing at the wedding; it was their fiddle player's Lisa Gutkin who had been accompanying the courtship.

How fitting in "The One", the summer season finale by producer Michael Patrick King, that "Charlotte" gets inspired to get on with her life after a depressing miscarriage by the E! biography of another calamitous celebrity convert, Elizabeth Taylor.( updated 9/14/2003)

Street Time - Rachel Goldstein

Rhonda Pearlman on The Wire

But elsewhere on the remote there's more stereotypes:

Curb Your Enthusiasm - (on HBO, repeated frequently On Demand again, and in syndication on TV Guide Channel. This season out on DVD.) the misanthropic "Larry David" character began to be more aware of his Jewish identity in contrast to his gentile wife. David provides a frank insight into intermarriage communication issues that is both brutally honest and excruciatingly funny. His steady relationship with her is compared to the rocky marriage of his manager and friend "Jeff" with his demanding and foul-mouthed Jewish wife "Susie Greene" (played by Susie Essman). While she admirably sees through the two guys' schemes and lies with laser-like insight, her loudness and constant anger are all at a shrieking one-note. Culminating, though, in a very funny season finale that shows her right at home in a spontaneous Tourette's-syndrome-support epiphany. Another Jewish woman is noteworthy for her absence; his mother's dying wish is that he not be told about her death so that he shouldn't be bothered to interrupt a trip to NYC to attend her funeral. (updated 10/18/2006) Disclaimer: I only learned in late 2009 that Emmy-nominated executive producer David Mandel is my second cousin once removed.

Breaking News was cancelled by TNT before it ever got on the air for the '01/'02 season and was picked up by Bravo for the summer of '02 (sometimes rerun at various times). The character "Rachel Glass" (played by Lisa Ann Walter) is the usual hard-driving Jewish woman professional on TV, here the producer, with no personal life and a "mother who has given up on lobbying for grandchildren." Bravo's descriptions of the character and the actress (no longer available online) reinforced the stereotype. At least she gets to flirt with a hunky union cameraman. (updated 6/29/2003)

Everwood (1st season out on DVD.) has a Jewish twist on the Dead Mother Syndrome. The hunky, rebellious, mourning teenage son "Ephram Brown" is toying with paying tribute to his (of course) tragically killed mom by exploring her Jewish heritage; one of the first questions he asks the impossibly gorgeous gentile girl who guides him around his new town is Where's the synagogue? Is his dad's ridiculous flight to Colorado a rejection of Jewish New York?
His sister "Delia," in the "Deer God," episode (written by Michael Green) gets told by her teacher that her quest to prove the existence of God has to be based on "your people's beliefs" and explains your people celebrate the Hanukkah, though I'm not even sure why the teacher thinks she's Jewish. As there's no synagogue in town, her dad's ex-Army nurse than drags her to a nearby military base to get lectured at about God by a saluting, shouting "Hebraic chaplain" graduate of Jewish Theological Seminary. But her Dad also takes her to church in a later episode to introduce her to singing hymns such as "What A Friend We Have in Jesus."
We met the Jewish grandparents, the Hoffmans, in the episode "Turf Wars," by producer Rina Mimoun, who also created stereotypical Jewish parents in the series Jack and Jill. Virtually the first words out of their mouths are about money: Grandpa the noted surgeon compares himself to the free-clinic Dad: "I charge." Talmud-quoting Nonnie brags she didn't even buy the granddaughter's frilly present on sale. We startlingly learn that the dead mom "went to the yeshiva down the block" and how much she enjoyed making the motzi at Shabbat (though we later see her in a flashback "having a hankering for a greasy cheeseburger"; "Delia" seems to understand these references and the Yiddish endearment tatela. Despite Nonnie's disapproval of the tomboyishness, there is an endearing moment when she despairs that Grandpa can't find a Jewish bakery anywhere around here, sends the boys out shopping for four dozen eggs, and teaches "Delia" how to roll challah by hand for "real French toast."


Were those packages on the table at the "Thanksgiving Tale" episode supposed to imply how Hanukkah fell on Thanksgiving weekend this year, because there was no reference to the holiday amidst an hour of heavy mother-tradition reenactments. <>In "The Unveiling", co-written by Mimoun and executive producer Greg Berlanti, we see that Dad has only learned we screwed up on this kaddish thing all year by researching on the Internet for what the unveiling is that they have to attend, which becomes a revelatory relationship metaphor. He gets "Ephram" (have I mentioned how cute Gregory Smith is by the way? And how annoying his hang-up on Amy is when clearly Colin's sister who he pushed to go back to boarding school was really his soul mate? Ah, but neither girl is Jewish anyway) to do the kaddish at the cemetery because you're the only one who knows the Hebrew.(updated 10/18/2006)

On That Was Then (cancelled from ABC) I can believe yet another time traveling to high school "What if. . ." obsession a la When Peggy Sue Got Married and Back to the Future lusting after the cute blonde schicksa, but Bess Armstrong as Jewish mother "Mickey Glass" married to a bookie? We never got to see what Cohn and Miller thought up for the younger sister. (updated 2/17/2003)

Paris Geller on Gilmore Girls We had new revelations on Jewish identity about a now humanized in the third season recurring character "Paris Geller" (played by Lisa Weil) on the WB. On the episode "That'll Do Pig" by producer/writer Sheila R. Lawrence, Paris was floating on air from experiencing Christmas for the first time, with her gentile boyfriend. "One time I asked my mother for a Hanukkah bush and she made me watch Shoah for a week." She rhapsodizes over having theological debates with the grandfather about the birth of Jesus and excitedly looks forward to an Easter debate on resurrection. So the only way to unwind uptight Paris and enable her to have a boyfriend is to make her less Jewish? On "The Big One" by executive producer Amy Sherman-Palladino, Paris first "wish[es] I had the data to back the hypothesis" to have sex with her boyfriend, then feels that her rejection from Harvard was divine punishment for doing so. We're supposed to believe that she comes from five generations of Harvard alums -- and then that she wouldn't get in as a legacy?(2/27/2003)

Did the venerable Law and Order actually try to suddenly convince us --for a plot point in January '03 --that the definitive shiksa ADA "Serena Southerlyn," played by Elisabeth Röhm, is actually Jewish? D.A. "McCoy" put it mildly when he responded "I didn't know you were a Talmudic scholar." (1/19/2003)

2001/2 Season

Jewish females enlivened old stereotypes on the 2001-2002 television season - going forward into the past.

Three were the intellectual third wheels in relationships. Two were teens-- uber-competitor "Paris Geller" challenged the WB’s Gilmore Girls, while "Diane Snyder" hid in plain sight behind glasses on NBC’s Ed. An intense woman was the inexperienced marriage counseling "Rabbi Ari" on HBO’s Six Feet Under.

The most prominent Jewish woman was a new character on the sixth season of 7th Heaven the top-rated series on the WB, especially among teen girls. Father doesn’t know best at first each week, but the growing, close-knit Camden clan of a Protestant minister, his wife and eight kids learn life lessons in a pretend California suburb. A Jewish woman appeared only once in previous seasons, an elderly neighboring survivor who corrected a Holocaust-denying classmate.
In the Camden household premarital sex is the ultimate taboo; marriage becomes the obsessive code word for sex. So when the oldest son, "Matt" the hunk with the unwashed hair, falls for his clinic co-worker, he immediately runs off for a secret quickie marriage so they could bed down before a formal family wedding and attending Columbia medical school. Complicating their suspicions, the Camdens became the first TV family since Bridget Loves Bernie in 1972 to be discomfited by intermarriage that’s the norm elsewhere in TV land. Matt’s wife, "Sarah Glass", is Jewish, secure in her identity and observant in her religious practice alongside her father, a Reform rabbi. Some stereotypes crept in while demonstrating missed cross-cultural communication. "Sarah" is from Brooklyn and has a curly raven mane. Her trust fund parents are played by comedians Richard Lewis and Laraine Newman, who reacted like Marjorie Morningstar while eating the non-kosher traife her machutonim (in-laws) prepared. But the final conflict and resolution had some flair. The rabbi objected to his daughter marrying a non-Jew, while the minister objected to his son’s surprising decision to convert. The wives’ and grandparents’ intervention led the fathers to acceptance of family unity with the young household through a heartfelt Jewish ceremony including interfaith elements that was a surprisingly touching model for its young audience. 7th Heaven’s popularity as a comforting fantasy for girls was secure.


2000/01 Season

In the Fall 2001 issue of LILITH was my take on Jewish women characters during '00 - '01, including the antagonistic non-biological lesbian mother on Queer as Folk whose portrayal contributes to the misogynistic tone of the show, "Hannah Rayburn" of State of Grace, and "Grace Adler" of Will & Grace (who since this article was published actually married (and divorced) a Jewish doctor, played by Harry Connick, Jr., though he went off volunteering in Africa, as so many doctors are doing on TV these days to find sex and workplace fulfillment.)

1999/2000 Season

My 1999/2000 round-up of Jewish women characters is reprinted at: belief.net.

On Action, the scabrous Fox Hollywood satire that I only caught up with on IFC re-play in early 2012, in the “Re-Enter the Dragon” episode by series creator Chris Thompson, “Wendy” the prostitute just turned movie producer’s assistant (played by Illeana Douglas) challenges her black pimp as he threatens her at her new job: You’re really embarrassing me! Is that the gun I gave you for Hanukkah? “Peter” the producer (played by Jay Mohr) is incredulous: You’re Jewish? She explains: It’s that whole kabbalah thing. He’s ‘Mr. Trendy’. (2/4/2012)

I loved the BBC/A & E Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, as adapted by Deborah Cook, so much that I pulled out the book which I'd never read. The implicit sensuality is faithful to the spirit of the book. Ivanhoe and Rowena are blonde and blande, but ooo la la Rebecca and Brian de Bois-Guilbert, played by Susan Lynch and Cierán Hinds (who Scott describes as "that unprincipled voluptuary. . .fierce and passionate"). They changed the anti-Jewess epithet against Rebecca by the crazed monk from Scott's "daughter of Miriam" to "daughter of Lilith."
So Brian has kidnapped Rebecca, a noted healer, to a castle to forcefully convince her of his amorous suit. In the book, Brian, mightily impressed by Rebecca's intelligence and spirit, pleads for her love: I have sought a kindred spirit and I have such in thee. The BBC has him beg her to run away to France with him:
Bois-Guilbert (pleading): I am rich enough. .
Rebecca (caustically) : To buy me diamonds?
Bois-Guilbert: To buy you - books. You could talk to the greatest doctors in Europe without fear.
Rebecca: Your manners will bankrupt you!
(If he just added in buying as many DVDs/CDs as I wanted he'd have me in a NY minute!)


I have also been following the career of writer/producer Jan Oxenberg over the years, from show to show to show. When she was with Cold Case on CBS, Sundays at 9 pm, her seasons repeated on TNT Tuesday nights at 11 pm, where she stuck in Jewish women here and there for ethnic exotica. Her script 2003 "Volunteers" dealt realistically with 1969 issues of illegal abortions and FBI informants of radical organizations. Her November 2004 "It's Raining Men" episode dealt movingly with the death of an AIDS activist in 1983 and attitudes towards homosexuality.(updated 10/18/2006)



These two poems well get across the modern notion of Lilith and are from a recent anthology of Jewish women's poetry Dybbuk of Delight(phrase taken from one of these poems): edited by Sonja Lyndon and Sylvia Paskin. Fine Leaves Publications, P.O. Box 81, Nottingham UK NG5 4ER, 49.99 pounds plus 1 pound postage. The only two words some of you might not know are golem (sort of an avenging messenger spirit) and dybbuk (sort of an evil spirit that possesses someone's body and seeks their soul) but those are my inferential definitions from other stories. It's traditional to cover mirrors when mourning a death in the family for seven days.
Both poems are by Michelene Wandor.

EVE TO LILITH

don't get me wrong -
I have nothing against
first wives

ok, so you laid him
first; that's merely
a fact of life
so you got to know
all his little habits, like
picking his nose
when he reads in bed

but he didn't do that with you?
I see

I'm not jealous. I don't
believe in jealousy, and what I don't believe in
doesn't hurt me. But tell me
honestly, what did you do to the poor man?
He's a nervous wreck.
He can't stand up to his boss, he has
pains in his side all the time -
I mean, something must have happened
to leave a man
so scarred.

He told me how beautiful you were.
The dark, dramatic type.
Usually he doesn't talk about you
but when we - well, long ago -
when - at night -
we - in the dark, always -
he used to call your name
at a certain moment

It's none of my business
but you must have done
something very special
to make a man
remember you so

LILITH TO EVE

I merely said 'no'.

That's when he gave me
his attention
for the first time


LILITH'S DANCE

Lilith sins?

Lilith sings
Lilith speaks many a cross word
Lilith has an anger like love
like a procession of pillars
of fire
Lilith has the delight
of a woman scorned
he modeled me
I was his clay thing
into me he breathed life
I became his golem
I went forth and I destroyed
havoc my middle name

I am the dybbuk of delight
I slip into the souls
of those who need me

perhaps you breathed
just a little
too much life, a sniffle too long
but once tasting the air
I would not be still, not
be silent, not return
to my feet of clay

I will not gather dust
I do not cower beneath cobwebs
I do not fear the hot streets
I walk
in the middle
of the pavement

I do not hug the shade
of cowardly buildings
I do not stay in my ghetto
but I strut and stride
into the ghetto
of men
I interrupt
the invisible universal
which denies men their souls
and women their being

I do not creep

I do not crawl

see

I am proud

I have taken the cloth
from my mirror
of mourning

for your birthday
(if gods have birthdays)
I shall give you
a mirror

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