This Orthodox Jew Produced One Of The Oscars 2025 Commercials

Being a proud Jew in Hollywood isn’t easy these days, especially in a time when the best documentary at the Oscars goes to a pro-Palestinian film, where the filmmakers call what is happening in Gaza “ethnic cleansing,” and the crowd applauds. Being an Orthodox Jew in Hollywood has never been easy, especially when a call time is late Friday in the winter or there’s an awards show happening on a Jewish holiday.

These things do not dissuade Daniel Rosenberg, a Hollywood producer and Orthodox Jew who has put out high-profile projects such as “Inside Man” and “Mona Lisa Smile.” He also worked with the top actors in the industry, including Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, and Al Pacino.

Daniel started out as Reform when he was growing up, attending Hebrew day school and synagogue inside of an actual church — on the High Holidays, they would cover the cross on the wall.

“I knew what it meant to be culturally Jewish,” he said. “But I had no idea what it meant to be an observant Jew.”

His career in Hollywood started in the proverbial and actual mailroom of a major agency in New York City, until he was hired to be the assistant of one of the top agents.

“You know, it was pretty humiliating,” Daniel said. “All my friends were on Wall Street, making probably 10 times what I was. I was literally pushing around a mail cart and delivering mail to agents. It was great. It was character building.”

As Daniel became older, on the car ride to his first big movie premiere, when he was on top of the world, he wondered what the purpose of life is: Are we on a hamster wheel? Is there anything bigger or deeper going on?

“I determined, I haven’t determined what I’m doing all of this for. Should my life focus on my career, or something else?” he said.

This question eventually led him and his wife to observant Judaism.

Daniel asked his wife one year, when they were new parents, what she wanted for Valentine’s Day, which observant Jews do not celebrate. She told him, “I want you to keep Shabbat.” He did the calculation and realized there was a big savings in keeping Shabbos instead of buying expensive jewelry, so he said, “Sure!”

Then, the first test came from above. It was the first week that he and his wife decided they’d keep start keeping Shabbos every week. Daniel was invited to a premiere of “27 Dresses.” The star of the film, Katherine Heigl, asked Daniel if he wanted to come to the premiere on Shabbat. He went back and forth — even asking a rabbi — but ultimately decided to do Shabbat instead. The actress told him she respected his decision, as she grew up Mormon.

“Katherine is a deeply spiritual person,” Daniel said. “She was like, ‘You’ll come to the next one.’ We ended up going when it wasn’t on a Friday.”

Another time, Daniel had the manager of his lead actor on a film call up right before Shabbos to cancel for a Monday shoot. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were already invested in the shoot. Daniel told the manager he was going offline and wouldn’t be answering the phone, but if the star wasn’t there on Monday, they’d recoup the money. Daniel went to synagogue and his friends prayed for him for the situation to work out. He kept getting phone calls over and over on Shabbat and was worried. But, he did not pick up the phone. The manager left a series of messages. At first the manager played hardball, assuring Daniel in the message that the actor wouldn’t show up, but as the manager saw that hour after hour Daniel refused to pick up or respond, he began negotiating against himself. The final message the manager left before Shabbos ended was,”OK, you win, my client will be there on Monday!”

Daniel’s most recent work premiered at the Oscars last night, but not in the typical way. He recently created a Poise commercial featuring Katherine Heigl that ran during the Oscars to normalize bladder insecurity for older women. He worked alongside his partner, the man who came up with the hit Dove beauty campaign. It was a pretty feminist topic to tackle for a man coming from a community the media usually labels as misogynistic.

When giving advice to young observant Jews hoping to work in Hollywood, Daniel said three key things: 1. Let those you are working with know about your limitations (like keeping kosher or Shabbat) right up front. Don’t shy away from it. 2. Information is more valuable than money, so look to gather as much information as possible. His example? “Julia Roberts is looking for a new lead role in a certain type of film.” Having that kind of information will set you apart. 3. Do your job, and work as hard as possible.

“Generationally, you have to demonstrate your ability to get your work done,” he said. “Then, a lot of other stuff falls into place.”

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