JITC Launches Jewish Roots Screenwriters Collective at Sundance

For years, the Jewish Institute for Television & Cinema has observed the same patterns in Hollywood: Jewish characters reduced to familiar tropes, Jewish identity flattened into caricature, and Jewish stories told through a narrow lens that rarely reflects the depth or dignity of real Jewish life.

Those observations were recently confirmed by data. JITC’s Jews on Screen study, conducted in partnership with USC’s Norman Lear Center, documented how frequently Jewish identity is softened, obscured, or left unspoken on screen, even in shows widely understood to be “Jewish.” The research underscored what JITC had long suspected: these patterns have real cultural impact.

A few years ago, JITC Founder and Executive Director Allison Josephs began asking a different question: What would it take to heal a generation of Hollywood creatives, especially Jewish writers themselves, so they could see their Jewish identity differently?

The aim was not only to critique stereotypes, but to understand their origins. In moving beyond the nebbish son or the overbearing mother, we hope to reconnect with the deeper source of Jewish values: courage, generosity, moral responsibility, the sanctity of life, and the pursuit of peace. These values long predate Hollywood, and are far richer than the portrayals that have come to define Jewish characters on screen.

That question became the seed of the Jewish Roots Screenwriters Collective, which was announced this evening at JITC’s official Sundance panel (their third time there). 

At its core, the Collective is built on a simple but radical idea: that when Jewish writers positively reconnect with the roots of their own Judaism, it can fundamentally change the stories they tell.

The vision sharpened after JITC released “Like a Jew.” The video resonated deeply — not only with audiences, but with industry professionals who recognized themselves in its message. Among them was Emmy-nominated writer and executive producer Adam Gilad, who reached out after seeing the video, inspired by its clarity and honesty. From that moment, the Collective began to take shape.

Rather than focusing solely on what’s broken in Jewish representation, the Jewish Roots Screenwriters Collective focuses on creation. It invites working film and television writers into a guided process that returns to Jewish source texts as both spiritual and creative fuel, asking a central question: What kinds of characters and stories become possible when Jewish values are understood in their original context?

Through a workshop model that integrates Jewish texts with writing practice, participants will explore how the full Jewish experience can be woven into compelling drama. In doing so, the Collective seeks to expand what Jewish storytelling can look like, beyond the tropes that have dominated screens and shaped perceptions for decades.

Participants will develop a Jewish-rooted project over the course of the program and have the opportunity to pitch their work to financiers interested in supporting this kind of content. The Collective is generously funded by Judea Films, whose support reflects a growing appetite for stories that are unapologetically Jewish, creative, and culturally grounded.

This approach mirrors how lasting narrative change has occurred for other minority communities in Hollywood: by investing in creators, backing insights with research, and staying in the conversation long enough to shift it.

By launching the Jewish Roots Screenwriters Collective at Sundance, JITC is continuing its mission to strengthen Jewish representation at the source — in writers’ rooms, development pipelines, and the imaginations of those shaping the next generation of stories.

Applications and full program details are available here.

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