4 Years Ago We Protested Outside of 30 Rock. Today, We’re in the Room Where It Happens.

Four years ago, Jew in the City stood outside 30 Rockefeller Plaza with a simple message: Orthodox Jews deserve fair representation. At the time, NBC’s Nurses had aired an episode that grotesquely and inaccurately depicted Hasidic Jews. The portrayal sparked outrage across the Jewish community. But instead of simply protesting, we chose to do something else as well: we spoke about who Orthodox Jews actually are.

Standing outside 30 Rock, we shared the reality of our lives, values, and community. We explained that the problem wasn’t just one offensive episode. It was a much larger pattern of the absence of authentic Jewish voices shaping how Orthodox Jews are portrayed in entertainment. That moment marked the beginning of a new chapter for Jew in the City.

In the four years since, what began as a protest has evolved into something much bigger: a growing effort to bring accurate Jewish representation directly into the entertainment industry. Like other minority communities that have long advocated for accurate representation in Hollywood, we now use all of the same mechanisms to ensure Jewish voices are part of the storytelling process. Indeed, less than a year later, that moment led to something unexpected: We went from Tweeting to meeting – sitting down with major Hollywood studios to discuss how Jewish stories are told on screen.

In late 2021, we formally launched the JITC Hollywood Bureau: the Jewish Institute for Television & Cinema, an initiative dedicated to improving Jewish representation across the entertainment industry for the entire Jewish community.

Today, JITC HB serves as official Jewish consultants to multiple major studios, helping creators understand Orthodox Jewish life and avoid harmful stereotypes.

We partnered with researchers at the Norman Lear Center at USC, one of the most respected institutions studying media and entertainment, to produce groundbreaking research demonstrating what we had long been saying: Hollywood’s portrayals of Orthodox Jews are overwhelmingly limited, distorted, and often harmful. Armed with that data, we’ve been able to move the conversation forward in meaningful ways.

We now provide trainings for entertainment professionals, helping writers, producers, and studios better understand Jewish identity, culture, and religious life. We’ve also created fact sheets and educational resources used within the industry to ensure creators have access to accurate information when telling Jewish stories.

To help nurture authentic Jewish voices in Hollywood, we launched the Jewish Roots Screenwriters Collective, bringing together Jewish writers who want to create nuanced and compelling portrayals of Jewish life and identity.

And each year, we celebrate the media that gets it right at our Media Awards, a glamorous night in New York City where celebrities, creators, and industry leaders come together to honor film and television that portray Jewish characters and communities with dignity, depth, and authenticity.

Four years ago, we stood outside 30 Rock asking Hollywood to do better, and today, we’re making it happen.

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