Several weeks ago JITC (Jewish Institute for Television & Cinema) Hollywood Bureau hosted an official panel at Sundance Film Festival on Jewish representation in media. We presented the findings from our groundbreaking study conducted with the Norman Lear Center at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The research examines how general Jewish characters—and also […]
Orthodox Judaism is most commonly seen on TV as something to run away from — with the main character often leaving the faith or it being poked fun at in some way. NBC’s streaming service Peacock is helping to break that mold with its new show, The Calling, which premiered earlier this month. What’s groundbreaking about […]
Orthodox Judaism is backwards. Antisemitism isn’t that big of a deal. Jews aren’t a minority. These are just some of the things the secular media guides me to say almost every time I’m approached for a story. Over the years, because of this, I’ve become extremely hesitant to work with them, even if they promised […]
Acting isn’t an easy profession, all the more so when you are an Orthodox Jew. But to be an award-winning actor that’s also Shabbos-observant? Elliot “Eli” Schiff might be one of the only ones in the world. After winning not one, but two awards at this week’s SOVAs (Society of Voice Arts and Sciences), Schiff […]
Last week, Julia Haart appeared as a guest on the Tamron Hall show and when asked about her divorce, she sighed and replied that her divorce took eight years. She segued into a description about the laws of Jewish divorce where a women in “her world” have to ask their husbands for a gett in […]
The hotly contested reality television series My Unorthodox Life debuted las week on Netflix and has inspired a cadre of criticism, backlash and responses that aim to educate its subject, formerly Orthodox Julia Haart, Netflix, viewers and the media at large that this is not a monolithic view of religious Judaism. Jew in the City’s […]
