arts & culture
2022 was a big year for Jews
in the arts
Andrew Lapin | JTA
O nce more for the record, Dave
Chappelle: Jews don’t really
run Hollywood. But anyone
paying attention in 2022 saw a great
deal of Jewish creativity this year; in
fact, it was notable just how many
of the biggest pop-culture events fer-
vently embraced Jewish identity.

Growing up Jewish in movies
Two of the year’s big arthouse film
releases were autobiographical portray-
als of their directors’ Jewish upbring-
ings. In “The Fabelmans,” Steven
Spielberg’s account of how he became
a filmmaker, a teenager in 1950s
America navigates a fracturing Jewish
family and antisemitism at school. And
in “Armageddon Time,” James Gray’s
retelling of his Reagan-era childhood
(with appearances from the Trumps), a
Jewish family in Queens, N.Y., tries to
assimilate into the WASPy upper class
while their young son brushes aside the
needs of his Black friend.

‘Tár’ and ‘teshuvah’
While the families in “The Fabelmans”
and “Armageddon Time” were obvi-
ously Jewish, Cate Blanchett’s mon-
strous fictional conductor in “Tár” was
not, which made it all the more sur-
prising when the film not-so-subtly
incorporated Jewish themes into its
story of artistic success and karmic ret-
ribution. The acclaimed drama looks
to make big inroads this awards season
as it gives audiences a de facto Hebrew
lesson. Photo illustration: Mollie Suss/70 Faces Media
‘Rehearsal’ for living Jewishly
Gonzo comedian Nathan Fielder staged
some elaborate simulations of everyday
life in “The Rehearsal,” a new HBO
series that proved to be among the
buzziest TV shows of the year — and
whose late-season pivot to discussions
of Jewish parenting caught just about
everyone by surprise. As the Internet
lit up with conversations about Miriam
Eskenasy, the Hebrew tutor Fielder
hired for his fake Jewish son, JTA spoke
to Miriam herself about the various
“Armageddon Time,” “Russian Doll,” “The Rehearsal” and “Tár” were some of the cultural works that dealt with Jewish themes.

questions of Jewish identity explored by
the show.

‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’
Ken Burns’ PBS documentary relay-
ing how the United States responded
to the Holocaust on the homefront and
during wartime ignited a fierce national
reckoning over the historic treatment of
Jews and outsiders. Burns and his Jewish
co-directors said they hoped to commu-
nicate an important lesson to the coun-
try about antisemitism and xenophobia
that could challenge America’s founding
myths. TV had Jewish conflicts
FX/Hulu’s thriller “The Patient” dug into
an inter-family divide between Reform
parents and Orthodox children, even as
the show weathered criticism for its cast-
ing of non-Jew Steve Carell as a Jewish
therapist. Another Hulu show, Ramy
Youssef’s “Ramy,” entered its third sea-
son with a storyline set in Israel and an
Orthodox Jewish supporting character,
notable for a series that focuses on a
Muslim American protagonist.

‘Russian Doll’ Nazi gold train
Natasha Lyonne’s time-hopping Netflix
series returned for a second season,
reaching deep into the past to find
Lyonne’s protagonist Nadia unearth-
ing generations of Jewish trauma in
her family. It all culminated with her
exploration of a Hungarian “gold train”
filled with treasures that the Nazis sup-
posedly looted from the country’s Jews
during wartime. Lyonne was drawing
on real-life Holocaust history for the
plot. Some uncomfy Jewish jokes
The “Sex and the City” follow-up on
HBO was largely viewed by fans of the
original as a trainwreck. Jewish view-
ers saw something else: bizarre Jewish
jokes, from a midseason flirtation with
a Holocaust-denier to a season-finale,
“They Mitzvah,” that ultimately didn’t
happen. ‘Funny Girl’ cast conflicts
The hotly anticipated revival of the
biographical musical about Jewish
comedian Fanny Brice that ini-
tially launched the career of Barbra
Streisand, debuted in spring to sky-
high expectations. Lead Beanie
Feldstein said that taking on the role of
Brice was “incredibly meaningful for
me as a Jewish woman.” But following
poor reviews and ticket sales, Feldstein
exited with gusto — and was replaced
by Lea Michele, the “Glee” star with
Jewish ancestry who’d spent much of
her career openly pining for the role
of Fanny.

Other Jewish stories from
2022 available to stream:
13: The Musical (Netflix); Ahed’s Knee
(VOD rental); American Masters: The
Adventures of Saul Bellow (PBS); The
Calling (Peacock); Cha Cha Real Smooth
(Apple TV+); Heirs to the Land (Netflix);
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey,
A Song (VOD rental); Idina Menzel:
Which Way to the Stage (Disney+);
Image of Victory (Netflix); Jackass
Forever (Paramount+); Last Flight Home
(Paramount+); Ridley Road (PBS);
Shababnikim (Chaiflicks); Yosi, the
Regretful Spy (Amazon Prime). JE
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