L ifestyles /C ulture
‘Jeopardy!’ Featured Several Jewish Moments
During Alex Trebek’s Lengthy Tenure
T E L EVISION
PHILISSA CRAMER | JTA.ORG
ALEX TREBEK, the beloved
baritone host of “Jeopardy!,”
died of pancreatic cancer on
Nov. 8 at 80.

In his 36 years as host of the
immensely popular game show,
Trebek encountered his share of
Jewish moments. We’ve rounded
up a few especially notable ones
from the last decade here.

2011: A rabbi appears on her
ordination anniversary
Rabbi Joyce Newmark,
a Conservative rabbi from
Teaneck, New Jersey, won
$29,200 during her appearance
on the show, which aired on
the 20th anniversary of her
ordination. Trebek congratu-
lated her on the milestone and
asked her about her experience
as a woman rabbi.

2013: B’nai B’rith makes an
appearance A clue in the category “Service
organizations” asked players to
name “this Jewish club whose name
means ‘children of the covenant.’”
That might have stumped many,
but one of the contestants that day
was Joey Gutmann, at the time a
law student, who was wearing a
kippah. He got it right and won
the $800.

2015: Former JTA intern
pranks Trebek with “SNL”
reference Talia Lavin, formerly a
JTA intern and nowadays
an author who writes about
online anti-Semitism and white
supremacy, had a particularly
memorable appearance on the
show — for “Saturday Night
Live” fans, at least. Lavin didn’t
know the answer to a question
about a song in a movie, so she
wrote in “What is the love ballad
of turd ferguson ps hi mom.”
“SNL” fans will remember
18 NOVEMBER 12, 2020
Alex Trebek poses on set at Sony Pictures in Culver City, California, in 2011.
Cohen’s Jewish cred extends to
his love of deli, his marriage
to a rabbi’s daughter and his
upbringing in a Conservadox
synagogue, as detailed in this
interview with the now-defunct
Arq website.

“Absolutely heartbreaking
to lose someone who meant so
much to so many. Even if this
show hadn’t changed my life in
so many ways, this loss would
be immeasurable,” Cohen
2016: Buzzy Cohen makes a
tweeted on Nov. 8, before
splash A contestant with a pretty posting a picture of himself
Jewish name became a sensa- hugging Trebek with the words,
tion by trolling Trebek with “Gonna miss you.”
some of his responses (such
as “You aren’t rid of me yet, 2018: Who is Jesus? ...

Trebek”). Vanity Fair called I’m Jewish!
In her first appearance on
Buzzy Cohen “either the game
show’s latest young, charismatic the show, Alexandra Henkoff
savior or an obnoxious millen- and the other contestants
nial scourge we as a society did left the category “Luther’s 95
nothing to deserve.” He went on Theses” for almost last in the
to win more than $164,603 over first round. After she revealed
nine episodes and returned the the first clue, Henkoff seemed
following year to win the 2017 stuck but answered, “Who is
Tournament of Champions. Jesus?” When she learned she
part of the phrase from the show’s
famed “Celebrity Jeopardy”
sketches. Burt Reynolds, played
by Norm McDonald, took joy
in getting Will Ferrell’s Alex
Trebek to say his name was Turd
Ferguson. Lavin’s moment was the
first time anyone had tricked
the real Trebek into saying the
comic name.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images via JTA.org
big surprise: Mitelman — who
appeared on the show in 2016
and runs a site called Sinai and
Synapses, about the ties between
religion and science — wrote an
article on his “Jewish Approach
to Being on Jeopardy!”
“[F]ocus on what you can
control, and ignore the rest,”
Mitelman wrote. “That idea
2019: A former rabbi
was, in fact, the crux of my
contestant holds an
application to rabbinical
interfaith service for Trebek
After Reform
Rabbi school.”
Geoffrey Mitelman heard the
news about Trebek’s cancer 2020: A day school teacher
diagnosis last year, he quickly wagers $18
Meggie Kwait, a teacher at
hatched a plan for the show
host: an interfaith “prayer Beit Rabban Day School in New
service, for hope and healing York City, was part of this year’s
and strength,” he told the New Teachers Tournament, filmed
shortly before the coronavirus
York Jewish Week.

In all, Jewish and Christian pandemic descended on the
clergy representing “at least 11 United States. We interviewed
different religious traditions” Kwait about her experience
participated, reading prayers, and why she decided to wager
and other participants sang $18 on a day when she couldn’t
songs. People from across the lose. (“That was when all the
Jews realized I was Jewish,” she
country tuned in via Zoom.

It shouldn’t have come as a told JTA.) l
was right, she sighed with relief,
then confessed, “I’m Jewish,” to
laughs from her fellow contes-
tants, the audience and Trebek,
who said, “That’s no excuse.”
Henkoff went on to win $17,300
that day and return for one
more game.

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