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At BroadwayCon in Midtown, Jewish actors dish on identity and representation in the industry
(New York Jewish Week) – A woman dressed as Fanny Brice from “Funny Girl” and another dressed as Fruma Sarah from “Fiddler on the Roof” were among the 100-plus people who filed into a Midtown conference room on Friday morning to discuss Jewish identity on Broadway.
The Jewish fans — whose real names were Jackie and Michelle, and declined to share their last names — were dressed as their favorite Jewish musical characters, and were attending one of the first panel discussions of BroadwayCon 2023. The conference, at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square, is an annual gathering in the vein of ComicCon that brings thousands of fans and industry professionals for a weekend of celebration, singing, discussion and meet-and-greets.
The panel, called “Jewish Identity and Broadway,” came together in less than a week, its organizer Ari Axelrod — a Jewish actor, singer and educator — told the New York Jewish Week. He said he organized it in response to the July 11 casting announcement for the national tour of “Funny Girl,” in which a non-Jewish actress had been chosen to play Fanny Brice, a role made famous by Barbra Streisand. Brice, a pioneering Jewish comedian in the early 20th century, struggled with her Jewish identity in her rise to fame.
In the aftermath of the casting announcement, the debate over whether or not non-Jews can play Jewish characters — a term actress and comedian Sarah Silverman dubbed “Jewface” — resurfaced online.
Amid the hubbub, “Somebody had said to me, ‘You should host something,’” Axelrod told the New York Jewish Week. “It was in direct response to the casting.”
While there have been Jewish-focused panels at BroadwayCon since the annual conference began in 2015, the past year has been a landmark one for Jewish stories on Broadway — particularly those that deal with antisemitism, including “Parade” and “Leopoldstadt,” which both won Tony Awards. “Parade,” about the real-life antisemitic lynching of Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank in 1915, saw a neo-Nazi protest outside of the theater while it was in previews. Michelle dressed at Fruma Sarah, the ghost that Tevye says haunts dreams in “Fiddler on the Roof.” (Julia Gergely)
Michelle (dressed as Fruma Sarah) attends the conference every year, and said she was interested in the event because she is Jewish and became interested in Jewish representation on Broadway during a BroadwayCon panel she attended in 2020.
“There was a rabbi who was an actor. He said that there was a time he wasn’t cast to play a rabbi because he didn’t look Jewish enough,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘He’s a rabbi, how can you get more Jewish than that? It just really made me realize how much of an issue representation is for us.”
Speaking on the hour-long panel was Axelrod, who was named to the New York Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36” (now known as “36 to Watch”) in 2021; Talia Suskauer, who starred as Elphaba in the Broadway run and national tour of “Wicked”; Shoshanna Bean, who was nominated for a Tony Award last year for her performance in “Mr. Saturday Night”; Brandon Uranowitz, who last month won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for “Leopoldstadt”; Zachary Prince, who has been in several Broadway shows and recently performed in “A Transparent Musical,” based on the Jewish-themed TV show, in Los Angeles; and Alexandra Silber, who played Tzeitel in the most recent Broadway revival of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Moderating the panel was Becca Suskauer, a New York-based Jewish actress.
The wide-ranging discussion touched on Jewish representation, identity, pride and joy during a period of rising antisemitism. Panelists also noted that the goal of the conversation was to talk about how Broadway actors and insiders can actively uplift Jewish stories as well as those from other oppressed groups.
Suskauer emphasized that people should “listen before you speak and listen before you immediately go to pass judgment on something,” while Bean encouraged attendees to “be introspective” towards their own internalized prejudices if they are nervous to speak out on issues affecting marginalized groups.
Axelrod — echoing Michelle’s comment — spoke of the double standard that he feels exists within the industry — the idea that Jews are sometimes deemed “not Jewish looking enough” to play Jewish roles, but “too Jewish” to be cast in other roles. He also said there was a perceived double standard in that it’s considered acceptable for non-Jewish performers to be cast in Jewish roles, something that is frowned upon regarding other ethnic groups.
“There is this fear amongst the Jewish community that we can be Jewish, just not too Jewish,” Axelrod said. “We have a responsibility to dismantle that entire internalized assimilation within ourselves, because it’s important to show the world who we are. But to show them the world we can take multitudes, we first have to believe in ourselves.”
The “Funny Girl” casting only came up with 20 minutes left in the discussion. And while the actors made a point of noting that the actress chosen for the role, a Latina woman named Katerina McCrimmon, was very talented, they said it was nonetheless disappointing and worrisome to have a non-Jewish person playing Fanny Brice, who was a real person who often played on Jewish stereotypes to garner laughs from mainstream audiences.
An attendee of the panel dressed as Fanny Brice, the Jewish main character in “Funny Girl,” which will end its Broadway run this fall. (Julia Gergely)
“I was so excited for the role of Fanny Brice to be played by someone who is able to live so solidly and steadfastly and their Jewishness and who can bring that on the national tour to places that don’t have a lot of Jews,” Suskauer said. “I got immediately so scared when I heard that someone not Jewish was going to be playing at this Jewish stereotype. She can do this research, she can try to do it as respectfully as possible, but at the end of the day, she’s going to be playing at a stereotype while wearing bagels on her body.” (Suskauer was referring to “Private Schwartz from Rockaway,” a number in which Fanny imagines herself as a Jewish soldier and dances with bagels strung around her body.)
But the panel ended on a positive note. “‘To live is an actionable decision that we get to make every day, and when we say ‘l’chaim,’ we are literally saying ‘to life,’” Axelrod said. “I think it is imperative to every single person in this room that when you clink your Manischewitz, or your Kedem grape juice, and you say ‘l’chaim,’ mean it. Take those words as a call to action and do it, literally. Go do something that reminds you that you’re a Jewish person who was living your life.”
Rho and Maddy, teenage twins from New Jersey who declined to share their last names, said they attended the panel for the potential to meet Uranowitz, one of their favorite actors. They were surprised at how much the panel resonated with them. “It was really great to hear everyone’s opinions,” Rho said. “I’m so glad I came.”
“Especially as someone who is half-Jewish, there’s a lot of assimilation and sometimes being told and believing ‘you’re not really Jewish,’ or that doesn’t count,” Maddy said. “[This panel] definitely showed me I want to and can be an activist for my community.”
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The post At BroadwayCon in Midtown, Jewish actors dish on identity and representation in the industry appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israeli Military Says It Controls 40% of Gaza City, Plans to Expand Operation in Coming Days
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a tent, outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Sept. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khamis Al-Rifi
Israel controls 40 percent of Gaza City, a military spokesperson said on Thursday, as thousands of residents defied Israeli orders to leave in order for soldiers to target Hamas terrorists without civilians in harm’s way.
In Gaza City, Israeli forces have advanced through the outer suburbs and are now a few kilometers (miles) from the city center.
“We continue to damage Hamas’s infrastructure. Today we hold 40 percent of the territory of Gaza City,” Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin told a news conference, naming the Zeitoun and Sheikh Radwan neighborhoods. “The operation will continue to expand and intensify in the coming days.”
“We will continue to pursue Hamas everywhere,” he said, adding that the mission will only end when Israel‘s remaining hostages are returned and Hamas’s rule ends.
Defrin confirmed that army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told cabinet ministers that without a day-after plan, they would have to impose military rule in Gaza. Far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have been pushing for Israel to impose military rule in Gaza and establish settlements there, which Netanyahu has so far ruled out.
Israel launched the offensive in Gaza City on Aug. 10, in what Netanyahu says is a plan to defeat Hamas terrorists in the part of Gaza where Israeli troops fought most heavily in the war’s initial phase.
The campaign has prompted international criticism because of the humanitarian crisis in the area and has provoked unusual levels of concern within Israel, including accounts of tension over strategy between some military commanders and political leaders.
The Israeli military has said it is operating on the outskirts of Gaza City to dismantle terrorists’ tunnels and locate weapons.
Much of Gaza City was laid to waste in the war’s initial weeks in October-November 2023. About a million people lived there before the war, and hundreds of thousands are believed to have returned to live among the ruins, especially since Israel ordered people out of other areas and launched offensives elsewhere.
Israel, which has now told civilians to leave Gaza City again for their safety, says 70,000 have done so, heading south. Palestinian officials say less than half that number have left and many thousands still lie in the path of Israel‘s advance.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 251 hostages into Gaza.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in neighboring Gaza.
Prospects for a ceasefire and a deal to release the remaining 48 hostages, 20 of whom are thought to still be alive, appear dim.
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French Lawmaker Under Fire for Pro-Hamas Comments, Questioning Antisemitic Attack Figures
A conference by La France Insoumise MEP and pro-Palestinian activist Rima Hassan was held on Dec. 13, 2024, on the Saint Martin d Heres campus, in the Grenoble suburbs, France. Photo: Benoit Pavan / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
European Union lawmaker Rima Hassan is drawing criticism after spreading pro-Hamas rhetoric and questioning the reported surge of antisemitic attacks targeting France’s Jewish community, renewing concerns over her promotion of hateful ideology.
In a Tuesday interview with French outlet Thinkerview, Hassan defended the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and asserted the Palestinian terrorist group is justified in denying the Jewish state’s right to exist.
“Historically, Hamas has maintained that Israel has no right to exist, arguing that it has taken our lands and settled on them. In this regard, they are correct,” said Hassan, a 33-year-old lawyer and activist who last year became the first French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament, the EU’s law-making body.
“Oct. 7 is something that must be punished, yes, but it should be put into context before being condemned,” she continued.
This is not Hassan’s first instance of seemingly endorsing Hamas’s violence against Israelis.
The politician, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, has repeatedly faced controversies and investigations for promoting hateful speech.
“We have over 100 years of colonization, we are being massacred, we have over a million martyrs, and these French people don’t seem to understand that we want our independence,” Hassan said during the interview.
Earlier this year, the French diplomat was expelled from Israel after being arrested while attempting to reach Gaza aboard the vessel Madleen to “break the Israeli blockade.”
She has also been subject to an investigation in Paris for “apology of terrorism” following an interview given after the Oct. 7 atrocities, in which she justified Hamas’s actions.
During her interview, Hassan also questioned the rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes and targeted attacks against France’s Jewish community since the Hamas onslaught in Israel.
She expressed distrust in the figures reported by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) – the main representative body of French Jews – on antisemitism.
“Yes, there have been more antisemitic acts, but honestly, I do not trust the CRIF’s figures at all,” the French lawmaker said.
According to the French Interior Ministry, 646 antisemitic incidents were recorded from January to June this year — a drop from the previous year’s first-half record high but a 112.5 percent increase compared with the same period in 2023, when 304 incidents were reported.
Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF, strongly condemned Hassan’s remarks, denouncing them as a dangerous distortion of reality and an attack on France’s Jewish community.
“Downplaying, minimizing, and even hiding antisemitism is a core part of the strategy of LFI, and specifically of Rima Hassan,” Arfi said, referring to the left-wing French political party La France Insoumise. The party, of which Hassan is a member, has been widely accused of animus toward not only Israel but also the French Jewish community.
“She ignores that these figures come from the Ministry of the Interior, effectively pretending to forget that they are official French statistics,” Arfi continued.
Just last week, a 34-year-old Algerian man was sentenced to 40 months in prison for threatening passengers with a knife and making antisemitic death threats after boarding a train at Cannes station days earlier.
“Today, I want to kill Jews. I am Algerian, and I want to support the Palestinians,” the assailant said, according to French media.
In another incident earlier this year, a Jewish man wearing a kippah was brutally attacked and called a “dirty Jew” in Anduze, a small town in southern France.
In March, Arie Engelberg, the rabbi of Orléans, was violently attacked while walking home with his nine-year-old son from the synagogue in the city, located south of Paris.
According to Engelberg, the attacker asked if he was Jewish, and when the rabbi replied yes, the assailant began hurling antisemitic insults, including “all Jews are sons of —,” and attempted to film him. The attacker then allegedly started punching Engelberg and bit him until several people stepped in to help.
Antisemitism in France continued to surge to alarming levels across the country last year, with 1,570 incidents recorded. The total number of antisemitic outrages in 2024 was a slight dip from 2023’s record total of 1,676, but it marked a striking increase from the 436 tallied in 2022. The figures, presented by CRIF in its annual report, were compiled by the Jewish Community Protection Service using data jointly recorded with the Ministry of the Interior.
The report found that 65.2 percent of antisemitic acts last year targeted individuals, with more than 10 percent of these offenses involving physical violence.
One such incident occurred in June, when a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped by three Muslim boys in a Paris suburb. The child told investigators that the assailants called her a “dirty Jew” and hurled other antisemitic comments at her during the attack.
In another egregious attack, an elderly Jewish woman was attacked in a Paris suburb by two assailants who punched her in the face, pushed her to the ground, and kicked her while hurling antisemitic slurs, including “dirty Jew, this is what you deserve.”
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‘Activist Judge’: White House Vows to Fight Harvard After Legal Setback Over Funding
US President Donald Trump replies to a question in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Sept. 2, 2025. Photo: Brian Snyder via Reuters Connect
A US federal judge ruled on Wednesday that President Donald Trump acted unconstitutionally when he confiscated about $2.2 billion in Harvard University’s federal research grants as punishment for the institution’s alleged failing to address antisemitic harassment and discrimination on campus.
In her ruling, US District Judge Allison Burroughs, who was appointed to her position in 2014 by then-President Barack Obama, said that the Trump administration “used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”
Burroughs went on to argue that the federal government violated Harvard’s free speech rights under the US Constitution’s First Amendment and that it was the job of courts to “ensure that important research is not improperly subjected to arbitrary and procedurally infirm grant terminations.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard became a hub of campus antisemitism in the wake of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza. The wave of incidents included a public assault on recent Harvard Business School graduate Yoav Segev in which assailants allegedly identified him as a Jew and proceeded to encircle him while screaming “Shame!” in his face; an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon aimed at inciting anti-Jewish hatred in the Black community; masses of students roaming the halls calling for a genocide of Jews in Israel; and the university’s admitting that it has refused to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups.
Burroughs’s ruling has restored Harvard’s access to billions of dollars in funds paid for by the American taxpayer, preventing a fiscal crisis which has caused draconian budget cuts at other institutions facing similar financial penalties imposed by the Trump administration.
The decision also awards Harvard University president Alan Garber a major political victory, as he has in recent weeks endured growing criticism from faculty and Democratic lawmakers for entertaining a settlement with the Trump administration which would have included concessions to the conservative movement on issues ranging from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to viewpoint diversity on campus. Such a deal would risk inciting a mutiny at Harvard, where 94 percent of faculty donated to Democratic candidates in 2024.
On Wednesday, the White House vowed to continue fighting in court — which may include requesting emergency proceedings at the conservative-leaning US Supreme Court — accusing Burroughs of being compromised by partisanship.
“This activist Obama-appointed judge was always going to rule in Harvard’s favor, regardless of the facts,” Liz Huston, spokesperson for the White House, said in a statement following the ruling. “We will immediately move to appeal this egregious decision, and we are confident we will ultimately prevail in our efforts to hold Harvard accountable.”
Harvard said on Thursday that the ruling supported its contention that the Trump administration had acted unlawfully.
“The ruling affirms Harvard’s First Amendment and procedural rights, and validates our arguments in defense of the university’s academic freedom, critical scientific research, and the core principles of American higher education,” Garber said in a statement. “Our principles will guide us on the path forward. We will continue to champion open inquiry and the free exchange of ideas, and to build a community in which all can thrive.”
Harvard’s legal woes did not draw to a close with Wednesday’s decisions, as it sits at the center of yet another federal lawsuit alleging that school officials, including its private law enforcement agency, exposed a Jewish student to antisemitic abuse by refusing to intervene and correct a hostile environment even as the misconduct escalated to include violence
Filed in July, the mammoth complaint, totaling 124 pages, lays out the case that the university miscarried justice in the aftermath of two students, Ibrahim Bharmal and Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, allegedly assaulting Segev during the fall semester of the 2023-2024 academic year — just weeks after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel — by refusing to discipline them and later rewarding them the university’s highest honors.
“This malicious, violent, and antisemitic conduct violated several university policies — such as its anti-discrimination and anti-bullying policies — and it prompted criminal charges,” the complaint said. “No one doubts for a second that Harvard would have taken swift, aggressive, and public actions to enforce its policies had the victim been one of Harvard’s ‘favored’ minorities.”
It continued, “Harvard’s antisemitic intent is obvious. Several of its faculty publicly supported the attacker and tried to blame the victim (because, the faculty said, his Jewish presence was ‘threatening’ to other students). And, of course, hundreds of rabidly anti-Israel students disrupting campus life pressured the Harvard administration. Ultimately, and shamefully, the university kowtowed to the antisemitic mob it had allowed to take over its campus.”
Alleging violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, breach of contract, and conspiracy to deny civil rights, the suit demands all relevant recompense, including damages and the reimbursement of attorneys’ fees.
Nearly two years after the assault, Bharmal and Tettey-Tamaklo have not only avoided hate crime charges but also even amassed new accolades and distinctions — according to multiple reports.
After being charged with assault and battery, the two men were ordered in April by Boston Municipal Court Judge Stephen McClenon to attend “pre-trial diversion” anger management courses and perform 80 hours of community service each, a decision which did not require their apologizing to Segev even though Assistant District Attorney Ursula Knight described what they did as “hands on assault and battery.”
Harvard neither disciplined Bharmal nor removed him from the presidency of the Harvard Law Review, a coveted post once held by former US President Barack Obama. As of last year, he was awarded a law clerkship with the Public Defender for the District of Columbia, a government-funded agency which provides free legal counsel to “individuals … who are charged with committing serious criminal acts.” Bharmal also reaped a $65,000 fellowship from Harvard Law School to work at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an Islamic group whose leaders have defended Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities against Israelis.
As for Tettey-Tamaklo, he walked away from Harvard Divinity School with honors, according to The Free Press, as the 2024 Class Committee for Harvard voted him class marshal, a role in which he led the graduation procession through Harvard Yard alongside the institution’s most accomplished scholars and faculty.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.