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9 classic Jewish New York movies you can stream right now
(New York Jewish Week) — Jewish people have made New York City home for centuries now, often finding opportunity and acceptance where it elsewhere had been denied. So when Jews began to tell their stories of their lives on film, it only makes sense that they would feature New York City front and center.
From the tenements of the Lower East Side to the present-day Diamond District, New York City has shaped the lives of millions of Jews, and in turn we’ve reflected the city back to itself — the good, the bad and the sometimes ugly.
Below are nine classic films created by Jews, starring Jews and featuring the unique foibles of being a Jewish person in New York City that are all available to stream now. As we head into winter (and, for many, a Christmas break where film-watching is de rigueur), it’s the perfect time to get cozy and stream an iconic Jewish New York movie or two … or all nine.
1. “The Jazz Singer”
Streaming free on Tubi and available to rent on Amazon, Apple and more.
Not only is this the first movie on our list, it’s the first movie that had sound, period. The conflict at the center of this 1927 musical is one that continues to echo in films today: A cantor’s son, Jacob (Al Jolson), seeks to use his talent to serve his own ambitions and desires rather than following in his father’s footsteps. Filmed on the Lower East Side, the movie is a peek how Jews lived when the neighborhood remained a religious enclave, yet were tempted by what the secular city had to offer.
Content warning: A character appears in blackface in this film.
2. “Hester Street”
Streaming free on Tubi and on Mubi and Kanopy (in certain locations). Available to rent on YouTube, GooglePlay and more.
Though there’s been a Jewish community in New York since 1654, the Jewish population in the city began to boom in the late 1800s as thousands fled deadly pogroms in Eastern Europe. Joan Micklin Silver’s “Hester Street,” released in 1975, transports viewers to the Lower East Side in this complicated era, which was both painful and liberating for Jews. Gitl (Carol Kane) and her son Yossele are at last summoned to join the family patriarch, Yankel aka Jake (Steven Keats) in the new country — but, once arrived, Gitl struggles to assimilate. Shot in black and white, with dialogue in both Yiddish and English, “Hester Street” is faithful to its source material, the 1896 novella “Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto” by Abraham Cahan. “Hester Street” is an essential look at Jewish culture at one of its most watershed moments.
3. “The Producers”
Streaming free on Pluto and available to rent from Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and more.
Zero Mostel, left, and Gene Wilder star in the Mel Brooks classic “The Producer.” (Screenshot)
As the saying goes: Only in New York. And when it comes to “The Producers,” we’ll say it’s certainly one of those only in New York — and only written by a Jewish New Yorker — stories. Written and directed by Mel Brooks, this film finds disgraced Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) realize he could make more money off a flop than a hit. So he and his partner, Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) decide to stage “Springtime for Hitler.” Hilarity ensues as the pair run around 1960s New York City to pull their scheme off, but despite its comedic trappings, the movie has some serious undertones: Brooks wrote it with the understanding that sometimes the best way to take down an antisemite is not with a grandiose speech, but with laughter.
4. “Girlfriends”
Available for rent from Amazon Prime, YouTube and Google Play.
Before there was Lena Dunham’s “Girls,” there was Claudia Weill’s 1978 film “Girlfriends.” When bar mitzvah and wedding photographer Susan Weinblatt (Melanie Mayron) discovers her best friend and roommate is moving out to marry her boyfriend Martin (Bob Balaban), her world is turned upside down. What ensues is a charming tale of the search for self-discovery in New York City, complete with an inappropriate relationship with a religious figure and a haircut that would be a devastating blow to any Jewish girl with a curl pattern. If you’ve ever tried (and flailed) to do something creative in the Big Apple, you’ll feel seen by all of the small, one-step-forward, two-steps-back moments this movie contains.
5. “Crossing Delancey”
Streaming free on YouTube; available to rent from Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play and more.
Peter Riegert and Amy Irving starred in “Crossing Delancey.” Riegert played a pickle shop owner. (Warner Brothers/Getty Images)
Another feature from barrier-breaking director Joan Micklin Silver, 1988’s “Crossing Delancey” once again confronts that eternal conflict of wanting to break from tradition in pursuit of modernity. Izzy (Amy Irving) meets pickle man Sam (Peter Riegert) at the behest of her bubbe and the local matchmaker, but is unable to reconcile her past (the Lower East Side) with her more erudite future (the Upper West Side). Come for the charming romantic comedy, stay for the wonderful shots of a Lower East Side that once represented a bustling Jewish and multicultural haven, instead of a trendy neighborhood that’s home for expensive cocktail bars and countless vape shops.
6. “When Harry Met Sally”
Streaming free with Hulu Live and Fubo subscriptions; available to rent on Amazon and for purchase from Vudu and YouTube.
Nora Ephron once said that the difference between Christian and Jewish rom coms is that “external forces separate lovers in the former, while characters’ neuroses obstruct happiness in the latter.” If this is true, writer Ephron and director Rob Reiner’s 1989 hit “When Harry Met Sally” certainly fits the bill as a Jewish rom-com. Former college classmates Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) reunite in New York 15 years after they drove from Chicago to New York together; they maturely decide to be friends, only to realize there might be deeper feelings between them. While religion isn’t overtly discussed, the film’s sensibilities are undeniably Jewish — and it’s credited with putting Jewish institution Katz’s Deli forever on the map.
7. “Kissing Jessica Stein”
Available to rent on YouTube, Amazon, GooglePlay and more.
How many movies open on Yom Kippur services? In a Cinderella story that would make any Jewish mother proud, “Kissing Jessica Stein” began as an off-off-Broadway play titled “Lipshtick,” co-written by its stars Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, and became an indie film in 2001. Westfeldt stars as the titular Stein, of the Scarsdale Steins, with a mother (Tovah Feldshuh) who’s eager for her to find a Nice Jewish Boy to settle down with. Instead, Jessica finds herself drawn to a non-Jewish woman, Helen (Juergensen), and frets over how her traditional Jewish family might receive their relationship. What entails is a beautiful meditation on the search for acceptance, both from family and of yourself.
8. “Obvious Child”
Streaming free on Kanopy (in certain locations) and Cinemax with subscription; available to rent on Amazon, Google Play, YouTube and more.
Written and directed by Jewish native New Yorker Gillian Robespierre (you can check out her film “Landline” for a peek into her childhood), this 2014 film centers on a young Jewish woman, Donna (Jenny Slate), who ventures where many, many Jewish people have before her: The world of standup comedy. “Obvious Child” delivers a more modern look at Jewish life in New York City, as Donna contemplates getting an abortion after her one-night stand with nice guy Max (Jake Lacey) has more lingering consequences than intended. If you’ve ever felt more like a menorah that accidentally burns down the Christmas tree than the angel on top, then this movie is for you.
9. “Uncut Gems”
Streaming free on Netflix with subscription; available to rent from YouTube, GooglePlay, Amazon and more.
Adam Sandler plays Howard Ratner in “Uncut Gems.” (Courtesy A24)
If “Die Hard” is considered a Christmas movie, then the Safdie brothers’ 2019 “Uncut Gems” is a Passover movie, featuring Adam Sandler in a departure from his usual comedy fare as Howard Ratner, a Jewish anti-hero with unbridled hubris for the ages. Deemed by many to be an extraordinarily stressful watch, the film will still send chills of recognition up your spine — particularly during that seder scene, which shows no matter how bad the fighting may be between you and your family, you still make time to sing “Dayenu” — and brings life to some of the city’s more offbeat characters, who are often pushed to the margins, both in real life and on film.
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The post 9 classic Jewish New York movies you can stream right now appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Drexel University Professor Stole Signs From Synagogue, Police Say
Illustrative: People pass a cluster of signs outside a pro-Hamas encampment at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. on April 28, 2024. Photo: Max Herman via Reuters Connect
A Drexel University professor allegedly participated in a mass theft of items from a synagogue in a suburb outside Philadelphia, a local NBC affiliate reported on Tuesday.
Mariana Chilton, 56, a professor of health management and policy at Drexel, has been accused of stealing pro-Israel signs from the Main Line Reform Temple in Lower Merion Township, traveling there from her neighborhood of residency, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Chilton allegedly drove the getaway car while two other accomplices, Sarah Prickett and Sam Penn — who is from New York — trespassed the synagogue and absconded with the loot.
“We are just taking them because we feel like it is a representative of genocide,” Chilton told law enforcement after being caught in the act, the report stated. She then, after offering to “just put them back,” refused to identify herself and comply with other lawful orders.
Video evidence provided by a local resident placed Chilton and her accomplices at the scene of the crime, and a Main Line Reform Temple official identified the signs recovered from her car as the temple’s property. That was enough for law enforcement to charge her with several offenses, including conspiracy and theft. She is also charged with driving without a license and not registering her vehicle.
Drexel University has not responded to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment for this story.
Experts have told The Algemeiner in the past academic year that while the conduct of anti-Zionist students should be reported on, the role of faculty in fostering and engaging in antisemitic acts should be closely scrutinized. Last semester, anti-Zionist faculty attached themselves to anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations, sometimes breaking the law by preventing officers from dispersing unauthorized demonstrations and detaining lawbreakers.
At Northeastern University in Boston, professors formed a human barrier around a student encampment to stop its dismantling by officers, and at Columbia University, anti-Zionist faculty at the school, as well its affiliate Barnard College, staged a walkout in support of the demonstrations and demanded the abeyance of disciplinary sanctions against anti-Zionist students — dozens of whom cheered Hamas and threatened more massacres of Jews similar to Oct. 7 — who violated school rules.
Chilton’s case is unlike any other reported in the past year, however. While dozens of professors have been accused of abusing their Jewish students and encouraging their classmates to bully and shame them, none are alleged to have resorted to stealing from a Jewish house of worship to make their point.
Mass participation of faculty in pro-Hamas demonstrations marks an inflection point in American history, Asaf Romirowsky, an expert on the Middle East and executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told The Algemeiner in April.
Since the 1960s, he explained, far-left “scholar activists” have gradually seized control of the higher education system, tailoring admissions processes and the curricula to foster ideological radicalism and conformity, which students then carry with them into careers in government, law, corporate America, and education. This system, he concluded, must be challenged.
“The cost of trading scholarship for political propagandizing has been a zeal and pride among faculty who esteem and cheer terrorism, a historical development which is quite telling and indicative of the evolution of the Marxist ideology which has been seeping into the academy since the 1960s,” Romirowsky said. “The message is very clear to all of us who are looking on from the outside at this, and institutions have to begin drawing a red line. The protests are not about free speech. They are about supporting terrorism, about calling for a genocide of Jews.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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White House Cites Biden Clash With Netanyahu Over Iran as Proof of President’s Mental Fitness
US President Joe Biden hosts the 2023 Teacher of the Year event at the White House in Washington, US, April 24, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Amid growing concerns over US President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, key White House officials are suggesting his foreign policy discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including a clash over how to respond to Iran’s unprecedented military attack on the Israeli homeland earlier this year, serve as evidence that he is still capable of leading from the Oval Office.
Biden and Netanyahu engaged in a heated back-and-forth in the immediate aftermath of Iran launching a massive missile and drone salvo at Israel in April, according to a new report by the New York Times. The US and other allies helped Israel shoot down nearly every drone and missile. The attack caused only one injury.
However, the Times revealed that while Netanyahu initially wanted to respond to Iran in a forceful way, Biden threatened to withhold US support in the event of a major Israeli retaliatory strike, arguing it would risk sparking a regional conflict in the Middle East.
“Aides present in the Situation Room the night that Iran hurled a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel portrayed a president in commanding form, lecturing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone to avoid a retaliatory escalation that would have inflamed the Middle East,” the Times reported. “‘Let me be crystal clear,’ Mr. Biden said. ‘If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own.’”
“Mr. Netanyahu pushed back hard, citing the need to respond in kind to deter future attacks,” the report continued. “‘You do this,’ Mr. Biden said forcefully, ‘and I’m out.’ Ultimately, the aides noted, Mr. Netanyahu scaled back his response.”
Israel’s military response was small and appeared aimed at minimizing the risk of escalation.
The Times report, headlined “Biden’s Lapses Are Said to Be Increasingly Common and Worrisome,” came on the heels of Biden delivering a widely-panned presidential debate performance last Thursday against former US President Donald Trump. Biden’s performance, which oftentimes appeared incoherent and muddled, set off alarm bells in Democratic circles, sending the president’s allies scrambling to extinguish concerns over his age and mental acuity.
While highlighting rising concerns, the news story also noted instances in which, according to aides, Biden appeared coherent and capable, citing the exchange with Netanyahu and his handling of the Iranian missile attack more broadly as one such example.
However, an anonymous Biden administration official told the Times that they are unsure whether Biden could hold his own against adversarial foreign leaders such as Vladimir Putin of Russia.
On Wednesday, the White House directly attributed quotes to Netanyahu in which the Israeli premier reportedly said he found Biden “very clear and very focused” during his visit to Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. According to a White House spokesperson, Netanyahu also reportedly cited the “more than a dozen phone conversations, extended conversations with President Biden” as evidence of the commander-in-chief’s vitality.
“Some White House officials adamantly rejected the suggestion of a president not up to handling tough foreign counterparts and told the story of the night Iran attacked Israel in April,” the New York Times reported. “Mr. Biden and his top national security officials were in the Situation Room for hours, bracing for the attack, which came around midnight. Biden was updated in real time as the forces he ordered into the region began shooting down Iranian missiles and drones. He peppered leaders with questions throughout the response.”
During its first direct attack on Israeli territory, Iran in April launched roughly 300 missiles and drones at the Jewish state.
Leading up to the attack, Iranian officials had promised revenge for an airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria that they attributed to Israel. The strike killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a widely designated terrorist organization, including two senior commanders. One of the commanders allegedly helped plan the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the incident.
“After it was over, and almost all of the missiles and drones had been shot down, Mr. Biden called Mr. Netanyahu to persuade him not to escalate. ‘Take the win,’” Mr. Biden told the prime minister, without reading from a script or extensive notes, according to two people in the room. In the end, Mr. Netanyahu opted for a much smaller and proportionate response that effectively ended the hostilities,” the article added.
Days later, Israel responded to the Iranian aggression by launching a modest missile attack on an airbase near Isfahan. The Jewish state sought to show that it could effectively target key strategic locations in Iran while not escalating the conflict any further. Netanyahu insisted on launching a retaliatory attack against Iran, arguing that ignoring the Iranian strikes would incentivize more attacks against the Jewish state.
IRGC Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran is waiting for “the opportunity” to launch a new round of strikes against Israel, Iranian media reported on Tuesday, potentially boosting Netanyahu’s argument that a smaller response would invite further attacks.
The post White House Cites Biden Clash With Netanyahu Over Iran as Proof of President’s Mental Fitness first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Journalist at US-Based Nonprofit Promoted Stabbing Israelis, Depicted Rescued Hostage as Pig Drinking Blood: Report
Palestinian terrorists ride an Israeli military vehicle that was seized by gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot
A journalist at a US-based nonprofit posted tutorials on how to commit stabbing attacks and depicted a rescued Israeli hostage as a pig drinking blood, according to newly surfaced social media posts.
Eitan Fischberger, a communications analyst and former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) staff sergeant who first broke the story on X/Twitter, alleged that Mahmoud Ajjour, a correspondent for The Palestine Chronicle, posted disturbing images and videos to his Instagram page.
Fischberger posted screenshots and screen recordings of the posts.
According to The Chronicle‘s website, Ajjour is a photojournalist and correspondent for the outlet, which is a US-based 501c3, or nonprofit organization.
One of the posted images depicted Noa Argamani — an Israeli who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel, and then rescued in an IDF special operation last month — as a pig drinking blood from a Coca-Cola bottle.
Here, for example, Ajjour posted a picture of Israeli hostage Noa Argamani, portrayed as a pig drinking the blood of Palestinians.
Noa, as you recall, was freed by Israeli forces in the same rescue operation in which Ajjour’s terrorist colleague was killed pic.twitter.com/oiLCqekxbl
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
In Oct. 2015, Ajjour posted a picture of a masked Palestinian holding up a knife, with the caption, “I declare it a revolution.”
That time — from approximately Sept. 2015 to June 2016 — was referred to as the “knife intifada,” as there was an uptick in Palestinian terrorist attacks, particularly using knives, against Israelis in Jerusalem, along with other parts of Israel and the West Bank.
Ajjour also seems mighty fine endorsing stabbing attacks pic.twitter.com/xi2MnZVddl
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
During that same month, Ajjour also reportedly posted a two-part tutorial on how to carry out stabbings with the caption, “May Allah protect them,” likely referring to those who were engaging in such attacks.
So much, in fact, that he uploaded a two-part instruction video showing off some best practices for stabbing Israelis pic.twitter.com/Z12rVo4Enx
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
Then, in 2023, after the son of a Hamas preacher was killed when a device he was trying to launch at Israel exploded, Ajjour mourned his death on Instagram. “Your father’s legacy is proud of you,” he wrote alongside a picture that included what appeared to be a Hamas flag.
And here, Ajjour mourns the death of Bara’a al-Zard, son of Hamas preacher Wael al-Zard.
Silly Bara’a died in an explosion caused by a device he was trying to launch at Israeli forces near the Gaza security fencehttps://t.co/vZR6IW0shF pic.twitter.com/ipQw55BYd7
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
This is not the first time a journalist from The Palestine Chronicle was alleged to have either supported or partaken in terrorism.
Abdallah Aljamal, who was a correspondent for The Chronicle, allegedly held three Israeli hostages in his home, according to the Israeli government. He was killed during a raid that rescued four hostages, including Argamani. After the allegations came to light, The Chronicle changed Aljamal’s status on its website from a correspondent to a contributor.
The Palestine Chronicle did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Fichberger wrote that he wants the US House Ways and Means Committee to investigate The Chronicle for what seems to have become a pattern.
“If The Chronicle is let off the hook for employing an actual terrorist hostage-taker, it would prove that the American counter-terror legal apparatus really is irreparably broken,” he wrote.
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