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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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Palestinian Authority’s Abbas Offers to Work With Trump to Broker Peace Deal With Israel

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas holds a leadership meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has offered to work with US President Donald Trump to broker a comprehensive peace deal with Israel, praising the American leader for brokering a ceasefire between the Jewish state and Iran and calling for an end to the war in Gaza.
In a letter sent to Trump, Abbas expressed his “deep gratitude and appreciation for [Trump’s] successful efforts in reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Iran,” the official Palestinian Authority (PA) news agency WAFA reported.
After 12 days of conflict between the two Middle Eastern adversaries, Trump announced a “complete and total” ceasefire on Monday, just hours after Iran launched missile strikes on the Al Udeid US airbase in Qatar in retaliation for American attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.
The US joined Israel’s airstrike campaign against the Islamist regime by launching a large-scale military strike against Tehran, destroying three key nuclear enrichment facilities, including the heavily fortified Fordow site.
Although the fragile ceasefire appears to have since held, Tehran initially broke it within minutes, with Israeli officials reporting that three Iranian missiles were launched within the first three hours of the truce.
In his letter to Trump, Abbas called the ceasefire a “necessary and important step to defuse the crises plaguing the world, which will have a positive impact on the security and stability of the region.” He then turned his attention to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“A ceasefire in Gaza would constitute an additional step to [Trump’s] crucial efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace between the Palestinians, the Israelis, and the entire world,” the Palestinian leader wrote.
In an effort to earn trust within the international community, Abbas expressed his willingness to work with Trump, Saudi Arabia, and other global partners “to fulfill the promise of peace.”
The Palestinian leader said he was ready “to immediately negotiate and implement a comprehensive peace agreement within a clear and binding timeframe that ends the occupation and achieves security and stability for all, a just and lasting peace.”
Although Trump attempted a peace deal with the PA during his first term, he ultimately bypassed it and instead pursued the Abraham Accords — a series of historic US-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab countries.
“With you, we can achieve what seemed impossible: a recognized, free, sovereign, and secure Palestine; a recognized and secure Israel; and a region that enjoys peace, prosperity, and integration,” Abbas wrote in his letter.
Given the PA’s long-standing lack of credibility and widely known support for terrorism against Israel, Abbas has been making promises of change as he seeks to secure international trust and position the PA to play a leading role in the Gaza Strip once the current Israel-Hamas war ends.
The PA, which has long been riddled with accusations of corruption, has also maintained for years a so-called “pay-for-slay” program, which rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis.
Under this policy, the PA Martyr’s Fund makes official payments to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the families of “martyrs” killed in attacks on Israelis, and injured Palestinian terrorists. Reports estimate that approximately 8 percent of the PA’s budget is allocated to paying stipends to convicted terrorists and their families.
Earlier this year, Abbas announced plans to reform the system, but the PA has continued issuing payments, with top officials stating they will not deduct any of the funds.
Abbas, who was elected to a four-year term in 2005, has also promised to hold elections soon — the first the PA will hold since then.
Even with his commitment to long-promised administrative reforms, the PA lacks public support among Palestinians, with only 40 percent backing its return to govern the Gaza Strip after the war.
Abbas has also promised the demilitarization of his rival Hamas, while condemning the terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — an attack he had previously celebrated.
In the past, Abbas praised Hamas for achieving “important goals” with the Oct. 7 onslaught, describing the attack — the deadliest single-day massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust — as one that “shook the foundations of the Israeli entity.”
Other PA officials, including Mahmoud al-Habbash, Abbas’s adviser on religious and Islamic affairs, have similarly praised Hamas’s atrocities, describing them as “legitimate resistance.”
The post Palestinian Authority’s Abbas Offers to Work With Trump to Broker Peace Deal With Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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New York City Jews Sound Alarm After Anti-Israel Socialist Zohran Mamdani Wins Democratic Mayoral Primary

Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS
Following Zohran Mamdani’s stunning victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday, local Jewish leaders are expressing deep apprehension about their future status in a city facing the prospect of being led by a man who has been accused of antisemitism and made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career.
Mamdani, the 33‑year‑old state assemblymember and proud democratic socialist, defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other candidates in a lopsided first‑round win in the city’s Democratic primary for mayor, notching approximately 43.5 percent of first‑choice votes compared to Cuomo’s 36.4 percent.
Voters in New York City rank their choices in order of their preference. While Mamdani declared victory and Cuomo conceded defeat, the race’s ultimate outcome will technically be decided when every vote is tallied, taking into account the ranked choice count. Mamdani’s victory is all but assured.
Some observers have speculated that Mamdani’s win over an older, high-profile Democrat signifies growing frustration with the party’s status quo and represents a generational change.
The election results have also alarmed members of the local Jewish community, who expressed deep concern over his past criticism of Israel and defense of antisemitic rhetoric.
“Mamdani’s election is the greatest existential threat to a metropolitan Jewish population since the election of the notorious antisemite Karl Lueger in Vienna,” Rabbi Marc Schneier, one of the most prominent Jewish leaders in New York City, said in a statement. “Jewish leaders must come together as a united force to prevent a mass Jewish Exodus from New York City.”
Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, who along with her husband Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt co-founded the Altneu, an Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, suggested that Mamdani’s political ascendance indicates that antisemitism might actually be a political “asset” these days.
“Perhaps soft antisemitism is not a liability for a NYC politician. It’s an asset,” Chizhik-Goldschmidt wrote. “Perhaps New York City is not the city we thought it was.”
Former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who later founded the organization Americans Against Antisemitism, similarly repudiated Mamdani and encouraged New Yorkers to consolidate behind a single candidate to oppose the presumptive Democratic nominee in the general election in November.
“Mamdani has won the Democratic primary,” he said in a video posted to social media. “It is pathetic, it is sick, it is painful for people who care about the future of New York and in particular the Jewish community.”
Hikind added in a written post accompanying the video: “NYC must unite to defeat the dangerous antisemite Mamdani.”
A little-known politician before this year’s primary campaign, Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination.
Mamdani has also repeatedly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, falsely suggesting the country does not offer “equal rights” for all its citizens, and promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York.
Most recently, Mamdani defended the phrase “globalize the intifada”— which references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels and has been widely interpreted as a call to expand political violence — by invoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II. In response, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum repudiated the mayoral candidate, calling his comments “outrageous and especially offensive to [Holocaust] survivors.”
The same week, an old X/Twitter post from 2015 by Mamdani resurfaced online showing him appearing to threaten that a “third intifada” was coming.
New York City, which is home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, has experienced a major spike in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, with police data showing Jews were targeted in the majority of hate crimes perpetrated in New York City last year.
Concern among Jewish leaders over Mamdani’s victory amid rising antisemitism extended well beyond New York.
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, warned that Mamdani’s victory represents a well-known pattern that starts with hatred of Israel and ends with violence targeting Jews.
“Zohran Mamdani’s win in #NYC feels deeply familiar to #Europe’s #Jewish community. We’ve seen where radical politics — especially cloaked in ‘justice’ rhetoric — can lead. It starts with slogans. It ends with violence,” Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow, posted on social media.
“In Europe, we’ve learned the hard way: when far-left ideologues and radical Islamists turn Israel into a symbol of absolute evil, it quickly becomes a weapon — not against a state, but against Jews. ‘Anti-Zionism’ becomes the mask. Exclusion and incitement follow,” the rabbi continued. “This isn’t about legitimate critique of Israeli policy. It’s about obsession. Israel becomes a dog whistle — a coded target on synagogues, schools, and Jews in public life.”
Europe, like New York, has experienced a surge in antisemitism since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, with antisemitic incidents often liked to animus against Israel.
“The safety of all New Yorkers — including Jewish New Yorkers — is the single greatest responsibility of the mayor of New York,” said Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.
“That safety has been deeply impacted by the rhetoric and actions of those whose opposition to Zionism has driven them to work to instill fear and intimidation in Jews who support Israel,” he added.
Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), called for Jews in New York to immigrate to Israel.
“As an American Jew and as a human, I am truly frightened that an antisemitic communist Mamdani has actually promoted murdering Jews by supporting and legitimizing the antisemitic rally cry ‘globalize the intifada,’ refuses to accept the Jewish state of Israel as a Jewish state, states he will arrest PM Netanyahu if he comes to NYC, and is friendly with Israel bashing Jew-haters – and yet has been mainstreamed in the most important Jewish city in America,” he posted. “Is it time to make aliyah to Israel.”
The post New York City Jews Sound Alarm After Anti-Israel Socialist Zohran Mamdani Wins Democratic Mayoral Primary first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Teen Threatened at Knifepoint in France Amid Surge in Antisemitic Attacks

Sign reading “+1000% of Antisemitic Acts: These Are Not Just Numbers” during a march against antisemitism, in Lyon, France, June 25, 2024. Photo: Romain Costaseca / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
A Jewish teenager was threatened at knifepoint and called a “dirty Jew” in an antisemitic attack in France — the latest in a growing wave of hate crimes targeting the country’s Jewish community.
Last week, a 15-year-old boy was violently attacked in Colomiers, southwestern France, after attending a meetup arranged with a girl over social media, French media reported.
When the boy arrived at the meeting point, two men were waiting for him at the entrance to a basement. They held him at knifepoint, humiliated him, and shared the assault on social media.
One of the attackers, armed with a knife, forced him to remove his shirt and dance, then grabbed him by the neck and forced him to kneel.
Then, the attacker reportedly told him to “beg and pray,” repeatedly calling him a “dirty Jew” because he attended a private Jewish school. He also threatened to kill him if he tried to contact the police.
The following day, the teenager found out that the assault had been filmed and circulated on social media. Using the attackers’ TikTok accounts, the victim was able to file a formal complaint.
On Friday, local police arrested one of the suspects who posted the video, according to the French broadcaster Europe 1. He was taken into custody on charges of aggravated assault motivated by religious hatred.
As of this week, the investigation is ongoing, with authorities actively searching for the remaining suspects.
The brutal assault is the latest antisemitic incident amid a troubling surge in anti-Jewish violence sweeping the country since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Antisemitism in France continued to surge to alarming levels across the country last year, with 1,570 incidents recorded, according to a report by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) – the main representative body of French Jews.
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 antisemitic acts recorded in 2022.
In late May and early June, antisemitic acts rose by more than 140 percent, far surpassing the weekly average of slightly more than 30 incidents.
The report also found that 65.2 percent of antisemitic acts last year targeted individuals, with more than 10 percent of these offenses involving physical violence.
The post Jewish Teen Threatened at Knifepoint in France Amid Surge in Antisemitic Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.