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As ‘The Marvelous Mrs Maisel’ ends, will its Jewish legacy be more than a punchline?
(JTA) — After five seasons, 20 Emmy awards and plenty of Jewish jokes, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” airs its final episode on Friday.
The lauded Amazon Prime show from Amy Sherman-Palladino has enveloped viewers in a shimmering, candy-colored version of New York during the late 1950s and early 1960s — a world in which “humor” has meant Jewish humor and “culture” has meant Jewish culture.
But as it comes to an end, the show’s Jewish legacy is still up for debate: Did its representation of Jews on mainstream TV make it a pioneer of the 2010s? Or did it do more harm than good in the battle for better representation, by reinforcing decades-old comedic tropes about Jews?
The comedy-drama followed the vivacious Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) on a journey from prim Upper West Side housewife — left in the lurch after her husband has an affair with his secretary — to ambitious, foul-mouthed comic fighting her way through the male-dominated standup comedy industry. Her New York Jewishness colored her jokes, her accent, her mannerisms and much of her daily life.
That’s because the whole landscape of the show was Jewish, from the well-to-do, acculturated intelligentsia (such as Midge’s parents) to the self-made garment factory owners (such as her in-laws). Even the radical Jewish comic Lenny Bruce, a countercultural icon of the midcentury, appeared as a recurring character who propels Midge’s success.
Henry Bial, a professor specializing in performance theory and Jewish popular culture at the University of Kansas, said the emergence of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” in 2017 exemplified a shift to more overt portrayals of Jews on TV — especially on streaming services. Although Jewish characters featured in TV shows throughout the 20th century, such as “The Goldbergs” in the 1950s, “Rhoda” in the 1970s and “Seinfeld” in the 1990s, their Jewishness was often more coded than explicit. Network television, seeking to attract the majority of Americans coveted by advertisers, feared alienating audiences who couldn’t “relate” to ethnic and racial minorities.
“If there are only three things you can put on television at 8 o’clock on Tuesday night, then there’s a lot more incentive for networks and advertisers to stay close to the herd, because you’re competing for the same eyeballs,” said Bial. “But when people can watch whatever they want whenever they want, then it opens up for a much wider range of stories.”
Other shows such as “Transparent,” “Broad City” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” which debuted in 2014 and 2015, are often cited alongside “Mrs. Maisel” as part of a new wave of Jewish representation.
Riv-Ellen Prell, a professor emerita of American studies at the University of Minnesota, argued that Midge subverts the stereotype of the “Jewish American princess.” At the start of the show, she appears to embrace that image: She is financially dependent on her father and husband and obsessive about her appearance, measuring her body every day to ensure that she doesn’t gain weight. Despite living with her husband for years, she always curls her hair, does her makeup and spritzes herself with perfume before he wakes up.
“She looks for all the world like the fantasy of a Jewish American princess,” said Prell. “And yet she is more ambitious than imaginable, she is a brilliant comic who draws on her own life. You have Amy Sherman-Palladino inventing the anti-Jewish princess.”
Bial said that Midge’s relationship with her Jewishness defies another stereotype: That identity is not a source of neurosis or self-loathing, as it often appears to be in the male archetypes of Woody Allen and Larry David, or in Rachel Bloom’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” Through the spirited banter, the pointed exclamations of “oy,” the titillation over a rabbi coming for Yom Kippur break fast — Midge’s Jewishness is a source of comforting ritual, joy and celebration.
“She has anxieties and issues, but none of them are because she’s Jewish,” said Bial.
Some critics argue the show’s depiction of Jewish culture relies on shallow tropes. In a 2019 review, TV critic Paul Brownfield said “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” repurposed stereotypes to appear “retro chic.” He pointed to a consistent contrast between the Weissmans (the assimilated, cultured Jews of the Upper West Side) and the Maisels (the boorish, money-focused Jews of the Garment District), arguing that these superficial types replace an exploration of what the period was actually like for American Jews.
“However ‘Jewish’ Sherman-Palladino wants the show to be, ‘Maisel’ fails to grapple with the realities of the moment in Jewish American history it portrays,” Brownfield wrote. “Which is ultimately what leaves me queasy about its tone — the shtick, the stereotypes, the comforting self-parody.”
Meanwhile, Andy Samberg took a jab while co-hosting the 2019 Golden Globes with Sandra Oh. “It’s the show that makes audiences sit up and say, ‘Wait, is this antisemitic?’” he joked.
Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle, shown in a synagogue scene, are two of the show’s non-Jewish actors. (Nicole Rivelli/Amazon Studios)
Others have criticized the show’s casting: Its titular heroine, her parents Abe and Rose Weissman (Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle) and Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby) are all played by non-Jews. A debate over the casting of non-Jewish actors in Jewish roles has heated up in recent years, taking aim not only at Brosnahan as Midge Maisel, but also at Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsberg in “On The Basis of Sex,” Helen Mirren as Golda Meir in “Golda” and Gaby Hoffmann and Jay Duplass as the Pfefferman siblings in “Transparent.” Comedian Sarah Silverman popularized the term “Jewface” to critique the trend.
“Watching a gentile actor portraying, like, a Jew-y Jew is just — agh — feels, like, embarrassing and cringey,” Silverman said on her podcast in 2021.
Midge’s rise as a comedian is interlocked with her ally and one-time fling, the fictionalized Lenny Bruce. His character has a softened glow in the show, but in reality, Bruce was branded a “sick comic” for his scathing satire that railed against conservatism, racism and moral hypocrisy. Between 1961 and 1964, he was charged with violating obscenity laws in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, and he was deported from England. At his Los Angeles trial in 1963, Bruce was accused of using the Yiddish word “shmuck,” taken as an obscenity to mean “penis.” He incorporated the charge into his standup, explaining that the colloquial Jewish meaning of “schmuck” was “fool.”
Driven to pennilessness by relentless prosecution, police harassment and blacklisting from most clubs across the country, he died of a morphine overdose in 1966 at 40 years old. The real Lenny Bruce’s tragedy lends a shadow to the fictional Midge Maisel’s triumphs.
The United States that he struggled with until his death also looks comparatively rosy through the lens of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” whose protagonist battles misogyny but takes little interest in other societal evils — including still-rampant antisemitism. Some critics have noted that she is oblivious to segregated facilities when she tours with Black singer Shy Baldwin, then nearly outs him as gay during her set.
“‘Mrs. Maisel’ takes place in a supersaturated fantasy 1958 New York, one where antisemitism, racism, homophobia and even sexism are barely a whisper,” Rokhl Kafrissen wrote in 2018.
Reflecting on the criticism that had piled up by 2020, Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino, also an executive producer and a lead writer for the show, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that trying to appease every Jewish viewer was a futile exercise.
“We knew that if we show a Jewish family at temple — if we show them and talk about Yom Kippur and all those kinds of things — there are going to be people who are going to nitpick at specifics that maybe we didn’t get exactly right,” said Palladino, who is not Jewish. “But a lot of the feedback that we’ve gotten has been ‘Thank you. Thank you for leaning into it and showing Jews being Jewish, as opposed to just name checking them as Jewish.’”
Sherman-Palladino added: “[T]here are many different kinds of Jews! To say, ‘oh, Jewish stereotypes,’ well, what are you talking about? Because we have an educated Jew, we have a woman who was happy to be a mother, we have another woman striking out as a stand up comic, and, you know, Susie Myerson’s [Alex Borstein’s character] a Jew! We’ve got a broad range of Jews in there.”
However “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is assessed in the future, it will remain significant for thrusting a new kind of Jewish heroine into the mainstream consciousness, said Bial.
“Because of its popularity, its longevity and frankly its quality, it’s going to be the example,” Bial said. “In the history of Jews and TV, this is going to be the chapter for the late 2010s and early 2020s — you have to mention ‘Mrs. Maisel.’ It is very clearly a landmark in Jewish representation, particularly for Jewish women.”
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The post As ‘The Marvelous Mrs Maisel’ ends, will its Jewish legacy be more than a punchline? appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Parshat Lech Lecha: The Answer to Our Happiness Truly Lies Inside Each of Us
A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.
According to Aristotle, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” But who nowadays has the time for that? Introspection is so sedentary — and, frankly, boring. We live in an age of velocity, not reflection.
Yet it’s precisely this lack of self-reflection — and our tendency to substitute reinvention and external change for true self-discovery — that lies at the heart of our modern dissatisfaction. After all, it’s much more fun to scroll through video shorts than to wonder why you want to waste time scrolling in the first place.
Everyone is on the go: new careers, new locations, new experiences, new “life phases.” If you’re not pivoting, you’re stagnating.
People relocate for “personal growth,” and totally rebrand themselves on LinkedIn, while announcing on Instagram that they’re “leaning into new energy.” Others treat life like a scavenger hunt for fulfillment that never quite fulfills — hopping from city to city, relationship to relationship, hoping that meaning will finally show up.
But it never does. Meanwhile, the self we’re trying so hard to discover is right there, ready to be discovered, if only we’d do what it takes. You can change time zones, climates, and cuisines — but if you haven’t yet met yourself, none of it matters.
Everyone remembers George Foreman, the former heavyweight champion who died earlier this year. What fewer people know is that in the 1970s, he was all about grit and intimidation — not just a master of power punches, but a man whose piercing glare conveyed raw menace.
His persona was built on one unshakable belief: that strength meant never showing softness. Then, in 1977, after a brutal fight with Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico, Foreman collapsed in the locker room and had what he would later describe as a near-death experience that included an encounter with God.
When he recovered, Foreman didn’t talk about revenge nor did he re-embrace his brutish behavior. Instead, he said quietly, “I have to change. I have to be kinder.”
Within days, Foreman retired from boxing. He was just 28 years old, still in his prime. Though he had never been religious, he became an ordained minister, preached on street corners, opened a youth center, fed the hungry, and spent years becoming someone gentler than the angry young fighter he had once been.
And then came the twist: ten years later, he returned to boxing, softer, calmer, smiling — instead of scowling and glowering as he had in his younger years. Remarkably, that new, real version of George Foreman, the one who had finally met himself, became world champion again.
The greatest journey of all is the voyage of self-discovery, and ironically, it’s the one trip almost nobody books. In the rush for ambition and adrenaline, people often swap their real selves for a curated version meant for public display.
At first, it’s like wearing a costume, but soon enough, that costume is a cage. Before long, your true self is concealed, masked by something polished on the outside yet painfully misaligned on the inside. What begins as ambition ends in dissonance and quiet self-destruction.
Which is why the divine instruction that opens Parshat Lech Lecha is so remarkable (Gen. 12:1): לֶךְ־לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ — “Go forth from your land, your birthplace, your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.”
It sounds like an invitation to travel, and it was. Avraham traveled from Ur Kasdim to Charan, from Charan into Canaan, down to Egypt during the famine, and then back to Canaan again. He crossed deserts, borders, cultures, and civilizations. It was no mere symbolic stroll.
But that opening phrase, Lech Lecha, usually translated as “go forth,” is actually quite clumsy — because it doesn’t really mean “go forth.” More accurately, it means “go to yourself,” or “go for yourself.”
And that is the revolutionary point. Yes, Avraham traveled — but God was telling him that the journey that mattered most wasn’t geographical. It was existential. Lech lecha — “Go to yourself.” Wherever you go, don’t lose sight of the true destination: you. Every step on the road was really a step inward.
Modern science backs up this ancient truth. Psychologists refer to it as the “geographic cure” — the mistaken belief that a new city, a new house, or a new job will magically solve life’s frustrations.
Countless studies show that while moving might deliver a short-term jolt of excitement, the feeling rarely lasts. If you were restless in one place, you’ll likely be restless in the next place as well — only now with the additional stress of having to adapt to a new environment.
The pattern is clear: changing your surroundings won’t change your soul. And perhaps that’s why, when God told Avraham to Lech lecha, He wasn’t sending him somewhere new to find something there that he didn’t already have. Instead, God gave him fair warning that whatever he was looking for, he already had — and that it was this that he needed to focus on.
The great Chasidic master, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, told one of the most disarmingly simple and profound stories about self-discovery ever recorded.
There was once a poor tailor living in a little village in Ukraine who kept having the same dream night after night: a dazzling treasure lay buried beneath a famous bridge in Vienna.
After weeks of this nightly vision, he could no longer ignore it. So he packed a few belongings and some food, kissed his family goodbye, and set off across Europe to claim his fortune.
When he finally arrived in Vienna, he found the bridge exactly as it had appeared in his dreams. But there was only one problem: it was crawling with imperial guards, and digging for treasure was impossible.
The poor tailor loitered nearby, day after day, trying to look casual and waiting for a time when he might be able to dig. Eventually, a guard approached him. “What are you doing here?” he demanded.
Cornered, the tailor told the truth. “I had a dream,” he confessed, “that if I came to this bridge, I would find a valuable treasure hidden beneath it.”
The guard’s eyes widened in surprise, and then he burst out laughing. “A dream? You crossed half the world because of a silly dream? Last week, I dreamt that in some shabby little village in Ukraine, under the stove of a poor tailor’s house, there’s a chest filled with gold. Do you see me running off to chase it?”
The tailor froze. That shabby little village was his village. And that poor tailor was him. The bridge was never the point. He thanked the guard politely, hurried home, dug beneath his own floor, and found the treasure that had been waiting for him all along.
That is the exact message of Lech Lecha. Avraham traveled, yes. But the Torah isn’t really interested in his meanderings. Rather, it wants to teach us that the longest distance he traveled was inward.
Wherever he went, he never lost sight of who he was and who he was meant to be. His journey, like the tailor’s, shows us the importance of turning inward rather than outward for fulfillment.
We often think that fulfillment is just over the horizon. But geography only changes your view, not your soul. If reinvention is what you need, it can only start from within. Lech lecha — go to yourself. That’s where the real treasure is — and where it has always been.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
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Here Is Concrete Proof the Palestinian Authority Is Continuing ‘Pay-for-Slay’ to Terrorists
European foreign ministers talk over lunch at the offices of the honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Geneva, Switzerland June 20, 2025, before meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via REUTERS
Despite the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s ongoing claims that it has stopped rewarding imprisoned terrorists and the families of “Martyrs,” Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) can report that on Saturday, Oct. 25, at 10:00 AM, the PA post offices paid terrorists’ salaries and stipends to families of terrorist “Martyrs.”
Because the PA has told the donor countries that it stopped the Pay-for-Slay program, the PA made no official announcements and it delayed the payments so that everyone, even the terrorists’ families, would think that the program had ended.
On Saturday, however, the PA did pay the salaries.
This was one of the conversations between “Pay-for-Slay” recipients on social media following the payment:
Good evening, everyone, for those whose salaries are above 5,000 [shekels], how much did they send you today as a percentage of the payment?
[Answer 1]: “3,000.”
[Answer 2]: “50% of the salaries and [those making less than 2,000 received] the full amount. FYI, the salary is for June.”
The 50% payment is the same percentage the PA had paid all its employees earlier this month. Due to its financial crisis, since 2019, the PA has not paid full salaries to its employees.
This payment did not come as quickly or as easily for the terrorists’ families as it usually does. The long delay in paying the salaries likely occurred because many donor countries are waiting every month to see if the PA would stick to its promises and would stop rewarding terror.
Here is the timeline for a rollercoaster two weeks in the PA areas:
Sun Oct. 12
PA pays salaries to its employees. As stated, due to the financial crisis, the PA paid only 50% of the employees’ salaries, with a minimum of 2,000 shekels. The salaries are for July — two months late.
Mon Oct. 13
Families of “Martyrs” and terrorist prisoners expect and are waiting for salaries, which are usually paid in the post offices the following day, but there is no announcement.
Tues-Wed Oct. 14 -15
Families of terrorists start criticizing the PA.
Thurs Oct. 16
Families of “Martyrs” in Jordan and Syria receive their monthly payments.
The PA is silent about payments to terrorists’ families in the PA areas.
Mon Oct. 20
Small demonstrations are held against the PA in Ramallah by families of terrorists. One threatens violence: “Either we live with honor, or we die with honor.”
Tues Oct. 21
Demonstrations are held in all major cities against the PA.
Wed Oct. 22
Families of “Martyrs” in Lebanon receive their monthly payments.
The PA’s silence through official sources creates the impression that it stopped “Pay-for-Slay” and many Palestinians assume the program has ceased. One demands payment: “It’s either us or us” — meaning the PA has no choice but to pay them.
Thurs Oct. 23
Post office workers tell people unofficially that salaries will be paid on Saturday: “Salaries will be paid but there will be no official announcement.” Even though post offices are usually closed on Saturday, the PA will send special staff.
Fri October 24
11:23 AM: An announcement is issued quoting a private message by a Commission of Prisoners official, who would not make a public announcement himself: “Good morning. Tomorrow, Saturday, the prisoners’ salaries will be paid at the post office after 10:00 AM. Employees of the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority will also be on duty to facilitate the distribution of salaries. Have a blessed Friday.”
2:35 PM: A second report quoting an official in the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club is issued: “Salaries of families of Martyrs, injured, and prisoners will be paid tomorrow Saturday in the post offices.”
Sat Oct. 25
8:12 AM: First reports that salaries are paid. “The salaries of the prisoners, the wounded, and the Martyrs have arrived at the post office” [Qabatiya Around the Clock, Telegram channel, Oct. 25, 2025].
During the day, all salaries are paid as usual in all the post offices. Families report that they were paid 50% of full salary, just like the employees.
PMW comment
The remaining 50% is not canceled but is owed. The PA has pledged that when it has enough money, it will pay back all employees and terrorist prisoners. The monthly PA pay slips include a column showing the amount owed to the employee.
The Palestinian Authority could not publicly announce that it was paying the salaries, since it had already deceived donor countries by claiming on September 1, 2025, that the program had officially ended.
On September 25, 2025, the French Foreign Ministry announced that it believed the PA’s claim: “We welcome the reforms already underway by the PA, including: The abrogation of the prisoners’ payment system, that is now effective.” [emphasis added]
The PA’s silence may also have been an attempt to trigger anti-PA demonstrations so they could claim to the donors that they stopped the program.
The EU, on June 23, 2025, pledged €150 million to the PA to help it pay salaries.
€150 million have been allocated to support the Palestinian Authority in ensuring the delivery of key public services, including the payment of salaries of teachers, civil servants, and healthcare workers. The financial support is linked to the implementation of the reform agenda.
[EU Commission for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf]
Given the fungible nature of funding to the PA, when that pledge is paid by the EU, the PA will simply use it to pay the EU-acceptable salaries and will then have enough non-EU money left to pay terrorists their backpay.
If the EU wants to stop being a terror facilitator, Palestinian Media Watch urges the EU to suspend the transfer of all payments until the PA stops funding terror.
The PA pays terrorists more than $30 million/month based on its last published budget, which was before the Gaza War. Since then, the number of terrorist prisoners has more than doubled from 4,500 to 9,100, and there are thousands of new families of terrorist “Martyrs.”
The PA is waiting anxiously for that European money to cover its EU-acceptable expenses, so it has enough money to pay these terror rewards as soon as possible. The EU, which has staked its diplomatic reputation on the PA’s fraudulent claims of ending Pay-for-Slay, must now stand firm as long as the PA continues rewarding terrorists.
The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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Britain Fails to Protect All Its Citizens from Iranian Threats
Demonstrators attend the “Lift the Ban” rally organized by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, Sept. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
The former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, had explicitly named Iranian agents in the UK as a threat against Britain’s Jewish community. His warning was issued well before the recent attack on the Manchester synagogue that left two people dead.
“There is a threat, there is a problem, whether it’s the inspiration of radicals who are going to attack the Jewish community, or whether it’s organizing demonstrations which intimidate the Jewish community and encouraging those,” Sir Dearlove told The Jewish Chronicle.
Yet despite Iran’s extensive network and footprint in the UK and the “significant threat” it poses to the United Kingdom, none of the numerous outlets and individuals propagating Iran’s influence in Britain have registered under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) — clearly breaking the law and getting away with it.
When the UK’s Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) received Royal Assent in July 2023, it was heralded as a landmark moment in Britain’s national security framework. Ministers and security officials described it as a “game changer” — a vital new tool to expose covert lobbying, counter foreign interference, and to protect British democracy. Then–Security Minister Tom Tugendhat confidently promised in a video on his YouTube channel that the measures would be used “immediately.”
Fast forward more than two years, and that “game changer” has so far turned out to be little more than a public relations exercise.
A three-month grace period was introduced in July 2025 to allow individuals and organizations to comply. Iran and Russia were placed under the enhanced tier, with officials warning that anyone acting on their behalf in the UK without registering could face up to five years in prison.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis boldly declared: “The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme sends a clear message: the UK will not tolerate covert foreign influence in our democracy. Those who fail to register risk up to five years in prison.”
Despite these strong words, for more than two years after the law was passed, no one knew how or where to register. There was no visible register, no clear process, and no enforcement. Repeated questions to the Home Secretary and Home Office went unanswered.
Only this month did the government finally publish a working link to the register: Foreign Influence Registration Scheme
And what does it reveal?
Just four registrations. Not from Iran, Russia, or China — the so-called “hostile states” — but from Congo and Bosnia!
It’s an outcome that makes a mockery of the government’s promises and exposes how disconnected Westminster’s security postures are from practical enforcement.
This comes despite repeated warnings from intelligence professionals. In 2013, the influential think tank Policy Exchange published an 87-page report, Tehran Calling, outlining Iran’s deep network of cultural, media, and charitable outlets in the UK.
More recently, in July 2025, the UK’s Intelligence and Security Committee released a 260-page report describing Iran as a “significant threat” to the UK, identifying journalists and regime critics in Britain as key targets of Iranian intelligence operations.
If the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) and the National Security Act were meant to mark a decisive leap forward in defending Britain from such threats, they have instead highlighted just how toothless and symbolic UK legislation has become.
Two years on, FIRS has had virtually zero impact — turning what was supposed to be a robust national security reform into a bureaucratic embarrassment.
The scheme’s purpose was sound: inspired by America’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), it aimed to make foreign influence transparent. But poor delivery, lack of enforcement, and political complacency have left it hollow. Critics who warned it would be “symbolic rather than substantive” have been proven right.
Meanwhile, covert influence operations, cyber campaigns, and recruitment of British youth for propaganda or criminal acts continue unimpeded.
Iran has continued to organize its annual Al-Quds Day rallies openly carrying posters of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and the police officers tasked with policing the rallies having no idea about what FIRS is!
Since the start of 2022, according to Sir Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, the UK has responded to 20 Iran-backed plots, presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents.
In May of this year, the Israeli embassy in London was the target of an alleged terror plot involving a group of Iranian nationals who were detained by police after a series of raids across England. It is thought it was the Israeli intelligence who tipped off their British counterparts.
With only four entries to show for all the hype, the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme has not just failed to deliver — it has undermined faith in the UK’s ability to take its own national security seriously.
Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) Senior Fellow Potkin Azarmehr is a London-based investigative journalist, business intelligence analyst, and TV documentary maker who was born in Iran. He regularly contributes to several newspapers and television stations on Iran and Middle East related news. You can follow him on Twitter @potkazar. A version of this article was originally published by IPT.