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Hulu’s ‘The Bear’ brought up ‘Jewish lightning’: What does it mean, and is it antisemitic?

There are some light spoilers for “The Bear” in this article.
(JTA) — “The Bear,” FX and Hulu’s drama series about the behind-the-scenes workings of a Chicago restaurant, has been one of TV’s most acclaimed series since debuting last year.
The first episode of its second season, which debuted June 22, brought up a controversial term that caught the attention of critics: “Jewish lightning.”
Most found the reference funny but didn’t want to touch it. A Vulture critic wrote,” I’m not even going to go into what ‘Jewish Lightning’ is.”
But what does it mean, and is it as antisemitic as it sounds?
This season focuses on the restaurant’s transition from Italian sandwich stop into a more high-end restaurant called The Bear, a transformation that requires heapings of money and effort. Protagonist Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), a decorated chef, returned to Chicago at the start of the series to run the restaurant following the death by suicide of his brother Mikey (Jewish actor Jon Bernthal, who appears on the show in flashbacks).
In the first episode of Season 2, a character falls into a hole in the wall. When the characters wonder why there’s a hole there, veteran restaurant employee Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) describes it as “the result of some failed Jewish lightning.” At one difficult point for the restaurant years earlier, Mikey, in the throes of drug addiction, had “thought that if this place were to accidentally burn down, that maybe there’d be some insurance money.”
Richie explains the term correctly — it’s used to describe arson aimed at collecting insurance money. The American Jewish Committee calls it “a derogatory phrase…rooted in Jewish stereotypes of stinginess and greed” and “an ethnic slur that should be condemned.”
It’s not clear where or when the term originated, but it dates at least as far back as the 1970s, when Earl Ganz published a short story in the Iowa Review called “Jewish Lightning.”
The “Bear” characters acknowledge that “Jewish lightning” is a problematic term.
“I think the explanation of Jewish lightning does cement it as something that we shouldn’t say,” says sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), who adds that she would like to “add it to the list” of terms not to be said in the restaurant. In an effort at “personal growth” that is one of the season’s continuing arcs, Richie had earlier vowed to no longer pejoratively use other non-politically correct words such as “gay” and “retarded.”
There’s a payoff to the arc in the season’s eighth episode, in which restaurant employee Fak (Matty Matheson) suddenly realizes ahead of an important inspection that Mikey’s arson attempt was the reason why he couldn’t figure out how to get the gas system in the restaurant to work. Fak bursts into a meeting Richie is having with staff, blurting out “Jewish lightning!”
“Let’s just take a quick break while I go address this problematic individual,” Richie tells the staff.
Carmy and his family are established as Catholic and Italian-American, although some of his relatives are played by Jewish performers, including Bernthal as his brother. Jamie Lee Curtis — whose father, mid-20th-century movie star Tony Curtis, was Jewish — plays his mother. Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Richie — who Carmy calls “cousin,” despite their lack of blood relation — had a German-born Jewish father.
Unlike the brouhaha after an episode of “And Just Like That” that included an incongruous Holocaust joke last year, the “Jewish lightning” moment hasn’t sparked a critical online reaction. That’s likely because it’s relatively clear that the show is not endorsing antisemitic sentiment but rather poking fun the type of casual bigotry that Richie seeks to grow beyond. (It helps that the arson scheme is executed by characters who are not Jewish.)
This is not the first time a prestige TV series has referenced “Jewish lightning.” In 2001, in an episode in the first season of the HBO series “Six Feet Under,” a character discusses a fire at a rival funeral home by stating “You ever heard of Jewish lightning? Oh, sorry. Did I offend you? I’m Jewish. I can say that.”
In an infamous sports radio moment in 2015, a prank caller to Mike Francesa’s show on WFAN, in talking about the New York Mets and their suffering in the fallout of the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, asked if the team’s stadium, Citi Field, “might get struck with some Jewish lightning.” Francesa noted that the caller had waited on hold for two hours.
(The term has also been used in more surprising and positive ways. A two-part superhero erotica series called “The Shocking Adventures of Jewish Lightning,” featuring a female hero of that name, was published in 2021 and 2022 by Deep Desires Press. The books are by Kitty Knish, who is also the author of a collection called “Thong of Thongs: 69 Sexy Jewish Stories.”)
The new season’s especially acclaimed sixth episode, set at an extremely tense and claustrophobic Christmas dinner among bickering relatives, has been compared by multiple people on social media to the 2020 movie “Shiva Baby,” which had a similar vibe but depicted a Jewish family at a shiva. The two works have something else in common — in both, the protagonist’s love interest is played by the Jewish actress Molly Gordon.
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The post Hulu’s ‘The Bear’ brought up ‘Jewish lightning’: What does it mean, and is it antisemitic? appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.