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Jonathan Safran Foer’s online flirtation with Natalie Portman inspires a new play
(New York Jewish Week) — When Jewish literary power couple Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss divorced in 2014 — amid rumors that he was in love with his longtime friend Natalie Portman — it captivated the nation.
Well, maybe not the nation, but certainly the literary and media worlds, as well as the hipster set in brownstone Brooklyn. Safran Foer and Krauss were rare literary megastars, whose “extremely loud and incredibly expensive” Park Slope brownstone was the subject of numerous articles (and a hefty dose of envy) when it hit the market for $14.5 million in 2013.
Portman, of course, was an actual megastar, and when the confessional correspondence between the celebrated actress and the “Everything Is Illuminated” writer was later published in 2016 in the New York Times, it elicited a fresh round of jealousy, speculation and eye-rolls from the masses, as well as numerous journalistic “takes” on the topic.
I was a teenager at the time, and had only a vague idea of why any of this mattered. But apparently it stayed with me for nearly a decade, because when I saw “The Wanderers,” a new Off-Broadway play running at the Roundabout Theatre Company, it didn’t take long for me to make the connection between this fictional production and the very real but mysterious drama that occurred between these famous Jewish writers.
“The Wanderers,” directed by Barry Edelstein, follows two couples in two different timelines. In the present day are Abe and Sophie, secular Jews and writers who live in Brooklyn and have been together since they were teenagers. The other storyline, set in the 1970s, centers around Esther and Schmuli, a Hasidic couple living in Satmar Williamsburg. The latter are introduced to the audience on the eve of their wedding, one of the first times they’ve ever been alone together.
Throughout the play, the couples, seemingly from different worlds, try to balance their careers, personal lives, internal desires and family obligations.
Abe (Eddie Kaye Thomas) is a writer who boasts a Pulitzer Prize and several other literary awards. But he struggles with certain aspects of his life — his frayed relationships, mostly — and is hamstrung by an immense ego that is tempered only by a hefty dose of insecurity. As I watched the play, I began to feel like I knew the man, but I couldn’t quite place him. Was he just a stand-in for every genuinely talented, semi-pretentious, self-important male writer living in Brooklyn?
Abe eventually finds an outlet for his woes by striking up an email correspondence with fictional Hollywood actress Julia Cheever (Katie Holmes, the real Hollywood actress), whom he met when she came to a reading of one of his novels. Eventually, he declares his love for her — a pronouncement that essentially goes ignored by the actress. (In the play, Holmes sports a chic brunette bob not unlike a Jewish actress near and dear to our hearts.)
It became pretty clear who served as the inspiration for this play — and when I asked playwright Anna Ziegler about it, she said I was one of the few she had spoken with who had made the connection.
“In the summer of 2016, when I was writing, Natalie Portman and Jonathan Safran Foer were writing to each other in a correspondence they published in the New York Times,” she said. “She was promoting a new movie of hers, and I guess they had a previous relationship — that sparked the idea for one of the storylines in the play.”
What’s funny, Ziegler said, was that most audience members haven’t made the connection. “We haven’t really been talking about [Safran Foer and Portman] as one of the inspirations, and not many people have raised it,” she said. “I assumed that that resonance would be there for a certain percentage of the audience but, to be honest, I don’t think it’s there for the vast majority of people.”
At one point in the play, after learning his father died, Abe even says the line “Hineni, here I am,” to ground himself and calm his emotions. It’s a phrase in the Torah that usually translates to “I am ready,” which Abraham says to God before being asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac, as well as a prayer of humility chanted on Rosh Hashanah. But it’s also, possibly, a nod to Safran Foer’s 2016 novel “Here I Am.”
Neither Krauss nor Safran Foer responded to requests for comment on the play. “For people in my generation and younger, the recognition might be there, but it was also so many years ago now,” said Zielger, 44. “So I guess the only people who remember it are the people on whom it made an impact.”
Which is fine — “The Wanderers” stands on its own even if you don’t know the backstory. Plus, the themes of the play stretch far beyond infidelity: It also explores loneliness, free will and inherited family trauma.
Originally, Ziegler set out to write something about arranged marriages, specifically within the Jewish community. “I had always been kind of fascinated and beguiled by the idea of arranged marriage — thinking about what it would be like spending that first night together, that notion always kind of haunted me,” she said.
“I had these two different plays [one about Portman and Safran Foer and the other about arranged marriages], and they seemed thematically related,” she added. “At some point, I concluded that they really were two strands at the same play and so I started weaving them together.”
Ziegler chose to write about the Hasidic Jewish community in particular because she was “somewhat familiar with that culture and community,” she told me.
Still, as a secular Jew, it’s a topic she approached delicately. She hired a cultural consultant and an accent coach for the actors who were both from the community. Ziegler herself, who lives in Brooklyn, spent time in Williamsburg, and read memoirs and watched documentaries.
In the play, the Hasidic wife Esther (Lucy Freyer) struggles to be seen by her community and to feel in control of her life. She doesn’t know where to turn and wonders if she’s fulfilled her potential — as a parent, wife, human and Jew. “One of the great joys of being an actor is being able to learn and dive head first into a community that you ordinarily wouldn’t get to know,” Freyer said.
As the story unfolds, it’s revealed that Esther left the community with her infant son, who grows up to be the renowned Jewish author Abe, who marries his childhood friend Sophie (Sarah Cooper, the comic and actress who broke big with videos mocking Donald Trump). The younger couple is almost entirely secular, yet they grapple with the same search for meaning and belonging, the same doubt as to whether they’ve chosen the right path for themselves — or if it had been chosen for them.
“All five characters, not just Schmuli and Esther, are trying to figure out how can you be happy with what you have, with where you stand in your own skin,” said Dave Klasko, who plays Schmuli.
“We say in the play the Hebrew phrase, ‘Ein ba’al hanes makir b’niso,’ which [Ziegler] poetically translates to ‘We are never aware of the miracles, especially when we are inside them,’” Klasko added. “How can I, in my own life, realize the miracle that I’m living in before I’m on the other side of it?”
For Ziegler, these are very Jewish questions — and the questions of the “Xillennial” generation. “We’re left [with] the complex heritage of feeling chosen, but also self-hating,” said Ziegler, whose previous plays include “Photograph 51,” about Rosalind Franklin, the Jewish X-ray crystallographer who helped Watson and Crick crack the DNA model. “I think this is the most Jewish of my plays, and it’s funny because I’m not that religious, but I have found in my career that there seems to be a hunger for plays about Judaism.”
“At some point in my career, I began to be thought of as a ‘Jewish writer’ — for better or for worse,” she added.
Safran Foer, 46, and Krauss, 48, have also wrestled with the “Jewish writer” term, as well as the play’s big questions of identity, self-doubt and complicated family relationships. In fact, as Ziegler and the actors point out, issues of the play are universal, and have nothing to do with how famous you are, how expensive your home may be, or how strictly you adhere to religious law. The celebrity allusion — plus the chance to see an actual celebrity, Holmes — may be a reason to buy a ticket to see “The Wanderers,” but the timeless message is what will keep you in your seat.
“The Wanderers” is playing at the Roundabout Theatre Company (111 West 46th Street) through April 2. Find tickets and more information here.
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Israel Defends Move to Restrict NGOs in Gaza Amid Concerns of Hamas Exploitation
A Palestinian carries aid supplies that entered Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Amid international criticism over its latest humanitarian oversight measures in Gaza, the Israeli government is moving forward with its policy requiring NGOs to maintain proper registration in order to operate in the enclave, aiming to ensure aid reaches civilians safely while preventing its exploitation for terrorist purposes.
According to a statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, 37 international non-governmental organizations that failed to renew their registration will no longer be allowed to operate in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank starting Jan. 1.
After being notified of the registration requirement in March and given nearly 10 months to comply, the organizations that failed to meet the deadline were informed that their authorization would end on Thursday, with an orderly withdrawal required by March 1, 2026.
While international media has repeatedly accused Israel of unfairly and illegally targeting humanitarian NGOs, Israeli officials have long argued that many of these groups have been infiltrated and manipulated by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades.
The Israeli government is now moving forward with its latest initiative, defending the policy as officials work to reform a system that has long been exploited for terrorist purposes.
“A hostage was raped by her doctor. Another hostage, Noa Marciano, was murdered by a doctor who injected air into her veins. Both in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza where International NGOs were operating at the time,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote in a post on X, referring to two of the Israelis who were kidnapped by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists during their Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
“The idea that Israel will not do due diligence on employees of International NGOs is simply unacceptable. Get your act together, submit the application, provide requisite information and do the work you aspire to do,” the statement read.
A hostage was raped by her doctor. Another hostage, Noa Marciano, was murdered by a doctor who injected air into her veins. Both in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza where International NGOs were operating at the time.
The idea that Israel will not do due diligence on employees of… pic.twitter.com/LkNIeQcfnK
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) December 31, 2025
According to the Israeli body responsible for coordinating aid deliveries to Gaza, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the suspended organizations provide less than 1 percent of total aid, which will continue through NGOs holding valid permits.
“The message is clear: Humanitarian assistance is welcome – the exploitation of humanitarian frameworks for terrorist purposes is unacceptable,” Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli said in a statement. “Israel will continue to protect its sovereignty, its citizens, and the integrity of humanitarian action.”
Among the international organizations reportedly banned are multiple branches of Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam, the Danish and Norwegian Refugee Councils, Caritas Internationalis, the Quaker-founded American Friends Service Committee, and the International Rescue Committee.
As a safety measure to block NGO workers with ties to terror groups, the government’s new rules require nonprofit organizations to submit detailed records of their operations, including the names of all foreign and Palestinian employees and their passport and personal identification numbers.
The resolution also establishes an inter-ministerial team to review NGO applications and deny registration for various reasons, including denying Israel’s right to exist, promoting delegitimization campaigns, calling for boycotts against the Jewish state, or engaging in other disqualifying activities.
NGOs must be transparent about their personnel and funding sources.
23 international NGOs – including organizations from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France – have been approved and are operating in the Gaza Strip.
Humanitarian assistance to Gaza continues… pic.twitter.com/o0psjCNOVD
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) December 31, 2025
Amid a fierce international campaign against the Israeli government’s latest initiative, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland issued a joint statement earlier this week warning of a “catastrophic” situation if nonprofits are not allowed to operate in Gaza in a “sustained and predictable” manner.
“As Dec. 31 approaches, many established international NGO partners are at risk of being deregistered because of the government of Israel’s restrictive new requirements,” the statement read.
“As winter draws in, civilians in Gaza are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping,” it continued.
As world powers outline multi-billion-dollar plans to rebuild Gaza after the war, recently obtained documents reveal that Hamas has long run a coordinated effort to penetrate and influence NGOs in the war-torn enclave — contradicting years of denials from major humanitarian organizations.
Last month, NGO Monitor — an independent Jerusalem-based research institute that tracks anti-Israel bias among nongovernmental organizations — released a new study revealing how Hamas has for years systematically weaponized humanitarian aid in Gaza, tightening its grip over foreign NGOs operating in the territory and exposing patterns of complicity and collaboration that contradict the groups’ persistent denials.
According to dozens of internal Hamas documents, the Islamist group’s officials designated specific points of contact with “highly respected” international NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Referred to as “guarantors,” these Hamas-approved senior officials at each NGO allowed the terrorist group to closely oversee activities, influence decision-making, and circumvent restrictions imposed by some Western governments on direct engagement with Hamas.
With NGOs in Gaza — both local and international — required to secure Hamas’s approval to provide services and run projects, the report shows the group wields veto power over humanitarian operations, allowing it to control, manipulate, and exploit aid to advance its political and military objectives.
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Mamdani Sworn In as Mayor of New York, City’s Jews Prepare for Uncertain Future
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers a speech during his inauguration ceremony in New York City, US, Jan. 1, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
Zohran Mamdani was sworn in just after midnight on New Year’s Day as the next mayor of New York City, ushering in a new era of anti-Zionist leadership in a city home to the world’s largest Jewish community outside of Israel.
Mamdani, 34, took the oath of office early Thursday morning in a private ceremony at the decommissioned Old City Hall subway station, a location selected to highlight his focus on public transit and working-class New Yorkers. New York Attorney General Letitia James administered the oath shortly after midnight, formally ushering in the tenure of Mamdani.
Placing his hand on a Qur’an, Mamdani became the first Muslim mayor in New York City history, as well as the first mayor of South Asian descent and one of the youngest ever to hold the office. Supporters hailed the moment as a watershed moment for the city’s Muslim community, while some Jewish organizations emphasized the need for the new administration to demonstrate a clear commitment to combating antisemitism at a time of heightened concern.
In brief remarks after taking office, Mamdani said his administration would focus on affordability, unity, and delivering for everyday New Yorkers, signaling continuity with the populist economic themes that defined his campaign.
Zohran Mamdani is sworn in as mayor of New York City at Old City Hall Station, New York, US, Jan. 1, 2026. Photo: Amir Hamja/Pool via REUTERS
A larger public swearing-in ceremony took place on Thursday afternoon on the steps of City Hall, with appearances by fellow democratic socialists US Sen. Bernie Sanders, who presided over the ceremony, and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. During his remarks, Mamdani, a Democrat, doubled down on his progressive agenda, vowing to pursue a range of lofty campaign promises and govern “expansively and audaciously.”
Mamdani’s rise has been closely followed within Jewish and pro-Israel circles, particularly given his fierce criticism of Israel and association with fringe anti-Zionist figures and movements. Jewish communal leaders, wary of the new mayor, have stressed they will judge him by his actions in office, including how he addresses antisemitic incidents, protects Jewish institutions, and engages with the city’s Jewish residents.
Mamdani, a far-left democratic socialist and avowed anti-Zionist, is an avid supporter of boycotting all Israeli-tied entities who has made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career and been widely accused of promoting antisemitic rhetoric. He has repeatedly accused Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide”; refused to recognize the country’s right to exist as a Jewish state; and refused to explicitly condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been associated with calls for violence against Jews and Israelis worldwide.
Mamdani will assume the mayorship amid an alarming surge in antisemitic hate crimes across New York City.
Jews were targeted in the majority (54 percent) of all hate crimes perpetrated in New York City in 2024, according to data issued by the New York City Police Department (NYPD). A new report released on Wednesday by the New York City Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, which was established in May, noted that figure rose to a staggering 62 percent in the first quarter of this year, despite Jewish New Yorkers comprising just 11 percent of the city’s population.
Since securing the election, Mamdani has stressed a commitment to forcefully combatting antisemitism while in office. However, a recent report released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) revealed that at least 20 percent of Mamdani’s transition and administrative appointees have either a “documented history of making anti-Israel statements” or ties to radical anti-Zionist organizations that “openly promote terror and harass Jewish people.”
Among these groups are Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and Within Our Lifetime (WOL), all of which routinely glorify the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, harass Jewish students on campus, and stage protests outside synagogues.
According to the ADL, Mamdani’s appointees include individuals who have promoted classic antisemitic tropes, vilified supporters of Jewish self-determination, sought to undermine the legitimacy of Israel, expressed sympathy for Hamas, and celebrated the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre carried out by the Iran-backed terrorist group. Several appointees were also flagged for alleged connections to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has compared Jews to termites, described Judaism as a “dirty religion,” called the Jewish people “Satan,” publicly questioned the Holocaust, shared anti-Israel conspiracy theories, and blamed Jews for pedophilia and sex trafficking. Others, according to ADL, dismissed reports of Hamas atrocities as “propaganda” or publicly justified the Oct. 7 atrocities as a form of justified “resistance.”
Leading members of the Jewish community in New York have expressed alarm about Mamdani’s victory, fearing what may come in a city already experiencing a surge in antisemitic hate crimes.
A Sienna Research Institute poll released in early November revealed that a whopping 72 percent of Jewish New Yorkers believe that Mamdani will be “bad” for the city. A mere 18 percent hold a favorable view of Mamdani, according to the results, while 67 percent view him unfavorably.
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Yemen’s Aden Airport Shuts as Saudi-UAE Rift Deepens
Passengers wait for their flights at Aden Airport in Aden, Yemen, Jan. 1, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Fawaz Salman
Flights at Yemen’s Aden international airport were halted on Thursday, the latest sign of a deepening crisis between Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, whose rivalry is reshaping war-torn Yemen.
At the airport — the main international gateway for parts of Yemen outside Houthi control — passengers crowded the terminal, waiting for updates on their flights.
Later on Thursday, Yemeni sources said flights between Aden and all destinations outside the UAE would resume, though Reuters was unable to confirm that immediately.
Air traffic was shut down due to a row over curbs on flights to the UAE, though there were contradictory accounts of exactly what had happened and who was responsible.
Awadh al-Subaihi said he had been waiting at the airport for a flight to Cairo for medical treatment. “We are suffering, and many other patients and elderly people here are waiting in a difficult situation,” he said.
The UAE backs the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) that seized swathes of southern Yemen from the internationally recognized government last month.
Saudi Arabia, which backs the government, regarded that move as a threat, triggering the biggest crisis between it and Gulf neighbor the UAE in decades.
The UAE-backed STC controls the transport ministry in the internationally recognized coalition government, whose main leadership is supported by Saudi Arabia.
The ministry accused Saudi Arabia in a statement of imposing an air blockade, saying Riyadh had instituted measures requiring all flights to go via Saudi Arabia for extra checks.
It added that when it objected to this, Saudi Arabia had clarified that the restriction was only on flights between Aden and the UAE.
DISAGREEMENT OVER WHO IS RESPONSIBLE
A Saudi source denied any involvement in restricting flights, adding that Yemen’s own internationally recognized government had imposed the requirement on flights between Aden and the UAE in order to curb escalating tensions.
The Saudi source added that the southern-controlled ministry had then responded by ordering a full shutdown of air traffic rather than comply with the restrictions on flights to and from the UAE.
An official source at the transport minister’s office denied this, saying the minister had not issued any decisions to close the airport.
Reuters could not immediately reach the leadership of the internationally recognized government, which has been in Saudi Arabia since the STC seized swathes of the south last month, for comment on the airport closure and flight restrictions.
The UAE Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the airport closure.
The tussle is the latest in a deepening crisis in Yemen that has exposed a deep rift between the two Gulf oil powers.
Saudi Arabia this week accused the UAE of pressuring Yemen’s STC to push towards the kingdom’s borders and declared its national security a “red line,” prompting the UAE to say it was pulling its remaining forces out of Yemen.
That followed an airstrike by Saudi-led coalition forces on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla that the coalition said was a dock used to provide foreign military support to the separatists.