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Meet the real-life sister act behind the two new ’90s Jewish American Girl dolls
(JTA) — As children in upstate New York, twin sisters Julia DeVillers and Jennifer Roy went to Hebrew school three days a week, spent their summers at a JCC summer camp and got to know local Holocaust survivors through their father, who survived the Nazis as a child in Poland. They also celebrated Christmas with their mother’s family.
Aware of their dual religious and cultural backgrounds from a young age, DeVillers and Roy personally sent their public elementary school principal a letter asking to place a menorah next to the school Christmas tree. The girls gathered a couple of the other Jewish students together to present the letter to the principal, to resounding success: A real menorah was added to the school’s holiday display.
It was something straight out of an American Girl story. And as of this week, in a sense, it is one.
On Wednesday, American Girl released its first twin dolls, Isabel and Nicki Hoffman, who are also the first characters from an interfaith family. Their stories take place in the late 1990s and were written by DeVillers and Roy, inspired by the sisters’ own childhood experiences. The twin dolls’ parents are, respectively, Jewish and Christian, and their mother, Robin, is named after the authors’ own mother.
“It’s incredibly special to us that the twins bring this Jewish and interfaith representation that so many kids will relate to,” DeVillers told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Roy added, “People are not necessarily one thing or another these days. And while we are Jewish, we did grow up with both holidays and both cultures in our family. And that’s how we wanted our characters to be and to feel.”
Isabel and Nicki’s stories are loosely based on the childhood experiences of authors and real-life twins Julia DeVillers and Jennifer Roy. (Courtesy of American Girl)
The dolls are a milestone in how the lived experience of many American Jews is reflected in popular culture. Recent surveys of Jewish Americans consistently note high rates of interfaith marriage, and show that a significant portion of those couples raise their children either fully or partly Jewish.
Isabel and Nicki are the second and third historical Jewish American Girl dolls, joining Rebecca Rubin. Rebecca’s story reflected an earlier generation’s perception of normative American Jewish identity: Her family immigrated from Russia and lives in New York’s Lower East Side in 1914, while navigating issues of assimilation and religion.
Stories of joint Hanukkah-Christmas celebrations are not exactly new. A TV episode Isabel and Nicki’s character’s might have watched as teenagers, “The Best Chrismukkah Ever” from the drama “The O.C.,” aired nearly two decades ago. But the dolls and their stories are “super innovative and relevant for 21st-century Jewish interfaith families,” said Keren McGinity, the interfaith specialist for the Conservative movement of Judaism and a professor of American studies at Brandeis University.
“Anytime there’s cultural representation that depicts real life, it’s a good thing,” McGinity said, though she added that some depictions of interfaith families are more robust than others.
“On the one hand, it’s terrific that they’re reflecting contemporary American Jewish life by depicting an interfaith family through these characters and reinforcing the fact that it only takes one Jewish parent to raise Jewish children,” she added. “And it remains to be seen how they are Jewish beyond celebrating the December holidays, and how they’re interfaith beyond celebrating the December holidays, plural.”
The new twin dolls are the latest in American Girl’s iconic series of dolls, which hail from different eras of American history and come with novels about their lives. American Girl has historically aimed to present a diverse set of dolls. Other recent offerings include Evette Peeters, a biracial girl who cares for the environment, and Kavi Sharma, an Indian-American girl who loves Broadway musicals.
The new historical characters, Isabel and Nicki, retail for $115 each. Their stories are written by DeVillers and Roy, respectively, and begin on Dec. 11, 1999, when they receive their journals as a gift for the last night of Hanukkah.
They have their own distinct personalities, which the authors say somewhat resemble what they were like as kids: Isabel has a preppy style and loves dancing, and is advertised wearing a pink cable-knit sleeveless sweater over a pinstripe shirt, with a plaid skirt, platform shoes and a beret. Nicki likes skateboarding and writing song lyrics, and appears on the American Girl website wearing a backwards baseball cap, choker necklace, blue T-shirt dress and sneakers, with a flannel shirt tied around her waist.
Isabel’s book begins with a nod to a late-1990s fad: “Hi, New Journal! You’re my present for the last night of Hanukkah!! I was going to save you for after Christmas and New Year’s, but we also got NEW GEL PENS!”
In Nicki’s book, her interfaith identity is mentioned two weeks later: “Did I mention my family celebrates Hanukkah AND Christmas? Well, we do.”
The two journals, “Meet Isabel” and “Meet Nicki” are filled with text and sold with the dolls. The stories take place during the same time frame, as the girls celebrate the winter holidays, face their fears, make new friends and worry about Y2K. A longer novel, “Meet Isabel and Nicki” is set for release in August as the first in the Isabel and Nicki historical series. It will take place during the same month as the shorter journals, but will delve further into the time period. Readers will get to spend the last night of Hanukkah with the Hoffmans, lighting the menorah and playing dreidel.
“Meet Isabel and Nicki,” the first novel in the series about the Hoffman twins, will be released in August. (Photo courtesy of American Girl. Design by Jackie Hajdenberg)
McGinity said she would have to wait until the new book comes out to see what the girls’ representation looks like, given that the journals are so short.
“I feel like we don’t have enough intel other than ‘OK, the authors are Jewish, the characters are Jewish, they grew up in an interfaith household,’” she added.
The crowded flagship American Girl store in New York City has already begun promoting Isabel and Nicki by showcasing the twins’ different outfits and bedroom and accessory collections, with dozens of the dolls positioned throughout the store.
“While we’re not able to provide specific sales information, I can say we’ve been happy to see the positive response for the new characters,” a representative for the company said.
Roy and her sister have previously written a series of children’s novels about twins, and Roy also authored “Yellow Star,” a 2006 children’s book about her aunt’s remarkable survival as one of the only children to be liberated from the Lodz Ghetto. Roy said she and her sister are grateful for the chance to tell their family’s story in a new way.
“So we don’t know what cultures, faiths, religions are coming beyond this,” said Roy, referring to future American Girl products. “But what we did know was that if we were writing in the holiday season, we really wanted to include parts of ourselves and that’s what American Girl editors all said: ‘We’d love to have you remember from your childhood.’ And this was our childhood.”
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New York Teacher Seeking to Unseat Ritchie Torres Calls for Socialism, Removal of All Pro-Israel Politicians
Andre Easton speaks to supporters in New York City. Photo: Screenshot
The race to unseat incumbent US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) is drawing attention not only for its electoral implications but also for the broader ideological project outlined by some of his opponents.
Andre Easton, a far-left, anti-Israel high school teacher and member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, is running as an independent in New York’s 15th Congressional District on a platform that goes beyond defeating the incumbent. In new remarks, Easton suggested that unseating Torres would not, on its own, achieve the political transformation he seeks.
“We understand that this has to be built in the election system, in the election cycle, and outside of the election cycle,” Easton said, describing a strategy that blends electoral participation with grassroots organizing aimed at shifting political and economic power toward the working class. Easton then asserted that the implementation of socialism in the US was necessary to empower the economic downtrodden.
Easton made the comments on Monday night during an event hosted at The People’s Forum in New York City. The event, titled “Palestine: A Test of Democracy,” featured a panel of individuals all donning keffiyehs — a traditional Arab headdress that has been repurposed following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to signify support for the anti-Israel political cause.
Easton also argued that removing elected officials who support Israel would only address “a symptom,” framing his campaign as part of a broader effort to build a socialist system in the United States. He stated that having a few politicians removed for their “complicity in funding and supporting a genocide is a step in the right direction,” appearing to lend support to the false claim that Israel pursued genocide against the Palestinians during its campaign against the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.
Torres, one of the most outspoken pro-Israel Democrats in Congress, has consistently backed the US-Israel alliance and condemned rising antisemitism. His positions have made him a prominent voice within the party at a time of growing internal divisions over Middle East policy. Leftists have taken aim at Torres, accusing him of supporting a so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
During his remarks this week, Easton claimed that “349 members” of Congress have received “direct funding from Israel,” a characterization that misrepresents how US campaign finance works. Organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) are US-based and funded by American donors, though they advocate for strong US-Israel ties and support candidates aligned with that position.
Supporters of Torres argue that such rhetoric suggesting foreign funding risks fueling harmful narratives, particularly amid heightened concerns about antisemitism. They contend that backing for Israel among US lawmakers reflects policy alignment rather than external control.
Easton, for his part, framed his campaign as an effort to mobilize supporters beyond traditional electoral participation. He encouraged individuals to become “active participants” and “active protagonists” in shaping political outcomes, emphasizing sustained engagement outside of election cycles.
Political analysts have noted that campaigns like Easton’s bid often aim to influence the broader ideological landscape even when victory is unlikely. By promoting more expansive policy goals and organizing committed supporters, such efforts can seek to shift the boundaries of mainstream political debate, sometimes referred to as the Overton window.
For Torres and his allies, the race underscores a wider debate within the Democratic Party over foreign policy, economic systems, and the role of activism in electoral politics. While the outcome of the primary remains uncertain, the contest highlights competing visions not just for a congressional seat but for the direction of the party itself.
Another candidate seeking to defeat Torres is Michael Blake, a progressive former New York state assemblyman who is running an insurgent anti-Israel, left-wing campaign.
Efforts to unseat Torres are considered a longshot. Though little recent polling of the race has been publicly released, existing polls show Torres with widespread approval across his district. The 15th district, which contains the heavily Jewish Riverdale suburbs, is expected to reelect Torres, although the Democratic primary is still to be held in June, followed by the general election in November.
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German Intelligence Warns of Rising Iran-Linked Terror Threat
Broken glass and shattered storefront windows mark the façade of an Israeli restaurant in Munich after assailants smashed the windows and threw pyrotechnic devices inside during an overnight attack on April 9-10, 2026. Photo: Screenshot
As escalating tensions in the Middle East ripple into Europe, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has raised the alarm over a growing threat from Iran-linked terrorist networks, prompting Jewish communities to heighten security amid fears of targeted attacks.
On Tuesday, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution warned of a rising threat level across the country and Europe more broadly from pro-Iranian extremist groups, specifically citing the expanding activities of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya and signaling broader concerns about coordinated operations on the continent.
“What’s new is [the terrorist group’s] warning that they will no longer limit themselves to ‘simple’ attacks but will also include more dangerous means in the long term,” an agency spokesperson told the German newspaper Handelsblatt, pointing to an apparent shift toward more sophisticated and potentially lethal methods, including the use of explosives or weapons.
Since the start of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran earlier this year, European governments have tightened domestic security amid mounting fears that Tehran could activate proxy networks across the continent to retaliate against US, Israeli, and Jewish targets.
But even with increased security and heightened intelligence monitoring, Europe has seen a string of attacks targeting Jewish and Israeli institutions, several of them claimed by the newly emerged Iran-linked terrorist organization.
Just in April, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks across the UK, Germany, North Macedonia, Belgium, and the Netherlands, many of them concentrated in London.
Since emerging in early March, the group has taken credit for at least 15 attacks against Jewish and Western targets across Europe.
German intelligence has identified a recurring pattern, with young individuals repeatedly recruited via social media and encrypted platforms to carry out attacks in exchange for modest payments.
German officials suspect the terrorist group may be part of a broader Iraqi Shiite network with ties to Iran’s regional proxy infrastructure, raising concerns about cross-border coordination and external direction.
“The organization uses various channels from the Shiite extremist and pro-Iranian sphere on different social media platforms to report on its activities,” the agency said in a statement.
“The group has also recently stated its political motivation behind its actions and openly threatened Israeli institutions as well as the so-called ‘enemies of Islam’ in Europe,” it continued.
In recent weeks, six sites across Greater London have been targeted, including a Jewish ambulance service and a Persian-language media outlet. In the latest incident on Saturday, an accelerant-filled bottle was hurled through the window of a synagogue in Harrow, on the outskirts of London.
Marc Henrichmann, who chairs the parliamentary oversight committee of Germany’s intelligence services, told Handelsblatt that the surge in incidents is “closely linked to the escalation of the Iran conflict,” warning that the spillover is already being felt across Europe as alarm grows among security experts.
“The threat to Jewish, Israeli, and American institutions remains high, even though they are already under special protection,” Henrichmann said.
“Our objective must be clear: to identify and dismantle these foreign-controlled terrorist networks, and to do so we must significantly strengthen our intelligence capabilities, particularly in the digital domain,” the German official continued.
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Israel Condemns Venice Biennale Jury Decision to Ban Israeli Artist From Winning Top Awards
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar attends a press conference with the Danish Foreign Minister (not pictured) in Jerusalem, Sept. 7, 2025. Photo: Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard/via REUTERS
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has denounced the International Jury of the 61st Venice Biennale after its five members announced last week that they will not consider awarding top prizes to an artist from Israel.
In a released statement, the Venice Biennale’s jurors said they will exclude from consideration for the Golden and Silver Lion awards artists from “those countries whose leaders are currently charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC),” which applies to both Israel and Russia in relation to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, respectively.
Belu-Simion Fainaru is the artist representing Israel at the Venice Biennale this year with his installation “Rose of Nothingness.” Fainaru’s artwork will address topics such as Jewish mysticism, memory, and poetry. The artist – who was born in Bucharest, Romania, and now resides in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa — won the Israel Prize in Design and Interdisciplinary Art last year. A University of Haifa alumnus, he represented Romania at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a post on X that the jury’s decision to “boycott” Fainaru is “a contamination of the art world.”
“The political jury has transformed the Biennale from an open artistic space of free, boundless ideas into a spectacle of false, anti-Israeli political indoctrination,” the ministry added.
Fainaru believes that the jury’s decision has “created a hostile and degrading environment” and that he is being discriminated against based on his national origin, he said in an email last week cited by Artnet.
“The Biennale has publicly stated that it rejects any form of cultural censorship and confirmed participation of all countries recognized by Italy, including Israel, Russia, and Iran,” he added. “I must mention that other states with serious violations are not excluded. This statement is the violation of essential equality condition based on legally unstable and arbitrary basis.”
“Unfortunately, the Biennale may end up being less about the art on display and more about the turbulent world surrounding it,” he also wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday. “But we are still making art and believe in dialogue. We look forward to hosting you at our pavilion.”
The ICC issued arrest warrants in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. The Jewish state has strongly denied the allegations, with officials saying the Israeli military has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas’s widely acknowledged strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population. Israel launched its military campaign against Hamas after the terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
This year’s Venice Biennale will be open to the public from May 9-Nov. 22, and the awards ceremony will take place in Venice on May 9. The Golden Lion awards are given to the best artist in the main exhibition and to the best national pavilion, and the Silver Lion is awarded to a promising young artist. The winners will be selected among 110 participants.
This is the first year that Russia has been allowed to reopen its pavilion at the Venice Biennale since 2022. The ICC currently has an active arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes against children in Ukraine.
Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, Giovanna Zapperi, and Solange Farkas are the jurors for the Venice Biennale this year. Explaining their decision to exclude Israel and Russia from the event’s top prizes, the jury said they feel “a responsibility towards the historical role of the Biennale as a platform that connects art to the urgencies of its time.”
“We acknowledge the complex relationship between artistic practice and nation-state representation that provides a central structure for the Venice Biennale, particularly the way this relation binds artists’ work with the actions of the state they represent,” they added. The jury also said their decision was inspired by a statement made by the late Koyo Kouoh, who curated the Biennale’s main exhibition this year, titled “In Minor Keys.” Kouoh had said: “In refusing the spectacle of horror, the time has come to listen to the minor keys, to tune in sotto voce to the whispers, to the lower frequencies; to find the oases, the islands, where the dignity of all living beings is safeguarded.”
Following the statement from the jury, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced that the bloc will withdraw $2.3 million in funding from the international art event for allowing Russia to participate. “While Russia bombs museums, destroys churches, and seeks to erase Ukrainian culture, it should not be allowed to exhibit its own,” Kallas said, as reported by Politico. “Russia’s return to the Venice Biennale is morally wrong, and the EU intends to cut its funding.”
Finland announced last week that its political leaders will not participate in the Venice Biennale this year because of Russia’s participation, and Latvia’s Culture Minister Agnese Lāce said she will boycott the event’s opening on May 9 if Russia is included.