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New Jewish-Themed Movie with Jason Schwartzman Is a Giant Miss
Films that feel fake right out of the gate, don’t usually find their footing. That’s the case with the new movie Between the Temples, which slips and slides all over the place. Not even Jason Schwartzman can save this disaster. He stars as Ben Gottlieb, a cantor at Temple Sinai in upstate New York.
I wondered how Schwartzman would play a cantor, considering. that he doesn’t have a good singing voice. That problem is solved with an absurd plot device in which he can’t chant the prayers and says “Yadid” instead of “Yedid Nefesh.” He’s been on sabbatical due to emotional trauma from the loss of his wife, an author who we don’t care about because we never see her.
A synagogue is often called a shul if one is Orthodox and might be called a temple if one is Conservative or Reform. Caroline Aaron of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel plays Meira Gottlieb, Ben’s mother, and in one sentence she used both the word temple and shul — which nobody ever does. Like the rest of the film, it’s simply not authentic.
When Ben goes to eat with Carla, who wants to have an adult bat mitzvah, he notices the hamburger tastes really great. Carla (Carol Kane) explains that it is so tasty because it’s a cheeseburger, but the cheese is on the inside. Ben spits it out, saying that he is kosher and doesn’t eat milk and meat. If someone is kosher, the person would check to make sure the restaurant is kosher before sitting down.
I’m not even sure if that’s the dumbest moment of the film. It might be second to when the cantor has the rabbi’s daughter (maybe in her 20’s) perform a sexual act on him in his car near the gravestone of his deceased wife.
There’s also the notion that Carla could somehow go from not knowing Hebrew at all to chanting a Torah portion in a lonely three weeks. That’s not plausible.
In addition, in order to get her bat mitzvah bumped up a year, despite a girl already having a bat mitzvah scheduled for that date, he tells Rabbi Bruce (Robert Smigel) that she will give a donation, because you know how those Jews work! Any rule can be broken if you give a big enough donation! It’s a good thing this movie doesn’t arrive at a time when there is a rising amount of antisemitism!
Smigel is a great comedic talent, yet he gets nothing humorous to say. Like a man left in the cold waiting for a bus that never arrives, I was waiting for a zinger from Smigel — but we are left with nothing.
Rabbi Bruce’s daughter, Gabby, is a strange character, but actress Maddie Weinstein deserves some kind of award for making her plausible, despite having to do things no real person would do or say. Weinstein shows some star-power and should have gotten way more screen time, as she is the one bright spot in this film and has a magnetic persona.
The one good joke in the entire film is when Schwartzman says that Judaism doesn’t believe in heaven or Hell but there is upstate New York. Inexplicably, he says this to a priest — because you know how those cantors are! They don’t really believe in Judaism and when something goes wrong, they run into a church for answers!
Directed by Nathan Silver and written by Silver and C. Mason Wells, it is hard to fathom how they made such a boring and lazy film. There is one scene in which Ben meets an attractive woman via JDate, but she is not Jewish. Great, finally some tension. But of course, after about 40 seconds, that’s it and we don’t see the woman again.
Ben has two mothers, Meira and Judy, but their relationship gets very little screen time. We see Judy, who converted and is from the Philippines, try to push Ben and Gabby together. At one point, Ben calls gabby “Gah-Bay” which makes no sense, though it could be a reference to the name given to the person who stands on the bima in a synagogue and assigns the aliyah, but more likely it’s simply one of the many things here that are absurd.
I won’t give away the twist of the film, but you won’t see it coming because it’s totally implausible and you feel bad for the actors who are in a movie they know makes no sense. Schwartzman and Kane are superb actors, but a great chef can’t do much with rotting fish, and great actors can’t do much with a rotten script.
I’m all for anyone getting a bar or bat mitzvah at any age — but a film still needs to be entertaining and thoughtful. There were areas of great comedy and meaning that could have been explored in this film, but weren’t.
I saw the film in a theater last week, and a Jewish couple said it was terrible and asked if they had missed something. I told them they had not.
I’m sure Schwartzman and Kane will be terrific in their next film; Weinstein was excellent in this one. Sadly, Between the Temples is easily one of the worst Jewish films I’ve ever seen.
The author is a writer based in New York.
The post New Jewish-Themed Movie with Jason Schwartzman Is a Giant Miss first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
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