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What to watch on Christmas? Your Jewish guide to this winter’s biggest movies
(JTA) — The Jewish tradition of Chinese food and a movie on Christmas is so thoroughly established that it has taken on an aura of ritual. And this year, several of the season’s biggest movies have Jewish themes or backstories of note.
Here’s your Jewish guide to the new theatrical and streaming options available this Christmas.
“Wonka”
There’s nothing Jewish about the story in this new musical film about the central character in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the beloved novel by Roald Dahl. And Dahl himself was so avowedly antisemitic that his own family has apologized for “the lasting and understandable hurt” he caused. But the movie is a(nother) breakout role for Timothee Chalamet, a megastar who is Jewish — he has said he got the acting bug from his mother, the Jewish actress-turned-New York City real estate agent Nicole Flender. Chalamet is reviving a role first played by the Jewish actor Gene Wilder in 1971.
“The Color Purple”
Again, there’s nothing Jewish to the movie itself — except that it’s based on the classic novel by Alice Walker, who was once married to a Jewish man and more lately has become known for her virulently anti-Israel and antisemitic views. The story of a young Black woman’s self-empowerment and discovery of her own sexuality amid the horrific, abusive conditions of her life in the early-1900s rural South first appeared as a book in 1982, then was made into a movie by Jewish director Steven Spielberg in 1985. Spielberg is involved as a producer with the musical remake, which adapts a stage version of the story, but hasn’t has made any public comments about Walker or the new “Color Purple” this year.
“Zone of Interest”
Filmed in Auschwitz, where the Nazis murdered more than 1 million Jews, this movie adapts the 2014 novel by Martin Amis that dissects the mentality of Nazi officers and their families as they attempt to construct compartmentalized personal lives while committing atrocities against Jews. In the movie version, directed by the acclaimed British Jewish filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, the protagonist is explicitly Auschwitz death camp commandant Rudolph Hoess. Glazer has said that he hopes the film adaptation would “talk to the capacity within each of us for violence, wherever you’re from.” It was important, he said, to depict Nazis not as “monsters,” but rather to show that “the great crime and tragedy is that human beings did this to other human beings.”
“Maestro”
You can see this Leonard Bernstein biopic in some theaters, but you can also watch it from the comfort of your own home on Netflix. The movie drew significant interest before its release because of controversy over the prosthetic nose worn by the non-Jewish star and producer Bradley Cooper to play Bernstein, which some said smacked of antisemitic stereotypes. But since its release, the film is drawing mostly plaudits from Jewish viewers — some of whom have been tickled to see Bernstein wearing a sweater with the word “Harvard” in Hebrew.
“Iron Claw”
This new movie tells the tragic story of the Von Erichs, the first family of professional wrestling in Texas — who were massively popular in Israel at their height in the 1980s. In fact, the Von Erichs’ promotion, World Class Championship Wrestling, was reported to be one of the most popular English-language programs in Israel for a time, and it was an injury sustained on a trip there that spelled the beginning of the end for the family’s preeminence in the sport.
“Freud’s Last Session”
This film imagines an improbable encounter between the Jewish psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the Christian novelist C.S. Lewis in September 1939, just as Hitler has invaded Poland and launched World War II. In their extended dialogue, the two men argue about the nature of God — Freud is an avowed atheist — and viewers see snapshots of Freud’s life in his native Austria before fleeing the Nazis for London. Beware: The movie isn’t getting very good reviews. It also shows Freud in remarkable health for someone who died of cancer the month the movie is set.
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The post What to watch on Christmas? Your Jewish guide to this winter’s biggest movies 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.