Shortly after Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, Seth Rudetsky, a well-known New York City theater fixture and a host on Sirius XM’s On Broadway station, received an email from an American living in Israel who expressed confusion at the relative silence of the theater community concerning the plight of the hostages.
At first, Rudetsky — who is not particularly religious but is culturally connected to his Ashkenazi heritage — didn’t want to enter the fray. He had not been vocal on Israel in the past and had done little fundraising for Jewish causes generally.
But the more Rudetsky noticed the dearth of support for Israelis online, the more he realized that someone should do something. And so, along with his husband, James Wesley, and with support from others, Rudetsky began gathering talent to sing on a music video, based on “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miserables,” asking for the release of the hostages.
The effort was successful — the video Rudetsky music directed and helped produce, “Bring Them Home: A Broadway Prayer,” released Nov. 10, 2023, featured an all-star cast, including Tovah Feldshuh, Linda Lavin, Debra Messing and Billy Porter. It has received almost 500,000 views on its designated YouTube page.
Rudetsky was surprised at some of the pushback the video received. “I got some crazy posts,” he said, referring to social media posts that targeted him personally and labelled him as a “rabid Zionist.”
The hate Rudetsky experienced made him realize the need for the Jewish theater community to band together to combat what he saw as misinformation about Israel and Jews. And so he formed the Jewish Broadway Alliance. The organization’s aim, according to its mission statement, is “to support and empower Jewish artists through community, education, advocacy and celebration of our unique culture, heritage and peoplehood.”
On Sunday, JBA hosted a virtual Hanukkah gathering, celebrating the holiday but also recognizing the Bondi Beach attack. Among those appearing were actress Julie Benko, comedian Judy Gold and Tony-nominee Lorna Courtney, who called in from her vacation to participate.
“Seth is really great at gathering people and it just lifts you up,” said Courtney, who has a Jewish father and was not raised Jewish, and formally converted to Judaism earlier this year. “It brings light, it brings joy. You create your community. You have more friends because of it, more people that you can connect with.”
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, many Jews — and Jewish artists, specifically — have felt sidelined by their communities. Jewish authors have been dumped by their literary agents, Jewish comedians have had shows cancelled and visual artists have shared stories about being abandoned by fans and friends. Members of New York’s theater community also felt abandoned, despite the sentiment, as a 2023 New York Times headline put it, that “Jewish people built the American theater as we know it.”
For example, Damien Bassman, a drummer currently working in the Death Becomes Her orchestra, said there are generally observed sensitivities backstage when it comes to wearing attire that might offend. That hasn’t stopped another team member from wearing a “Free Gaza” shirt — even after Bassman tried to explain why he considered the slogan troubling.
“I think it is surprising [that] for a community that constantly talks about empathy and this idea of multiple things being true and nuance, there’s a remarkable lack of it when it comes to this particular issue,” said Israeli-born Broadway veteran Etai Benson, known for featured roles in The Band’s Visit and Company.
Benson said has lost friends over his support of Israel, but he emphasized that his in-person encounters have been better than the “troubling” material he has seen posted online.
The Jewish Broadway Alliance soft-launched by helping organize “Shabbat on Broadway,” a starry Shabbat service at the St. James Theatre on Jan. 27, 2024. From there, the organization expanded to recording YouTube segments about antisemitism and collecting anonymous feedback about anti-Jewish bias in the theater industry.
In March 2025, JBA launched a weekly virtual Shabbat, “designed to spread Jewish joy,” according to Rudetsky. The event has drawn the likes of Trading Spaces host Paige Davis, Tony Award-nominee Julia Lester and four-time Tony-winning director Jerry Zaks.
The organization is on the verge of being granted 501(c)(3) status. Rudetsky and the other volunteer leaders — who include actress Laura Patinkin and philanthropist Lee Perlman — hope that, with the help of a still-to-be-hired executive director, they can develop an educational program they can extend to different Broadway shows, with the goal of including antisemitism in DEI trainings.
Alexandra Socha, a recent Glinda in Wicked and Benson’s wife, converted to Judaism a few months before Oct 7. She said she now stands as a “proud Jew” who believes the Jewish theater community needs to make clear “we are not going to give up a part of our identity to be accepted by our fellow industry workers.”
“The best thing we can do is develop some training to help Broadway companies understand what antisemitism — and not just hatred of Jews but dismissal or distrust of Jews — looks like,” she said, adding that prior to her conversion, she was less cognizant of the impact of words and actions that now sting.
Tony-winner Ari’el Stachel — whose recent off-Broadway show, Other, unpacked his upbringing with an Ashkenazi mother and Yemeni Israeli father — hopes JBA can help showcase a wide range of Jewish voices, particularly those of Jews of color, which he believes is essential to help counter misplaced assumptions about Israel.
“It means a lot to me that Seth involved me and that he spoke about my Yemeni Jewish heritage,” Stachel said, referring to a recent JBA field trip to Other and a discussion with Rudetsky at an after-show talkback. “These are sort of basic facts that I’ve lived with my whole life that really complicate the white settler narrative. Seth is doing a lot of work on that. I think right now standing united in our full diversity is really important.”
Julie Benko, left, and Cantor Azi Schwartz star in a video that the Jewish Broadway Alliance helped make, “Hanukkah on Broadway,” filmed in Times Square on Dec. 13, 2024. (YouTube screenshot)
No one thinks one organization is going to solve antisemitism, even in a relatively small industry. But Rudetsky hopes JBA can help Jews in New York’s theater scene feel comfortable speaking out, something he feels is essential in these times.
Feldshuh, a four-time Tony nominee who’s currently in the Netflix hit Nobody Wants This, agrees. “I want to be clear that I’m a practical woman: If you want to kill me, I object,” she said. “It’s really quite simple. If you want to kill me, I object and I will speak out about that.”
Feldshuh, who has attended JBA events, relayed how misguided she finds her colleagues who support Palestinians without rejecting the noxious politics of Hamas. She said they are “supporting [a] value system which spells, if it ever took hold, it literally spells the death of Western civilization.”
As an example, Feldshuh referenced how women’s rights would be curtailed in the sort of Islamist fundamentalist society envisioned by Hamas. She believes several actors have fallen for “half-truths” from the “phenomenal Hamas/Hezbollah media machine” that have led to their public statements against Israel.
But she noted she and others still had their voices. People can speak up, she said, and Jews can persevere by celebrating their rich traditions through organizations such as JBA.
“[Community] is crucial,” she said. “And Seth Rudetsky is a lightning rod … He helps people get together for these age-old traditions of keeping the Sabbath.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post A new organization aims to combat antisemitism and spread Jewish joy in New York’s theater industry appeared first on The Forward.
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