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Nobody wants all those menorahs in ‘Nobody Wants This,’ do they?
The first season of the hit series Nobody Wants This left viewers with more questions than answers. Did Rabbi Noah Roklov (Adam Brody) really ditch the pulpit for forbidden love? Why did Joanne (Kristen Bell), so enthralled by every Jewish ritual she experienced, suddenly balk at conversion?
And, uh, why is Nobody Wants This obsessed with menorahs?
The show, which returns to Netflix on Thursday for Season 2, isn’t about Hanukkah. It doesn’t take place during Hanukkah, as far as I can tell. The holiday never comes up.
And yet if there’s a Jewish interior in Nobody Wants This, you can bet on a menorah — or chanukiyah, if you want to be technical — lurking in the background. It’s like the show wants viewers to believe menorahs are Jewish houseplants. And as soon as you notice it, you start seeing them everywhere.
In Noah’s office? Check — there’s a Chabad-style menorah, with the movement’s telltale angular branches, on the mantle (though Roklov is not a Chabad rabbi):
In his home? You bet — a tasteful glass model adorns a bookshelf in his living room:
His brother Sasha’s place has one too. And when Rabbi Roklov goes to his old summer camp, we see an electric menorah above the fireplace in his bunk. For some reason, it’s on!
You may be thinking: it’s not so strange to see a menorah on display in a Jewish home, even in non-winter months. The Oscar-winning movie Anora also, famously, snuck one in as a prop. But the interior designer for this show did not stop at one — not even one per home. At Roklov’s parents’ mansion, I counted three, and that’s just the indoor total. (I spotted eight altogether in the first season, one for each night of the holiday that definitely isn’t happening.)
There’s another one outside the Roklovs’ home, and it’s the show’s location scout’s piece de resistance. Lest you forget that this scene is taking place at the house of Jewish parents of the Jewish rabbi, there’s a colossal iron menorah towering over their gated entrance.
It looks fully functional — and is, according to Raquel Abekasis, the home’s current resident. Abekasis told me they had it made for Hanukkah a couple years ago and never took it down. As for the interior decor, production designer Claire Bennett told House Beautiful last year that the resident family’s furnishings recalled an Orthodox home, so most of the furniture and decor was swapped out. The Zillow page for the estimated $4.7 million house shows a photo of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe hanging on the wall. (Bennett did not respond to an inquiry.)
If having a giant menorah adorn the entrance to your home strikes you as a Chabad thing, you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. But that’s close enough for this show, which avoids getting bogged down in Jewish denominations. We don’t learn in Season 1 how the rabbi identifies Jewishly; he seems Reform in practice, but his family’s fixation on interfaith marriage — and Noah’s mother eating pork secretly, not openly — seems observant in the way Conservative or Modern Orthodox Jews are.
The menorah-fication of Jewish spaces is part of a larger pattern of generalized, textureless Jewishness in Nobody Wants This. The series has faced criticism from viewers who found its depictions of Jewish characters shallow and stereotypical. And the central Jewish character — an actual rabbi, no less — doesn’t really engage with the challenging ideas around love and faith at the center of the show. Instead, Jewish identity is always the same object looming in the background, preventing people in the foreground from being happy.
The post Nobody wants all those menorahs in ‘Nobody Wants This,’ do they? appeared first on The Forward.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’
Rep Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, on Sunday likened the Trump administration’s immigration rhetoric to Nazi depictions of Jews.
“It reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany,” Omar said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, commenting on a social media post by Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, in which he suggested that “migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.” Miller, who is Jewish, is the architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
Omar called Miller’s comments “white supremist rhetoric” and also drew parallels between his characterization of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. to how Jews were demonized and treated when they fled Nazi-era Germany. “As we know, there have been many immigrants who have tried to come to the United States who have turned back, you know, one of them being Jewish immigrants,” she said.
Now serving as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Miller is central to the White House’s plans for mass deportations and expanded barriers to asylum. During Trump’s first term, Miller led the implementation of the so-called Muslim travel ban in 2017, which barred entry to the U.S. for individuals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, and pushed to further reduce a longtime refugee program.
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “When I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany.” pic.twitter.com/GAjIMqFq26
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 7, 2025
Miller’s comments echoed similar rhetoric by Trump after an Afghan refugee was accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House last month, killing one.
Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting last week that Somali immigrants are “garbage” and that he wanted them to be sent “back to where they came from.” The president also singled out Omar, a Somali native who represents Minnesota’s large Somali-American community. “She should be thrown the hell out of our country,” Trump said.
In the Sunday interview, Omar called Trump’s remarks “completely disgusting” and accused him of having “an unhealthy obsession” with her and the Somali community. “This kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president,” she said.
The post Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Nigeria Seeks French Help to Combat Insecurity, Macron Says
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Pool
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has sought more help from France to fight widespread violence in the north of the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, weeks after the United States threatened to intervene to protect Nigeria’s Christians.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has witnessed an upsurge in attacks in volatile northern areas in the past month, including mass kidnappings from schools and a church.
US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of possible military action in Nigeria, accusing it of mistreating Christians. The government says the allegations misrepresent a complex security situation in which armed groups target both faith groups.
Macron said he had a phone call with Tinubu on Sunday, where he conveyed France’s support to Nigeria as it grapples with several security challenges, “particularly the terrorist threat in the North.”
“At his request, we will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations. We call on all our partners to step up their engagement,” Macron said in a post on X.
Macron did not say what help would be offered by France, which has withdrawn its troops from West and Central Africa and plans to focus on training, intelligence sharing and responding to requests from countries for assistance.
Nigeria is grappling with a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast, armed kidnapping gangs in the northwest and deadly clashes between largely Muslim cattle herders and mostly Christian farmers in the central parts of the country, stretching its security forces.
Washington said last month that it was considering actions such as sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to compel Nigeria to better protect its Christian communities.
The Nigerian government has said it welcomes help to fight insecurity as long as its sovereignty is respected. France has previously supported efforts to curtail the actions of armed groups, the US has shared intelligence and sold arms, including fighter jets, and Britain has trained Nigerian troops.
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Netanyahu Says He Will Not Quit Politics if He Receives a Pardon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in the state memorial ceremony for the fallen of the Iron Swords War on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem on Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: Alex Kolomoisky/POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not retire from politics if he receives a pardon from the country’s president in his years-long corruption trial.
Asked by a reporter if planned on retiring from political life if he receives a pardon, Netanyahu replied: “no”.
Netanyahu last month asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon, with lawyers for the prime minister arguing that frequent court appearances were hindering Netanyahu’s ability to govern and that a pardon would be good for the country.
Pardons in Israel have typically been granted only after legal proceedings have concluded and the accused has been convicted. There is no precedent for issuing a pardon mid-trial.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in response to the charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and his lawyers have said that the prime minister still believes the legal proceedings, if concluded, would result in a complete acquittal.
US President Donald Trump wrote to Herzog, before Netanyahu made his request, urging the Israeli president to consider granting the prime minister a pardon.
Some Israeli opposition politicians have argued that any pardon should be conditional on Netanyahu retiring from politics and admitting guilt. Others have said the prime minister must first call national elections, which are due by October 2026.