Lights, Camera, Jewish Pride: A Night of Courage and Unity
Ziv Abud woke up buried beneath bodies in a roadside bomb shelter near the Nova festival. Hamas had dragged the man she loved, Eliya Cohen, into Gaza.
On Nov. 5, she stood on the stage of Alice Tully Hall while Cohen — freed after roughly 500 days, and her husband since August — watched from the audience. “We are strong, we love, we make choices and we fight for the people we love,” she said.
That was the spirit of the Third Jewish Media Awards. The JITC Hollywood Bureau, an initiative of Jew in the City, champions authentic and nuanced portrayals of Jews, Judaism and Israel in entertainment and challenges tropes and stereotypes in media, with the goal of combating antisemitism by sharing Jewish stories with global audiences. Modeled on the NAACP Image Awards and GLAAD Media Awards, the ceremony celebrates creators who are getting it right.
The evening opened with comedian Ami Kozak’s impression of Tucker Carlson, setting the tone for a night of resilience and celebration. Produced by Disney animator Saul Blinkoff, the show gave Keter Shem Tov Awards to The Pitt, Dancing With the Stars, Doc, Tehran, Nuremberg, Red Alert, One Day in October and Guns and Moses. Donny Deutsch received the Lion of Israel Award, Kevin Bright and Rabbi Levi Cunin shared the new Chaverim Award, and Jordan Gorfinkel, Freida Rothman and Jacob Steinmetz were named All-Stars. Presenters included Judd Hirsch, Debra Messing, Tovah Feldshuh, Patricia Heaton, Selma Blair and Barbie Pascual.
A Threefold Cord
Founder Allison Josephs opened with a lesson in Jewish law. “When something is done three times, it’s called a chazakah,” she said. “Doing an action three consecutive times transitions it from a random occurrence into a fixed reality.”
The idea grew out of an Instagram mistake in 2021, when she tagged the wrong advocacy bureau. “I suddenly understood that every minority group but Jews had been organizing for better representation for decades,” she said. Her team leaps into action “despite being fully aware of the absurdity of our big dreams.”
With the hostages home but hatred of Jews rising, she warned, “we are running out of time.” The answer is unity: “We have Hollywood to Hasidim and everything in between here tonight. In our post-October 7th world, we can’t have it any other way.”
Chaverim
That unity had its own award. “Even though we are worlds apart in terms of the way we live our lives, [we] are genuine friends,” Bright told The Jewish Link of Rabbi Cunin. “All Jews need to unite and be friends at this time. We need to stop the judgment about who’s Orthodox enough and who isn’t.”
On Hollywood critics of Israel like Mark Ruffalo, his advice is to ignore them. “The guy plays the Hulk, okay? Why do we really care so much about what he has to say?” His message to young Jews: “Embrace your Judaism if you’re a Jew.”
Eshet Chayil, On Screen and Off
Presenting to Apple TV’s Tehran, Abud cited JITC research showing that TV tends to cast Jewish women as bossy mothers or spoiled girls. “But we have so many other stories to tell.” She sees herself in Tehran’s Tamar: “Being strong means taking that step even when you are afraid.”
The Cost of Silence
Patricia Heaton introduced Nuremberg, whose translator Howie Triest has his “Queen Esther moment” when he stops hiding who he is. “Too many people right now are silent in the face of evil,” said Heaton, a Catholic who co-founded the October 7th Coalition of Christians standing with Jews. Producer Bradley Fischer warned that the demonization of Israel is gaining political legitimacy: “Winning an election does not turn a lie into truth.”
Debra Messing, presenting to Paramount+’s Red Alert, greeted the crowd with “Shalom, mishpacha” before describing her childhood as one of only three Jewish kids in her Rhode Island community. “I used to pretend I was sick when I had to be absent from school on Yom Kippur so I wouldn’t get harassed by the other kids,” she said. “And one morning when my grandfather was visiting, we woke up to a swastika painted on our car.” Hiding her Jewish identity, she said, “was something I learned to do very early in life.” On October 7, “all the groups I had stood with were.”
Built for This Moment
Deutsch, a Morning Joe regular raised in Forest Hills, Queens, said what stunned him most about October 7 was the world’s response. “It was the only time in history that a group had been slaughtered and the news was contextualizing,” he said. His charge to the audience: “We can’t be silent, we have to be strong, we will prevail.”
‘Remember Who You Are’
Scarsdale-born Tovah Feldshuh chose her Hebrew name when others were changing theirs. Her father, a World War II veteran, told her: “Remember who you are, because the world will remind you anyway.” Honoring The Pitt, she said the HBO Max drama “is permeated with Jewish values.”
The People of the Comic Book
Former DC Comics Batman editor Jordan Gorfinkel revealed that his No Man’s Land storyline, which inspired The Dark Knight Rises, borrows from Sodom and Gomorrah. Jews, he said, are “the people of the comic book.” Pitcher Jacob Steinmetz, the first Orthodox Jew selected in the MLB draft, sent a video message. “As a proud Orthodox Jew playing in professional baseball, I hope I can inspire other Jewish kids to pursue their dreams without compromising their Torah values,” he said. “You can stay true to who you are and compete at the highest levels.” Jewelry designer Freida Rothman, whose four grandparents survived the Holocaust, said, “Whatever light I bring into this world began with them.”
Hineini
Presenting to One Day in October, Blair spoke about the cost of being seen. “There is being Jewish matter-of-factly, and there is being Jewish when it costs you something,” she said. “Hidden things are heavy. And seen things are shared.”
She closed on hineini, here I am, the word Avraham and Moshe answered with before challenging God. “It’s not a crack in the faith. It is our faith,” Blair said. “Hineini is not a promise to understand. It is a promise to stay.”
Owning the Narrative
From where The Jewish Link sat, the night drove home what is at stake. Movies and television are where much of the world meets Jews. The Jewish Link recently heard the same point from a student at a Westchester Hebrew High School event held by IMPACT, an organization focused on combating antisemitism and amplifying Jewish joy on social media and on the ground. People get the wrong impression of Jews, the student said, because of how we are portrayed on screen.
That is where JITC steps in. When Jewish life is shown with pride and joy, it can change minds and hearts. It was an evening of celebration, and that is needed now more than ever.