‘Hot Rabbi’ goes cold

I was looking forward to the third season of Nobody Wants This. Really looking forward to it. Then ‘Hot Rabbi’ went stone cold. There wasn’t a luke warm stage in which to adjust. It happened fast with just two sentences from Adam Brody, the actor who plays Noah, the ridiculously desirable rabbi at the centre of Netflix’s hugely successful romantic comedy.

Asked about Gaza, Brody said: “Put me down as thinking it’s a genocide. Put me down as wanting a free Palestine.” Put me down! It was the flippancy that got me as much as the accusation. As though he was signing up for a padel tennis tournament or a school bake sale. Put me down for two Victoria sponges and genocide.

And ‘just like that’ (another series that lost its way), my enthusiasm for season three dissipated. I don’t expect a lot from actors generally when it comes to geopolitics, but Brody showed how little he knew and, more significantly, how little he cared about the repercussions of what he was saying. He is, after all, the star of a series about Jews that shows them praying in synagogue, celebrating Shabbat, discussing conversion and wrestling with faith and  identity. And there was the man playing its rabbi casually signing himself up to one of the most inflammatory accusations that can be made against Israel.

Genocide isn’t a word you use casually. In international law it requires, crucially, an intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part. The ICC has reached no verdict – but Brody has, so he could align with the ‘cool thesps’ who have discovered that Gaza is the cause that keeps on giving on a red carpet.

Hacks Hannah Einbinder declares “Free Palestine” on cue; Javier Bardem has his must-wear stylishly draped keffiyeh and others have their cocktail wear watermelon pins and red hand symbols. If they aren’t yet available in Swarovski crystals, they’re probably on order.

Brody has never denied his Jewish background. He went to Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah and has spoken about feeling a sense of Jewish camaraderie when he arrived in Hollywood. In preparing to play Noah, he has also talked about reading, listening to podcasts and learning about Judaism, Jewish history and the Holocaust because he knew he was portraying not simply a Jewish man but a rabbi and community leader.

And there was someone on hand to help him get it right. Rabbi Steve Leder, who as the consultant for the first series, has since publicly challenged Brody over his comments, calling his understanding of the issue “ignorant”. Which makes it all the more extraordinary that he couldn’t bring himself to stay shtum when pushed to comment on the Middle East.

He could have said he was horrified by the suffering of Palestinian civilians and criticised Netanyahu. He could have called for an end to the war or said he didn’t know enough to pronounce on it. Instead he chose: put me down for genocide. It’s not as if Brody has to worry about filling a stadium like Ed Sheeran, who was dragged into the argument over support act Macklemore and pushed to make his own position clear. Celebrities must have a view now, it seems, because if they don’t the anti-Zionist bullies are unleashed. But Ed, a Catholic raised in Hebden Bridge, will know a whole lot less about the Middle East than Brody after all that prep for playing a rabbi – so he has an excuse. What is Brody’s?

As a journalist, I covered Nobody Wants This with such affection. I loved that there was a mainstream series in which Jews were allowed to be complicated, funny, irritating, secular, attractive – the kind of Jews who were recognisable — without their Jewishness being treated as an exotic affliction.

I spoke to Jackie Tohn, who plays Esther, Rabbi Noah’s sister-in-law, and found her to be a proud Jew in every sense. I also spoke to show creator, Erin Foster, who converted to Judaism and embraced the faith. She had to learn about the religion she was choosing, including prayers in which Israel, appears repeatedly. And the connection to Israel isn’t bolted on to Judaism for political convenience. It runs through the liturgy and history of the faith that Foster chose. That Brody now portrays every time his character Noah walks into his synagogue.

That doesn’t mean Foster or Brody have to support the Israeli government. Of course it doesn’t. But I went looking for what Brody said publicly after October 7 — about the massacre, the hostages, the murdered families. I couldn’t find anything. October 7 was a pogrom, Adam, in case you didn’t know. Where were your words then?

I actually thought about dropping actor Jackie Tohn a line and asking her what she thought. Then I wondered: what’s the point? Brody said it. There is no misunderstanding to clear up. And just as the morally righteous avengers have rushed to support outspoken colleagues such as Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon, I imagine shields went up around Brody too. There will be explanations about context or compassion. He has a right to freely speak. The problem is the rest of us heard him.

We watch with horror as actors we have enjoyed, even adored, align themselves with the fashionable cause, encouraged by kids with blue hair who learnt about the Middle East on TikTok, joined by old dears with nothing to do on a weekend but take a packed lunch to a protest somewhere new.

Block your ears, because apparently every actor is now an expert, but for me, the damage is done. Television depends on suspension of disbelief and the next time ‘Hot Rabbi’ stands in his synagogue dispensing wisdom about what it means to be Jewish, I know what I’ll be thinking when it starts 22nd October. Because at the risk of  repeating myself — ‘Hot Rabbi’ has gone cold. And Nobody Wants This.