What does it mean to be a Jewish consultant for film and television?
Being a consultant on Jewish content for film and tv is a fun side-gig to my main role as rabbi-in-residence at HIAS. I get to serve as a resource to the creative teams behind film and tv for depictions of Jewish community and content. In recent years, there has been a growing culture in entertainment that values the input of the communities that they represent.
The scope of what my consulting entails varies wildly from project to project. In some cases, I review only a first draft of scripts or am simply on call to answer questions that arise for the writing team. In other cases, I’m looped into the creation process from brainstorming in the writers’ room all the way up to the premiere — reviewing script drafts as they evolve and recorded scenes for accuracy and vibe-check. There have also been cases in which I’m only involved only in post-production for help on appropriate and sensitive marketing in the Jewish community. In all cases, sometimes a consultant’s input is integrated and sometimes not. I’ve come to appreciate that show creators and producers balance many competing creative needs and make choices accordingly.
How did you get involved with this kind of work?
When I lived in Los Angeles, I was very active in interfaith and civic work as a rabbi. Through those networks, I met some of the amazing Muslim women behind SILA Consulting – a social impact firm that specializes in cultural representation. When they started working on Marvel’s “Moon Knight” – which has both Muslim and Jewish content – they reached out to me to see if I would be interested in helping with the Jewish pieces. I was definitely feeling my way through the dark when I first started, trying to assess what level of feedback they wanted, but the team at SILA steered me well. And that one project just kept opening the doors to more by word-of-mouth in the industry.
What are some of the projects you have worked on in the past? What have you been consulted about for these projects?
Sometimes the work comes with public credit, but not always. It’s in the public domain that I’ve worked on Marvel’s “Moon Knight,” “The Fantastic Four,” the National Geographic Miniseries “A Small Light” (about Miep Gies who hid Anne Frank), and most recently, Season 2 of the Netflix series “Nobody Wants This.”
Sometimes, I get consulted on depictions of a Jewish ritual to make sure that it’s technically and culturally accurate. Sometimes, I am asked to shape dialogue to make sure that it feels authentic. Sometimes, the writing team will share a scene idea and ask how Jewish content might be meaningfully integrated.
What’s your favorite thing about this work?
I feel a deep responsibility to the Jewish community to provide input that is not only technically right but also provides insight into the lived experience of being a Jew – religiously, politically, culturally and psychologically. And, I also do this work knowing that my insight about Jewish content and community is but one of a dozen things that’s getting factored in.
Every project I have worked on cares sincerely about doing right by the communities that they depict. I have never been part of a project that deliberately got something wrong or wanted to vilify or maliciously depict our community. When inaccuracies happen, they’re honest mistakes and often lead to more integrated consulting.
So, I don’t approach the work as a purist expecting that everything will be rendered exactly as I think it should. I ask myself, “Is it ultimately good that Jews and non-Jews alike see this depiction? Will it make people in our community feel more understood? Will it make us feel more relatable to those who don’t have contact with the Jewish community?”
If the answer is yes, I’m in.
Has anything surprised you over the course of your time doing this job?
There’s often a lot of content from the creative process that never makes it to the screen. Sometimes, I’m disappointed when a plot line I enjoyed gets cut, but I’ve come to appreciate just how much any given scene has to accomplish in character development and pushing the plot forward all while keeping the audience entertained.
Do you have a favorite memory?
There was one project where I got to be in a virtual sound booth with an actor to help ensure the accuracy of their Hebrew pronunciation. It’s a strange way to meet an A-List actor.
Anything else you want to share? Anything upcoming you are excited about?
I’m really excited that “Nobody Wants This” has a third season coming out.
